Ages:

Melinda - 38
Ned - 17
Katie - 14

Melinda was examining a teapot when the chimes rang on the front door. She glanced up about to recite her usual getting to a customer only to see her daughter slump into the chair beside hers and pull out her algebra textbook. She had almost forgotten that it was Wednesday, the day Jim dropped Katie off from dance at six on his way home like he always did so that she'd have a helping hand since Delia was working an open house tonight.

"Hey sweetie," Melinda turned the pot slowly, making sure there were no cracks or chips before settling on a price. "How was school and dance practice?"

Her daughter shrugged, leaning back into the chair. She fussed with her dance bag, pushing it under her chair as she grabbed for her backpack again. She grabbed her notebook next, pulling the pen from the spiral and writing her name at the top of the blank page. That was unlike her.

"It was normal," Katie replied, leaning forward to begin her assignment. Her brow furrowed as she wrote down an equation, and she turned to look at her mom. "I'm a little stressed because I was assigned a book project and I have this big math test coming up. Plus my chemistry teacher let us know there is this upcoming lab next week that is worth half our grade so that's not gonna be fun. It's just a lot of stuff at once."

Melinda knew that wasn't the real reason. Katie loved when she was challenged in school. It was one of the reasons she'd decided to take the two upperclassmen classes she'd qualified for with her test scores. It would open up the possibilities to earn college credit during her junior and senior years of high school. But maybe it was the math. Or Henry?

"Lots of math then?" She asked, saving her inventory spreadsheet and closing her laptop.

Her daughter was going to have her full attention. Why was she upset? "Yeah, but it's mostly just a lot of review for the test coming up," Katie sighed and fiddled with her locket, twisting it in her fingers as she looked over her notes.

"Then what's wrong?" She turned her chair, leveling her glance with her.

"I just had a bad day. Am I not allowed to have a bad day?" Katie swooped her hair to the side and sighed, throwing her pen down. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap. It's just... I think that Ned said something to Henry or maybe he saw me talking to Mrs. Abrams in the library... but he's been asking me all these questions about ghosts and I don't know. I just never thought Ned would be that stupid to tell anyone about what we can do."

Melinda was going to kill that kid. Truly. He could be such an asshole.

She slid her chair over and pressed a kiss to her daughter's forehead, pulling her hair back and beginning to braid it. It wasn't long before she finished, using the ponytail she kept on her wrist. "Baby," she turned to Katie and saw the tears that had collected in her daughter's eyes. "Oh... what did he say?"

"I don't know. All Henry said was that Ned had mentioned that weird stuff happened at the house when he'd mentioned weird stuff happened at the store the last time he was here. And when I tried to explain in our usual spirits linger around their old things from estate sales Henry just made fun of me," she sighed, letting two big tears roll down her cheeks. "And when I went to confront Ned about it, he was with his friends and when they called me a nutcase Ned just stood there and laughed. I thought he was better than that..."

At fourteen, Katie was still in her awkward stage, after a particularly big growth spurt that left her skinnier than before with longer legs. And it most definitely didn't help that she was in love with Ned, who was a senior in high school when she had a boyfriend, but Melinda had thought she'd grown out of that.

It was today when she saw the child in her daughter again. The tears burst forth like water from a dam, spilling down her face. Her chin trembled as Melinda pulled her in, pressing a silent kiss to her forehead. She held her teenager in her arms as though she were a toddler.

"How about we close up early, go have a chat with Ned, and then go see a movie?" She suggested." You can study later."

"Okay," Katie whispered, tucking her head into her chest. "Can we stop and get all of the best snacks from the store?"

Melinda felt her daughter's head perk up, a grin stretched from ear to ear. "That sounds like a great plan," she said, "Now where is Ned? I know you know."

"He's probably over at Sammy's." Katie said and packed her school things away, grabbing her backpack and dance bag before straightening out her clothes. "He usually meets up with his friends from the basketball team to go there before practice but we should hurry though. They'll be leaving soon."

Ned Banks was gonna get it. That much was sure in her mind. Her daughter stayed behind in the car when she noticed that Henry was with them in the window, but Melinda marched up right to where Ned was seated.

Melinda was careful about what she wanted to say, mostly because didn't want to possibly make things worse. Henry was Katie's boyfriend after all.

"Hi, Mrs. Clancy," the kid said, looking a bit frightened. Good. "What brings you by?"

"Hi, Henry, but don't fret. I'm not here for you," she said, standing in front of the booth her eyes leveled on Delia's son. "Can I have a word with you? In private."

Ned turned his head then, shocked to see her here, but moved to stand up. "Did I do something wrong?" If he was going to play dumb then she was going to play rough. Especially for Katie's sake. She grabbed him by his arm and yanked him outside. "What is your problem? What the hell did I do?"

"What don't you do?" She asked. "You need to be more careful with what you say to Henry for Katie's sake, but not only that, you need to control your stupid friends and how they treat my kid. Or you'll have to deal with way worse than this."

"That was Dev-"

"I don't care what stupid friend of yours said whatever they said to her. She didn't even really tell me about that part of it. All I know is that you told her boyfriend something about ghosts. Are you that stupid if something like that got out it could ruin not only her life but her siblings' lives too? Maybe even mine and Jim's too. Did you think of that?" Melinda's anger took over her a little more than she wanted to, but there was nothing he could do about that now. "You didn't even try and stand up for her, did you? You just let them belittle and beat her down because that was easier for your social life, right? That's not okay with me. It seems like every day Katie comes home she has some new story about how you were the worst person in the world." She paused, biting her tongue at a more gruesome phrase.

"That's not my fault," Ned muttered, running his hand through his hair. "Do you want me to make Henry break up with her and date her? She's just a stupid kid with a crush." He paused, glancing over at the girl who'd been on his lap before, winking at her. "She'll get over me one day. There's nothing I can do until then."

She rolled her eyes at him. "You know that's not what I was talking about. Why can't you just be nice and look out for her?" She stepped closer, her finger pressing into him again. "Did you ever have a crush on someone at that age? You'll do just about anything to get their attention, right? And that's exactly what Katie does. Give her a break."

"I still don't get why I am getting bitched at," Ned sighed.

"Stop trying to be cool because your friends are here." She said, hinting at the ghost topic without saying anything. "You're a good kid and your mom raised you to act better, so if I hear that you or your friends say one more thing about my kids... you're not only going to have to deal with me. Trust on that."

"Yeah, whatever Mel. Send big scary Jim after me." He muttered, turning on his heel. Ned sat back at the booth, earning hoots and hollers from his buddies. "Like that will work."

"Keep talking your ass off kid," Melinda said, going back to her car. "Let's go shopping for goodies. What are you thinking for snacks?"

"Gummy worms!" Katie cheered, her mind currently running through a list of all her favorite candies. "And Reese's! And we have to get gummy bears too. I love gummy bears."

Melinda couldn't help but grin at her daughter's enthusiasm. It reminded her too much of her husband and his love for candy. "Then if we're getting two types of gummies then we have to get your dad his sharks," she laughed, grabbing a hold of her hand as they went to cross the street.

"Well duh," Katie said, twirling around in spins with her mother's arm. "Dad would never forgive us if we didn't."

She chuckled. "Very true." Her daughter knew her father to a tee, just like she did. "Now have you decided on a movie?"