3: The Apple Fell Far From the Tree

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Charles and Liliana Evans named their daughter Juliana Evans, a name that their daughter would grow up to hate unbeknownst to them.

They wanted Juliana Evans to be a sophisticated girl. A girl who woke up at six every morning and stretched to perfect her ballet technique, who ate off of the meal plan her dance teacher made her, who got perfect grades, who had the perfect boyfriend, and perfect friends. She would be her parents' dream child. 

Julia Evans however was far from that. She woke up when she felt like it (she still stretched), she ate whatever she pleased (she still stuck to the meal plan around her parents), she got a B here and there (but often hid it from her parents), her boyfriend was far from perfect but she loved that basketball loving goofball, and her friends were crazy at times but she loved them nonetheless.

There was not a time in her life where Julia regretted the choices she had made. Sure maybe had she studied more for her Biology test she would have gotten an A, but she owned and lived with her mistakes with the pride that she had still learned something. Even if her parents only expected perfection of Juliana, who cared?

Julia had since long learned how to keep them happy while still being herself and in turn, they had come to terms with some of the changes she had made, almost all of the changes. The one thing they hated most about the choices their daughter had made was Brady Carson.

In their eyes he was no good for her. Her parents had chosen to be blissfully ignorant about all her friendships, but when she started dating Brady during freshman year, they began to hate him. Although multiple attempts were made to change their minds, no progress had ever been made.

Julia and Brady learned very early on how to sneak around and avoid her parents. Because Julia knew even the mention of her boyfriend sent them into a world of rage.

So, this morning when the police knocked on her front door, Julia knew she had to be smart about the situation, her parents could not know she had been with Brady.

Unfortunately, her parents beat her to the door.

"Hello officers, how can I help you?" her dad said as he answered the door.

"Are you Charles Evans?" the man asked.

Julia's father nodded. "Yes, what is this about?"

"Is this your car?" the officer asked him.

He showed Julia's dad some paperwork and Julia cringed from the stairs.

"It's my daughter's car," he said, sending her a stern look from the side.

"Sir, we took the license plates down for all the cars that were in the parking lot of a huge bonfire party where there were reports of underage drinking."

Charles and Liliana called out for Julia at once. She meekly came to the door.

"We need you to come down to the station tomorrow," the officer said before handing some more papers to her parents.

They closed the door and Julia stared at the ground as she waited for her punishment.

"Were you drinking?" her mother asked.

"No," Julia lied.

"Juliana," her father said in a warning tone.

"I promise," she insisted.

"Why would you even go to something like this?" Liliana said, shaking her head. "You could have been in ballet class perfecting your solo, but instead you went to a bonfire of all things?"

Julia did not reply. Nothing she said was going to make this any better.

"Did one of your friends make you go?" her mother asked.

She cringed when she thought about her friends. Their fight must have been pretty bad. It was half past three in the afternoon and no one had even texted in their group chat yet. She knew Brady didn't have his phone, but she had even called his home phone and no one had picked up. Julia had been too buzzed to really remember much of the words they had exchanged, just that they had not been kind. Particularly if everyone was still so angry they wouldn't talk to her.

"No," she finally said, trying her best to sound convincing.

"Are you sure that Carson boy didn't force you to go?" Charles asked her. "Or maybe it was Alison, that girl has always been a bit troublesome."

Julia forcefully shook her head. "Absolutely no one forced me to go, I made that choice on my own."

"We didn't raise you to do irresponsible things like this," her mother said. "This could ruin everything," she said waving the papers from the officer in the air.

"I'm sorry," Julia tried.

"Go to your room," her father said. "You're grounded."

"You can't ground her, Charles. She needs to go to ballet and the technique camp this summer," Liliana pointed out.

"Give me your phone then," he said.

Julia sulked over to her father and handed him her phone and then did as she was told and went up to her room. She sighed. Now there was no way to talk to her friends about the fight last night. The worst part was that as of this morning, they were officially on summer vacation as well. She wouldn't even get to see her friends at school. She wondered if she could sneak off to see them if she ditched a ballet class or two. For now, she just got ready for dance class, still wondering why no one was replying to her.

Elsewhere, a bitter Max Hall woke up with a headache.

Awoken from the sound of his neighbor vacuuming, Max grumbled curse words under his breath as he got out of bed. Last night was bad enough, he didn't want to hear this noise now. After some aspirin, he checked on his little sister, Isa. Somehow the noise didn't even seem to bother her. She was just coloring at the small kitchen table of their apartment.

Max checked his phone as he ate something. No texts from any of his friends. He remembered their altercation in the parking lot. He remembered some not so nice things said to one another, but he was surprised no one had texted him yet. Each one of them had gone through bad fights before.

