I'll give you my sunshine

Chapter 22

Frankie's POV:

It was now out very last day, or rather morning on set.

Taylor told us we would be leaving at 8:30 as the drive was supposed to take almost 10 hours, so we could be back in LA sooner.

"Come on, we need to get up now," I said to Lailah, who was still in bed trying to sleep.

The alarm had been going for 20 minutes, and I wasn't going to stop it until she was out of bed.

"It's like 7 a.m.," she groaned sleepily.

"Almost 7:30 now, no thanks to you." I said it in a light tone. "You can sleep on the coach, you know?" I added.

"Yeah, I guess." She said this, finally opening her eyes.

She soon got out of bed, and I went to take a shower.

Taylor had booked the accessible room at the hotel, meaning the shower was large enough to fit a wheelchair, and subsequently fit in the collapsible shower chair that lived in one of the under-the-sink cupboards.

I had made Lailah get the chair out of there on our first day here, and so during our stay it had lived inside the shower.

After showering, I got dressed and threw my hair into a bun so it wasn't dripping all down my clothes.

I then started to pack everything back into my bag and suitcase, which took longer than anticipated. I hadn't realised how far my items could all go in just a few days.

I had sent mom a text last night just to remind her I would need picking up from set at around 6 p.m., but she still hadn't seen or replied to it.

Frustrated, I shoved my phone back into my pocket and packed up my last few things.

It was nearing 8:20 by the time Lailah and I had both triple checked that we hadn't left anything and were confident we could leave.

"Are you sure you've got everything?" She asked me as we began to walk down the hall for the last time.

"Yep, you?" I replied.

"I sure hope so." She laughed.

Once we were in the lobby, which was empty, the receptionist told a very confused Lailah and me that everyone was getting on the coaches already.

We thanked her and walked out of the hotel lobby, seeing the minivan the six of us kids were going in pull up outside.

"Hey guys! Good morning." Taylor said this enthusiastically as she saw us.

We both greeted her back, and she asked us how we slept.

"Good thanks," I said, Lailah adding a "me too."

"Good, I'm glad. We're just waiting for Max; he left his charger in his room." Taylor said.

"Ok, cool," I said, nodding.

Taylor then put her backpack on the floor as she hopped up into the minivan and extended a hand out to me.

"Oh, thanks." I said, taking her hands before she pulled me up into the van.

"There you go, how's your foot?" She asked, looking down at my fake foot.

"I'm still hanging in there; it's not feeling too loose." I said I was gently shaking it.

"That's good. Has your mom booked that appointment yet?" She asked.

"Not to my knowledge, no. Thanks for helping me up into the van again." I said I was grateful to have some help in the meticulous process of getting a fake leg up and into any tight space.

"My pleasure, now have a good drive, ok?" She said this, giving me a hug.

"Thanks, you too." I said, hugging her back briefly before pulling out of the hug.

All of us were too tired from a) the time of day and b) all the work we had done this week to engage in any conversation, so I just put my headphones on and watched a few episodes of a TV show I had downloaded.

The drive home was somewhat uneventful; we stopped for McDonald's on the way back, and at one point the air conditioning stopped working, which was not fun.

Eventually, though, we made it back to the set.

I had finally received a message back from my mom while we drove, telling me to wait outside some random bakery a few miles away from set.

It was 6 p.m. by the time the minibus pulled into the parking lot.

Taylor and the assistant director were both sitting on the closest bench that overlooked the parking lot, and once they saw us, they both got up and started to walk towards us.

I was seated closest to the sliding door of the van, so I was the first one to get out. Taylor, as was common practise now, stretched out both of her hands to me once I had meticulously moved out of the narrow row of seats that were definitely not built in favour of people without certain body parts.

"How was the drive?" Taylor asked me once I was safely on the ground, this time without breaking my leg.

"Good, nice, and smooth, you?" I asked her back.

"Yeah, it was fine, thank you." She said.

By this point, everyone had gotten out and had all their stuff, so Taylor told us all to walk over to the benches and wait to be picked up by our parents while she thanked the drivers.

