Nick has been living with the Thompsons for some time. And a lot of things happened. She wanted revenge for the things that they did to her, her Dad and to her restaurant, Franzelli's. The family trusted her (Well, at least Liz and Ed did) but turns out she was a con artist and she even robbed a bank. In the end, the family was ready to welcome her and apologize her. She's family to them. And she's very grateful for that, really. She just... Can't see herself as a member of the family. It's too hard. She feels like she's betraying her dad. And to make matters worse, her father has been acting strangely towards her, which makes her blame herself for... basically everything.
As she wakes up in the middle of the night, at dawn, she completely loses her sleep. She just stays there, thinking. When she gets up from the bed, she carefully walks on her tiptoes, preventing Molly to wake up. She walks through the corridor and goes downstairs, glaring at the kitchen and going foward to take a glass of water, hoping it'll make her go back to sleep.
She takes a sip of the water she's holding, and puts the glass down. When she stops everything to think again, she feels tears forming in her eyes, and she even tries to hold back, but she suddently bursts into tears, her heart pounding fastly as she thinks on everything that happened to her on the past few days. Everything just happened so fast... And she's definetly not ready for It. I mean, she's a fourteen-year-old who's trying to understand herself. And understand everything that's going on on her life.
She just sits there, leaned on the kitchen bench, still crying and now sobbing, losing her breath slowly, she's thinking to herself things like "It's all my fault" and "I'm so sorry".
When Nick recovers her breath (not fully, but still), she goes upstairs and lays down in bed, trying to fall asleep again.
But... She can't.
When Liz wakes up early in the morning to work, she sees Nick in the kitchen, now on the dinner table, sleeping.
"Nick?" Liz goes towards her and taps her head carefully. But she gets startled and gasps.
"I'm up! Huh... It's already morning?" She glares at Liz's worried face and she sighs deeply.
"Yeah. So, how did you sleep?" Liz says, already knowing the answer.
"I uh... I slept well!" She lies, and Liz sighs.
"I know you're having problems lately, but you can't keep any more sec-"
"Shoot, I'm late for school! Sorry Liz, I gotta go!" She interrupts her and walks away.
"But it's not even 8 a.m.!" She says, but Nick is already gone. Liz sighs heavily and she looks at a sleepy Ed coming down the stairs. She walks over him and they change glares as Ed yawns.
"What's going on, honey?" Ed asks her, seeing her concerned face.
"It's just that... I feel like Nick isn't opening up to us."
"...Look, this is being difficult for her." He starts, thinking while he talks. "And we need to support her. We did pretty bad things to her and we didn't even know that It was something bad." He finishes, and she nods.
"You're right. So much drama, huh?" They chuckle slightly. Molly walks downstairs and grins.
"Hi guys. Morning. Where's Nick? She wakes up a little before me, but I can't find her."
"She left early." Liz points at the door and Molly raises an eyebrown.
"What? She always leaves with me for school." She looks at them, and Liz sighs.
"She is going through a lot, sweetie. Just let her take her time." Molly nods and picks up some bread.
Nick is walking down the streets, stressed out with everything. She finally sees the jail that her Dad is being kept. She walks over there and, before getting in, she sighs deeply, trying to recover herself psychologically to talk to him. Saying that she chose to stay with the ones that literally ruined their lives wouldn't be an easy job for her.
After a while, she gets in the jail department and sits there in a table, waiting for her Dad.
...
Everything's silent.
She is just left with her thoughts.
And it's terrible.
Until her Dad walks in the room with some guards. He sits down and the gaze between the Dad and the daughter is really awful. For both of them. Considering their last encounter, this is going to be hard to face.
"Hey kiddo. How are you?" Tony breaks the akward silence between them.
"I'm fine." She answers dryly.
"So... What happened after that day?" He asks, now in a lower voice. Nick sighs.
"I am staying with the Thompsons." Her dad's eyes widen immediately and suddently, it turns into anger, maybe even rage.
"What????" It's the only thing that Tony can say right now. They change glares again. "How could you do that to me, Nicky? You know what they did to us! You were so close to get our revenge!"
"YOUR revenge! I don't want to do this anymore, Dad! Can't you get It? I told you a million times!" She snaps, and he scoffs.
"I need the money! You know that! Where are the $100k? Oh, right. You gave up on me."
"Stop saying that! I didn't give up on you! I'm just... Not stealing from the Thompsons anymore."
"You don't get It! They ruined our lives, Nicky. They made you suffer. They made me get in jail. How could you forgive someone like that?"
"I don't know, maybe I have a heart. Unlike you." When she says that, she immediately feels a wave of regret and she takes back what she said. "Dad, I'm so-"
"Save It." He says, getting up from his chair in front of her. "You let me down, Nick. If you are willing to betray me like that, you're nothing but a disappointment." Tony sighs and walks away to his cell. She feels her heart breaking as he says that, and she just gets up from her chair and walks away, thinking on what he just said, feeling like the worst person in the world.
In school, as Jeremy walks in, he feels a new air around there. Since he got expelled and now he's back, he feels totally new. But his happiness fades as he sees Lisa coming his way.
"Wha- What are you doing here, Thompson?" She crosses her arms and he smiles sarcastically.
"Well, they found out that I was not guilty for anything they pointed out. Neither was you."
"What? This isn't fair! It was obviously you!"
"Actually, someone confessed their guiltness." Lisa raises an eyebrown.
"Who?"
"I don't know." He shrugged. He obviously knows who was it, but he isn't going to reveal that Nick did it.
