FROZEN: A HANNA MARIN STORY
CHAPTER FIVE: CALEB RIVERS
It's the middle of the night and Caleb Rivers, a seventeen year old foster child has run away from this foster home and has been living in the school for a while now in private. He doesn't want to go back to his foster family because of different reasons so he's been crashing there at the school. He's literally gotten away with murder, until tonight when the silent alarms went off and the cops arrested him. As he was handcuffed to a bench, he notices someone else next to him. Handcuffed just like him, he looks at this girl sitting next to him. "What did you do, steal some lip gloss?" he asks joking around with her, she looks at him with almost an evil stare. "For your information the cops grabbed me up from the park, I was sleeping on a bench," she tells Caleb then looks him over. "What are you in for, did you steal a play boy or something?" Caleb gives her a second glance over, he notices her strawberry blonde hair into a messy bun on the top of her head, her hazel eyes hiding under her side swept bangs, and the fingerless gloves she was wearing with her jeans and holey tee shirt.
"Actually, I was crashing in my school," he admits to her. "So we're both public sleepers," she tells him, "I don't see any trouble in that," she raises her voice a little to get the attention from the cops. "Your a little trouble maker, aren't you?" He asks looking at her, watching the cops around them focused on other things. "Sometimes, it's a gift," she tells him smirking. A police officer walks back to the both of them, "Ms. Cameron, we're letting you go with a warning, the next time we find you in the park, library, church or any other public place, your not going to be so lucky," before he un-cuffs her, he looks at Caleb. "Mr. Rivers' we talked to the principal, he's doing the same for you, you both are extremely lucky we're being generous with our get out of jail free cards tonight," he finish telling them and then uncuffs them from the bench.
After walking out of the police station Caleb walks towards this mystery girl. "Are you hungry? I was thinking I can treat you to something to eat," she stops in her tracks and turns around, looks him over. "And why should I do that?" She holds onto the strap of her bag, watching him basically doing the same. "Because i'm trying to be nice and you seem like a person i'd like to know," he smiles at her, she half smiles. "I don't even know your name," she states again, smiling. "I'm Caleb, can I get to know you?" He asks. "Roan, sure" she asks. They walk to the nearest place that's either iHop or open all night, they found a 24 hour Diner. After ordering drinks and something to eat, Caleb looked at her. "So what's your story? Mommy and daddy said no to getting you a new car and you decided to run away?" Roan looks at him with disgust while stirring her straw in her drink. "It's not suburban like that, what about you, did your mommy and daddy even notice you were gone?" She asks teasing him right back. He gives her almost the same look she gave him. "No, seriously, why were you sleeping in the park?" He asks, she stops stirring and looks him square in the eye. "You tell me your sad story first..."
He looks at her, moves the salt and pepper in front of him and opening and closes them while he's talking to her. "My parents dumped me to the state, i've been living in the foster system for the past couple of years. All they want are the checks," he tells her. She stops him from opening the salt again, places her hand on his, "Sorry," she looks down, then begins to tell him. "I needed to get away from my mother's new husband, he's been hitting on me and sneaking into my room nights at a time, so a month ago I left. Didn't have an exact plan, so here I am," she looks at him. "Did he ever?" She stops tears from coming out, "No, I wouldn't let him, but it's not like my mom would believe me," she looks Caleb in the eyes, "it's like I was invisible, she's been on and off drugs since my dad left, I was thinking about looking for him, but he never..." she stops their conversation when the food arrives. They begin to eat their meals.
After eating, they stayed sitting, the place was barely empty at that time of the night and it wasn't like either of them had a place to sleep or stay. Caleb paid for their meal with some of his cell phone business money. They both got to know each other a lot better, he looks at her again. "Have you tried calling your dad?" She looks away from him, not really want to talk about that. "He's been out of my life for the past 10 years, if he wanted to be in my life, he would have tried..." she looks at Caleb, "Besides why haven't you tried looking for yours?" She asks, "I don't know where they are, I don't even have one clue on where to start looking," he tells her. "Besides your the one who mentioned they found an address for a parent," he says throwing that in her face. "Your right, but its an hour bus ride to Brook Haven in the nice part of town," she tells him, he gets confused. "How would you...?" He asks. She looks at him. "I went there once, stood outside his house for like 15 minutes, watched him with his new family, he was happy without me," she tells him.
