Chapter One: The Warning
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"Remember class, our student family bake sale is tomorrow starting at six-o-clock p.m. so please make sure to bring a dish to pass around okay? Have a wonderful rest of your day children, I'll see you all tomorrow!"
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The smooth jazz from the radio beside the ten year old girl calmed her mind and sent her into her own little world as she doodled away in her notebook. She swung her small feet back and fourth and hummed along to the cheerful tune, not realizing that her mother downstairs was calling her for dinner.
"Hope! Supper is ready, come on down and get it!...Hope?...Did you hear me?...Sweetheart come down here and sit at the table before the food gets cold, your uncle Sammy is going to be here any minute to join us!"
At the mention of her uncle's name, Hope quickly dropped her ink pen and immediately raced down stairs as fast as her feet could carry her with a bright smile on her face. It wasn't very often that her uncle came over to their home for dinner with how busy his work schedule was, so the news greatly excited the young girl.
She practically skipped down the stairs and swung herself around the bottom banister before darting into the kitchen, alerting her mother of her presence. Juliette let out a low chuckle at her daughter's sudden enthusiasm and approached the table to place a large casserole dish down alongside a bowl of mixed greens and fresh homemade potato salad.
"Well someone is very hungry all of a sudden now, I know my homemade chicken casserole is quite irresistible so please hold your applause."
"Haha! You're so silly mommy! While your food is super delicious, I really want to show uncle Sammy those ink drawings that I've been working extra hard on for my art class project! He works with people that draw with ink all the time and I wanna see if my art is just as good as theirs!"
"Well you'll have plenty of time to ask him all about it my little canary, I think I just saw his car pull up in the driveway-"
"Oh I'll get the door then!"
Before Juliette could stop her daughter from getting up from her place at the table, Hope was already out of her chair and running towards the front door. The moment she heard the sound of a car door slamming shut and distant footfalls getting louder and closer, the girl swung open the door and held her arms out real wide while exclaiming;
"Hi uncle Sammy! I missed you so much today!"
"Today? What about yesterday and the day before that?"
"I'm just kidding! You know I miss you all the time! Hugs now please! It's required before you are allowed to come inside."
"Oh is that so? Well I guess I have no choice but to pay the fee then, come here kiddo."
Hope was soon lifted off of the ground by her uncle who then gave her an affectionately tight squeeze as she threw her arms around his neck in return. He looked like he always did every other time she saw him, messy and somewhat unkempt blonde hair with his ink stained clothes in a similar fashion. Sammy enjoyed wearing suspenders and his favorite pair of matching colored dress slacks and there was never a time Hope didn't see him in either or.
Her uncle always smelled of cigarettes and printer paper with just a dash of his cologne but it was an oddly comforting mix of scents Hope had grown to be quite accustomed to. After their hug, Sammy set his niece back down and cracked his lower back before letting out a loud sigh and shed off his jacket with ease.
"Man I had a really crappy day today, good thing your mom has something great cooking in the kitchen to lift my spirits. It's a damn miracle at this point."
"Oh hush up Samuel and come sit down, and stop swearing in front of Hope!"
Sammy only rolled his eyes in response to his sisters nagging which made Hope giggle and grab at his hand to pull him eagerly into the kitchen so they could all finally indulge themselves. Juliette sat at one head of the table with Sammy directly across from her at the other end and Hope sitting right next to her uncle.
After the family said grace and thanked the Lord above for their food, Juliette began to pass each bowl and plate around for the other two to have their share while giving her brother a lopsided smile.
"Glad you could come and join us tonight Samuel, finally getting a break in your workload or what?"
"Oh please, Joey wouldn't even bat an eye towards such a proposal. He has me working from the neck up twenty four seven every day, besides he can't afford to cut anyone any slack right now..."
Sammy's sudden shift in tone caused Juliette to raise her eyebrow at him in curiosity before then taking a quick glance at her daughter to was blissfully eating away at her dinner. She wanted to press him for more answers but decided to avoid the topic for now and instead changed the subject.
"Well tomorrow is the student family bake sale at Hope's school and we have been brainstorming on what we are going to share this year. Haven't we, sweetheart?"
"Mhm! I suggested to mommy that we should make a big strawberry cake with three tiers filled with whip cream icing! But she said that it would probably fall over in the car so we have yet to come up with something else."
"The bigger the better is what they say you know, it'll definitely be way better than some dinky little pie or some plane jane blueberry muffins."
Juliette sent her brother a small glare as Sammy merely shrugged, he supposed working alongside Joey has made him more accepting towards big and grand public gestures...to a degree. He just wanted Hope to have a good time and outshine the other contenders with something she passionately wanted to bake.
After dinner was over, Hope was helping her mother store away their leftovers when Juliette glanced down at her child just as she had finished putting all the food away in the fridge.
