After Before and After

Conclusion: Chapter 14

The final custody hearing was something of a turning point for both the Merridews and the Langleys. The day came and went, and the conclusion of it made room for everyone involved and affected to move forward with their lives.

Jack's evenings and weekends doing community service continued. He also started his court mandated therapy sessions shortly after Ralph was set up with his own parent-mandated therapist.

In other news, Paige was finally settled into her job at the hospital. She started working full eight hour day shifts three days a week, and when the last week of April rolled around, she was up to full time.

Another financial relief was the change in Jeffery's work hours. His boss had to cut his hours during the trial, mainly due to his absence from the office. It took awhile after the trial concluded for things to return to some semblance of normalcy, but in time, it finally did. Shortly thereafter, Laurie was able to slowly cut back on her hours to ensure Jack and Ralph weren't left alone in the house too often. Jeffery and Laurie had known for a little while now that the boys were having sex, so they'd been more intentional about being home in the evenings.

Jack and Paige were finally able to establish a regular routine after the hearing and the finalization of Paige's legal guardianship. She had initially registered Jack at Parkview Public High School using her mother's name instead of her own. It was little things like that she had to update over the course of the first few weeks. But after that, she was able to focus on what mattered most; Jack.

Jeffery offered to take on the task of teaching both Ralph and Jack to drive. Normally, Paige would've insisted on teaching Jack herself, or at the very least sharing the responsibility with Jeffery. But this was the first time in her life she'd ever had a full time job, and nursing was a taxing one at that. For the first month or so, she would get home shortly before 4:30 in the afternoon and pass out on the couch by 5:00. Jeffery was quick to see how exhausted she truly was in the days she dropped by the house for one reason or other, so he insisted he take Jack out driving whenever he took Ralph.

Of course, Jack and Ralph were more than happy for another thing they could do together. Attending different schools was hard for both of them, so they rejoiced in the Tuesday and Thursday evening driving sessions Jeffery took them on. The boys were polar opposites in many ways, and learning to drive was no exception. Jack, of course, was often too fast and loose behind the wheel. Ralph, on the other hand, struggled to take his foot off the break. Jeffery was quick to grow frustrated with both of them, so a lot of switching them back and forth throughout the two hour practice sessions occurred.

The boys finished the school year on Friday, June 10th. Because of the trial, they only completed half the school year. Jack was halfway through his junior year and Ralph his sophomore year. The desire to graduate on time and not take summer classes next year pushed both boys to enroll in summer school now. The real tipping point was when Jeffery and Laurie informed them that they could enroll in the same summer program. Even though they were technically still a year apart academically speaking, summer schools were smaller programs and kids from various grades were often shuffled into the same classrooms.

Laurie didn't say it out loud, but she pitied the poor teacher who had both Jack and Ralph in their classroom for hours every week day.

As the boys started summer school, they also continued with their weekly therapy sessions. Jack was mandated to attend twice a week, one day for a one-on-one session and another for group therapy. Jack dreaded group therapy with every fibre of his being, but court mandated meant that no excuse, no matter how good, was getting him out of it.

Paige was forced to drop the whole filing charges against Evan thing. After a week of her gently asking Jack to take more time to consider, she eventually gave up after one last argument that ended in him calling her names with curse words thrown in and slamming his bedroom door. Three times.