MAMA IM IN LOVE WITH A CRIMINA-

"we were on that big mountain, me and brooke sat down on this old, rusty mining cage. all of a sudden, it started shaking, like an earthquake. and there were lights, and then I looked down in this giant hole. inside of it, right in the middle of it, was either a person or a reptile–" trevor was currently explaining the unusual encounter they had on the mountain together to podcast and phoebe.

"are you even paying attention right now?" he asked, referring to podcast he wasn't even looking at him.

"yeah, i'm just excited we're in jail." podcast replied. everyone around him couldn't help but disappointingly sigh at themselves and wonder how the hell he's still so giddy.

"i thought i heard something say 'gozer'" trevor finished his explanation, to get interrupted by a voice they suddenly heard and the teenagers recognized.

"he speaks the truth." they assumed, and they were right, lucky was in the cell behind. "i was there." she said, approaching closer to the bars to be closer to them and they all turned their heads to her.

"oh my god you have no idea how happy i am to see you!" brooke exclaimed, kneeling on the seat, turning to lucky and holding the bars which separated them.

"now, there's a sentence i'd never thought i'd hear." lucky scoffed. "actually, you guys could really help me with hiding something." she then whispered, her mood changing entirely. "do you have priors? 'cause they'll charge you as a minor."

"wait, what?" brooke furrowed her eyebrows after her smile quickly fell.

"you'll get 2 years, max." lucky continued, ignoring her friend's confusion.

"two!? i'm not spending 2 years in jai-"

"lucky!" brooke's rant was soon interrupted by the commanding, deep voice of one of the police calling out for lucky and all heads turn to him. "quit messing with my inmates."

"sorry, dad." lucky smiled, not being able to hold in back anymore and turning to the door.

"oh, you sick son of a bitch..." the younger teenage girl angrily glared and gritted her teeth at lucky, her rage only rising by the second, wanting to rip apart the jail cell's bars and beat everyone in this police precinct to death with.

"'dad' so you're just..." trevor said calming brooke down while talking to lucky.

"waiting for my ride. yeah." she replied, closing the gate. "you guys look good behind bars."

"i'm never trusting you with anything again." brooke said crossing her arms, disppointed.

"well, you're the one who lies more, so..." lucky reminded her, walking to the main part of the station.

"hey," phoebe stood up from her seat, walking nearer to the cop. "don't we get a phone call?"

"sure you do." he answered. "who you gonna call?"

"egon, if he was still alive." brooke mumbled.

"just-... don't say anything for the time being." trevor whispered to her, hoping nothing else comes out of that mouth that will upset anyone.

~

after waiting for almost an hour, callie finally was seen to come angrily stomping into the police station with who happens to be, brooke's teacher in middle school and phoebe's current science teacher in summer school, mr. gary grooberson.

"where are my kids?" she straightforwardly asked the lady at the front desk.

"they're in the lockup." the woman replied.

"my children are not criminals." callie attempted to argue with her, but lucky's father had to butt in.

"driving without a license," he said, slowly approaching callie and grooberson while listing down the 'crimes' they committed. "expired registration... speeding." he said crossing his arms.

"they can't be the first to go joyriding!" she was determined to continue defending her kids.

"no, they are not. but they are the first to destroy half of main street with whatever the hell that thing is." he told her, referring to the ghost hunting equipment that was lying on the front desk.

"whoa." grooberson said, a hint of excitement lightening up in him as he noticed the equipment.

suddenly, the officers and 2 adults that came to pick the kids up heard said kids coming out of the station's lockup, their handcuffs also being removed. while podcast, phoebe, and trevor were calm, brooke felt way to annoyed. so, she accidentally shoved the officer trying to remove her handcuffs and managed to break the chain with just stretching her arms further away from each other. now, the cuffs were stuck to her wrists, but not together.

"oh my god, brooke!" grooberson excitingly exclaimed his former favorite student's name. "i haven't seen you in forever!"

"yeah, it's been quite a while, hasn't it?"

"yeah. over a year has passed already."

"two." brooke corrected him as he got the time period wrong.

"what!? two years!? man, no wonder you look so big now. you now have all this equipment, you got a boyfriend-"

"um, no, sorry. i'm not her boyfriend." trevor cut him off, nervously scoffing with a quaint smile as chimed into the conversation since he knew that gary was talking about him. brooke, on the other hand, didn't know why, but she felt some sort of unpleasant feeling when he mentioned she wasn't his boyfriend. she literally did the same thing. why only now is her stomach dropping, and her mind puzzling, she wondered.

"did you catch anything?" gary leaned down, whispering to phoebe.

"its inside the trap." she whispered back, barely opening her mouth though.

"right now?" gary asked pointing at it with slightly widened eyes.

"yes," said phoebe.

