The following day was filled with long hours of training. At dinner everyone looked like they wanted to pass out. That was until a group of security officers walked in with big bags hanging from their shoulders. They walked from table to table pulling envelopes out of the bags and handing them out to everyone in the room.

"Mail day," Lucas grumbled under his breath.

The looks on the kid's faces in the room were equal parts excited and anxious as they received letters from home. Each of them opened their envelopes like little kids on Christmas morning. Maybe in here, this was their Christmas.

One the officers with a bag approached our table. He reached in and pulled out a handful of envelopes and began passing them out among us, reciting names as he did so.

"Sage Ramsey, Alicia Davis, Declan Shaw, and Chloe McKenna," he called, finishing with us and walking away.

I looked down at the envelope in my hand and instantly recognized my mom's perfect handwriting. The familiarity of it hit me like a stab to the chest. I wasn't sure I even wanted to hear what she had to say, let alone read it.

Lucas and Lolly got up from the table and walked off empty-handed. I noticed Wes starting to get up from the table out my peripheral. He hesitated for a moment before placing a gentle hand on my shoulder.

"I'll be outside if you want to come hang out."

"Okay."

With that, he was gone and I was left with my letter.

Sage was in the middle of reading one as well, from our grandparents I assumed. I really needed to talk more with her about them. I wanted to know more about these strangers that were related to me and saved my sister from a life of complete loneliness. That day in Ms. Pierce's office, mom had talked about them like they were the enemy. But they were no enemy of mine, at least I didn't see it that way. Whether or not they wanted anything to do with me could be a different matter altogether. Resolved to talk with her about it later I reluctantly opened my own letter.

Dear Chloe,

I'm not entirely sure what to say to you. Your anger at me for abandoning your sister is understandable but I just can't look at it the same way as you do. Maybe that makes me a bad mother, I don't know.

What I do know is that no matter what, I love you. I may have been a bad mom to Sage but I was a good mom to you. For the last sixteen years, it's been you and me, through thick and thin. I know now that you've found your sister it won't be just you and me anymore. Part of me is going to miss that, but as long as you are happy about finding Sage then I'm happy to. I'm willing to make this work. I'll do whatever you ask. Please call me, or write me back. I'm going crazy worrying about you in that place, surrounded by criminals.

Love Always,

Mom

I read the letter a couple more times, trying to make sense of it. To her, it may have been an apology but to me, it was just more excuses. Shit, some of it even seemed like she was trying to make me feel bad for her!

Maybe, considering what happened between her and my father, I should feel bad for her. She was duped by a demon. It's not like many people could say the same thing. Then again it wasn't my evil father who forced her to throw Sage away like she was a piece of trash. She did that one all on her own.

I looked at Sage and tried to think of how a mother could be so cold and heartless to her child. No matter what I don't think I could ever be like that. Screw the demon blood running in my veins and the laws of nature that say I should be some kind of monster. I would never be able to do that to my child.

My mom wanted me to call her, and with the new anger, her letter gave me I felt like doing just that. Only I would be calling to give her a piece of my mind, again. I crumbled the letter and tossed it in the trash on my out of the cafeteria. When I reached the phones lined up outside I paced back and forth. To call or not to call?

I was distracted from my indecision when I saw a hunched over figure gripping a phone at the very last booth. The dark brown hair and tatted up arms were a dead give away. Who was Wes talking to?

Curiosity got the best of me as I crept closer hoping to overhear his conversation. Lucky for me there was a tree right next to the booth, right where the concrete ended and the grass filling the rest of the field started. Trying my best to be sneaky, I walked around the picnic tables nearby like I had no set destination. When I was sure Wes wasn't paying attention I quickly passed the last table and ducked behind the tree. Sure enough, I was clearly able to hear his hushed phone conversation.

"I need you to come see me on visitors day.......I don't care what those stupid bikers have you doing......No...I got questions and you're the only one with the answers...No....Whatever screw you too!"

