"Yeah, I figured." I shook my head, not surprised that Nina had decided to stay. She'd made quite the scene with Joe last night. I knew she wanted to make a difference in this war. I'd be surprised if she wasn't staying. "What do you think our favorite little dysfunctional family is talking about?" I tried not to watch, but ultimately couldn't help glancing at Joe, Em, and Spencer whenever I got the chance. "And what do you think about Nina basically saying that her parents hated her?" I raised a brow. "I don't know what I'd do if I had to deal with all that drama."

I shrugged my shoulders, trying not to glance back over at the three of them. Even though we'd all but forced Spencer and Em to go and talk to Joe privately, the need to know what they were saying was growing. "I have no idea... I kinda preferred them arguing in front of us though, at least we could follow along as best we could." I gave Daisy a guilty smile, knowing that wasn't what was best in a situation like this.
"I really couldn't say why their parents would disown Nina..." I thought of my own father, his distance from me since birth was obvious, but he never disowned me or wanted me dead. I knew he regretted what happened to my mother and blamed that on me. Maybe he wished that it were me instead of her that had died on my birthday, but if that was the case he was quiet with his anger and hate. He always gave me just enough to live off but never enough to enjoy living. "Maybe she did something to upset them... I couldn't imagine what though, she's always been so friendly."

"I know right? I'm so nosy. I really want to know what they're talking about." I smiled, just as guilty and glanced over at them again. Their faces seemed to soften with one another. Joe was now responding to his brother and sister with a subtle nod or small words.But I still had no clue what they were talking about. "And she's super friendly!" I agreed, nodding my head. "Maybe they-- Oh shit." My eyes grew wide. "Maybe they had another sibling that she accidentally..." I paused, biting my lip. "Maybe she accidentally killed them? I can't think of any other reason their parents would disown her. I couldn't even imagine my parents hating me."

I looked at Daisy, frowning. "That seems a bit extreme... but, maybe? I mean, if you think about it we really don't know much about those four."
I looked back over to where the three of them sat. It seemed the anger had finally passed. Joe was smiling at his siblings and from where we sat I could see that all of three of them had visibly relaxed.
"What we do know though, is that they're good people. I don't think those three would still act like they did around Nina if she'd killed their brother or sister... It has to be something else."

"That's true. We don't know them very well. It's only been a few days." I nodded, thinking of how long it seemed we'd been together. It felt like we'd known each other for years. But it'd only been days. "They are good people though."
I glanced back over at the siblings who had calmed down a lot more in the passing minutes. Joe even cracked a smile. It seemed the tension between them had disappeared.
"Do you think they'll tell us what's going on?" I asked, curiously.

"I don't know." I said, shrugging as I looked back to Daisy. "Maybe if we ask... I don't know about you, but I'm not the kind of person who just volunteers my shitty family baggage on people I've only known for a few days." I shook my head slowly and then smiled, "If I were them, I wouldn't be explaining a potential sibling killing to anybody, let alone us."

“This is true. I wouldn’t tell us that either.” I couldn’t help but laugh at the statement. “I’ll ask them though. What’s the worst that could happen? They’ll just say they don’t want to tell us. That’s it.” I said and shrugged, looking over at Sam then back at the siblings. “They looks like they’ve chilled out enough. Want to go over there?” I asked him, curiously.

I shrugged. "Lets. I'm looking forward to watching their reaction when you ask what you've decided to ask." I laughed as I pushed my seat back and got out of my seat. "I just hope they don't hate us for it."
Moving around the back of Daisy's chair, I grabbed the handles and pulled her out from the table.
"Are you ready?" I asked as I turned her to face the siblings table.

“I’m ready, let’s do this.” I glanced up behind me at Sam, then towards the siblings. He rolled me to their table and took a seat beside me.
“Hey, guys. Have we talked it out? Y’all cool?” I asked, looking between Spencer, Joe, and Em.
Joe cracked a smile, looking at both of his siblings then to Sam and I.
“Yeah, we’re cool.” He confirmed, resting his hands in his lap.
“Mhmm. We’re fine.” Em rolled her eyes at her brothers and slapped Joe jokingly on the back.
“Glad to hear it!” I leaned my elbow onto the cold, hard table and furrowed my brows. “So, if you guys don’t mind, can I ask what the big fuss was about? You totally don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. I apologize in advance if I’ve overstepped.” I put my hands up in defense and waited for one of them to answer me.

Daisy and I waited and watched as Em, Spencer and Joe all looked between each other, clearly wondering whether to disclose what their family issues were. I glanced at Daisy, hoping we weren't about to be kicked out of their lives because of our curiosity.
"I don't know if we should-"
"Nina's gay." Spencer frowned at Em, annoyed that he'd been interrupted, but she was only looking at Daisy and I. "Our parents disowned her after she came out."
Joe pursed his lips.
"That's why she wants to stay and fight." He said with a sigh. "She doesn't want to go home because she knows they won't take her back."
"I think she feels like she has to prove herself to them." Em shrugged as she shook her head, clearly unhappy with the whole situation.
"Obviously, we don't care. We love Nina, no matter what." Spencer said so intensely, as if daring us to reject Nina too.
"Obviously. We even told her we wouldn't go home to them," Em continued, "that we could get our own place and forget about Mum and Dad, but she won't."

"Oh man, that's deep." I frowned, looking between the siblings then back towards Sam. "We don't care that she's gay." I nodded to Sam. "She's okay with us. She's helped us all along the way here. She's amazing, and strong, and a good person. Being a good person is all that matters and she's great." I paused for a moment. "And I'm sorry your parents were such jerks about it." I hoped I didn't offend them about calling their parents jerks. It's one thing to call your own parents out, but other peoples parents were a different story. "It's hard to just drop your parents though. After all, they did raise her. And you. Your 'rents are your 'rents and you still love them at least a little... Even if they are kind of..." I hesitated for a moment. "Bad."

I nodded as Daisy spoke, agreeing with every single thing she was saying.
"Definitely." I added once she'd finished speaking and added my two cents, "parents suck."
Joe mustered a smile. "Thanks guys. Appreciate it."
"Yeah, we do." Em said holding each of our gazes for a moment. "She's really hurting. It's difficult because we still love them but we're so angry at them."
"We think that's why she doesn't want us to reject them. She said they need us just as much as we need them..." Spencer drifted off and looked at Joe.
"I mean, she's not wrong, but how could they just decide they don't want one of their own children anymore.?" Em asked, her voice getting a little louder with the anger the clearly felt. "It's like, what if we all turned around and said we were gay. Would they disown all of us?"
Joe spoke up quickly, stopping Em before she went ranting angrily in front of the whole cafeteria. "I think they're just scared and they haven't had the chance to accept it yet." He looked at Daisy and I before explaining what he meant, "we got called out a few weeks after she told them."

"Ah, I see. So they didn't get to finish processing the news?" I shook my head and sighed. It still didn't make sense to me that their parents could disown Nina. How could you carry a child, love it, watch it grow, then turn around to hate it because of who they are attracted to? It didn't make any sense to me. I couldn't imagine how she Nina felt. I was sure she was hurting beyond belief. The people that were supposed to love you no matter what suddenly didn't. It was a feeling I never wanted to know.
"I don't know how to get her to stay though." Spencer spoke up. "It's not her fault who she's attracted to. She likes who she likes! Who gives a damn?" Spencer crossed his arms over his chest abruptly. "Maybe we should all just go home and see what they say." Spencer suggested, eyeing Em. "It wouldn't hurt."