Chapter Text
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The road to LA: Evangeline “Buck” Buckley
Chapter One: Childhood
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Evangeline Buckley was born on June 27th, 1991. Her parents had had her with the sole purpose of using her bone marrow to save their middle child’s life. Daniel Buckley had been diagnosed with childhood leukemia two years prior. He’d been dying, and Phillip and Margaret Buckley had been desperate to save him. They’d had themselves, and their eldest child, Maddie, tested to see if they were a donor match. But unfortunately, none of them had been. And then one doctor had suggested creating a match for Daniel. Margaret went through two rounds of IVF before finally getting pregnant with Evangeline. After she was born they had to wait four months before the doctor would harvest any bone marrow from the infant. Evangeline had screamed through the whole processes.
But it had seemed to work. Daniel had gotten his bone marrow transplant. And he seemed to get better. For the next year Daniel lived. He, and his older sister Maddie, doted on their younger sister. The two siblings loved spending time with Evangeline. They did everything with her. Sometimes they would even drag their pillows and blankets into the nursery and sleep on the floor by her crib. The two had decided to be their baby sisters protector after seeing the way their parents treated her. The Buckley parents didn’t seem to really want anything to do with Evangeline once Daniel was better. Because of this Maddie and Daniel decided to pick up the slack. But then almost exactly a year after the bone marrow donation, Daniel relapsed.
Within five months of his relapse, he was dead. When he’d gone back into the hospital, he’d just known he wasn’t coming back out. So, he’d made Maddie pinky promise to look after and protect Evangeline. To make sure that Evangeline would always know that she was loved. Maddie had promised, tears in her eyes. And then Daniel Buckley had died, leaving Maddie alone with her parents. Alone to look after Evangeline. Margaret had drawn into herself at the death of her only son. She became a shell of her former self. And Phillip spent all his time trying to look after his wife. Neither of them had any time for Evangeline after Daniel’s death. So, Maddie become Evangeline’s primary caregiver. And Evangeline grew up, looking to her older sister for everything, while constantly trying to gain the love and attention from her parents that was denied to her.
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When Evangeline was six, she learned that if she was hurt, her parents would pay attention to her for a short while. Maddie had found an old bike in the garage, and Evangeline had begged her to take the training wheels off of it and teach her how to ride it. Maddie had caved under Evangeline’s puppy eyes. Evangeline had felt like she was flying on that bike. That is until she lost control and crashed. She’d scrapped up her knee pretty badly, and her parents had come rushing out of the house at the sounds of her crying. And for a moment it looked like her mom was about to fuss over her. But then Margaret had caught sight of the bike and freaked out. She started shouting, and then had rushed into the house, Phillip chasing after her.
Maddie had to help a limping Evangeline back into the house. Maddie had settled her at the top of the stairs and then had gone to find the med kit. Evangeline had quietly listened as her parents argued loudly in the living room. She didn’t really understand what they where talking about, but she could understand that they were both upset. When Maddie sat down next to her on the stairs she’d looked over at her with sad eyes, and quietly mumbled a tiny, “They’re really mad.”
Maddie had done her best to comfort Evangeline, but it wasn’t until Phillip had come to the bottom of the stairs and asked her if she wanted to go to the store to get a new bike, that she’d cheered up. And for the first time in her whole life Evangeline spent an entire afternoon with her dad. They went to the store and bought her a new bike, and then they’d gone and gotten ice cream. Then the next day everything had gone back to normal, with both her parents ignoring her once more.
So, Evangeline had started doing as many dangerous, daredevil stunts as she could. Building massive ramps to ride her bike over. Riding her skateboard out in the middle of the street. Climbing trees all the way to the top. Climbing up to the roof of the one story rec building in the park near her house, and then jumping off the roof with all the other kids. She gathered a whole collection of injuries over the years. Scrapes and bruises, bloody noses, concussions, a broken arm. For each injury her parents would spend a whole afternoon with her, looking after and coddling her. She loved every minute of it. Though she did find, on the one occasion she actually had to go, that they refused to go inside the hospital. Maddie had had to take her inside to get the cast put on Evangeline’s arm because their mom had taken one look at the building and had burst into tears and refused to get out of the car. And of course, like always, Phillip had ignored both his children in favor of comforting his wife.
As time went on though, the amount of time Margaret and Phillip would spend with Evangeline when she was hurt dwindled. The Buckley parents got used to her being injured, and stopped being worried every time something happened to her. She’d been fine every other time she’d been injured, why would this time be any different? And so, Evangeline was back to only having Maddie to rely on.
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When Evangeline was 13, Maddie left her.
She’d been dating a man, Doug, for almost a year. Evangeline didn’t really like the guy. He took up all of Maddie’s time. And he always had this look in his eyes whenever he looked at Evangeline. She wasn’t sure what the look was, but it scared her. And he could get mean whenever Maddie wasn’t around. But Maddie seemed to love the man, so Evangeline kept her dislike of him to herself.
