rissy stories

What is wrong with me? Ellison asked herself over and over again after never answering Ripley’s question: “What the f*** is wrong with you?” before she departed Ms. Lowell’s bedroom with Brynn and entered the kitchen to find the phone. Ellison stood frozen next to the bedpost in her jacket and pink pajamas, not wanting to follow them, and feeling as angry and conflicted as Ripley did about the question. What was wrong with her? She bit at the dead skin on her bottom lip and picked at the dry skin around her fingernails as she squinted at the doorway. Maybe she was just crazy – and craziness is annoying. Maybe that’s why her family and the kids at school hated her. Maybe. She jumped when she felt a hand touch her shoulder.

“Ya alright, baby?” Ms. Lowell asked softly. Ellison looked up at her with big blue eyes.

“What’s wrong with me Ms. L?” she asked quietly.

“There ain’t nothin’ wrong witchu, baby,” Ms. Lowell replied with a shake of her head.

“Then why do they hate me?”

“They don’t hatechu, they just stressed.”

“Then they must be stressed all the time.”

“I don’t doubt it, honey,” Ms. Lowell said, then walked out of the room. Ellison watched her go and sighed – just another person who didn’t understand. If they were just stressed, then they’d be treating each other like crap too, but they don’t. They’re only that mean to her, and only her. She knew that Brynn would just call her paranoid, but that’s what it felt like, and she had no idea what she did. What did I do that’s so bad? She kept thinking to herself, trying to figure out what went wrong over the past several years to make her sisters hate her. When she couldn’t find anything, she huffed with frustration and walked out of the bedroom, towards the kitchen. She found everyone huddled in the kitchen again, looking frustrated and tired.

“What’s going on?” Ellison asked curiously. Ripley was pacing back and forth along the kitchen floor, so Brynn answered.

“Ida’s going to check on our parents while Van’s over in Hillsdale trying to see if Aunt Jay will adopt us.” Ellison raised her eyebrows and parted her lips at the news, not really sure how to feel about it. She didn’t really want Aunt Jay to be their guardian, what she really wanted was mommy and daddy back. She was also worried about Van getting caught. Cause if he got caught while searching for Aunt Jay – wouldn’t he have to rat the rest of the us out? Ellison asked herself. And if the rest of us got caught, we’d all end up in foster homes. And as much as she hated her own family… she wanted to stay in that house with her mommy and daddy.

“Brynn,” Ripley suddenly scorned.

“What?” Brynn replied.

“Don’t tell her anything until we get more news, you know how she worries,” Ripley ended her order in a whisper – as if somehow Ellison wouldn’t hear it while standing right beside Brynn. Ellison swallowed and decided to just not say anything this time around. If they seriously thought that she couldn’t handle it, then maybe they were right. Maybe.

“You gave Ida this home phone number, right?” Brynn asked. Ripley nodded and pulled her hair back into a low ponytail now that it was completely dry.

“Okay, there’s nothin’ we can really do but wait this out. Wait until we hear back from Ida and then when Van comes back. I told Ida to call me if he comes back,” Ripley explained. Everyone nodded. “You mind us invadin’ your space for another night Ms. L?” she then asked. Ms. Lowell shook her head and smiled.

“You kiddin’ me? This is the most entertained that I been in weeks. Livin’ alone can get borin’ sometimes,” she said, patting the heads of Ellison and Brynn as she walked past them and out of the kitchen. “But I got the day shift ova at the hospital today, so don’t break any of my s*** while I’m gone,” she called from the end of the hallway, where her room was.

“Got it,” the three girls yelled from the kitchen as the bedroom door shut.

“Have you all eaten anythin’ since last night?” Ripley suddenly asked. Brynn and Ellison both shook their heads while Hadley sucked on her thumb. “Sit down, I’ll see if Ms. L’s got any mac-n-cheese.” Ellison sat in the chair opposite Brynn and picked her at her fingernails while Ripley walked around the kitchen, opening cabinets and the fridge. Brynn continued occupying Hadley while Ellison’s mind drifted to how much work she was going to miss this time around from school. Did Ripley even bother to fake being Babs (like she’d done many times before) and call them all in sick today? She wondered. She fought against asking the question out loud in fear of her sisters telling her that it doesn’t matter and that she shouldn’t even be thinking about that right now. And of course she knew that, she wasn’t stupid, but she wondered if she was going to get in trouble for it. She couldn’t handle another detention – the kids in detention were even crueler than they were during the normal school day. “Will you all settle for spaghetti?” Ripley suddenly asked. Everyone nodded, willing to take anything at this point.

