Hey guys sorry for the wait on this one, I have mixed feelings on this chapter it's definitely not my best. I have been struggling with it all week and now I have finally finished it. Hope it doesn't disappoint, it should pick up again next chapter. Thanks for all your support and thanks for reading!
"Hey come on kid, eat up we're leaving in ten." Jay said as he walked back into the kitchen area in their apartment, to make himself some breakfast after getting ready for work.
He frowned, when he got closer to the table and saw Gracie's miserable expression as she pushed around the Cheerios in her bowl, not eating.
"What's going on Grace? You gotta eat something kiddo, you got school today you need the energy." Jay reminded her gently, filling his cup with coffee, pouring a bowl of granola and sitting down next to her.
"Do I have to go back today?" Gracie said in a quiet tone looking nervous.
"Yeah, you do I'm sorry Gracie. It's been a couple of weeks since we found you at the park and now that you're getting a lot better it's important you go back so you don't fall far behind." Jay explained, he knew he and Hailey were right to put her back in school but they did feel bad for Gracie.
"You gonna eat something honey?" Hailey said equally as gentle and encouraging as Jay sitting inbetween them on another chair.
"No, thanks I'm not hungry." Gracie mumbled a little and she put her cereal bowl away quickly before walking back into her room to go get her stuff.
Hailey and Jay exchanged concerned looks for Gracie. This kid had been through a ton of scary stuff but she seemed most intimidated by going back to school.
"Hey chin up kid, once schools over for today we have the Blackhawks tonight." Jay said patting her on the head lightly as Gracie came back out of her room five minutes later.
She was wearing her backpack and the same expression on her face, but when Jay mentioned the hockey she smiled slightly and nodded trying to put school out of her head and focus on the night she was gonna have after.
"Come on Gracie, let's roll." Jay said picking up his car keys and badge off of the top of the dresser by the door. Gracie reluctantly followed Jay and Hailey out into the car, so much so that they had thought they'd seen offenders less reluctant to get into the car than she was.
Gracie was silent throughout the entire journey her earbuds plugged into her iPod trying to drown out the sound of her heart beating that little bit faster than usual from her nerves.
"It will be fine alright, we'll be a phone call away if there's any problems and we'll be back to pick you up later ok?" Hailey reminded her as they approached the school. She wasn't sure what else to say to Gracie to try and get her to go into the school as calm as possible. She looked at Jay who smiled and tried to help.
"Hey remember what we talked about last night when you were worried about it?" Jay asked and Gracie nodded gently.
"Concentrate on breathing when I get stressed out and keep these in whilst I'm out in the halls and outside." Gracie said with a slight smile in response looking down at her hands that were holding her iPod shuffle mp3 and earbuds that her Mom gave her as a birthday present when she was a ten.
"Ok great and rule number three?" Jay said and Gracie looked a little confused. "No Justin Bieber." Jay said which made Gracie smirk a bit and Hailey hit his arm.
"Jay!" She said as she lightly swatted his arm with her hand.
"Ouch!" Jay said faking pain, rubbing his 'sore' arm whilst smirking a little at Hailey's response. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding." He said holding his hands up to Hailey in mock surrender and then turning and sharing a joking smile with Gracie who smiled back at Jay just as amused by Hailey's response.
"Ok, we don't want you to be late, ready?" Hailey asked and Gracie nodded.
"Ready." She said smiling trying her best not to worry Hailey and Jay by keeping herself as calm as she could. They had only just taken her in she didn't want to cause them any trouble.
"You got it. You're gonna be ok, we're only a few minutes away. If there is any problems we can come right over alright?" Jay responded encouragingly.
Gracie nodded again in agreement and opened the car door to get out. "See you later" she said as she got out of the car.
"Bye sweetie." Hailey said as Gracie got out.
"Knock em dead kid." Jay added.
"Did we do the right thing?" Hailey asked Jay as they watched Gracie walk into the school building.
