Life soon returned to a sense of normalcy as the fight for ELQ raged on and everything that had been put on hold, dropped to remember Edward, resumed. That morning, Addison stood in the mirror, second guessing every choice. School uniforms didn't leave much space for personal style, but she thought maybe if she changed something, anything, she might just find a group of people who wouldn't avoid sitting with her out of fear of being caught sitting with the freshmen freak. The name had taken hold over snaps and dms and she truly had no idea what she had done. This couldn't be all because she got a solo over Joss or maybe it could. People flocked to Jossyln, she wasn't sure why, but they did.
"Addison Grace Ashton, let's go, we're going to be late." Her mother called up the stairs and she grabbed her bag and left her room, hair in a ponytail, her usual shoes. Nothing had changed. She hated school uniforms. Just one more thing to hate about Madison.
"I'm coming." She said as she came down the stairs and followed her mother into the kitchen. "Are my shoes ok?" She asked second guessing.
"Your shoes are fine. Grab something to eat, we've got to go." Alexis said as she looked for her glasses.
"The counter by the coffee." Ned said amused. Her glasses. She was always losing her glasses.
"I love you. Thank you." Alexis replied, smiling gratefully at him before walking to grab her glasses and put them in her briefcase.
"What about my hair? Is it ok?" Addison asked, running her hand on the top of her head, triple checking there were no missed bumps leading into her ponytail.
"It's perfect. Do you have everything?" Alexis asked, distracted as she tried to hurry them out the door.
"I think I'm going to go change my shoes."
"Stop being weird." Owen told his sister.
"Hey, don't call your sister weird." Ned interjected.
"It was just a joke."
"It's fine. He does it all the time. I'll be right back." It was Owen, it really wasn't that big a deal.
"It's not fine." Alexis directed at Owen and then turned to her daughter. "Addie, your shoes are fine. Your hair is fine. Let's go."
"But my shoes." She insisted.
"What's going on? Why are you so worried about this all of a sudden?" Alexis stopped and looked at Addison, confused.
"Nevermind. We can go." She said as she picked up her backpack, grabbed a banana and headed for the front door.
Alexis looked at Ned, who was sitting at the counter with his coffee and shrugged as Owen followed his sister. "I'll see you later." She said as she went to kiss him quickly. "Love you."
"Love you, too." He said getting up and heading to start his own day. He had a meeting at L&B and then he was meeting with his mother to go through where they stood with the vote for ELQ. His mother was doing a fine job as CEO, but they both agreed that it was time he took back the reins. Especially considering AJs push for Michael. Tracy wouldn't have the votes, but her son would.
Lunch. Addison walked into the cafeteria and looked for a place to sit. Sophie's table was predictably full and just as she thought she might have the courage to approach a few kids from her English class, someone she hadn't met, she thought maybe a junior or senior, approached her.
"Hey, your Owen's little sister right?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"We heard about your audition from Hope. Come eat with us."
"Ok, sure." She was skeptical as she walked with the senior girls to a table in the corner of the lunchroom. She made eye contact with Sophie as she walked past her and shrugged, when Sophie seemed curious as to why she was suddenly being sought out by upperclassmen. Meanwhile, Joss eyed Addison carefully as she began talking with the seniors she was sitting with and then her brother, Morgan, joined the table and Joss wasn't quite sure what to make of what she saw.
"Who invited the freshman to sit with us?" Morgan asked, confused.
"I can go." Addison said, not wanting to cause problems. She knew Michael's brother could be erratic and she also seriously doubted that these seniors were genuine. It seemed too good to be true.
"No, stay. He's being an imbecile," said Hope, a girl she knew from her music class.
"I guess there are worse people to be stuck with." Morgan replied. Looking at Addison, who had no idea she was on a list of hottest freshmen being circulated amongst some of the upperclassmen at Madison. His sister may have thought Addison was a freak, but there was definitely more to her, anyone who looked closely enough could see that.
"Gee, thanks?" Addison quipped as she continued eating her lunch as the students she was sitting with started asking her questions.
"So where'd you learn to sing like that?"
"I just always have. My dad had a career as a singer and my grandmother was an opera singer. It just sort of came naturally I guess."
"Your sister Brook sings, too, right? I think I've heard some of her stuff."
"Yeah. Her mom, Lois, and my dad started L&B Records before he met my mom. Lois is her manager."
"Why aren't you in the school chorus? You could easily have a career, too. You're that good."
"I don't think so. But thanks."
