Choni One Shots pt: 2

218: The One Where Toni Gets Custody

TONI POV:

Mom walks into the kitchen. "Toni, you're 21!" She smiles. "I'm 27 but at least you didn't think I was 7 when I was about to graduate high school like dad in his constant drunken state." I say drinking my coffee. "Why is your mom here?" Cheryl ask quietly. "I don't know, she was here when I got up." I whisper. "Why are you wondering about my age?" I ask. "You're an adult and don't need to rely on your parents. So why does your ungrateful bitch of a sister think she needs me to live her life?" I look at her confused. "First of all, don't insult Jess. Second, says you who is in my house because you probably didn't have anywhere to go last night because Jess has learned to lock the door of the trailer at night so she doesn't almost get gang banged, so who's relying in who?" I ask. She looks at me. "You're ungrateful." I nod. "You're abusive and manipulative so honestly who's really in the wrong." I say. She walks out and leaves. I look at Cheryl. "Doesn't she have a key to that trailer?" I shrug. "She probably lost it while shooting up heroin." I take a deep breath. "We need to get my sister out of that place." I whisper. She nods. "I don't want to do anything though if you're not ready." I say quietly. She looks at me. "She needs a better home and she's nice so, we can talk about this when I get home from work more." She whispers. "Ok." I nod.

"How do we get Jess out of that trailer?" I ask sitting down at the table. "You've said that she's always drunk. Like she just stormed into our house like it was her own! We could probably call CPS or something. I know your mom is not gonna willingly let her go." I look at her. "Ok. When?" I ask quietly. "After we eat." I nod. "Yeah." I nod again. "Unless you don't want to baby." She whisper. "No, I will."

"Hi, I would like to report a parent." I say awkwardly on the phone. "What's their name?" The operator ask quietly. "Andrea Topaz. She lives in Riverdale." I say quietly. I look at Cheryl. "Um... this person is my mother, I'm older and out of the house. She is just always drunk and never really there, our father is never home, he comes and goes at months at a time. My mother, she still has custody of my younger sister she's almost 12." I explain. "Where does she live?" She ask quietly. "Sunny Side trailer park, trailer number 39 east side." I say quietly. "What's the kids name?" I take a deep breath. "Jessica but she goes by Jess." I say. "When- when will I be able to take her in?" I ask quietly. "Are you gonna take her?" I nod. "Yeah." I say quietly. "I don't want her to spend any time alone in a place she doesn't know." I say freaking out a bit. Cheryl rubs my back a bit. "You'll be able to take her after the paperwork is done, we'll call you before we pick her up so you can meet her there." I look at Cheryl. "Ok." I nod. "Um... thank you." I say before hanging up. "They'll call me when they are gonna pick her up so I can meet her at the center." I whisper. "I feel like this was a mistake." I look at her. "Toni, you chose to do this." I nod. "Yeah. I just don't want her to be scared." She nods.

I look at the trailer and see a police officer and a social worker from CPS at the door. I take a deep breath. "Should we really be watching?" Cheryl ask quietly. "I don't know but look." I say as we watch them take my mom away. She sees me and gives me a dirty look. A few minutes later Jess walks out with the social worker and her bags. She sees me and nods. I nod back. They go to the car and drive off. "I just wanted to make sure she got out ok." I say starting the truck and driving off. "Are we following them?" She ask. "Yeah." I say quietly.

I walk into the department and see Jess. She perks up. She runs up to me and hugs me. "Hey!" I smile. "Thanks for finally getting me out." I nod. I walk over to the front desk. "Hi, I need so sign my sister out." I say quietly.

I walk into the house. "Cheryl we're home!" I yell. "You know where your room is." I say before going into the kitchen. "Hey, how did it go?" Cheryl ask quietly. "Fine, we just have to show up in court and adopt my sister." I say quietly. "What about your dad signing away his daughter." I smile. "You already did that?" I nod. "Not legally though." She looks at me. "I had to bribe him with a lot of money." I say quietly. She sighs. "Honestly at this point, I don't care." She says quietly. I nod. "What about your mom?" She ask quietly. "What do you mean?" I ask quietly. "She's still around." I nod. "Yeah, I'm still trying to figure that out." I say quietly. "Also, can you pick her up from school tomorrow, usually she'd just walk home but because of everything with our mom I would prefer one of us just pick her up from school and I have work and I know you're not. Also it's it's a hour walk home from her school to here." I say quietly. She smiles. "Yeah, except, I don't actually know where she goes to school and how to get there." She whispers. I take a deep breath. "I'll drive her to school you can come with us." She nods.

CHERYL POV:

I drive up to Jess's school. One of the teachers walks up to the car. "Who are you hear for?" She ask. "Jessica Topaz." I say quietly. "What is your name?" She ask looking at her board. "Cheryl Blossom." She looks at me. "I'm nothing like my parents." I say quietly. "What is your relationship with Ms. Topaz?" She ask. "Sister-in-law." I see Jess and she walks over. "Do you know who she is?" The teacher ask. "Yeah, she's my sister's wife, they've been married for a few years now." Jess says before getting in the car. The teacher walks off. "Did she think you were gonna kidnap me?" I nod.
"Probably especially after I said my last name." I say quietly. "Why don't you just take Toni's?" She ask confused. "I don't like the way Cheryl Topaz sounds and Toni doesn't like the way Toni Blossom sounds so we didn't change our last names." I explain. "Fair enough." She whispers. "You hungry?" I ask. "Not really." I nod. "But if you put food in front of me I wouldn't turn it away." She adds. "You could have just said you could eat." I say quietly. "Wanna go to Pop's?" I ask. She nods. "Cool. After that we have to stop at CVS to pick up some medication for you. Since you left that at your mom's trailer." I explain.

I walk up to the counter. "I'm here to pick some medication." I tell the pharmacist. He nods. "Name?" He ask. "Jessica Topaz." He nods and goes grab it. I hear a small crashing sound and turn around to see Jess holding boxes of tissues she almost knocked over. "You are just as uncoordinated as Toni." She nods. "Yeah, you can thank our grandmother for that." She says. I nod. "I'll do that next time I see her." The pharmacist hands me her meds and we head home.

I lie next to Toni. "You ok?" I ask quietly. "Do you think we're doing the right thing?" She ask. "Toni, you've practically been taking care of her since she was born. You might as well make official." She nods. "What if it's too much?" She ask sitting up. "Toni, you love that kid more than anyone in the world. Honestly I get a little jealous." She smiles. I look at her. "Toni, she's not gonna be here long. You just have to get her through a few more years of school and she's off on her own. I think you can handle this." I say quietly. "But a lot happens in a year. What if we want to have kids? What if we want to move to Canada?" I smile. "Toni, both of our jobs won't allow that and I like my job, so I would prefer if we didn't move to Canada, not now at least maybe we can retire there or something. And if we want to have our own children, I don't see why we can't even with your sister around. I think she'd be happy to be a aunt." She smiles. "Yeah I guess." She whispers. "Are you sure you want to do this?" She ask quietly. "Yeah. Like it's not my ideal situation because we shouldn't have to do this and it's definitely not were I thought our marriage would be by this time but, she needs a better home and we're her only shot. So, what I'm trying to say is, our marriage could be going a lot worse and honestly I couldn't be happier with you. Even with your sister here." She smiles. "We should get her enrolled in a closer school." She says quietly. "Did you listen to anything I said?" She nods. "Yeah, you couldn't be happier! It's just, it just popped into my head that we don't have to make a 30 minute commute each way back and forth for her to go to a shitty school on the south side of this town." I nod. "Fair argument." She pulls me into a kiss. "I love you."

I will probably do a part 2