Burning It Down, All the Way to Bat Country

Matt’s POV
Two weeks later and I was having my first father-daughter argument.
“Trinity, you have to go.”
“But I don’t want to! Why do I have to go?”
“Because it’s the law Trinity! You are REQUIRED to be in school.”
“But why can’t you guys just get me a tutor or something? I could be homeschooled.”
“Sweetheart, we want to you to have friends your own age, you can’t just sit around the house and play with Aja. You need to have a life baby.”
“I do have a life daddy, here with you!” We both froze when we realized what she had called me.

“I’m not taking it back, you are my Dad.” I smiled and pulled her into a hug.
“You don’t have to take it back sweetheart, but you do have to go to school.” I whispered against her hair. I heard her groan and smiled.
“Fine, fine. I’ll go, but I refuse to be happy about it, and I won’t make friends, people don’t like me.”
“Well, you don’t have to be happy about it, you just have to go. And you will too make friends, everyone will love you.”
“Yeah, whatever.” She grumbled and walked upstairs to her room.

I smiled and shook my head, padding into the kitchen to get a much needed beer. Brian was in the kitchen, rooting around for something in the fridge.
“What are you looking for?”
“The Chinese that was in here yesterday.”
“Dude, Trinity and Johnny had that for breakfast this morning.”
“Dammit!” I laughed and pushed him out of the way, grabbing my beer and closing the fridge. I looked at Brian and he was still pouting about the food. I quirked an eyebrow.
“Dude? Seriously? It’s just leftover take out.”
“I know, but it was awesome takeout!” he whined. I laughed and nodded.
“So Trinity is gonna start school on Monday. She is extremely unhappy about it.”
“I’ll bet she is, she’s probably scared shitless. Matt, the girl hasn’t left the house since she got here.”
“I know that Bri, but she has to go to school.” I had her take some placement tests, she’ll be a sophomore like she should be, she’ll be fine.”
“I know that, shit, we all do. But she’s scared. She hasn’t been in a school since she was 8. That’s a long time for a kid.”
“I get that, but she still has to go.” Brian nodded and I walked out of the kitchen. Should I really make her go? I knew I had too, but maybe we could, no. She is starting on Monday, she can’t hide in the house forever, it isn’t healthy.

Trinity’s POV
“I don’t wanna go, I’m scared!” I sobbed into Jasey’s chest as we sat on my bed with Lynnie, Corra, and Jaz.
“Sweetie, we know you don’t want to go, and we know that you’re scared, but everything is going to be ok. You’ll make friends, and we can have the guys beat the crap out of anyone who is mean to you.” Lynnie said, rubbing my back.
“Besides, this way we get to go shopping for new clothes and school supplies!” Jaz squealed, at least someone was excited about this. I groaned and flopped back on my bed, smashing a pillow over my face.

“Do I really have to go?” it came out kind of muffled because of the pillow, but all the girls seemed to understand me, because a chorus of “Yes” met my ears.
“Dammit!” I yelled, and all the girls laughed. Then I was being pulled up.
“Get dressed, we’re going shopping and we’re gonna get you an awesome new makeover!” Corra yelled, before throwing clothes at me and leading the others girls out of the room. I sighed and quickly put the clothes on. I slipped my shoes on and grabbed my purse, which had a wallet, house keys, and chapstick in it, I really didn’t see the point of bringing one. I walked downstairs and found the girls in the kitchen talking to my dad. They all turned when they heard me walk in, the girls smiling innocently.

“Alright, what are you four plotting?”
“Us? Plotting? Never.” Came Jasey’s reply. I rolled my eyes and looked at my dad for help. He just grinned and shook his head.
“I gave the girls specific instructions to buy anything that you seemed to be even minutely interested in. So go crazy ok? You need new clothes, and find a phone, laptop, and iPod too. No, don’t argue with me, you need that stuff.”

“I do not need a bajillion dollars worth of clothes, and I don’t NEED an iPod or a laptop. The phone will become necessary once I start going to that hellhole they call school every day.” He just grinned and shooed us all out to Brian’s Tahoe.

20 minutes later and we were pulling up to the biggest freaking mall I had ever seen.
“Oh god guys, can we please just leave now!?!”
“No!” They all chorused again. That was gonna get really annoying really quickly. I groaned and starting walking in, then realized I had no clue where I was going. All the girls were laughing at me when they walked in, steering me towards a store I had never heard of, Hot Topic. I smiled when I entered the dark, loud blissfulness. The girls automatically started shoving things into my arms. Belts, shoes, shirts, pants, hair bows, makeup, it was ridiculous. Once they made sure all the clothes and shoes fit, they took it all to the cashier, who had to call over someone to help her bag all the crap that the girls had decided I ‘needed’.

Once that was done we went to the Apple store, where they insisted on buying me a Mac book. Once that completely unnecessary trip was made, we decided to load all the crap back in the car before leaving the mall, going to the nearest phone store, which happened to be ATT, where they bought me an iPhone with all the internet options and everything. I was protesting the whole time, so much so that Corra, and I quote, was going to “duct tape your fucking mouth shut if you didn’t stop complaining and get used to all the stuff.” I shut up pretty quickly after that, although I was still inwardly complaining about it.

“Guys, I’m starving!” I whined after two more hours of aimlessly wandering around Staples, where we have gotten all my school supplies, and consequently gotten kicked out of after Lynnie and Jasey decided to have a cart race, and almost ran over some old lady.
“
Dude, me too, let’s go to Canyons!” Jasey exclaimed. All the girls agreed and we ended up at this restaurant that I had never heard of. Matt’s right, I need to get out more. Half an hour later and we got kicked out because once again, Lynnie and Jasey got bored. This time they decided that having a spitball contest was a good idea, and I was actually in on this little war, right up until we hit some stuck up looking bitch in the face, which was when I turned into the perfect angel. We were walking out when we saw a girl arguing with some guy by what I’m guessing was her car.

“Come on Jake, give me god damn car keys!”
“Not until you fucking listen to me! Just give me a minute to explain!”
“Fine, you have exactly one minute before I call the cops and have you arrested for harassment and attempted car theft!”
“Jesus woman! OK, Steph, it was a mistake, I didn’t mean to cheat on you, I thought she was you! Baby it was one time, it won’t ever happen again.”
“Really Jake, now you’re lying to me? I know it was more than one time, we haven’t had sex in months, and there was FIVE condom wrappers on the floor, and I keep finding them around the house. I’m done with you and you’re bullshit, now give me my damn keys!” she screamed. I saw his shoulders tense and his fist clench.

“Guys, he’s gonna hit her, I know it!” I whispered before walking over to the girl. His hand collided with her face before I could reach her.
“Hey, don’t touch her asshole!” I heard Lynnie scream before I was yanked back and Jasey walked up to the girl, who was still holding her face in shock. I was already pulling my phone out of my pocket and calling my dad before I realized what I was doing.

“Hello?”
“Dad? We’re gonna be bringing someone new home with us, is that ok?”
“Trini, what’s going on sweetheart?”
“Dad, just trust me, she’s gonna need somewhere to stay.”