Hi everyone! Back to normal service now. Thanks for the reviews of the last chapter and over the "Pot Episode" - hope you guys enjoy this next one. This "episode" will be delving into Michelle's situation a lot more and will see Callie and Jesus working together to solve one of his recent problems. Hope you enjoy! I'm currently writing the penultimate "episode" and it's proving quite a journey from a writing perspective at least - I hope you'll be prepared for some future angst (but also lots of heart to hearts!). For now though, here are a couple of fluffy chapters and finally an "episode" where none of the nice characters suffer any heartache! Hooray!
"OK - headcount!" Stef shouted as the group assembled around her.
"Mom, we just arrived. I don't think we could have lost anyone." Mariana commented.
"Oh, and we're not 5." Brandon added.
"OK, lose the attitudes! We're at the fair! Aren't you excited?" Stef bounced slightly on her toes.
"We will be when we can all split off..." Kasey joined in the attacks.
"OK fine, but we don't want everyone disappearing too far. Jude, I want you to stay in view of one of the others please, Jesus...stay in view of Callie." The instructions were met with mixed reactions.
"Why do I have to be babysat?" he complained.
"Because 1, you've been in trouble too much recently and 2, we don't trust you to not get in trouble again today." Lena replied with a smile. As Jesus rolled his eyes.
"Why me? Why not Kasey or Brandon too?" Callie asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Because Brandon quietly requested that he be given some alone time with Michelle..."
"Mom!" Brandon shouted slightly embarrassed.
"You asked permission?" Kasey scoffed through a laugh. "Did you remember a juice box for your playdate?" she teased as Brandon kicked her softly.
"And as for you Missy," Stef said firmly to stop her picking on Brandon. "You're lucky I don't have someone babysitting you. You and Jesus isn't exactly my favourite combination in a place with so much potential for mischief. Got it? OK! Now me and your Mama are gonna go recapture our youth. Let's go!" she said excitedly dragging Lena off by her hand.
"OK kids, meet back here later!" Lena shouted back before slapping away Stef's arm to try and regain control of her own body.
"Well I'm off to meet Kelsey. Later!" Mariana called back, disappearing within seconds of Stef and Lena.
The remaining kids all looked at each other.
"I can't believe she doesn't trust us together!" Kasey said offended.
"Right, because it's not like you've ever both been dragged back to her for swapping the prizes around some guy's stall." Brandon added.
"Hey that was public service. It was rigged so you could only get the smaller prizes - we were just acting as unofficial regulators." Kasey laughed.
Jesus cracked a smile too. "Oh my God Mom was mad, I forgot about that! She had to apologise to the carnie after saying he was making it up. She loved that, obviously!"
"What did she do to you?" Jude asked intrigued.
"She made us sit in the "Lost Children" section for like an hour. Told the guys that if anyone had lost their kids they could take us instead." Jesus responded with a smirk.
"We got our asses kicked when we got home too. Ah, nostalgia!" Kasey reminisced nudging Jesus.
"Clearly you've shown her the error of her ways Evan!" Callie remarked noticing he was being quieter than normal.
He cracked a small smile. "I don't think anyone could or would want to change Kasey." he said fondly.
Kasey smiled for a moment before awkwardly looking back around the fair. Her and Evan were yet to fully reconcile from their fight.
"So, what's everyone doing?" she said trying to change focus away.
"Well I just got a text from Michelle saying she'll not be here for an hour so how about we do a few rides first!" he smiled squeezing Jude's shoulders.
"Sure!" Jude beamed. "Can we get some cotton candy too though?"
Callie rolled her eyes. Fine, come on though, let's get moving.
"Guys, I think I'm just gonna hang at the arcade. Rides aren't really my thing." Evan commented. There were a few disappointed mumbles from everyone except Kasey. She was no longer hostile, more awkward, knowing they were being forced to spend time with everyone there before having properly discussed the fight they had.
"It's up to you...call us if you change your mind." she smiled before quickly turning and leading the troop. Callie lingered slightly as the others disappeared.
"She will come around you know. Soon." she winked as Evan nodded with another smile.
He sighed and headed over to the coin machines.
"I can't believe you're fed up after 2 rides!" Stef moaned as Lena brought her over a cup of coffee.
