SUNSHINE POV
I did end up getting handcuffed, but it was only because the boys wouldn't let go of me, handcuffing me seemed to make them back off because it was hurting my wrists too much for them to hold on.
I wasn't put in a holding sell, thankfully, I was placed in the triaging section, with my hands cuffed and sitting on a small bench. A place that anyone could come in and see exactly who had been bad person.
A mother came to get her underaged and intoxicated son, and a boy whom I thought I recognized came in trying to tell them that he was another boy's older brother, but they wouldn't release him to him.
"You're not expecting to have Clara come get me are you?" I asked the lady at the desk behind the window. She ignored me. "Cause if you are, we're gonna have a long wait."
She looked up at me but only to look back down at the paperwork she was filling out. I wasn't told I had the right to remain silent, and I wasn't read my rights, so they didn't plan on keeping me here long.
Mr. McClennan came out of the back room, his hat off and his tie a little bit looser, he held a set of keys in his hand which I was very excited to see. He motioned for me to stand and undid the cuffs.
"Can I leave?" He shook his head.
"You're underage, you need to be released to a parent, or a responsible authority figure."
"I don't know where we're going to find one of those." He sighed and placed the cuffs in his pocket and the keys around his belt.
"Look Toni I'm really sorry this had to happen to you."
"Then let me go. I told you, she gave me the keys, she handed them to me after yelling at me about wanting to take her car."
"What about driving without a license?"
"You wouldn't have even known if she hadn't called you." He ran a hand through his thinning hair, and I realized I should probably tone it down, this job had obviously added a lot of years to him. "I'm sorry that I did it but I needed to come down here."
"There's nothing I can do Toni, we have to wait for someone to take responsibility for you. Clara said she wouldn't press charges."
"Press charges? What's she going to come after my baseball bat?"
I didn't have money, and it was obvious that Clara knew that as well, it was still irking to know that she had called the police not only on Benny but on me as well, but it also wasn't at all surprising.
It was then that the sandlot boys came bursting into the waiting room, I was extremely surprised to realize that it was their first time ever being here.
"My client has the right to remain silent!" Ham announced arm raised as he burst through the door holding a piece of paper in his hand. "Toni don't say a word."
"Ham!" Mr. McClennan yelled at him as he stomped over to us, shoving the letter at him. "Ham this is a place of business and law, you cannot behave like this."
"I have a right to represent my client and I have here a written statement that prevents her from being charged of all and any crimes."
"Ham I already admitted to everything." I snapped at him rolling my eyes. "can you guys stop him?" I demanded.
"What do you think we've been trying to do the whole walk here?" Timmy demanded.
"Silence in the courtroom!"
"Ham stop it." I snapped snatching the paper from him, which happened to be just chicken scratch hand writing of his that said I was innocent and there were seven other witnesses to that.
"You're not my lawyer."
"Anyone can be appointed your lawyer."
"Not you.
"Why not?"
"Well for one you need to pass highschool first." Ham immediately dropped his act and turned to face me, actual hurt on his face.
"Why do you have to go there?"
Benny stepped him immediately pushing Ham away from me and Officer McClennan "Can we not do this now? Mr. McClennan, can Sunshine leave here yet?"
"I'm sorry Benny but we need someone to come and take her out of here. An adult, not Ham."
"Dad can't she-"
He turned on his son right away. "I would keep my mouth shut if I was you, we are going to have a long talk about not, trying to hide criminals, when you find out I'm coming."
Yeah Yeah slunk back behind Grover as his dad wagged a finger at him, reprimanding him for his actions.
"Look you know Clara is not going to come for her, and her dad. . ." Benny started.
"I know, we're still working on his whereabouts."
"My parents will be home in an hour or so, will that do?"
He sucked in a breath thinking and looking around. "Look I can but only because everyone here knows you all. We're keeping the car, and we'll get it to Clara some way but since she's not charging you then we can let you go once they get here."
"Thank you." I said feeling some relief, the Valley wasn't the most crime driven place but I still didn't want to sit next to the people they brought in at midnight.
"Wait, if theres no charges then why did you bring her in?" Smalls asked.
"Clara called her in as a missing person." Right, because I'm sure she was so concerned about me being gone, AFTER I TOLD HER WHERE I WAS GOING.
I kept my thoughts to myself though as Mr. McClennan gave us a smile, gave Yeah Yeah a stern look and then headed back into the back room with the permission to have Benny wait with me.