“Is there any shredded Parmesan cheese?” Ellison replied. Ripley opened up the fridge and checked without complaint this time, knowing how picky Ellison was about her food.

“No, you’ll just have to settle for plain spaghetti,” she answered, letting the fridge shut itself, and then started filling a pot with water from the sink. Ellison began to brush her hair with her fingers – it was starting to get greasy. She cringed and just pushed it back behind her ears again. She looked over at Brynn whose long, dark hair still appeared clean. Ellison chewed on her lip again. She would kill to have hair like Brynn – she looked like mommy the most. Minus their differences in size, they’re faces and hair were similar. Meanwhile, Ellison didn’t really look like either of their parents. Daddy was a wrinkly, baggy-eyed, grey haired man who had no muscle mass or sense of personal hygiene, but mommy was significantly skinnier than he was, with boob-length brown hair and a heavy smoker’s voice. However, mommy always told Ellison how pretty she looked with her blonde hair, freckles, blue eyes, and skinniness. She also frequently told her how much prettier she was than Brynn, which made her feel special.

“Why’re you staring at me?” She heard Brynn ask, which snapped Ellison out of her daydream. She frantically shook her head and blushed.

“No reason,” Ellison replied. Brynn rolled her eyes and muttered something about her being a “weirdo.” Ellison brushed it off and scratched her arm, her eyelids feeling heavy. She hadn’t slept very well the night beforehand. Then again, none of them did. Out of boredom, she looked around the kitchen and saw one of the cats walk down the hallway to her left. She blinked at it and wondered if it could understand humans even though it couldn’t communicate anything but meows back. It must be so frustrating – trying to communicate with someone else only to have them misunderstand everything that you say. To connect so much with a human, but still not be able to properly talk to said person must really suck. Yet, they weren’t expected to really do much except sleep, eat, and play on occasion. Lucky. She thought.

“Alright, come and get it,” Ripley eventually said, pouring the boiling water and spaghetti into a strainer over the sink and then slipping the spaghetti into a bowl. She had two plain white dishes with forks and spoons as well as an applesauce package from the fridge for Hadley. Brynn and Ellison walked over to the counter and served themselves, essentially splitting the serving in half for the two of them. They walked back to the table with their food and ate while Ripley spoon-fed apple sauce to Hadley. None of them spoke, and Brynn just eagerly ate, not even realizing how hungry she had been until she started smelling food.

Ellison, however, wasn’t very hungry. She knew that she needed to eat because her stomach hurt, but she felt like she would puke it right back up the second she took a bite. Her stomach was in knots, like it couldn’t decide whether or not it actually wanted food. She couldn’t really explain it, but she was worried about getting sick, so she didn’t even want to try. She just played with the spaghetti with her fork without really eating anything, hoping that her sisters wouldn’t notice.

“El, why aren’t you eating,” Brynn asked with her mouth full. Ellison sighed, shrugged and dropped the fork.

“I’m not hungry,” she answered. Ripley stopped feeding Hadley.

“You haven’t eaten since dinner last night! What do you mean you’re not hungry?” Ripley asked. Ellison slouched in her seat.

“I don’t feel good,” she said. Ripley rolled her eyes and Brynn shook her head.

“Jesus, El. You’re turning into mom,” she said while taking another bite of spaghetti.

“What’s wrong with turning into mommy?” Ellison asked.

“‘Cause she’s anor-” Ripley started, but then caught herself when Brynn cleared her throat loudly. Ripley nodded at the message and readjusted her explanation. “She has an eatin’ disorder, El. She purposefully doesn’t eat food so that she can stay skinny, and it ain’t healthy. It could end up killin’ ‘er,” she said. Ellison sat up straighter.

“Mommy could die?” She asked worriedly. Ripley nodded.

“Yeah, so eat,” she said, pointing to the plate. Ellison shook her head.

“But that’s not why I don’t wanna eat,” she replied. “I’m just not hungry.”

“I don’t care. You need to eat. Force yourself,” Ripley demanded.

“But what if I throw it up?” Ellison asked. Ripley gripped her hair with frustration.

