"Cammie, hurry up its time to go!" Evan called as he packed up his laptop and headphones. "Bye," he lowered his voice and kissed Scarlett as she ran out the door. "Love you."
"Love you too, Eliot, we are gonna be late." She called as Eliot dragged his backpack behind him.
"Ugh I don't want to go to school!" he complained.
"Ugh I don't want to go to the hospital!" Cammie mocked.
"Wanna trade?" Eliot offered more excitedly.
"Yes actually." Cammie informed him. "I would rather be normal like you and able to go to school and live a normal life so stop complaining and go to school with mom." Cammie said as she grabbed her water bottle and moved towards Evans car.
"I couldn't have said it better myself." Scarlett said with a lopsided grin. "Now get going, or else we are going to get a tardy... again."
"FINE!" Eliot groaned. Moving more quickly to the car this time.
"Let me know how it goes." Scarlett called as she pulled out of the driveway. "LOVE YOU BOTH!" She yelled out the window.
"Will do," Evan waved them off.
"Bye mama. Love you." Cammie said as she buckled up. She never took her seatbelt off after that accident. She didn't need to go flying away again.
"For my birthday," Eliot began. "Can I have a sleepover?" He looked up at Scarlett through the review mirror, giving her his best puppy dog eyes.
"I don't know sweetie." He continued to stare up at her.
"Please mommy, I will keep them away from Cammie!" He begged, as if Cameron was a precious china doll that needed to be kept on a shelf, away from prying hands, prying eyes.
"El-" Scarlett was already giving in and planning on giving him the party. He didn't ask for much, he gave up things for Cammie too, a sleepover was the least they could do.
"PLEASE MOMMY!" He howled as they neared school. "PLEASE! PAH-LEASE!" He annunciated.
"Alright, alright," Scarlett said with a smile. "Let me check with Dad first, but I think we can do a sleepover for your birthday."
"Eliot's friends called me a monster. Hideous and they are right, I am and no matter how many surgeries I get done they won't change anything, not really anyway." Cammie crawled into bed with her parents that night. "Eliot was asleep, he didn't hear them." She informed them, the hooligans slept in the family room that night after staying up late playing Fortnight. "They didn't know I was in the kitchen." Cammie explained. "Or else I don't think they would have said it." Cammie lay between them, her shoulders sagged and her eyes swelled with tears that refused to fall down her face. "I think I want to talk to Ann again tomorrow." Cammie said after a long pause of Scarlett rubbing her back. Ann was Cammie's digital therapist, they had video or just audio calls once a week and Cammie had been enjoying telling someone her issues.
The depression of struggling with this new reality kept knocking Cammie down. Every time she thought she had it under control something or someone would come and make her feel small and useless.
Beep, boop, beep.
Cammie's phone went off and she moved to it, toothbrush still in her mouth. Eliot's friends were downstairs and she refused to join them for French toast for breakfast, her mom would bring her up a few once the boys were fed. She picked up her phone to see a message from Colton.
'Yo Cammie,' she smiled down at the text.
"Yo." She said aloud and laughed. "Who says yo?" She kept laughing as she read.
'Yo Cammie, I was thinking about you this morning. You alright?'
'No. Care to join me in my misery?' She typed back and within five minutes he was at her door.
"Colton!" Eliot said introducing him to all his friends. "This is-" Eliot went around the table they all waved at him saying hi through mouthfuls.
"Would you mind taking this up to Cammie?" Scarlett questioned as she flipped another stack of French toast.
"Of course Mrs. Brooks." Colton waved goodbye and smiled as he carefully made his way up the stairs. Before he could knock Cammie opened the door, a huge smile on her face as she took the plate from him. "That does not look like the face of a miserable girl." Colton said.
"Well food makes me happy." She replied sitting cross legged on her bed as she tossed blueberries in her mouth.
"Nothing to do with me?" Colton questioned mischievously, sitting across from her.
"Why do you like me?" Cammie asked bluntly.
"What do you mean?"
"Why do you like me?" She repeated. "Eliot's friends call me a hideous monster, a wad of chewed gum, a freak of nature." Colton shook his head, saddened.
"You are not a monster, not hideous, not-" Cammie held up a hand cutting him off.
"You know this relationship is plutonic. Nothing is going to happen between us so buttering me up with false compliments isn't going to get you laid." Colton blushed making his dark cheeks darker.
"No, no, no." He assured her. "I mean not that I, I mean you are great and..."
"Colton." She said his name like a command. "I just want the truth."
"Sure you don't look like other girls." He started. "But when you looked like everyone else you didn't look twice at me. We weren't friends anymore." He said honestly. "So I don't think you are a monster, I think that you are beautifully unique."
"Alright you had me until that last line." Cammie said, she put a hand over her mouth as she talked and chewed her breakfast.
"It's nice being friends again. What happened? And I want the truth." He added.
"I don't know, we just drifted." Cammie said casually.
