Callie

"Hey sweetie. How did you do?" Lena asks me as I sit down and accecpt a plate of lasagna.

"Well we made it to the finals-"

"O my gosh! That's great!" I smile when her arms engulf me from behind and nod at Mariana and Jesus for saying congradulations.

"It's no big deal." I try to shrug of the attention.

"No big deal? That's like what? 5,000 dollars in prize money That sounds like a big deal to me." I roll my eyes and notice the slight change in the air when a tall guy enters the room and into the seat next to me. I try not to dwell on the cuts and bruises on his face, but I get struck with the troubled look in his eyes and almost stare at him.

I look at Lena and then back at him, "Um. Who's this?"

She gives a tight smile before saying, "This is Brandon, he's going to be staying with us for a little while."

"Oh ok. Staying with us." I smile and hand him a slice of lasagna. "Nice to meet you."

I can see he has walls protecting his feelings, it's the way his face remains stolid and shows no signs before he speaks again.

"So where did you get her?" There's a pause.

"What?" Lena says softly.

"How'd you get her?" He stabs his food. "The 99 cents store? I mean they have everything." I see Mariana give a small smile, before it vanishes by seeing the look on Lena's face.

"Callie is my partner Stephanie's biological daughter from her previous marriage." I look around and notice someone missing.

"Where is Jude?"

"I dropped him off at Conner's a little while ago, but he said he knows you'll do great." I smile.

"Who's Jude?" Brandon asks

"Jude is my biological son." Lena sighs and smiles.

Jude was decided on when I was 5, Lena wanted to have a baby so bad. After many, supposed, talks, they agreed to go to a sperm bank and get a anymonus donor. Nine months later he was born looking more white than black. They got a donor who was mixed since neither could decide the race it should be. Jude is now 12 with brown and hair and brown eyes; in the summer he gets dark, but it only looks like a really great tan, in the fall and winter he is pale and has a slight tan.

"Hey honey" Lena says, while my mom walks in and they exchange greetings. All the while I didn't notice Brandon watching them intently.

"Hi babies" I nod at my mother.

From the look on his face, Jesus speaks up. "What? No one told you our mom's a cop."

"See this is why he's the only boy that's ever been over."Mariana exagerates. Mom grabs a soda out of the fridge and makes her eyes get wide.

"As it should be."

"So your dykes?" Brandon says bluntly. No one speaks and the silence get uncomfortable, before Jesus speaks.

"They perfer the term people, but yeah. They'e gay." He says matter of factly.

"And she's the real daughter." He points to me and everyone looks down. Mom tries to laugh to shake off the statement, but ultimitley fails to do so.

"And who's this" She directs the question towards Lena. The rest of dinner goes by agonizingly slow, just when I was about to bolt to my room mom decides it's my turn to do the dishes. I give her a pout lip, but she looks on edge already so I do them anyway. Halfway into the finishing, Mom and Lena come back in after a conversation on the porch and call in Brandon.

Lena pats my back."I got the rest of these." I don't argue with her and go to get my guitar out of my car.

Whoever this Brandon kid is, I have a feeling he is a whole diffrent ball game.

xxXxx

Sitting on my bed strumming my guitar helps me calm my head. Who was he? What's his story? I rememeber when Mariana and Jesus got here and all I did was try to figure out why they were here. I mean I was 10, but that didn't stop my curiousity to the point where I made Mariana cry. I shake my head and put the guitar away. Grabbing my headphones, I put on some music and began to read my homework.

A few minutes later, mom walked in and sat in the chair in front of me. I took off the headphones and gave her the floor. She took a big sigh.

"I'm going to need you to step up while Brandon is in this house alright." I nod my head and she starts again. "I don't wanna make a big deal about this, espically with Mariana and Jesus, but between you and me, Brandon was in jail for a little while-" I shake my head to stop her.

"Wait. Then what is he doing in the house." I say incredously.

"He's fine." She smiles to try to calm my nerves. "Lena and I would not have him in the house if he was not and you know that. So I just need you to ah... I don't know" I nod

"M'kay. Alright I'll be sure to.. I don't know as much as I can." I say with a straight face.

