"The county of Los Angeles has approved Zachary Hanson's appeal, and the trial is set for November eleventh," said a newscaster as Jenny and Mike were making out on the couch of Mike's living room. Jenny sat up.
"What?"
"Hanson, who was sentenced to life in prision seven years ago for the murder of his late wife, actress Ginger Stevens, has a strong case not only in his innocence but against the validity of the prosecution in the first trial."
"Oh my God, did you hear that?" Jenny asked Mike, who was still lying on the couch. "They're going back to trial!" Mike smiled.
"That's wonderful, sweetie." She kissed him again. "So what are you going to do when he gets out of jail?"
"Michael, he's just going back to trial. Who knows if they'll find him innocent?" Michael nodded. "I'm going back to the city to live with him, of course. Who knows if he'll want to stay there or not, though."
Michael's mother, Patricia, walked into the room. Jenny sat up. "Hi Mrs. Laticer."
"Hello Jenny," she said. "Are the two of you just going to lie there on the couch all day or will I have to put you to work? Michael, Lydia's coming this afternoon with the family. Did you get the gate from the garage like I asked?"
"Not yet."
"Of course not. You better do it." Mike nodded and blew it off as his mother left the room.
"Who's Lydia?" Jenny asked.
"My oldest sister. She's got a little boy who's just starting to walk and Ma wants to make sure he doesn't try going up the stairs." Jenny nodded. "Do you want to stay and meet her?"
"Yeah. It beats home."
Home wasn't much better for Jenny than it had been before, but after Jenny returned from her two-day stay with Kris, Liz finally gave up and stopped punishing her. Jenny was slightly upset that Liz had completely given up on her, but at least she wasn't grounded any longer.
When Lydia showed up around two o'clock, Jenny felt slightly out of place. Lydia had a husband and two boys, one who was four and the other who was a little over a year old. Jenny always wanted siblings, but her parents were too busy to have another child and were satisfied with just the one. Although now she had Josh, he was hardly around enough to see anymore.
"Who's the beautiful girl, Mikey?" Lydia asked after handing off her youngest to Patricia. Jenny smiled; if there as one thing Mike hated it was being called Mikey, but he didn't even blink an eye when the name left his big sister's lips.
"This is my girlfriend Jenny. Jenny, this is my sister Lydia," Mike introduced. Lydia politely shook hands with Jenny, then leaned in to whisper to her.
"You can do so much better, dear."
"Hey!" Mike said. Lydia laughed and Jenny laughed along with her. Lydia walked back to the kitchen where her husband and mother were standing.
"Oh my God, so guess what I heard on the radio on the way here," Lydia said. Not waiting for anyone to guess, she continued. "Zac Hanson has an appeal. They're going back to trial."
Jenny's eyes widened. She'd all but forgotten that this was the sister that loved her father's band. Nobody in the family knew who exactly Jenny was. They assumed her parents really were Liz and Max and her last name really was Sloan. Jenny was actually quite interested in hearing what they had to say, and was quite surprised that Lydia hadn't recognized her yet.
"Great, here we go..." Lydia's husband said. Lydia elbowed him. "I just figured when he went to jail that's the last I'd have to hear of Zac Hanson. I guess not."
"You know--" Mike began, but Jenny elbowed him much like Lydia had her husband, and shook her head. Mike didn't say anything further.
"I hope he gets out," Lydia continued. "He doesn't belong there to begin with, and that poor daughter of his." Mike looked at Jenny, who again shook her head. "I can only imagine how hard it's been for her."
"What's her name again?" Patricia asked.
"I'm not sure. It starts with a J. Jill...Jane...Joey...Jenny. It's Jenny." Lydia paused and looked over at Jenny, who raised a hand and waved.
"Hi," she said.
"Oh my God," Lydia said, covering her mouth with her hands. "How long were you going to let me go on like that? I knew you looked familiar."
"I wanted to hear what you thought about it," Jenny said. Everyone continued to stare at her. "Um...yeah. I think I should go." She gestured to the door.
"No, don't. I'm sorry. I'm surprised I didn't realize it sooner," Lydia said. "Did you tell anybody?" Lydia looked at her mother, who shook her head.
"No, I didn't. I mean Mike knows, but nobody else does. No one at school even knows. I didn't want any special treatment or anything. People tend to act really weird when I tell them who my parents are." Lydia nodded. She was already starting to act weird just knowing that the daughter of her all-time favorite celebrity was in her presence.
"Do you talk to your father at all?" Lydia asked. Jenny shook her head.
"No, I'm not really supposed to. I talked to him a little bit ago through my Uncle Taylor, but I'm not even supposed to see him. I wouldn't have even known he was in the neighborhood if Mike wasn't mowing his lawn."
"Whoa," Lydia said. "You mean to tell me Taylor Hanson lives down the street from us?" Jenny nodded. "And here I'm living in Jersey this whole time!" Lydia's husband shook his head and Jenny looked at her watch.
"Yeah. I really should be going now. Mike, drive me home." Before Lydia could say anything else, Jenny grabbed Mike and started towards the door. "Nice meeting you, Lydia."
"You too," Lydia called after them as Jenny pulled Mike outside.
"That was only slightly awkward," Jenny said.
"Well come on, Jenny, she's the biggest Hanson fan ever! I'm surprised she didn't start freaking out and holding you captive or something."
"Comforting, Mike."
"Don't worry, they'll get used to it. I got used to it." Jenny stopped, looking back at Mike. Immediately he knew he said something wrong.
"You 'got used' to me?" she asked. "What was there to get used to?"
"Jenny, your parents are celebrities! It's not an everyday thing. It took some adjusting to."
