"All rise for the honorable Judge Joseph Graham," the bailiff said.
Everyone stood up and Judge Graham came in. He motioned for them to sit, and they did.
"This case is Ryan Atwood vs. Theresa Rodriguez for custody of Skylar James Atwood-Rodriguez. First, let's hear from Ms. Rodriguez and her lawyer, Scott Wilson. Why should she keep the child?"
Scott stood up. "Your Honor, my client is being a good mother to Skylar. She takes him for annual check-ups, she makes sure there is enough food in the house and she sends him to a decent school. Look at the boy's suit," he said.
Ryan stood up. "I object your honor. We, as in my wife and I, bought him the suit. We also bought him other clothes to wear because he came to our house with only the clothes on his back," Ryan said.
"You are meaning to tell me, that this boy was at your house?" Graham asked.
"Your Honor, Mr. Atwood kidnapped my son!" Theresa screamed.
"Bull shit Theresa and you know it! He ran away when you were sleeping! He hates you!" Ryan said.
"Are you lying to me now?" Graham asked.
"No! I would never do that!" Theresa said.
"What about when we were younger? You had a bag of weed and you blamed it on me when even the cops knew it was yours!" Ryan said.
"Mr. Atwood! Ms. Rodriguez! I need you two to calm down," Graham said.
"Your Honor, I'm Aiden Wolf. I'm representing Skylar. If you were to run a test right now, you would find drugs in her system. Pot, Weed, Ecstasy, Coke. You name it; it's probably in the blood of hers."
"We will run a test after the trial. But I think it's time we hear from Skylar himself," Graham said.
The bailiff went over to Skylar, took his hand, and led him up to the bench.
"Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?"
Skylar stared at him. Then he looked at Ryan, who was mouthing 'I do.'
"I do," Skylar said.
Aiden went up to Skylar.
"Hey buddy. Remember me?" Aiden asked.
"You're the Wolf Man!" Skylar said.
The Judge looked at Skylar.
"It's the nickname I gave him. Cause Ryan's friend Marissa is Coop and Ryan is Chino and Seth is Cohen. But Summer doesn't have a nickname because she will have a rage blackout if she is called anything other than Summer or Miss Roberts and Wolf Man is a friend of Ryan's, so I gave him a nick name."
Everyone laughed at Skylar's rambling.
"Did I say something funny?" Skylar asked.
"They are laughing 'because you talk a lot," Aiden said.
"Do you want me to tell the story now?" Skylar said.
"Go ahead. Tell it exactly how you told your daddy and Marissa."
"My mommy used to be nice to me. She always told me that she loved me and that I was her best friend. But, things started to change. She started getting mean and having mean boyfriends that would hit her and me. One day, she had a straw up her nose and I asked her what it was and she said it was medicine and that it made her feel better on the inside when she was sad and then she told me to go to bed."
"Keep going," Aiden said.
"When I was seven, she hit me and threw me across the room. My wrist was broken in four different places and she told the doctor that I fell off of the monkey bars and I said 'no I didn't' but she told the doctor that it happened to fast for me to remember what happened and the doctor believed her and she took me home and beat me until her boyfriend came over and he beat her up."
The judge stared at Skylar. "Are you sure?"
Skylar nodded.
"Is there more?" Graham asked.
"On my last day of school, she told me she had a surprise. When I got home, she told me that I was meeting my daddy. I was excited and she said 'NO! YOU ARE GOING TO GO OVER THERE AND YOU ARE GOING TO KICK HIS GOOD FOR NOTHING RICH ASS UNTIL HE BLEEDS' and when we got over there, I saw him on the floor and she told me it was my daddy and I had to beat him up and when we got home, she said I didn't beat him good enough and she sent me to my room and I had eaten nothing in a lot of hours. She fell asleep and I left the house and I called my friend Tommy and his mommy drove me to my daddy's house. For my birthday, Ryan bought me a new bike cause he felt bad for not knowing it was my birthday and I told him 'Don't feel bad. Mommy never remembers anymore'. He bought me new clothes and a few other things and Seth even gave me the first two comics in his series The Adventures of Oats and Sparkles and it isn't even released yet in the United States!"
The judge stared. He looked over at the guy who was typing everything down.
"Did you get all of that?" The man continued typing, but looked up and gave the thumbs up.
"Good. From what I heard, you were a good parent. Then your life went down hill and you took it out on your son. My ruling is that Ryan Atwood is the official caretaker of Skylar and you have NO visiting rights until he is 21 years of age. A restraining order will be filed and you are not allowed within 12 miles of the Atwood family. Case dismissed."
Ryan went over and hugged his son. He started to cry. "Thank you so much. I should have NEVER left you guys and I am so sorry about what your mother put you through," Ryan said.
"It's not your fault. I forgive you, daddy."