You guys are great! Here's chapter eight:
"What…what do you mean?" Callie asked quietly, finding her voice for the first time since she had come into the room. She was beyond confused but knew that nothing good could possibly be said.
"You are not Christopher's daughter," Adelaide clarified maliciously, "Your whore of a mother was already pregnant with you when Christopher met her and he did the charitable thing of taking her in…"
"Don't you dare…" Callie whispered.
"He drank because of you!" Adelaide yelled, finger out once again, "To deal with the stress of raising some bastard child."
"That is ENOUGH!" Stef roared putting a hand out, thoroughly pissed, "Lena, take Callie and Jude to the car."
Adelaide looked between Stef and Lena and a look of understanding came over her face. She let out a bitter chuckle, "Oh this is just grand!" she exclaimed, words oozing with sarcasm, "It's bad enough he's stuck with her," she gestured towards Callie, "But now Jude is being raised by a couple of dykes."
"SHUT YOUR MOUTH!" Callie yelled at the old woman, losing it at the homophobic slur. She walked right up to Adelaide, "Don't you DARE talk about my mothers that way, don't you fucking DARE!"
"Nasty girl!" Adelaide shouted right back at her, refusing to back down from the fight, "I want you out of here NOW!"
Callie stalked out of the room on a warpath with Lena and Jude following behind her. Stef surveyed the room which had fallen silent at the loud altercation. Some guests made an effort to look uninterested while others stared back, unabashed. Stef turned her gaze back to the old woman. The blonde officer's face was flushed in anger.
"You listen to me," she said in low, threatening tone, "I am a police officer in California with many connections. You so much as LOOK at those kids again and it will be the last thing you do before you leave this earth, do you understand?"
"You can have the girl," Adelaide sneered, "But Jude is my grandson and he will be coming to live with me."
"Over my dead body." Stef left the funeral home shaking with anger as she made her way to the car. She saw Jude wrapped around Lena's waist as the vice-principal dialed her phone frantically.
"What's going on?" Stef asked. She looked around and noticed they were missing a body, "Where's Callie?"
Lena cursed and looked at her phone before looking up tearfully at her partner, "She's gone."
Callie finally stopped running as she found herself far away from the funeral house. She was carrying her shoes in her hands because they were hindering her speed. She found herself at a park and fell onto a bench as she tried to catch her breath. She dropped her shoes on the ground.
"You are not his daughter."
She shook her head to clear it and wrapped her arms around herself as tears made their way down her cheeks. She pulled out her phone and glanced at the screen: five missed calls from Lena and seven from Stef. Callie tossed her phone onto the bench. She had gone to the wake unsure of what to expect but what had occurred was very far from what she had in mind. She rested her elbows on her knees and gripped her hair, closing her eyes.
"Your whore of a mother…"
Callie squeezed her eyes tighter, willing her brain to stop its incessant chatter.
"Don't you DARE talk about my mothers that way, don't you fucking DARE!"
She had said mothers, plural. More than one. But Stef and Lena were not her mothers, they were temporary. They were just until she and Jude found a permanent home.
"Jude is being raised by a couple of dykes."
She had called Stef and Lena the same thing her first night at their house.
"Nasty girl!"
Callie let out a sob. It was true. She was a nasty girl to people even when they showed nothing but kindness to her. She had no right to be upset when she brought the misery upon herself. She had almost allowed herself to believe that Stef and Lena would keep her and Jude but why? Why would they? Callie wiped her face and took a deep breath before reaching a decision. She would make herself disappear before anybody else could.
"Hello all!"
"Hi Grandma!" Mariana ran to give her grandmother a hug with the boys close behind. Sharon kissed and hugged each of them.
"Hi kids," she greeted, "How are you all doing?" She received a variety of responses that all fell into a 'good' category, "So, what do you guys want to do for dinner?"
Jesus chucked his backpack on the couch, "Burger King!"
Sharon rolled her eyes, "That's just what I need, Lena reaching through the phone to strangle me because I'm feeding you guys crap."
"Pizza?" Mariana suggested, walking to the fridge to grab a bottle of water.
"Sure," Sharon acquiesced, tossing her hands in the air, "Whatever floats your boat." Mariana and Jesus left the kitchen to go to their bedrooms which left Brandon alone with Sharon.
"You've been awfully quiet," Sharon commented, taking a seat at the island, "What's on your mind?"
Brandon shifted his weight, "Just Callie…and Jude."
Sharon sighed sadly, "It's very unfortunate what's going on with them."
"It's just…" Brandon took a deep breath, "They've gone through all this bad stuff. Why can't they just catch a break? I feel like there's more we can do for them."
Sharon stood up and walked to the fridge to look at the calendar, "What day did you say the funeral was?"
Brandon furrowed his eyebrows, "Uh, Saturday. Why?"
Sharon gave her grandson a little smirk, "Maybe we can do something for them."
"We need to call the police Stef."
Lena, Stef, and Jude were back at the hotel room. They had driven around looking for Callie and were unable to find her so they figured the best idea would be to get back to their room. Stef and Lena had locked themselves in the bathroom in order to get some privacy from Jude who was worrying himself nearly sick over where Callie could have gone.
"I am the police."
"The last time you said that you got shot."
Stef ran a hand through her hair, frustrated, as she paced the length of the small room, "I don't think you understand Lena, if we call the police this could be looked at as Callie breaking the terms of her probation."
"How?" Lena asked, taking a seat on the edge of the tub.
"She crossed state lines and ran away."
"But she crossed state lines with us," Lena argued, "We brought her here. We got the okay from Bill."
"Yes but now she left," Stef replied, stopping in front of Lena, "And we don't know where the hell she went. Either she'll get in trouble for leaving us or our competence to take care of foster kids will be questioned in which case it will be a whole hell of a lot harder for us to adopt Callie and Jude."
Lena rested her head in her hands, "What do we do, Stef?"
Stef stopped pacing and took out her phone, "I have an idea."
Mariana stood in her bedroom, staring at Callie's side of the room. She had made her bed before she left and all of her things were hidden away in drawers. The only way you could tell it was Callie's side was from the guitar and books on the night table. Other than that, it still mostly resembled Mariana's interests.
"Hey, can I borrow your laptop? Mine is dead." Mariana looked up as Jesus came into her room. She turned back to Callie's bad.
"I think we should do something for Callie and Jude."
Jesus picked up the laptop, "Like what?"
"Make their space officially there's."
Jesus came to stand next to her and nodded, "Okay. How?" Mariana walked over to her desk to get a pen and paper.
"Well we're gonna need some supplies," she said, writing down whatever came to mind, "And we're gonna have to do some snooping."
Callie walked around Avondale in her funeral garb. She kept her head down and her pace fast in order to avoid strangers' questioning stares. She continued ambling around the unfamiliar city until she found herself in front of a church: a cathedral to be specific. She mulled over her options. She could keep walking…but it was getting dark and this was probably the safest place she was going to find. She was certainly dressed for church, so nobody would question her.
The brunette made her way up the steps and into the massive establishment. It was mostly empty save for a few people scattered about. She took a seat in a pew near the back and kneeled on the padded cushion. She clasped her hands together and closed her eyes before recalling a prayer her mother used to recite with her before she went to bed as a child.
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change…
I'm back at school with 4 AP classes and a college course to worry about so updates may not be as frequent but I'll work very hard for you! Thank you so much for the reviews, follows, and favorites. They make me want to write so much more! :)
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-Liv