"Well you've definitely got the potential, maybe if you changed your look a bit people might–" Morgan said, noting her plain, draw no attention to me appearance.
"Morgan!" Hope interrupted.
"I should go." Addison said, suddenly uncomfortable with where this was headed as she stood up from the table and grabbed her bag.
"Wait. He just doesn't think before he says things. He doesn't think before he does anything really." Hope said.
"I have math next on the other side of the school anyway. I'll see you in music, Hope." She said as she bolted and went to eat the rest of her lunch in the library. It was easier than spending any energy trying to figure out what Hope's friends could possibly want.
"Joss is right, she freaks out over nothing." Morgan insisted. "She's on the freshman hot list because she has the potential. And with the way her social life is..she should want to talk to us."
"I can't believe that's a thing again this year. Just leave her alone. She's Owen's sister."
"Right and Ashton can do no wrong." Morgan said, slightly annoyed that Owen never seemed to draw negative attention unlike himself.
That afternoon Addison sat in the back of math, trying to go unnoticed, when Mrs. Ryan called on her to offer another possible way to solve for the rate of change in the quadratic they were discussing as review. She was caught off guard, again, because she kept thinking about why Hope's friends wanted to sit with her and that comment Morgan made. She knew she should have worn her hair differently that day, or worn different shoes, anything to stop people from thinking she was this social freak. She didn't even have anything to say when Morgan brought it up, she just bolted. She sat there in class, frozen, trying to remember what they were talking about when Mrs. Ryan continued to put her on the spot.
"We're all waiting for a response, Addison."
"Can you come back to me?"
"Were you paying attention back there? Why don't you switch seats with Joss."
"Sure, I don't mind," Joss said, amused, clearly sucking up and already picking up her stuff.
"No, I'm ok. I just need a minute." She responded, trying to click back into the problem on the board. She knew how to solve it.
"This isn't a choice, Addison." Mrs. Ryan said as Joss tried not to laugh as she approached the back of the classroom.
"Actually, I don't feel so great. May I go to the nurse?" Escape. It was the only way out of embarrassing herself even more. She did have a headache and could she have probably made it through the rest of the day? Yes, but she didn't want to.
"Go ahead. Take the pass."
Alexis sat at her desk in her office across town working on a motion when Sonny walked in. "I don't recall asking you to meet me here."
"We need to talk, Alexis. I tried to grab you at the funeral, but you wouldn't hear it."
"I'm not your attorney, Sonny."
"You were once my friend."
"I was. But that changed the day of the warehouse explosion. The day my unborn daughter almost died. The day my children were almost left without a mother. You know this."
"You know I wasn't responsible for that explosion–"
"No. You never are, are you? But, yet, somehow violence follows you. I almost lost my life twice because of your lifestyle. That was enough. I told you I won't do it again."
"I understand your hesitation, but this isn't about my business."
"What could it possibly be about then?" She asked.
"Morgan. It's about my son." Sonny said.
She looked at him puzzled, but before he could expand, her phone began to ring. "Excuse me, I have to take this. Alexis Davis-Ashton" She stopped Sonny when she saw the school flash on her phone. "Does she have a fever? Ok…Tell her I'll be there soon."
"Something wrong?" He asked as she hung up and reached to gather her belongings.
"That was the nurse at the school. I'm sorry, I need to go pick up Addison. But for the record, I'm still not taking you on as a client again. I hope Morgan is ok."
Alexis drove to the school, but couldn't stop herself from wondering what Sonny meant. What trouble had Morgan found himself in this time? She pushed the thoughts out of her mind as she walked into the main office and saw Addison, sitting there with her stuff, waiting. "You don't feel well, peanut?" She asked as she signed her daughter out for the day.
"What's wrong? The nurse said you don't have a fever." She said as she held her hand to her forehead, confirming for herself.
"I just have a really bad headache."
"The nurse gave you aspirin, sweetie, are you sure that's all it is?" She asked as they walked out of the building and got into the car to drive home.
"I'm sure. The lights at school just make it worse. Thanks for coming to get me. If you have to go back to work, I'll be ok alone." That much was true. The fluorescent school lighting made every headache she had excruciating. Today it wasn't as bad as it normally was, but she couldn't do it. She couldn't handle math and the stares from Joss and Sarah for one more second.
"I can finish up from home. Court adjourned for the day." She said as she looked over at her daughter, head resting against the window. She looked dejected and it tugged at her heart. It was unlike Addison to seek out the school nurse. If it was a headache, it had to be pretty bad, but she suspected it was more.
