September 22nd, Saturday Night - Casey Silpetti
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.”
Casey splashes her face with cool water, trying to make it look like she wasn’t crying. Her eyes are still a little puffy and she hopes no one will notice. She gets out to the pool house and sees that everyone else, except Bianca, has arrived. Nobody says anything, but she can tell that Aiden, Cadence and Harmony have noticed her eyes.
“You thirsty, Case?” Veronica asks, standing up and leading Casey into the little kitchen area.
“Yeah, um, do you have Diet Coke?” Veronica nods, grabbing a can out of the fridge as Casey gets a glass and fills it with ice.
“We have pizza on the way, and plenty of sandwich fixings in the kitchen. Also tons of snacks and soft drinks and all, dad went a little crazy. Ya’ll are welcome to whatever!” Veronica calls out from the kitchen. Casey stands next to her, fixing a soft drink.
“Where’s Bianca, is she coming?”
Veronica smiles back. “I don’t think so.” She looks around, and leans close to whisper, “She’s kinda spending time with her boyfriend; tonight was a good night for them to sneak off together.”
“I didn’t know she was actually dating anyone. Who’s her boyfriend?” Casey asks quietly, wondering if Bianca and Fetch finally got together.
“Well, they’re not really dating; unfortunately I don’t think my folks would really agree with it all. It’s all kinda a secret, but he’s a really nice guy. Really sweet and protective and all.”
Casey whispers, “Secret…like secret service? Like someone who got shot protecting you?”
Veronica almost drops the drink she has in her hand. “How did you find out?! I thought they were doing so good keeping it secret!” She smiles her crooked smile. “They do make a cute couple, but Fetch would be fired and all, so it’s gotta stay secret!”
“I see. It’s just that I’m pretty observant. It’s in how they look at each other…I’m not even sure anyone else would notice. And my lips are sealed.” Casey pantomimes the zip your lips, lock it, and throw away the key. Casey and Veronica grab their drinks and a couple bags of chips and head back into the main room. Casey sitting next to Aiden, Veronica sitting on the floor, leaning against the couch and pulling Smudge into her lap. They open the chips and start passing them around. Casey grabs her camera from the bag, taking some candid shots as they all sit around chatting and munching on snacks.
“Ok, I do have a little present for Cadence, and I hope you all don’t mind humoring us,” Aiden announces. Cadence looks over at him with a questioning look, as he pulls a DVD out of his bag.
“I seem to remember us declaring we’d have a little bet on our favorite UMC fighters last time we got together, and we were all supposed to get together to watch the PPV. Well, with everything that happened and Cade here being in the hospital, we didn’t get the chance. Soooo… I downloaded it and burned it to DVD so we can at least watch the title fight. I guess we’ll be nice and not put ya’ll through watching the rest of it.”
Cadence’s eyes have widened, and might even be a little shiny. “You did that for me? Damnit Aiden, for a jock you kinda have a sensitive, girly side,” she jokes, punching him in the arm.
Aiden pops the DVD in, and pulls Casey into his arms. He skips ahead to the title match. Cadence starts explaining what’s going on to Veronica, who’s sitting on the floor next to her legs, leaning back against the sofa.
“Ok, so that’s my fighter, Woods Phoenix.” He’s a tall, lanky guy whose face is broken in a wide grin, like he’s having the time of his life. “And in the Red Corner is Aiden’s guy, Donner Stephen.” He is shorter and stockier than Woods, and much more of a pretty-boy. He looks all serious.
“The first time these two fought, it was crazy. Most popular fight ever, probably. They beat the snot out of each other, but neither one would quit. They were both given contracts because of it.”
The first round starts, and the two circle each other and start throwing numerous punches and kicks. Cadence and Aiden both intercut the action with various expletives, descriptions of moves, etc.
“Oh! Superman punch.”
“Nice inside leg kick!”
“Uh oh, see that? Woods doesn’t really get into the fight until he gets hurt, now that he’s bleeding he’s going to get crazy!”
The first round ends, and the second starts. They stand up and “bang” for a while longer, as Aiden puts it, but now they start taking each other to the ground and wrestling too.
“Oh! See that? He’s trying to get a kimora, see how he’s bending his arm back like that?” “Ouch, that looks painful!” “Trust me, it is!”
