Danielle Potier parked her car in the driveway with a tired sigh and turned it off. She gathered her things and got out, absently thinking she hated coming home smelling like a sandwich. She slowly climbed the steps on the back deck and opened the door. Before she had time to kick off her sneakers and put her water bottle back in the fridge, she was bombarded by three small boys.
"Aunt Dani! Aunt Dani! Did you 'member your promise?" Her nephew, Lucas, asked on behalf of his younger brother Jacob and their best friend Morgan. The boys jumped around her, their eyes pleading. They had been waiting for her to come home since they got up that morning.
Dani laughed at them and dug around in her purse for the bag of chocolate chunk cookies she had brought home from work for them. She had promised them the previous night that she would, as a Friday treat, bring them each home a cookie. She knew better than to lie to them, so before she left work, she bought a three-pack of cookies to bring them.
"Here you go, boys. Now go sit at the table to eat them okay? I don't think Aunt Jimsie would appreciate crumbs on the furniture in the living room." Dani told them, handing Luke the bag. "Do you want some milk to go with them?"
"Yes please!" The three boys chimed.
Dani took three plastic glasses out of one of the cupboards and filled each one with milk. After giving them to the boys, she looked up and smiled at the elderly black woman who had stood in the doorway and watched the whole scene play out.
"How was work, chil'?" Jamesina Baptiste, known to the rest of the household as Aunt Jimsie, asked, a smile on her face.
"Tiring, but when isn't it? It's work." Dani laughed, then grew sober. "Any calls from the principal?"
"Oui, he wants you to call him when you get a chance." Aunt Jimsie replied with a sigh. "I wish I knew how to get t'rough to dat girl...you're de only one who seems capable of gettin' any kind of respect from her..."
"Only because I kind of gave her no choice, Aunt Jimsie. It's not exactly tough love, I just don't take any crap from her. I don't have the patience for it anymore."
"You've all grown up so much an' you're all so diff'rent..." Aunt Jimsie mused. "Hard to b'lieve you're still de same girls I brought here so long 'go."
"I'll call back Mr. Proctor in a few minutes." Dani sighed as she went into the living room and sat down. "I just want to sit and relax for a second first. Hey Aunt Jimsie? Do you regret having to take us here instead of staying in Louisiana?"
"No. When Mattie asked me to take you here, to keep you 'way from de life of de T'ieves Guild, I didn' mind at all. I knew de rules of de Guild as well as she did even if I wasn' as connected to it as she is. Girls were not welcome among de ranks of de t'ieves. I'm still surprised dat Jo's mama managed to convince dem to let her join as a t'ief. But I t'ink dat's half Jo's problem...knowin' dat her mama go to stay an' be a t'ief an' none of you ever got de same chance."
"Yeah..." Dani sighed again and fell silent, lost in her own thoughts. Aunt Jimsie went back into the kitchen to give the three boys their coloring books and crayons and start supper.
Dani was the oldest of the seven girls born into the New Orleans Thieves Guild in the 1970s and 80s. It was common practice among the Guild to send females born into the clans away, and it was decreed by the High Council, with the suggestion of the Guild's spiritual healer, Mattie Baptiste, that this batch of girls would move to Nova Scotia under the care of Mattie's younger sister Jamesina.
Jamesina made three trips, all told, due to gaps in the ages of the girls. She moved to Nova Scotia in mid 1979 with the three eldest girls, Dani and Emerald Potier and Victoria Alouette. She left the girls with their neighbor in early 1984, when she returned to bring Crescent Gritault and Marie Lucille Marceaux. She returned a final time in late 1988 to bring back the youngest girls, Jocelyn LeBeau and Serena Lapin. It was the order of the High Council that the girls not return to New Orleans, and Jamesina upheld that order. Nothing was preventing the remaining thieves in their families from visiting them, however, and Jamesina had recently written a letter to her sister addressing that issue. She hoped that after all the years that had passed, there would be some way to reconcile and reunite with what was left with the Guild even though she knew none of the girls were interested in being thieves. They had their own lives.
Dani, who was born in March of 1977, was still single at twenty-six years old. She had brown hair, which she liked to dye auburn, and dark green eyes. She had a slight build, but had studied tae kwon do and her appearances were deceiving. She worked full time at the town's local Subway restaurant and was the big sister of the family. She was the fourth child and eldest daughter of former thief Andre Potier and his wife Nadine, both of whom were dead, along with their two oldest sons, Alain and Bernard. The four had been killed, with most of the rest of their Guild clan, in a massacre by the Guild's enemies, the Assassins Guild. The only survivor of the massacre was the third son, Claude. Dani had a couple of boyfriends over the years, but never settled down. She wanted to travel and had dreams of living in different places. She liked the idea of moving to a place for a year and then moving home again. Home was Nova Scotia and she would never leave it permanently.
