Both parents’ eyes went wide with surprise. Neither would have ever expected that someone like Joey would be an underbred. He was a Calhoun, after all. He was one of the wealthy, one of the elite that shaped the future of the state and the country. Not only that, with how often he would speak to Roni, or anyone for that matter, about his desire to find ways to improve the lives of those afflicted with Smallara and integrate smallborns into normal society, it caught both of the Hale parents off guard to hear that a person like this would, effectively, lose their life and be put into a system that they wanted to improve.
Neither of Roni’s parents were prepared to hear that the young man sitting in front of them wasn’t a human at all, that it was something that was determined to be of less importance. From where they were sitting, Joey was just, well, Joey. The same young man that Roni befriended when they were 8, the same boy that would follow their daughter around when he knew she needed him the most, the same boy that brought not only them, but all of their daughters happiness for different reasons. Yet, in their heart of hearts, they knew that being labeled an underbred, an invalid, changed things. They change what was sitting before them, what this thing actually was and what it represented.
It took a couple of minutes, but the shock of what Joey had said did wear off, replaced with emotional turmoil. For Mrs. Hale, her expression became wrought with a mix of denial, confusion, and sadness. Her lip quivered and she struggled to find anything appropriate to say, as she eventually met Joey’s eyes with both pity for Joey’s plight, and a sudden onset of guilt for never considering those vulnerable to Smallara as actual victims. Her mouth opened and closed as she tried to find the correct words to say to a being that was legally, and from her point of view, just generally, beneath her.
Mr. Hale, on the other hand, had a different expression that seemed frustrated and contemptuous, but there was also something more. His eyes darkened and a familiarity flashed in expression. Roni bit her lip as his gaze went from Joey to her and back, as he contemplated the real meaning behind all that had been revealed within the last few moments. While he wanted to hear all sides of the story, there was no denying what Joey Calhoun had claimed. He was an underbread, a lesser creature to Mr. Hale and his family.
Mrs. Hale was the first to break the silence, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to find the right words. “This…it’s a mistake, right? Your test results….they have to be wrong” she reasons as she studies Joey.
“Oh, come on Kat. When has there ever been a false positive like that?” interjected Mr. Hale angrily. Joey looked at him as he said this and just nodded in agreement. He could see a lot of emotions that he didn’t understand in Mr. Hale’s eyes. Joey could understand feeling upset about the whole situation, but there was a deeper seated anger that was being directed towards him.
“It just doesn’t seem possible. You’ve always acted so… human,” stammered Mrs. Hale, her eyes filling with tears. “How is it possible that you’ve been a…well…an animal, it’s just…not right”
Mr. Hale’s frustration bubbled over. “Right or not, it happened. Jesus, we’ve been letting a wild animal around our kids this whole time,” he said, his disbelief barely masking deeper emotions. Though he wouldn’t admit it, anger and frustration were shielding something more personal—something he’d buried for years.
“Jeff…” Mrs. Hale said quietly, reaching out towards Joey.
“What, Kat? Nothing I said isn’t factual. He’s an animal. He should get used to hearing it sooner rather than later,” harshly stated Mr. Hale, “Hell, I don’t know why they just don’t round them all up now and help them adjust before shrinking. Pull the bandage off and all that,” he added, pacing around the room. “First they hide their condition from you…until it’s too late to do anything, and then…when you finally get to see them, they pretend like…like…they never knew you! Like you didn’t matter to them at all and…they just care about whoever owns them!” Mr. Hale spat, his voice lightly cracking in sadness.
Roni was furious with both her parents’ reactions to this news. Just moments ago, they were treating him like normal, like a part of the family, but now it’s like the past nine years of her and Joey’s friendship didn’t matter. Before she could say anything, she caught a glimpse of Joey and saw that he was handling what they were saying better than expected. “What did your parents say to you to make this not get a reaction,” wondered Roni.
“How long have you been hiding this from us, Joey?” Mr. Hale asked, his voice cutting through the tension. Hearing this made Joey flinch a little, as he almost never heard Mr. Hale refer to him as Joey, usually only just calling him ‘son.’
