Thanks for the feedback on last chapter. Just to mention something for this episode - I am not going to stray into Brallie at all, like not even acknowledge it beyond foreshadowing, as if I ever do pursue any kind of 1B related story I will have to change those events anyway to fit with my Nerd story so I don't want to make those decisions now. More than anything though, I really don't want to lol. Anyhow, just to be clear, this episode will end with the wedding and not beyond because I don't want to leave a cliffhanger I'm not going to resolve.
OK - now to sound a bit (but hopefully not too) creepy. One of my loyal readers on here messaged me to say she was at a work thing in Las Vegas and actually heard a couple folks discussing this story in a cafe (The Fosters talk caught her attention, but don't worry, she only caught snippets when the Fosters senses were flying - she didn't listen to your conversation.). While this blows my fecking mind, I wanted to say how awesome that is that 3 (out of my probably very small number of readers) were actually randomly in the same place - and if you would like to say hey then that would be pretty cool (zero pressure - I fully respect silent readers). Saying hey applies to everyone along with making requests, by the way! I love speaking to folks. Also I'm sorry if this has weirded you out - that's not my intention at all, I just couldn't believe the coincidence of how small a world it is and kinda had to bring it up in case you got a kick out of it like we did.
So now I've sufficiently looked like a Brandon level stalker, even from all the way over here in the UK, here is the next chapter! Thanks to thesameguest for reading and helping. Another fluffy, processy chapter but hopefully the trial will be a bit more exciting in tomorrow's for you. I'm sorry this is such an uneventful episode, so far especially! Rounding off ones are pretty hard to make exciting. Anyhow, hope people like it regardless.
Kasey bobbed in through the front door and immediately zoned in on the talking coming from the kitchen. She slowed curiously, trying not to make a sound and slowly tip-toed towards a better position. It had been ages since she'd been told off for eavesdropping so figured it wouldn't hurt to start again.
"Curiosity killed the cat, you know." Sharon's voice startled her without raising off the page of her magazine. "They're having a meeting with the ADA and I think its best they get some privacy."
"Right, I was just..."
"Testing out a new hearing aid? Come on, bring those big ears over here and let's catch up." she smiled patting the magazine onto the seat next to her. "I feel like with all this wedding craziness I've barely had time to talk to my beautiful granddaughter."
"Sure." Kasey shrugged dumping her backpack and wandering over, cuddling up under Sharon's welcoming arm.
"You have had quite a couple months, huh? What with the leg, your Dad, your Mom."
She felt Kasey shrug as she ran some fingers through her hair. It seemed strange thinking about it like that.
"I guess. But I mean, everyone has." she rationalised genuinely.
"Yeah, but you're the one sat here with me, doll." Sharon squeezed her as Kasey laughed. "You coping with it all?"
"Yeah. Things are much better now. Almost, I dunno, normal again. Feels kinda like a new page, you know?"
"Well I'm happy to hear that. And I'm assuming by the way you drive my daughter up the wall that things are back to normality there."
"Hey she drives me just as crazy." Kasey defended herself before her mouth dropped back into a wistful smile as she thought about how close they had come to losing that. "I'm just glad she's here to be able to do it."
Sharon looked down at her head, seeing her deep stare into her fingernails. She kissed her head softly, prompting a flicker of a bigger smile.
"Well I think as much as your Mom pretends she hates it, I'm pretty sure it makes her happy you're yourself again. She was pretty worried about you, you know."
Kasey looked up, momentarily surprised but it didn't last long. Things had almost returned so routine that some of their exchanges had become distant memories, either by choice or time.
"Yeah, I think I could have done stuff better."
"Ah gal, we all make mistakes. It's how we learn from them that's important - and if you ask me, what I've seen in the way you've handled things the time I've been here, school management aside, I'd say you learned from them. I mean the Class A pain in the butt aside, but then if that ever changed I think your mom would be concerned, and so would I." she teased her with a chuckle.
"So do you think I should annoy her more or...?" Kasey with a mockingly suggestive frown as Sharon shook her lightly again, Mariana entering.
"And there's my other star grandaughter. Why don't you come join our little girls club here? The drinks service is terrible but the company ain't bad." Sharon patted the other side of her as Mariana sat down with a humph.
"This stupid present for Moms is driving me crazy." she began, unable to even pretend she had anything else on her mind. It was her sole aim and obsession.
"You still not thought of anything?" Kasey asked, slightly surprised at how late this was going on.
"I tried writing a poem."
Kasey's eyed widened, remembering Mariana's last attempt at poetry and trying to think of an appropriate comment. Mariana saved her the response but as a result needed an even tougher answer.
