Hey! Sorry I haven't updated in a few days. I've been binge-watching seasons 1 and 2 of Orange Is the new Black. I got addicted and couldn't write until I finished it.

Lux's POV

I sat silently for the rest of the car ride, wanting nothing more than to travel back in time.

If I would've went to the hospital first and gotten my birth-certificate, none of this would've happened.

I would've gotten emancipated yesterday and never met these people in the first place. And I would've saved myself all of the drama.

Before I realize it, Stefanie is parked outside of a Shop-Rite.

"What are we doing here?" I ask her.

She sighs heavily, "I told you that I had to make a pit stop to pick up some things for dinner."

"Right," I answer casually, even though I hadn't heard her mention anything. I wonder what else she might've said that I probably agreed to.

I catch her trying to hide a smile, as if she knew that I had just lied. I watch her turn off the engine and get out of the car, "You coming?"

"Why? Do you need help or something?" I ask. I wasn't trying to sound rude, but I figured sending me off to find stuff in a supermarket that I've never been in, would've probably taken much longer, than if she went in alone.

"Um, no. I just need to get a couple of things. I'll be right out okay?"

"Okay," I answer.

She glances at me worriedly, as if I were going to runoff as soon as I was out of her sight. I can't help but get annoyed, but then I realize that she has good reason not to trust me, after all of the semi-illegal things I've done since I've met her. "I promise not to highjack your car and drive off to New York, Stefanie."

"Well good," she says awkwardly and then grabs her wallet from the cup holder and closes the door. I watch her as she walks towards the supermarket. I study her walk from behind and wonder why she looks so tense as she's walking. Is that how I walk too? Or is it just some kind of cop thing?

I think back to what she said about the dinner. Was I expected to go to this dinner? Did I accidentally agree to it during the car ride?

My best guess is yes.

I glance up again and notice a payphone.

"Thank God," I mumble as I scramble through my pocket for some change.

When I get to the pay-phone, I dial Gavin's cellphone number. I can't help but be relieved when he answers, "Gavin, it's Lux. Is Tash there?"

"Hey, Lux. I'm fine. How are you doing?"

"Sorry, Gavin. I'm using a stupid payphone and I don't have a lot of change."

"Lux, where the hell did you go?" Tasha asks a few seconds later.

"The stupid hospital. I had no choice apparently."

"So did the results come in? Are you free?"

I gave he a short laugh, "No. Quite the opposite actually."

Tasha grunts into the phone, "Shit, Lux! Now we're screwed."

"You're telling me?"

"This complicates everything."

"I know…Maybe not," I offer. Did this really have to be such a bad thing?

"What?"

"…I was just thinking, that ya know, maybe this isn't the worst thing in the world."

"So, what are you saying? That you want to dump us for these people?"

"What? No, Tash."

"Good. Then, get out of it. Call Fern or just leave and come here right now."

"They're cops, Tash."

"So?"

"And Stef has like ten kids. If I lie and tell Fern convince fern that she's a bad person, she could lose them too."

"So, you're going to stay with them?"

"No, Tash. I just… I need time to figure something else out, okay?"

"Fine."

"Are you mad?"

"No. I'm fine."

"You're mad. I can tell."

"I'm not mad. I'm frustrated. Whatever…Are you still coming over today?"

"Yeah, I should be."

"You better. Kinda hard to have a birthday dinner without the birthday girl."

"My birthday was yesterday."

"Yeah, well we're celebrating it today. So you better be there."

I laugh, "Promise."

"Kay. I'll talk to you later."

As soon as I hang up the payphone and look up, I see someone standing in front of me. It was the last person I'd thought I see right now.

"Lux, hi," Valerie says as she offers me a smile.

I can't even speak, and suddenly I freeze in place, as if I forgot how to walk away.

"How have you been?" she asks nicely, as if everything that happened between us had just been a bad dream. Her eyes are filled with excitement, as if she was actually happy to see me. How could she be happy to see me, if she was the one who threw me away?

"Fine. I actually have to go," I answer flatly as I gain my composure and try to walk passed her.

"So soon?" she follows.

"Yeah."

"I thought maybe we could talk."

Stef's POV

By the time I walk out of the supermarket, my attention is automatically brought to Lux instinctively. It was weird how I could find her so easily, as if there weren't any more people outside. I start to walk over to her and I see that she's talking to someone.

Normally I can't read her facial expressions, but right now I can see that she's either scared or upset. I conclude that it has to do with the tall brunette standing in front of her, so I pick up my pace and meet them. "Is everything okay here?" I ask Lux, but I stare at both of them while I ask.

"Yes, I was just saying bye," my daughter answers as she sticks her hands inside of her pockets and walks toward the car.

The woman looks me up and down and offers me a forced-smile and starts walking toward the Shop-Rite. I watch as she makes her way inside before I start walking toward my car, which Lux is already in by now.