“Christ, why do you have to make everythin’ so f***in’ difficult?” she asked. Ellison leaned back into her chair again and slowly slunk down as she stared at Ripley, who was trying everything possible to keep herself from exploding. “It’s simple, really – you ain’t sick. Plus, even if you were, ya don’t stop tryin’ to eat at least somethin’ ‘cause you’re worried. You eat because ya have to. You need the nutrition or else ya won’t grow right. So, stop fightin’ with me on this and just eat the f***in’ spaghetti. Jesus!” Ripley yelled. Ellison blinked away tears, scooted herself back up into the chair, and took the fork and spoon in her hands. She twirled the some of the spaghetti onto the fork with the help of the spoon and then ate it – hating every second of it. Ripley clapped. “Thank you,” she said and then continued to feed Hadley. Meanwhile, Brynn just sat there in silence, continuing to eat her spaghetti and watching Ellison. Ellison slowly chewed her noodles and swallowed them, finding that her anger at Ripley for humiliating her actually helped her appetite. It took her mind off of worrying for a bit.

Once Ellison was finally finished, she took her dish to the sink, walked back over to the table, and sat back down in her chair. At this point, Brynn and Hadley had already finished their meals, so everyone was just sitting around, still in silence, until Ms. Lowell opened her bedroom door and walked down the hall and into the kitchen. Her straight, shoulder-length black hair was pinned back into tiny bun behind her head, she had a full face of make-up on, and she was in her dark purple scrubs and white sneakers.

“It’s 9:45, so I’m headin’ out. Make sure y’all clean up those dishes before I get back,” she said. They all nodded as she walked past them, down the opposite hallway, and then out the front door. That’s when the telephone rang. Ripley jumped up and practically ran to it.

“Hello?” she asked frantically.

“I just got back from the station,” Ida said from the other end, sounding very unenthusiastic. “They’re both still awaitin’ trial. Turns out Melvin smashed up Babette’s knee real good by pushing a grandfather clock onto her-”

“Holy s***,” Ripley exclaimed while leaning her head up against the kitchen wall and rubbing her eyes with her other hand, not piecing together that the scream following the thud of the clock the night beforehand resulted from a grandfather clock falling on top of her.

“Yeah. She’ll need surgery, so Melvin’s facin’ felony charges of domestic violence while Babette’s facin’ misdemeanor charges. But the kicker is – they both were also caught usin’ coke,” Ida finished explaining.

“So, what does that mean?” Ripley asked. Ida sighed on the other end.

“It means they’ll more than likely get years of prison time instead of days and their parental rights will get taken away. And there’s no way you can bail ‘em out this time. You don’t even want to know how high it’s set.”

“Holy s***,” Ripley repeated again and banged her head against the wall.

“I told the cops I had no clue where y’all were, but that I’d seen Van late last night and he’d asked me to do this, but then he split this mornin’ and I didn’t know where he went. But it looks like if y’all wanna keep your family together, call Van or head over to Hillside to see what’s up with your aunt,” Ida explained. Ripley nodded, even though Ida couldn’t see her.

“Okay, thanks, I’ll pay ya after everythin’s said and done,” Ripley said.

“Your welcome. Bye,” Ida replied and then hung up. Ripley turned around to Brynn and Ellison – Brynn looking tired and Ellison looking worried, as always. There was no doubt in her mind that they heard the entire conversation.

“What’s next?” Brynn asked.

“Well, we can’t just sit around and wait for Van to show up – he may never show up. They might catch him,” Ripley said, folding her arms over her chest and staring off into space.

“So… we’re going to Hillside?” Brynn asked unhappily. Ripley shook her head.

“No, just me,” she replied. Brynn and Ellison’s eyes went wide.

“But what if you get caught?” Ellison asked.

“I mean, it’s winter, I’ll just bundle up such that no one can see anythin’ but my eyes when I’m walkin’ around in public,” Ripley suggested.

“And if that doesn’t work?”

“Then I get caught, refuse to give away your location to the cops, and I get sent to a group home ‘til I turn 18 in 3 months,” Ripley replied to Ellison quickly, like it wasn’t that big of a deal, then looked back at Brynn. “Look, you gotta stay here for multiple reasons. I can’t risk takin’ all of you with me, it’ll be pretty clear who we are,” she said.

“So, wait a minute, if you and Van get caught, you’re leaving me to deal with taking care of this family for 3 months? That’s not fair,” Brynn said, pointing to herself and shaking her head. Ripley sighed and then they broke out into a huge fight while Ellison just sat there, ignored the fight, and stared at Hadley who looked frightened that they were raising their voices again. Ellison still didn’t understand why all of her questions were invalid in her sisters’ eyes. Why was it so unreasonable to ask Ripley what would happen if she got caught? Why did it feel like this situation wasn’t a big deal to anyone but Ellison? “I’m not dropping out of school to hide from the cops and take care of Ellison and Hadley for three months. Sorry, but I’m not you,” Ellison heard Brynn yell when she mentally entered back into the conversation.

