"Kevin, today I went to Betsy's school to talk to her teachers."
Kevin lifted Henry up in the air and the baby giggled, kicking a little with his legs. "You like it, buddy? Wanna do it again?"
Henry giggled louder, and Kevin kissed his forehead.
Finally, he turned towards his wife. "Sorry babe, what were you saying?"
"Betsy often skips her chemistry lessons. Apparently she doesn't like the teacher and they... I don't know, argued, and when she got an F in a test Betsy told her something disrespectful and decided not to attend the classes anymore."
Kevin was shocked. "How do we not know about this?"
"She didn't tell us, and at school they probably thought we were too busy to go and talk to them, I guess." Addison took Henry from Kevin's arms and smiled at him, hoping her baby would calm her anger.
The man sighed. "Just when we think it's all right."
"I wonder if she tells us the truth. When she says she's going out with Cameron or Dee and Sacha, I believe her but is she telling us the truth? Because really, if that's how it is at school then she could also go god-knows-where doing god-knows-what."
"Addison, we'll talk to her as soon as she comes home. No, you know what, I'll call her now and tell her to come straight here."
As Addison sat on the couch and grabbed some of Henry's toys from the floor to play with him, Kevin angrily dialed his daughter's number.
"She's not answering, Addison."
"She's at a rugby match, probably she doesn't hear the phone."
"I'll try until she picks up."
"Kevin! I didn't hear the phone! Did something happen?"
"Where are you?"
"Still at the stadium! What's-" the girl yelled to cover up the noise of the fans.
"It will take you fifteen minutes to come home from there by car, and I expect you to be here in that amount of time. Is that clear?"
"But Kevin..." Betsy was speechless. She didn't understand.
"Do as I told you, Betsy." he sighed.
x
Betsy didn't understand. Kevin's tone of voice was angry, very angry, but she hadn't done bad things lately. Most of the times she listened to them, and the only friend of her old ones she still saw from time to time was Melinda. She hadn't sneaked out, stayed out late, nor taken drugs. Had they found out she still smoked?
When she opened the front door, the house was silent. Henry was asleep in the playpen, and walking through the entrance hall she heard whispers from the kitchen.
"Hello." she stepped in. "Do you mind telling me what I did?"
"You're on thin ice." Addison told her with a glare.
"Okay, but why?"
"Let's see, you got an F on a test, you insulted your chemistry teacher in front of all your classmates and you ditched almost all the lessons from that moment on! Isn't that enough to be furious?"
In the other room, Henry let out a whimper staring to cry.
"I'll go." Kevin closed the door, knowing that soon Addison and Betsy would start yelling at each other.
"You don't know the full story Addison, you're only believing their version of the facts! There are two sides to every story!"
"Then tell me, Betsy, what's your side of this story?"
"You won't believe me. Why waste my breath trying to explain?" she started walking away.
"Try me!" the woman threw her arms up in frustration. "Where are you going? I want you to talk to me, Betsy – this talk isn't over!"
"Girls!" Kevin exclaimed loudly, still rocking Henry gently. "If you have to shout, don't do it in the living room. Betsy, get back to the kitchen right now and talk to Addison. We're already angry enough, don't make it worse."
"But I didn't to anything!" the girl looked at the two of them, swallowing her anger.
"Did you curse your teacher?"
"She always-"
"Yes or no?"
"Yes."
"And did you skip her lessons?" Addison asked again.
"Yes, but come on!"
"Come on what? Come to the kitchen, we have something to discuss and I'm not going to raise my voice again in front of my son."
"Yes your son, Addison. And who am I?"
"You are someone just as important to us than he is, and you are someone I'm very angry with right now. Did you hear me? Come." she impatiently waited for her to finally follow her, feeling a slight bit of guilt when she noticed the girl's tears.
Both Addison and Kevin had realized how Betsy's question about Henry actually was the heart of the matter, but they needed to calm down a little first.
"If you want to explain, I'm all ears." the redhead sighed heavily collapsing on a chair.
Betsy simply looked at her for a while, but Addison didn't say anything else.
"She hates me! From the day my principal found me having sex at school and I got suspended, she hates me! And it's been what, more than a year? I couldn't take it anymore. I studied for that test, Addison, I knew I could do it. She just found every single little insignificant mistake she could find and gave me an F!"
"Betsy, I want to believe you, I do, but if you didn't deserve that F then she wouldn't have given in to you." Addison rubbed her temple.
"See, you don't believe me! Ask her to show you the test, Addison. You're a doctor, you're good at chemistry, so you'll be able to tell if I really did deserve an F or not!"
"Stop yelling. I'll go talk to her again, and I'll see the test. But even though she hates you and did it on purpose you shouldn't have disrespect her and skipped her classes. School is important, there are way too many children in the world who can't attend school, and you are one of the lucky ones. School is what determine your future, and the only reason why you'll be allowed not to go is if you're not feeling well or there is something important that I know of that you can't miss. Understood?"