“Nice reversal!” “Yeah, it looks like Donnie has been improving his ground game, I’ll give him that Aiden.”
The second round ends, and they start the final round. Both fighters are battered and bleeding, Woods from a nasty gash under his left eye. Both look tired. Cadence and Aiden are on the edges of their seats; even Kale and Christian look interested. Tom seems like he could care less about the whole thing.
The two fighters circle each other, the few times they try to go for a takedown, the other person defends. Donnie gets in a few good punches, and then a kick, and Aiden starts cheering as he chases Woods backwards, trying to finish him off. But he manages to hang in there, and not only grab Donner, but to throw him to the ground.
They wrestle for position, now it’s Cadence cheering her fighter on, and suddenly she goes crazy, bouncing in her seat. “See how he’s sitting on his stomach? He’s got a full mount, ground-and-pound coming!” Sure enough, Woods sits on his opponent and starts raining punches down on the other guys head. The other guy tries to buck him off, but it’s no good, and a few of the punches get through his defenses and really rock him.
The ref is standing right on top of them, leaning in and watching closely. Cadence is hooting and hollering for Woods to “beat the snot out of him!”, Aiden is yelling for him to “roll out! Defend! Get out of there!” Finally the ref jumps in, waving his hands and pulling Woods off of Donner.
Cadence cheers long and loud as Aiden covers his face with his hands and moans his disappointment. On screen, a bloody but excited Woods Phoenix is running around in circles in the ring, his arms up in the air. He then runs over to Donner and helps him up, hugging him and raising the other man’s arm in the air, pointing at the crowd to cheer for him too.
Cadence leans over and punches Aiden in the arm again, smiling brightly. “Good fight, real good fight. Thanks Aiden.” Then, grinning evilly, she gets up and walks over to her nylon bag. She leans over, opens it, and roots through it for a second before pulling out the Woods Phoenix t-shirt that started all this weeks ago.
She turns towards the room and shows it to Aiden. “I just happened to bring this to sleep in tonight. I wasn’t going to say anything until I knew whether he won or not, I was about to have to sleep in what I was wearing if he lost!” She pulls her layered shirt and tank off, and drops them on her bag, leaving her in a cute, lacy bra. Kale’s eyes bug out and Christian coughs as she pulls the t-shirt on, and walks back over to flop on the sofa.
Tom finally pipes up, “I’m sorry, but I don’t get the big deal about it. In today’s age, what’s the use of all that fighting? I mean, maybe in the past you needed to know how to do it, but with modern civilization, one would hope that sports –and I use the term lightly – like that would go the way of the dodo.”
Aiden sits up a little, his smile fading. “Sometimes fighting is necessary. It doesn’t matter where you are.”
Tom shakes his head. “Not amongst mature people. I mean, seriously. Have you ever seen a fight that wasn’t over something stupid, that couldn’t have been completely handled in a different - better - way? Between adults, or at least mature, people?”
Aiden sits even further up, and Casey rests her hand on his thigh. “As a matter of fact, yeah. I have. Ask Cadence about it. When those scumbags were trying to kidnap Roni, she beat the shit out of one of their guys trying to grab her. I don’t think polite discussion would have handled him quite the same as she did, and she did it without a single hesitation. And if one of the other ones wouldn’t have shot her, Roni would have probably got away!” He cuts off, obviously quite angry.
Veronica is staring at Aiden, her mouth open in surprise, before turning to look up at Cadence. Cadence is looking away from everyone, her face blank but a hint of embarrassment on it. Veronica reaches up and puts her hand on Cadence’s leg, the other girl tensing. “That’s what happened? You got shot trying to protect me?”
Cadence doesn’t answer, so Aiden does. “She did Roni. You should have seen her; she jumped that guy even though he was bigger than me, and went all furious on him. I couldn’t even move, I was so scared, but she just jumped on his back and beat the snot out of him.”
Veronica glanced over at him while he was telling the story, and then turns back to face Cade. “Why didn’t you tell me that? I didn’t know…”
Kale pipes up, “It wasn’t in any of the reports.” When everyone looks at him, he turns red. “I mean, I read all the reports and all. I’m a reporter, ya know? It wasn’t in anything I read.”