She squints her eyes at me, "Are you sure your not Lena's biological daughter?"

"Look I've got so much homework to do and-" I turn around and point to the book I casted aside, "-Moby Dick waits for no one so-" She cuts me off.

"Oh. Which reminds me." She gets up from her seat, "Do you and Wyatt need condoms?:

I groan and put my hand over my eyes, "Oh my god.."

"You and Wyatt are using condoms yea?"

"Yea, um the door is right there." I wave my hand toward the door.

"What? Protect and serve, that's my job" She puts her hands on her hips.

"Mom" I beg and she finally backs off and walk towards the door.

"My little baby's growing up" She comes over and gives me a big kiss on my cheek. I give her a tight smile.

"Get out" I groan, she chuckles before shutting the door behind her. I roll my eyes and grab my phone to put it on the charger and see Wyatt texted me.

Wyatt3: hey. meet in the music room b4 school?

I smile at the idea of something relativly normal tonight.

Yea. Night.

I get on my stomach and enter a world full of whales.

xxXxx

When I have fianlly reached the last chapter of this boring novel, I hear something small drop. I turn my head fast enough to see a a pair of red basketball shorts turn the corner around my room. Slowly, I put down the book and realize Brandon took my phone. I jump off the bed and go into the kitchen to hear the sound of his voice on the phone. He sounded, really concerned.

"Hey. Hey baby girl it's me. Where's your mom?" I hear fast chatter on the other end of the phone.

"Ok. Yeah I'm fine. I promise I'll find you Roni, I just gotta figure out how to get there." He rubs his nose and sighs in relief.

"Ok, keep doing that. I gotta go baby. I love you." For some odd reason my stomach plumets a bit. When he hangs up the phone I contemplate on wether or not to come out of my spot or run back in the room before he notices. I gather my courage and walk into the foyer. His eyes go wide for only a second, before his wall resurfaces.

"Do you make it a habit to steal other people's phones?" I ask and watch as he pushes the phone into my hand and mutters a quick 'sorry' before going back into the living room.

I furrow my eyebrow in confusion. I didn't even get to ask who was on the phone. His girlfriend? The thought of that makes my stomach churn oddly. I click the home button and see that it's midnight, tired and obfuscated, I return to my room and try to get some sleep.

xxXxx

I watch Brandon drink coffee and try to get over the fact that he notices none of us our comfortable and tries to act like it nothing's wrong. The car ride to school is silent and a little awkward, but we've had our fair share of silent car rides. When we get out Lena is the first to speak thanfully, I didn't know what to tell him to do for today.

"Hey Callie! Why don't you show Brandon around, he's starting the day with Timothy's class." She stops Brandon.

"Brandon you have your class schedule. Your going to love Timothy, he's a lot of fun." She tries to say, but he is already walking away with the rest of us.

I watch as he looks the courtyard and stares at the beach witha tiny amount of wonder on his face.

"You go to school here?" I give a short laugh.

"You know that's the most you've ever directly said to me." I give a small smile and he gives me a straight face. I clear my throat and walk around him.

"Yeah um.. so Timothy's room. It's over there, you'll find it ok." I point in the direction behind me. I look down at my phone. "And I got like twenty minutes till class, so I'm gonna go practice." I start to walk away when he stops me with a question.

"Practice for what?" He rushes out and although he's taller than me, I see his walls go down slightly and I soften a little.

"Uh.. band compettion tonight."

"Right." He says and I quickly leave for the music room.

"Alright. See you." I'm almost inside before I hear him call behind me.

"Hey! Wait up!" And he jogs next to me as we hurry to the music room.

xxXxx

I play my solo for tonight while Brandon stares out the window to the ocean again. Out of the corner of my eye, I see him turn around and watch me.

"What is that anyway?" I stop and raise my eyebrow.

"Excuse me?"

"I mean your not in a rock band obviously. So what type of band are you in?"

"Well, if you must know, we are a soft rock band and are actually getting pretty good." He moves his head to the sheet in front of me.

"What's the song?" I feel a little heat come into my cheeks. "Oh. I um... wrote it."