"Hope dear, wasn't there something that you wanted to show your uncle?"
"...Oh yeah you're right! Stay right there uncle Sammy! I have something that I want you to see!"
"Okay okay, I won't go anywhere."
Hope was quick to excuse herself and darted out of the kitchen and up the stairs to her bedroom with the sound of her footsteps eventually fading away. Believing her daughter was finally out of earshot, Juliette bit her lip while purposely washing the dishes rather slowly in her hand. She had been holding off on asking her question nearly all night and now she just had to know...
"...Hey, Samuel?"
"Yeah?"
"Earlier you mentioned something about Joey not being able to afford giving you and the other staff some time off, is everything okay at the studio?"
There was a moment of absolute dead silence before Sammy sighed heavily and tilted back in his chair a bit while grumbling.
"Well to be fair the studio was a disaster from the very beginning but now shit has really hit the fan, ever since he got that new ink machine put in there have been all sorts of problems that have had to be fixed out of his pocket. The other staff members are getting real fed up with Joey's crap to and now the big man is getting desperate to keep his place together since sales are going down by a lot."
"How is that possible? His entire Bendy cartoon is all the kids talk about these days! Even Hope loves watching it every morning before school, how could money be an issue when everyone adores his work?"
"It's not that it's becoming unpopular, its the parents that are causing the problems. They are all bitching and nit picking at every tiny detail. "Boris is eating too much junk food," or "Alice is too feminine," bullshit like that. With lesser views and people not buying any of the products and toys, Joey is losing money faster than he can make it...So he came up with a fuckin ridiculous plan to try and save what is left of his dumpy dream..."
"And that is?"
There was another dramatic pause in the conversation before Sammy stopped rocking in his chair and leaned over the table slightly to give his sister a rather serious expression. Juliette knew just by that look alone that whatever Joey had up his sleeve was going to cause some BIG, and possibly unwanted, changes for everyone.
"He has decided to put in a whole new character for the show to try and appease the kids' parents. Someone their brats could I guess relate to better or whatever the fuck Joey said. He has Henry designing some sketches but so far nothing is landing and Joey is growing impatient. The character isn't even fully designed yet and he is already trying to look for someone to voice the character, only there is one issue...He wants a child actress."
"Why not just have that Susan lady be the voice of the new character instead of hiring someone else and wasting even more money? Didn't she do background characters at one point before getting the role of Alice Angel?"
"That's the thing, Joey doesn't want to do that because of that specific reason. Susan's voice is too recognizable and she can't really pitch herself low enough to pretend to be a child. He told us that he is going to be holding auditions at his studio for girls aged nine to twelve in our area."
Juliette was a bit worried for her brother that he wasn't getting the breaks that he wanted, and possibly not enough pay for what he is worth, but she tried to be positive about the situation. She walked over and sat beside him while placing a comforting hand on top of Sammy's.
"Well I mean, at least he is trying to find someone to help him out of his little financial strain. Once he finds the girl he is looking for, I'm sure things will be better and that new character of his will get everything back in order. You just gotta wait it out a little bit longer and I'll help in any way that I can."
"...Listen Julie, there is one other thing I forgot to tell you and if you can do this successfully you'd be helping me out a lot."
"Of course, what is it?"
With a deep breath, Sammy continued while placing his other hand on top of his sisters giving her his full attention.
"Because Joey is a stingy fuck and doesn't wanna go too far out of his way or paygrade to look for a child actress despite being absolutely desperate, I found out that he went through all the staffs personal files for potential candidates and well...He happened to stumble across a picture of Hope that I had pinned to my desk and he started asking me about her the other day. I'm telling you right now, do not get Hope involved with Joey Drew or his shitty studio. If he calls here or at Hope's school, you are to tell me immediately. Understood?"
His tone was dead serious and his gaze didn't break away from hers for even a moment. Juliette was a bit frozen in place by his demand and she honestly was at a complete loss for words at first. However when she finally had found her voice, Juliette gave him an answer that he did not want to hear.
"I understand what you are saying but this could be the perfect opportunity for Hope to become closer to you again like the both of you used to be. She always asks about you and was so excited to hear that you were coming over for dinner tonight...She hardly sees you anymore Samuel. I honestly think that this could be good for her-"
"Good for her? Are you fucking serious right now? Did I just hear you correctly? Do you really want Hope to go through what I go through on a daily basis?! Look at me Juliette! I'm slowly going insane and the workload is too much for most of the adult staff to bear! What makes you think that Hope could handle any of it?! No, absolutely not no way in hell am I gonna let my niece be one of Joey's little playthings! I thought you'd agree with me and be smarter about this but I guess you got money on the brain or some shit."
Her brother's extremely harsh words pierced through Juliette's heart as she pulled her hands away from his and stood up from her seat in aggravation, her hands quickly balled into fists at her sides as she hissed at him through clenched teeth.
