After a long morning of drama, Jody yawned as she collapsed on her bed, proceeding to literally let her hair down. As her unbound locks spilt over her shoulders, she eyed the bouquet on her bedside and grinned uncontrollably. Back in May, when she'd brooded over the Royal Wedding, she never would've imagined trying to catch the bouquet let alone being inexplicably happy about it. Had she really changed so much since then? She must've, at least a little, because when Alex had told her what Ryan had said to Mike about how most marriages 'ended in divorce anyway', she'd been appalled, even though she'd been of a similar mindset seven months ago. She hadn't been completely off the mark, though; the percentage of English marriages that ended in divorce fell somewhere between forty and fifty per cent. Not as high as Ryan had suggested, but perhaps a little too high for Candi-Rose to squeal about every single marriage she ever heard of.
Thinking of Candi-Rose, she remembered that she had to return her fancy hair scrunchie to her. While she'd picked her outfit herself, a one-piece that made her feel like an adult rather than a girl who looked way too young for her age, Candi-Rose had directed her in the hair department. Begrudgingly getting off her bed, she picked the hair scrunchie up and went downstairs. The lounge was particularly packed with numerous former Elm Tree House residents, most of whom she didn't even know, and as she passed the pool table occupied by some of the boys she did know, she flashed Tyler a smile.
She heard endless streams of giggles as soon as she opened the door connecting the lounge to Candi-Rose and Chloe's hallway, and was surprised to see that a lot of the female guests, including Tracy, were hanging around in the bedroom at the end of said hallway. She hated to admit it but she felt kind of jealous seeing Tracy joke around with some of the current residents; after all, she was the only current female resident Tracy had actually known prior to the wedding.
"Oh, hi Jody!" Chloe greeted from where she was sitting with Carmen and Candi-Rose who seemed to be getting on like a house on fire.
"Hi," she responded, sauntering into the room. One glance around the vicinity told her that there were easily about fifteen to twenty girls/women scattered around, chatting amongst themselves in small groups. "I just came to return this," she said, waving the hair scrunchie around before setting it down on Candi-Rose's dresser.
Since nearly every inch of both beds was taken up in some form or the other, she sat down on the chair in front of the dresser, coming face to face with her own reflection. Ever since she and the other girls had gone shopping for wedding outfits, she'd started playing around with the idea of getting more than just the usual trim over the Christmas holidays; she'd read in one of Candi-Rose's magazines that she had to push herself out of her comfort zone every once in a while and hadn't been able to get the idea out of her head since. She'd already gone and bought a pink jacket—to Candi-Rose's delight—so what was a haircut?
"That was a nice catch, Jody," Kazima commented, interrupting her thoughts.
"Yeah, too nice," Floss complained loudly from out of Jody's line of sight. "I wanted to catch it. Who knows when I'll next attend a wedding."
"Maybe when you're actually old enough to be the next one to get married," Carmen piped up, laughing. "Not that you should rush down the altar just yet, Jody, not before me!"
Jody scoffed, though not with any actual scorn. "Yeah, as if! I'm not old yet!"
Normally, she would've hated sitting with such a large congregation of girls, especially giggling ones, but these girls/young women weren't a bunch of strangers. They were family. It was an odd thought but it was true; she'd shared a roof with each and every one of these girls (besides Tracy, of course) at one point, and being in this room with them felt like reuniting with her sisters at their dad's wedding. Oh God, did she feel cheesy right now.
"What a day, eh?" Tee spoke up. "A jilted groom, a wedding and a baby, all at once."
"And a death," Sasha added, walking into the room. Jody turned to look at her, confused. "Charlie found out that Henry died this morning. May-Li named her baby after him... and Joseph."
"Joseph?" Taz exclaimed. "Unfair!"
Jody turned back to the mirror in shock. Charlie's granddad had died? How awful. "Is she okay?" she questioned, swallowing deeply. If losing her deadbeat, toxic mother had been hard for her, she could only imagine how hard it was to lose a loving grandfather.
"She's alright, she just needs some time on her own. I've just left her in her room," Sasha answered before jumping up on the bed and lodging herself into a spot near Jody that only she could fit in. "So, did Brandon dump you or did you dump him?"