We were sitting in silence for a few minutes when I broke it. "If this doesn't make your parents demand you break up with me I don't know what will." I said. Benny chuckled and threw his arm around my shoulders.
"I have a badass girlfriend."
"You have a criminal, and stupid girlfriend."
"I don't think this counts as criminal behaviour. And you're not stupid."
I rolled my eyes at him. "Benny, I should have known Clara was planning something the second she handed me those keys."
"I know she's horrible, but why would she do that? I thought she was trying to paint this, perfect family, image."
"She's trying to create an awful image about me. So when I'm eighteen and she kicks me out no one will blame her for doing it."
Benny nodded, understanding. "So I guess I'll be driving down to the tryouts with you in the passenger seat?" I smiled as best as I could, the thought made me happy.
"Wait, aren't the cops still looking for you, cause of the last time you were here?"
"I'll take my chances." He said with a grin. It had been long enough that there were probably a lot bigger issues than him. The police probably didn't even remember, we just had to make sure that Clara didn't see him.
"What are your parents going to say?"
"They're happy about it."
"You told them?"
"Yeah, it was kind of a cushion to the whole, Toni got arrested thing."
I groaned rubbing my forehead violently. "Those weren't the words, or the explanation you used is it?"
"No." He promised and pulled me closer.
The bench was uncomfortable, and after seeing two more drunk high school kids and a man with a very questionable look in his eye came and gone, our buts were numb.
It was then that Mr. and Mrs R. came running into the room. "Toni? Toni are you hurt?" Mrs. R asked grasping my face in her hands.
"I'm fine."
"What's wrong with you? Arresting this poor girl for no reason." I furrowed my brow and looked at Benny who smiled sheepishly. He did tell them why I was here didn't he? "Let her go now."
The lady behind the desk looked bored, bored and ready to just go home. "She can go as soon as you sign her release papers."
"Why did you lock her up anyways."
"Mom she's not locked up."
"They put handcuffs on her." Benny's mom was definitely a mama bear, she usually kept to herself but when provoked she would tear your head off. Part of the reason Benny never told her about Phillips, he was sure she would neuter the boy if she knew half the things he did to our team.
The papers were signed and stamped, Mr McClennan was notified, and he waived me off from behind the glass, scared of what Mrs. R might do to him.
Not surprisingly the boys were waiting outside the door for me, Grover smoking a cigarette which Mr. R took out of his mouth and stomped on.
"I assume that the proper punishment for getting arrested in your family would be a grounding?" I asked raising an eyebrow at Benny.
Benny shrugged "Yeah, but they're not your parents, they can't ground you."
"Toni why were you in holding?" Mr. R asked me.
"What did Benny tell you?"
"That you were arrested for false accusations." I nodded, deciding that the truth was something better left a mystery and agreed wit him.
They seemed more angry with the fact that they arrested me other than why I actually got arrested, so they gave me a hug saying how nice it was to see me and then drove off.
"Benny why did you tell them that?'
"Because if I told them the truth then they would have left you in there for the night to learn your lesson."
He wasn't wrong, they didn't really care when it wasn't your fault but if they knew it was, they were more brutal with punishment than the cops.
We did end up going to the movies, having to see the only film that wasn't sold out, and was so boring that we ended up getting asked to leave after Squints and Grover got into a race up and down the aisles.
The only thing I could focus on the entire time was the idea of Clara calling the cops on me, reporting me missing and that I stole her car. The only reason I got out of there was because Mr. McClennan knew me, and was not going to let me stay there for reasons he knew not to be entirely true.
I was focused on the idea of Clara, and how at eighteen I had plans to leave her home, and she had the plans to kick me out. The situation didn't seem so grim as it did right now, Benny was coming to the tryouts, and I knew that Benny was going to make the team, that made me happy.
But it also meant that he would have the enrol at the school for something, he'd get in, O'Niall would make sure of that, but he would be at the school for at least a year depending on what he chose to study. Which meant I was going to be there for a year.
I had no plan beyond my birthday, it was simple when I knew I was going to go home and stay with Benny for a little while until I got a job, but I didn't have that option anymore.
I wondered if Benny knew it to, and if he did he didn't seem concerned about it, so maybe I shouldn't either.
However, no matter what the situation was, I had less than two months to figure it out.