"How dare you accuse me of being greedy like that? Yes we could use the money and both your paycheck and Hope's could help us out financially, but don't you dare think that what I said before was strictly about making a profit off of my daughter. She just wants to be close to you again Samuel! You hardly ever see us anymore and you're so engrossed with your work that you don't even hardly attend her school functions! She adores you!"
"You know as well as I that the only reason I bust my ass as hard as I do at that shit hole is so that you and Hope can be well taken care of because your worthless ass ex husband fails to pay child support! That was another mistake that you made in which you never heed my warnings from! I told you he was a piece of shit but did you listen? NOPE! You ignored me and look what happened to you! He left with that whore down the block and left you with hardly a leg to stand on! The only good thing that came out of that disaster was Hope being born and I will NOT let you ruin her life by sticking her into show business so young! Especially alongside someone like Joey breathing down her neck!"
Before Juliette could yell back, the sound of Hope's footsteps could be heard and immediately the two adults went quiet as the girl ran back into the kitchen with something in her hands. It looked like a single piece of paper and her smile instantly made the room a whole lot brighter.
As if the conversation never even happened.
"Sorry it took so long! I forgot I stashed this away in my super secret folder. I've been practicing using ink for my upcoming art project and I wanted you to see it first uncle Sammy! I figured since you see so many ink drawings a day that you could give me really great feedback!"
"To be honest that is more in Henry's department but I do have to watch the cartoons to align the scenes with my music so I guess that counts for something. Alright, let me see what you got kiddo..."
Hope was ecstatic to hear that Sammy had agreed to look over her work and she wasted no time showing him her best drawing while looking over his shoulder as he studied the doodle. After a few moments of silence, Sammy turned towards his niece and smiled in approval towards her creation.
"This is a really good drawing. You probably could put old Stein out of business."
"Wait really?! You think so?!"
"Yeah definitely, did you perhaps get any inspiration to make this character?"
Hope, at first, looked rather embarrassed as she lowered her gaze and fiddled with her fingers before nodding slowly.
"Well, I may have cheated a little bit. I really like that Bendy cartoon that comes on every morning and I wanted to make my own character for it. I dunno, I thought it would be cool if my work was in a cartoon like that someday."
"I gotta say, it's a pretty neat looking character. Love the halo around the horn, very creative."
As Sammy tried to give Hope her drawing back, the girl shook her head and instead pushed the drawing back into his hand confidently.
"I want you to keep it, as something to remember me by when you go home or when you go to work every day. Just so you don't forget me when I'm not there with you..."
"Oh Hope, I don't need a drawing to remember you by. I always think about you when I'm making music and working in the studio. But I love the gift regardless, thank you. I'll put it on my fridge when I get home tonight. Speaking of which I should probably start heading out, it's late and music doesn't write itself."
Hope was soon disappointed to hear that her uncle had to leave but Juliette couldn't be more eager to get him out of her house after what he said in their fight. She didn't even wish her brother a farewell or try to stop Hope from showing him to the door as her daughter gave Sammy one last hug and just like that, he was gone.
There were only a few remaining dishes left on the table that needed to be rinsed and put away but Juliette was not feeling like finishing up her task. She had too much on her mind so she turned to her daughter who had just entered into the kitchen to head upstairs when she called out to her;
"Hey sweetie? Do you mind helping mommy put these last few things in the dishwasher? I need to step outside for a moment and have a cigarette."
"Of course mommy! I can do that!"
With a somewhat solemn smile, Juliette rubbed the top of her daughters head and gave her forehead a kiss before leaving for the back door after grabbing her small pack of cigarettes from off the nearby decorative table. Once she was on the porch, Juliette quickly lit her cigarette and took a long drag from it as the smoke filled her mouth which was then blown out in a long, exasperated sigh.
She shook her head and glared up at the sky which was littered with stars, the sound of crickets in the garden and the passing by of cars on the road filled her eardrums but even then their natural sounds could not quell the silent rage she felt deep down inside her chest.
How could he say such awful things to her? He was lucky Hope wasn't in the room with them or else she would have killed him. They were all struggling as it was and for Sammy to dig up old wounds like that was very uncalled for. As she let a small snarl form onto her painted lips, Juliette took one last drag of her cigarette before cursing under her breath.
"...Fuck you Samuel. I hope one day you get bitten on your damn ass."
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((Wow, the first chapter is finally done! Things are getting rather juicy aren't they? 👄 Thank you all for reading and chapter two will be out shorty!))
((Disclaimer: I do not own Sammy/Samuel Lawrence, Joey Drew, Henry Stein, or any of the canon characters affiliated with BATIM, they belong to TheMeatly. I only own this story, most of the art/edits unless otherwise stated, and my OCs.))