Cadence glances over at him, calmly neutral. “Keep it that way.”
He nods quickly. “Yeah, yeah sure, of course.”
Veronica tugs at Cadence’s pants leg. “Cade, seriously, why didn’t you tell me?” She turns so that she’s kneeling in front of her, upsetting Smudge from his napping place in her lap. He walks over towards Casey and makes his little “plurp?” noise at her. She picks him up to pet him, watching the scene play out in front of her.
Cadence finally meets Veronica’s eyes. “There was a lot going on when we got you back, and I was just too happy about that. Besides, it’s not like I did anything anyone else wouldn’t have done. I didn’t even mange to really help out.”
Casey could swear she sees Tom roll his eyes out of the corner of her vision.
“Let me see it?”
Cadence hesitates, and then pulls her shirt high enough to show the puckered, pale star that still scars her stomach. Veronica reaches out and rests her hand against it, causing Cadence to tense and flush red from chest to cheeks. “It means a lot to me. Thank you.” Casey takes two quick close shots with her camera, showing only part of Roni’s hand and a glimpse of Cadence’s stomach. She feels the energy rise in the room until they break contact.
The room is quiet for a long moment, until Harmony finally breaks the mood. “So, Parcheesi anyone?”
Veronica looks at Harmony, “I don’t have Parcheesi.”
Aiden looks around at everyone assembled. “Ok, so now what? Is it time to stick some bras in the freezer? Prank call someone? What do gals do at this kind of sleepover? Truth or Dare?”
Veronica sticks her tongue out at him. “Well, I have some board games and stuff. I thought we might go swimming, but that was before I knew Casey didn’t like swimming.”
Aiden wraps his arm around Casey’s waist. “Oh, I wouldn’t say she doesn’t like swimming, if we stay in the shallow end. What do you think?” He grins an evil grin at her. She playfully elbows him. “Swimming is fine…but uh, it’s kinda nasty outside.”
“Oh, dad closed the glass, so we’re fine to swim. How’s that sound to everyone? The pizza will be here by the time we’re done. I’ll just have dad bring it out here when it comes.” They all agree and Veronica points everyone to different rooms to change, calling Sandy through the intercom to tell him just to bring the pizza out the pool house when it comes.
They all meet by the pool. Tom is wearing plain navy blue trunks. Kale’s are yellow with green down the sides and along the bottom. Christian’s trunks are big, bold tropical flowers. And Aiden’s are a red and navy geometric design. The girls’ suits are just as varied. Veronica has a light pink tankini and boy shorts with little white daisies all over them. Cadence has a dark olive Speedo one-piece. Harmony’s is a bright fuchsia one-piece cut out suit that looks like a miniscule bikini from behind. And, of course, Casey has on the red bikini that Aiden bought, but she has a towel wrapped around her, covering it for now.
Aiden wraps his arms around Casey from behind, “Come on honey, let’s see that suit.” He steps around to face her and winks at her. “You’re gonna have to drop the towel before you get in the pool anyway.” Kale tries to ignore their interaction, but can’t help watching as he waits for Casey to drop the towel. She bites her lip and undoes the towel, dropping it on a lounge chair. She hears wolf whistles from almost everyone, and hooting and hollering from those that can’t, causing her to blush. Even with Harmony’s skimpy suit, Casey’s is the one that covers the least, the cloth covering the important bits and not much more. She’s obviously self-conscious and Aiden gives her a kiss and says, “It looks great on you, Case.”
They all get in the pool and almost everyone stays in the shallow end, with Christian doing a few laps and hanging with Harmony for a little bit in the deep end, and Tom floating on a lounger in the deep end for the majority of the time. They play Marco Polo and have chicken fights with Kale and Cadence as the grand champions. They notice the storm getting a little worse and all decide to head back to the pool house for pizza.
They all get dried off and changed and start chowing down on pizza. “So, do we want to watch a movie, or play games, or what?” Veronica asks the group. “I have Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution, if anyone likes those?”
Aiden looks around. “Well, we still have enough for Truth or Dare, Spin the Bottle, even Wink if anyone’s game? Anyone?” He waggles his eyebrows at the crowd.
