"So how was school?" Callie asked Jude as she picked him up after lunch. She had had an easy morning for she had taken the day off from work. San Diego schools had a teacher's conference after lunch and so every school let off early. Callie woke up at nine thirty like she usually did but didn't leave for work. Instead she had a lazy morning and then headed to school for Jude.
"Good." Jude answered. "I got to miss History today." He said happily, always hating that subject. But they gave us extra homework." He added with a sigh.
Callie laughed at him, always happy when he was just a kid without a care in the world. She was able to provide for him but she knew that it was far from a lavish life. Jude still had to be careful about letting anyone know that they had no parents and Callie had to be careful not to get into trouble for she was all that Jude had left. "Don't worry baby, I'll help you." She said.
"You know, you could just do it for me." Jude suggested hopefully. "You'll finish in like a half hour and we could have the whole weekend free." He offered.
"Not a chance." Callie ruffled his hair playfully. She was always determined to make Jude do his own work. He had to learn these things for she wouldn't always be able to do it for him.
"You suck." Jude complained good-naturedly just like a typical nine year old would when he didn't get his way.
"How about lunch and then some ice-cream instead." Callie offered. It was a special day and deserved a special treat. "Then maybe we can play our game."
"Deal." Jude agreed, happy with his consolation prize as the two skipped off towards the dairy section of the grocery store where Callie often took Jude for an ice-cream.
"Okay his name is Charles and his is a billionaire." Jude said later that evening, about a random man in a grey suit who had just come out of one of the houses.
This was a game they often played. Callie had started it when they were first living on the streets as a way to keep Jude's hopes up. They would pick random people and make up their lives or they would pick a random house and make up stories about the people inside. Sometimes they would try to guess what the house looked like from the inside or what they would change about the house to make it their own.
"What does he do?" Callie questioned, studying the man, trying to see if Jude's explanations fit.
"Um, he's one of those house selling guys." Jude replied, watching the man lock up his house and walk down his driveway.
"A realtor?" Callie confirmed.
"Yeah." Jude replied. "And he has a pool in his back yard." Jude decided.
"Family?" Callie questioned, observing the guy as they walked along.
But before Jude could answer the man climbed into a car parked on the street and disappeared. "Your turn." Jude said instead as he searched around for a person or house for Callie.
"Him." Jude finally decided, pointing to a boy playing basketball in his driveway.
"His name's Antonio." Callie said with a Mexican accent as the boy shot a basket from quite a distance without it even hitting the backboard. "He's going to win gold at the Olympics one day." She said easily after watching him.
"Are the gold medals real gold?" Jude questioned curiously, momentarily forgetting their game.
"Beats me." Callie shrugged as something caught her eye. The solar cooker girl from the fair walked out of the house and Callie's eyes nearly bugged out. She grabbed Jude by the hand and dragged him behind a car and watched.
"What are you doing?" Jude asked in confusion, having nearly lost his balance.
"Shh." Callie snapped without even looking at her bother as she watched the boy and girl.
"Mama's almost home and she said to start dinner." The girl ordered before turning around and walking back inside. The boy just shook his head as he tossed the ball aside and followed his sister.
"Who are they?" Jude questioned, realizing that whoever these people were; they were not just strangers to his sister.
"No-one." Callie answered, now observing the house that Stef probably lived in. "I'm just looking." She said as a car drove up and the same curly haired woman from the fair climbed out and headed inside. "Come on." Callie said, determined to leave before she was spotted by anyone; especially Stef.
Stef came back home from work that night with the tupperware box still in her hand as she put it into the fridge.
"What happened?" Lena questioned, wondering if Stef had been right about the girl being insulted.
"Wasn't there today." Stef answered. "My delivery boy said she didn't come in at all."
"Sorry honey." Lena answered, knowing that Stef was upset about it. When the woman's heart attached to something, it went all in and Lena knew that it hurt sometimes.
"I did learn her name though; Callie." Stef said with a smile. "She must be sixteen; seventeen tops. There's no way she's eighteen. Must have dropped out of school."
"Poor kid." Lena said sadly, always hating the fact that kids were allowed to drop out after sixteen. She couldn't understand why anyone would say it was acceptable. Don't give them that option and at least half the dropouts would finish high school.
"I just wish I knew more about her." Stef sighed exasperatedly. "I know she needs help but I don't want to push too hard. If I scare her away then I may never get the change to find out what she needs."
"Patience." Lena offered gently with a small smirk.
"Because that's always been my strong suit." Stef replied sarcastically as they both laughed, knowing just how little of that Stef actually had.
On Saturday Callie had to make up for the day she'd missed and so she asked her roommate Debbie to watch Jude. Debbie was older than Callie by two years and she was just waiting to turn eighteen so that she could stop hiding all the time. She sometimes watched Jude for Callie as she never worked during the day. Their night job was all she had and she usually spent her days hanging out with friends getting high.
Debbie sat on the living room couch with a can of beer watching some silly TV show while Jude was trying hard to get his math homework done. Callie had made him promise to try and she'd correct it when she got back. But Jude was struggling miserably and it didn't help that the TV was way too loud and the work was just too hard and uninteresting.
Debbie's phone pulled Jude out of his misery and he looked up as she answered. He listened quietly as Debbie talked to someone about plans to go out.
"We'd have to leave now if we want to get there by four." Debbie said into the phone. "Well I can be ready in like ten minutes." She covered the mouthpiece with her free hand before turning to Jude. "You'll be okay on your own till Callie gets back right?" She questioned in more of a statement form.
"Sure." Jude answered, not really caring anymore. This was the worst Saturday ever so she wasn't going to help anyway.
"Great." Debbie said before heading to her room, her concentration back on her phone.
Twenty minutes later Debbie was gone. The TV was finally off and Jude could concentrate just a little bit more on his math homework. He managed to finish seven of the fifteen problems on his sheet but after that he was just too fed up to go on. He was bored and restless and he needed to do something besides sit in this apartment. Grabbing his shoes Jude headed outside, planning to just walk around for a bit before going back to his math. But suddenly Jude had another idea - Callie still had another three hours of work left and so he headed up town towards the fancier part of town to the house they had visited the day before.