I get inside and turn on the engine, wondering if I should ask who that was, without seeming too pushy. Instead I try to go the non-direct route and hope that she does the talking, "She seems…nice."

Lux gives me a short laugh, "Seems being the operative word."

What did that mean? "…Do you want to talk about it?" I ask.

"Nope," she answers flatly.

"Okay…" I take that as my cue to discontinue the conversation.

Lena's POV

I'm in the kitchen cooking with Callie, and we're all waiting for Stef and Lux to arrive. Brandon and Jude are at the table doing their homework, while Jesus is listening to music from his laptop and Mariana is texting away.

I walk over to Jesus and remove his headphones, "Okay, you guys. I need you all to be on your best behavior, today. Your mom is very nervous about this, and I want everything to go well."

I'm greeted with a bunch of "uhuhs" and "okays." "Guys, I'm serious, okay. Your mom and I really want to make this work and we really need you guys to work with us on this. I know that it may not be ideal to have another person in this house, but Lux is part of this family, so we need to treat her as such."

"Okay," Callie answers with a head nod and a smile.

"We got it," Jesus says.

I'm glad that at least two of my children seem to be on the same page as me. "And we need to do our best not to overwhelm her too much." I stare right as Jesus when I speak, "That means no asking nosy questions."

"Why do you have to look at me when you say that?" Jesus asks innocently.

"Honey, I think you'd make a great detective one day, but let's leave most of the question asking, if there is any, to your mom or I, okay?"

Jesus smiles, "Detective Foster. I could get used to that."

"Is she going to move in here?" Mariana asks abruptly. "I'm already sharing a room with Callie. I don't think I can take another person in there."

"Thanks," Callie answers sarcastically.

"No, I like you," Mariana corrects. "But I think I'd lose it with another girl in there."

"Mariana, I can't make any promises. But as for right now, Lux will be staying with Mike at his place."

"She's staying with my dad?" Brandon asks in an annoyed voice. "Where? In my room?"

I can tell that this bothers him even more than it would, if Lux was staying here, "Yes…"

Callie finally speaks, "He is her father too, Brandon."

"I know, I just... I didn't think she would be there is all." It was obvious that he and Mariana were taking this the hardest out of everyone, but they had to get over it some way or another. Lux was Stef and Mike's daughter.

I continue, "Well she is. And from what I hear, it's her only option right now and we don't turn away family."

"I thought you said DNA doesn't make a family," Jude asks in confusion.

"It doesn't, sweetie. But in this case, it does."

"How?" he asks with even more confusion written on his face. Mariana and Jesus look at me too, as they wait for my response.

I'm not even sure how to answer his question, so I'm relieved when I hear the front door close and footsteps, "We'll continue this conversation later. Can everyone just promise to be extra nice to her for now?"

Everyone nodded with agreement even though Brandon and Mariana both had annoyed looks on their faces.

Callie's POV

I couldn't understand why Brandon was being such a jackass about all of this. This girl was his biological sister. If I just found out I had a biological sister, the last thing I would be is upset about it. If I didn't have Jude, I didn't know what I'd do with myself, but if I didn't know any better, I'd think Brandon was jealous about it all.

I couldn't understand why he was so worried though.

When Jude and I came here, Brandon was nothing but nice to us.

But he finds out he has a biological sister, and he acts like he wants nothing to do with her, like he doesn't want her staying here with us, or at his dad's place?

I knew I'd have to ask him about it later, and if he continued to behave like such a douche, neither Stef nor Lena was going to be happy about it.

I expected as much from Mariana to be honest. She didn't like me at all when Lena first brought me home. I figured that she would get over it soon and learn to accept her.

As soon as Stef walks into the kitchen, everyone turns their eyes toward her, "Everyone, I'd like you to meet Lux. Lux, this is—"

Stef immediately stops talking the second that I accidentally drop the knife on the ground that I had been cutting zucchini with. I gasp with shock as I realize that it almost stabbed me in the foot.

"Sweets, are you okay?" Stef asks as she walks over to my side to pick up the knife.

"I'm fine," I snap as I keep my eyes focused on the girl in front of me.

I've seen this girl before and I hated her guts.

Out of all the people in the world, this one was the last person I expected to see.

Why didn't I remember her name until now?

Why didn't I put two and two together?

I can feel Stef looking at me skeptically, then at Lux, then to Lena. "Lux, this is Callie, my wife, Lena, Mariana, Jesus, Jude, and you've already met Brandon."

"Hey," Lux waves at them all unenthusiastically, and then looks at me with curiosity. "You look kind of familiar. Do I know you from some place?"

I look over at Jude and I know he recognizes her too, but he's begging me not to say anything with his eyes. "No…I have one of those faces, I guess." I grab the knife from Stef's grasp and walk over to the sink to rinse it off.

