The Known (On Hold)

9

It's mid-afternoon by the time, Charlotte makes her way out of her bedroom, to the bathroom and then out to the living room. She looks around and not seeing or hearing anyone heads to the kitchen to make herself something to eat. On the fridge, she finds a note from her Mom indicating that she has just popped to the store to pick up a few things and will be back shortly.

Charlotte dishes out a bowl of cereal and pours herself a glass of juice before sitting down at the table to eat. As she quickly inhales the contents of both the bowl and glass, she notices a stack of envelopes on the end of the table. Her heart begins to race with the realization that they are all addressed to her and from the admissions offices of schools through out the United States and even as far away as England. 

Looking over the logos and names on the top corner or plastered across the paper, she begins to feel overwhelmed by the sight of them all and drops down to the floor, sending the stack of letters flying as she does.  

While she struggles to catch her breath, the front door opens and Finn lets himself in, calling out her name. 

"Charlie? You up yet?" 

She struggles to get out words, "Here."

Finn seeing her on the floor sitting on the floor with her legs pulled in immediately runs over to her and takes her hand putting it on his chest. 

"Look at me, focus on me and my breathing, slowly in and then out. Breathe with me, you got this, Charlie." 

The tears start to pour down her cheeks as she struggles to get her breathing under control.

"In and out, I'm here, focus on me."

She finds by focusing on Finn's eyes and breathing she is able to finally calm herself down and allows Finn to wrap his arms around her.

"You okay? Talk to me."

"Think so, I couldn't breathe, and felt dizzy, it was so scary."

The front door opens and Ms Gordon seeing Finn and Charlotte on the floor puts her bags down and comes over to them.

"What happened? Are you both okay?"

Charlotte nods, "Finn helped me, panic attack."

"You haven't had one of those in quite a while, what triggered it?" She notices the envelopes askew and realizes exactly what the trigger was.

Carol Gordon makes her way to the kitchen to put away the contents of her shopping bags and puts on some tea as Finn helps Charlotte stand up and then sit down on a chair. 

The three talk things over while Charlotte does her best to drink some of the herbal tea that her Mom brought over to her. She fills them in on the camp and training and can't help but smile as she talks about meeting Mal and spending time with her and how cute she is.

Finn chuckles as she talks about her crush.  

Carol looks at her daughter, "How is it that I'm the last one to know that you like girls rather than boys?" 

"I umm... oops!" Charlotte looks at her Mom, "I guess I kinda figured that if both Kenz and Finn had both figured it out, so had you and didn't feel the need to be like, hey Mom, guess what? I like girls. You don't have an issue with that do you?" 

"Charlotte, you're my daughter and I love you; there is nothing that you could say or do that would ever change that. I'm proud of you and I know that wherever your Dad is, he is as well. Now, what are we planning on doing with all of these letters? I'd really like to have my table back."