Family Ties (14 page)

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Arissa leaves for school with Damian Tuesday morning, unhappy about not going to court with us. She takes comfort knowing Jason isn’t going either.

The waiting room for the courtroom is full. We learn everyone is given the same time and cases are taken as everyone arrives. First come, first served. We still don’t know
what
is being served.

Gillian appears before us and leads us into a small conference room outside the courtroom. “I know you’re wondering what we’re doing here,” she says, once we’re settled around the oblong conference table.

Andrew leans back in his chair, his arm on the back of mine. “It would’ve been nice to know when you called,” he says, aggravated.

“Sorry. I needed to make sure you would show up.”

“Of course we would show up,” Rose says in a tone conveying how ridiculous Gillian’s thought process is.

“Again, I’m sorry.”

It’s a weak apology that I see right through. “Why are we here?” I ask.

“I’m recommending foster home placement due to your parents living across the street. We don’t know when they’ll go to trial and I feel your safety is at risk.”

“That’s preposterous!” Andrew moves to the edge of his chair. “She’s been with us for six months. She stays away from the Parkers and they stay away from us since they gave us custody.” He stabs the table with his finger. “She’s safe right where she is.” 

The room spins around me as I process the possibility of being taken away from the Jerichos to live with complete strangers. How can she do this?

“I want to stay where I am,” I blurt out.

“I can’t recommend that in good conscience, Sara. We’ve already removed Victoria,” Gillian states.

“That makes sense because she lived there,” Rose says. “But Sara has done well in our home. You can’t just take her like this.”

The love I felt in the park returns. Andrew and Rose had no reason to save me or take me into their home. Now they sit next to me, fighting to keep me in it. This is a chosen family loving each other in difficult circumstances when the only ties are those of love, not blood.

“Maybe once her parents are in jail,” Gillian says, void of emotion.

Andrew leans into the table, narrowing his eyes at Gillian. “You play a dirty game not warning us of your intentions. If we had known, our lawyer would’ve been here. You can bet we’ll fight this. Your argument for taking Sara is flimsy at best.”

A male deputy interrupts to inform us the judge is ready. We file into a courtroom lined with shiny, medium-brown stained wood. The old man in black robes at the front of the room reads the papers in his hand. Gillian makes me sit at the table with her while Andrew and Rose sit behind the wood barrier. A woman in a gray suit and mousy brown hair calls the room to order.

Gillian presents my case, then gives her recommendation.

The judge removes his wire-rimmed glasses. “I’m inclined to agree with you, Ms. Barrow. I’m ordering Sara Parker be remanded into state’s custody and placed in foster care.”

No! This can’t happen. “Wait!” I jump out of my seat.

Gillian tries to tug me back into the chair, but I pull away and glare at her.

“Don’t I get a say, Your Honor?” I ask.

“Miss Parker,” he says, staring me down, “you will go into foster care until we are assured of your safety in the Jericho’s home.”

“I
am
safe! I’ve been safe! If it weren’t for the Jerichos, I’d still be in that house being abused and raped.” I wave my arm at Gillian. “She didn’t even tell us why we were comi—”

“Miss Parker, that is quite enough,” he says, using the same tone Mother did when she didn’t want to listen.

I grind my teeth. Goddamn motherfucking jackass. Brandishing his perceived power, just like my father did.

“Another word and I will hold you in contempt.”

I fall into my chair. It’s not fair. It’s not fucking fair. They can’t do this.

The judge picks up more papers and returns his glasses to his face. Gillian stands and gathers her bag.

I can’t believe this is it.

“Let’s go, Sara,” Gillian whispers.

I storm out without a glance at Andrew and Rose and pace in the waiting room. I feel like a tornado, ready to destroy everything in my path. I want to explode, let it all out, and punch the fucking bitch in the face so she knows what it feels like.

Andrew and Rose come out of the courtroom with their arms around each other, tears streaming down. My own tears fall and I push my fury aside. I throw my arms around them and we cry together.

Gillian stands next to us, looking expectant when we break apart. “I’ll drive you home to pack a bag.”

“I’d rather ride with Andrew and Rose.”

“I can’t allow that.”

I scoff at her and march off to the elevators. I’m being taken from the only place I’ve felt safe. On my birthday. It’s not even lunchtime, so I can’t call say goodbye to my friends.

The fury and sorrow struggle for dominance, but I let the former win. Gillian will not see me cry again.

FOSTER

“The family you come from isn’t as important as the family you’re going to have.”

~Ring Lardner

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

It’s been two weeks since court, and I hate my foster home. I share a room with Krista, and two boys, Cal and Nick, share another room. I have no privacy and my routine is stricter than it was with my parents.

The rigid rules are posted in the kitchen for all to see:

1. No eating breakfast until your bed is made and room cleaned.

2. No taking food out of the refrigerator or pantry without permission.

3. No dinner until you fold and put away your laundry on your laundry day.

4. No phone calls to people not on your approved list.

5. No talking after lights out.

6. No TV if weekly school progress reports from your teachers are not perfect.

7. No sharing each other’s belongings.

I can’t call the Jerichos or Jason. I can’t see Sam for therapy. Something about insurance that George and Terry Lloyd, my foster parents, and Blake Sanders, my new social worker, refuse to fully explain.

Instead, I see Irving Abel in a large center with dozens of other therapists. Blake calls it a community mental health center. One more thing no one will explain. All I know is I sit in a large waiting room, over lit with fluorescent lights, full of other kids and their parents or guardians waiting to see their own therapists, before spending an hour arguing with Irving. I don’t intend to be belligerent with him, but he has a way of siding with Blake and the Lloyds that gets under my skin. 

I hate Gillian.

I hate the judge.