"let's go. you were supposed to look after her this summer." callie quickly started to speak again, referring to trevor as she rapidly filled out the papers.

"i was?" gary questioned, thinking she was referring to him.

"not you. him." she bobbed her head at her son.

"this was her idea." trevor started defending himself as soon as he heard his mom was talking about him.

"wait, what about our stuff? we need those things." brooke quickly asked, realizing what would happen if they don't do anything about this.

"everything will remain nice and safe in our impound locker." officer domingo replied.

"what!? no! we need it!" phoebe then yelled after hearing that this hell hole said they were gonna keep their precious things.

"phoebe, lets go." callie then demanded after finally finishing filling out the form.

"we caught a ghost tonight." phoebe told her mom with a hint of proudness in her heart, not caring how crazy she'd sound.

"dirt farmers family." the lady at the counter grinned, making fun of the kids that were just kids. and now, they werw boiling. especially phoebe and brooke. phoebe, because they were keeping their stuff and brooke because of how low they thought of them.

"you're starting to sound like your lunatic grandfather." lucky's dad chuckled. man, brooke never thought how douchey lucky's family really was. she thought she just was like that on her own.

brooke had enough, immediately picking up a gun from a desk nearby and pointing it at lucky's dad, cocking it with no hesitation.

"BROOKE!" phoebe and trevor's mom shouted at her as her arms remained straight and steady on the gun. it was almost intimidating.

this gesture then influenced phoebe to grab her own weapon — the proton packs gun — and power it up while pointing it at the same man.

"phoebe, no!" callie exclaimed, quickly lifting her arm to block phoebe from officer domingo. "they didn't mean it."

"she doesn't speak for me." brooke said with a glare. pretty soon, trevor came beside her, immediately taking away the gun from her hand, making her look at him in surprise and rage. trevor opened the gun, turning it over the desk by the wall she grabbed it from to spill out the bullets and empty the weapon.

"its not worth it." he said, closing back the weapon and placing it back on the table. all he did though was make brooke feel even more enraged than before.

"you wanna spend the night in my jail?" domingo threatened phoebe specifically, now that the gun is out of brooke's hands.

callie snatched the gun from phoebe's hands, carefully holding it up to the officer but barely actually wrapping her hand around it since she was obviously nervous to touch it. 

she extended her arm out to officer domingo that held the device and said, "...you can keep it." the shake in her voice was subtle, but visible.

domingo reached out, taking the machine callie offered but kept his arm out. he maintained a deadpanned expression but he wasn't fooling anyone. it was visible that he was also afraid of the gadget.

"go now." callie leaned down to her daughter, angrily whispering to her. phoebe pettily obeyed her mom, stomping out of the station by herself, until grooberson followed her.

"you two, what are you doing just standing there?" she turned her head to trevor and brooke who were still standing awkwardly beside each other with both their heads hung low.

"...see you at work." trevor quickly greeted lucky goodbye who was observing their whole situation.

"yeah, see ya..." she nervously replied and trevor and his mom finally left the station together to follow the rest. suddenly, brooke immediately treaded heavily outside the moment she heard lucky speak, leaving trevor, his mom, and her alone in the station together.

if she had to be honest, lucky indeed felt bad for them. she hated herself in this moment after only then she realized how much they, or specifically brooke has went through. she had parents who didn't want her, the most important person in her life died, no one in this town wanted to be her friend just 'cause of their own personal preference... she realized she was too caught up in attempting to make her life a dream that she never took the time who's life between them was the nightmare.

~

"all right you guys." gary started to talk as he stepped out of the car, wanting to 'remind' them about something to seem a little smarter. "remember that-... yeah you got it." he stopped himself from continuing after he heard the woman he was just on a date with scoff.

callie approached him from front, saying, "i'm sorry the night went sideways."

"no, i-i had a blast." gary reassured her. "why don't we just pick it up tomorrow night? same time."

"you really want more of this?"

"are you kidding me? we had kung pao shrimp, we went to jail. i mean i dont know how we're top this. this is a home run." gary tried to cheer her up and he succeeded, knowing that because she giggled.

"my life is a dumpster fire."

"i love dumpster fires. you should see my apartment... i don't mean now. or a-anytime soon. you don't want to... i'd need to clean..." he stammered as callie only came closer and closer, and eventually he cut himself off when callie attached her lips to his cheek.

"this is moving way too fast. you gotta just relax." he said, trying to continue the conversation but callie already walked away.

"the kids hungry? they want some of this unrefrigerated shrimp?" he asked but didn't receive any answer.

callie walked inside her house, closing the door with a smile on her face. she walked through the hall, but paused in her steps as she noticed her daughter sitting on egon's signature armchair with her eyes fixated on his favorite device, the ghost detector.

she took off her black leather bag from her shoulder, tossing it aside to let phoebe know she was there. phoebe definitely heard her, but she didn't move her head an inch.

after a moment of silence between them, callie finally said something. "we're barely hanging on here." she went straight to confront her.

