Fred's Story

By Daphne Hime-Sama

Chapter 3- "Misunderstandings"

"There you are!" Fred turned around. It was Mr. Blake with Fred's dad. "Daphne! What are you doing with this boy?"

"We were just uh- talking!" Daphne said. Well, she was partly right.

"Didn't look like taking to me!" Mr. Blake scowled. He was trying not to disrupt the party guests.

"Now hold on!" Mr. Jones said. "Now my son is a good kid. He wouldn't do anything to harm her. Now obviously he likes you're daughter."

"But she's my little girl!" Mr. Blake insisted.

"Daphne then shot up from here seat. A look of fury was in her eyes. "I am not your little girl any more! I'm sixteen years old! I need to make my own decisions!"

"She's right," Mr. Jones said. "It may be hard but there are times when you just got to let go."

Mr. Blake sighed. "You're right. I've been too hard on her. I'm sorry."

Fred remained speechless though the entire argument. He had never seen anyone hold their own in an argument like that, and against their own father. Even he couldn't do that. Suddenly he was feeling awkward. It felt like something new was forming inside him. But he wasn't sure what it was.

After their dads left, Daphne turned to Fred. "I'm sorry about that." She said. "It's just that my dad gets like that sometimes."

Fred was taken aback. Why apologize? She said what was on her mind, which took a lot of guts to do. Suddenly he felt glad he didn't have an overwhelmingly rich family. Maybe she was embarrassed about fighting with her dad in front of strangers.

"Well, it looks like the parties winding down," Daphne said. "Oh and tell your dad thanks for sticking up for me."

"No problem," Fred said.

It was midnight and the party was over. Before Fred left, he exchanged phone numbers with Daphne. The night didn't seem so bad after all.

By the time they got home, Fred's step-mom Debbie was there. When they got in the house, she was in her nightgown, sipping some hot coco.

"Welcome home," She greeted them. She walked up to Fred's dad and whispered to him, "Did Freddy get into any trouble?"

Fred cringed; he hated it when Debbie called him "Freddy." It was like he was still a little kid when she said that.

"No! Not at all!" Fred's dad said. "In fact he made a friend."

"Really?" Debbie said in an uninterested tone.

Fred's relationship with Debbie was rocky. No matter how hard he tried he just couldn't be on good terms with someone who didn't give birth to him and called herself his "mom."

Despite Debbie's attempts to get to know him, he just couldn't bring himself up to trust her. It got to the point where she got somewhat abusive toward him. It was like she was forcing him to open up when he wasn't sure he wanted to.

Even now Fred had a hard time talking to her. Of course, by now she had gotten a better job that took up a lot of her time, so she wasn't at home all the time. He didn't know what was worse, some one that made an effort at least to be his mom or someone that clamed to be his mom yet was to busy to do anything.

"How was the rest of the party?" Debbie said the exhaustion in her eyes was starting to show in her voice.

"Just fine," Fred's dad said. He walked up to his wife and embraced her. Fred just stood there solemnly. His step-mom looked nothing like his biological mom. She had dark brown hair and hazel eyes. She would always dress very carrier oriented. Not casual like his biological mom did, from the pictures he saw.

"I really wish you were there," Fred's dad said. "You would have loved to meet Mrs. Blake."

Fred decided this was a good time to leave. Quietly he sulked into his room. He changed into his pajamas and fell asleep.

Fred didn't wake up till noon the next day. After about 12 hours of sleep he still felt groggy.

"Fred!" His dad bellowed from down stairs. "Telephone!"

"Okay!" Fred shouted back. He raced down the stairs to answer it. He picked up the receiver.

"Hello?" Fred said. "Who is this?"

"It's me, Daphne, from the party. I got good news!"

"What is it?"

"Well I talked to my dad about giving me more freedom, so he decided to enroll me in the public school. Isn't that great! We'll be classmates!"

"Oh wow that's wonderful news. When do you start?"

"Monday or Tuesday," Daphne said. "Oh this will be great! I hated privet school. And it was a religious one too. The teachers are so strict!"

"I bet," Fred said. "I better go, I just got out of bed and I'm hungry."

Daphne giggled. "Okay! Bye!"

"Bye," Fred said and hung up the phone. For once he couldn't wait for Monday to come.

AN: Well here's the end of the 3rd chapter. About time huh? Sorry for the long wait.

Next: Chapter 4- at school, new friends