And then one day Maddie took her on a drive. They’d spent the whole drive singing along to their favorite songs. They’d gotten food somewhere along the way. Evangeline was having so much fun with her big sister. She didn’t want it to end. Then they’d pulled up outside a large house, and Maddie had parked the car and stared out at the place. She had this wistful look in her eyes as she’d stared at the house, and Evangeline couldn’t help but feel like the place looked familiar. Something about the yard and that front door pulled at her memories. And then Maddie had told her that they used to live in the house, and a very hazy memory came forth.
It was only a flash of a moment. Maddie, and a boy a little younger than her, sat in the front yard in front of Evangeline. The sun shining down on the three children. As quickly as the memory came it faded away. Evangeline asked Maddie why they’d moved away from the house. And for a moment it looked like Maddie was going to answer. Like she was going to tell her something really important. But then her phone had rung, and the moment had been lost.
Evangeline had listened to Maddie talk to Doug, huffing and rolling her eyes at Maddie telling the man she loved him. And then Maddie had dropped a bomb on her. She was leaving, moving to Boston with Doug. They’d argued the whole way back home. Evangeline had shouted, and cried. And then when they’d gotten home she’d rushed up to her room, slamming the door behind her, and had thrown herself on her bed and cried herself to sleep. A week later, Evangeline had watched from her bedroom window as Maddie had climbed into a car with Doug and drove off.
And Evangeline was left alone in house with parents who barely acknowledged her existence.
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With Maddie gone, things got pretty quiet in the house. Phillip and Margaret went out more, leaving Evangeline alone more often then not. The house was big, to big, and to empty for her to handle. So, she spent as much time away from home as she could. She joined her high school’s volleyball and track team. And on days when she didn’t have practice she’d spend her time at one of her team mates houses. She even got herself a part time job at a small family owned store in town.
She did get an occasional phone call from Maddie, but they where far and few in between. And when she did call she only stayed on for ten minutes. Every time it had been Doug who’d pulled her off the phone. About a year and a half after Maddie left, an invitation to Maddie and Doug’s wedding showed up at the house. Margaret and Phillip had both scoffed at it, and thrown it in the trash. Evangeline wanted to go to the wedding. She wanted to see her big sister. But her parents didn’t want to go to the wedding. And without them she couldn’t get to Boston. Maddie had tried to convince their parents to let her come get Evangeline and have her stay with her and Doug in Boston till after the wedding. But for some reason they’d refused.
High school seemed to fly by for Evangeline. One moment she was a freshman, and the next she was a senior walking up the stage to get her diploma. Her parents hadn’t even shown up for her graduation. And Maddie had wanted to come, but hadn’t been able to get off work, or out of classes, for it apparently. It had hurt. All her friends, families had been there, cheering them on when their names where called. But when her name had been called there was nothing. Her friends had cheered for her, but it wasn’t really the same. She’d smiled through the ceremony, but on the inside she’d been crying.
About five months after her graduation, Maddie and Doug moved back to Pennsylvania. They got their own house, and even got jobs at the local hospital. Evangeline had been ecstatic that her older sister had come back. But that excitement had dwindled when nothing seemed to really change. Her parents kept going out all the time, never spending any time with her. And she barely saw Maddie despite her being back. She was always either working, or spending time with her husband. Even with Maddie back, Evangeline was still alone.
A few months after that Evangeline crashed her motorcycle. She’d been driving way to fast through the streets. Her mind not on the road. She’d been thinking over her life. How alone she’d been the past couple years. How no one seemed to want to stay with her. How no one seemed to want her. How she didn’t seem to even really have a family anymore. And then someone had flung their car door open right in front of her, and she hadn’t had the time to stop. She’d hit the door and been sent flying. She’d gotten a concussion, a dislocated shoulder, and a few fractured ribs. She’d been taken to Presbyterian and patched her up there.
Afterwards she’d gone to Maddie at her work. She’d begged Maddie to let her come stay with her and Doug. Evangeline just couldn’t stand living in their parents house anymore. It was just to big and empty there. But just from the look on Maddie’s face when she’d asked, Evangeline knew Maddie wasn’t going to let her come live with her and Doug. Evangeline hadn’t really been sure what to do after that, she just knew she didn’t want to go back to that house. She didn’t want to live one more day being ignored by her parents while living in the same home as them.
That night, Maddie had given Evangeline the keys to her Jeep, telling her that she should go. That she should leave, and just be happy. To find a place where she belonged. Evangeline had tried to convince Maddie to come with her, but Maddie had refused. So, Evangeline had left. She’d gone back to her parents house, packed a duffel bag, and had driven off in the Jeep, leaving Pennsylvania in her rear view mirror…
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