September 22nd, Saturday Evening - Casey Silpetti
“We can’t go in, guys. I’m so sorry.” She looks near tears at having brought them all the way out here in the weather.
Casey shakes her head. “Don’t worry. Come this way.” She leads them over to the other side of the building, grabbing the key from its hidden rock on the way. She opens the door, and invites everyone in.
Aiden moves through to the hallway, kicking the thermostat up and flipping on the heater. Cadence looks around wonderingly. “I never thought about this side…” She leans close to Casey, and whispers in her ear, “This could make a good clubhouse, if you know what I mean. Headquarters or something.”
She steps away and heads into the kitchen, and coming back with the kitten wrapped in a towel, which she hands to Veronica before disappearing again down the hall. She comes back in a moment later, and hands Aiden and Casey some towels and sheets.
“Ya’ll can take the bedroom and dry off. Don’t have any extra clothes, but I figure we can toga it while I toss everything in the dryer. So if ya’ll wanna go change…”
She heads over to Veronica and hands her a towel and a sheet too. “You can have the other bedroom. If ya’ll don’t mind,” she addresses everyone, “I’m gonna take a quick shower to get this mud off. Ya’ll can throw your clothes in the dryer or just leave them outside the door, I’ll get them. Mine are gonna have to wait til I can go home and wash them, or maybe just burn them,” she jokes.
She picks up the semi-muddy kitten, and steps into the bathroom. Moments later, they can hear the water quickly running. Veronica closes the second bedroom door behind herself.
Aiden and Casey walk into the other bedroom. “How’s your head? Stitches all ok?” He pulls his shirt off and drops it on the ground, running one of the towels through his hair and across his chest.
He looks around, and then back at her, grinning. “We do have a whole bedroom to ourselves, and no parents around…” He does his patented evil grin, and eyebrow waggle, dropping his towel and pulling Casey close.
She giggles, “No parents, but friends in the next rooms.”
He tilts her chin up and kisses her deeply, his eyes turning darker, his voice rougher, “I’m not sure I care.” Casey wraps her arms around his waist as his hands drop to her butt and he kisses her neck.
“I don’t think they need to hear us do anything, and these walls aren’t very thick,” she says, but doesn’t move away.
“Maybe they should hear us doing something, might give them ideas. Cadence would be better for Roni than Tom,” Aiden says, slipping his hands under both her shirts, pulling them up and off over her head before kissing her again. He unbuttons her jeans and starts pushing them over her hips as Casey kicks off her shoes with her toes. Aiden slips out of his sandals and steps back to remove his shorts as Casey steps out of her pants. He picks her up and carries her to the bed, setting her down and leaning over her to kiss her.
Before they can go any farther, there’s a knock on the door and Veronica’s voice comes through. “Um, can I have your clothes to put in the dryer?” Aiden groans and Casey answers, “We’ll bring ‘em down in a sec.”
They dry off quickly and slip out of the rest of their clothes before wrapping themselves in the bed sheets. Casey grabs their clothes and Aiden gets the towels and shoes. Casey hands off the clothes to Veronica, who’s standing next to the dryer turning the knobs to the correct settings. Aiden sets their shoes down by the door and sets one towel on the counter. “Sit,” he tells Casey. She sits at one of the barstools by the breakfast bar and turns to face him. “Nope, face that way,” Aiden says, pointing her away from him. Roni starts the clothes drying as Aiden starts drying Casey’s hair with the towel.
She jumps up as soon as she realizes what he’s doing and grabs for the towel. “I can dry it myself.” Unfortunately, she wasn’t quick enough and Aiden noticed she didn’t have a little bald spot on her head anymore.
“Casey,” he says a little warily, “what happened to your stitches?” Cadence is coming down the stairs as he says it, the kitten in her arms, fur sticking out in all directions but clean now.
Casey turns away from them, biting her lip as she dries her hair with the towel. “Huh?”
Aiden steps closer to her as Cadence and Veronica watch. He stops her hands and takes the towel away, turning Casey to face him. “The stitches are gone Casey. The spot on your head that was shaved for stitches is gone. You can’t even tell that you had stitches there at all. What happened to them?”
