Chapter 2:
"Halliwell! I've got the new case for you! Oh, who's this?" Paige's boss Mr. Caraway asked, as he spotted Paige and Phoebe coming into the office
"Mr. Caraway, this is my sister Phoebe, the advice journalist Ask Phoebe. Phoebe, this is Mr. Caraway, my boss." Paige introduced
"Hi, nice to meet you." Phoebe said, shaking his hand
"You too." He replied "Anyway, Paige, I would like you to come to my office once you get your stuff settled, so we can discuss the case. Bring your sister along too."
"Okay, just give me five minutes." Paige replied
"He doesn't seem too bad." Phoebe whispered to Paige, once Mr. Caraway was out of hearing range
"He really isn't. And I've been working here for long enough that he really knows me pretty well, and he seems to respect me, which is good. I couldn't work for a boss that doesn't respect me." Paige whispered back
"Here, here. So what's this meeting going to be like?" Phoebe asked
"Well, it's just basically going through this case, and talking about the person's past, and kind of just the basics. We'll probably go to the house this afternoon." Paige explained
"Gotcha." Phoebe said
"Well, let's go. I really want to see if this is the case that I've been dreaming about." Paige said
They walked to Mr. Caraway's office. Paige paused at the closed door and knocked.
"Come on in!" came the reply
Paige opened the door and she and Phoebe walked in.
"Sit right down there." Mr. Caraway said, pointing to the two chairs across his desk.
Paige and Phoebe sat. "So, what's this knew case going to be like? I read the file that you gave me, but for some reason I couldn't figure out the age of the case. Or very many details." Paige said
"Well, it's a female, and she's fourteen years old, and will turn fifteen in about twenty days, on March 12th.
"Oh. So she's still pretty much a minor. What's her rap sheet look like?" Paige asked
Phoebe looked at Paige confusedly. "Rap sheet? We're talking about juvenile delinquents here?"
"No, not delinquents. It's what we call rap sheets. There just the sheets that tell us about the cases' past foster homes, if they suffered any abuse, how they got into the system in the first place, etc." Paige explained
"Oh. I understand." Phoebe said
"So, what does it look like?" Paige asked again
"Here, take a look." Mr. Caraway said, giving her a small packet of paper "We're talking about some abuse here. Nothing completely major, but enough for us to be notified. And as you know, the girl was about three when things first started going downhill for her after her foster parents killed each other. Poor kid has had a rough life, though amazingly is doing pretty well law wise. She tends to mostly just keep to herself. Though I think we might have to move her again. I've gotten a few calls from neighbors about screaming or something, so that's one of the things we have to look out for when we go there this afternoon. We need to check the kid out for the normal signs and we need to check the parents out for the normal signs."
"Normal signs?" Phoebe asked
"Yeah. For a kid, it tends to vary, but it could be nervousness, shyness, bruises, and other abnormal behavior. I mean, we obviously can't arrest parents for a bruise here and there, because kids get hurt, and we can't arrest them if the kid is a bit shy, but we look for extreme cases. It's kind of hard to explain, but I think you sort of get it. And for parents, signs are mostly nervousness and like they're hiding something, or if there's rooms that they don't want us to go in, and mostly just weird behavior. We've had cases where we've gone to a house and there's a father drinking beer and watching television and smoking the entire time we're there, ordering his kids and his wife around. That's when we know to be suspicious." Paige explained
"Ah. I see." Phoebe replied
"So, Paige, you look up on that stuff, and I think the best time for us to go is probably around one, maybe. Or maybe earlier. Whatever works for you. The parents said to come anywhere between 11 and 3 or so." Mr. Caraway said.
"Alright, will do. Come on, Phoebe, let's go read up on some of this stuff." Paige said getting up "Bye, Mr. Caraway. See you at 1 or whenever."
"Bye, guys." He replied, getting back to his paperwork.
A/N: Okay, so I obviously don't know how social workers do their job, so I just kind of made things up as I went. I tried to sound as realistic as possible, but yeah, sorry if that's not how things really work. So, I know that might have been a bit of a boring chapter, but in the next chapter they'll meet the girl Paige has been dreaming about. So please, remember to review! I'd like to hear what you think of the story so far, and if you have any suggestions or comments, I'll take those too! Hope you liked it!