"Anyway," Lisa sighs and smiles slightly. "I'm glad you're back."
"Really? You are?"
"Well, I have to mock someone around here." He chuckles and she winks, while walking away. "See you later, Thompson."
In the same moment as she leaves, Jeremy feels a light touch on his shoulder. When he turns around, he sees Eric there, looking really surprised. Which, in Jeremy's opinion, is kinda cute.
"Jeremy? But- Weren't you expelled?"
"Yeah! But they found out that I wasn't guilty!" He says, and Eric gets excited.
"Really? That's great, Jer!" Eric hugs him, which makes Jeremy flinch a little, but he hugs him back.
"I know, right? It's so good to be back!" He lets go of him and they stare at eachother, with silly smiles.
"I have precalc now, you?"
"Precalc too!"
"Oh, so let's go before the teacher gets angry. You know how she is." They chuckle and walk over the class, holding hands.
Molly is in the middle of her class, which Nick also have, but she isn't there yet. The fact that Nick is skipping class makes her feel worried, because the last time she skipped class, it was supposed to meet a friend of hers, and it didn't go well.
As she starts to worry, Becky pokes her from behind. She turns around to face her.
"Hey, you okay?" Becky whispers to her, and she sighs sliently.
"No. Nick isn't here yet, and she left home without me." She whispers back, and Becky can sense the concern in her voice. It all goes down when Nick enters the class, interrupting the teacher that was explaning.
"You're late, Nicole." The teacher says.
"I know, I'm sorry. I had a few problems." She says, going towards her desk and sitting on her chair. As the teacher explains, Molly pokes her.
"Hey, what happened?" She whispers to Nick, and she just whispers back a "I'll tell you later."
Molly nods in agreement, but she can see Nick's upset face. It worries Molly even more than before. Maybe something bad happened.
When the class ends, Molly quickly walks over Nick. "So? What's going on?" She asks her.
"Let's go somewhere more private." Nick says, as she gestures for Molly to follow her.
They arrive in an empty corner, and Molly leans on the wall. "...I talked to my Dad today."
"Really? And how was it?" Molly quickly recovers her posture.
"Bad. He said that I'm..." She stops, sighing. "I'm a disappointment."
"He said what?"
"Yeah. I told him that I was going to stay with you guys, and he said that I was betraying him." She hugs herself, looking at the ground. But Molly looks extremely angry.
"WHAT?? How could he??? He doesn't know what he's talking about! He was manipulating you, Nick!" She comes closer to Nick and tries to comfort her, but it just isn't working very well.
"I know... But I still love him, and If I don't do anything, he's going to be beaten up. I need $100k to pay his debts." Molly's eyes widen when she says the value.
"$100k? That's a lot of money..."
"Yeah! And I can't afford It! I-I can't do this, Molly!" A tear streams down her face. She even tries to hold back her tears, but suddently they turn into sobs and she can't help but cry.
"Don't worry, we'll help you." She hugs her tightly as she cries and sobs.
When the school day is finally over, Jeremy, Molly and Nick are coming back home in the older brother's car. Everything's silent though, which is weird, because the car is literally never silent. Normally, the three of them talk in the way back home. But today, Nick is looking out the window and Molly is scrolling down her phone, while Jeremy is driving. It's kinda weird.
They arrive home, and they all go upstairs.
Later, in the night, Nick haven't said a word to Molly or anyone since school was over. In dinner time, they are eating on the dinner table. Until Ed breaks the silence.
"So, guys! How was your day?" He asks, but no one answers for a while.
"Mine was great! Everyone was happy to know that I'm back. Especially Eric," Jeremy says, smiling as he talks about Eric. Then, he snaps back to reality. "I mean... He's my best friend, so..."
"We get it, sweetie. Nick, how was your day?" Liz asks, and Nick glances at her. She notices that the girl didn't eat anything from her plate yet.
"Oh, my day was... Uh... Good?" She sighs. "Sorry. I'm just... Not hungry." She gets up from her chair and goes upstairs to her room shared with Molly.
"What's going on with her lately?" Jeremy asks, and Molly gets up from her chair.
"I'll find out." She says, going upstairs.
"Do you think that this wasn't what she wanted?" Ed asks Liz, and she sighs deeply.
"I don't know." After that, they Just keep having dinner without the two girls.
Molly goes after Nick and, when she enters the room, she sees Nick on her phone, sobbing a little. She sits on the end of her bed and looks at the floor.
"Nick, are you okay?" Molly just says, and the girl layed in the bed puts the phone away, now glaring at her best friend, who has a concerned face.
"Uhuh." She says, now looking away from her. Molly turns around to face Nick.
"Hey, you can tell me anything. We are best friends. You know that, right?"
"I know, Molly."
"So what aren't you telling me?"
"I told you everything."
"You didn't. Even you know that this is a lie!" She suddently snaps, and Nick even gets a little startled.
"But I'm being honest!"
"No, you're not! How many lies will it take for you to tell me the truth?" Molly says, getting up from the bed and walking away, very upset.
Nick feels her chest getting heavier as she takes her two hands over her eyes and lays down again, now just thinking about everything.
She doesn't know how she's going to get $100k to her father. I mean, she's just paying the fees. And it costs a lot of money already. One of the fees costed $10k. It's hard for her to gain money like this. She doesn't work, and the only way of doing this carefully is stealing. But she can't and she doesn't want to steal from the Thompsons.
But then, she wonders.
What if she plays just one last scheme?