"She's gotta go back Hailey, we can't let her fall too far behind." Jay answered pulling the car away and back onto the road as they talked.
"I know but she was just so nervous." Hailey said as they drove to the district.
"I know but she'll be alright, like you said we're just a phone call away if there are any problems." Jay repeated and his hand on hers comfortingly and she nodded and squeezed his hand in return.
————————————————————————
"Hey look who it is, it's Jenkins! Words gone round saying her daddy beat her up. Man Jenkins! Your Daddy hated you so much he put himself in jail to avoid keeping you huh?" Ross Milligan yelled as he saw Gracie at her locker.
"Hey keep your mouth shut Milligan before I shut it for you." Gracie's friend, Raffy responded balling his fists. He had been calling and visiting Gracie as soon as he found out what had happened when he came back from vacation with his family.
"Raff just leave it alright, it's all good." Gracie said smiling at him reassuringly and completely ignoring Ross.
"Grace, this isn't fair we can't let this asshole talk about you like that." Raffy responded still looking angry his knuckles turning white.
"Raff look around, people are talking. No matter how much we don't like it word spreads like a wildfire in this school and there's nothing we can do to stop it, so let them talk. Please, I don't wanna fight anymore." Gracie whispered conscious that Ross wasn't too far away still.
Raff looked at Gracie seeing how much she wanted him to calm down, his expression softened and he nodded in agreement.
"Ok, come on we're going to be late for class." He said and they both headed for their Spanish class.
Gracie made it through Spanish and then her and Raffy separated so she could go to her American History class and Chem class and he could go to Geometry class and Gym class.
"Alright so I'll meet you by the bleachers at lunch? I think Travis and Chloe wanted to hang around with us if that's cool with you?" Raff said and Gracie nodded with a smile. Raff, Travis and Chloe were the people she got on with best at school they had always stuck by her.
Travis and Chloe didn't know about the whole situation with her Dad until it came out that he had gotten arrest. As soon as they found out they called her just like Raff but hadn't seen her since she started back at school.
"Yeah, yeah great I'll meet you by the bleachers." Gracie agreed and went off to class.
About an hour or so later she made her way out of the class and walked down the hall to go outside towards the bleachers. Suddenly as she turned the corner she was pushed forward by someone who had grabbed her earbuds by the wires which took her iPod with them, just before she was shoved to the ground. She turned back around still on the ground from being pushed to find out it was Ross's girlfriend Tanya.
It was in a more smaller, secluded section of the hall so there weren't that many people to see what was going on. Tanya laughed seeing her on the ground.
"You're such a loser Jenkins why didn't you just stay away huh? Nobody wants you here." Tanya said with a smirk.
"You see that's funny Tanya because I don't remember anyone reminding me when I came back, that I'd asked for your opinion." Gracie said sarcastically
"You think you're so smart." Tanya said.
"Not hard to be you've got Kindergarteners messing with you." Gracie said and Tanya looked kind of offended but soon came back with another comment.
"You think you're funny? Hey Ross!" Tanya said holding up Gracie's ipod to her boyfriend who was stood by the door keeping watch for her. "Pretty nice huh?" She said as he came through the door. She tossed him the iPod and he got closer to Gracie.
"Haven't got your little boyfriend to back you up now have you Jenkins?" Ross said and putting her iPod on the floor, he stamped on it repeatedly it with his foot. "Come on let's go get some lunch." He said turning his girlfriend and leaving the smashed up iPod on the floor next to Gracie.
Gracie took a couple of deep breaths trying to calm herself down, being pushed onto the floor like that just reminded her of everything with her Dad. It was always the little things and she really needed her iPod to help calm her down but now it was smashed to pieces on the floor.
Jay had knew she had liked music and mentioned that sometimes listening to music helped with his PTSD. It especially helped Gracie when they were in crowded places and she couldn't tell what sudden noises or movements might happen or just when she was feeling a little stressed out.
