Chapter Text
Right now Callie should be in maths, pretending to care about calculus or listening to Illana complain that her mum was a ‘mega-bitch-ass-vibe-killer’. However, right now Callie was not in school at all, but instead in the mall. That wasn’t really any different, she skipped more often then her mums knew, but today she was with Lottie Matthews.
Lottie had shown up on their front lawn just under a week ago, and Callie's interest peaked as soon as she heard her mums arguing about it. Mama did her quiet kind of voice - the one that mum always gave in for, while mum gave off her ‘I want to talk to the manager’ energy. Mama won.
Ever since then Callie made it her mission to follow Lottie like a lost puppy. She had gathered some basics from the internet and her mums. Lottie was another survivor from the plane crash, she had spent some time in Switzerland afterwards (Callie was still digging on that one - why had she been in Switzerland for a decade?), and she had recently been in hot water for fraud. Everything Callie had heard made her want to be Lottie’s friend - and the fact that Mum seemed to hate that idea was a mere bonus.
Currently, they were at some ridiculously expensive shop that Callie only ever walked past. Seriously, the clothes were like, a bazillion dollars each. After a mortifying moment where Lottie pulled a face at a shirt Callie picked (the same one Mum gets when Mama brings home another ceramic bunny) she had been a little hesitant to look at more clothes. Lottie was quite possibly the coolest person in Callie’s life right now, and although that wasn’t exactly a hard competition, Callie wanted to impress her. She had that scary type of authority that made Callie actually want to listen, even if it made that funny fuzzy feeling in her head come back.
“Callie, are you ready to go?”
Callie turned around to see Lottie beckoning her over. Why on earth did she insist on walking into all these stores if she never actually brought anything? Where would they be going anyway? They had been to about every store in the mall, and all Callie wanted to do was visit the food court.
“Lunch?” Well, that didn’t sound as nonchalant as it was meant to. But really, Callie was starving.
“Of course. What would you like? There’s the food court downstairs, or we could go someplace else?”
Callie scooched even closer to Lottie and did her best sly grin.
“McDonalds?”
Lottie’s face fell for a moment and Callie was scared that she had said something horribly wrong - although how could anyone not want McDonalds?- but then she smiled her strange serene smile and nodded.
“Lead the way,” Lottie looped her arm across Callie’s shoulders with a comforting weight. “What would you recommend from McDonalds? I don’t get it very often”
Callie balked a little at that. If her mums wouldn’t ask about the missing money she would happily have chicken nuggets and cheeseburgers all day, every day. She allowed Lottie to lead her around the maze of mid-day shoppers as she rabbitted on about her favourite menu choices, not really paying attention to where she was going.
Soon enough they were in front of the glowing screens and Callie felt Lottie move away.
“Okay, pick your poison.”
Callie didn’t know what to choose, her favourite was the cheeseburgers, but sometimes they forgot to check the ticket and didn’t take the green things out. On the other hand, the last time she had nuggets they were cold, which was ew.
Callie was dithering until something colourful caught her eye. The newest toy in the happy meal - a colourful and furry figurine set – looked amazing. It’d fit perfectly in her coat pocket, which meant that she could bring something with her to school and no one would even know. But, Lottie was right there. There was absolutely no way that she could order something that babyish with her right there. In fact, even mentioning McDonalds was a stupid idea, every time Callie mentioned it to Illana she pulled a face and said about calories and –
“How about a happy meal? Those toys look soft.” Lottie suggested.
Callie was a little startled at that. What? Absolutely not. No way, no how. She shook her head.
“Why not? I haven’t had one since I was a kid. Go on, we’ll get matching.”
Before Callie could protest any more - which she most certainly was going to - Lottie strolled up to the counter and placed their order. God, Callie hoped that that kid's older brother from trig wasn’t working.
—-------
It was endearing how Callie thought she could hide it. Lottie saw the thumb that always slipped into her mouth in the evening, her small toys she kept spilling over her windowsill, every little thing that Lottie saw in her littles at the compound, she saw in Shauna’s daughter.
Especially right now, while Callie unwrapped whatever toys she was about to get. Her tongue poked out a little and she was bouncing in her seat. Callie Taylor-Sadecki was truly adorable.
“Hey look, I got the green one. What did you get?”
Callie proudly showed off the green monster in her hand. If Lottie was being honest, it was a little bit ugly and cheap looking and nothing at all like the toys she had picked for her old littles. On top of that it looked like a choking hazard, something that was absolutely unacceptable.