“What does that mean? I haven’t dropped outta school! And I may not be willin’ to claim guardianship, but are you seriously ungrateful for the s*** I’ve done for you? For all of us?” Ripley screamed, her face getting red, the veins in her neck bulging.

“I am grateful, but you can’t just expect me to pick up where you left off if you disappear for three months. Ms. L won’t let us stay here forever, and I hardly even know how to change a diaper or cook meals. I want a life too,” Brynn replied, pointing to her chest. Meanwhile, Ellison wondered why they were all treating her and Hadley like they were burdens. Ripley huffed and wiped sweat off of her forehand with the back of her hand.

“Look, we’re screamin’ at each other over hypotheticals, here. We don’t know if Van’s caught, and you think I’m willin’ to risk goin’ out there by myself if I didn’t think for a second that I’d be fine? I’m not gonna get caught,” Ripley promised. “You’re lettin’ Ellison get into your head, Brynn. That’s the absolute worst case scenario when it ain’t actually that big a deal,” Ripley explained. Brynn set her jaw and shook her head at Ripley, for once, not agreeing with her. And at this, Ellison had had enough. She jumped up from her chair and shoved Ripley as hard as she could, catching her off balance, and causing her to gasp and fall backwards. She landed hard on her back on the kitchen floor and Brynn put her hands to her mouth in shock, but didn’t make any moves to help Ripley up or stop Ellison.

“It is a big deal,” she spat, looking down on Ripley in more ways than one. Ripley raised her eyebrows at Ellison’s attitude.

“No it’s not,” Ripley argued, sitting up.

“Yes it is,” Brynn and Ellison both shouted at the same time. Ellison felt a jolt of excitement and happiness run through her body – Brynn was on her side for once.

“The fact that you’d even risk the worst case scenario happening shows what you secretly want to happen,” Brynn added, standing right behind Ellison. Ripley laughed.

“And that is?” she asked.

“To leave us. All of us,” Ellison replied. Ripley rolled her eyes and scoffed.

“Well Van risked it too, you think that way about him?” she asked, motioning to the hallway as though he were standing right there.

“No, it’s different, he knew you’d come back for us,” Brynn answered. Ripley shook her head and climbed to her feet.

“You know… if I really wanted to leave you guys high and dry why would I be puttin’ so much effort into keepin’ you out of foster homes if I didn’t want to be here?” Ripley asked. Ellison glanced up at Brynn, who put her hands on her hips and stared Ripley down.

“‘Cause you don’t wanna deal with the guilt that goes along with abandoning your siblings,” Brynn said, as though she had just come up with some sort of epiphany. Ellison wondered why Brynn had the sudden change of heart. She’d always been so “teacher’s pet” when it came to Ripley, no matter the circumstance. Van used to always tell her: “Honestly, and I’m not using this as an analogy… if Ripley actually jumped off a bridge, Brynn wouldn’t hesitate to jump off too.” Well, not anymore, apparently. Brynn placed a hand on Ellison’s shoulder as Ripley performed her famous angry stare-down, shifting from Brynn and Ellison. However, neither were shaken by it anymore.

“Do you genuinely want me to leave this family?” she suddenly asked. There was a long silence before Ellison spoke again.

“No, but I want you to stop treating me like I’m a freak,” she said. Ripley furrowed her eyebrows and then dropped to one knee in front of Ellison.

“I don’t think you’re a freak. I just think you worry about things that you don’t need to worry about,” she explained. Brynn shut her eyes and rubbed her temples with her fingers, as though she had a massive headache that wouldn’t go away.

“It’s called an anxiety disorder, you moron,” Brynn said to Ripley. Ellison looked up at her with worry while Ripley glared up at her for being so blunt. Brynn glared back at Ripley. “Oh, what, like you’ve never actually looked it up online when you were bored during free period at the school library because you were curious to see if her behavior’s normal,” she added. Ripley blinked at her as though she were stupid.

“Yeah, but I don’t take everything I see on the internet as the truth, you moron,” Ripley mocked while Brynn sighed and Ellison shook her head.

“I-I don’t know what that means,” she said.

