State Of Grace

Chapter 14 - The Best Day

Gracie sat down with the Tucker kids, who had handed her a stack of boxes wrapped neatly in a multi-colored paper, "Guys, this is too much," she insisted.

"Don't be stupid, it's your birthday," Marco said, "Open them!"

From Marco and Danny, Gracie received a pair of expensive white sneakers so she could stop wearing Riley's old beaten-up boots. From Maia, a makeup bag filled with brand new cosmetics so she could finally learn how to do it herself. And from Riley, she received a number of the books that Gracie had mentioned she'd wanted to read, she didn't realize anyone was paying attention when she talked about those little things.

"There's one more, this one's from all of us," Riley handed Gracie a gift bag. Inside was a wooden plaque similar to the ones on the bedroom doors of the Tucker kids, but this one had her name on it, "I thought you might want to put it on our door since it's your room now too," Riley said. Gracie teared up, she loved all of the gifts, but the plaque meant the most; it meant that they saw her as one of them. She and the Tucker kids shared a group hug and she thanked them what seemed like a million times.

Next, it was time for her to receive gifts from the Abbots. Rupert, Jane, and Sarah had given Gracie an entire wardrobe of new clothes, probably all picked out by Sarah.

"Oh my God, thank you, guys!" Gracie would have been happy with a card, or nothing at all, she had never been so showered with gifts and love in her life.

"Look at the bottom!" Sarah begged.

Gracie dug through the clothes and pulled out a box wrapped in shimmering gold paper, "Wait," Gracie saw a small Apple logo when she peeled back the paper, "Sarah, this is way too much," Sarah started ripping away at the paper and revealed a laptop to everyone.

"Nonsense, you'll need it for school," Rupert insisted, "Happy birthday, Gracie."

She hugged the Abbots, and Maia volunteered to go and set up the computer for her.

"Hey," Jason came up from behind her and took Gracie by the waist, "You have a lot of people who love you," she could feel Sarah and Riley staring at her, judging.

When Stella and Lilah arrived home from work, they weren't too happy to see that their kids had thrown a party for Gracie, who was still grounded. At first, they were mad, but once Riley had calmed them down, they joined in with the fun.

Gracie enjoyed herself for the most part, and she was grateful that she had so many people who cared for her. But she also felt ashamed that she was lying to Jason, and if she kept up the fake relationship, she'd be lying to everyone else too.

Once the party died down, Gracie walked Jason to the door to see him out. "I can't thank you enough, you made me love my birthday again," she smiled, but she was holding back tears. She prayed he would think they were happy tears.

"There's one more thing," Jason reached into his pocket and pulled out a long blue box, "I didn't want to give it to you in front of everyone."

"Jason, you've done enough," she tried to refuse the gift. With her lack of experience with high-end jewelry, even she could tell that it must have been pricey. She didn't deserve it, especially from him.

"Just open it," he pushed the box into her hand.

Reluctantly, she opened the box and pulled out a gold necklace with the letter G hanging from it, "Jason," she wanted to tell him the truth, but he was smiling from ear to ear, there was no way she could hurt him now.

"Here," Jason took the necklace and clasped it around her neck.

Gracie felt like she was in a movie, "Jason, this must've cost a bomb," she fiddled with the charm.

"It doesn't matter, you look amazing, like always," he kissed her.

"Gracie," Stella interrupted the kiss, "Time to say goodnight," she was getting a little irritated.

Gracie said her goodbyes to Jason and watched him drive away, he was so happy and she was riddled with guilt.

"Meeting in the kitchen, kids!" Stella shouted upstairs and soon enough, the whole family and Gracie were gathered around the kitchen table.

"Now, we know you wanted to do something special for her birthday, but Gracie is grounded and you all knew that," Lilah said. Gracie had forgotten she was grounded and instantly felt bad that the others had risked getting in trouble for her.

"So, Gracie, you're grounded for another week, and the rest of you, two weeks." A commotion broke out.

Each of the kids had plans for the weekend, Gracie didn't care about being grounded, the only person she wanted to see was Rachel, and she was booked up with strategy meetings for next week anyway, but she blamed herself for the Tucker kids getting in trouble.

They all begged with Stella and Lilah, but it only made them firmer, and they sent all five kids to bed early.

"I'm sorry, if I'd known you would all get grounded I would have asked you to shut it down before they got home, are you mad?" Gracie asked her foster sisters as they all got ready for bed.

"Don't be stupid, we're not mad!" Maia said, laughing.

"It's not your fault, besides we wouldn't have shut the party down even if you had asked," Riley added, "And I'm glad you made the right choice, with Jason," assuming from the kisses they shared throughout the evening that Gracie was going to keep dating him instead of Rachel.

Gracie hadn't changed her mind about Jason, she didn't want to be with him, but letting everyone believe she had chosen him would make it easier to keep seeing Rachel, so she went along with it for the time being.

Over the weekend, Gracie had more meetings with Janice, they were almost ready to go to court, but there were a few more things that Janice needed to discuss with Gracie.

"His defense is going to be brutal," she stated plainly, "They are going to say some horrible things about you." These were things she'd heard before, but what Janice said next sent a shiver down her spine, "I have received information that they've obtained one of your old journals."

She had kept journals for years when she was younger, writing down everything that happened to her in every home she was in until her belongings were taken from her, and she had no idea which one they had found.

"How? All my diaries were stolen or barbecued," Gracie panicked and wished she hadn't told Stella and Lilah that she could handle this meeting alone.

"We don't know how they got it, but there is good news," Janice said, "We can use it to our advantage too. I have a copy," she reached into her briefcase and pulled out a stack of paper, photocopies of the pages.

"No, I don't want any of this involved in the trial," she complained, but it wasn't up to her, "I was just a kid when I wrote this stuff. It has nothing to do with what he did to me!" She flipped through the pages, her eyes scanning across the paragraphs where she'd written about hurting herself, "This is too personal."

"Gracie, I know this is scary, but it has to be personal. John's defense will use this against you, but you and I can go through every page, you can explain it all to me, and I will make sure the jury hears your side of the story, every story."

It was obvious that Janice had already read it, which meant she knew about what happened at the Baker home. There was no use in fighting this, it could be her best shot at getting John convicted.

As time went on, Gracie's case was getting stronger and stronger, but that only meant that John's would be too. She'd seen his car, and his house, he had money and would probably have a crack team of lawyers committed to getting him off. Still, she was grateful to be able to even try to get justice, something she didn't have access to while she was being bounced between group homes.

Janice and Gracie pored over the journal pages all weekend and well into the next week. Janice now knew more about Gracie's past than anyone else, and the best part was that she didn't judge, not even for a second, all she cared about was the facts. But the worst part was that what happened at the Bakers could come up in court, which meant that everyone would know. Including John.