Picking Up Shattered Pieces

Chapter 11

After Callie arrived home from school the next day, she went straight to her homework. It was unusual for her, but since she had a meeting with Robert the next day, she wanted to get ahead. Mariana and Jesus stayed after school since they had dance and wrestling practice. Jude and Callie practically had the house to themselves that afternoon since Brandon had band practice and both moms were still at work. As Callie made her way to the kitchen to get a snack for herself, something caught her eye. It was in the dining room, tucked underneath a small stack of paper, as to not draw attention to it. Callie moved the stack of papers aside so that she could get a better look at what caught her attention. At the bottom of the page, there was a dotted line, that indicated for a signature. On that line, was a scribbled name. Robert’s.

“When did Robert sign the adoption papers? And how?” Callie wondered. She figured she would ask her moms later on when they were home. After putting the papers back the way she found them and getting a snack, she went back up to her room to finish her homework.

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Jude was in his room and had been working furiously on his homework for the past hour or so. He was determined to finish as soon as he could, since Connor asked him if he wanted to hang out later on that evening. He quickly scribbled answers down on his math worksheet, until he came to a problem that completely stumped him. He stared at the problem for about 20 minutes before asking for Callie’s help.

--

Callie just settled down again and had resumed her homework when she heard Jude call for her.

“Callie, can you come help me with one of my math problems?” He asked, from down the hall.

“Yeah bud, I’ll be right there.” Callie said, loud enough for him to hear. Callie set down her pencil after writing something down in her journal for English. She closed it, leaving the pencil inside as a bookmark, so she could finish when she returned. Callie made her way to Jude’s room and found him sitting on his bed, bent over, as if he was struggling with his homework.

“What are you struggling with, Jude?” Callie asked her brother, coming up behind him and looking down at his somewhat messy sheet of paper.

“This one.” Jude said, using the end of his pencil to point to the problem he was having trouble with. Callie looked over at the problem Jude was pointing to.
“What do you think the answer is?” she asked her brother, not wanting to give him a straight-up answer without making him think a little bit.

“Um...8?” Jude guessed.

“Try again, you’re close.” Callie replied.

Jude thought again before answering, “10?”

Callie nodded, before heading toward the door and walking back down the hall to finish her homework.

--

After dinner that night, Callie decided to talk with Stef and Lena. She made her way over to their room and knocked softly before walking in.

“What’s up, love? Come, sit.” Stef asked, sitting on her side of the bed, patting a spot in between her and Lena. Callie crawled into the spot Stef and Lena provided before speaking.

“So...I wanted to ask you guys...did you guys have Robert sign the papers?”

Stef and Lena gave each other a look before answering.

“Yes, love. He did sign the papers.” Stef answered, wanting to keep it at that.

“How? When?” Callie asked, knowing from previous events that Robert wouldn’t sign the papers so easily.

Not expecting Callie’s follow-up question, Stef and Lena looked at one another again.

“Well…” Lena started.

“Let’s just say I went to his house and had him do it.” Stef responded right after Lena, wanting to just get the conversation over with. Callie wasn’t sure what to feel. Was she supposed to feel happy that Stef got Robert to sign the papers so that she could finally get adopted by the family that she loved and who loved her back? Or was she upset at Stef for doing it because of how she did it? She wasn’t quite sure.“Oh.” was all Callie could say at the moment.

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Author's Note: Hi guys, SO SORRY I HAVEN'T UPDATED IN OVER A MONTH!! My school schedule has been pretty busy so I haven't really had much time to write. Hopefully I can get back to updating on a regular basis soon.

Thank you all so much for reading! :)