"You know these places aren't my thing. Why don't you go find the kids?"
Stef let out a laugh. "Right! They're gonna wanna hang out with their Mom on a day like this."
Lena stirred some cream into her cup and gazed over to the arcade.
"Well you could always go keep Evan company before he wastes the rest of his house deposit on those Penny Pushers."
Stef turned to look before shrugging a sigh.
"Poor kid. Kasey's really putting him through the mill. Think he still feels really bad about disappointing her." she said turning her attentions to her own coffee.
Lena raised an eyebrow. "I'm not sure it's just Kasey he's upset about..." she hinted.
Stef looked at her blankly before picking up on her meaning.
"What? You don't mean me? I dragged him out the house today, I'm hardly giving him the cold shoulder " she replied with genuine surprise.
"Oh come on Stef, he worships you. He's barely been able to look either of you in the eye. His talk at the school was brilliant and he's hit the ground running with the play. I think you should go talk to him. I don't like him being this down, even if he did deserve the guilt trip for a few days. I think you should talk to Kasey too."
Stef furrowed her brow. "Hey why am I getting all the parental responsibility here?" she moaned.
Lena let out a small laugh. "Because you know you love it. They both need a kick in the pants and it's what you're best at."
"Well fine! But you get the next sex talk." She sighed taking a few more gulps of her coffee and leaving Lena quite content with the Kindle she pulled out of her purse.
"You trying to lose all your money so you can stay with us forever?" she chirped behind Evan, causing him to jump a little. He dropped the coin he had been carefully timing and they watched as it triggered a landslide of change to drop out of the machine.
"Wow...or maybe you can just buy a house now!"
"You should probably have it." he said cautiously. "You're right I shouldn't be wasting my money."
Stef slapped him lightly on the shoulder as he looked at her confused.
"Will you stop pussy footing around? Evan you're in the house and you're not going anywhere. You already contribute. You can stop beating yourself up for one day you know."
He sighed scooping the change into a bag as Stef lined herself up at the adjacent machine.
"OK Bill Gates, give me change for a Lincoln." she said her hands cupped.
Evan scooped a handful of change into her hands.
"OK - we need to revise your presidents" she commented referring to the sheer quantity of change he had given her.
"I guess when you're as rich as me you don't look at the five dollar bills much...besides, you'll need it. You can't just hop on one of these and win you know. It takes skill." he joked twitching his eyebrow slightly.
"That's my boy back." Stef teased nudging him and began to drop the change in.
"So. How are things with Kasey?" she asked knowing the answer.
"Fine..." he responded.
"Come on now Evan...we've talked about this lying thing. You're not too old for me to yell at in public you know."
He chuckled quietly to himself. "If you know, why are you asking?"
"Because it's more subtle than 'when are you two gonna quit moping around and face each other?'"
He looked at her with his expression dropping. "We will...its just been busy. I mean with her school work and my working this week..."
"...and your mysteriously having had plans every night." Stef quipped. "you're going to have to face her at some point you know."
"Every time I do she has somewhere else to be...I just don't know why it's so awkward. This has never happened before." He sighed.
"That's why its dragging out Evan. Neither of you want to confront it. But guess what - you have to. So man up and face it. Or woman up and face it as Lena would say! You will talk through, it will hurt a little and you'll move on as better people. Plus if you two don't do it yourselves I'm gonna lock you in a jail cell until you sort it." she threatened as Evan sighed again.
"Well she won't talk to me so you may have to."
"I'm going to talk to her too, don't worry. There are only 3 people in this world who can get Kasey to do something she doesn't want to and that's you, me and Lena."
"Well I can't..."
"Evan! Will you give yourself some credit before I have to actually slap some into you." He stopped putting his change in and flapped his mouth slightly knowing it was pointless to keep moping.
Just then a flurry of change escaped from Stef's machine. "See - I do have some skills!" she said patting him on the back.
"You collect my change and put it towards a house...where one day you and Kasey will live and laugh about the time you were so stubborn you acted like a couple of pre-teens. I'm going to go and talk to Kasey." She squeezed his shoulders as she left. He laughed quietly to himself and lightly thumped the side of the machine setting off the alarm before apologising profusely to the owner.
"Was it really this urgent we had to meet here?" Michelle inconspicuously leaned against the side of a burger van.