They walked in the front door and Alexis hugged her daughter and kissed her head. "Go try and get some sleep. That should help. I'll check on you in a little while."
That evening Addison surfaced, in her sweats, and walked into the kitchen as Ned, Alexis, and Owen were finishing up dinner. "How's your head, Adds?" Ned asked.
"Better. Is there any dinner left?" She asked, her appetite having returned as her headache lessened.
"Grab a plate and come join us." Ned responded.
"Did you win today, Owen?" Addison asked, knowing he had a playoff game as the soccer season was starting to come to a close.
"Of course we did. I'm going to go do homework." He said, overly confident, as if it should have been obvious and got up and to bring his plate to the sink. "Glad you feel better."
"Thanks." Addison said as she sat at the table and spooned some pasta on her plate and took her phone out of her pocket. She had a missed message from Cam and had a few myFace notifications.
"Addison?" Alexis asked as her daughter looked up from her phone. "Can you put that away?"
"Oh sure, sorry. I forgot." Addison replied as she put away her phone and ate.
"It's ok, and I'm happy you're feeling better, but Mrs. Ryan emailed us today. She wants us to come in for a meeting." Alexis said, cautiously, not wanting to upset her.
"She what?"
"Do you know why, sweetheart?" Ned asked.
"I have an 83! What is her problem? Why isn't that good enough?"
"Is good enough really how you want to go about this?"
"I'm trying! I really am!"
"If it's your best effort–"
"It is!"
"Then why would she be emailing us? Do you have any idea what this could be about? We'd rather hear it from you first." Ned stated, trying to get her to share. They truly did want to know what was going on and didn't want to walk in blind.
She sighed. "I mean, maybe I don't always have the right answer when she calls on me. I kind of freeze. But she calls on me when I don't even have my hand raised, which makes it worse."
"Ok…" Alexis said, understanding.
"I tried speaking up for myself and asking her to come back to me today. But instead of giving me more time she wanted to move my seat. She said I wasn't paying attention."
"Were you?" Alexis asked.
"I had a headache!" Addison snapped.
"And that's what you think this is about?" Ned was puzzled, concerned. It didn't seem like something that required a meeting. There had to be more.
"I don't really know what else it could be. Honest." She pleaded with her eyes, begging them to drop it.
"You've never not been. We'll let you know what she says and then take it from there." Alexis ran her hand through her daughter's hair, "Ok?" Addison nodded, relieved.
"When are you meeting with her?"
"Tomorrow afternoon."
"You're on my side, right?" She had to be sure. She didn't want her parents to start ganging up on her like everyone else.
"We are always on your side." Alexis assured her.
Later that evening, Alexis emerged from the master bath, ready for bed and went to pick up the file she brought upstairs. She put on her glasses and was just about to climb into bed and review what she needed for tomorrow's trial when Ned walked into the room. "New pajamas?" He asked taking in the sight of her in the lavender silk and lace nightgown and matching robe.
"You always know." She said as he took her in his arms.
"So you thought you'd wear that and get work done? How many times have you reviewed your notes? You're the most prepared attorney on the face of the planet."
"How many times total or just today?" She asked, flirtatiously as he took off her glasses. "Hey I need those."
"I think you need a distraction." He said as he kissed her.
"Well, now that you mention it…" She said as she followed his lead and returned his affection, capturing his lips with her own, escalating his actions as they fell into bed. Before long they were lying on their stomachs, staring in each other's eyes, work forgotten. Distraction achieved.
They kissed softly, "You're so beautiful. You know that?" He whispered and she kissed him again.
"We need more of this." She said as he nodded in agreement and pushed her hair behind her ear.
"What's going through that head of yours?" He could read her and knew there was more behind what she said.
"Do you ever feel like recently we're ships passing in the night. That we only ever see each other when we're heading to or coming home from work, and when we do get to spend time together, it's almost always about our kids?"
"Maybe that's true. I've been preoccupied with L&B and the deadlock with ELQ."
"It's not like I've been around much either. I just don't want to lose this."
"Why do you think we'd lose this?"
"I don't know. There's a lot happening and I guess I don't want to see us take what we have for granted."
"Not possible. Do we need to find a way to spend more time together right now? Absolutely. But I have no intention of letting anything get in the way of what we have. I love you."
"And I love you. So we'll just have to try a little harder. Make more of an effort."
"Agreed. Want to have a late lunch tomorrow, before we head to the school?"
"It's a date."