Hailey goes into her room and closes the door. Pulling out her phone she looks at the cloak on her bedside table. It has been about 20 minutes since Jay left that gave him enough time to get home. Dialing his number she starts to walk around her room.
"What's up?" Jay answers after the second ring.
"I told her to stay," Hailey answers,
There is a pause before Jay says,
"You are gonna have to explain,"
"Beth," Hailey starts to explain, "She was packing her bag to go back to the home and I told her to stay. That I wanted her to stay and then I said that it didn't have to be like mother daughter that I could be like a big sister,"
"What did Beth say?" Jay questions,
"She said okay," Hailey says, "and now I have a 13 year old living in my house, Jay, I don't know how to look after a 13 year old."
"Did you mean it? That you wanted her to stay." Jay asks,
"Ya I guess," Hailey said, "When she was saying she was packing to go home all I thought was that I was going to miss her. Also she has had such an unstable life and she has always been moving I could give her some stability. But also I work so much and weird hours sometimes."
Jay hears Hailey start to spiral so he interrupts her,
"Hails, we can work all that out. If this is what both of you want, we will figure it all out. Beth is 13 she goes to school most of the day and she can stay home alone for a couple hours. But that doesn't matter because we will figure it all out. Stop pacing and take a shower and then go to bed. I will come over tomorrow after I am done with the paperwork and we can talk about it then. It is late; go to bed and sleep, it has been a long couple days."
"You right," Hailey answers, " Tomorrow I have to talk to her social worker and probably sort some stuff out," Hailey takes a few deep breaths trying to slow her brain down, "Jay thank you for everything. You are the best,"
"Only the best for the best, "Jay answers and they both laugh a little, "Now go to bed. See you tomorrow," They both hang up the phone. Hailey does exactly what Jay suggests, letting that hot water clear her mind.
Hailey wakes up in the late morning. She turns to look at the cloak seeing that it was already 10 o'clock. Waking up without an alarm was one of Hailey's favourite things. She lays peacefully in her bed for a couple minutes before last night comes rushing back. Her eyes go wide and she jumps out of bed. She walks quickly down the hall and peeks her head into Beth's room. The bed is made but her bag is still on the ground. Hailey puts moving Vanessa's extra boxes on her to-do list for today and she continues her journey down the stairs. Beth isn't in the kitchen but there is a used glass on the counter, turning the corner Hailey finds Beth sitting on the couch reading a book.
"Good morning," Hailey says, startling the young girl. Beth sets the book down on the coffee table and returns the greeting as Hailey takes a seat beside her.
"How long have you been up?" Hailey asks. Beth shrugs and responds,
"A couple hours. I'm an early riser." Hailey nods and they sit there in silence for a moment.
"Have you eaten anything yet?"
Beth shakes her head, "Not really just a glass of juice and a cookie I found in your cabinet. I would have waited but my blood sugar was low."
"It's all good," Hailey replies, "You can have whatever you want when you want it. You don't need my permission to eat. But let's get some breakfast and then we should go see your social worker if you are going to stay here,"
Beth nods and they both stand up to go to the kitchen. They have a discussion about what to have before they settle on yogurt with berries and a piece of toast. Hailey takes notice of Beth checking the nutrition value on the bread and yogurt,
"Why are you checking the labels? You calorie counting or something?" ask Hailey,
Beth lets out a little laugh and responds,
"No the amount of carbs in what I eat influences how much insulin I give myself,"
Hailey nods in understanding before sliding the bowl of yogurt across the island towards Beth. They eat in relative silence before heading back to their separate rooms to get ready for the day.
By quarter to 12 the two girls are ready for the day and in the car heading down to the DCFS office. Beth is sitting shotgun and watching the houses pass when Hailey asks,
"Are you even allowed to sit in the front seat?"
Beth responds with a shrug and responds with another question,
"Do you by chance have the file I gave you,"
"Ya," Hailey responds, "it is in the backseat"
"I have to tell you something," Beth says and Hailey looks over at her raising one of her eyebrows. Beth takes this as a sign to continue, "DCFS doesn't give you access to your file when you turn 13. I just took it from my social workers when I was there one time,"
"Okay," Hailey says, "So what do you want me to do?"
"Well if Tabitha, my social worker, isn't in her office when we get there I can quickly put it back but if she is there then I just want to warn you that she might yell at me and I will probably get another strike on my record,"
"What's a strike?"
"Well when you do something bad, you get in a fight or steal something or have anger issues or have been abused in any way anything like that gets put in your file. It's to warn future foster parents what they are getting into. Enough things like that will get you put into the category of 'troubled kids'. They won't call them strikes; that's just what the kids call them."