“Oooh, I’ve always wanted to try Guitar Hero,” Cadence says as she feeds a little chunk of pizza to Smudge. “Maybe we can do one of Aiden’s games later.”
“Cool!” Veronica sets down her pizza and puts the game in the Xbox that’s hooked up to the TV in the pool house. She turns everything on and gets two wireless guitars out of the closet. She hands one to Cadence and shows her how to set it up. “Who else?”
“I’ll give it a try,” Harmony answers. Veronica gets her set up too, and between her, Christian, Kale and Aiden they teach the two girls how to play. Eventually, they all have a turn rocking out. Aiden and Christian battle each other on expert, cracking everyone else up with how serious they are about it, and ending with Christian just barely getting a higher score than Aiden. Even Tom plays one song before deciding he doesn’t care about it and it won’t help further his college dreams.
Tom stands. “Well, it’s been a lot of fun, really, but I think I’m going to be going before the weather gets worse.”
Veronica looks up at him, “Ok, be careful getting home. I’ll talk to you Monday.”
He looks mildly shocked that she’s not even going to walk him out, and just picks up his coat and walks out without saying anything to anyone else.
Harmony waits just until he’s out of earshot, “OK, now that the party pooper’s gone…whaddya’ wanna do?”
“Harmony!” Veronica shouts.
“Well it’s true. He was a party pooper. It’s like he didn’t even want to be here. Why would you show up somewhere you didn’t want to be?” She doesn’t even give anyone a chance to respond, “OK, it’s time for Spin the Bottle.”
Cadence turns her attention to Smudge as Roni protests. “I’m not sure we can do Spin the Bottle…all I have is cans.”
“Truth or Dare then!”
“Um, Harm,” Casey interjects, “how ‘bout we play a board game? What games do you have Roni?”
“We have Monopoly, Scattergories, Scrabble, and I think we have Risk somewhere too.” They all agree on Scattergories, and Roni and Cadence go in the house to find it. They get all set up on the couches and floor in the pool house, with snacks in arms reach and play every round of Scattergories. They all get riled up, defending their answers and have a great time.
Once the game is over, people spread out, going to the restroom, getting more snacks and drinks, and Harmony and Christian end up whispering together in a corner. Everyone congregates back in the main area again and Harmony stands up. “Mini-Kane, this was awesome, but uh, we’re gonna head out now.”
“Oh,” Veronica says, a little disappointed, but she perks right back up. “I’m glad you both could make it.” She turns to the rest of the group, “I’m gonna walk them out, I’ll be back in a sec.” Harmony gives Casey a hug, and even gives Cadence a kind of awkward hug, waving to the guys. Christian waves his goodbyes and they head off to the main house to leave.
Smudge chooses to attach himself to Aiden for the moment, crawling up in his lap and sinking his claws into Aiden’s shirt as he tries to climb up onto his shoulder. Casey and Cadence laugh, and Casey even manages to take a couple of photos, even getting a close up of Aiden’s frustrated face when he can’t get Smudge disentangled from his shirt. Kale even grins as he watches. Veronica comes back in and sees the kitten all tangled up with Aiden. She softly pets his head and he immediately lets go of Aiden to climb into her arms.
Veronica sits on the couch, putting Smudge on her lap. “What now? Another game? A movie? Dad has a decent stash of ‘em out here, cuz mom doesn’t like us to watch too much TV, so he hides them.”
“What’s he got?” Cadence asks.
“A ton, come on.” Veronica sets Smudge on the floor and heads over to an armoire and opens it, laughing as movies fall out because it’s so packed. “Pick one.” Cadence, Kale and Veronica pore over the movies, arguing over what they want to watch.
Casey and Aiden stay seated on the floor and he whispers in Casey’s ear, “What did Mr. Carlin want?”
Casey feels her eyes get watery and she whispers back, “We’ll talk about it later. I don’t want to ruin tonight.” Aiden gives her a hug, kissing the top of her head as Veronica comes over with three movies in her hands.
“OK, we’ve got it down to three movies. You two have to decide which one we’re going to watch. We have this Die Hard movie…the newest one, I guess. There were a couple of them in there. And we have 13 Going On 30…”
Aiden interrupts, “Your dad has 13 Going On 30?”