The youngest Potier child was Emerald, known in the family as Em. She was born in June of 1978 and had the same brown hair and green eyes as her sister. Unlike Dani, Em had been been seriously involved with one man, Jordan Spencer, for several years, although they never married. They had two sons, Lucas and Jacob, in 1998 and 2000 respectfully. Jordan decided the family life wasn't for him and left the picture before Jake was born. He moved to British Columbia, and has never called or written to his sons. Em, with the help of Aunt Jimsie, her sister and their friends, was doing the best job she could raising her sons as a single mother and worked full time as assistant manager at the Jeans Experts store in the mall.
Born in May of 1979, Victoria Alouette, known as Rory, was the third oldest of the girls. Rory was also a single mother, to four-year-old Morgan Genard, who was named after her older brother. Rory was, like her brother Genard, blond-haired and brown-eyed, and passed on the traits to her son, the way their parents, Pierre and Yvonne, had passed the traits to them. Morgan's father, Keith Anderson, died in a car accident when he was six months old, and Rory had no intention of getting involved with another man. Rory, who shares the same keen business sense as her brother, took a course in Business Administration and Accounting at a local Community College and got a job working in a local accounting firm. Her main focus was her son, though, and the firm was flexible enough to allow her to help set her schedule around her parental duties.
Crescent Gritault, born in December 1982, was the only one of the girls to move out of Nova Scotia. Cres was never fully happy in the home Aunt Jimsie had made for the girls and after finishing high school, she moved to Toronto, Ontario, where she went to university at UofT. She was a major in Information Systems and although she wasn't due to graduate until the spring of 2004, she already had a job lined up with a big company in New York City. Cres, the only daughter of Sebastien and Sylvie Gritault and younger sister of Curtis and Christian, all of whom were long-dead, only returned to Nova Scotia for the Christmas holidays, although she tried to call home once every two weeks. She had brown hair, brown eyes and a bright personality to deflect from her rather dull features. She had no steady boyfriend, but that was the way she preferred it, feeling that school and work should come first until later.
Marie Lucille Marceaux, who only ever answered to Lucy, was born in January 1984. She was the only child of current Thieves Guild Harvest Master, Theoren Marceaux and his former girlfriend Stephanie Descartes, who died shortly after Lucy was born. She had inherited her father's dark brown hair and eyes as well as his personality. The other girls often complained that Lucy had no sense of humor and took things too seriously, but she couldn't help it. She was born that way, like her father and grandfather before her. She was in her second year at the local university, St.F.X., with a major in political science and a minor in sociology. She was doing well enough in her courses that her advisors felt certain she would be able to accomplish her goal and be accepted at Harvard Law School when she was finished her four year degree in 2006. It would be quite the irony, for the daughter of a professional thief to become a lawyer, but it was a dream Lucy had harboured since she first started watching the television show "Law & Order". She wanted to be like Jack McCoy.
The member of the family who gave everyone the most trouble was Jocelyn Mercy LeBeau. Born in August 1987, sixteen-year-old Jo was a rather angry and angst-filled young lady. She was the only child of Henri and Mercy LeBeau and only grandchild of former Thieves Guild Patriarch, Jean-Luc LeBeau. Both her father and grandfather were dead, but that didn't stop Jo from being angry at them and at her mother, Mercy, who was the first woman in the history of the New Orleans Guild to be more than just married to a thief. She went up against the High Council and won the right to take the Guild rite of passage. She successfully became the first woman to become a Guild thief in New Orleans. But she was unable to convince them to change their ways and allow any of the girls, her own daughter included, to stay in the Guild as clan members and possibly future thieves. And that was why Jo was angry. She felt her own family should have had some weight to pull to at least allow her to stay, even if the others could not. Jo had natural strawberry-blond hair and green eyes, but in 2001 decided the way to express her angry and individuality was to dye her hair jet black, wear black make-up, get tattoos and piercings in strange places, wear spiked jewelry and dress completely in black. She hung out with a goth crowd and knew how to skateboard. She often did drugs and smoked cigarettes, and was constantly causing problems at school with her inattentive, screw-the-world attitude.
