Stef

Morning finds me outside of Bill's office, foot tapping impatiently as I wait. I need to find out where Callie is as well as figure out the best course of action to get her back. I spot Bill walking down a corridor and I shoot up.

"Bill!"

He turns at the sound of his name and I swear when he sees me he all but groans aloud. Ignoring his reaction, I lightly jog up to him and begin to walk along side of him.

"Where is she, Bill?" I ask immediately.

He sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose, "Stef…"

"Where is Callie?" I ask more forcefully this time.

He pauses in his steps and begins to dig through his briefcase. He hands me a piece of paper with an address and a name.

Rita Hendricks.

"Visiting is restricted to Saturdays for about four hours," Bill informs me, "That's when they have Family Day. Only the girls who earn their privileges are allowed to have family come."

I scoff, "What kind of bullshit is that? Since when is family a privilege?"

"It's the way the home is run and it's a system that works," Bill answers wearily, "Rita has very positive ratings and the girls under her guidance for the most part make progress."

I still don't agree with it.

I fold the paper up and stick it in my purse, "How was Callie when you dropped her off?" I ask like the mother I am, "I didn't hear from her last night."

Bill shakes his head, "No electronics. Her cellphone was probably taken away," he waves his hand, "She was fine. Same as she always is. I need to go, I have a meeting with some potential foster parents." He begins to walk away before suddenly turning around, "Stef, just…don't do anything rash." He turns on his heel and walks away. I fix my purse strap on my shoulder and head for the exit.

When I'm through, Bill is going to learn the true meaning of 'rash.'

Callie

"Okay, so now we're going to go around and really introduce ourselves to Callie. We'll do name, age and why you're here. Alright?"

We're sitting in a lopsided circle of sorts in the living room on various chairs. Last night was disorganized and rushed so this is the first time I'm getting a good look at everyone. The girls (and one boy) take their turns introducing themselves. They're all around my age with stories of drug abuse, stealing, even kidnapping.

And then it's my turn.

I sigh, "My name is Callie. I'm 16. I'm here because the system blows."

Some girls snicker. If Rita is surprised or annoyed, she doesn't let it show. She just nods and folds her hands together, "Okay, Callie," she says, "Why do you think that?"

I narrow my eyes, "Think? That's just common knowledge. I shouldn't be here. I didn't do anything wrong!" I cross my arms and slouch down in my chair.

Rita nods sympathetically, "Alright. Well, what most of the girls who come into this house find is that while at first they feel as though they don't belong, in the end they wind up realizing that Girls United is exactly what they needed."

Not for me.

"So let's discuss our week," Rita continues, "So as you know this Saturday we have family day—"

I sit up a bit in my seat, "Family day?"

"We have it every Saturday," one of the girls, Kiara, answers, "Your family gets to come visit. Well, if you have family. It's for a few hours."

"Yeah, but only if you earn your privileges," someone else adds, Carmen I think her name is.

Rita nods, "Exactly. So that means doing your chores, behaving in school, behaving here…follow those and you'll get your privileges."

Easy enough. I guess I'll have to learn to filter my words. And not kill Daphne.

Damn it.

Lena

"…and apparently we can only see her if she's earned her privileges, whatever the hell that means." Stef swung by my office so that we could have lunch together and so that she could tell me what Bill said.

I knit my eyebrows together, "What does that even mean?"

Stef stabs at her food rather violently, "I'll be damned if I know. I texted Callie last night and she didn't reply. Do you think she's okay? Bill mentioned that they might have taken her phone away. I really hope they didn't." She puts her fork down and drops her head into her hands, "It's not fair that Callie is being punished for something that isn't her fault."

I nod, "I agree, Honey. Look, I don't think Callie would purposely jeopardize her chance at messing up family day, especially if it means she would get to see Jude."

"How is he, by the way?" Stef asks, "Have you seen him?"