Jody whipped her head towards Sasha fast, her eyes flitting to Candi-Rose and Floss before settling on her small friend. "Shh!" she hissed. "Do you want everyone to hear you?!" Sasha just smirked, and Jody sighed. "How do you know about that anyway?"
"I didn't, but thanks for telling me." She groaned. How had she fallen for that one? "I knew something was up as soon as I noticed you and Tyler gazing at each other throughout the whole wedding."
What the hell?! She did not gaze at Tyler!
"Oh, are you talking about Jody and Brandon's break-up?" Floss suddenly asked, and Jody just closed her eyes in anticipation. She didn't even want to know how the younger girl knew. "That's old news. Jody and Tyler, though... Who wants to see the wedding portrait I did of them in the summer?!"
A surprising number of 'me's went around the room and Jody's eyes snapped open. To be honest, she felt kind of betrayed that even the older ones like Elektra and Faith were interested. Floss excitedly told everyone to wait before bounding down the hallway, and Jody looked away from everyone, only for Tracy to speak up.
"You and Tyler? Aww!"
"Oh, not you too!" Jody moaned, blushing like a bride. Like a bride. Oh, the irony.
"What?! You two were two peas in a pod, right from the beginning; those first few days, he got through to you in a way the other kids didn't, and I knew that you two were going to be best friends right then and there. But a couple? That's so cute!"
"Were you there when they first met, Tracy?" Sasha implored deviously, wagging her eyebrows at Jody who had just been about to bring Tracy's boyfriend up as a change of subject. "Was it love at first sight?"
"First bite, more like," Elektra interjected, smirking when some of the residents gave her puzzled looks. "She straight up bit him the day she moved into Elm Tree House!"
As a few gasps and giggles went around the room, Jody scratched her neck, wondering what to say. It wasn't as if they were all wrong. She couldn't exactly denounce their fangirling and shipping like she used to, not when it was different now. Her eyes followed Floss as she returned with the framed painting in tow, proudly holding it up for everyone to see. She and Tyler still weren't together like everyone so obviously thought they were but they weren't just friends either, even though neither had explicitly voiced their feelings yet. What did that make them, then? More than friends but less than lovers?
"I always told you that Jyler would win out, Sasha," Candi-Rose boasted. "Isn't it great?!"
Floss let out a noise of disbelief. "Excuse me, you gave up on Jyler as soon as Jandon came along!"
Jody fondly rolled her eyes at Sasha, sensing a fight coming on. "Wanna go see what the boys are up to?"
Sasha didn't even hesitate. "Yeah."
.:. QK .:.
By the time the clock struck three, the majority of the guests had left and the residents were ordered by Dee, the relief care worker, to clear everything up. With Mike away on his honeymoon and May-Li on maternity leave, they were all going to be stuck with her and May-Li's replacement, someone they hadn't yet met, for at least two weeks, which meant only one thing: this Christmas was going to be the worst yet, maybe even more so than last year's. No, she wasn't being fair; this was hardly the same as being faced with eviction. At least this time, no one would be threatening to separate them all.
As she gathered the bunting up and stuffed it into a cardboard box, Kazima and Bailey shouted that they were leaving for the airport. She yelled an 'alright' back, forcing herself to go upstairs before she could abandon her work and run outside to see the two of them off like she wanted to. Carefully opening the attic door, she was about to dump the cardboard box and run back downstairs to get the other decor when she spotted a figure hunched over on the floor. For a brief moment, she felt like she was in a horror movie but then she noticed the awful jumper the figure was wearing and identified the culprit right away.
"Joseph?" she called quietly, setting the box down and drawing closer to him. "Why are you hiding away up here? You're meant to be downstairs helping the rest of us clear up."
"I suppose so," he replied flatly. "But I don't feel like it."
Jody felt her eyebrows fly up into her hairline as she sat next to him. "You don't feel like it? None of us do! Well, except Charlie maybe..."
He frowned at her, giving her pause. She'd never seen him like this before. Heck, he'd always been the only kid she'd seen walk through the doors of Ashdene Ridge and adjust to the life here without any major problems. He was also one of the only ones who'd never once expressed any bitterness about being in care, at least not in front of her.
"I wish Mike or May-Li were here," he said, blowing out his cheeks.
"Too right; Dee's already getting on my nerves and we don't even know what the other one's gonna be like!"