“Well, that one’s mine and Binks’s, we hide movies out here too. And we also have The Wizard of Oz…to get ready for auditions this week.” She stands there waiting for them to pick.
“You pick, Case.”
“OK. Let me see the boxes.” Veronica hands them over and Casey looks over each one, reading the descriptions on the back. “This one,” she says, holding out the Die Hard movie. She gets incredulous looks from Aiden and Veronica.
“Really?” asks Cadence. “What made you pick that one?”
“Well Wizard of Oz reminds me of school right now, and I don’t feel like thinking about that tonight. The other one looks a little fluffy for me right now. We can put that one on when we go to bed…kay?”
“Cool.” Roni puts in the movie and puts the other two away; making sure to get the ones that fell out back in too. “Where’s everybody gonna sit to watch? We can pull out the couch if we want to.”
“Yeah, let’s do that,” Cadence says, pulling off cushions. Kale helps and Veronica picks up Smudge so he doesn’t get smooshed. They pull it out and Roni, Kale, Cadence and Smudge all pile on, pulling pillows and snacks with them. Aiden stands up off the floor and pulls Casey up with him, dragging her over to share the oversized chair with him.
The weather outside has turned absolutely vengeful, and suddenly Sandy shows up at the door, just as they’re starting the movie. “Well guys, the weather is nasty out. I can get the Secret Service to drive you home, or you’re welcome to stay here. Well, not here, as the girls are sleeping out here. But you’re welcome to stay in the house… as long as you stay in the house,” he finishes comically.
“Da-ad, we were just starting a movie…”
“All right, the guys can stay out here until the movie’s over…BUT, when people start falling asleep, you two had better be inside the house or have gotten a ride home. I don’t want either of you driving in this weather. I’ll have the guest bedrooms made up. Veronica, make sure they find their way later.”
There’s a chorus of “Thanks, Dad!”, “Thanks, Mr. Carlin!”, and “Thank you!” as he heads back to the house.
They turn back to start the movie, but before she hits play Veronica turns toward Kale and Aiden, “Sorry guys, I didn’t even ask if you wanted a ride home now or if you wanted to stay…is this ok?” They both answer yes, very enthusiastically and Roni starts the movie.
At some point during the movie, it really started storming out again, and Casey can see Cadence jump with every flash of lightning and rumble of thunder. Veronica, sitting next to her, rests her hand on Cadence’s arm for a moment, and smiles at her comfortingly when she turns to look. Roni picks up Smudge and sets him on Cadence’s leg, where he promptly curls up and falls back to sleep. Both girls pet him, their fingers gently mingling together.
Even with the weather, they all get into the movie and before they know it it’s over. “OK guys, um, I guess you have to go to the house now,” Roni says.
They start to get up when Casey stops them. “Um, actually I need to talk to you guys and it’ll be a lot faster if I get all of you at once, instead of one at a time.” She pulls Aiden over to the sofa bed, and they crowd on with the other three. “So, um, Roni’s dad wanted to talk to me earlier, and uh…well, he said that when you got taken Roni, that they looked into all her friends.” Casey glances at Cadence with an ‘I’m sorry’ look on her face. “And um, they found out that I haven’t been living with my foster parents. They know it’s been a couple of months at least, but didn’t know how long for sure.”
“And they know now?” asks Kale.
“Mr. Carlin does because I told him. He wanted to know why I left. Anyway, he said they’ve been cashing the checks that come in for me until recently. They reported me missing.” Casey can feel the tears start to fall, knowing she can’t stop them and Veronica and Cadence push Aiden out of the way to sit on either side of her and comfort her. “He said there’s a fund for me with money for college. They don’t know who set it up, but he thinks it was my dad. My foster parents are trying to get the money. They’re saying I’m incompetent to handle it since I ran away. He…he said I might have to go back there.” She breaks down, sobbing. Kale and Aiden move closer, each touching a leg. Casey finally gets control enough to continue. “Mr. Carlin wants to help, take the case, but he wants me to stay here…to keep an eye on me.”
“Really?” Veronica asks excitedly.
“Yeah. If I don’t let your dad help, then they’ll probably get the money…and I might have to go back and live with them.” She starts sobbing again, unable to stop.
Once she calms down some, Aiden takes her chin, turning her to face him. “You have to let him help, Case.”