He looks amused. "Ok so what's it about?"

"It's about the night mom and Lena asked if the twins could move in with us." He takes the paper and reads over the lyrics and nods his head.

"Ok so why the guitar solo?"

"Well it summrizes the story without any words." He gives a small chuckle before answering. "How is it about that? It doesn't have anywords" He shrugs. I roll my eyes.

"Just listen, here.." I strum a few strings,".. this is me.." I play two chords, "..these are my moms..." I play them together and add two more chords, "... and this is all of us. Me, moms, Jude, the twins." I stop playing. "Can you see how it just sounds better together."

He nods and looks as if in a trance by something, but he snaps out of it really quick.

"Nice." Yeah I set it down and fix the papers on the stand. "Yeah, but I still feel like there's something missing."

"No. Don't I like it." He comes over and sits in front of me and I shift uncomfortably in my seat.

"Wait, so your moms asked you if Jesus and Mariana could move in with you." I smile and shake my head thinking back to the first time I saw them come through the door.

"Yeah. I figured there was enough to go around ." I shrug my shoulders, but he still looks at me perplexed.

"Enough of what?" I hear the door behind me open, but I don't turn around.

"Everything" I answer plainly and simply that's when I feel a familar arm wrap around my shoulder.

"Hey babe." Wyatt looks down at me in loving eyes, but when he looks back to Brandon something changes in the room.

"Who is this?" I move my hand towards Brandon.

"This is Brandon he is going to be staying with us for a while." Brandon nods at him.

"Welcome to Anchor Beach" Wyatt says, but it sounds restrained so I try to add something to cut the tension.

"Actually he has Timothy first, so if you wanna show him where it is." He nods

"Yea, sure, but we should go now." He leans down and gives me a kiss, something a little more than unacceptable around Brandon. I hear the bell ring overhead and I watch Brandon and Wyatt walk off with there bookbags. As I walk to my first class I can't get Brandon's soft smile out of my head.

xxXxx

Brandon

"Brandon, what would you do if you woke up and suddenly you were living in a nightmare." I look at long enough for the bell to ring and I run out of class. Desparate to find someone who can get me to the metro. I can hear all the whispers said about me as I walk by. 'That's the guy that was in prison', 'Stay away from him', and 'Oo a bad boy'. None of them know me and as I walk to the end of the hallway I have to keep replating that mantra. The courtyard I was standing in earlier is now full of students and most of the their heads keep looking my way. I see one of the Fosters and I jog over to him.

"Hey man." He flinches and looks like something is heavily on his mind. Not my problem right now.

"Um hey? What do you need?" I take a moment of hesitation.

"Do you..a... know where the Metro is from here?" I rub my nose and watch the latino squint his eyes.

"Why? Are you cutti-"

"Look don't go ratting me out ok. Besides I saw something your sister did last night." His eyes spark a bit of curiousity. Before I used Callie's phone last night, I went to use the house phone and only found a small Mariana reaching into a basket and get out a couple of pills that belonged to Jesus.

"I wasn't going to tell them I just wanted to know and I'll tell you, but what did you see last night." I see him try to puff up his chest in manliness. I get close to him and make sure Lena wasn't around.

"She's been taking your pills." Shock registars on his face before it hardens at the information processing.

He points in the direction of the beach. "The Metro is about three blocks from here. Oh and if I were sneaking out of school I would use the back way. Lena's office.." He points to the left ".. looks out to the front of the school." I nod and thank him silently, before heading towards that train.

I walk kind of fast with my head down and I see Wyatt and Callie hugging up on a tree. I make sure she doesn't see me. I jump down the rails to the side walk and I am no longer in distance of seeing from the school. This Callie girl is something else because I hear her question me.

"So.. where are you going?" I hear her struggle to keep up with me.

"I have some stuff I have to take care of." I say hoping to get her to go back to school and resume her ordinary life. It doesn't.

"Stuff to take care of? Like right now?" I roll my eyes.

"It's important." I answer shortly.