“It means that you can’t help how anxious you always are. And I guess being annoyed by you 24/7 to try and get you to stop it isn’t working,” Brynn explained. Ellison raised her eyebrows, suddenly feeling like everything was beginning to make sense. However, Ripley face-palmed and got back on her feet after kneeling down for so long.

“You can’t diagnose her, so shut the f*** up,” she snapped. Brynn gritted her teeth, her upper lip and without warning, she lightly pushed Ellison to the side and then charged at Ripley with her nostrils flaring and eyes bulging. Hadley started screaming behind Brynn and Ellison as Brynn wrapped her arms around Ripley’s throat, and Ripley, again, didn’t see it coming, so she stumbled backwards and dug her nails into Brynn’s hands to make her let go. When she didn’t, Ripley went straight for pulling on Brynn’s hair. Brynn shrieked and finally released her, but then Ripley felt several sharp kicks to the shins as Ellison had come up behind Brynn and started kicking her. Ripley cried out and shoved both of her sisters away from her, back towards the kitchen table, which Hadley was now hiding under and crying/screaming relentlessly.

“JESUS, ENOUGH!” Ripley finally screamed, her voice breaking to a squeaky-high-pitched sound at “enough.” She wrapped a hand around her neck and breathed heavily while Brynn rubbed her head where Ripley had pulled her hair. Ripley pushed some of her light brown hair behind her ears as Brynn glanced at Ellison, who turned around and walked towards Hadley, gently pulling her out from underneath the table and picking her up. She bounced her on her hip and whispered that everything was okay now. Brynn began shaking her head.

“I’m not giving up my future to deal with an anxiety-ridden ten-year-old and a one-year old, and I don’t care what you have to say about it.” she said. Ellison looked at the floor and fought tears, wondering why she was even born to begin with if no one wanted her.

“Who’s askin’ you to?” Ripley snapped.

“You. By going out and risking getting caught-”

“I’m not goin’,” Ripley said, cutting her off. She walked up to her and stopped within arms-reach while Brynn stood her ground. “We’re waitin’ for Van. And ya know what, if he never shows up, then we’re all f***ed and we can blame it all on you. You’re talkin’ about me dealin’ with the guilt of abandonin’ my siblings, so let’s see how you handle it, huh?” she added, then walked into the hallway to get to the bathroom, but not before purposefully bumping into Brynn’s left shoulder with her own. Brynn scoffed, turned around, and watched her leave while rubbing her left shoulder with her right hand.

“You really think he’s gonna get caught?” Ellison asked skeptically from behind her. She adjusted Hadley as Brynn turned to her and shrugged.

“It wouldn’t be my fault if he never shows up without Aunt Jay’s approval of becoming our guardian, that’s on him,” Brynn replied, not sounding too confident, but then they were both startled by the sound of the back door knob jiggling. Ellison jumped while Brynn turned back around and stared at the hallway until they heard the knob jiggle again, then the creaking of the door opening. Brynn stood tall, pushed Ellison and Hadley behind her, and kept her arms out at her sides – a desperate attempt to shield her siblings from whoever was about to walk through the door. Ellison hugged Hadley tightly as they heard footsteps in the hallway.

“Who’s house is this again?” they heard a female voice ask from around the corner.

“A neighbor’s, just follow me, I know they’re still here,” a male voice answered, his voice sounding rough and unrecognizable. However, Brynn’s eyes went wide and Ellison gasped loudly behind her as Van appeared in the hallway. He glanced into the kitchen and found the three of them standing there. He was wearing the same jeans from the night beforehand, his sneakers looked soaked from the snow, and he was wearing a very large red sweatshirt. His nose, cheeks, and ears were red from the cold, and he was visibly shivering. “There they are,” he said, his voice noticeably deeper – signifying that he probably had a cold. Brynn and Ellison broke out into smiles, then ran up to him. Brynn threw her arms around his chest while Ellison hugged his waist with Hadley still in her arms. He almost fell backwards at the force.

“Van!” Ellison cried out happily.

“I never thought I’d be so happy to see you,” Brynn said, almost on the verge of tears.

“Van-van-van!” Hadley added, obviously happy to see him again too. Van chuckled, then coughed into his elbow, right above Brynn’s head.

“Van?” they all heard another female voice call out from the other side of the hall. Brynn and Ellison let go of Van as he turned his head to see Ripley slowly walking towards them, looking conflicted on how to comprehend his arrival. Meanwhile, he looked smug.