"A few times," I reply, "I ran into his science teacher in the hall and she mentioned that he was quiet and pretty distracted."

"I have a meeting with the DA later on to contest this and have custody restored to us," Stef tells me.

I bite my lip, "I hate to be negative but this is going to be hard to fight. Their reasoning isn't exactly wrong…"

"But its detrimental to Callie's progress," Stef interjects, "And it's just a ploy by the Olmstead's lawyers to get under our skin."

I reach over to place my hand on the back of Stef's neck. I can feel the tension in it. Obviously this is bothering her pretty deeply. I begin to stroke the nape of her neck lightly with my fingers, playing with the short tendrils that managed to escape the ponytail she has her hair in. She relaxes a little and closes her eyes. I lean over and kiss her collarbone before resting my head on her shoulder.

"I just want her back, Lena," she whispers into my hair, "She's ours. She has been ours since the day I met her, it just took us some time to realize it."

"I know," I soothe, "We'll get her back and when we do we'll start drawing up the adoption for her and Jude immediately."

Callie

As luck would have it, the two people on laundry duty are myself and Daphne.

By ourselves.

In a dark basement.

Where nobody could hear me if she decides to murder me.

I discreetly move my eyes over to look at Daphne and catch her looking in my direction. I quickly snap my gaze back to the clothes I'm supposed to be sorting.

"Are we ever gonna talk about this?"

I narrow my eyes and angle my body towards Daphne, "Talk about what? How you beat the shit out of me? No thanks." I turn back to the clothes and continue to sort, albeit more aggressively. We work in silence for a few minutes.

I hear Daphne take deep breath, "Look I was scared, alright?" she says quietly. I pause and give her a look. She continues, "Everyone was. Do you ever think about it? How fucked up it is? Every girl that was in Chula Vista was a baby once. I was, and you were. We all had the same start, but look at how we ended up." She shakes her head, "It's fucked up." She finishes with her share of the clothes and heads upstairs. She's right.

It is fucked up.

Jude

I get home from school and slink onto a stool in the kitchen. School was bad. I couldn't stop thinking about Callie. And in with everything that happened, I forgot I had a math test today.

Overall, a pretty bad day.

"Hey, Jude." I look up to see Mariana. I give her a little smile. She takes a seat next to me, "So I was thinking I'd do my nails later on, after I finish my homework. Do you want me to do yours?"

I think she's just trying to make me feel better.

I shake my head, "No, thanks."

"Are you sure?"

I nod.

"Okay," Mariana says, pushing away from the table and standing up, "I'll be up in my room." She pats my shoulder and heads for the stairs. About halfway there, she turns around.

"I miss her, too." She says quietly, "I know technically she isn't my sister, but…" She smiles sadly and shakes her head, "Did I ever tell you what happened the first night Callie came here?"

I shake my head. Mariana comes back over to stand near me, "So in the middle of the night I woke up and I heard these noises downstairs. I figured it was Stef because sometimes she gets home late. So I come to the kitchen expecting to see mom and instead I see Callie and she's holding a knife." She laughs, "It's silly to say this now but I legit thought she was going to murder me or something."

I chuckle, "I mean, Callie can be pretty scary when she wants to."

Mariana nods in agreement and a silent moment passes. I look up at her, "Do you think…you could do my nails?"

A big grin crosses her face, "Of course."

Sorry this took me some time. I plan on having Callie go through a different Girls United experience while staying true to details I find important.

I am swamped with work. For me, sleeping in is sleeping until 7:30 AM. What a time to be alive. Tomorrow I'm going to see Mockingjay Part 1. I'm very excited! I'm also excited for Thanksgiving because home and food and friends.

Ladies, gentlemen and others, it seems there is somebody on the prowl among us leaving rude reviews. My fellow writers, please ignore them! All of the kind, thoughtful reviews you receive are carved in stone. The unkind, thoughtless reviews are traced in sand.

Which one lasts longer? ;)

-Liv