A Series Of Events

Chapter 2 Age 8

Thank you for the reviews, I love finding out what people think.

She loves Shoes - I think you've reviewed all of my fics! So a extra big thank you to you.

Dogsbody - I'm glad you like. In relation to what you said about not justifying Julie's adult actions, I suppose I was wrong in my summary. These chapters are not so much to explain/justify, but to maybe give some (fictional) insight into just maybe what gave Julie some of her personality traits. For instance the not getting Barbie as a child could be seen as part of the reason why she now strives so hard to give her daughters the best and to try so hard to make sure they can keep these things. Or other people might see it as why she loves to have such nice things now. And also like you said, why she's more concerned about Marissa trashing her life than Jimmy. In every chapter I'm going to have little things happen to her that can be related to her as an adult, hopefully different people will read into the things differently and come to their own conclusions. Or at least that's what I'm going to try and do ;) (Whew - I hope that made sense)


If you have any ideas for situations that I could use in this fic that would be more explanatory, I'd be happy to hear them - I'm 2 chapters in and I'm already running out of ideas, That applies to everyone else reading this too - Ideas? Let me know!

I have the feeling some parts in this chapter might be a bit mature for an 8 year old to think/say. But I cant help that, I tried to keep it realistic - we'll see how it turns out. Also I'm scared I've made the Dad - who strangely doesn't have a name - too 'nice' after the last chapter. it's a big change but 2 years has passed.


"JULIE, c'mon, get inside" The sharp tone of her fathers voice only encouraged Julie to stay outside even longer. She was sitting on the sidewalk outside their house doing nothing in particular except annoying her dad, something she now enjoyed doing. For the last month he had been oddly pacified, ever since his last attack on Mark had landed the boy in hospital. After a visit from social services and the harsh realization that he could have killed his son, he'd attempted to reinvent himself as a good father, The drinking had certainly subsided and the drugs were almost non-existent. His kids however decided it was much to late for him to try and make up for years of atrocious parenting and were quick to shun his efforts but made sure to take advantage of their new opportunity to get some payback, making sure they never took it to far and induced the return of his previous parenting 'skills'. After a few weeks of keeping up the act his mask was slowly beginning to slip and Julie knew that she had to make the most of the time she had to irritate him.

She heard footsteps behind her and knew that her dad had come to see what she was doing that was so important that it prevented her from going inside, her heart still leapt into her throat every time he approached her while she was disobeying him or misbehaving, even though she knew he was harmless at the moment. She was about to get up from her spot on the side of the road when she found herself with unwanted company, her dad had done the unthinkable and sat down beside her. She fixed her gaze on a mailbox across the road and didn't dare look sideways. She could only imagine how odd they must have looked to any onlookers. The small girl with red hair glaring at a mailbox and a big middle aged man, covered in tattoos and probably grinning at her to make himself seem less threatening, both of them sitting on the side of the road.

"Whatcha doing Jule?" Was he joking? The not beating she could deal with, it was an improvement. But he was actually trying to make conversation! Her jaw was clenched so tight she thought her teeth might shatter any minute. Sensing her unease he tried to answer for her.

"It's a nice day, have you been out playing? Is that why you didn't want to go to the store with your mom and the others?" He spoke softly trying to coax a reply from her, all he got was a little squeaking noise which somewhat resembled a mouse hiccupping - if mice did in fact hiccup.

She couldn't believe he was actually doing this, after everything he had done to her and the rest of the family, he had the nerve to come out here and act like he'd never punched her, never hospitalised her brother and kicked her sister, God knows what he did to her mom. She wanted to scream and hit him, make him take back everything he had ever said and done to hurt them. But she couldn't, instead she had to sit by him and listen to him ramble on about weather and going to the shops, things that didn't matter in the slightest. What did matter was that he'd hurt her, and he'd completely forgot that and was too busy talking about stupid things that he thought would make things better. He was wrong.

"…you still play with Tina? She lives a few doors down, right?" It seemed he wasn't going to give up easily.

She knew she had to say something, even if it was just to shut him up.

"You can't fix things," You put to much effort into breaking them "its too late." She finally turned to face him.

"Dammit Julie, I'm trying to be a good dad to you here. Gimme a chance for gods sake! I…" He stopped himself as he saw fear flash in his daughters eyes. He took a deep breath and waited to for his anger to diminish before continuing. "I'm sorry, look… sometimes I get angry, really angry and I can't do anything about it. I'm getting better though. See just then, I stopped myself. Maybe if we had the money I could go to therapy or something, but I'm getting better honey. " He grinned, proud with himself. "From now on, things are gunna get better for us. You know I'm looking for a job again, A man should be able to support his family. That's what I'll be doing."

Julie watched him, pride clearly evident on his features. Maybe things would start to get better from now on, but she couldn't help but think back to the time about a year ago when he had promised the same thing.

"You know you said that before, nothing changed" Because you lied to me.

At least he had the decency to look guilty, "I know I did, but you remember how I was then. And I'm different now, I'm not gunna let you down." Until the next time you decide one of us isn't doing what you want and we end up with a black eye

Julie saw something glistening out of the corner of her eye, looking over she was amazed when she saw a black limousine driving towards them. You never saw things like that in Riverside, what was a limo doing here? Her dad had noticed it as well.

"What the hell is a fancy limo doing here, huh? Coming to take a look at the people worse off them I suppose. Go back to Laguna or Newport of wherever you came from!" While her dad seemed offended with the appearance of the limo, Julie was amazed. She watched with awe as it drove by, wide eyed and open mouthed, taking in the elegance of it. Everything from the shiny paint to the private chauffeur, it all signified a better life, one where everything sparkled as brightly as the sun on the tinted windows. A life that she dreamed of. As it passed she jumped up from her resting place and made her way into the road behind it. Once again her father joined her.

"You're pretty impressed with that aren't ya." He tried again to make conversation with her, "They're a long way from home round here though."

"I bet they live in one of those big houses by the beach, the ones with swimming pools and maids and stuff, when I grow up, I'm gunna live somewhere like that!" Her anger towards her father was forgotten temporarily and replaced with a the wonder only a child could possess.

Her dad was beaming as his daughter spoke to him without anger or fear for the first time in what felt like forever. "Yeah, you will do Hun, if you want it you'll get it. You're a smart girl, you do well in school, you can get a good job, there'll be no stopping you, one day you'll probably be the most important woman who ever did grace the streets in one of those swanky towns." He took this moment as an opportunity to try and give some fatherly advice, "You should be careful though, people like that, they don't like in the real world like the rest of us, they drink their chardonnay and eat their canapés, if they fell off their high horses they wouldn't have a clue what to do, they're off in 'la la land' if you ask me." Except she wasn't and she'd bet all her money that dads didn't hit their kids in 'la la land'.


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