Another BigCloset TopShelf story.     Based on 'Tucky Season' what would Tuck's 'Big Sister' be like and how did she react to all of her adventures?

Tales of the Season : Charlene's Story

By

Lisa Elizabeth

This is a work of fiction! It is set in the 'Season's of Change' universe started by Joel Lawrence, continued by Tigger and influenced by Ellen Hayes 'Tucky Season'. All characters are fictional! I would like to thank Ellen for allowing me to write about Charlene and not yelling at me for plagiarizing small amounts of text where needed!! Thanks to Tigger for finishing the original story line and continuing it. And I would like to thank Brandy DeWinter for writing Jesse's story. That gave me more insight into the mind of a Thompson Academy student. A big thank you to all the other people that have done so much to make this possible. Their numbers are too numerous to list.

Charlene's Story

Chapter One

Charlie sat on the train looking out at the lightning and rain outside his window. He was going somewhere, he wasn't quite sure where and he wasn't quite sure for how long either! The storm raging outside the train reminded him of reading 'It Was A Dark and Stormy Night' by Snoopy to his brother Joey. Was it really a week ago he had read that? Hard to remember, so much had happened...

All during his growing up time Charles Allen Hawkins had been a little smaller and a little thinner than most of his classmates. This really didn't cause much of a problem until third grade, and then he became prime bullying material.

The school bully always picked on him until one day at the end of the school year; Charlie hauled off and hit him in the nose. For the first time, Charlie was in trouble. He would have been expelled for three days any other time during the school year. However, since it was after the last day of school, they made him come in and sit in the principal's office for two hours the next three days the teachers were still there.

Charlie didn't see anything too bad about sitting there, other than being bored. The lecture from his parents was short and to the point also. 'Don't let us catch you doing that again'. It was the 'catch you' part that stuck in his mind.

Over the next few years, Charlie just seemed to get into a little more trouble each year. He always had a chip on his shoulder about being 'small for his age', as his mother would say. Things escalated from just fighting to defend himself, into fighting and bullying other kids, 'because he could'.

Finally during his thirteenth year on this earth he got into enough trouble to land in the court system. It seems Charlie had been bullying a couple of boys and when they tried to fight back, he beat each one very severely. One boy ended up in the hospital for three days and had to have his spleen removed. The other had to undergo plastic surgery to repair his broken and distorted nose. This led to anger management counseling and one hundred hours of community service along with six months juvenile probation.

Charlie's mom and stepfather were frantic! One more arrest and he would be sent off to some sort of juvenile detention home until he was eighteen. They tried to think of what to do to prevent that from happening. Finally making a few phone calls, they arranged for Charlie to visit his aunt Robin and uncle Jim in Indiana for the summer. That would occur right after his probation ended and it was felt he might get a chance to settle down by being in a smaller community.

Charlie wasn't so sure it was a good idea, all his friends were in Southern California, why was he going to Indiana? His cousins were all a lot younger than he was, so he couldn't pal around with them. That left him time to make new friends, unfortunately they were troublemakers. Life in a small Indiana town can be somewhat boring to a young teenaged boy. There is little to do when the nearest mall is forty-minutes away and there isn't a movie theater in the area. Charlie was only in Indiana for two weeks before he was caught shoplifting with a couple of other kids.

'How could we have been so f***ing stupid!' he thought. 'Maybe they won't find out about my trouble back home.'

They ended up in juvenile court in front of someone named judge Ruth Walin-something-or-other. After some discussion with his court appointed attorney and the D.A., it was decided to hold off on his case until records could be transferred and his parents could travel to Indiana for a conference. That was rough! He had to wear an ankle bracelet and remain at his aunt and uncle's house all the time! If he went anywhere, his aunt had to call the police and let them know where and for how long they would be gone. That was a real pain!

The house arrest lasted five weeks. His parents arrived and his mom was in tears and his stepfather was very angry with him.

"Charlie! We sent you here for the summer, so you WOULDN'T get into trouble!" his stepfather said. "Now we have the problem that you could end up in a juvenile home here in the Midwest! How are we going to get to see you? What are we going to do?"

Charlie sat there staring at his shoes and thinking about how it would be not seeing his parents until he was eighteen. He had to keep wiping the tears from his eyes as he thought about it.

His mom was going to say something when his aunt walked into the room.

"Judge Ruth called and left a message for you." aunt Robin said. "You all have a meeting with her and your lawyer at ten o'clock tomorrow."

The rest of the day passed slowly, it is very hard to watch your mom hug you and then start crying when she thinks you won't be living at home for three or four years! That really made me feel low. I knew that no matter what, I would beg, if I had to, NOT to leave my family for that length of time.

It was early that evening that Joey asked me to read 'It Was A Dark and Stormy Night' to him. I read it for him and our cousins. We had laughed together at all the strange things that happened in that book. I remember it as a very happy evening. When bedtime arrived, I slept fitfully all night. I was rethinking everything I had done that led up to this point. I knew that something had to change and it was probably me.