All of the siblings, Joe, and Julia were over at Sarah's discussing the children's benefit dinner. Because of the money troubles at Ojai, they really couldn't afford to go this year.
"We have to stick together, that is the most important thing." Sarah told everyone.
"We should go on a road trip and vanish into the desert." Justin suggested, joking.
"Yeah for a year because that's how long it's going to take mom to stop being mad at us." Kevin replied.
"We have to stop this now or it will go on for the rest of our lives." Sarah responded.
"What is the big deal? It's a benefit for the children." Kitty asked.
"It's not the cause that's the problem." Tommy answered.
"You know I was kind of looking forward to it this year. The theme is 'Back to Broadway' and who doesn't love a musical." Kevin said.
"I'm with Kevin, I never got to go to one because dad always said I was too young and I do love musicals too." Cassie commented.
"We're not going to this thing. The company has to foot the bill and we can't afford it." Sarah snapped.
Tommy, Kevin, and Sarah started exchanging glances that didn't go unnoticed by everyone else. No one else knew about Ojai's major money trouble and Sarah almost blew it.
"We just can't be throwing money around right now." Sarah said, a little calmer. "I'm gonna tell mom, all you guys have to do is hold your ground. The tyranny of Nora's big night is over." And with that everyone toasted.
After the meeting was over, Kitty and Cassie stayed a little longer. Actually Kitty decided to stay and since they drove together, Cassie had to stay. Kitty, Joe, and Sarah were in the kitchen and Cassie was with Paige and Cooper. Cassie was going into the kitchen but stopped when she heard them talking about Ojai. Sarah was saying that they were going to have to sell of divisions of the company and it wouldn't be the same company that they grew up with.
"These financial problems that you're talking about, did they have anything to do with dad?" Kitty asked.
There was an extended silence and Cassie closed her eyes, waiting for the answer.
"They're not his fault, if that's what you mean." Sarah answered.
Cassie could hear it in Sarah's voice that she was holding something back. She heard Kitty say that she was gonna get going, so she quickly ran back to Paige and Cooper to make it seem like she hadn't heard anything.
Cassie and Olivia were sitting in Cassie's room and Cassie had just told Olivia what she overheard the night before.
"Wow, so you're having real money problems. You're not gonna lose the house are you?" Olivia asked.
"No it's not the house that's in jeopardy, mom owns the house. It's the company that's in trouble." Cassie answered.
"I'm so sorry Cass; these past couple months have been so hard on you guys." Olivia hugged her friend.
"I just wish my dad was here. I keep thinking that he could just fix everything with a simple wave of his hand." Olivia replied, a few tears rolled down her cheeks.
"Your dad was very good at keeping things under control." Olivia commented.
"Enough of this." Cassie wiped the tears away. "Let's start this theatre homework; we have to have this scene ready in a week."
Their theatre class was assigned a project; pick a partner and choose and prepare a scene from a movie or play. Cassie and Olivia immediately pared up and chose a scene between Ruth and Idgie from the movie 'Fried Green Tomatoes'. That had been one of their favorite movies since the first time they saw it so it was an easy pick. The hard pick was between who was gonna be Ruth and who was gonna be Idgie, but they finally decided on Cassie being Ruth and Olivia being Idgie. A while later, Nora was coming upstairs to talk to Cassie about finding a dress for the benefit. The girls were still rehearsing and Nora stopped when she heard them talking. Cassie and Olivia were currently on the scene where Idgie came to get Ruth after Ruth's mother passed away.
"And I'm pregnant." Cassie said in her southern accent.
Nora heard her daughter say this and panicked; she didn't know that they were rehearsing for class.
"You're pregnant, Cassie?" Nora asked in disbelief as she barged into the room.
Cassie and Olivia turned their heads to look at Nora. Poor Nora looked as though she was going to start crying.
"No mom, I'm not pregnant." Cassie quickly told her mom.
"But I heard you tell Olivia you were." Nora replied.
"We're rehearsing a scene for our theatre class." Olivia said.
"Yeah, the scene from 'Fried Green Tomatoes' where Ruth tells Idgie she's pregnant. Our new assignment was to pick a scene from a movie and that's what we picked." Cassie explained to her mom.
"Oh thank God." Nora let out a sigh of relief.
"What'd you need mom?" Cassie asked.
"I just wanted to let you know that you need to get a black and white dress for the children's benefit." Nora answered.