"Kasey you're all literary, can you help me?" she sighed.
Ugh. Poetry. Kasey thought. It had always been the one element of English she hated.
"I can look it over." she sighed, sharing a mutual look of sympathy with Sharon.
Mariana instantly sprung up and reached into her bag, tossing her a scribbled and well worn piece of paper.
"Moms." She read.
"See you went for the deep title." She chuckled before seeing the look on Mariana's face and quickly swapped her tone. "I mean it. I mean, what does Moms really mean? There's layers of -"
"Kasey just put me out of my misery. Please." she grumbled with a wince as Kasey cleared her throat and continued.
"Like wingéd albatrosses atop a crashing sea, your arms are like the span of feathers and heart like the...sun"
Kasey read, her voice drifting and her tone unable to hide her true feelings. She paused at the end of the first line.
"It's a little...wordy isn't it? For an opening line I mean?" she liked to Mariana's disheartened grimace.
"Your mom once wrote a poem that was chosen to be read at a school assembly you know." Sharon broke the awkwardness, nostalgically.
"Seriously?"
"Yep. Even got us called to the Principal's Office."
"The Principal's Office?" Mariana asked confused. "She was in trouble for it?"
"Oh yeah." Sharon nodded.
"Why, was she not meant to read it or..."
"Oh no, it was a stand out entry in her class so she was nominated for a prize."
"So what was she in trouble for?"
"Well the poem itself, to her teacher at least, was about an iron fisted dragon called Hobble that ravaged and dominated over a boat town. Foul breath, piercing glare, dictatorial tendencies, the usual."
"And?"
"Well it turned out that the iron-fisted Ms Abigail "Hobble" Winchester, the School Principal whose long standing nickname was due to her limp and cane, wasn't one of the people in the hall who descended into laughter as it was read out."
"Oh my God, Mom! That is amazing."
"Boy was I glad Frank was there to be the disciplinarian because I could barely keep a straight face."
"Did she get in serious trouble?"
"Not enough to wipe her smirk off. She made a pretty pathetic plea of ignorance that in the end couldn't be disproved. That girl." Sharon reminisced. "But hey now, don't you be trying anything like that. You may get away with it with Stefanie but I'd be surprised if your vice principal saw the funny side."
"Well it sucks I can't ask Mom's help then." Mariana rolled the conversation back round as they rounded off their chuckles at Stef's hidden talents - and trouble making.
"Maybe you're aiming too specific, Mari. A simple song may be easier to write." Kasey replied, with genuine kindness.
"Hey!" Sharon clapped. "You know, I remember when Frank and I got married, he just chose a song - one that reminded him of me and it was the sweetest thing."
"Isn't that a little lazy?" She asked, scrunching up her nose.
"I don't think so. Not if it's something deep and meaningful. I think the thought behind it is the important thing." Kasey assured her placing a hand on her knee.
Mariana nodded with a big smile, feeling somewhat lighter after the advice.
"You want this back?" Kasey asked holding the paper over.
"Uhm, yeah." Mariana pulled it off her before ripping it up. "Maybe it's time I give up this poetry dream." She teased herself, Kasey glad she was finally seeing the lighter side of life after several weeks of self-inflicted condemnation.
They were interrupted from a shared smile as Stef and Lena came out of the kitchen, Simon walking close behind. None of the parties looked happy.
"Well we'll see you at the courthouse then, I guess." Stef spoke, her tone informative and certainly not happy.
"Right. And look, I am sorry again. I really, really wish there was some other way we could go about this. It's just the only advice I can give."
"We appreciate your help, Simon, honestly." Lena assured him. "It's just all a little sensitive, as you can imagine."
"I understand. It's a tough case."
"Yeah, well we're struggling to think of it as a case and more as our daughter." Stef added, not quite bitterly, but clearly with some level of resentment at the situation they were in. Simon looked awkwardly to Lena who tried to rescue it with a smile. "I'll see you out." She showed him to the door as Stef wiped her face with her palms.
"I take it that didn't go so well?" Sharon asked once he had left.
Stef raised her eyebrows, looking at Lena. They both looked like the talk had taken the best out of them. Lena shrugged towards her, giving silent consent.
"Callie did say to us she doesn't mind if we tell you guys, but I don't want you to make a big deal about it." Stef warned, looking over to them, hands on her hips. The three family members on the couch all nodded, a mixture of concern and bracing on their faces.
"It looks as if Simon thinks the case is more likely to go to trial if Callie says the sex was consensual."