I was now panicking ever so slightly because I knew there was no way mom was going to come all the way to the set to pick me up; I had to beg her before shooting started to drop me off in the mornings, let alone the evenings too.

Taylor soon joined us again at the bench we had sat down at and saw the anxious look on my face I was desperately trying to hide.

"Are you ok?" She asked me quietly so as not to draw attention to me, but we were all in such close proximity that I knew they were all listening regardless.

"Is it ok if I walk back? My mom is picking me up closer to where she works." I said, although mom hadn't actually worked at all since I started making enough money to support the both of us, and luckily for her, I was funding her alcoholic tendencies too.

"I'm sorry, I would let you if it were up to me, but since we were filming on location, there's like a rule that you have to be collected in front of an adult working on the set." She said it, sounding as if she were reciting whatever law she was talking about.

"Ok, I'll ask her if she can." I said doubtfully.

"I can always drop you off if you need it; I just have to make sure I see your mom at some point." Taylor said sympathetically.

"It's ok, I'm sure she can pick me up." I said, getting up from the table in an attempt to call my mom.

After trying 5–6 times with no avail, I gave up, sent her a message, and walked back to the table.

"Did you get ahold of her?" Taylor asked as I approached the table again if Joseph and Naomi had gone now.

I shook my head and said, "I sent her a message; hopefully she gets it soon." I said.

"It's no trouble me dropping you off; I don't mind it at all. I'm in no rush to get home." Taylor said, shrugging.

"Are you sure? What about your cats?" I said back.

Oh, they're fine with Selena, Frankie; honestly, it's no big deal." She said she was smiling.

"Ok, thank you so much." I said it gratefully.

"My pleasure," she said back.

Over the next half hour or so, everyone else got picked up, leaving just Taylor and me.

"Ok, do you mind if we pop into my office super quick? I just have to grab my laptop." Taylor said Max was once in the car with his mom.

"No, of course not." I said, getting up from the table.

I was meant to be at the bakery at 8:00 p.m., and it was nearing that time now, but I knew mom wouldn't be there for a while, and the less time I made Taylor wait, the better.

The building was obviously locked all week, and Taylor took quite a while to find the correct one to unlock it on the big set of keys she had.

"Finally!" She said this, laughing after what seemed like the 100th key finally worked.

We walked through the eerily dark and empty halls into Taylor's office, where she quickly grabbed some stuff, and then we left again.

"Ok, where am I taking you?" She asked me once we reached her car.

"I'm not sure; let me pull up the message." I said, opening my phone and going to my mom's message about where I was going.

I gave Taylor the location, and she typed it into her phone's GPS.

"Perfect, it's on the way!" Taylor said after the map loaded.

"Got any plans for this weekend?" Taylor asked as we started driving.

"Nothing in particular, no, what about you?" I asked her.

"Same here; just going to relax, I think." She said it, shrugging.

Twenty or so minutes later, we pulled up outside the bakery.

"Here we are; what time is your mom supposed to be here?" Taylor asked.

"I think she said just after 9:00," I said, hoping by some miracle she came by like 9:15.

Taylor didn't seem to mind the wait; she had a load of CDs in her car, so we put one on, and we both enjoyed listening to it, even though I had never heard of it.

Then finally, at almost 9:45, my mom's car pulled up outside the bakery.

"Cmon, let's go see her." Taylor said. Opening her car door.

"You don't have to come; it's fine." I said, secretly hoping she wouldn't.

"No, don't be silly! I want to tell her how amazing you were this week." She said, shutting the door behind her before coming around to help me get out of the car, which sat quite high off the ground.

When mom caught sight of us, I saw the look in her eyes turn from light annoyance, her usual face, to one of pure rage.

I was therefore surprised that she rolled down the window to speak to Taylor.

"Good evening, Mrs. Morris." She said as I walked around to the other side of the car to get in, "

"Good evening, and it's Miss." She said this, hardly even looking at Taylor.

"Oh, my apologies. I just wanted to tell you that Frankie was absolutely wonderful this week. It's such a pleasure getting to work with her." Taylor said, her seemingly never-fading smile plastered on her face.

