Chapter 12

The following morning, everyone was woken up to the sound of the doorbell ringing repeatedly throughout the house. Only one person would do that and Brooklynn was positive Mark would end up strangling John. She managed to pull a robe on, not caring what her appearance was and headed downstairs to let their early guests in. It was barely 6 AM in the morning.

"Damn it, John! I told you we came too soon!"

"Yeah well, no time like the present, baby girl. This is a serious situation."

That was true and Brooklynn couldn't deny it, letting all three individuals into her home with Mickie hugging her tightly.

"Hope you don't mind the extra company." Trish and Steve were behind Mickie and John.

Brooklynn smiled tearfully at the blonde and hugged her tightly, shaking her head. "Not at all." Her eyes moved to the bald-headed man that had stolen her friend's heart. Truth be told, Steve was a very good friend of Brooklynn's too and had saved her life during their battle with Nemesis. "Hey, Steve." She hugged him next, kissing his cheek. "Thank you all for coming. Mark is getting up and around right now and I let Claira stay home today, so she probably won't be up for a couple more hours."

"No, I'm up," Claira announced from behind, yawning and nodded to everyone. "Uncle John, did you really have to ring the doorbell 30 times in a row?"

"Was it really that many?"

"Uh YEAH!"

"Oops…"

Steve shook his head. "Jackass."

Claira ignored the looks she was receiving from Trish and Mickie, yawning again. "I'm going to go get around for school. Can you drive me, Mom?"

Or, she could actually catch the bus for once, she was up early enough. There was no way in hell Claira was staying home with all these loving Aunts and Uncles, who also happened to be supernatural freaks. Not to mention, Seth. Since she was grounded, school was the only time she was able to see him.

"Or I can ride the bus." It'd be at the corner in 45 minutes.

"Actually, Claira, I want you to stay here today and talk to you." Mickie had a reason for everything she did and folded her arms in front of her chest, her eyes moving to Brooklynn. "I think it's for the best."

"I agree and besides, Milayna will need someone to keep her company today. You two can hang out while we figure out what's going on with Bastet." Trish had already spoken to Mickie and understood where she was coming from.

What did Mickie and Trish know that she didn't? Brooklynn could see the apprehension in their eyes about Claira going to school and decided not to question anything for the moment. "I agree with them, Claira. You're staying home today. This could be…a very hard day for your father and we both need to be here to support him." That was reason enough.

"Great! We'll figure out what to do for breakfast since your kitchen is…out of commission."

All due to Claira's temper tantrum. Trish had a vision about it and called Mickie to see if it was normal. It was obvious what type of powers Claira had – they were dark, but hopefully, Mickie could sway her to the light.

"I could run to McDonald's or something to grab food for everyone…"

"No…Stevie can handle that, and he'll bring Mark with him to get the man out of the house." Mickie would be able to work her magic with him gone, even for a little while.

"I'm sorry, but you're withholding my education because a Witch and a wanna-be Miss Cleo say so?" Claira wasn't amused, especially with the crap line about keeping the kid company. "Just the other day you wouldn't stop bitchin' about my grades and now you're wrecking them. You really can't make up your mind about anything, can you?" Shaking her head, she turned and stormed upstairs.

"FYI, Mark is already saying no, he can hear you," Steve said after a moment, his head cocked to the side. "And Claira is planning on telling people you made her stay home to be indoctrinated into your cult. What the HELL is up with that kid?" Claira's thoughts were angry, kind of green actually, reminded him of Mark. He had to wonder if Mickie would get sick around Claira.

"She's just pissed because she wants to see her boyfriend. His name is Seth Rollins and…ever since she's been seeing him, her attitude has completely changed. She's not my daughter anymore. She lit our kitchen on fire with her magic and Mark had to Bind her."

Mickie gaped, her eyes wide. "What?! Are you kidding me?! That's what happened to your kitchen?!"

Brooklynn nodded with a frown, wrapping her arms around herself. "It hasn't been…good here, lately. And now Bastet is sick after following Claira around school for one day. It doesn't make sense. She threatened to skip classes because of that damn boy."

Trish's eyes narrowed, wondering what was up with this Seth Rollins kid and shared a look with Mickie. Binding someone's magic was serious business. It wasn't done lightly and she had a feeling it killed Mark to do it to his own daughter.

"My god, Lynn, why didn't you call any of us sooner with this?"

"She's staying home because I'm going to perform a few 'Miss Cleo' acts on her to see what the fuck is going on and talk to her." Mickie was pissed, surveying the damage in the kitchen and shook her head. This was unacceptable, and she felt her own mother's heartbreaking for Brooklynn.

"She acts like I was harping on her about her grades and I wasn't. I made ONE comment about her not doing well on the SATs, or whatever they're called, and she's acting like I ripped her apart verbally when I didn't." Brooklynn needed coffee, scrubbing a hand down her face. "She got pissed because I took her phone away, which is her only communication to Seth. And I was going to give it back to her today, but not after that outburst."

"I don't blame you. Wow." Mickie was floored, watching as John also surveyed the damage. "Okay, first things first, we need to find out what's going on with Bastet and then we can deal with Claira."