The youngest of the girls was also one of the smartest. Serena Therese Lapin, called Rena for short, was born in September 1988, the child of Francois Lapin and his second wife Magdalene Morrison. They both died in 1991 when they were in the wrong place at the wrong time and a bomb planted by the Assassins Guild blew up two feet from where they were standing. At the time, her older brother Emil, was fifteen. Rena, who shared her older brother's flaming red hair and sparkly blue eyes, did not share his love of computers and technology, although she was just as technologically smart. She channelled her mind in a different way: language. While all the girls are fluent in English and fairly well-versed in French, Rena went a few steps further. She taught herself Spanish and German and will continue to teach herself other languages. She worked hard at learning the different languages she chose to learn and often went around with her discman playing some language CD. She had dreams of working in the government and using her multi-lingual abilities in her job.
All seven of the girls were very different, with different goals and aspirations. But they were also a family, who loved and supported each other in every way possible, even if sometimes it was really complicated.
After sitting on the couch resting her aching feet for ten minutes, Dani got up and went back into the kitchen. She picked up the phone and dialed a number that shouldn't have been committed to memory. When the secretary picked up, she recognized Dani's voice.
"Hello?"
"Hi, Mrs. Smith. How are you today?"
"Oh hello, Dani! I'm fine. It's a lovely day out there. Do you want to speak to Mr. Proctor?"
"Yes please. Aunt Jimsie said he called earlier."
"Yes...hang on, I'll patch you through." Mrs. Smith said. Dani waited patiently, listening absently to the instrumental music they played when they had someone on hold. She didn't have to wait long. Apparently Mr. Proctor was expecting her call.
"Ah, Dani. I'm sorry I had to call again, but...your Aunt Jimsie specifically said two years ago that anything having to do with Jo was to be discussed with you." Mr. Proctor said.
Dani sighed. "Aunt Jimsie is old, Sir. It breaks her heart that Jo's like she is, and she can't handle it. She doesn't know how. What's Jo been doing now?"
"Oh I understand that all too well, Dani. This kind of thing wasn't unheard of when I was young, but it was rare. I imagine when your Aunt Jimsie was young it was more or less unheard of." Mr. Proctor explained. "Jo and two of her friends were caught smoking marijuana on school grounds during lunch. It might be legal in Ontario, but it isn't here, and especially not for someone so young. All three of them are being suspended from school for one week as it's the second time they've been caught."
Dani sighed again. "Looks like I have to elaborate on my rules some. Do you need me to come in and get her?"
"Yes, I think that would be best. She and the other two have been in detention since they were caught. The others will remain here until I speak with their parents." Mr. Proctor said.
"Okay. I have to change, I'm still in my uniform, but I'll be there shortly to get her." Dani said.
"That's fine. She'll be waiting."
Less than fifteen minutes later Dani was pulling her silver Taurus into the parking lot of the high school she and the other girls had all graduated from. Only Jo and Rena still attended. School was just letting out for the day, and Dani saw Rena and caught her attention.
"Hey...you here to pick up Jo?" Rena asked, pulling her discman out of her backpack. She knew as well as the rest of the school that Jo and her friends had been caught smoking up on school grounds.
"Yeah." Dani glared at the sky. "I'm getting sick of this. How did you know, anyway?"
"Well apparently Jo didn't know what time you were done work today, so they called me to the office during sixth period to ask me." Rena told her. "And besides, practically the whole school saw the three of them being dragged to the office by three teachers."
"Yikes. Well I have to get in there. Uhm...do you want to wait for a drive, or...?"
Rena shrugged and put her earphones on her head. "Nah. It's a nice day and it's only a fifteen minute walk. I can learn at least a couple phrases in Chinese by the time I get there. Have fun with the Goth Princess..."
"Yeah right..." Dani muttered as she watched Rena walk away and then headed into the school.
Dani graduated from the school in 1995 and had not set foot inside the building again until 2001 when she took over the handling of Jo, but she still remebered where everything was as if she had never left. She walked up the stairs to the second floor and went to the administration office. Mrs. Smith waved her into Mr. Proctor's office.
"Thank you for coming so quickly, Dani." Mr. Proctor said. He was seated behind his desk. In front of it were three chairs, each holding a similarly dressed-in-black teenager. None of them looked up when Dani entered. They weren't happy. "Alright, Jo, you may go. Dani's here to take you home. You are expected to keep up with your schoolwork during your suspension."