"Lair." Colton always told it to her straight and she liked that about him. She liked that he was real with her, that he didn't look at her like a freak, like he claimed her didn't see her as. So why was it so hard to believe him? Oh that's right, because every time she looked in the mirror she saw what was wrong not what was right with her.
"My parents got Eliot a punching bag in the basement for his birthday. He's gotten really good." Cammie pushed past the topic. "I'm going to start hitting it when Eliot's at school. Picture all his little friends. Picture punching them in the face." Cammie finished off her plate, placing it on the ground for Ruckus to lick. "Eliot's coach," she went on seeing Colton still wanted to discuss their past. "At the boxing gym said that he wants Eliot to do some sparing in the ring, Eliot is really excited about the whole thing." She licked at her lips tasting syrup. "I would like to get in the ring with a few of his friends and just POW!" She threw a punch in the air to demonstrate.
"That's sounds better than punching children." Colton said cautiously. "So what do you want to do today? Besides punch Eliot's friends?"
Cammie started reading another book off her moms' shelf. 'One,' it's about conjoined twins and something they said hit Cammie hard.
'Not everyone in the world is an asshole. No, you're right not everyone's an asshole, but around us they all morph into them.'
She didn't used to think her friends were jerks, but around her mutated face they changed and became brutal and malicious. Well everyone accept Colton.
After Colton left though Cammie felt alone and sad again. Her Dad was helping Eliot in the basement while her Mom had to go help out at work. Leaving Cammie alone. She let out a huff of hot air and moved to the kitchen. Cammie had successfully avoided her so called friends since the Fiona incident and hid in her room from Eliot's friends quite well up until that previous night. Eliot's friends calling her a monster, a wad a chewing gum, a bubble face, didn't help her self-esteem. That was the thing about children they didn't sugar coat it. They just said it how it was how it is.
She used to be a bubbly person, that was not what they were referring to. Cameron felt so depressed and miserable, she used to be so confident and now she was scared to leave her room for fear of being seen in her own kitchen.
Things to do to be more confident. She typed in the search engine on her tablet, Cammie hit enter and a flood of results came up on her screen. Power poses and smiling were the most recommended, plus positive self-talk. Ugh. Cameron groaned, she flipped the camera open on her phone and looked at her ugly face.
"You look great." She bit out and turned off her camera. She didn't look great and it didn't help lying to herself. "Next." Heels, makeup, shaving... Cameron hated wearing heels without a purpose, couldn't really put makeup on her face considering she couldn't see her face under all the scaring and broken bones. Shaving, she looked down at her legs. Fine, she moved back up to her bathroom. She cut herself four times while shaving, cursed each time and didn't feel more confident afterwards.
"Hey Cam, you alright in here?" Scarlett asked sticking her head in the door.
"No." Cameron replied slouching on her bed, then proceeding to flop mushy face first into her pillow.
"What do you need?"
"A new face," Cameron said in an obviously annoyed tone.
"I would give you mine we could do that." Scarlett said and she truly believed that. If she could make her daughter happy she would trade faces, but it wouldn't work like that, Scarlett would die in the process, and Cameron made it clear she didn't want her mom to die, even if that was possible.
"I don't want your face mom." Cameron whined.
"I know," Scarlett hesitated. "You want to get ice cream? Or I can bring it home if you prefer?" Scarlett sat down at the end of her bed and ran a hand over her hair, tracing patterns on her back.
"Dairy Queen?" Cameron said lifting her head up from the pillow.
"Of course, where else?" Scarlett said with a smile.
"Blizzard, the strawberry cheesecake blizzard. Large." Cammie said placing her order with Scarlett.
"Okay, I will be right back." Scarlett rose kissing Cameron's cheek. "Eliot you want to come and get ice cream with me?" She didn't need to ask to know he wanted to come with. He was running down the hall at full speed to get his shoes on. "Evan?" Scarlett knocked on the office door and he looked up to her with a smile. "Eliot and I are going to get Cam some ice cream, you want anything?"
"You know I could use a break." He clicked off his transcription and rose from his chair, cracking his knuckles. "I can drive."
"I'll get my purse, I think I have a gift card from the church still." Scarlett said moving out to the bed room.
"Cam we are all going to go." Evan said kissing her head, she still lay face burrowed into the pillow.
"K," She replied through a muffled voice.
"I love you Cameron."
"Love you too." She replied automatically and threw a blanket over her head. She knew how her dad felt now. She knew how it felt to get those strange looks he got most of his life. People looking at you like an outcast, yet her mom loved him more than anyone, even if his face and body looked less than typical.
Evan sat with Eliot on the bench while they waited for their ice cream to be made. Scarlett stood next to the counter and smiled back at her family as Cammie's blizzard was slide across the counter, then her own. She put a spoon in hers and a lid on Cammie's.