"Why are you dealing with Claira?"

Mark had arrived, not bothering to change out of his black, drawstring pajama bottoms, or pull a shirt on. At his age, he was still in peak shape and damn proud of it. Bastet was in his arms, yawning as she surveyed all the people. He listened as Mickie went off on a tangent, finally waving a hand to shut her up.

"Way too early for this." He grumbled, heading to the kitchen for coffee. His coffee pot, the only appliance left standing. Mark could FEEL Steve prodding at his mind and made a point to start envisioning Trish and Brooklynn in some seriously porn XXX rated situations.

"MOTHER FUCKER!"

"Stay out then."

"Mark, you have to admit something is not right with Claira. She could've killed me when she set that fire in the kitchen and Mickie and Trish are trying to help. That's why they're here." Brooklynn spoke softly, quietly, reaching out to stroke Bastet behind her ears and kissed the top of her head.

"Considering you had to BIND your child's magic due to a temper tantrum, you damn right something isn't right about this!" Mickie had taken the mute away from her mouth and narrowed her eyes at Mark's back, tempted to retaliate. "And we're not leaving until we find out what it is!"

John knew Mark and Mickie had NEVER gotten along, which is why they'd kept their distance, but Mickie had stayed in contact with Brooklynn all these years. "What about Randy?"

"What about him?" Now THAT was a name she hadn't heard in a long time.

"He has a gift with touching people, right? Why not ask for his help with Claira?"

"You want him to touch my daughter, to see her every thought and feel what she feels?"

"Cena, you've lost your mind. She's 16…"

Milayna had kept quiet until now, shaking her head. "That's not a good idea. Randy touched me once and I NEVER want it to happen again."

"Found out you were starting your period and you…OWW!"

"SHUT. UP. JOHN."

"DAD!"

"SHUT UP!" He bellowed, his emerald green eyes wide as they locked with Brooklynn. "IT IS 6 AM!" What the HELL was wrong with these people? "Mickie… I don't know if you remember puberty, but I know I had issues controlling my magic when I was annoyed. I know I fucking did a lot of horrible shit when I was pissed off." And Claira, so far, was turning out to be him as well.

"I'm sorry you had a terrible experience with PUBERTY, but she's not you."

"Brooklynn, I agree there is a problem, but bringing all of them into it is going to push Claira further away."

"Homie, who drives a black pick-up?"

Claira darted across the yard and dived in, laughing. "To school!" She waved out the open window when the adults poured out of the house. "Sorry Mom, you're not keeping me home for your stupid cult!"

Kind of like that… Mark pinched the bridge of his nose as the truck took the hell off.

"That would be Seth fucking Rollins." Brooklynn was livid and shook her head, deciding she would be calling Seth's parents to have a discussion with them. "Excuse me."

For the next hour, she verbally destroyed Seth's mother, made her cry and in the end, it was sworn the boy would never come near her daughter again outside of school. If Claira wanted to act out, she would suffer the consequences. The phone was gone and now her laptop was as well, along with her television in her bedroom. Anything that made Claira happy was being taken away, stripped. Pulling that stunt she did with Seth was the last straw…she was tempted to take Brooklynn out of that high school and put her in a different one, just to make sure she never saw Seth Rollins again.

That boy was TROUBLE with a capital T.

"Fuck, your Mom is pissed and called my Mom, making her cry." Seth informed Claira at lunch, not looking happy about the situation and could see Claira's eyes widening. "I'm not allowed to see you anymore outside of school, Claira. Your mother is livid, especially if she made my Mom cry…"

Claira swallowed hard, not sure what to say and felt the tears sting her eyes. "A-Are you breaking up with me?"

"What choice do we have? We can't sneak around, your parents will find out and my mother really can't take another verbal lashing like that…" Seth folded his arms in front of his chest, hating that he had to break her heart. "Unless you can convince your Mom to stay with me…"

"I-I'll talk to her." If talking to her didn't work, which it wouldn't… Claira's eyes trailed over Seth's handsome face thoughtfully, wondering just how far she was willing to go for the boy she loved.

"I'm sorry, could you say that again?" Brooklynn was with Mickie, who was with Bastet, and Mark had made the mistake of picking up the phone.

"Well, your daughter and Seth Rollins, along with his mother, are concerned with Claira's ability to come to school. Mrs. Rollins was very upset. Her son received a phone call this morning because Claira needed a ride as her mother was trying to keep her home. So, what I'm saying is the concern is Claira being ALLOWED to come."

Mark was already pouring a shot of whiskey and slammed it. "I see."

"Claira has exceptionally good grades and she's never been in trouble, Mr. Calaway. Are there problems at home?"

Well, she's a teenage Witch AND bitch, and sees ghosts… oh, and her Mom allowed a group of 'freaks' in and then royally pissed the hormonal, irrational teenager off…

"No… besides the family pet being sick, nothing I can think of."

When Mark informed Brooklynn about the phone call he received from the school social worker, who was also known as a counselor, her temper was UP. That little bitch had gone to her school about missing ONE day, all because she wanted to be with Seth?! Brooklynn knew she had to play her cards right and told Mark she would take care of it, calling the school counselor back.