"Ok, well you won't be able to take care of it if you end up back in Juvy.I mean my mom's a cop you don't think she can track you down in like a minute flat." I sigh heavily, giving up trying to be nice.

"Can you just mind your own damn business." I snap, "Your whole freaking family"

"Were just trying to help you-"I turn around with my aderenline already on high.

"Just stop it" I whisper hoping to get her to leave, yet it still doesn't work.

I hear her try to again talk to me, but her phone goes off and I hope that someone is calling her to get her away fom me.

"Someone has been calling me from this number all day." She says in fustration. Roni. I quickly grab the phone from her and press answer despite her protest.

"Hey baby girl, it's me what's going on?"

"Daddy caught mommy! He found our stash and-" She talking to fast and I can tell she's crying. I can't understand her.

"Roni what are you saying?" I say in attempt for her to clarify.

"He got her in the-" The phone is snatched away from her and I hear a thud followed by her loud cries. 'Shut up' I hear Dan hiss. "Who is this?" He growls at me.

"Let me talk to Roni." I know he recognizes my voice.

"What the hell?! I put your ass in jail to rot there!-"

"Put her back on the phone." I answer coldly. I hear the line go dead and even more mad than before, I try to call back and Callie is asking me questions.

"Who was that?"The line is now disconnected. The bastard cut the cords. I sigh shakily and hand her the phone back.

"No one" I contiue to walk towards the bus. "I gotta go"

"So who was that? Was that like your girlfriend or something?" I curl my face in disgust.

"No" I breathe.

"Then who was it Brandon? Who was it?" She pushes I turn to fully face her and answer.

"That was my foster sister." We stare at each other for a minute before I start walking again.

"Woah, woah. Then let me call my mom." I feel my heart burst in my chest.

"Stef?" I say increduously.

"Yes! She's a cop! She can help." She persues.

"No cops!" I yelp. She shakes her head.

"She's not like that." I move my head around.

"If you call your mom, she's gonna look in the foster system and see a whole bunch of complaints that my foster father made against going to get me sent back to juvie and Roni and her mom are going to be stuck in that house." I shake my head at the fact I just told her that.

"I gotta go" I answer and walk away form her. I wait and don't hear her follow me, but that was only for a miunte.

xxXxx

The bus is slow and steady. I try to key myself in and listen to the sounds around me. Like a baby crying or the woman on the phone who is obviously in a rush. Those type of things keep my mind off the fact that Callie is sitting here next to me basically on a sucide misson. I really try to ignore the fact that our knees keep brushing together and for some reason I want to put my hand on her leg and squezze it. I look at her out of the corner of my eye and remember today in the music room.

"Wait didn't you have band compettion tonight?" I ask.

I see her stutter, "Oh, yea don't worry about it. There'll others." It's silent again and I can't help but feel guilty that she's missing this big oppertunity because of me. There is a pressing question on her mind that even I can see.

"So what happened?" I look at her, "At the house..." I take a breath and look foward before asnwering.

"Well my foster father caught my foster sister with a wad of cash she had been making over time and he immediatly thought she stole it from him and started beating the crap out of her-"

"Seriously? He hit her?" I knew she had had a sheltered life and parents hitting kids was probably a foreign subject for her.

"Yeah. I mean he used to hit me all the time, which is you know. Whatever. But... when I saw him going after Roni. I just.." I trailed off and tried not to remember the horror on Roni's face after he pushed her down the stairs. "... well I tried to stop him, but he got me down and kicked me in the balls. So I went outside with a bat and smashed the hell out of his precious lexus. The cops came and he told them she fell down the steps and that I went crazy. Nobody seemed to care much about my side of the story."

I looked back at her and saw her face giving me pity.

"Don't" I snapped, she recoiled and looked angry.

"What?" She snapped back.

"Don't look at me like a pity case. I don't need your pity." Her mouth opened and then closed.

"Just because I feel bad doesn't mean I can't pity you." I chuckle darkly and roll my eyes.

