FOSTER CHILD | PETER PARKER

iii.

FOSTER CHILD | ACT ONE
scene three: plenty o' peanuts

THE TERM curiosity killed the cat couldn't reign any truer to Vincent Foster as not only had his niece, her existence which he had failed to acknowledge over the years, tricked him into flying to Los Angeles with her but she had also completely lied about her so-called 'five-step plan' and refused to tell him why she wanted to see her dad, why her social worker wouldn't let her step meet LA again and most importantly why she went to him of all people.

Out of all four Foster siblings—three now that Gianna, unfortunately, passed—why did she come to her. Vincent wasn't much of a detective, but he watched enough of Criminal Minds to piece things together by himself.

He knew for a fact that Paul, his older brother, who had initially taken Isla into his care shortly after their sister had passed, was no longer allowed to see Isla for reasons that he did not know nor care to figure out. He figured it wasn't his problem and he hadn't cared either because it didn't involve him, but that didn't stop him from curious. He just assumed that Isla ran away too many times in his care and that they deemed him as an 'unfit foster parent.'

But there was always Estrella, who lived somewhere in Nevada or Michigan. Vincent didn't know where she lived if he were, to be honest. She moved around a lot and he rarely ever contacted her. Maybe once every two years. Again, he hadn't cared to ask her why she moved all the time although, he just assumed that she liked to move around a lot, just like when they were kids. Vincent never got to play with her because she'd always be travelling from forest to forest like the free spirits she was. He found it odd that she enjoyed playing in the forest but alas, he never questioned her.

Unfortunately for Vincent, the significant age gap of seventeen years between him and Paul, and the age gap of thirteen years between him and Estrella made it difficult for him to become close with them. So when Vincent was struggling to form words, Estrella was struggling on whether to wear a pink or purple dress while Paul was struggling to beat his mile run record of four minutes twenty-seven seconds.

So naturally, Vincent sat in his plane seat sulking to himself, wanting, yearning to know just everything and anything about his niece but he held his tongue, figuring that he'd end up finding out one way or another.

Isla plopped down in her seat, coming back from the restroom. "So! What anything from the cart?"

Vincent stared at her bored, a wave of regret washing over him as she stared at his niece. "Sure. Get me a sandwich or something."

"I only have enough money for two packets of peanuts."

"Why ask me for something if you already knew what you were going to buy!"

"Don't raise your voice at me...I wanted to give you an option."

"Option? This is false freedom besides I can't even have peanuts, I'm allergic."

"Allergic?" She said, mischief riddled in her voice as she twisted her body around in her seat so she could directly face her uncle. "You're allergic to nuts."

"Yes..." Vincent replied, his voice quiet, feeling slightly ashamed of his treacherous allergy.

There was a beat of silence between the two, Vincent's eyes examining Isla's contorting face as she tried not to laugh.

"So tell me, how does it feel knowing you're one of the weakest links amongst our nation?"

"What? Isla just buy me something else it's the least you can do after dragging me to LA." He said, his voice stern.