Dani and Jo walked silently out of the building to the car. The short drive home was equally silent. They passed Rena on the way, lost in the Chinese language. Once at the house, Jo, who knew that Dani was angry, took her things and went right to her room. Aunt Jimsie was in the kitchen, adding the final touches to the spaghetti sauce she was making for supper that night. The boys were seated at the kitchen table, coloring.
"Rena will be home shortly, Aunt Jimsie. Could you maybe convince her and anyone else who comes home in the next little while to stay down here until I come back down? Jo and I need to readjust our arrangement somewhat. She's been suspended for a week."
"Sure, chil'. Dey'll understand." Aunt Jimsie said, a worried look crossing her dark face. She looked at the boys. "Y'hear dat boys? You stay down here wit' me until your Aunt Dani says it's safe to go upstairs, compris?"
"Yes Aunt Jimsie." The boys said in unison. In spite of their young ages they were already well versed in Jo's behavior and knew that it was Dani's responsibility to be the parent in the situation.
"Thanks." Dani went upstairs and knocked on Jo's bedroom door once before opening it and walking in.
The room, with its black walls, carpet and decor, matched Jo's goth demeanor perfectly. Jo was sitting on the bed waiting when Dani walked in. She waited until Dani had shut the door before speaking.
"Dani, I'm sorry..."
Dani almost laughed. "You know what, Jo? That's just it. You're not. You said you were the first time you got caught and yet you still did it again. And you will continue to do it, because you're not sorry."
"But..." Jo tried to save herself but Dani wasn't in the mood to listen.
"Jo I don't want to hear it. I'm getting tired of all this. Two years ago when you decided to become this dark, angry person none of us recognized anymore...what did we do? We accepted it. Every single one of us. Yes, it hurts Aunt Jimsie and breaks her heart, that's why she asked me to be in charge, but even she accepts it to some degree. What did I tell you when I caught you and Jared smoking up in this house? Do you even remember?"
Jo looked at the bed spread. "Yeah..." She said quietly.
"I told you that we didn't care what you looked like, that none of us gave a damn how many piercings or tattoos you got, or what color you dyed your hair or what you wore. We still love you, no matter what, right? It's still true. But I also gave you some rules I expected you to follow, and you've been following them quite well up until this point, but now it seems like I have to add to them."
"No drugs or cigarettes at school, right?" Jo asked.
"Exactly." Dani nodded. "Look Jo, I don't like being mad at you. I'm really rather proud of you for following the rules I set down back then. You don't smoke or do drugs in the house, you always tell me where you're going, who you're going with and when you'll be back, and for a teenager, you've been pretty good at not breaking curfew too except for a couple of times recently. And now I expect you to follow those rules plus the school one. I also expect you to listen to the teachers and Mr. Proctor when they're telling you something. None of us get after you for fun...we do it for your own good, as much as I hate to use that really-overused statement."
"What am I supposed to do next week?"
"Once you get your daily schoolwork done, and I will ask Rena to get your assignments for you everyday, you will help Aunt Jimsie look after the boys and do the chores around this house. You are grounded from now until you go back to school next Monday morning. If you don't help out whenever asked, I will take your phone from you too. You will not complain or give Aunt Jimsie or any of us a hard time about it. Are we on the same page here, Jo?"
Jo nodded. "Yeah."
"Good." Dani was relieved. "Now get started on your homework."
"How did it go?" Aunt Jimsie asked when Dani returned to the kitchen. "It sure was quiet up dere."
"It went well. I didn't have to resort to beating the crap out of her like I did the last time. She might be a rebel and she might have a lot of issues, but at least she respects one person in this house." Dani admitted. "I've grounded her until she goes back to school. She's going to do her work every day and help you with whatever needs doing, including looking after the boys. If she gives you a hard time, I'm taking her phone from her too."
"You're going to make a very good parent someday, Dani."
"I don't know about that, Aunt Jimsie." Dani laughed, then sighed again. "I just wish there was some way to get her past this anger-angst thing she's got going on. It would make life less stressful for all of us, including her."
"Perhaps she needs to talk to her mother...get some of her issues out in the open." Aunt Jimsie suggested. "I know Mattie will write back once she gets my letter...maybe when I write back you could include a note to discuss de idea wit' her. B'cause Jo ain' really mad at anybody here...she's mad at de Guild an' her fam'ly. Maybe if Mercy came up here to talk to her daughter, even if none of de others came wit' her, it might help get Jo settled down some."
"That's a great idea, Aunt Jimsie. I just hope it's a doable one. I'd really hate to get everyone's hopes up and have them dashed by someone saying it's not possible."
"Everythin' is possible, chil', didn' I ever tell you dat?"