Bullet Point

Chapter 8: Tension Rising

As everyone scarfs down plates of food, Ninette stares down at her dinner like at any moment, it will sprout eyes and ooze across the table. 

"Ninette, honey. Are you okay?" Mrs. James asks, stabbing at her chicken with a long fork. 

"Huh?" Ninette comes back from her dazed state and takes a deep breath. "Oh, yeah. I'm good."

Silence falls over the shabby table.

Aside from the regular dining room table itself, a card table is shoved up against it on the end, and about 6 fold out chairs have been added in. 

"When can I get my own car, Mom?" Madison asks. 

"When you learn English." Hailey mutters under her breath and Christal tries not to laugh. 

Mrs. James gives Hailey a pointed look and sips from her glass of water.

"We'll talk about that another time." She concludes. "Does anyone need anything from the store? I'm going after dinner, Ninette's in charge."

Naya groans at the thought of Ninette having the authority. 

"I ran out of blue paint." Cya says. 

A few people gasp and Mrs. James even looks caught off guard. 

Just then, Mrs. James smiles brightly. "Yes, Cya! I'll pick some up for you." 

Everyone exchanges strange glances at each other. 

No one has ever heard Cya say a word except for Christal. 

Even Mrs. James had never heard her, and communicating with her was nearly impossible and most things were passed along through Christal.

"Can I have a new skateboard?" Adrian asks.

"Maybe for your birthday next month." Mrs. James agrees. "Okay, so this week we have alot to do. On Saturday we're going to Naya's show, on Monday we have Madison's orchestra concert, Thrusday is family night, and Friday we have the Social Worker coming for their evaluation."

"Evaluation?" Eamon looks like he's afraid to ask, and still afraid of being the new kid. 

Ninette glances at him in her peripheral and examines his hair. 

It's slightly spiked up and angled slightly to the side. 

It looks nice.

Kellan called right before he got on the plane. 

He said that he wasn't going to contact her again, that he was serious about wanting her to forget him. 

And Ninette had cried herself to sleep every night since.

"Evaluation is when the social worker comes by every other month to make sure the kids are doing okay. If there's any problems, they take care of them from there." Mrs. James explains. "But I'm sure no one here has anything to hide. We'll all be fine, so no one needs to worry."

"Uh, can I be excused, mom?" Ninette sniffs a little, letting her hair fall in front of her eyes to cover any oncoming redness in her face. 

"Yes, honey. You can go." 

Ninette runs up the stairs and makes it into her room just before she lets herself cry. 

She looks at the pile of case files she's supposed to reveiw for Collins and just turns away. 

She plucks the box of tissues from off her desk and wipes under her eyes in case anyone sees her. 

Out of nowhere, she hears a loud bang on the wall that seperates her room from the bathroom. 

Ninette assumes that the others have come upstairs and that someone is getting in the shower. 

Meanwhile, Tre sits Naya on the bathroom counter and runs his hands over her butt.

"Should we really be doing this in the house? You heard your mom. Evaluations are this week and the last thing we need right now is to get caught."

Tre looks down at her and kisses the top of her head. "I just can't keep myself away from you."

"Me neither. But if I want to stay in this house I can't let Diane catch me making out with her son!" Naya says sadly, with a pout.

Tre's eyebrows scrunch together. "What if my mom adopted you? That would make you my sister. Is that weird? I mean, I think it's illegal."

"It might be. But we're not really related." Naya argues "I don't even know why I'm wasting my time talking, just kiss me!"

Tre smashes his lips into hers and pushes her skirt farther up her legs. 

Naya starts to take off her shirt and Tre looks at her.

"What are you doing?" He smiles.

"Well, this is my shower time. So I have to take my clothes off anyway." Naya shrugs and they go back kissing. 

After they're done, Tre straightens his hair and smiles. 

His phone beeps and he reads a text from Mrs. James. 

"Sweet. Mom's not going to be back until after midnight, and since Ninette's in charge, and crying in her room, we're off the hook. Come to my room?" He asks.

"What about Darien and Eamon?" Naya grins.

"D is at Jessica's tonight. But if we're quiet, Eamon will be asleep. He usually turns in around 10." Tre says and they both smirk a little devilishly.

"Perfect." 

.

***

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Hailey throws on a t-shirt from volleyball camp and climbs into bed. 

"Your out early." Hailey says as Naya pulls the covers over her shoulders.

"I'm tired." Naya lies. 

What Hailey doesn't know is that under the sheets, Naya's sporting the skimpiest lingerie she could find in her closet.

Madison retreated to Ninette's room to handle the boy drama and as soon as Hailey is asleep, Naya will sneak over and into Tre's room until Mrs. James comes home and checks the rooms.

"Whatever. Who knew the slut could sleep without a naked guy rubbing up against her." Hailey laughs and Naya just lays there looking at the ceiling.