Lux's POV

At the start of dinner, everything seems awkward. I'm almost glad that I can't stay long because I have to go to Bug's apartment afterwards.

"I hope you like Lasagna," Lena offers as she puts the dish on the table for everyone and waits for my response.

"I don't eat meat," I answer casually, trying not to sound like a total bitch when I'm saying it. It was true. I really don't.

"Oh," Lena looks surprised and somewhat embarrassed as she looks at the dish. "I didn't know that." She glances back to Stef as if asking her what to do next.

"It's okay. I'm actually not that hungry anyway."

"You have to eat something," Stef says as she puts the bowl of mixed vegetables on the table.

"I will. I'm actually going to a friend's house in a bit, and I'm planning to eat there so it's fine."

All of the kids look towards Stef and Lena as if waiting for one of them to reprimand me or something. "What? Did I say something?"

Stef continues, "Um, no… We just thought that you'd stay for dinner and—"

"Isn't that what I'm doing?" I ask in confusion. It's bad enough I didn't want to be here, but now they're all acting as if I haven't been trying at all.

"Yes, technically… But we just thought that we'd use today to get to know you a little bit better. That's all."

"Okay...but I promised my friends that I'd be there. It's kind of important."

"...That's fine," Stef answers calmly as she takes a seat at the table.

We sit through an awkward moment of silence, as I start to eat pieces of vegetables from my plate, to keep my mouth full before I could say anything else that made this conversation anymore awkward. I felt bad for wanting to leave early but I expected that this dinner wouldn't last very long in the first place. And Tasha and Bug would kill me if I didn't show up to my own birthday party, after I had to blow them off yesterday. Doing the same thing again wasn't going to happen.

Jesus breaks the silence, "So, you were in foster-care?"

"Uh…yup," I answer. He doesn't waste anytime. I glance up at see Lena giving him a reprimanding look.

"What'd you do to get kicked out of your last foster-home for?" Callie asks accusingly.

Stef puts her fork down and glares at Callie, but Callie doesn't even glance in her direction, as she still has her eyes focused on me.

"Nothing," I snap back. What the hell was this girl's problem?

"So, I hear you're going to Oceanside High School," Lena buds in, in an attempt to change the conversation.

"Uhuh," I answer as I stick a piece of broccoli in my mouth.

"I heard someone shot up the place," Jesus says. "Did you see it?"

"Jesus," Lena chastises.

"No, it's fine," I assure her. This conversation seemed more interesting then Callie's. "No one shot the place up. Some idiot brought a gun to school to show it off. And he accidentally shot a bullet through the wall of the boy's bathroom. He said that he didn't know it was loaded. Go figure…"

Jesus laughed, "Your school sounds like more fun than mines."

Stef interrupts, "Lena's actually the vice principal of Anchor Beach Charter School. All the kids go there. And I was thinking we could enroll you sometime this week."

"What?" I ask in disbelief.

"It's a really good school," Lena continues.

"We were lucky to get in," Jude says with a smile.

"I like my school just fine," I answer. The last thing I needed was to switch schools right now. It's bad enough my grades are crap, since I've switched schools thirteen times, but to switch again would suck.

"I'm sure you do," Stef answers with more than a hint of sarcasm. "You get to show up whenever you want..."

"So?" I ask in confusion. What was it to her?

"So, I think that you should go to a better school, where you actually learn something."

"I can't switch schools," I answer flatly. "It's the only time that I get to see my friends. And I'm the only reason why Tasha even goes to school. If I switch schools, I know that she wouldn't even bother to go."

Stef moves her food around in her plate, "Tasha? The one that was with you when I picked you up?" Stef asks.

"She didn't mean what she said to you," I try to explain. I was kind of upset with Tasha for calling Stef a bitch and insinuating that I called her one too, no matter how accurate it may or may not be.

"Well, legally you can't stay at Oceanside. Neither Mike nor I live in San Diego, so you're going to have to transfer to a school in town."

"Anchor Beach is a really good school. You're going to love it," Lena continues.

I doubt that. I want to keep arguing, but it seems as if it'd be no use to these people. I stay quiet and shove another piece of broccoli in my mouth, to keep me from saying what I really want to say.

"You can invite your friends here, whenever you want," Stef offers as if it was some kind of a peace treaty.

What she didn't know was that they wouldn't want to come to this house at all, and to be honest neither did I.

"Your mom's right. We'd love to have them over," Lena says. I nod my head and shove another piece of broccoli in my mouth, and glare at my now empty plate.

1 more day! I'm so excited! I can't wait for tomorrow! And I started watching that new show Chasing Life and it's not half bad so far :)

Oh, and thank you all for reviewing/reading/favorite-ing/and following! I know some of you are dying for the family to meet Bug. That will happen soon :)