Casey just shrugs, trying to brush off the subject. Cadence steps forward, “Casey, what happened to your stitches?” She starts to shrug again, but Cadence interrupts, “No, don’t act like you don’t know. What happened to them?”
“I don’t really know. They just kinda went away.”
“Did you do something to make them go away?”
“I just pictured that I was fine and kept thinking that I was fine… Like at the dance when you touched my foot, Roni, the swelling went down and it didn’t hurt as bad. This morning, the stitches went away and so did the nausea, and my hair grew back. It still hurts a little to touch though.”
“How did you do it?” Roni asks softly.
Casey turns to her, “I don’t know, really. How did you make my foot better?”
Roni thinks about that for a minute before shrugging and answering, “I guess I don’t know…it’s just something that happens. It’s always worked on my parents and Binks…if they weren’t feeling good or got hurt, if I touched them where they were hurting, they felt better. I didn’t know if it would work for you since you’re not family, but it did.”
“Can I look at it Case? The spot where they were?” Cadence asks, handing the kitten to Roni. Casey nods yes and Cadence comes over to stand behind her. Aiden and Veronica step in close to see, and Casey points to the spot. Cadence moves her hair around, prodding Casey’s scalp. Casey flinches a little when she pokes the spot where they were, but otherwise stands still. “Wow! I really can’t even tell you had stitches here. Come on, let’s all sit down. I need to keep an eye out for the car to leave so I can go home and change. Plus I still want to hear about what really happened last night and who was at the party.”
Cadence grabs the first aid kit out of the kitchen, and then they all go in and sit down. Aiden’s on the far end of the couch facing down it, with Casey leaning against him facing the same way, his arms around her. Veronica is on the other end of the couch with the kitten on her lap, facing forward. Cadence pulls up the blind a little before she sits in the arm chair near Roni, facing the couch, so she can look out, but still talk to the group.
Cadence pulls up the sheet she’s wearing, exposing her scraped knees and legs, and opens the first aid kit. She glances over at Casey. “So, Casey. What happened?”
Veronica moves to sit on the floor in front of Cadence, dropping the kitten in her lap and taking the first aid kit from her. She turns to look at Casey over her shoulder, and pipes in “Yeah, Case. Why don’t you tell us?” She turns to Cadence, “Let me got this.” When she touches Cadence’s leg she jumps, causing Veronica to look at her anxiously. “Did I hurt you?”
Aiden chuckles low under his breath, and Cadence just shakes her head no, her cheeks glowing red as she looks up at Casey.
Casey bites her lip a little nervously and watches the little drama play itself out, before speaking. “OK, well we did go to Chance’s pool party, and a lot of people were there. We were having fun and everything.” She turns halfway around to look at Aiden, “I’m not really sure where you went, but you were gone, I figured bathroom or something. Anyway, um, Marcus came over and put his arms around me. I thought it was Aiden, but when I turned around and saw it wasn’t, he picked me up and started carrying me toward the pool. I tried to get out of his arms, but then I realized he was gonna throw me in, and since I can’t swim real good I started hanging onto him instead. He got up on the diving board and started to throw me in the deep end, but I guess I scratched his neck trying to hang on and he dropped me instead. I hit my head before going into the water. That’s it.”
“So, then you managed to get to the edge and get out and they took you to the hospital?” Cadence asks, the kitten climbing up her sheet and butting her chin with its face.
Casey just shrugs, “I don’t know how I got out.”
“Aiden?” She smiles and pets the kitten as it settles across her chest in a fold of the sheet, almost like a hammock. Its purring can be heard all the way across the room.
“Jake had Chance and me out of the room, and we came back in. Marcus was on the diving board and everyone was just kind of staring at the pool, not doing anything. Chance told me to call 911 and dove into the pool. The rest is kind of a blur. I realized it was Casey; the ambulance came and took us to the ER. They wouldn’t let me in with her, so I called Harmony, so she’d know. Her and Chance and Christian all showed up. They let us go in and discharged Case as long as I woke her up every hour all night. That’s it.”
