Chapter 1

Lena's POV

I knew that Stef was going to kill me, when she realized that David from CPS was dropping off another girl at any second now.

She was mad as it was, when she realized what Callie was doing here. Callie's 'dyke comment' didn't help anything either.

But David sounded desperate and from the sound of it this other girl didn't have anywhere else to go either. I felt completely bombarded by his favor, but agreed to take her in anyway.

Why did I have such difficulty saying 'No?'

It was one simple word.

One simple syllable.

No.

I convince myself that these girls are only going to be here for a couple of weeks.

Stef will understand…hopefully.

The doorbell rings, and I already know it's them. "Jesus, will you get the door please?"

"Kay," he says as he walks out of the kitchen.

"Who could that be at this time?" Stef asks as she looks down at her watch and then in my direction. "Any more surprises?" she asks sarcastically and offers me a smile.

You have no idea, I think to myself, but her face stiffens when she sees my worried one. "It's David, from CPS," I tell her.

"You didn't?" she looks at me with the sound of defeat in her voice. I hated myself for doing this to her because I knew that I was asking too much from her.

Callie's POV

I wonder what the hell David is doing here? Did my dyke-comment bother them that much, that they would make him pick me up that quickly? A whole 4 hours… that was by far the shortest amount of time, I've ever spent in a foster home. Un-freaking-believable.

And where the hell is Bill? He knew how important my seeing Jude was. Why is David doing his work for him?

I stop eating my lasagna and place my fork on my plate gently. I start to stand up, so that I could wash my dish, when David comes into the kitchen with another girl. She was around my age, maybe younger, my height, really thin, with black hair and green eyes. She was wearing a black bomber jacket with dark blue jeans. But my eyes were drawn to her fingers, which were all dressed with silver rings and she held onto a big north face backpack tightly, which I assumed contained her clothes.

She glances at all of us, but her eyes stop roaming when she sees Stef. My reasoning for this was because of the uniform. Guess she doesn't like cops either. I try not to laugh, and then she glances at me. I can see the fear start to form in her eyes.

"Hey David. This is my partner Stef," Lena says, as she places an arm on Stef's shoulder and then looks over to the girl standing next to him, "And this must be Christina?" she asks as she offers the girl a smile.

Christina looks at Lena now, with the same look she gave me, and then looks back to Stef without responding.

David takes her silence as his cue to answer for her, "…Yes it is. I'm so glad, that you two were willing to do this for me on such short notice."

"Not a problem," Lena answers hesitantly as she looks over to Stef for her assurance.

Stef glances at Lena and forces a smile. "Not a problem at all. It's like we never even discussed it," Stef replies and Lena's face straightens.

"Great," David smiles, "As I said, it will only be for a couple of weeks, until I find them both other placements. You have no idea how much I appreciate what you're doing for me. I really do."

"I'm sure you do," Stef replies as she tries to hide her frustration, but her voice ends up delivering it anyway.

Christina looks at all of us, then back at David, "Uh… David, can I talk to you for a sec?"

"Is it important? I really have somewhere I have to be," he asks as he stares at his watch.

"It'll just be a sec," she says.

Christina's POV

There was no way in hell I was going to stay in this house with a cop.

I pull David into another room, "Where is it?" I say as I start to search his pockets.

"Where is what?" he asks with a confused look on his face and tries to pull away from me to keep me from searching his pants.

"Don't play stupid. Where are the drugs?"

"What?" he asks.

"The drugs. You know? Whatever it is you're smoking, that leads you to believe I would stay in this house. You have to have them on you, because Lord knows I could use them right about now. Are they hiding in your purse?" I ask as I try to grab his brief case, but he pulls it back too quickly.

"It's not that bad, Christina. Bill tells me they're really nice people."

"Bill says that about everyone and the majority of the time it's a lie. So nothing that Bill says has any cred with me."

"Christina," he warns.

"No! You've got to be high if you think I'm living in the same house as a cop. And did you see the girl's face? It looks like all of them took turns beating the crap out of her!"

I stop when I hear a boy's laugh coming from the kitchen.

"Who? Callie? She was just taken out of juvie today and brought here, just like you. That's why her face is like that. She got beat up in juvie," he tries to explain to me. But I'm not buying it for a second.

"Yeah, right? And what about the one with the curly hair? Why are her cheeks so bruised? Don't tell me that she just got outta juvie too?"

"Who Lena? Her face isn't bruised."

"It looked pretty banged up to me," I insist.

"Christina, that's probably her makeup," he laughs hysterically.

I can't help but think, why someone would want their face to look like that? But that's beside the point. "It doesn't matter. I don't want to be here. Take me somewhere else, please." I hate begging but I'm desperate now.

"Well, you don't really have a choice, Christina. You got kicked out of your other foster home, and this was the best alternative that I could come up with on such short notice. It's only for a couple of weeks."

"Just a couple of weeks?" I ask.

"Yes."

"Fine, but I want that in writing," I tell him in a no non-sense tone.

He laughs and walks back toward the kitchen, completely oblivious to the fact that I wasn't joking.

Stef's POV

Everyone rushed back to their seats, when they realized Christina and David's conversation was over. Considering the circumstances, eavesdropping was a must.

I can't believe that girl would think that I beat on Callie and on Lena.

Did she really think cops were that bad?

I look over at Lena and can't help but smirk. I always told her to ease up on the bronzer, but she never listened.

Lena starts quickly rubbing her cheeks with a napkin in order to take some of her makeup off. She immediately stops at the sound of the door opening and Christina and David walking back in.

I'm trying hard not to judge, but now that I know both of these girls are fresh out of juvie and in my kitchen, I can't help but worry. And I know I have Lena to thank for that.

I'm definitely going to have a talk with her, because I don't appreciate her making these insane decisions without talking to me about it first.

After dinner, I try to lay down the rules of the house to the two girls. Even if this is for a couple of weeks, I'm not going to allow chaos in my home. "The curfew on school nights is at 7. You must ask my permission from Lena or myself, before leaving the house. An—"

Christina interrupts me, "7 am?"

"No pm," I clarify. She looks at me strangely, as if I had just spoken to her in Japanese. "Is that a problem?"

"That only gives us like what? 4 hours to hang out?"

"Uh…Yes," I answer sternly. And now she's staring at me with that look again. I keep going, trying not to let myself get distracted, "Also you will go to school while you're staying here. Lena is the vice principal of Anchor Beach Charter School. All the kids go there so you'll be—"

Callie interrupts me next, "Where do I sleep?" she asks as she looks around the room.

"Excuse me?" I ask. It was like she didn't even care to listen to my rules at all, which just makes me feel like this isn't such a good idea even more.

Christina gives Callie a weird look, "I'm starting to understand why your face is all banged up."

Callie gives her a dirty look and looks back to me, "It's not my first time in a foster home… Where do I sleep?" she asks again.

Lena must've sensed that I was getting annoyed now and budded in, "Let me show you."

Christina watches them both leave to the living room and looks in my direction. I stare at her with confusion, which seems to freak her out because she gets up fairly quickly and disappears out of the kitchen.

I already knew that I had my hands full with these two...