"What? If she lies?" Kasey asked immediately. "The bas- idiot..." She smoothed over on Lena's cue, "rapes her and she has to say she wanted it for him to go to prison?"
"It's a messed up system." Stef sighed. "Poor kid." She sat down on the seat across from the others.
"How is she doing?" Mariana asked, her eyes hung low with sympathy.
"She's a brave girl, I think she just needs some time to think. Just be kind to her, OK? Be there to talk if she needs to, but don't push. She doesn't need pressure from us, just love." Stef patted her knee and threw an assertive glance at Kasey, even though she knew she would understand.
"OK - I need to get a start on dinner." Lena moved through to the other room.
"Right, and you Dad will be arriving." Stef checked her watch.
"Best hobble off then, Mom." Kasey commented, straight faced but with a clear dig attached as Sharon clipped her knee with the magazine.
Stef looked momentarily confused before seeing Mariana smirk and quickly racked her head for the keywords.
"OK, I don't even wanna know which high school trouble story that's of reference to..." She suddenly hit back as the wheels clicked into place and Sharon raised her palms defensively.
"Wait, there's more than one?" Mariana giggled as Stef shook her head and squinted at a defensive Sharon.
"There's a couple, but do as I say, not as I do! Whichever it was. I'll show no mercy for you not learning from my mistakes." Stef warned, shaking her head but joining in the gentle laughter as she swept off to leave.
"Well I guess I better go trawl iTunes." Mariana flashed her eyebrows up in a secret signal before giving Sharon a kiss and squeezing Kasey's leg affectionately, Stef too now having disappeared.
"Oh! Before I forget!" Sharon sat up and moved over to a small pile of belongings she had at the bottom of the couch. "This came for you today. I'm assuming it's wedding stuff but I didn't want to give it to your Mom in case it was a surprise.
"Oh! It'll be the Order booklets. Thank God! I was worried they weren't coming." She ripped open the box and pulled one out, her heart immediately diving down.
"Everything OK?" Sharon asked, Kasey's face clearly mirroring the dread in her gut. "Uhm...yeah. I just want to keep them a surprise!" She laughed, quickly shoving it into the box. I'm gonna be doing something cool with them and don't want to give it away." She gulped, closing the box as firmly closed as she could. "I'll be downstairs!" She ran off before Sharon could comment any further
Callie lay awake, counting clock ticks for another hour. How did she go from so confident to so defeated in such little time? She couldn't take these bursts of encouragement coming only to be slammed down again and again. It seemed like an endless battle of wanting to surrender to the comfort but missing the days when her armour prevented her from feeling the pain of it all.
Unable to stand her ceiling any longer, she climbed out of bed and headed down to the kitchen. It had been a long time since she had done this alone, but then her solo fears hadn't bothered her much in the last few weeks.
She filled her glass up and sat at the table, noticing a faint light coming from the hall. She check the clock. It was 2am - why was Kasey still up now?
She moved off the table to explore, wondering if the company may do her good.
She pushed open Kasey's door and slowly edge down the stairs, Kasey was lurched over two boxes and surrounded by clippings of paper.
"What are you - "
"Holy crap, Callie!" Kasey leaped off the floor. "I thought you were my Mom."
She sat back down, exhaling deeply.
"Sorry" she replied, her voice husky from the complete silence she'd been in over the last few hours.
"What are you doing though?" She took a seat on Kasey's bed.
"I sorta made a bit of a mess of the Order of Ceremony orders. Trying to fix it before anyone finds out."
Callie picked up one of the small booklets before breaking into a laugh.
"'Congratulations Mrs and Mrs Fadosteram'?" She looked over it to Kasey.
"Lena's gonna love those."
"Tell me about it!" Kasey moaned. "Mom and I were goofing around the other night and I had to send them off so fast I forgot to change it back. This is already the second batch and we don't have time to get new ones. Ugh!" She flapped her head back against her bed. "She's gonna kill us if she finds out."
"So, what? you're doing them by hand?" She picked up one of the completed ones, Kasey sitting back up.
"Well, I figured with the old ones that had the typo elsewhere, I've just cut the right line out, put a nice bit of coloured paper behind it and it just looks like a pretty sweet customisation." She grinned proudly, but still with a hint of nervous it wouldn't be enough to pull it off.
"Crafty in more ways than one. Need a hand?" She sighed, slipping down onto the floor.
"You not need to get some sleep?" She asked, handing her a bundle.
Callie flicked her eyebrow up. If only it were that simple.
"I don't think I'll be getting much sleeping done to be honest." She replied.