"Fry?" a voice asked extending a carton of steaming fries.
"I'm meeting Brandon, Carl. Make this fast."
"It's through. We need it off our property as soon as." he said dipping a fry in ketchup before stuffing it carefully in his mouth. "I need to know you're still up for it Michelle. You seem to be getting quite attached - and distracted." he said passively. Michelle shook her head but avoiding eye contact. "Anymore stupid diversions you're going to risk your ass for?"
"Don't patronise me Carl. I'm not going to give you the satisfaction." she sighed finally yielding and helping herself to his food.
He pulled a small piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to her.
"Get it, then destroy any trails. Have you figured out how you're going to do it yet?"
She took the paper from him and placed it quickly into her purse.
"Not entirely..." she admitted. "I was expecting more time...but it's hardly rocket science. It's transitional."
Carl scoffed. "I thought that may be the case. Before you leave the fair go see a friend of mine over at that stall. Tell him it's been 3 and a half years since you won anything so you hope it's your lucky day."
Michelle glared at him just before he turned to her one more time. "Don't get distracted. And no more side projects. You'll mess it up. Again. Risk exposing yourself." he said passing her the empty carton. "This is simple. It's temporary and it'll be over soon. You don't even need to get the family involved. Not if you're cemented now. Unless you choose to get sloppy again..."
As he moved she grabbed his arm and he turned. She was about to protest, remind him of her reasons, but he placed his hand around her chin. They looked deep into each others eyes before he let go and patted her harshly on the cheek as she winced in pain. She shook herself off and cleared her throat as he disappeared. She began to walk before a voice stopped her dead in her tracks.
"Michelle?" Evan said standing a few yards away.
She stuttered slightly before forcing a smile. How much had he heard? "You OK?" He asked sounding more intrigued than concerned. "Everything OK with that...guy?" He looked to see if he could still see him but he had disappeared.
"You stalking me now?" She laughed trying to avoid the question. Evan's face remained still, clearly waiting for an answer.
"He's just a cousin of mine. I said I'd say hello to him."
"He looked like he was hurting you..?" Evan responded screwing up his eyebrows slightly.
Michelle panicked. He had seen her at the heat of her exchange with Carl.
"Oh you know families. He never grew out of the rough and tumble stage. I bought him some fries and he was just teasing me about not paying me back." She smiled convincingly.
Evan nodded. "OK...he looks vaguely familiar." Michelle panicked even more. This was exactly what she had been afraid of. Evan was well connected and she had slipped up. They both had this time. This is what she had needed to avoid. This was exactly why she had wanted him out of the picture. If he could place Carl the whole set-up could be jeopardised - yet Carl was giving her grief about it? He was the idiot who kept meeting her in public.
"Well we're all from the same neighbourhood Evan - it's hardly New York." She pretended to joke managing to hide her nerves. She quickly tried to re-route and change the subject. "Anyhow, that's my family duties fulfilled. I'm going to go find Brandon. How come you're not with Kasey?" Evan's head dropped slightly.
"We uhm...we're just you know. I mean, we're not together every waking moment..." He tried to stall. Michelle's eyes glinted picking up on the clear rift that he was avoiding disclosing. She had failed to get him removed but their relationship was finally showing some cracks. She still couldn't believe it hadn't worked though. She was beginning to see that she should be focussing more on making herself more trusted than trying to dent Evan's reputation.
"Well, I'm sure you two can figure it out!" She said putting her arm around him and guiding him away from the burger van. He recoiled away still concerned about what he had seen.
"Well...I only came over here to get some food. I guess I'll talk to you later." He said wisely, remembering what Stef had said to him about Michelle.
She gave him a big smile. "No doubt." She said with a wink before producing her phone and turning away. Once her face was out of view her smile dropped. He better not find out any more.
Would love to know what you think as always :)
Chapter 28 Preview: Jude eats too much, Callie and Jesus bond over his bullying and Kasey gets Stef into trouble
"Yep!" Kasey beamed. " Come on Mom - you can't honestly pass up the chance to beat the swindlers? Just...turn on the charm" Kasey added to her inference with her eyebrows as Stef fully got her meaning. Stef gawped in shock and hit her lightly on the arm.