He rested his face against his palm, sighing. "That's not what I meant. I wish they were here so they could give me some advice."
Oh. Now she felt embarrassed about her bitch-rant. "Advice on what?" He didn't answer, kind of offending her. Did he not trust her or something? She couldn't think why. "Joseph, you can tell me."
"Do you think I did the right thing by turning John and Jacinda down?" he asked bluntly, leaning back against a dusty shelf.
"Yeah, of course," she replied without hesitation. Where was this coming from? He'd turned those two down two months ago. "You weren't ready. Why do you ask?"
"Well, they sent me back my pocket encyclopedia today and Taz made a comment about how nice it was of them to do that, and it made me feel guilty about turning them down for no good reason." She blinked. Returning the encyclopedia wasn't 'nice', it was just decent. What else were they going to do with it? Sell it? "I could've just told them that I don't like sports; they could've got me some science apparatus instead. And, yes, I wasn't ready to leave this place but is anyone ever really ready?"
Probably not. How many people had she seen leave Ashdene Ridge teary-eyed and absolutely terrified of what awaited them in the future? Too many to count. Even Bailey had shed a tear upon getting into Mike's car for the last time. Seeing everyone at the wedding today had made her realise just how long she'd been in care; she'd seen at least twenty people leave, and more than half of them had arrived after her.
"I don't think so," she answered. "But that doesn't mean you made the wrong decision. You would've been a right miserable tool if you'd moved in with them back then."
"Well, what about now?"
"What do you mean?"
"I was talking to Archie and Dexter today and after hearing how happy they are with their current situations, I realised that I might be as ready as I'll ever be."
She didn't know what to say. It sounded an awful lot like Joseph was just saying that because he felt like he'd been left behind by his friends or something. She understood that feeling all too well so she got where he was coming from but he was moving much too fast.
"Are you sure you're not just doing this because..."
"Because my best friend's in foster care?" he finished, looking unimpressed. "No. If it was like that, I would've accepted John and Jacinda the first time around because Archie got fostered before that."
Well, that was that then. "If you say so."
He suddenly turned to her, an excited expression on his face. "Do you think I could be with John and Jacinda by Christmas?"
How was she meant to know? Could relief care workers even arrange fostering placements without the Head Care Worker's approval? "Wait, what happened to talking to Mike and May-Li?"
"Oh, I can just call them if I need to," he said dismissively, rising to his feet. "I just needed someone mature to talk to and here you were. Thanks for that!"
"You're welcome, I guess?"
By the time she was done speaking, he'd already disappeared, leaving her to sit there on the attic floor, unable to decide whether being called 'mature' was a compliment or an insult.
.:. QK .:.
The next morning passed by without consequence, the only significant thing being that Sam was once again May-Li's replacement, to the relief of Jody and the other residents who knew him well, but that all changed when Joseph entered the lounge and collapsed on the sofa. Jody, who'd retracted her legs and had thereby narrowly avoided having them crushed by him, looked up from the book she was reading to take in his dishevelled state.
"What's wrong with you?" she asked, turning to the next page. She was trying to get through the book quickly before Tyler could get back from lunch with his mum and stepdad and unwittingly spoil it for her.
"John and Jacinda said no," Joseph replied miserably. She sighed and closed the book, knowing her conscience wouldn't allow her to just sit there and continue reading when there was a distressed kid right in front of her. "They are, in my social worker's words, no longer considering fostering."
"Do you know why?" she asked, putting her book down. Since their talk the prior day, the possibility of the couple not wanting to foster him had not once crossed her mind. She'd thought the only thing to put a wrench in his new life would've been Mike's absence. "Did they adopt some other kid?"
"Does it matter?" he questioned in return, slumping his shoulders. "The point is that they don't want me."
"They don't want anyone," she corrected, biting her lip.
What else could she say? He'd already reached the unofficial cut-off age for a good chance of getting out of residential care; the likelihood of getting fostered, let alone adopted, after becoming twelve was barely above zero. Even then, as Mike, May-Li, Simon and her patronising cowbag of an IRO had all told her, teenagers only tended to get taken in by someone who'd known them a long time like Tracy and her adoptive mum (apparently, there had been a dad, once, but he'd walked out not long after the adoption had gone through).