"I thought we weren't going this year." Cassie stuttered, worried Sarah never told her.
"I just talked to Sarah a few minutes ago and we're all set." Nora told her daughter.
"Oh alright. Well I will go dress shopping then." Cassie replied, confused.
"Thank you." Nora left the room with that.
Olivia went to say something but Cassie held up her hand and stopped her. Cassie whipped out her cell phone and called Sarah. Sarah told her how their mom had guilted her into it.
"Oh!" Nora popped her head back in a bit later. "Bring a date too." Nora then left again.
Olivia just started laughing.
"It's not funny." Cassie jokingly smacked her.
"You should have just let her go along thinking you were pregnant. That would have been a way to avoid the dinner." Olivia was still laughing.
"That just would have been mean. She looked so scared when she thought I was pregnant." Cassie was giggling a bit now too. "You are going to have to come with me and find a dress also." Cassie told her.
"Why?" Olivia asked.
"Because she told me to bring a date so I am bringing you." Cassie informed her.
"What about Dylan?" Olivia wondered.
"I'd rather spend the evening with you." Cassie smiled. "Besides, he's out of town this weekend with his dad."
"Oh so I'm just you second choice." Olivia feigned hurt.
"Shut up you ol' bee charmer, let's get back to work." Cassie said, back in her southern accent.
Cassie and Olivia were standing around at the children's benefit, waiting to go sit down at their table. Joe had accidentally let slip that the company was in real trouble and Nora was flipping out. She technically wasn't supposed to know and she wanted Sarah to talk to her about it.
"Happy that you finally got to come to this?" Olivia asked.
"It would be fine if the family business wasn't in jeopardy." Cassie retorted.
Olivia grabbed two glasses of champagne and handed one to Cassie.
"Drink this, it'll calm your nerves." Olivia ordered.
Cassie took a big swig and let out a sigh.
"Cassie and Olivia." Nora called them over to her and the rest of the gang.
Olivia and Cassie went over to where Nora had called everyone.
"I think it's time. Shall we make our entrance?" Nora said and led them to their table.
Cassie and Olivia sat down right away while the rest of the family looked around. Kitty glared at Warren, who was the host tonight thanks to Nora. Warren brought Amber with him and Kitty was jealous. Kevin was mad at himself because he had accidentally insulted Scotty so they were fighting, and Scotty was also working at the benefit. It seemed that the whole family was bent out of shape tonight, and Cassie knew that it was not going to be a good night. All of the sudden Saul came over with his date, Holly Harper.
"Nora, hi. You look so pretty." Saul greeted, giving his sister a hug.
Cassie and Olivia stood up and stood next to Nora and Kitty, creating sort of an alliance against Holly.
"Hi everyone, you all look so stunning." Holly greeted, being polite.
No one had any idea how to react, but luckily Warren had started the benefit.
"Oh time to sit down, don't want t be rude." Nora said.
Saul bid them goodbye, and him and Holly went to their own table. Awhile later, everyone had finally arrived and they had scattered off.
"Would you care to dance Idgie Threadgood?" Cassie asked Olivia.
"Why I would love to." Olivia answered.
The two of them laughed and headed out to the dance floor.
"See, now isn't this so much better than just chilling at your house watching a movie?" Cassie asked, sarcastically.
"You're the one that wanted to come missy. And it's not that bad, just ignore your family problems." Olivia replied.
The whole family was now seated at the table. Tommy and Julia were feeling mortified because they were caught having sex in the coat room. Nora was bent out of shape because her friend had accused her of hitting on her husband and then she had a run in with Holly. Sarah was mad at Joe for slipping up in front of Nora and she made a comment about not being perfect. Nora then took the opportunity to talk to Sarah about the company. Sarah and Nora had an argument about the company going under which resulted in Sarah leaving the table and Nora accidentally buying something in the auction.
"So what was that about ignoring my family problems?" Cassie questioned.
"Yeah… never mind." Olivia replied.
Cassie just nodded her head.
"Thing 1, Thing 2; we're going." Justin called to Cassie and Olivia.
They headed outside to where the rest of the family was gathered, except Kitty,.
"Care to dance?" Joe asked Sarah.
"No honey, I don't want to go inside." Sarah answered.
"Who said anything about going inside?" Joe took Sarah in his arms and started dancing with her.
Saul and Nora joined in, followed by everyone else. Standing outside, the twelve of them danced to the light music drifting from inside.