They all hear voices from outside and a car door shut. Cadence leans up to peek out the window until the car drives away, causing the kitten to lose its place and wake up. It climbs down into her lap and curls up, quickly falling back asleep. “So who all was at this party?”
“Lots of people, Cadence. The rest of the team. Chance’s friends…”
Veronica speaks quietly, “She wants to know if May was there.” She reaches up to pet the kitten, causing it to look up and ‘purrlp’ cutely. Cadence tenses as she does, the light flush on her cheeks traveling down her neck. Veronica – on the other hand – almost appears to be glittering to Casey’s eye, as though she were dusted with gold body glitter. She knows no one else can see it, and it just started a moment ago.
Aiden and Casey both nod yes. “Yeah. At the hospital Chance even told me she had set it all up.”
“Ok then. Your clothes should all be dry now. Why don’t y’all go change? I’ll put my wet clothes back on. Just bring the sheets down and leave ‘em by the washer. I’ll come back over and wash them and put ‘em away later. Then I can go home and change, and get my stuff for tonight.”
She hands the kitten carefully to Roni, and looks down at her legs, where the scrapes are almost completely faded away. She chucks Roni playfully under the chin, “Thanks tiger.”
They all change and meet by the door; Roni in charge of the kitten; Aiden and Casey carrying all the stuffed animals and the fish. Cadence takes the key and locks the door behind everyone, putting it back in its hiding place. “Case, how did you know this was here?”
She blushes and looks down at the ground. “Ummmm…I put it there.”
“But how did you know it was open? I mean, I guess I knew since I’ve never seen anyone there, but I never would’ve thought about using it.”
Aiden takes Casey’s hand as she answers. “I uh, lived there for a couple weeks when school first started.”
“Oh Casey,” Veronica says, hugging her and trying not to squish the kitten.
“It’s ok, really. Come on, let’s let Cadence get some dry clothes on.” They all go into Cadence’s half of the building. Cadence goes up to change as they all sit in the living room and chit-chat with Ms. Connors, Veronica excited to show her the kitten they found.
Cadence’s mom doesn’t look too thrilled with the sudden influx of teenagers, but even she can’t defend herself against Veronica’s pure sweetness.
Casey tries to fade into the background, still remembering her last ‘talk’ with Ms. Connors, who seems content to pretend that it never happened. Other than asking Casey how she is, and throwing the occasional glance her way, she all but ignores her.
She does seem a little more tired to Casey, perhaps even a little sad. But she doesn’t have too long to think about it, because Cadence comes bouncing back down the stairs. She’s changed into a pair of black cargo pants, a sheer gray short-sleeve shirt with a white tank underneath, and black and purple striped arm warmers.
She’s carrying a beat up old leather messenger-style bag over one shoulder and another small nylon bag over the other. She drops both of them and grabs a dark purple leather jacket off the coat rack, slipping it on.
She steps over to her mother and kisses her on the cheek. “I’ll be careful.”
Sarah looks at her daughter with undisguised worry in her eyes. “You know the rules. Call if you need anything.”
“I will.” She grabs her two bags, and leads everyone towards the door. “Looks like we’re lucky, the rain stopped for now.”
They head out into the gray afternoon, Aiden taking the nylon bag from Cadence, the only one she’ll let him take.
They walk across the soggy school grounds, the carnival workers busy trying to break everything down now that everyone has left due to the weather. Weather that looks like it won’t hold forever, with dark clouds flashing on the horizon.
It still hasn’t started raining again by the time they get to Aiden’s Xterra, and all pack in. Aiden pulls out, heading towards his neighborhood.
The girls sit in the back with the kitten between them, so that they can both pet him – their hands bumping into each other. “So what are you going to name him, tiger?”
Veronica pretends to think it over for a moment, Cadence not paying attention as she looks down at the furry bundle in question, who decided just then to try biting her finger. “I don’t know, I was thinking maybe… Tink?”
Aiden snorts and tries to cover by coughing, and a second later it registers with Cadence, who blushes red again. “Oh… you… you little brat!” She reaches over to poke Veronica in the side, who is already laughing and giggling.
In the mirror, Casey can see that Roni is almost faintly glowing now, instead of just glittering.