"Ok, is that all?" Mum said I was annoyed; my face was bright red from embarrassment.

"Oh, uh, yes, I suppose, have a good weekend. I look forward to seeing Frankie again on Wednesday." She said goodbye, waving goodbye before walking off.

I felt absolutely mortified. I made a mental note to apologise for my mum's behaviour once I was home.


Taylor's POV:

I had barely even turned my back before I heard Frankie's mom begin to yell at her about something.

She had rolled her window back up, so I couldn't make out what was being said, but it certainly wasn't anything pleasant.

I could practically feel my blood boiling. It made absolutely no sense to me how awful people like that could be parents.

Once in my car again, I spent the whole drive home thinking about Frankie and how I could possibly help her. How I could get her away from her mom.

Soon enough, I pulled into my driveway, where Selena was sitting on the porch reading a book in the glow of the fairy lights I had strung up around the porch.

"Hey!" She said it enthusiastically once I neared.

"Hi! How are you?" I said, hugging her as she stood up.

"I'm good, you?" She said it back.

"I'm alright; let's go inside." I said I was ready to see the cats.

"I can tell you're not; you have that uptight look you get when you're mad at someone or something." She said this, leading us inside.

"I'm fine; it's nothing." I said I was lying as we walked into the kitchen.

"Don't give me that; what's up?" Selena said, taking a bottle of wine out of my wine cooler.

"It's about the whole Frankie thing. I'm getting really worried about it." I said, sighing.

"Wanna talk about it?" She said this, getting two glasses out of the cupboard.

Honestly, yeah, I do, and I don't want a glass of wine." I said.

Selena raised an eyebrow sceptically and continued to pour two wine glasses; after handing mine to me, she said, "Ok, what's up?"

I spent the next few minutes talking about it all and how I was getting genuinely concerned about it all.

"Tay, if you really think what you think is happening is actually happening, you need to call CPS," Selena said.

"I know. That's what my mom's been saying. I just don't want to rip her from everything she knows; for teenagers especially, the foster system can absolutely stink." I said, feeling myself about to go into spiral mode again.

"That's true, but you should really try to help; if she is being abused or anything like that, it's morally wrong not to do anything." She said.

"You're right. I'll try to send a report tonight. Thank you." I said, feeling my stomach drop.

"No problem at all. I'm going to get going now," she said, finishing her glass of wine.

Once she was gone, I poured myself another, larger, glass of wine and went into the living room, where I opened my laptop.

'California CPS hotline' I searched on Google and copied the number onto my phone.

My hand shaking, I pressed call and lifted the phone up to my ear.

It rang a few times before I went through.

"Good evening. This is the California child protective service hotline. How can I help you?" A far too cheery voice spoke from the other side of the phone.

"Hi, uh, I'm calling to report concerns of abuse in a minor." I said, trying to suppress the rising lump in my throat.

"Ok, what is the full name and address of the said individual?" She said I could hear the noise of her keyboard.

I spent 20 or so minutes on the phone, going through a lengthy interview process about everything I know and a tonne of other questions.

There were a lot of things I didn't know the answers to, but the woman I now know is called Emily, and she assured me that most callers don't know the answers to most questions and that it is just protocol.

"Thank you for your call, ma'am; we will be in contact once an investigation has been conducted. Have a good evening." Emily said before hanging up.

I sat for a few minutes, reflecting on the past hour of my life while stroking Meredith, who was now sitting with me on the sofa.

After I had gathered all my thoughts, I opened up my laptop again, making a new tab.

'How to become a foster parent,' I searched.

Authors note
It's like almost 3 days until speak now tv and I'm so excited but also so worried for Wednesday when I find out if I get a code for international dates or not 😭 there's so many emotions.

I'm also absolutely terrified of what Taylor's been doing at the recording studio lately she had like a 6 day streak of being seen going in or something ridiculous.

Also my laptop has been really glitchy this week and it wouldn't let me edit this so ignore the copious amount of typos
Audrey xx