"Bell?" Aria said as soon as she got to the spot after classes got was no reply from Bell, her music too loud to hear her friend. As soon as Aria saw Bell sitting there she ran up an gave her a bear hug.
"Aria!" Bell shrieked laughing as she tried to stand up and run from her friend. "A simple hello would have done just fine." She joked.
"Ya don't think I already tried that?" She asked plopping down next to her friend.
"How was art?" Bell tried to make conversation, hoping that she wouldn't have to tell Aria that she talked to her moms.
"It was good, I got to work on my drawing a lot more" Aria responded, fully knowing that by meeting her friend here she was skipping a ride home from Lena, and was going to be getting into more trouble because she didn't let them know that she was staying after.
"Do you want to talk more about lunch?" Bell asked, "I'm sure that wasn't exactly fun."
"They just got on my case about skipping class. On the bright side they haven't seemed to notice that I didn't eat anything since breakfast yesterday" Aria said as she explained what happened at lunch. "Or they have and decided to not fight me on it" Aria added.
Bell frowned and searched in her bag until she found something, "Please?" She begged handing the snowflake roll to her friend, "How much trouble are you in for skipping, did they tell you yet?"
"Okay" Aria said as she grabbed the roll from her friend and started eating it. "And I am not sure yet, I think it might be like 3 months now with everything else added on" She added as she continued to munch on the roll until there was nothing left of it. "Thanks for the roll"
"Hopefully not too long," Bell said, knowing that having Aria meet her now wasn't going to help her case, Bell looked around the beach and noticed someone in the distance walking towards them.
"If I am grounded for a long time we can still hang out at school" Aria said, not noticing what her friend was looking at.
Bell decided not to say anything when she recognized the person walking towards them, she figured by now Stef would notice the two girls and running off wouldn't help their case.
"What are you looking at?" Aria asked as she saw her friend looking off somewhere.
"Um, I think that's your mom walking towards us." Bell tried to casually say as she slipped her jacket back on before Stef got to them.
"Shit, You think we have time to make a run for it/" Aria asked as she too slipped on her jacket.
"I think that'll only make things worse. Besides she doesn't look to pissed." Bell said as she started to stand to leave.
"Where the hell do you think you are going?" Aria asked her friend standing up as well.
"I'm pretty sure your mom didn't walk out onto the beach to find me and talk, text me and let me know how it goes." Bell said about to run off.
"If I get grounded then I won't have my phone" Aria said.
"That is true" Stef added as she finally caught up with them.
"Sorry." Bell whispered making a break for it towards the school, she had a feeling that Stef wasn't going to yell at Aria just yet.
"I will see you at school tomorrow" Aria yelled to her friends retreating back.
"Aria," Stef said to get her daughter's attention, "Sit and talk with me for a minute?"
"Okay" Aria said quietly as she sat down on the beach next to her mom. "Mom, i'm really sorry about everything" Aria started as she began to cry.
Stef sat next to her crying daughter, holding her, stunned at first, Aria had finally called her mom "Love, it's okay, we just need you to talk to us. Okay?"
"Talk to you about what?" Aria asked as she pushed her body up against Stef trying to find some comfort within her.
Stef paused, she didn't even know where to start, her daughter's secret friend who she had been skipping class with, depression, the skipping meals? But Stef didn't want to talk about any of that, and ruin the moment. Aria had finally trusted her. "Who was that?" Stef finally decided on.
"That was Bell, mom" Aria said.
"Your friend?" Stef asked, it was the same girl who had come into Lena's office to talk to them just a little while earlier.
"Yeah, my best friend" Aria corrected.
"Why'd she run off so quickly?" Stef wondered out loud.
"She gets shy around adults, and I think she wanted to give us some time to talk" Aria explained.
"How long have you guys been friends?" Stef asked, she felt like this was the only topic that wouldn't get Aria upset.
"Two years ago Bell's family fostered Callie and I" Aria began. "It's kinda complicated."
Stef nodded, it was obvious it hadn't worked out for some reason, that's how Callie and Aria ended up with her and Lena, "And you and Bell stayed friends all this time?" It was rare for kids in the foster system to be able to keep in touch for long periods of time.
"Yeah, I mean we got really close" Aria said.
"Did something happen, in Bell's house?" Stef asked, now she was even more curious about her daughter's timid friend, "Is that why it didn't work out?"
"It's complicated." Aria said again.
Stef understood that Aria was just trying to protect her friend but Stef still wanted to find a way to protect her daughter, from something that had already happened. It was the hardest part about fostering and adopting, not being able to have always been their for her kids. The two just sat on the beach for a few minutes in silence, Stef holding her daughter and trying to figure out how she was going to help.
Bell had run off towards the school when she saw Stef, as she got far enough away, Bell looked over her shoulder to see if it looked like Aria was getting into trouble. Bell stopped when she tripped and fell on her face, before even looking up she was apologizing. "I'm sorry." Bell whispered and then looked up.
"Oh sweetheart, are you alright?" Lena asked helping the girl up.
"Of course." Bell muttered, out of all the people in the school to run into. Bell noticed her sleeves were pulled up and she quickly pulled them down over her hands. "Sorry Mrs. Adams Foster."
Lena nodded, "It's alright. Stef must be at the beach with Aria by now if you're running from that direction."
Bell smiled, guilty at the ground before looking up and nodding.
"Can I ask you a question?" Lena asked and then paused looking around before sitting at one of the lunch tables in the courtyard.
"Okay," Bell answered weakly, she was slowly trusting Lena but still hated sitting and talking alone with her.
"When did you and Aria become friends?" Lena asked softly, smiling at the young girl.
"Which time?" Bell asked in response, "The first time or most recently?" Seeing Lena's puzzled expression Bell continued, "Aria and Callie lived in my house for about eight months. My parents fostered them, Aria and I were the same age so we grew to be friends. And then, when she left, we started talking less until I was walking out to the beach one day and noticed someone sitting there, and we just started talking again."
"Why did they leave?" Lena asked in a caring tone.
"One day when Aria come home from a particularly rough day at school, including two detention from skipping class and 3 phone calls home for refusing to do anything in class my parents were waiting for her so they could talk but I guess Aria wasnt talking so they got really pissed off at her and slapped her in the face saying that just because she has issues doesn't mean that she can get into a lot of trouble. They started pushing her around and hitting her more when Callie walked into the room, and well, you know Callie. No one touches Aria when Callie is around. It got..." Bell paused, why was she telling Lena this stuff, she couldn't trust her, there was way to much at risk, "It just got really out of hand. I was the one who told Aria to call Bill. And the next day, I got home from school, and they had been moved to another house." Bell wiped away a tear, changing the story slightly so Lena wouldn't ask her any questions, Bell had been the one who called Bill and told him that her parents were hurting Callie and Aria. He promised they would look into it, but the state never did
"Did you ask your parents about it?" Lena asked as she made a mental note to talk to her wife and Aria about it..
"About what?" Bell replied harshly, "If the reason that Callie and Aria were gone was because my parents hit them? No, I might be failing but I'm smart enough to figure that one out all on my own."
Lena didn't say anything, there wasn't anything she could say in a situation like this.
"I'm sorry." Bell said again, "Can we start the tutoring for history tomorrow, I really need to catch up in that class."
"Of course," Lena nodded, still numb, not sure how to react.
"Can we consider this me telling my friend's mother all of this stuff instead of my teacher since you know I don't want people to start asking questions." Bell pleaded. Before Lena could answer Bell had ran off and Lena noticed her wife and daughter walking towards her, one thing after another and nothing seemed to be getting resolved.