Stood in the yard, wearing party hats, were the Tucker kids, Elle, Ethan, Amy, Sarah and her parents, and Jason. When she realized what was happening, she thought she'd be flooded with bad memories, but that didn't happen, instead, she was overcome with gratitude.
"Are you surprised?" Jason took Gracie's hands and led her out in front of everyone. The last time this many people were staring at her was at the party, but this time the guests weren't judging her or whispering about her, they were there to celebrate her.
"Yeah," Gracie said quietly, any louder she would have burst into tears. She felt a love unlike anything she'd ever known, she couldn't believe she had people who liked and cared about her enough to do all of that.
Colored festoon lights were strung from branch to branch on the trees, casting a rainbow of lights on the ground. The kitchen table had been moved onto the deck, adorned with party food and a birthday cake. What she was most grateful for was all of her friends, but someone was missing, the one person she wanted to see most.
"Thank you," she said, trying not to cry.
Jason stepped forward and took her hands, "Do you like it?"
"You didn't have to do this for me," Gracie was overwhelmed in the best way, she let a few tears out.
"Your family helped. You're not mad are you?" Jason asked, "I knew it was a risk, but birthdays are supposed to be fun, and you seemed like you could do with a little cheering up today," he reached out and wiped away her tears.
"No, I'm not mad. I love it, thank you," she kissed him on the cheek, still ridden with guilt.
Riley was snapping photos of the two of them while everyone watched. She pictured herself in the images, living a lie in front of everyone she cared about. Gracie did her best to immerse herself in the party, the music pounded and her friends and foster family danced under the lights, Gracie saw an opportunity to have a moment alone. She went into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of cold water when Sarah walked in.
"Hey, are you okay?"
"I'm fine," she chugged half of her water within a few seconds, "I mean I'm not fine. Nothing's ever fine," Gracie took a deep breath but the tears started streaming again.
"Hey, let's go talk upstairs," Sarah took her best friend's hand and led her up to her bedroom.
She'd been avoiding Sarah's messages for a while, she had no idea how to tell her about the Rachel/Jason situation. But when they sat down upstairs, Gracie was more than ready to tell her best friend. She needed guidance, and maybe she needed someone to hold her accountable for what she was doing because she was in too much denial to do that for herself.
Sarah gave Gracie a few minutes to gather herself before asking, "What's going on?"
She sighed, frustrated with herself, "Things are good here with the Tuckers, but you know, there's other stuff too," finding the words to explain was the real challenge.
"Is it to do with that Jason guy? Is he your boyfriend?" Normally Sarah loved boy talk, but she could tell that her friend was going through something, after all, she knew that Gracie had kissed Rachel, and it must have been so confusing after everything her father did.
"Okay, I have to tell you something," Gracie prepared herself. She had meant to come out to her best friend a while ago, but they got into an accident moments after Gracie started to say it, and after that, her life only got more complicated. But she couldn't put it off any longer, "I'm gay. Like not bi or pan or anything like that. I'm gay. I like girls and only girls. Maybe I feel something for Jason, but I don't think it's in the way I'm supposed to. Or... not supposed to, just like the way that I like girls. A girl."
After her verbal vomit, Gracie waited for her friend to react, but Sarah just sat there, looking at Gracie with a poker face.
"What do you- I mean," Gracie stuttered, "Is that... okay with you?"
"Gracie," Sarah cracked a small smile, and then started laughing, "Did you seriously think I didn't already know that?"
"What?" Gracie laughed too, and suddenly they were both in fits of laughter, "What gave it away?" Gracie asked after the two had calmed down.
"The first sign was when we watched The Hunger Games and while I was obsessing over Josh Hutcherson, you wouldn't shut up about Jennifer Lawrence's talent, then we got to the second movie and you just about lost your mind over the elevator scene!" Sarah took Gracie's hand, "You know it doesn't matter to me right? You're my best friend and nothing will ever change that."
Gracie hugged her friend, and couldn't stop herself when she started to cry, "There's more," Gracie sniffled, "I guess when I met Jason, I just fell for him. And it wasn't about his gender or my sexuality, I just liked him, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been sort of accidentally using him. It's just, well," she stuttered every other word, "I was already, sort of seeing someone else. And then that ended, which is a different story. But then, yesterday, Jason came over for dinner, and Danny sort of outed me in front of everyone, so I ran off and disappeared for a little while. I just needed space and someone to talk to, you know? So I met up with Rachel and-"
"Rachel? As in John's daughter?" Sarah furrowed her brow, "I know you guys kissed and whatever but after everything that happened... Gracie, why are you hanging out with her?"
"Look, that's not the point right now. She was the girl I was seeing before Jason, and then when I met up with her yesterday, we sort of got back on track and we kissed... a lot. At the time I didn't feel bad about it because I was so sure that Jason would want nothing to do with me anymore, but then he was so sweet to me today. He threw me a surprise party. And now I can't tell him because he asked me to be his girlfriend today and I said yes, like an idiot but I also said yes to Rachel last night. So, long story short, I'm cheating on both of them and I don't know if I believe in God or heaven and stuff but I do know that I'm going to Hell," Gracie ended her rant breathlessly.
"Calm down, G," Sarah hugged Gracie again, "First of all, you're not going to Hell. Second, the best thing you can do right now is be honest with him." Gracie nodded. "But I think you should stop seeing Rachel. It's not safe."
"Not safe?" Gracie scoffed, "Just because of who her dad is? You don't even know her, she's nothing like him," Gracie defended Rachel, a girl she'd known nowhere near as long as she'd known Sarah.
"Who's nothing like who?" Riley walked into the bedroom to grab some more film for her camera, "Come back downstairs, you're missing the party."
"Did you know she's been dating Rachel?" Sarah asked her sister.
"Sarah!" Gracie tried to stop her friend from spilling her secret, but the damage was done with one question.
"Yeah, she's from an old foster home right?" Riley said casually, not seeing the problem.
"She's John's daughter."
Gracie winced at his name and watched as Riley put the pieces together. She looked confused for a moment, and then she got angry, "What?" She raised her voice, furious, but she was trying to remain calm.
"Keep your voice down," Gracie begged, "Look it's not a big deal, she's a good person," she started to walk back downstairs, regretting bringing it up in the first place. Riley called after her, but when they walked into the yard, everyone was still having so much fun, so Sarah and Riley decided to save the rest of the conversation for later. After all, it was her birthday.
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.