“I…I don’t want to move again…I like staying with Harmony…”
“Maybe we can talk to Mr. Carlin about having you emancipated or something then. But Case, this is college. It’s your dream, your future. And you can’t let those people steal that away from you. Plus, if it comes out how they treated you, they wouldn’t be able to sucker the state into giving them another foster kid, and doing the same thing.”
“They treated you bad?” asks Kale. Casey just nods, feeling the tears ready to fall again and holding them back.
“Real bad,” Aiden practically growls.
Veronica’s hand is warm where it rests on Casey’s skin and she can feel the waves of comfort flowing through her touch. “Yeah Case, I’ll make sure my dad can help. He’s a wiz with that sort of thing; I’ve seen him help out all kinds of people before. I’m sure he can help you out! And Aiden’s right, we can’t let those people do this to you or anyone else! It’s not fair!”
Kale pipes up, “Case, I can get some info on them, stuff that Mr. Carlin can use. I know a lot of people in different places, and some owe me favors. We could get them in really hot water, maybe they’ll back down.”
Casey turns to Cadence, who’s been silent next to her. Her hand is also resting on Casey’s arm, her hand cool as the chill breeze that seems to blow around her. Her eyes have picked up a purple tint, and Casey realizes that she’s seeing her true eye color peeking through. Her face is set and neutral, and she gives Casey a curt nod before whispering, “And if that doesn’t do it, I will take care of things.”
Something in her tone causes a chill to sweep through Casey. She turns back to Aiden, who’s waiting for her to say something… anything.
Through watery eyes Casey manages to say, “I’m not sure how I ended up with friends like you guys, cuz I never had any before, but I’m glad you’re here.” She sniffles a little and bites her lip before sitting up straighter. “I still need to think about things, but first I need to try and find my mom.” She looks straight at Aiden, “That means we go see Faust again.” Cadence and Aiden both nod, while Veronica and Kale look confused.
“Malcolm Faust?” Kale asks. When Casey nods, he continues. “Isn’t he some big shady, underworld guy? I’ve heard about him and it almost sounds like he’s a mobster, but on his own, without any lackeys. Why on earth would you have any dealings with someone like him?”
“He’s not in the mob…he’s just…” Casey looks to Aiden and Cadence, trying to figure out a way to explain Faust. “He’s just…tapped into a lot of places and people with info. He was hired to help find you, Roni, when you got…kidnapped, but he didn’t get much of a chance to work on it, since you were ‘found’ the next day.”
“OK, but what does any of that have to do with finding your mom?”
“He knows her. On my birthday he gave me a picture of myself that only my mom would’ve had. Plus he told me he knows her. I don’t know the last time he saw her, but he’s the best lead I have.”
“I’ll take you over tomorrow if you want, sweetheart,” Aiden says.
“Which works out, because I’m supposed to go see him tomorrow anyway. You’re not going without me,” Cadence says, the energy from her flowing stronger.
Veronica pipes in, “Me either.”
“Well, I’m not gonna’ miss out on this, so count me in too,” Kale says.
Casey bites her lip, “I’m not so sure Faust is gonna like all of us in his place. He doesn’t seem to keen on visitors. And, I have to talk to Harmony about all this still, and think about what I want to do, so it might have to wait until Monday or Tuesday.”
“What do you mean; you have to think about what you want to do?” Roni asks. “You have to let my dad take on your case. You can’t just let these mean people take your money, Casey.” There’s a chorus of agreement from everyone in the room.
“I just…” Casey protests, “I know I have to let him help me if I don’t want to go back there…I’m just…not used to having people who want to help me.”
“Well it seems you need to get used to it, girl,” Cadence says, leaning forward to give Casey a hug, Veronica not far behind. After a moment, Kale and Aiden both tentatively join the group hug.
The hug dissipates and they all sit back in their places on the bed. “Ok guys, I’ll show ya’ll where you can stay. Let’s hurry before the rain picks back up.” Roni herds the guys towards the door, Aiden pausing to give Casey a long kiss and whisper “good-night” in her ear.
They head out towards the main house, leaving Cadence and Casey alone. Cadence heads into the restroom, and comes out a few minutes later in the same shirt, but with a well-worn, low-hanging pair of yoga pants on. She’s also wearing black, plastic framed glasses that Casey’s never seen her in before.