"It took me years just to get matched with John and Jacinda," he stated gravely, seemingly understanding that he didn't have another chance. Well, he'd always been smart. "How long will it take me to meet another pair?"
She shrugged rather unhelpfully, but the truth was that she couldn't help him in any way, shape or form other than lending an ear to him, and she wasn't inclined to optimistically lie to him. "Who knows?"
A phone pinged just then, and she scrambled to see if Tyler had messaged her—she'd asked him to buy her an energy drink on the way back because Dee had only bought the dreaded squash Joseph so liked—but soon realised it wasn't her phone that had gone off at all.
"Oh, it's Archie," Joseph said in a somewhat surprised tone, scrolling through something on his phone. "His foster parents want to know if I'd like to join them for a movie tonight. It's..."
Jody blocked him out as something occurred to her just then, and despite the voice in her head telling her not to get involved in matters that didn't concern her, a plan began to take root in her mind. "Well, what are you waiting for?"
"I just told you. The movie they picked isn't really—"
"Joseph," she interrupted sharply, fixing him with a look. "Do you want to get fostered or not?"
He looked back at her in confusion. "I do but what's that got to do with—"
"Everything," she responded. "Just trust me on this one, yeah?"
"I don't really—"
She narrowed her eyes. "Joseph."
"Alright," he relented, appearing to be a little scared. "I'll go."
"Good." She smiled as he got up and literally ran out of the room, and Tyler walked in a second later, a puzzled expression on his face.
"What's up with Joseph?"
"Nothing," she answered, catching the drink he threw at her. "Thanks."
She had a rough idea of what to do but how was she going to implement it, especially with Dee hovering around all day?
"Oh no, I know that look!" Tyler exclaimed, eyeing her in concern as she opened the bottle. "What are you up to, Jodes?"
"It's a good thing," she assured, taking a sip. "I promise."
A/N: Readers, please tell me what is so great about chapter 19. It's got the second-highest visitors and views, after the first chapter. Is that just the chapter everyone jumps to to gauge how quickly or slowly the story progresses before deciding to read the entire thing? Odd; I usually jump to all the chapters ending in 0 for that purpose.
I rewatched the last two episodes of Series 6 in order to write this chapter and OMG it was such a feel-good finale. The whole hour made me so happy (since I knew Fiona was going to come back this time 'round) because Mike deserves happiness and so much more. I particularly liked Tracy's line about Mike getting married to show the YP, who've seen very few if any positive examples of marriage, that love can work, especially because my Jody was so cynical about the whole prospect of love and marriage until recently. Jyler acted so married, for lack of a better word, throughout the whole thing, from him asking her how he looked to them sitting/standing/dancing together in nearly all of their scenes, that I felt like a proud parent or something! And, aww, May-Li naming her baby after Henry and Joseph was so cute!
Let me just say that I believe that Joseph went to live with John and Jacinda after all. I mean, why else would they be mentioned in S6e23? However, since I like the idea of two friends besides some alternate versions of Jody and Tyler getting fostered by the same family, it won't be John and Jacinda.
Charlie—Yes, at first, the possibility of being with Tyler doesn't even cross Jody's mind. She knows Brandon is not the one she's meant to end up with but she's still too afraid to jeopardise her friendship with Tyler for love. At this point, it's either a lifetime of being single or a lifetime with someone who is neither Brandon nor Tyler. It's only at the end that she realises she doesn't want a meaningless (read: loveless) relationship/marriage which she knows she'll end up being in if she goes for someone else while still in love with Tyler.
I think I've mentioned it before but the way Jody finished things with Brandon bothered me; it was pretty clear that she was going to continue stringing him along if Tyler didn't return her feelings which is just wrong. Casually dating him while having feelings for someone else is one thing but she was ready to get serious with him! And, yeah, I figured that Brandon would've at least had an inkling that things weren't quite right between him and Jody. I mean, she looked so withdrawn when he kissed her, like she was barely tolerating it, that he had to have noticed.
Yes, they are absolutely playing the long game. They both know that if they're going to date, it's going to be forever rather than a short-lived fling, and they are definitely not ready for forever just yet.
I think I've subverted your expectations; it was neither Luke nor Gray but Joseph! Thanks for the review!