There was that time when Max spilled soda in Brady's Porsche. Another time when Alison and Julia had a falling out over the last jean jacket in a store. There had of course been multiple fights between the two couples as well. Max even remembered the small feud he and Julia went through when he had made the mistake of saying ballet wasn't a sport.

Every fight barely lasted longer than a day. Besides, Brady was more mad at Max over the spilled soda than he seemed last night. So it was strange no one had texted yet. It was almost dinner time at this point.

Typically, Julia who was the kindest among them would have at least texted by now. It was so weird. He thought maybe even Alison would have reached out by now. Even she was radio silent.

"Want to color with me?"

Max looked over at Isa who was offering him a marker.

"Maybe later," he said, ruffling her hair. "I have to go call someone."

As angry as Max was about last night. He knew he owed Alison more of an apology. They needed to talk about him not coming over two nights ago and all that had happened since.

The only problem was that she hadn't answered after three tries. He groaned. Was she really still mad at him? This was so childish.

He called Brady's home phone next. No response. Max groaned again, he knew Brady didn't have his phone, but the home phone? What was going on?

Max was kind of hoping that Brady could borrow his father's car so they could go retrieve their vehicles that they left at the park. Now he would have to walk all the way back to the park and then go to Alison's house.

He went back over to Isa.

"I'm going to go out for a bit, think you can manage until I get back?" he asked her.

She nodded. "Can I make macaroni and cheese for dinner?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

Max put on his shoes and was about to head out when there was a knock at the door. He was hoping it would be Alison. but his hope turned into dread when it turned out to be a police officer. Max quickly tried to shut the door but the cop quickly stuck his hand out and caught the door.

"Hall!" the officer said in a warning tone.

Max sighed and stopped pushing on the door.

"What?" he demanded.

"Where's your dad?" the officer asked.

Max clenched his jaw. This was not Max's first interaction with Officer Martin, nor would it be the last. Officer Martin was the one who busted him last year for vandalism and as a result Max spent the weekend in jail while he waited for one of his absentee parents to show up. Even though Max hated Officer Martin, he knew when to call it quits and sighed.

"My dad said he would be here Friday morning."

Officer Martin blinked once. "It's almost Saturday evening."

"Gee, what can I say? I'm just as shocked as you are at his lack of care," Max said, rolling his eyes.

"I'm going back to the station and calling him," Officer Martin said, turning to leave.

"Hold up," Max said. "You told me Thursday night, after everything with my mom, that I could watch Isa on my own until we figured out the living situation, what's the problem now?"

"That was the case until your motorcycle was seen at the park where underage drinking is suspected to have taken place."

Max scowled. "Fine, call him, if he didn't drop everything when his ex-wife got sent to jail, I doubt he's gonna drop everything for his estranged son."

Officer Martin pitied the kid, that much was clear.

"Have you spoken to your mom since Thursday night?" he asked quietly.

"She doesn't want to talk to us," Max murmured.

Officer Martin took a deep breath. "Look, I'll leave the papers with you so you can tell your father on your own, maybe that will lessen the trouble you'll get in."

Realizing it was better than nothing, Max nodded. "Thanks," he mumbled.

"Just come down to the station with him tomorrow, okay?"

Max nodded once more and then closed the door.

His father was not going to be happy. Dreading the call, he texted him instead. Max then left the apartment and began the walk back to the park to get his motorcycle.

When he arrived, he noticed that Brady and Julia's cars were still in the parking lot, along with many others. Perhaps that was why Brady did not answer his call. That must have been it, the two of them were together. Still, he expected at least a text from his best friend.

He got on his bike and made his way over to Alison's house. He knocked on the door and there was no answer. That was strange. Surely, at least one of her parents should have been home.

He was going to be really upset if it turned out that Alison, Julia, and Brady were all hanging out without him. Hadn't they all said awful things to each other last night? Certainly the three of them would not have just made up without him.

Max went around the side of the house to the basement sliding glass door he had snuck through dozens of times. As usual, it was unlocked. He slid it open and made his way into his girlfriend's room.

Alison's room had always been oddly clean. She had a queen bed pushed against the wall opposite the door and her desk was against the wall next to the window. In her closet were her skateboards all perfectly stacked up with spare parts on the floor, her clothes crammed into one side. On her dresser was all her jewelry and makeup alongside her fish. Max had won her the red betta fish in the state fair when they were freshmen. Ironically, she had named him Indigo.

He noticed in Alison's feed chart that Indigo had not been fed today. That was odd. Maybe she had spent the night at Julia's house after they all ran? Either way, he checked off today's box and dropped a few pellets in the tank before leaving.

This was all getting really strange and Max was beginning to wonder if he should be worried.


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