She notices Casey’s look, and shyly brushes a lock of hair behind her ear. “My contacts started bothering me, I think from swimming. Plus I’m not big on wearing them to sleep.” She packs her pants and socks into the nylon bag. She grabs her leather bag and shoes, and walks over to put them next to the sofa, taking great pains to place them just so. She glances around the room and at the door, as if memorizing the layout of the place and where everything is.
Her phone beeps as Roni comes rushing in through the door, through it Casey can see the rain really coming down. Roni’s hair and shirt are wet and she just sighs comically as she heads to the bathroom to change. She stops on the way, when she notices Cadence’s glasses. “Oh, Cade! Those are so cute! Why don’t you wear them more often?”
Cadence looks up from her bag, where she’s digging for her phone. She shrugs. “I don’t know, I guess I never really thought of how they looked.”
“Well you should. They’re absolutely adorable on you. You should wear them more often, tell her Casey!” With that she continues into the bathroom to change.
Casey looks over at Cadence, who’s blushing a little at the compliment. When she sees Casey looking over at her, she blushes worse, and then looks down at her cellphone. She gets a funny look on her face as she puts her phone back down. “Well, that was Harm. Seems my little stunt hit MyVid already. Poor May… I do so wonder if she’ll survive her newfound fame?” she asks with a southern belle accent, both of them giggling in reply.
Veronica steps out in a spaghetti-strapped top and her gym shorts, her clothes and underclothes in a neat, folded pile in her hands. She sets them down on the dresser, and turns to the other two. “What’s so funny?”
Cadence fills her in while Casey heads to the restroom to change into her pajama’s. When she comes back outside, she sees the two girls facing off against each other. Veronica has her arms crossed, and her face set. She turns to Casey.
“You don’t mind all of us sharing the bed, do you? It’s huge; we could’ve all fit into it, if the guys wouldn’t have had to go inside.” She points down at the bed that takes up most of the main room. It sits on the ground, and in fact if it weren’t for the pillows stacked up on one end, Casey could mistake it for just a really cushiony section of the room it’s so big.
Casey shakes her head no, and Roni turns back to Cadence. “See, there’s no reason for you to sleep on the sofa. So get comfortable, while I get the DVD player ready.”
Cadence surrenders, and moves her bag and shoes over to sit on the side of the bed that she’s on. Once again she carefully places them, fiddling with them to get them just right and eyeing the layout of everything before nodding her head.
Roni gets everything setup, then goes to the closet to grab two small blankets out, saying over her shoulder, “I hope you don’t mind, I like it really cold when I sleep, so I made sure to have extra blankets for whoever was staying tonight.” She drops the thermostat, and walks over to spread the blankets out on either side of the bed, one for each of them with a spot for her in the middle.
“The doctors used to think there was something wrong with me, because it seemed like I always had a fever. They can’t explain it, but for some reason I’m just warmer than most people. They finally said it must be normal for me, because they couldn’t find anything else wrong with me.” She turns off the light, and climbs up the bottom of the bed, in between them. “That’s why I don’t have any cute pajamas or anything; I don’t usually wear anything to sleep. Give me a freezing room with a couple of blankets, and I’m set!”
“Really?” Cadence asks casually, her voice cracking almost as bad as Kale’s. Casey feels a smile creep across her face.
“Yup.” She uses the remote to start the movie. They sit there and share a bowl of popcorn while they watch it, Smudge frolicking on the bed until he tires himself out again.
After it’s over, Roni turns off the TV letting the room go dark and the three girls settle into their spots on the bed. The blinds are drawn on all the walls – seems like almost the whole pool house is made of glass – but moonlight and lightning light up enough for them to see the room around them. The sound of rain against the glass is calming.
Roni finally breaks the silence. “So, uh, Case. What you said about… you know… your head getting better, and what I can do sometimes. How does… how does all that work?”
“I’m not really sure, honest. It’s all really new to me and um, that guy I mentioned earlier, Faust, he’s kind of teaching me about it. He seems pretty good at all this stuff.” Cadence lays there listening, petting Smudge who’s curled up on her chest.