I hate Blake.

I hate the Lloyds.

I hate Irving.

The bitterness grows like weeds, overtaking everything. I glare at Blake when he visits, wishing poison daggers would fly out of my eyes and bury themselves deep in his chest. I break the rules because they are absurd, even by my parents’ standards.

I don’t know if I’m trying to find my own breaking point or everyone else’s.

The worst part is being in a different school. No one wanted to do the paperwork so I could remain enrolled in Encinitas High. Krista, Cal, and Nick are much younger than me. I’m alone at La Costa High. I’m the quiet one again, sitting on my own and keeping to myself, surrounded by strangers.

I wait in the cafeteria line. Another lonesome lunch period without my friends. Another cafeteria meal I’m forced to eat.

Someone runs into me from behind and I lurch forward. I catch myself before falling into the guy in front of me, peeking back as I straighten up.

“‘Sup,” a blond skater boy says and grins. “Sorry ‘bout that.”

“Hi,” I say.

“You’re new here, aren’t you?”

“Kinda.”

“I’m Hunter Evans.”

“Sara Parker.”

A girl runs up behind him and throws her arms around him. She kisses his cheek and smiles. “I thought you were going to wait for me.”

He curls a hand around her arms. “I was hungry. Hey, meet Sara. She’s new here.”

Her blue eyes flicker to me and her smile fades. “Hi.”

Must be his girlfriend. “Hi.”

“Sara, this is Nicole.”

I face the front of the line. Her change in expression tells me she isn’t pleased with me. I’ll never understand judgmental teenage girls. At least I had friends to distract myself from them before. I don’t have that here.

“Hey.” He grabs my arm and I wrest it away. “Sorry,” he says, holding up his hands. “I just wanted to invite you to a party this weekend.”

“I—”

“You can’t invite her!” Nicole interrupts.

What did I do to her? I just met her. “Do we know each other from somewhere?” I ask.

“Did you transfer from Encinitas High?” She moves next to Hunter.

She doesn’t look familiar. How does she know? “Yeah.”

“You stole my sister’s boyfriend.”

Becky? If they’re sisters, what is Nicole doing here? Shouldn’t they be going to the same school? “I didn’t
steal
anyone,” I say and turn back around. A hand spins me around and Nicole’s face is in mine. I pull my head back. “What the hell?”

She pokes my shoulder like she’s trying to pierce through it. “You took Jason from Becky.”

I step back. “Jason broke up with Becky a year before we started dating.”

“Wait,” Hunter cuts in, “you know Becky and Jason?”

I nod.

“Cool.”

Nicole scowls at him. “Not cool. She’s Jason’s new girlfriend.”

If only she knew. I don’t know what we are anymore, since I can’t talk to him and I have no idea when I’ll get to go home. I move up in line and snag a tray, hoping to get away from her. She slams the tray out of my hands and yanks me to the ground by my backpack.

“Shit!” Hunter shouts.

Instead of my self-preservation instinct kicking in, I grab her legs, pulling her down. She screams, landing on her back and a capturing a fistful of my hair. I push her hand into my head and scoot around, kneeing her in the side.

Someone drags me away from Nicole and Hunter hauls her to her feet.

“Come on,” the deep voice says, “to the office. Both of you.”

Terry picks me up an hour later, waiting until we’re in the car to say anything. “I can’t believe you got yourself suspended, Sara.”

“I was defending myself! She started it!”

“How do you expect to go home if you get into fights at school?”

“So I’m supposed to let people beat me like my father did? And what does this have to do with going home?”

“You have to behave if you want to go home.”

“My behavior had nothing to do with me being removed. It was because my parents live across the street from my guardians. Which is a bunch of crap. I was with them for months and my parents left us alone. I was fine until CPS came around.”

“You know, all I hear from you is how everyone did you wrong. Did you ever think about what you did wrong?”

“I didn’t do anything wrong!”

“That’s enough, young lady. You watch your tone or you’ll be grounded a lot longer.”

I stare out the side window so I don’t have to look at Terry. How is it I’m getting in trouble for shit I didn’t do again? Nicole started the fight and now I’m suspended from school and grounded. If it weren’t for my time with the Jerichos, I’d feel like I never left the hellhole that used to be my home.

I want my home back. I want to stay up all night with my best friend on the weekends, binge watching TV shows on Netflix. I want to do homework with Jason next to me in the TV room, sneaking a kiss on the cheek now and then. I want Rose to check on me, thinking I’m asleep, after I go to bed. I want to watch Andrew carry in a pizza like he just saved the world by dialing the phone and ordering delivery for dinner.

But no, even with the Lloyds, the unspoken rule is that I remain miserable.

Someone from the school board calls later. They lifted my suspension. Hunter went to Mr. Roberts, the vice-principal, and told Mr. Roberts what he witnessed, which lined up with what I reported when I was taken to the office. Mr. Roberts wouldn’t listen, so Hunter and his parents contacted the school board.

I get to go back to school tomorrow, but at what cost?

If Nicole is anything like Becky, she’ll be relentless. And even though Hunter stood up for me, it doesn’t mean he’ll be my friend. He just did the right thing, which could ruin him in the social wasteland of high school. You’re not supposed to do the right thing to be popular in high school. You’re supposed to go with the herd without question. It’s social suicide to do otherwise.

The next day, I leave the lunch line with my tray, searching for an open spot in the cafeteria. I walk by a table and spot Hunter, surrounded by other boys not talking to him, looking out of place. Our eyes meet and he gives me a slight nod.

One little gesture says it all. He committed a cardinal sin as a member of a clique. And even though his friends won’t talk to him, he can’t talk to me if he ever wants to regain his status.

So much for making a friend in this stupid school.