"What if I went with you?" He asks her, she looks at him. "Would you talk to him then? I seriously think you need to try before giving up, if I knew where either of my parents were, I wouldn't give up," she gives into Caleb. She knew deep down that he was right. "Sure," after agreeing they went to the bus station got a ticket for the next ride to Brook Haven. When they arrived there Roan got a little nervous, it was seven in the morning now and wasn't even sure if he was going to be home, on a saturday. Before she got on the bus, she went to the bathroom and brushed her hair down and put it on the right side. They both stood in front of the house in the street, Caleb looks at her. "You got this," he tells her. She leaves her bag by Caleb and walks to the front door, when she gets to the doorstep she takes a deep breath and then knocks on the door. She hears a girls voice, "I got it," then a teenage girl about three years younger than her opens the door. "H-Hi, i'm looking for Blake Cameron," Roan tells this girl. "Dad, there's someone at the door for you," she yells for Blake to hear.
Blake walks to the door, the girl walks away, when he gets there he looks at Roan and takes a moment, neither one of them speaking. Tears start spilling out his eyes, "Roan," he goes in to hug her, she hugs him back she's crying now, too. "Daddy, I missed you," she tells him, they let go and he wants to lead her in. "One second, can my friend come in, too?" She asks him, looking back at Caleb. "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him," she adds drying her tears. "That's fine," Blake looks at Caleb, who's sitting on the curb on the other side of the street watching. Blake makes a hand motioning Caleb to come in to his house, "Come on in, son," he tells him. Caleb grabs their belongings and walks to the nice house in the suburbs.
After Blake invited them in, he introduced Roan to his wife, Keli, her daughter from her previous marriage, Preya (who answered the door), and her half sister, Fallon. It was hard for him to hear that she ran away but offered her the guest room, after hearing about Caleb and him wanting to find his family, he hired a private investigator to search for them. He was even generous and let Caleb stay with him, on the couch of course, but that didn't stop Caleb and Roan from falling in love. After quickly getting to know each other, they took their time before they had their first kiss, they haven't had sex yet. They were saving that for the right moment. After a few weeks, the investigator found Caleb's mom, they talked on the phone and she even invited him to go to see her in California where she was now staying. He even invited Roan to come, she accepted.
It's the day that Caleb and Roan's plane is leaving, he's in Roan's new room that she's staying in for now. They are sitting on the bed, making out, they stop and look at each other. "I can't believe we're even dating," she looks at him, "when I first met you I thought you were a bum," she tells him smiling, he looks at her, "I thought you were a privileged suburban girl," he laughs it off, she does too. "Look at us now," he adds. "We found our parents, we have the lives we were meant to have," he tells her. "I'm glad i'm going with you," she kisses him. Blake knocks on the open door and opens it further, walking, he looks at them sitting on her bed. "Roan, can I talk to you in my private?" He asks her, she looks at him. "You can tell me in front of Caleb," she tells her father. "It's serious," he tells his daughter. "I'm serious," she stands up and walks closer to him. "It's about your mother, I just a recieved a phone call, she was admitted into the hospital in Rosewood last night, she died this morning," as Blake tells Roan this, tears form in her eyes, Caleb rushes off the bed and into her arms, she holds on to him and the tears start falling out. She might have hated the choices her mother made but she always loved her. Caleb looks at her, "I can't go," she lets them fall. "I know," is all he says. Roan then turns and hugs her father, he hugs her back.
Roan is a tough girl but she knew she couldn't stop the tears, Caleb knows now that he couldn't not go to Cali, he needs to see his mother. And he did.