“Why did you ask him to help find me?”
“Actually, it was Bianca that asked me to go to him.”
Veronica sits up, and Casey can see her outline in the room. “How did she know him?”
“I don’t think she did. She said she heard your mom, I think, and some other people talking about going to him for help and she said the mayor’s people vetoed the idea. She gave me some money and asked me to find him since she couldn’t leave the house on her own. That’s how I met Faust. Honestly, Aiden and I found him, and signed a contract that he’d look for you, and then the next day you were found. He gave back most of the money, since he wasn’t the one that found you…just took some out for his expenses.”
“What is he teaching you now?”
“Ummmm…let’s see. He told me that there are three kinds of people: players, pieces and pawns. He said that most people are pawns, they don’t have any powers, or very little and they don’t know about it. He said that I’m a piece and have some power, but I’m just learning how to use it. He called it, umm, possibilities. He said there are possibilities everywhere and like, I can take those possibilities and kinda make things go my way. I don’t really know how. Anyway, the players are people with lots of power, and some of them are good and some are bad, but there aren’t very many of them. I’m sure I’m leaving stuff out, but that’s kind of the basics of what he told me,” Casey yawns as she finishes.
“How did you know how to fix your stitches?”
“I guessed…and if it would’ve been a week ago, I don’t think I could’ve done it.”
“Why not?”
“Well, we had a ceremony to bring me more into my power. He said if I didn’t that I would have to leave town and not come back or else risk being killed.”
“What? Someone was going to kill you? Who?”
Cadence speaks up, “Tiger, there are a lot of things out there, that people wouldn’t always believe. Surely you’ve seen or felt something like that?”
Roni is quiet for a moment, then nods. “Yeah. Sometimes I have these weird dreams that almost feel like memories. It’s like I’m flying, or at least floating, high up above everything looking down. But I can never really remember them when I wake up. But they’re not like regular dreams, ya know?”
It’s Cadence’s turn to nod. “I do. And what I want to do, is make us copies of the key to the building next to mine. And I’m gonna make sure it stays a safe place, so that we can all get together there and talk about whatever we need to. It’ll also be a good place for us to work on helping you out, Case, if you want help with those foster-parent scum. I’m gonna do that tomorrow, so maybe sometime later this week we can get together there and talk. But we shouldn’t tell anyone we don’t want to know, ok?”
“Cool, our own little hang-out. I won’t tell anyone.”
They’re silent for a long time, and Casey has almost drifted off when the other two start talking quietly. “This is weird; I’m used to chatting with you all night, but not in person. It’s kinda nice.”
Cadence is quiet for a moment, before replying “Yeah, it’s real nice tiger.”
“So, what’s it like dating a girl?”
Casey can hear the catch in Cadence’s voice, as she replies, “Oh, nothing you’d be interested in hearing about.”
“Cadence! It’s important to you, so it’s important to me. I’m your friend, and I want to know. I mean, is it hard? “
“Actually, dating a girl is just like dating a guy.”
“Really?”
“Except that it vastly enlarges your wardrobe, and if you’re lucky you’ll have the same shoe size.”
Roni giggles. “Wow, I never thought of it that way.”
“There are a lot of cool benefits. Mostly, another girl gets you. Your ups, your downs, your openness, and your vulnerability. And they can give it right back, no coaxing. No having to go out and buy a Cosmo article on “How to Get a Guy to Open Up,” it’s just all right there.”
Silence for a moment. “And the bad part?”
“Dating a girl is just like dating a guy. They can lie, dump you for the pretty cheerleader, screw with your head the same, semi-psychotic way a guy can. And plus – yuck – worse, they want to talk endlessly about all their feelings. I mean, it’s one good thing about guys, they never say anything they actually listen to.” She pauses, “Did I mention the down side?”
“I thought you already did.”
“Some of your family, friends, people who you don’t even know, are probably going to hate you.”
“Like May?”
“Yeah, like May. Sometimes a lot, lot worse.” Her voice is rough with quiet pain.
Casey can feel Roni move, shifting a bit next to her.
They’re quiet for a long moment, and between the rain and the loud purring of Smudge, who’s curled up against the back of Casey’s neck, she doesn’t hear if they ever continue their talk as she drifts away into sleep.