"My parents are no different than yours! Instead of being a doctor, my dad makes music. Instead of a teaching fourth grade, my mother wrote movies. Just because somebody put a camera in front of their faces doesn't make them any different! My life at home was just like yours, only a few more people knew me."
"Everybody knows you! Everybody knows who your parents are, Jenny! My parent's life isn't broadcasted on TV or on the radio. Nobody made TV specials about how fabulous my parents are. When I met you I already knew everything about you."
"You knew nothing about me, Mike. Maybe you remembered some basic factoids like my birthday or that my mother died, but you knew nothing about me as a person, Mike. You barely know anything now."
"Really?"
"Yes!" she yelled. "You're learning, but you don't know everything! I don't know everything about you. I didn't even know your sister's name until an hour ago. I won't even try to remember the other three."
"Well I thought I knew everything, but I guess not."
"We've only been dating a few weeks."
"Two months."
"Same thing," she said. She started walking to his truck. "Do you want to go out tonight?"
"Yeah, whatever." He opened the door to her side of the truck. She climbed in, shaking her head. When he got in, she spoke again.
"I can't believe you're being like this."
"Like what?"
"We had a fight and now you don't even want to go out tonight." He began to protest. "Mike, 'yeah, whatever' is not a sentence, especially coming from you. We won't go out tonight. You obviously don't want to."
"I never said that." She shook her head. "Can we just hang out at your place a while?"
"No."
"Jesus Christ, why not? Am I ever going to get to meet your parents?"
"They're not my parents."
"Fine. The people who have been taking care of you for the past seven years. You know I've never even seen the inside of your house--the house you are current living in?" Jenny closed her mouth; he corrected himself before she got a chance. "And this shit with them not being your parents and this not being your house and whatever has gone on long enough. Yeah, they're not your biological parents. No one will ever replace your biological parents, but these people are your adoptive parents, the house is your house, just as much as my house is mine. Josh is your brother. The items in your room are yours."
"You don't understand, Mike."
"Maybe not, but it's gotten out of control. You only correct me when you're mad at Liz. I've heard you call them your parents before. It's only when you don't get along with them that you pull that 'they're not my parents' bullshit."
"You know I was going to let you in, but now that's not going to happen."
"Fine. I don't want to be around you for much longer anyway, not if you're going to continue being a bitch." Jenny clenched her fists and scowled. She didn't say another word until he pulled in front of her house. She barely let him stop before she hopped out of the truck, slamming the door behind her, and ran into the house.
"Ugh, the bastard!" she yelled once safely inside.
"Jen? Is that you?" Liz asked from the kitchen.
"Who else would it be?" Jenny muttered to herself and began up the stairs. Liz appeared at the foot of them.
"Where've you been?"
"At Mike's."
"I don't want you seeing him so much, Jen. You're fifteen, you don't need to see him every day of your life." Jenny muttered a curse before storming off to her room. She slammed the door before plopping herself down on her bed and screaming into her pillow.
Jenny picked up the phone the next week, her nose in a book her mother had written that her foster parents didn't know she owned. "Hello?" she said into the receiver, not even paying attention.
"Hi."
"Well look who's deciding to speak to me again!" Jenny said, putting the book down. "So have you been at school at all or have you just been going the other way when you saw me coming?"
"Turn on channel 54." Jenny groaned as she obliged. She was waiting for an apology but all of that went away when she saw her father's face on Court TV. She gasped.
"Oh my God, Mike, look at him. He looks a wreck." Mike didn't say anything as Jenny's eyes filled with tears. "Oh my God..."
"Are you okay?"
"No," she said, shaking her head. "No."
"I'm coming over."
"Okay." He hung up the phone and was there in five minutes. Jenny opened the door and hugged him. "I'm sorry."
"So am I. Come on, let's watch it." Jenny nodded and let Mike into the house. He looked around. With as many family photos as there were on the walls, there was not a single photo of Jenny. She didn't give him much time to look as she pulled him up the stairs and to her room.
The television was still on and Jenny pulled Mike onto the bed to watch the trial. "So," Mike said. "That's your father."
"Yes," Jenny said. "He's very skinny, though, and he usually looks more put together. However, I haven't seen him in seven years." She looked closer. "I guess that's his lawyer. Look, you can see Taylor and Kris in the audience there." Mike nodded.
Nothing much was happening. The trial looked to have just started if not that day, then the day before. Jenny still watched with diligence. During the first trial she was required to stay in the hotel with a nanny and only watch movies. This was new to her.
Liz came home around five o'clock and came into Jenny's room without knocking. She was taken aback to see Mike there, even if the two weren't touching in any way.
"Oh hello," she said. "Jen, do you mind explaining?"
"It's Jenny," Jenny corrected once again. "This is my boyfriend Mike." Jenny looked back to the television. "Mike this is Liz."
"Nice to meet you, I'm Jen's mother," Liz said, as if Jenny hadn't spoken at all.
"No you're not..." Jenny corrected but Liz paid no attention. Mike politely shook her hand.
"Nice to meet you as well," Mike said.
"What are you watching?" Liz looked at the television screen. Upon seeing Zac's face, she immediately turned it off.
"Hey!"
"Jennifer, I don't want you watching that."
"Why not? It's my father!" Jenny yelled. She got up to grab the remote Liz had taken from the desk. "Give me that."
"Jennifer, I forbid you from watching that!"
"What, so I might be happy for once? I might get to see my father proven innocent and I'll get out of this shithole for good?"
"That man is a murderer."
"No more than you are. Now give me back my remote," Jenny said.
"Jen--"
"My name is Jenny!" Liz slapped her across the face. Mike stood.
"Jenny, we're leaving," he said. Liz began to protest but Mike grabbed Jenny and ran out of the room with her.