Prologue

Flashback

"Callie, I'm giving you one more chance to come clean about how many classes you've skipped. I highly recommend you take it," Stef said impatiently as the teen slumped further down into the passenger seat of the SUV. She gripped the steering wheel just a little more tightly to cope, feeling her temper rise at the recollection of Callie chain-smoking on the pier like some hoodlum with Wyatt. Had it not been school hours, the cop would have been a little more forgiving; of all people, she understood teenage curiosity and experimentation. However, her and Lena had drilled the value of education into all their kids and cutting class was simply not tolerated. And because Callie was still on probation, unexcused absences were absolutely something that her Parole Officer would scrutinize—something they all wanted to avoid.

Barring a bit of attitude and not answering their attempts to reach her on the cell phone they had given her, Callie had been fairly easy to manage since coming into their home. But slowly, she had begun to wade into the sort of trouble with more serious repercussions, which so far included missing curfew and covertly trading her pants for a new pair of jeans in the change rooms while at the mall with Mariana. Now, Callie was skipping and smoking.

"Do you have anything to say for yourself?" Stef snapped, floored at both Callie's demeanour and refusal to talk.

Exasperated with the girl for remaining silent, she called Lena's direct line. "Alright. Let's see what we're dealing with here, then."

"Hi honey," Lena's voice came through the Bluetooth. "Did you get off work early?"

"Yes, you could say that," Stef replied in a clipped tone. "I have one of our children sitting in the car with me right now. Care you hazard a guess as to which one?

"What do you mean? None of them have a free last period," Lena stated.

"Love, could you pull up Callie's attendance records?"

"It's Callie?" Lena's voice was soft but the girl could hear the surprise and disappointment.

Callie wished for the ability to disappear into the car's interior, but instead she could only lean the side of her head against the window and close her eyes. She braced herself for the truth to come out as silence took over, punctuated only by intermittent mouse clicks in the background. She had tried to be intentional about skipping, never missing the classes that required participation for the grade or only taking off after attendance had been taken. However, she suspected that that reasoning wouldn't fly with either of the women and that the number of missed classes logged would be greater than expected.

She hadn't meant for it to have gotten so out of hand. At first, the missed classes were far and few in between, but as they continued to fly under Lena's radar, it was simply too easy to give into the temptation more and more. Although many of the staff knew that the Vice Principal was currently fostering, only Timothy was aware that she had Callie and Jude with them at home. The girl had been resourceful enough to delete the automated messages left on the landline's answering machine by the school indicating she had missed one or more classes that day in order to keep Stef and Lena out of the loop. The sequence of button pushes to select and delete the correct message had been easy to memorize, and Callie would make sure she did it as soon as they'd get home, always with the volume turned completely down so no one would notice. A trick that had been perfected in previous foster homes.

It wasn't that Callie disliked her teachers or the classes. In fact, she usually found school to be a welcome distraction by offering something else to focus on. Anchor Beach was the nicest one she had ever been to but she felt awkward around the privileged charter school crowd which, as expected, was far from welcoming. In fact, apart from the rest of the Adams Foster kids, Wyatt was Callie's only friend. The two shared a mutual love of photography and they often skipped to have some innocent fun, like climbing the rusty fire ladder by a hidden entrance up to the roof to take landscape shots of the city. Recently, they had skipped Physical Education together, the last period before the end of the day. The class had started a beach volleyball unit and they found they were able to easily walk away after attendance was taken, leaving them with nearly an hour-and-a-half to themselves before Callie had to be at the front office to meet the rest of the family to head home.

"Seven absences this month, eleven over the past two," Lena said, incredulous. "We're going to have a long chat about this when I get home."

Tears began to prick Callie's eyes. She was surprised to find how upsetting it felt to disappoint both of the women and she had no idea why; something like this would have never bothered her in another home. Then again, she had never gotten caught. Maybe it was the fear that once it got back to Bill she and Jude would be gone, just like that.

"You're grounded, Callie. For two weeks. No computer or TV. Hand over your phone, right now," Stef ordered, placing her hand, palm up, onto the console. Remembering how much joy Callie derived from taking photos with it, she felt a pang of guilt. Then realizing that her or Lena wouldn't be able to keep tabs on Callie, she added, "You are to check in with Mama at your free blocks and at lunch. And no more Wyatt."

Knowing the women wouldn't have any way to enforce who she spent her time with, Callie rolled her eyes.

Just watch me, she vowed.