"you don't understand." phoebe immediately replied.

"i understand you drove around town destroying expensive property..."

phoebe slowly stood up from the chair, keeping the gadget in her hand. she faced her mother, saying, "don't you think your father came out here for a reason?"

"no," callie scoffed with a planted sarcastic  quaint smile on her face. "i think he was a sad old man who turned his back on his family, his partners, and for what?" she said, folding her arms. "for a stupid farm in a town nobody cares about." she raised her voice, her smile already gone. "where, by the way, everybody thought he was nuts... yeah, great decision, dad."

"he was special." phoebe stopped at nothing to protect herself, egon, brooke, trevor, and podcast from these allegations. "he loved science, like me. why didn't you tell me my grandfather was egon spengler?" she also raised her voice, her eyes only watering as they continued to talk.

callie silently sighed before clasping her hands together, saying, "hey, i'm glad you found yourself here, i really am... but all i see are reminders that i didn't mean a thing to him." she said, phoebe now slowly going around the chair to approach her mother.

"he never cared about me." callie's tears also began to form. she always said that her father never cared about her and neither did she, but she couldn't help but wish he did.

phoebe stepped in front of her mom, one drop of a tear spilling out from her eye. she gulped in hopes it would stop, but it didn't.

"he's not nuts." she said.

"well... then he's an asshole. welcome to the family." phoebe clenched her jaw at her mother's reply. she and her mom have had countless squabbles and fights before, but this one was different. because egon was never in the equation before. so naturally, it'd be hard.

brooke, feeling profoundly perturbed, she stomped as she climbed up the stairs to her bedroom... bedroom, as in previously a dirty attic.

"fucking stupid police, lucky didn't even try to defend us..." she mumbled under her breath, pettily stepping up on the stairs while talking to herself.

"stupid trevor, not letting me shoot that son of a bitch..." she murmured as she reached the top of the stairs. she shimmied off her jacket, not bothering to fold it or hang it and just tossed it aside, the piece of clothing hitting the legs of an electric piano.

as she proceeded towards the couch bombarded with pillows and blankets in the middle of the room, her eyes soon landed on the last person she wanted to see right at the top of the stairs.

she tiredly sighed, nervously dipping her hands into her pockets, avoiding eye contact with him.

"hi." she awkwardly said, almost too quiet for him to not hear.

"hi." trevor replied, folding his arms. "don't we have things to talk about?"

"maybe. but definitely not things we wanna talk about." she answered, finally managing to lock their eyes together.

"untrue. 'cause i wanna talk about it." trevor said, slowly approaching her.

brooke took in a deep breath, just giving in and let them talk about it. he wouldn't stop nagging anyway.

"trevor, you want me to be honest?"

"very." he desperately said, making his steps faster to approach her even quicker to hear her. he was yearning for answers. the biggest questions being 'what are we?'

"i like you. i really do." she said. "and i hate that."

"why? am i that bad?"

"no, of course not. you're incredible... it's just that, i'm not. i'm super insecure, i'm always overthinking, i'm always too anxious... i barely graduated my first year of highschool... i'm not right for you. and you aren't either."

"nonsense." trevor furrowed his eyebrows. the more he looked at her, the more confused he got. in his eyes, she was incredible. how could he think she's not?

"you're smart, you're witty, you're independent... not to mention, you're really pretty." he giggled, stepping even closer to her and cupping one side of her face with his hand while the other hand gently held her hand. he tried interlocking their fingers and succeeded after brooke unconsciously let him.

"you look like a puppy." he lightly pinched her cheek, smiling at her and leaning in closer to brush their noses together.

"yeah, well, you know what we dogs are attracted to? blood and corpses. that's why we love squeaky toys."

trevor uncomfortably sighed. "okay, way to turn my words around..."

"i-i'm sorry. i-i'm- honestly, i'm just scared. i know i-i try to act tough as i can but trust me, i'm not at all. i'm afraid of a lot of things, i overthink a lot of things. i don't know if i'm ready. i'm too stupid to be."

"we're young. we're free. this is the best time for us to be stupid, let's do stupid things. some things are worth getting scolded for... just like today. i loved this ghost chase. it was the most i've ever felt alive. and it helps that you were there with me."

"i'm sorry, i just-... i don't think i'm ready to commit right now."

trevor nodded, feeling an incredible sense of disappointment consume him. but he didn't like to be a douche.

"i get it." he said, pulling away his hands from her. brooke didn't know why, but she suddenly felt her stomach drop and her mood she didn't know went up or down.

"good night, brooke. i'll see you in the morning."

trevor greeted her goodbye, walking back down to his room with a certain sense of humiliation and slight sadness. he didn't want to feel that way, but he did. and he hated it.

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