The Monroe Legacy - G.3 Ch.16 - Mind, Matter and Maverick

There were times when Gray could look back at Eva's "absent" period and almost miss it. The quiet periods of her long sulks were gone and the chaos which replaced it was total. For the most part it was a joyful, well-intentioned madness but some days being Eva's dad was harder than being her keeper had been. And it never ended.

It took less than a week from Eva deciding to make the most of life in Lucky Palms to her first disaster. An ambitious and ill advised science fair product caught fire and smoked out the entire gymnasium. A coughing principal pulled Gray to one side and informed him that Eva had been expressedly forbidden from attending with what she referred to as her "madcap death-trap" and her disobedience carried the cost of suspension.

Eva took it in stride, filling out her assigned work at home and spoiling Lillia rotten, the two were becoming inseparable. Lillia would follow Eva wherever she went and had even been found trying to colour in her hair with a pink crayon. Casper was more circumspect, wary of the noise that seemed to accompany his big sister's presence.

Gray worried a little at the noticeable difference between his daughters and his son. While Lillia was bubbly and chatty, always in trouble and laughing with her sister, Casper was quiet and kept mainly to himself. Rachel told him not to worry, that every child was different, but Gray couldn't shake his uneasiness.

For all his quietness, Casper was an exceptionally bright child. He scored in the top five percent in his childhood development tests, mastered the peg box in no time and could even read all of the toddler books by himself by the time he was three and a half. For a while he didn't talk. Gray and Rachel knew that he could talk, because they had heard him chattering away to his favourite toy, a puppet doll that someone had sent for the christening.

Through the door they could hear Casper trying out words and phrases, leaving pauses for the doll to "respond". As soon as they went in he would quieten down, rocking the doll and humming wordlessly. Even Rachel admitted she found it weird but before they had a chance to become to concerned Casper started speaking to them. In full sentences. It seemed that he was perfecting his speech before he would use it.

Those baby years slipped by and too soon it was time for Lillia to start school. Rachel had taken her out shopping for an outfit to wear on her first day and was amused to discover that her daughter wanted nothing more than to copy her half-sister. Everything she picked out was black or bright pink and had bones or cats on it. Although Rachel was pleased that they were close,especially as Eva seemed to be doing so well, her GPA now a B and the latest unsavoury boyfriend dumped, she didn't really want Lillia starting school as a mini goth! Eventually they compromised on a funky tartan skirt like the one Eva wore to parties and a navy blue jumper.

Rachel couldn't help her eyes filling with tears as she saw her baby girl all grown up for the first time. For so long she'd wondered whether she would get over her past, whether she would find a man who could love her, insecurities and all and whether or not she would be blessed with a second chance at motherhood. She'd never dared to dream of this, a beautiful house, an adoring husband and two, no three, children who she would do anything for. Smiling at Gray as the cake candles smoked, Rachel couldn't believe how lucky she was and judging by the look in her husband's eyes as he surveyed the scene, neither could he.

As Lillia started school and Eva began her senior year Gray and Rachel had to face some hard decisions. A recent economic downturn hadn't been kind to their restaurant, they weren't bankrupt yet but they needed to make some cuts. The easiest way to save money was for Rachel to come back to work and to let go the two chefs that worked in her place. Casper was the only thing holding them back, he was so withdrawn already.

Eva provided a solution, she finished school at 2pm daily so if Gray could handle lunch, Rachel could hand over the childcare to Eva and then do the busy evening shift. Eva's willingness to help warmed Gray's heart. How different she was from the angry teen who had come back to Mexico with him, she'd even started asking questions about college. She still had mood swings and a habit of landing in trouble, pranks were her specialty, but it seemed that Eva had found her place in Lucky Palms.

At first the scheme went without a hitch. The restaurant slowly turned around as word got out that Rachel was back in the kitchen and Eva tried her best to bring Casper out of his shell. The little boy was having none of it. The second her back was turned or she had to use the bathroom he would abandon whatever activity she'd been trying to engage him with and head off on his own. One time Eva found him moving pieces around on the chessboard. She didn't know the rules so she couldn't tell that somehow he knew the patterns that the knight he was holding was allowed to move by.