"I finally managed to get him back to sleep." Kevin said as he entered the room. "So?"
"So she doesn't believe me!"
"I doubt that, Betsy."
"I didn't say I didn't believe you. I said it sounds strange to me that your teacher would give you an F on a correct test."
Betsy sighed heavily, looking away annoyed. She got up silently, staring at her feet. "I have a date with Cameron tonight, I need to shower and change clothes."
Kevin stepped in front of the door to block her way, giving her a knowing look.
"Ha, seriously?"
"Please don't fight us." Addison told her. Kevin kept staring at her, softly but firmly, hoping she'd give up easily and not start another fight.
"I still want to talk about it, Betsy."
"Well I don't. We already did and I told you everything, there's nothing more to say."
"There's a lot to say. For example 'I'm sorry' or 'I won't do it anymore'."
Betsy chuckled and turned to look at her. "Well, I can't say I'm sorry, because I think that fucking bitch deserved it. And that probably won't be the last time I do it, at least until she starts treating me as the other students."
"Don't, speak, like, that." Addison spatted through clenched teeth.
"Send Cameron a message, tell him you won't be going out tonight. Then it's either we keep talking without cursing anyone or you go up to your room until dinner time."
Betsy made a disgusted grimace, thinking about her options. If she walked out of the house now, they'd see her and ground her forever. If she stayed there with them, she'd only get more angry and upset. Maybe she could sneak out from her room's window...
x
Addison sighed, resting her head on Kevin's shoulder as they sat close on the couch.
"I hate fighting with her. It leaves me helpless and sad."
"I think she feels jealous about Henry." Kevin kissed the top of her head.
"Me too, but I can't understand why. We still spend time with her, I always ask her about her day and about Cameron, she never seemed upset."
"Having a baby in the house is difficult. I remember when my brother kept me up all night, I always claimed I hated him. But then we grew closer and we shared every secret." he shrugged. "Betsy will get used to it, she just needs time."
Addison stayed silent for a while, letting her husband hold her tighter. "I'm afraid she sneaked out."
Kevin looked at her thoughtful. "Could be. If she wants to make us angrier anyway."
"I think I'll go check on her. I wanna talk to her without ending up yelling and telling her off." she got up, heading towards the stairs.
"I'll start dinner in the meanwhile."
x
Addison knocked gently on the door, hoping to hear an answer.
"Yes?"
She held back a relieved sigh, peeking into the room. "Can I come in?"
"Yes."
Betsy was lying on the bed, with a book open beside her and her cellphone in her hand. "Cameron didn't answer my message, I think he got mad. And I guess you came in to confiscate my phone so here, take it."
Addison stared at her in shock when the girl handed her the phone, and she quickly walked over to Betsy's bed.
"I'm sorry about Cameron, and I'm here to talk. The phone – you can keep it, but you're still grounded."
"You thought I sneaked out, didn't you?"
Addison smiled and stroked her cheek. "I did, and I'm glad you didn't do that."
"I was about to, but what's the point if Cameron's mad at me for not going out? I'd have only make you two angrier and I feel too exhausted to fight again." the teen closed her eyes briefly.
"Good, because I am too. I wanted to..." Addison stopped, trying to find better words. "Are you maybe, somehow, jealous of Henry?"
Betsy didn't say anything at first, and she fought the impulse to turn around.
"I just think that you adopted him when he was just seven months old; you'll raise him and he'll call you Mom and Dad. And I know you wouldn't have any problem with me calling you like that, but I can't. And that leaves my kinda out of the picture, of the family."
"Oh, Betsy. Honey, you could never be out of the family, You're part of it, and we love you. No matter how many times a day we fight, no matter what you do or say. We'll always consider you our daughter, and we will always love you more than life itself."
"Nobody has ever loved me more than life itself."
Addison kept running her fingers through her hair gently. "Yes they have. Your parents, Betsy; Dell and Heather loved you just as much as Kevin and I do. They didn't want to die and leave you, Betsy, if they could be here they would. But stuff happens, and I'm really sorry I couldn't help you sooner. I'm sorry you had to get through what you went through. But you're here now, and we can offer you the life you've always wanted and that you deserve."
The girl eventually looked up at Addison and gave her a small nod, silently showing her she believed her.
"It will take time, to get used to it completely. But one day you'll remember the past and think 'it's just the past'."
A/N: I thought about Betsy not coming home when Kevin called her, but showing up only late at night. But then I realized it was a thing she would have done in the beginning of the story, not now. Hope you liked it anyway. Oh, by the way, this is the last chapter of drama, so I hope you enjoyed it :D