"Thank you for taking the time to talk to me, Mrs. Beggins. I'm truly sorry for this situation with my daughter, but I do have an explanation on what's going on. First of all, I did NOT keep my daughter home against her will today. I simply wanted her to stay home because we have family in town we haven't seen in a while. I didn't realize she would call another parent or how distraught she was about this, so I apologize for that. Seth Rollins is the problem here. Ever since he started dating my daughter, things haven't been right with Claira. Her attitude towards us has changed at home and she's…extremely moody. It's been a drastic change and we've been trying to work through it with her, but I think some therapy is necessary to solve this problem. I also wish there was a way to keep Seth Rollins away from my daughter because I don't like the influence he has on her."

"Well Miss Meyers, with all due respect, there isn't a way to do that without a restraining order and, quite frankly, they're teenagers. There's really not much we can do about Seth Rollins without solid proof he is a bad influence on your daughter and, even then, like I said, a restraining order is the only way we'd be able to keep them apart here." Unfortunately, parents didn't have a lot of power when it came to their children in the school system.

This was unbelievable. Brooklynn never realized just how powerless a parent could be when it came to their child until now and felt like jumping off a cliff. "I'm going to put her in therapy and see if that helps."

"Another option is taking her out of school and letting her finish schooling at home with you, but…not very many people do that these days."

"I understand…" That might be a possibility at this point since Claira had crossed the line and all for a fucking boy. "Was there anything else you wanted to discuss with me?"

"No Miss Meyers, I think we have an understanding and as long as you don't keep Claira from coming to school again, we won't have any more issues."

Brooklynn hung up the phone and tossed it across the room, gripping her hair in her fingers tightly. Bastet was dying – Mickie had confirmed it and she didn't have much time left. Mark was devastated and out in the garage while the cat was resting on the bed beside her, spending what little time on this earth she had left. She'd been poisoned magically and, without finding the source of where it came from, they couldn't save her. This had been a horrible day and Claira made it even worse. Brooklynn regretted becoming a mother, letting the tears flow down her cheeks and decided she would be forcing Claira into therapy for her attitude and behavior.

Something had to give.

All her mother had to do was mind her own business and stop being such a cunt. All this had stemmed from that day over her purposefully failing an AP class! Claira didn't want pre-college classes on her stupid, overfilled plate because her idiot parents decided to pass their hereditary magic onto her. Blaming Seth… Claira nodded as Mrs. Beggins explained her mother's viewpoint, frowning.

"I'm sorry, I guess I just don't see the attitude."

"Well, I e-mailed your teachers and nothing seems to be amiss there. Is there anything going on at home you're not telling us?"

"My Mom and I got into a fight over the Advanced Placement tests. She thought because I failed one advanced test, my grades were in trouble. I did get upset because it didn't seem THAT big a deal and she grounded me. She was blaming Seth."

"And how do you feel about that?"

"I don't know, mad I guess?" Claira shrugged her shoulders. "My Mom thinks everything I do that isn't perfect is because of Seth."

Yeah, she had seen that a lot in her career. Parents refusing to believe their angel could just be that big a douchebag. "You must be pretty excited that your family is in town."

"I'm sorry, my what?"

"Your family."

By the time Claira left the counselor's office, she was inwardly grinning a wicked little smirk that would have made her daddy proud.

Claira had made a mountain out of a molehill and Brooklynn was on the verge of having a nervous breakdown. Mickie, John, Steve and Trish had all left because this situation had gotten dire. Brooklynn had kicked them all out, not wanting anyone in her house, which was partially destroyed because of her cunt daughter. The counselor had called back, and Brooklynn had to explain who exactly the 'family' was, leaving out their magical gifts of course. The counselor told Brooklynn about her conversation with Claira, suggesting that Seth wasn't the problem, it was the problems going on at home. Brooklynn couldn't believe the audacity of this bitch, but she couldn't lose her temper with someone from CPS, so she simply agreed and apologized for no reason.

By the time Claira arrived home, it was after her curfew and Mark was up to deal with her. Brooklynn wanted nothing to do with her right now. She was currently in a tub with the door locked, crying her eyes out and wondering where she'd gone wrong with Claira. Honestly, she wasn't meant to be a mother and would always think that, but now she had a demon spawn to deal with, who was making her life a living miserable hell because of a boy.

"Go away." She muttered to a spirit, gritting her teeth when the spirit wouldn't listen and completely lost her cool. "GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE! I'M NOT HELPING YOU!" The spirit actually became frightened and disappeared, leaving Brooklynn alone.

Considering what a fight they had all put up this morning about how they were going to do this, how they were going to do that, Mark found it mildly amusing that the crew had been disbanded so easily. Brooklynn, regardless of what she said to the contrariwise, had always been the unspoken leader. She hadn't left them much of a choice in their earlier years, with her 'this is it' loner attitude. It was probably one of the main reasons they had clashed so much and so often back then. He winced when he heard her screaming upstairs, though his eyes never left Claira.

"And how was school?"

When Dad spoke in THAT tone, Claira became nervous.

Considering the love of his life was fixing to have a breakdown upstairs, Claira should be nervous.