Hailey nods and they pull into the parking lot. They walk into the building. Beth walks up the front desk and asks for Tabitha. They say that she is in a meeting but it is almost done. They go to wait by her office when Beth pulls out two bobby pins from her pocket and starts to pick the lock.
"Beth what are you doing?" Hailey asks, slightly confused.
"I'm gonna return the file, if I can get this door unlocked," Beth responds as if it is obvious, "But i'm not really good at it. Abi was the one that would always pick the lock she had true talent,"
"ELIZABETH," a stern voice says which makes both girls jump.
"Hi Tabitha," Beth responds, "Did you get a haircut it looks nice,"
"You know I thought I lost that file for a bit and then I thought I had lost you. I have been worried," Tabitha responds as she unlocks her door. All three of them walked in to the office,
"Sorry but you know…" Beth says,
"Ya I heard. I was a little scared that he got both of you for a bit. Until I heard what detective was working the case and I connected the dots. You must be Hailey Upton," Tabitha says turning to Hailey and reaching out her hand to shake. Hailey grabs her hand, shaking it as they all sit down.
"So what is going on here?" Tabitha asks.
:"Well Beth told me she is staying at group homes mostly and we were thinking that she could come stay with me," Hailey says. Tabitha stares at Hailey before turing and asking Beth,
"What are your levels like?" Beth pulls out a small machine pricking her finger and testing her blood sugar levels,
"A little low and dropping," Beth responds, "but I'm okay,"
Tabitha grabs a couple dollars from her drawer handing it to Beth and telling her to go by a juice from the cafe on the lower levels. Beth grabs the money and heads out of the room.
"Her and Abi were trouble makers but deep down good kids. They had been through a lot but were still good kids. I assume you read her file," Tabitha motions to the yellow folder now sitting on her desk.
"Not all of it just the few first pages," Hailey responds, "I felt like I was invading her privacy,"
"Well she doesn't look good on paper but she is a good kid. Which is not something you can say about a lot of kids that come from her place," Tabitha says.
"Is there something I'm not getting because I thought she was a good kid too." Hailey asks.
"She has had some hard times which you will read in her file just remember who she is," Tabitha explains.
"I don't want to read her file, I don't care what is in her file, it won't change my mind. I know I left her once but I won't again. I want to watch her grow up and I want to be part of it," Hailey says pushing the file away.
"Okay well if you are serious and Beth is serious then everything is good," Tabitha explains, "You would actually help me out. The group home where Beth was shut down for obvious reasons and now we have to find a new place for all those kids and Beth is not an easy kid to place. So if you take her that would be helpful,"
"Wow, what a way to make a girl feel special," Beth says walking back in with a pink juice in her hands.
"Well seeing as you read your file would you want you?" Tabitha says and they both laugh.
"You are right, I am a nightmare," Beth says.
"That's it. I can just take her home?" Hailey says.
"We will have to do a home expectation as well as see your background check and maybe some references but if that all checks out it's fine. You are listed on her birth certificate and you didn't sign away your parental rights so you don't have to go to court," Tabitha explains, "The faster we get those things done the better though,"
"I can get you those things by Tuesday." Hailey says.
"Sounds good and how about Thursday for the expectation?" Tabitha asks.
Hailey nods in response. "Just so you know as soon as we sign her over to you which if everything works out will be Thursday she is no longer part of the foster care program which means we no longer pay for her things including her meds,"
"I'll get her put on my insurance right away then," Hailey responds.
"Okay we are good then," Tabitha stands up and the other two follow her lead, "I almost forgot here is her information about her doctor and her next appointment is in 2 weeks. All the information on her diabetes is here. But she is pretty good about handling it herself,"
Hailey nods again, taking the papers from her hands and walks out of the office. Tabitha walks around the desk and wraps Beth in a hug which Beth returns for you.
"I'm so happy for you, you are getting adopted. I told you it would happen and you doubted me," Tabitha says getting a little teary eyed.
"You were starting to doubt yourself," Beth responds also with tears in her eyes.
"No I knew it was going to happen as soon as someone took a chance and got to know you," Tabitha says. "Now you call me if you ever need anything okay. And be good; be the Beth I know not that other crazy chick," Beth laughs a little and nods her head.
They hug again as Beth leaves the office she turns around,
"Thank you for everything you did for me... and Abi. You put up with a lot of our bullshit,"
Beth leaves the office and Hailey sees the tears in her eyes and asks,
"You okay?"
Beth nods, wiping the tears off her cheeks.
"Jay is almost done working and I have to talk to my boss so are you okay to just stop by the office for a bit?"
Beth nods as they walk out.