"Please there probably hasn't been a day in your life where you've ever been in real-"

"Shut the fuck up!" She hisses, "You don't know a damn about me." I don't let it show, but I'm suprised at her sudden change in demeanor. There isn't possibly something that went really wrong her life. Could it? The bus hissed to a stop, I got up and she scurried after me still glowering.

xxXxx

I put my fingers to my lip as I use my hand to show her to go to the front door. She nods and I go around the back of this god forsaken house. I see the cellar door and a little tiny barbie doll with red boots on. My stomach clenches, this was our secret way to let other know we had been locked in the cellar for punishment. I slowly open the doors and climb down into the dark poorly lit room. I carefully see that the door is open and I hear Callie talking to Dan. I look around the room and I don't see them down here. I curse and carefully make my way up the stairs.

"Yeah, I get lost pretty easily.." I hear Callie say and I look to my left seeing his back is turned away from me, but Callie's eyes quickly flick towards me. I look foward and see them on the couch. My throat drops in my stomach to see Roni over Theresa carefully changing a guaze o her head and it hurts me even more to see a cast around her ankle and watch her limp around the living room.

I wave my hand and she looks up at me with red eyes full of sudden joy. I smile andd try to make my way towards them.

"And- What the fuck are you doing here?" I look over and see Dan has turned around and Callie looking at us with wide eyes.

"Look I just want to take them-"

"No!" He roared and turned around to see Callie looking at me. He smiles sinisterly and grbas her by the arm and pulls her over the threshold.

"Oh! Is this your new girlfriend?" Callie's eyes hardens as she struggles to get free of his grip. I run towards him.

"Let go of her!" I head butt him in the stomach.

xxXxx

Callie

Free of his grasp, I run ino the living room and see this little girl and a woman in her mid forties all bandaged up. I take the little crying girl into my arms and rock her.

"It'll be ok." I watch Brandon walk backwards into the room slowly and it isn't until the man turns the corner until I realize he has a gun in his hand. Everything is thick with silence and none of us move a muscle.

"Woah, woah, woah" Brandon holds up his hands in surrender. The crazyed man wave the gun around.

"Shut the hell up! I do what I want! And if that means killing, IT'S INCLUDED!" He screams, the little girl dissappears farther into my side and Brandon now stand in front of the other woman.

"Look" Brandon says softly, "I will take all of these ladies and take them off of your hands, but let's not do anything rash." The front and back door are slammed open and Brandon quickly runs to the little girl, Roni. I see my mom and dad bust into the living room screaming instructions.

"Get on your hands and knees now!" Dad bellows and the Dan guy gets down and dad cuffs him.

xxXxx

There are flashing lights when I walk ouside and I see the lady on the couch get loaded into a ambulence and Roni climb in right before the speed off. I see Brandon with Lena and she gestures for me to come over.

"Who was that?" I look at Brandon because I don't know either.

"That was my old foster family." He sighs and puts his head in his hands. Lena and I look at each other and then she is called over by my mom. I see them in a intense discussion while I sit down next to Brandon.

"What happened?" I say softly. He looks up exhausted.

"They were my old foster family. Things used to be really good, they were going to adopt me and everything." He paused as if remembering those days, "Then Dan lost his job and started drinking... he started screaming and yelling at us. Most of the times he would scream at us and then pull my foster mom, Theresa, into there room and rape her."

I gasp and see him shake his head.

"Roni is only 9 and she knew we had to leave. So for months she would sell her toys or her hair to make money and I would... make money with my job. Theresa would strip at night to get away from him." He paused again. "We finally had enough money to leave and start over, we were counting the rest of the money when Dan saw her with the money and you know what happened after that." Were silent and stay that way until were in the car and driving back home.

Jude is in the car with us and I ask him about Conners house. He yaps away about how they went go carting, but I only notice Brandon trying to act like he's asleep. I know he's not.

I need to get to know Brandon Jacobs.

xxXxx

Brandon

When I see Jude in the car, I couldn't trust myself to talk so I pretend to be asleep.

Brandon your not worthless, your not... disposiable.

She doesn't know me. Known of them know me. I'm just gonna be here until I turn 18 and then I'm gone. Doing what and living where. I don't know. But my little Roni is safe for now.

And that's all that matters.

Alright all done, will love some review and constructive critisim

~OB