Lottie opened her little greasy box and fished out the plastic wrapped toy.
“Here, you look”
Callie snatched the toy out of her hand - they’d have to work on that later, Lottie hated snatching - and smiled back up at her.
“Thanks.”
Well, at least Callie had manners. And a precious little grin.
Lottie took a bite of her burger - okay, wow, grease and straight cholesterol had never tasted so good. She really should start having take aways more often, her and Callie could make a date of it. Maybe they could invite Shauna and Jackie along too, they’d probably like that.
Callie now had two little monsters in her hand, which Lottie noticed she tucked quickly into her pocket and out of sight.
“Did you get the pickles in yours? I don’t like the pickles, they’re like, super gross.”
Lottie had to giggle a little at that, immediately seeing the Jackie Taylor in her. Everytime they’d go out for team mall trips after big games the first thing she did was feed her pickles to whoever would take them. Maybe Van was always right - Callie was Jackie’s kid in DNA too.
“No, I don’t like them from here. They always taste so slimy.”
Callie beamed at her, like she was happy that Lottie agreed, and nodded along.
“Yep, like I said. Super gross.”
“Super, super gross.” Lottie agreed.
Lottie bit into her burger again and Callie quickly followed suit.
They ate their meals in that comfortable silence - Callie kicking her legs and looking at all the shops while Lottie watched her. Although Lottie is sure she kept trying to hide it, it didn’t escape her notice that she kept looking back at one particular store window.
It was bright and overwhelming - clearly for kids and littles. Lottie had no way of guessing what it was that Callie was looking at specifically, the entire window was crowded with different toys.
Soon enough Callie had finished her meal - how fast did that kid eat? - before Lottie has even eaten all of her burger. If one thing from her childhood stuck it was the rigid table manners her parents had drilled into her. No elbows on the table, straight back and closed mouth, and small, leisurely bites.
Callie clearly didn't have the same worries. She had smiled happily, occasionally chatted between bites, and constantly wriggled around in her chair. The kid was like a buzzing ball of energy.
“Say, why don’t you go look around some shops? If you find something you like I’ll get it for you. Any shop you want” Lottie challenged Callie.
“What? No way. Just eat faster! Stuff it all in.”
Lottie didn’t know what to say. She wouldn’t be ‘stuffing it all in’, not in the middle of a very public food court, but the look on Callie’s face was so hopeful. Lottie had a wonderfully mischievous idea.
“Okay.. close your eyes. “
Callie obediently shut her eyes and smiled a bit, as if she could actually win this. Lottie scooped a small dollop of sauce that had escaped to the side of her burger onto her finger and swiped it against Callie’s nose, successfully smearing the tomato sauce. Callie wiped it away and looked down to her fingers, seeing the red residue.
However instead of the giggle and gasp that Lottie expected - or even in some of her worst case scenarios, a pout and sulking - Lottie got the complete opposite reaction.
Callie’s face crumpled and her mouth drew into a very big frown. What on earth was wrong? Did she hate the texture of things on her face like Jackie used to? Oh god, Lottie should have really checked that first.
She was taking big deep gulps of air now, clearly trying not to make too much noise and attract others attention.
Thinking quickly, Lottie grabbed Callie's hand and scooped her out her chair and grabbed their bags and whisked away to the bathroom. It was only across the food court. Once they got there Callie let go of her hand and threw herself into a stall and locked the door.
Lottie could hear her crying now - really crying, like big chesty sobs - and felt horrible. Should she go and check on her, or let her cry it out for a while? Sometimes, depending on why they were upset, her littles might prefer to cry for a while to let all their big emotions out. If only she knew why she was crying, then she could make a proper plan of attack.
She left her for a minute, thankfully there was no one else in the bathrooms at noon on a weekday, before tapping hesitantly on the door.
“Callie, can you open the door?”
No reply.
“Callie, please. Open the door.”
Still nothing, though her crying did falter a bit.
“I’m- I’m in so much trouble”
The words were almost unintelligible through her bawling but Lottie heard them. Trouble for what? Had she stolen something? Lottie certainly had.
“What, honey? What happened?”
She could hear Callie kicking against the stall walls now. Please, don’t let the kid break anything.
“Callie, you need to open the door. I’m here to help but if you don’t let me in I can’t do anything.”