Another family came in all smiles, but their faces quickly sullied, seeing Evan smiling and laughing with Eliot. The teenage girl held up her phone not so discreetly to take a photo of Evan, but her mom put a hand over the camera.
"Honey," she whispered shaking her head in disappointment. Scarlett took a step back and waited for Evan and Eliot's ice cream to be created. She noticed their stares and looked to Evan, he only smiled to her. He was used to it, he didn't blame Cameron for not coming. To this day it was still hard for him at times being treated like an enigma. Now to think that his daughter was being treated the same...
"What's wrong, Dad?" Eliot questioned as Scarlett delivered their ice cream.
"Just tired, don't worry bud." Scarlett held out his Sunday he rose slowly, his eyes wandering to the family that was still eyeing him. "Ready to go?"
"Scarlett, Evan!" Clara Fraser called waving at them as she walked closer with her tiny yorkies yapping excitedly. Eliot ran into the house ignoring Clara and saving his ice cream from the sun.
"Hi, I'm going to run in and give this to Cam I'll be right back." Scarlett said holding up the ice cream.
"So Evan," Clara looked to the house, watching Scarlett disappear into the house. "How are things?"
'Yip, yip, yip.' Evan bent down to pet the dogs as Clara stood antsy in her spot.
"Things are not the greatest, but it's okay. And yourself?" Evan looked up to her. He found that finding other things to look at helped the conversation move along. Like her yapping dogs. Clara didn't have to feel the need to look at Evan's face and he didn't have to look at her budged eyes and nervous expression.
"Things are good, Colton has been enjoying hanging out with Cameron. I am very glad he made a friend." She said excitedly. "Some of his brother's friends are not the best of influences on Colton."
"Yeah, it's been good for Cameron to have someone to talk to." Evan agreed. He heard a hot breath of relief expel quickly from Clara's mouth and knew Scarlett had come back outside.
"So Scarlett, Evan and I were just talking about Cameron and Colton... they seem to be getting along well, yes? Colton doesn't have many good friends."
"Cameron doesn't have many friends that lasted the accident, so she is grateful for Colton's kindness. Also we are grateful for Colton. This has been hard on all of us but he has been so sweet." Scarlett went on as Clara smiled lovingly at her, avoiding Evan's eye at all cost. She didn't do it on purpose, okay she did but she didn't want to. She wanted to be able to look at Evan like Scarlett did, like just another person but she couldn't. It had been about 10 years since she moved down the street from them and every time she saw them she couldn't help but think Scarlett was a saint for waking up to that face every morning.
"I have to get back to work." Evan stated kissing Scarlett's cheek, she had her spoon in her mouth, the ice cream in her cup melting quickly in the sun. "It was nice to see you." Evan lied waving back to Clara.
"Oh you too, Evan." It took her a moment to look back at Scarlett. A saint, Scarlett was defiantly a saint. "So, any news on Cameron's condition, or oh what do you call it?" Clara cringed.
'Yip, yip, yip.'
"We don't have much information on anything. The doctors are still figuring out what to do. Cameron got called a wad of chewing gum by one of Eliot's friends so she has been slightly more miserable." Scarlett listed the things on her fingers that was wrong. "We are going to the hospital again tomorrow and seeing about helping her neck, forming her chin some more. Dealing with fake bone..."
"Oh on Grey's anatomy, I think they make face bones. I'm sure the show would let you use their machine once they found out what you went through!" Clara said excitedly. Scarlett smiled back at her friend. She didn't mean to be stupid, she was trying to be kind Clara just didn't know how to without insulting Scarlett's medical knowledge.
"Well making her a new face had been discussed and it just isn't possible. But slowly molding her neck and chin might be something that gives her a bit more confidence to try and live again." Scarlett said softly. "I should get going, this ice cream isn't going to eat itself!" Scarlett tried to lighten the mood and Clara smiled glad to get going, she loved Scarlett, but she always felt a sense of sorrow and misery when seeing them, especially since Cameron.
"Well you let me know if you need anything. Colton wanted to come by but he needs to get his homework done. Maybe he can come by after her chin surgery?"
"Sure, I think Cam would like that a lot." Scarlett replied turning towards the house.
"Some days I don't know how you look at me like that." Evan said to Scarlett as she unstrapped her watch putting on her bedside table.
"What do you mean?" She moved to him putting a gently hand on his face.
"With so much love, like I'm normal." Scarlett made an annoyed face. Seeing how people treated Cammie, after talking with Clara, it reminded him how lucky he was that Scarlett didn't treat I'm like a fungus or a parasite. She treated him like a person.
"Normal is boring," she replied wrapping her arms around him. "You are mine." She kissed him and as she did the door flew open.
"I think Trix barfed up her dinner," Cammie announced.
"Did you clean it up?" Scarlett wondered even though she knew the answer.
"No gross," Cammie replied leaving the door wide open.
"I love you." Evan directed at Scarlett getting her attention again.
"Right back at you darling." She kissed him again as she went to investigate the barf situation.