Another day she completely freaked out as she had lost him downstairs and the front door had swung open. After a frantic search of the pools and fountains she was about to call her dad when a crash from upstairs sent her running. Casper had managed to open the stair-gate, climb the stairs and get into the spare room where he had pulled a massive encyclopedia off the shelf and was busy turning the pages, it seemed he was looking for something.

Eva was a a little spooked by her brother's intelligence and also by his obsession with his doll which he had named Tia. If Casper had to choose between a real person and Tia, he always chose Tia. Eva wondered if she should tell her parents but they were always so tired that she didn't want to worry them.

Soon Eva too was distracted, finals were getting closer and she desperately wanted to try and get into the state college, though if you asked her she wasn't that bothered. Eva's past really showed at moments like this, when there was a possibility of failure she would tend to give up rather than risk the pain of failure or the fear of people judging her. Gray tried to help her past it but it was the type of thing that only time and confidence would fix.

College wasn't beyond the realms of possibility but Gray knew Eva would need all the help she would get and hired  local golden boy Hayden Steel to help her study. Varsity swim team captain, Yale freshman and Rhodes scholar candidate, Hayden came from one of the best families in town.

When family illness forced him to return home and finish out his freshman year as distance study, Hayden decided to make up for what he was missing by volunteering and working for extra credit, hoping this would give him the edge for the Rhodes scholarship. From their very first session Eva could see how much he wanted to win and to study in England for a year, though she couldn't understand his motivation. Sometimes it seemed he craved the academic distinction but more often it seemed he wanted to get away from his family.

Whatever his motivation, him and Eva got along well and her grades continued to creep towards where they would need to be.

With her sister busy, Lillia had found herself a new hobby. Well new hobbies anyway. The little girl had stormed out of her first ballet class when the teacher had fold her she couldn't wear her skull and crossbones barrette and gone and joined in with the boys soccer practice.

Now she was obsessed with anything sport related. She loved soccer, scoring the most goals in the school girls vs. boys tournament, she ran track, competing in the state competition and narrowly missing the podium. She made the swim team in no time and was soon recognised as a future star in that sport. She was naturally the right shape to swim, incredibly fast and most noticeably a hard worker for her age.

Gray would often come downstairs early on a weekend morning to feed Casper and find Lillia swimming lengths in the pool. Eva had to force her to sit down and finish her homework every night, bribing her with the promise of playing penalty shoot out once the homework was done. Lillia wished that she could just do sports all the time. School was a struggle for her, even working her hardest she barely scraped a B average, but in the pool or on the field there was nobody was she couldn't compete with.

With Lillia in sports clubs so much of the time and Casper refusing to engage with her beyond taking a bottle and dinner time, Eva was glad of Hayden's company. He was so completely different from her friends at school, focused on his future and not afraid of taking chances. As the weeks rolled by they became friends, laughing together when Eva made a stupid mistake and talking about what they would do in the future if everything went to plan.

Hayden encouraged Eva to look further than state college and an easy major and Eva began to wonder if he was right. When he talked about how well she was doing and how fast she understood things she almost believed him. Eva like who Hayden saw her as and even though he was not her type, clean shaven without a tattoo to be seen, she started to wonder if he could ever see her as more than a friend.

Looking on but in his exhaustion only seeing the shiny, positive progress, Gray was thrilled with how far each of his children had come. In the short period he and Rachel had together before they both passed out exhausted they would discuss the changes they saw; Eva's academic improvement, Lillia's sporting success and Casper's intelligence.

What they didn't see was Eva's lack of confidence, Lillia's academic struggle and Casper's inability or refusal to connect with people. Even as their talents flourished in the light of day, so too did their weaknesses take root and begin to alter the courses of their lives.

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Read on with Chapter 17 - Blind Spots