“I found out earlier this week, sir,” he replied, barely maintaining eye contact.
“Hmph, this week my ass” Mr. Hale retorted. However, before he could continue, Joey interrupted.
“But..there’s more to all of this, like I said,” Joey continued, seeing all three humans’ faces contort into confusion. With a heavy sigh, Joey looked at them. “My parents have private security following me, so when I do become… small… they can immediately take me to a hospital and get me sent off to a facility.” He faced both Mr. and Mrs. Hale. “As of three days ago, my parents started the process of disowning and disinheriting me….”
This hit all three of the Hales hard. Roni was aware of everything going on with Joey’s parents, but finding out that they wanted him gone so badly that they’d have him followed just to make sure he was gone for good? That was a whole new level of cruelty. While she wanted to react with anger to this fact, as well as disappointment towards Joey for not telling her sooner, the reality for her now was that she had another cog in the machine that was her plan to become Joey’s guardian.
However, before she could speak, her father abruptly made one thing clear. “You need to leave, Joey. Now.”
“Dad! You can’t kick him out!” cried Roni.
“Damn it, Roni! He’s got a security detail following him! He came here knowing he was potentially putting us at risk!”
“It wasn’t his fault! I forced him here!”
Before things could escalate further, Joey interrupted. “It’s okay, Roni. I… had a feeling this would happen,” he said before turning to Mr. and Mrs. Hale. “Thank you for dinner, and for the years of hospitality and… well… treating me as if I was part of the family. I wish it didn’t have to be like this but…”
“Wait! It doesn’t! Joey, shut up for a second and let me talk!” exclaimed Roni as Joey looked at her. He was about to speak again before Roni glared at him with a stubborn ferocity he was all too familiar with.
“Dad, Mom… you could adopt Joey…” Roni explained, shaking with anticipation as both of her parents looked at her, and Joey’s mouth dropped in shock.
“I hope the couple of hours of research and messaging Generitech’s legal support helped me get enough information to pull this off,” thought Roni as she waited to hear what her mom and dad would say.
1) “He was one of the wealthy, one of the elite” Money can’t buy immunity, just ask Charity Stevens
2) “what was sitting before them, what this thing actually was” Already thinking less of him.
3) “When has there ever been a false positive like that?” that could never happen
4.1) ““How is it possible that you’ve been a…well…an animal, it’s just…not right” Fuck you, Kat.
4.2) “we’ve been letting a wild animal around our kids this whole time,” and fuck you, Jeff.
5) “why they just don’t round them all up now and help them adjust before shrinking” wouldn’t surprise me if that was happening in some countries in this world.
6) “Like you didn’t matter to them at all and…they just care about whoever owns them!” Did Jeff lose someone to Smallara?
7) “As of three days ago, my parents started the process of disowning and disinheriting me….” that’d probably help prevent golddiggers from just getting littles for their inheritance in the “get-rich-quick scheme” like Chloe mentioned in 306.
8) I understand why Jeff’s kicking him out. there’s a logic to it with the security detail being a looming threat.
1) yup. can’t buy your way out of evolution lol though I would say a big difference between charity and joey is that Joey’s actually a good person
2, 4.1 4.2) I think you’ll kinda understand why they have this opinion in the next chapter or two.
5) that thought had crossed my mind, and given the United States’ history it’d be plausible.
6) there’s definetly something driving his opinions. Same with Kats.trying not to say too much though lol it comes up in the next couple of chapters
7) i didn’t even think about that lol their reasonings much more selfish than preventing a quick rich scheme.
8) yeah, Jeff is a big family person, funny enough lol he just wants to keep his own safe.
really i’m glad that i had started with this when I did. Asuka’s given us so much more info before I even got to this point, and has given more still recently, that its helped out a lot with making things more close to canon
Well, it could could have been worse!
lol it’s not over yet. i’m hoping i’m doing it justice. when i originally wrote it, these chapters were super condensed, like 3 pages on google docs, just so I didn’t feel as bad as spamming the comments. now that I have a separate place to post, I can really expand things and hopefully make it more impactful