He slammed the phone back on the receiver and walked away.

Whatever was going on with him, I wasn't about to wait to find out. I took off after him and caught up to him just as sat down at an empty picnic table. When he saw me, his tension eased away and his face lit up. That look he gave me almost made me decide not to question him about his weird phone call, almost.

"Hey, beautiful, glad you decided to join me out here. Can't think of a better way to end the day," he said.

I took a seat next to him and Mr. Smooth threw his arm around my shoulder and pulled me in close. I wasn't going to let his words or his closeness distract me, no matter how good it felt to be tucked against him like this. God, he smelled good. No, no! I needed to keep my head on straight.

"I was going to call my mom a second ago, but I saw the last phone was already taken, by you," I told him, trying to play it cool.

The stiffness that appeared in his posture was moderate but still detectable.

"I didn't mean to eavesdrop but I couldn't help but hear you talking. You sounded mad, is everything okay?"

I wasn't being entirely untruthful, he did sound angry, and I was concerned.

Wes dropped his arm from around my shoulder and he covered his face with his hands letting out a big sigh. Whoever he was talking to had definitely upset him, and I was determined to know why.

"You can talk to me, Wes, seriously," I urged, placing my hand on his arm hoping to ease the nerves that were clearly overtaking him. After a few drawn out minutes, he finally lowered his hands from his face and balled them into fists on the table.

"I was talking to.....an old friend."

"An old dealing buddy?"

He flinched slightly at the questioned but nodded and answered, "Yeah, I wanted him to come see me. I needed to ask him about.....my mom."

I tried to think about what little I knew about Wes' past and couldn't remember anything about his mom or him even mentioning her before. At least it wasn't something shady. When he brought up those bikers he used to deal for on the phone I was scared he was planning something stupid. Not that there was really much he could do here but it still scared me. Whether I wanted to admit it or not, I cared about Wes and the idea of him getting wrapped up in old habits worried me. With everything going on lately, it was easy to forget about our pasts, but overhearing that one phone call brought it all back with a vengeance. Knowing it was about his mom and not dealing made me feel better about the whole thing.

"You never talked about your mom before."

"That's cause I haven't seen her since I was....little. I thought my friend might know a few things, fill in the gaps for me. But the bastard refused, too caught up in his own shit to help me out," he informed me, his face a mixture of confusion and anger.

He wasn't more specific about this friend but whoever it was, they must have been close for him to be so angry about it.

I ran my hand up and down his back hoping it would help.Slowly but surely, he unclenched his fists and relaxed underneath my touch. I felt bad for bringing the whole thing up now, but there was nothing I could do to take it back. I tried to think of something else to say to either comfort him or change the subject to something lighter. But while I was thinking I heard laughter behind me. I turned to the sound of the laughter and immediately found Toby and big Bertha watching us and cracking up. Their laughter didn't bother me but the fact that they were paying so much attention to us did, it gave me a bad feeling.

I dropped my hand from his back and scooted away just a fraction. Thankfully, Wes didn't notice.

"Hey, why don't we go back inside. We can go find the others or hang out int he TV room."

Wes shot me a smile as he got up from the table. "Yeah alright, let's go."

On our way back into the building, we came face to face with Sage, Declan, Lucas, and an overly excited Lolly.

"Guess what? Guess what?" Lolly asked bouncing up and down.

If she didn't calm down she was going to start popping in and out all over the place. We didn't need any of the other kids here to see that.

"Lolly, how about you just tell us and try to relax, just a little," I said.

She nodded and her bouncing slowed a little.

"Ms. Pierce just announced that Landry's is going to have a dance!"

Her smile was contagious, even though the idea of a bunch of juvenile criminals having a dance sounded like a horrible idea. Still, I tried to be excited, at least for Lolly.

"Awesome, when?"

Her excitement came down to a simmer as she started to slightly pout and said, "Not sure yet, but it's been approved."