Mine

Girl Meets Changes

Mine

Girl Meets Changes

"Flash forward, and we're takin' on the world together

And there's a drawer of my things at your place"

While Maya was having a nice and relacing night in, watching Ten Things I Hate About You with her friends while devouring a delicious ice cream sundae, Shawn and Katy met up with Jasper's current foster parents and social worker. They were surprised by how quickly Mr. and Mrs. Peters got on board with their plan. At first, even though they were glad, of course, to avoid a big argument, it made both Shawn and Katy angry. They didn't understand how the two people who had been living with Jasper for months could agree to give him up just like that. But after listening to Mr. and Mrs. Peters' part of the story, they started to understand.

See, Jasper wasn't the only foster kid in the Peters' household; he had been living there with two foster sisters and one foster brother who all came from rather rough backgrounds, so it was no surprise that the Peters had their hands full. Jasper had been the last kid to join them and had done his best to give them as little grieve as possible, they knew that. And, in turn, they had tried their best to include him into their life and make him feel at home. But somehow, they just ... hadn't clicked.

Natalie, Jasper's social worker, had jumped in at that point, explaining that, sadly, this was something that could happen. After all, foster parents often didn't know the kids they were taking in until they were already with them, so it made sense that in some cases they just didn't really warm up to each other. Foster families usually were just a temporary solution anyway, until the children found a permanent home. But there were also some cases like Japer: children who bounced around from foster family to foster family, but never found a real home.

It broke both Shawn and Katy's hearts to think about how unstable and unsure Jasper's life had been up till now and, after sharing an understanding look, there was not a doubt in either of their minds on how to proceed when Natalie asked them if taking in Jasper as their foster son was something they could imagine. When saying their goodbyes, both Mr. and Mrs. Peters gave the Hunters a big hug. They liked Jasper and thought he was a great young man. They were sad they couldn't give him the home he deserved and were so relieved that surprise or fate or destiny – call it what you will – had thrown Shawn and Jasper together.

After the Peters left, even Natalie couldn't contain her excitement and joy any longer and the social worker was the next to envelop both Hunters in a big hug. She told them about how Jasper's had been the first case she had ever been assigned to and how she had taken his journey with him. How hard it had been for her to watch Jasper having to go from home to home, seeing the despair and sadness and, more recently, resignment in his eyes – while he still tried to put on a brave face – when he had to leave a family yet again. She had grown fond of the boy and was so relieved that things were finally starting to look up for him.

Shawn and Katy went back to their hotel room to find their daughter sprawled out on her bed. Maya had her laptop and phone in front of her and a – now empty – ice cream bowl was sitting on the nightstand beside her. They could see a movie playing on her laptop – Ten Things I Hate About You if Katy wasn't mistaken – and a video call on her phone showing the enthralled faces of Riley, Farkle and Josh focused on their own screen back in New York.

It warmed both Shawn and Katy's hearts to see that her daughter had apparently made really great new friends in New York. Such great friends that they met up to watch a movie, even though Maya was currently on the other side of the country.