Kasey studied her as she got hard into the work, seeing the look of stress and sadness in her face. Trying not to put her on the spot, she quickly shook her head down to carry on with her own.
"Mom told us what Simon said. I'm assuming it sucks as bad as it sounds?" She handed her some scissors.
Callie nodded, unsure of how much she wanted to divulge.
"Look we don't have to talk about it." Kasey assured her. "I just want you to know you can, if you want to, that is. I'm not gonna try and sway you. Just listen."
Callie looked up, genuinely grateful. As much as the world was determined to prove her otherwise, some things really had changed in her fortune. A few more moments of silence fell before Callie finally picked it up.
"I just don't understand why I am letting it get to me." She remarked, her voice tired. "I was never meant to be here anyway, it's all just extra - and that's why I agreed to do it. You know, I wouldn't lose anything more."
Kasey looked up, patiently waiting for her to continue.
"And now I guess it just feels like I do have created something new to lose by doing it. I mean, what? I have to choose between being called a liar or actually being a liar?"
Kasey mulled it over, both of them fiddling away with their paper and card.
"Well maybe this means that getting justice isn't what it is you want from this. Maybe it's more just to be heard." Kasey shrugged.
"I mean, people like him are going to cheat and slither their way through the world regardless. He's a coward. Maybe you gotta figure out what's more important to you. Being the one who catches him out for that, or just him knowing that you're brave enough to stand up to him at all."
Callie now paused to think, chewing on her bottom lip as she folded and pasted away.
"There's gotta be some consolation knowing he's shitting himself right now, even if it may be shortlived." Kasey added, hoping it may act as some relief.
"You think he cares?" She responded immediately. It was bitter but there was a hint of a question rather than a complete surrender.
"I think he went to a lot of trouble to try and keep you under his control. He didn't want this to get out. If he knew he was going to get off with it he wouldn't have been playing the power games." Kasey replied honestly, bundling up another finished pile.
Callie gulped down the words along with all of her other thoughts, all the other opinions until eventually she looked up again.
"What would you do?" She asked plainly, almost more out of curiosity but part of her maybe still hoping for an answer.
The question stopped Kasey in her tracks. How could she even begin to answer that?
She put her latest booklet down and shrugged, taking a moment to try and find the phrasing.
"I'm not dealing with what you are Callie. I'd like to think I'd do whatever it took to teach the bastard a lesson - but I can do that, because in that scenario I'm thinking I actually teach him one."
She slowed down her thoughts and thought back to the lessons she'd learned over the last few weeks. Not just from her own experiences, but all of the things she'd learned from Callie and learned from Jude. These kids from such a different world who even at their age possessed maturity that she couldn't even imagine having. She thought about the impact Jude's reaction to her bullying of Blake had and how that had stayed more firmly in her mind than any of the detentions. She thought about the haunted look on Mariana's face when she saw what her actions had caused and compared it to the much lesser threat of when Stef and Lena had explained her punishment to her.
"I think sometimes you can learn just as much from seeing the effect of your actions on someone than from a punishment. But I guess that working depends on how much of a lowlife he is."
Callie stayed silent at the words but committed each one to memory.
She shrugged her arms up, wondering how stupid and simplistic the advice must have sounded. "I dunno, I'd probably still just flip him off slash his tyres." She joked, trying to break the awkward intensity.
Callie smiled biting her lip and flicked the card between her fingers.
"Do you want me to come tomorrow?" Kasey asked earnestly. "Moms don't want us to go, but I'm happy to ignore them."
Callie looked hard at her face. Did she? She wondered if she may need any confidence she could get, and right now filling the courtroom with as many faces who she knew believed her did seem like an attractive option.
"I don't want to get you in trouble, but I don't mind if you're there." She shrugged, non-committal. "It certainly wouldn't throw me off any more than other people in the room."
Kasey nodded, it didn't mean she would go but she felt better knowing she had the green light. She couldn't face the idea of that scumbag thinking that he had more support than Callie did.
Callie just had time for a grateful smile before they were both distracted by approaching footsteps. They quickly bundled the booklets up into the box and threw a jacket over it, trying desperately to hide their evidence.
Next Chapter Preview: Callie's pre-trial takes place. Kasey and Stef try to exert power over Liam and Lena and Stef try and give Callie some last minute advice:
"But I think the most important thing you have to remember is that...the person who matters most in this is you. What you feel you can stand up and say you did what you needed to do for yourself."
Callie looked down to her feet and gnawed gently on her lip.
"Now there's no wrong decision, that's important too. It's not like this is a test and we all know the answer that you don't."