She wanted to scream at them or fight them but she just froze and let them crush one of the only things she had left that her Mom gave her. She had a flash of memories of her Mom singing those songs and nights together outside looking at the stars with one earbud each. She wanted to cry but didn't want to walk out with a tear stained face that she knew would cause her friends, especially Raffy to go and confront Ross and Tanya.
She gathered up the pieces of her iPod putting them into her pocket and made her way out towards the bleachers, putting a fake smile on her face.
"Hey Grace, you ok? teacher hold you back or something?" Raffy asked with genuine concern.
"Sorry, Miss Kenshaw just gave me a few names of books I could use for one of our projects at the end of class so I got held up." Gracie lied brushing it off.
"It's all good, wanna grab some lunch?" Chloe suggested with a smile and Gracie and the others nodded.
"Hey Grace, aren't you going to see the Blackhawks with your foster parents tonight?" Travis asked curiously as they walked to the cafeteria.
"Yeah we're going with Jay's brother and his brother's girlfriend too. Hailey said that she thinks they have a good chance of winning tonight." Gracie responded.
"Who are they up against?" Chloe asked as they walked back into the building.
"The Bruins." Gracie answered as they got in line for some food.
"Damn that's gonna be a close game." Raff added and they all nodded or mumbled a 'yeah' in agreement as they went to find a seat.
"Hey Jenkins!" Gracie heard a voice call in annoyance from a few meters away.
"What's your problem Milligan just go and annoy someone else would ya?" Travis said in response as Ross made his way to their table.
"D'you snitch on me?" Ross accused completely ignoring Travis and going straight up to Gracie.
"What? I don't even know what you're talking about.." Gracie said confused about what Ross was going on about. She hadn't said a word about what Ross or Tanya had done to anyone, she just wanted to get on with being back at school.
"They kicked me off of the team, said I broke the terms of my probation!" Ross yelled in front of everyone who had turned to watch Ross and Grace's table.
"Look man, coach had strict rules from the start about how we behaved and school work and stuff, if you messed that up that's on you." Raffy added.
"Shut your mouth Taylor!" Ross yelled at Raffy who Grace could see was getting more annoyed by the minute.
"You know what Ross maybe if you didn't act like such an asshole all the time this never would have never happened!" Gracie argued fed up of dealing with Ross.
Ross turned to see a kid behind him with a tray and grabbed his cup of water throwing it over Gracie.
"Alright that's it I'm done with this guy." Raffy said and got up starting to push Ross away from their table. "Just beat it Milligan!" He yelled and then turned to go back to the table when Ross pulled him back by his
shoulder and punched him.
They soon began fighting Travis getting up to try and break them up only to be elbowed back by Ross as him and Raff continued fight.
Travis got up off of the floor holding his face from the pretty big and sudden blow he received. Chloe went up to him putting a hand on his shoulder and checking he was ok, whilst Grace carried on yelling and pulling at Raff to stop fighting with Ross.
"Raffy leave it!" Gracie shouted and tried to pull Raff away only to be knocked on the floor by accident during the fight.
"Are you ok?" Chloe said knowing how nervous Grace got in these situations especially since her Dad. She helped her one of her best friends up in concern whilst seeing the others still in the middle of the brawl.
"Raff!" Travis yelled and managed to grab his friend as they rolled back over Raff about to punch Ross again after just being hit by him.
"Raff stop!" Grace yelled seeing Raff's fist pulled back and Travis's arms just having wrapped around him pulling him off. He stopped struggling against Travis's grip when at the sound of Grace's voice screaming at him.
"Ross, Raffy, Travis my office now!" The group of students around the table heard the principal shout as the fight broke down. "Chloe and Gracie, I'm gonna need you two as well."
What's going to be said in the Principal's office? How are Jay and Hailey going to react? Thanks for reading will update again soon! :) EQ x