Trouble Times Two

Chapter Fifty-Three

Saturday

Everyone sits down in the conference room and there's a clear divide. While I have a whole rally of people here to support me, my eight eldest siblings have no one to support themselves but each other and pretty quickly, everyone gets the vibe that they're unprepared and came in with the idea that I'm still the same dysfunctional, drugged up, alcoholic teenager I used to be.

"So why do you believe that she shouldn't have ownership of the house?" Franklin says and I'm immediately entranced. You see this kind of work on TV but to see it in real life is magical.

"She's just some irresponsible kid who can't even tell left from right." Madge says and I scoff.

"Of course I can't tell left from right, I'm dyslexic." I respond and they all looked sort of shocked.

"Well she moved in when she was seventeen, she wasn't even allowed to have a house at that age." Holly says and I sigh.

"Wow. Your efforts are futile and ridiculous. The key word is moved in because she moved in when she was seventeen. She never owned the house at seventeen but thanks to a trust in her name, the house went into her name the minute she turned eighteen." Arthur says and I nod.

"It's clear to me that you guys came in here thinking that I was the same irresponsible teenager that I used to be. I'm not, I'm not some kid who you can walk over." I interject.

Maisie interjects. "You see this." She point to everyone on 'my' side. "Then look at that." She points to 'their' 'side.' "You chose to let the house go into foreclosure despite many, many warnings that you received in court, in person and you guys chose to let the house go. You guys don't have half the support she has and if you continue to harass her for something that was a consequence of your own poor actions and judgement, we will be forced to move forward with legal action. We've warned you in front of police officers and witnesses but we have also written it down just so that you guys get it. We'll take this time to answer any questions." 

She was such a boss. I loved lawyer Maisie to bits. She installed confidence in people and helped her clients through thick and thin. She specialised in crimes committed against children and also did a lot of pro bono work for victims of sexual assault who had proof but couldn't win a case because of money issues, which unfortunately happened a lot. She also worked at my school and helped Jess and Vincent get a full time job in the office and now every other student knew them and some even remembered Vincent.

She, Carter, Dacre and Damien made me realise that while I do inherently dislike the justice system, I could also be one of the people who are the good guys. I could be a police officer or be a lawyer and it could happen with hard work.

They ponder amongst themselves, definitely ready to ambush me but I stop them by simply getting up and leaving.

"You guys are wasting everyone's time. Aunt Tara and Uncle Carl took time out for this so please stop acting like belligerent assholes and accept the fact that you guys can't get what you want this time, you're not living with Miss Joni Jeans anymore and therefore, no one is here to wait for you at hand and foot and there is certainly no one who is going to mistreat me. I am not some kid who you can push around anymore and please do not try to come near my property or you will be promptly escorted off and if it happens enough time, Maisie will be forced to go ahead with legal action." I leave and wait for everyone who was here with me to exit.

They all leave and tell me well done for being so good in there and I thank them all and I go over to Lola and Court who are waiting outside.

Despite me loving the hell out of them, they were not entirely aware about my story, at all to be honest, and they were not comfortable with being in a room where my dirty laundry may be aired for them to see, so they made the executive decision, all on their own that they'd leave me.

Jess calls me and asks me about it. I told her not to come because then they'd drag her and Vincent into it and even though she insisted she come, I made it clear that she could not under any circumstance come to the meeting.

She agreed because even though she wanted to be there for me, she knew that they'd latch onto her like the blood and clearly, money-sucking leeches they were.

It was just embarrassing knowing who they were now compared to what they could have been. Vincent was more successful than all of them and he had worked at a storage locker facility to get his money.

I go to Carter's office and look around in it and find one of my skateboards in a pile of other skateboards that he kept in here and I take it and then skate home.

I don't feel at peace right now. I'm in that perpetual depression of being done with what seemingly was a good part of my life. Even though everyone found me weird and most didn't like me. I had my friends and that was weird to say.

Lola and Courtney were my friends through other people but our friendships were totally organic. I knew that even if Lola wasn't best friends with Donovan, at some point, we'd still end up being friends because our personalities just meshed so well together. Me and Courtney were already friendly before she and Arthur got together so I had no doubts that she was a friend.

I noticed a lot of people were jealous of her because she was in a relationship with Art and many girls wanted to be in a relationship with him, or Donovan. Something about the 'charm' of theirs, especially when they were really good friends. I overheard this all in the locker rooms and was a little taken aback as usually the cheerleader effect only happens to girls.

When I get back to my house, Maisie calls and tells me to stay at the Shepherd's house for the week while my siblings are in town so that I can feel a little more supported and I agree as I'm in no mood to argue.

I realise how traumatic this situation is for me after I've experienced it.

I shower and get into my pyjamas and make sure everything is locked up before going to the Shepherd's.

I go in through Donovan's door and take off my shoes before making my way downstairs.

I go into the kitchen where Paisley is cooking and she smiles when sees me.

"Hey love! I haven't seen you in such a long time. I mean well of course I've seen you but I haven't had a chance to speak to you or anything so this is nice. How have you been?" She asks and we talk.

I help her out with some cooking and we chat about everything.

"A couple of Donovan's friends are coming round later, is that alright? I know you and him have been at odds." I don't have an issue with that.

"I'll be fine. As long as him and I aren't sharing spaces anymore unwillingly, I'll be fine." I say and we both laugh.

"Donovan hasn't told me much about his experience on the trip and honestly talking to your aunt, it seems like you haven't told her much either. Any reason?" How do I explain this in a not weird way.

"It just really wasn't that memorable to be honest." I leave it at that and Paisley leaves the question as well. To be honest, a lot happened but I wasn't comfortable sharing that. How was I meant to know what Donovan wanted to share with his parents or didn't?

I didn't want to create another argument with him so I'd leave it.