“Oh, hey Aiden,” Cadence growls. “Pull over in there.” She points at a strip mall they’re coming up on. “We can stop at the PetINC and get some stuff for the fuzzball here, while ya’ll go get ready. Then you can pick us back up.”
“Sure thing.” He pulls into the parking lot, and stops at the entrance.
Cadence scoops up the kitten, and they both get out, Veronica still giggling. Aiden waits until they’re both inside, and then pulls out. “Anywhere you need to go, other than Harm’s house?”
“Not that I can think of. We probably shouldn’t take too long though, look at the sky. It looks like it’s gonna storm more.” They go to Harmony’s house so Casey can pick up some clothes and change if she wants to. She grabs a bowl to put Lobster in, and grabs her bag with her laptop in it. “Oh crap! I need fish food for Lobster.”
“You’re not really naming it Lobster, are you?”
“Yup.” Casey grins at Aiden before texting Cadence to pick up some food for all their goldfish while they’re at PetINC. A very quick affirmative comes back, and she changes into an old graphic tee with Smurfette on the front and grabs pajamas, extra underwear and clothes for Sunday. She pulls out her swimsuit to pack it and sees the dark streaks of dried blood across the white. She plops down on the bed. “What am I gonna do now? I can’t wear this if we swim tonight.”
Aiden sits down next to her, taking her hand. “Are we going to swim tonight?”
“I don’t know. But the party’s in the pool house, which means the pool is right there. I figured I’d bring my suit just in case…but I can’t. I don’t even know if this’ll come out.”
“Hey, I’m sure it’ll be fine if you don’t bring one. Bianca and Veronica probably have more than one suit each, I’m sure you can borrow one if we go swimming. And if, for some reason, they don’t have extras, we can get the red one from my house.”
Casey looks at Aiden blankly until she realizes what he means. “That miniscule little Barbie doll bikini you got? Why didn’t you return it? I can’t wear that!” She gestures down at herself, “It won’t cover…anything!”
“I guess I was still hoping to get you in it.” He playfully nudges her side, “And out of it.”
Casey blushes red quickly, “Well, you might want to keep hoping, but grab it, just in case…don’t expect anything!”
Once she’s ready, they also swing quickly by Aiden’s. There’s something he wants to bring over there tonight, though he won’t tell her what it is. After he grabs it, the red bikini for Casey, and changes real quick, they pile back into his Xterra and swing back to the PetINC to pick up their friends.
As they pull up, Casey texts Cadence to let her know that they’re waiting outside. The sky is pitch black now, and the wind has picked up a bit. Looks like the weather might be a doozy tonight.
The girls rush outside, each carrying a few bags, which they toss in the back after Aiden pops it open. They climb in the back through the driver side door, Veronica sliding across to sit back behind Casey, both laughing and giggling like crazy.
“Good lord, did you two get into the catnip or something?” Aiden asks, grinning. That just sets them both off even more, and the laughing continues most of the way to Olympia Hills.
The drive to Veronica’s is short, during which Casey and Aiden find out that the kitten’s new name is Smudge. They get through the security with no problems, and pull up on side the house. Everyone piles out and grabs their stuff.
Veronica bounces towards the door. “We can cut through the house to get to the pool house.”
She leads them through the foyer and living room, and into the kitchen. Mr. Carlin is in there, fixing up a Dagwood style sandwich that threatens to overcome the plate’s borders. He smiles as they walk in, pulling Veronica over to him and kissing the top of her head. “Hey guys, welcome to our home. And who is this little vagabond?” he asks, petting Smudge on the head while the kitten hungrily tries to bite his finger.
“This is Smudge. Cadence and Aiden rescued him from a drain today, and I thought I might be able to nurse him back to health?” she finishes hopefully.
He smiles. “You mean you know your mom is out, and ole-softy dad is the only one around, and will let you keep him? I guess I need to start watching out for you too, not just your sister.” He leans down close to the kitten, looking sternly at it. “Well Smudge, welcome to our house. Seems my daughter might have picked up my habit of saving strays…”
“Thanks dad! OK guys, I’ll show ya’ll the poolhouse, then go up and get my stuff. It’s right this way…”
“Actually, honey, I was wondering if I could borrow Casey here for a moment. I’ll show her the way out myself.” He turns to Casey, and motions towards one of the doors. “If you don’t mind?”
