"L A B E L S"

Episode 108

~ 4 Years Earlier - {Graduation} ~

"Scarlett! Come downstairs, hun!"

Scarlett jumps slightly at the sound of her mother's voice from downstairs and the phone that had been perched in her hand for the last half hour falls onto her bed. The choice of whether to call Nick back or just pretend what happened 3 nights ago never happened had been flying around in her head for hours now and she was happy for an excuse to leave her phone behind. "What is it, mom?" Scarlett questions as she makes her way down the stairs, only looking up when she reaches the third to last step. Her face lights up when she sees her brother standing at the bottom with a duffel bag latched to his left arm and a pair of sunglasses covering his deep blue eyes. She squeals in excitement and immediately leaps from the stairs, wrapping her arms around his neck in a hug. "What are you doing here?!"

"I couldn't miss my baby sister's graduation." He announces with a small laugh and wraps his spare arm around her waist.

Scarlett pulls away with a smile. "My graduation isn't for another couple of weeks."

"I'll just take your things to your bedroom and let you two have some sibling bonding time." Mrs. Evans offers before giving her son a kiss on the cheek and making her way up the stairs with two medium sized suitcases.

Zac looks back at Scarlett and places a hand across her cheek for just a moment. "You sounded upset on the phone. Why haven't you talked with anyone else? Mom obviously has no clue that you're upset and I seriously doubt you've talked to Derrick about whatever's bothering you."

"Nothing's bothering me, Zachary. I was just having a bad day, that's all." Scarlett assures with barely a smile.

Zac rolls his eyes in response. "You're such a bad liar. Why were you asking all of those questions about dad?"

She shrugs innocently. "I was just curious. It's been over a year and no one bothered to tell me what really happened."

"It shouldn't matter. He was a dick and he got what was coming to him." Zac speaks dryly while Scarlett swallows her opposing views.

"He was still our father, Zachary." Scarlett mumbles softly while starring down at the banister. "Whether we want to admit it or not, the people we are today is a result of the person he was and the choices he made while he was here."

Zac sets down his bags and takes a step towards his sister, wrapping her in his arms once again. "I don't know what happened while I was gone," Zac starts softly, "but you and I are nothing like our father. What he did to us may have damaged us slightly on the inside but we are strong and you have the power to keep your future as disconnected from that man as you want. You can't let our fathers mistakes destroy your happiness, Scar. You just can't."

~

The woman smiles and slides a stack of stapled papers to the young man sitting opposite her. "Just sign on the dotted line and you're a free man, Mr. Cameron."

Jake stares down at the documents, his expression void of much emotion at all. Although the paper may state he was free of his probation, he felt restricted in almost every other part of his life. "If only by signing these papers I could pretend it never happened."

"You made a mistake, Jacob," the probation officer leans closer, her arms folded neatly on the table in front of her, "a big mistake for someone who was barely seventeen at the time, but you're moving forward and learning from the mistake. That's all you can do."

He stares down at the pen in his hand another moment before signing the paper. Singing may not erase the problem from his past but it was a step and that's what he was going to do, take one step at a time.