Lottie moved closer to the door and put her hand against it. The stalls were tiny, and honestly a little flimsy looking. She could just boot it down if necessary.
She tried knocking again, now that Callie’s crying was stopping a little bit. She was still loud, but there seemed to be a few more hiccups in the mix instead of cries. The pounding against the walls stopped too, and she could hear shifting in there. Eventually, Callie’s voice came from behind the door. It was quiet and weak, unlike every other time that she had heard Callie speak.
“You gotta promise you won’t be mad.”
What would she be mad about? Lottie was getting really puzzled now, and Callie certainly didn’t seem to be in the mood to offer any answers.
“I promise no one is going to be mad. Just come out and we can fix whatever this is.”
She heard a bit more movement and then the door started to shake. Callie fiddled with the lock for a second before she managed to unlock it. Lottie stepped back to let her out, and although Lottie hated to say it, Callie looked a mess.
Her hair was now flying in different directions (that was fine, Lottie could buy a brush), her cheeks were red and her face covered in snot (that one was a little gross but they were in a bathroom with sinks), and she couldn’t stop shaking (okay, that was a little concerning).
Lottie wrapped her in a hug and rubbed what she hoped was calming circles on her back. She knew that sooner or later she was going to have to pry, but right now calming her down seemed like a good first step.
Lottie could feel Callie’s body heave as she tried to catch her breath.
“Callie. In and out, here, copy me.”
Callie did as she was instructed and tried to match Lottie's breathing. Sure enough, her breath soon slowed into a steadier pace and Lottie felt it was safe enough to begin cleaning her up.
She grabbed some toilet paper and told Callie to wipe her nose, and Lottie wet some more to wipe her face. She let Lottie clean her face with a surprisingly little amount of protests, and she began to look a bit more composed.
“I was real bad at school. They’re gonna be so mad”
It wasn’t lost to Lottie that Callie was speaking strangely now. In fact, her whole demeanour had changed. Had Callie regressed here, in the middle of the public mall? Lottie knew that littles who had been recently classified - wait, had Callie been classified officially? - had a harder time controlling their regression, so she very well might have. But what on earth could she have done for her to trigger such a violent stress induced drop?
“Who’s going to be mad?”
Callie met Lottie's eyes for a brief second, a little shamefully, and chewed on her lip. When she did speak, it was so mumbled that Lottie could barely make sense of it.
“My mommas. They’ll- they’ll know. They’re gonna yell and-”
“Honey, I won’t let that happen,” Lottie cut in, despite still being a little bit afraid of Shauna herself, still Callie didn’t need to know that. “Now, what did you do at school?”
Callie looked down for a bit longer before breaking out with,
“I dumped some guts on some girls”
Wow, okay, Lottie hadn’t expected that. Guts? That’s kind of impressive. Wait, human guts? Surely not. Callie wouldn’t be able to get those - right?
“Okay. Um- Why?”
That seemed like as good a place to start as any.
“Well they’re bein’ mean. Saying stuff about mum, and mama, and you, well not you exactly but like, you guys. And then I told Illana and she said we should get those bitches back, and so we bought gross guts and dumped them all over ‘em!”
Alright. Skipping, cheating on tests, maybe sneaking a drink, that's all average high school troubles. Not covering girls in entrails and livers. Callie’s cheeks were getting a pink tinge back again, but now she had a manic little smile on her face that brought back just a twinge of panic in Lottie. Callie really did look like her mum.
Lottie went to speak again but Callie beat her to it.
“And now they’re gonna have called mum and she’s going to be real angry, and then she’ll know that I’ve been skippin’ and then she’s gonna want to know why and then she’s gonna knowww!” Callie whined the last word, dragging it out in a pitch that hurt Lottie’s ears.
“She doesn’t know that you’re a little? Honey, you need to tell them.”
Lottie had seen firsthand how damaging it could be for little to suppress themselves, she knew the tolls it could take on them. Occasionally she would be asked to take on a ward of the state - which she did of course, the payments weren’t the most important things in her work - and she saw how hard it was for them to settle into themselves. So many had come in withdrawn, unable to accept the gentle care Lottie and her staff tried to provide.
She didn’t want that to happen to Callie, she had so much life in her.
“Come on, let’s go to my car. You need to calm down and this place stinks.”
She needed to get Callie home to her parents, they'd know her better than anyone, they could help. And if anyone needed help, it was the poor girl in front of her.