Aiden gives her a look, but she shakes her head. As far as she knows she has no reason to worry about Sandford Carlin, and even if not it’s not like he’d try anything with all of them here. And she kinda likes him; the few times she’s talked to him he seems really friendly and down-to-earth. Casey hands her things to Aiden to take out to the poolhouse.
“Ok, right this way guys.” Veronica leads them out through the large glass doors. Mr. Carlin turns to Casey.
“Can I get you a soft drink or anything?” he asks.
She shakes her head no, and he leads her out the side door and down a hallway to his office. He moves a large stack of papers and books off the chair with one hand, and goes around to the other side of the desk, motioning for her to sit. He puts down his plate, and looks over his desk for a folder.
His office is cluttered but homey, the walls and furniture covered in photographs of the family. Unlike the pictures in the rest of the house – which are mostly professional and posed – these are almost all snapshots and candids. It’s clear how much he loves his family, though it looks like most of the pictures are from a few years ago, and the more current ones often don’t feature his wife.
“Casey, first of all I want to assure you not to worry. I know that saying that probably is cause for alarm, but I want you to know that I’m really on your side here.” He puts down the folder and looks across the desk at her, his eyes intense but still warm.
“Veronica really looks up to you. Until you and your friends included her in your group, she didn’t really have much in the way of friends outside her sister. But now she has friends, and she talks about you all a lot, and your friendship means a lot to her.
“Now when she was…” he pauses and looks away, and she can see a haunted expression creep into his eyes. “When she was… kidnapped… the police looked into everyone that she had contact with.”
He pauses again, and collects himself, then turns back to Casey. “I remembered meeting you at the Town Hall, and being quite impressed with you. I’m sure you can imagine my surprise at seeing your file when they looked into it. And then you can imagine my surprise more, when I found out that you’re no longer staying with your foster parents. In fact, contacts I have in the neighborhood tell me they haven’t seen you there in months.”
He cuts her off before she can say anything. “I want to hear your story, Casey, if you don’t mind. But I want to tell you again, I wanted to talk to you tonight because I’m on your side. That being said, let me tell my story first.”
He waits until she nods, and continues. “Your foster parents have, until recently, continued to cash the checks coming in that were supposed to be for your education and care. However, they have recently reported you missing.” He sighs, and opens the folder in front of him.
“It seems as though there is a fund that was setup for you, for when you graduate. It’s a college fund, and I think your father might have set it up, although all of the records for it are sealed. The thing is, the funds are not supposed to become available to you until you turn 18 - which you recently have - and you have graduated. The funds would then be available to you, to be used according to some rules set down; mainly being that it’s to be used for college.”
“However, your foster parents are fighting to get their hands on the money. They have reported you missing to the police, and have started procedures to get you declared incompetent to handle the funds when you graduate, due to having run away. I don’t know who they have working for them, but so far – somehow – this whole thing is working. If you don’t fight it, they’re going to get your money. And if the police do get involved, you might be going back into their care, even though you are 18 now.”
“I’d like to take on this case for you, and help out. But to do so, I’d have to be in a position to keep an eye on you. I’d like to ask you to stay here, as a guest of my family, until we can get things straightened out.”
Casey sits there dazed at all that he’s just told her. Sandy quietly sits, waiting for her to respond. She finally speaks, but so softly that he has to lean forward to hear what she’s saying. “I haven’t been to that house in over a year. I left just before school started. Did you know we had four girls in one room with just one bunk bed? The two littlest girls shared a bunk and I slept on the floor. The boys’ room was even more crowded, they had six boys and one bunk bed. They locked the food in the pantry so we couldn’t get to it and locked the fridge. A social worker even asked about it one time and they just said one of the boys was stealing food, so they locked it to keep it from disappearing, but they lied…and the stupid social worker believed them. No one was stealing anything.”