“See, I knew she’d come back,” he said, slightly shoving Brynn’s shoulder. However, instead of insulting him back, she just grinned and looked down at the floor. Once Ripley was within a close distance, she stopped. Van looked over at her again and noticed that her eyes were red, her hair was messy and no longer in its ponytail, and she was noticeably paler. There were also red marks around her neck. She looked angry and shocked.

“Do you realize how much trouble you could’ve gotten us into you sneaky son of a b****?” she asked and then started beating his shoulder and chest with her fist. Brynn and Ellison just stood aside and watched while Van surprisingly took the beating. After the first several hits, he began asking her to stop, and then she finally embraced him. “That was so stupid, you know that?” she asked. He smiled and nodded.

“I know, but it was worth it,” he said, which was now the woman still standing by the door’s cue to reveal herself to the girls. She walked up behind Van.

“Aunt Jay?” Brynn and Ellison asked simultaneously. This woman was fairly overweight with a large, black winter coat and grey sweatpants. She had large, black snow boots on along with gloves, a scarf, and a hat that partially covered her long, curly dark brown hair. She definitely looked similar to Babette, but wore glasses and looked to be around 50-60-years-old. She also looked to be clean of drugs and alcohol, which she wasn’t five years ago. She smiled at the girls with yellow, crooked teeth and smelt like cigarettes. She looked much better off than she had the last time they’d seen her – she was a classic junkie.

“Does this mean you’re adopting us?” Ellison asked, sound half excited.

“Not yet,” Ripley said, lightly pushing Van to the side as she faced her aunt.

“Ripley! Oh, look how much you’ve grown!” Jay commented innocently. Ripley chewed on her lip, getting ready for the investigation.

“You clean and sober?” Ripley asked. Jay scoffed and nodded.

“Yes honey, you really think I’d be here if I wasn’t?” she answered.

“Why did you decide to come?”

“I’m not heartless Ripley – I heard that my sister went to prison and I wasn’t about to let my nieces and nephew get thrown into some foster home.”

“You got a job?”

“I was a restaurant manager, but I decided to leave that job a few weeks ago, so currently, no. But I can find another managin’ one ‘round here, I’m sure.”

“Oh, so, you’re comin’ to live with us now?”

“Of course, dear, it’d be a hassle for y’all to move in with me. Plus, it’s cheaper to live on the south side, so I can just sell my house and get more money that way for the time bein’. Plus, my mama owns the house, so she’d let me live here.” They both paused for a moment.

“I find it hard to believe you can just up and move,” Ripley said suspiciously.

“I got no ties to Hillside, dear, but I do got family here,” Jay replied.

“When’d you get clean?” Ripley asked.

“Two years ago,” Jay answered.

“You’re two years sober?”

“Yes, ma’am. After Robbie took off, I had to get my shit together or else I’d lose the house, but now that I’m off the stuff, I have no intentions of goin’ back. Them drugs made me fuzzy and I was throwin’ up all the time with the alcohol. I was tired of not rememberin’ s***.”

“Really?” Ripley asked again, suspiciously.

“Really,” Jay replied. Ripley glanced over at Van, who shrugged.

“Her place was pretty clean when she let me inside. But do we really have a choice, Rip?” Van asked, straining his voice. Ripley looked down at the floor and thought for a moment. Ellison held her breath, trying to read Ripley’s mind for her. She knew Ripley didn’t want to put her siblings in a crappy situation, but this was probably the best that they were going to get. The Hazeldines have never had options, but it’s not like this entire area had any options either. There was practically no escaping this black hole once you’re sucked into it, and there was no justice. Ripley had to give up a lot of dreams because of her family… but maybe this time would be different. She looked back up at Jay and looked into her eyes, as if her eyes would reveal the bad intentions or the future. Ripley was never good at reading people.

“Fine,” Ripley spat, still staring at Jay. Several sighs of relief followed from her siblings. “But if you disappoint any of these kids by pullin’ the same s*** Babs did… I will ruin you,” she said to Jay while Van and Brynn turned to talk to one another, Ellison was still paying attention to Ripley and Jay. Jay looked delighted, but to Ellison, her eyes told a different story.

“I won’t, but honey… you don’t got as much control as you think you do,” Jay replied quietly. Ellison gulped nervously and rung her hands together. Jay walked further into the kitchen with Van, Brynn, and Hadley, excitedly going over their next steps. Meanwhile Ellison and Ripley stayed where they were and locked eyes. For the first time… Ripley looked worried.