By now, Casey is silently crying, tears running down her cheeks and her tone turns harsh. “The lady made everybody call her ‘Mama.’ The guy, Roger, he made all the girls call him ‘Daddy’ and ignored the boys, unless they did something wrong. The last day I was there ‘Daddy’ beat me and tried to rape me. I snuck out the window that night. I took the two uniforms they had bought me for Holsey, a few other clothes, and not much else. I went to the hospital and they checked me out. If my medical records are part of that file, then you’ve seen his work.”
Sandy moves to the chair next to Casey, not touching her, unsure how she’ll react. “Casey, if you went to the hospital and reported it, they would’ve removed all the kids from the home, but they didn’t.”
“I let them check me out. I don’t have a death wish. But, I didn’t tell them who did it, I didn’t press charges. They did some stuff and took pictures and took samples and stuff, but they weren’t supposed to test anything unless I pressed charges. If I told them it was Roger and they moved me to another foster home…most likely it wouldn’t have been close to Holsey, which means I would lose my scholarship because I couldn’t get to school. This scholarship…it’s my ticket to college. Trust me…I think about those other kids there every day, and I wish I could’ve helped them, but…I couldn’t risk getting sent back there or somewhere else.” By now, she’s full out sobbing, unable to stop. Sandy grabs a box of Kleenex, holding them out to her. Casey takes a couple, dabbing at her eyes, then blowing her nose.
Sandy puts his hand on her shoulder. “The system’s not supposed to be like that. Where have you been living, Casey?”
“Around. I’m staying at Harmony’s now.”
“And before that?”
“Just around. How come I didn’t know about this fund that was set up?”
“Other than the person that set it up, their lawyer, and the bank it’s through, I’m not sure anyone knew about it. I’m sorry to say that your being friends with my daughter, and her…kidnapping, is probably what brought this to everyone’s attention. It probably would’ve gone unnoticed until you graduated, and even then…if you didn’t know about it, you may never have known. Like I said, the records are sealed. We don’t even know who set it up for certain.”
“Is there a way to unseal the records? Find out who set it up?”
“I haven’t looked into it in detail, because I hadn’t talked to you yet. I didn’t want to overstep any bounds or anything.”
“Do you really think my father is the one who set this up? I never knew him…hell, I don’t even know his name. Would I find that out?”
“Generally funds of this sort are setup by parents no longer in their child’s life, who want to provide for them in a way that their identity is kept secret. Since you know who your mother is, I assumed it could be your father. Since I haven’t looked at the fund itself in detail, I don’t know if his name would be disclosed, but to be honest, it probably won’t be.”
“Can they really send me back to live with them, even though I’m 18 now? I thought I was safe…”
“They are still your legal guardians, as long as you’re still in school. If they declare you incompetent, they can arrange to have you hospitalized, but most likely they would ask for house arrest. That way they would still get the payments for your schooling, and wouldn’t have to pay any hospital bills.”
“So, my choices are to let them have the money or move in here?”
He frowns and sits back before answering. “No, I wouldn’t put it like that. Unfortunately, you can’t just let them have the money. They would have to have you declared incompetent, and have you in their control before they could get it. And no, you don’t need to stay here if you don’t want to.”
He leans forward, his eyes gentle. “I believe your story Casey. And Veronica – although she’s somewhat naïve about the world – is sensitive, and I trust her instinct in people. And your school records show a very bright and capable person. But for me to go all out on this, I would feel responsible for you. That’s why I would ask that you stay here. But if you don’t want to, I’ll understand, and I’ll try to find the best person I can to be able to help you out. But I wouldn’t be able to take the case, I hope you understand.”
“If I fight them and win…would I get back any of the money since I left? Wait…nevermind…of course they won’t give me any of that money…what am I thinking? Anyway, do I have to decide right now?”
“Not at all, dear. In fact, I would refuse to take any decision you made now. You need time to think about it. I’m sorry; I hope you don’t think I ruined your night. If I could have waited, I would have. But this is too important, and I wanted to let you know as soon as I could. But the sooner you decide, the better Casey. Come on, I’ll show you the way to the pool house.”
“Um, do you mind if I use the restroom first?”
Sandy shows Casey to the powder room in the hallway, “Take your time. The pool house is just down this hallway and out those doors.” He points the way as he gives her directions. “Let me know what you decide.”
