the only exception

 A knock sounded on the door, making Alf bark and Hayley curse under her breath. She glanced over at the clock and saw the time, making her groan again, "Thirty minutes early."

"I can get it, if you want?" Phoebe offered.

"No, I got it, you and Taylor just finish with the pies, please." Hayley sighed, making her way out of the kitchen and to the front door.

"Is she okay?" Phoebe asked after a moment, continuing to circle one of the pies with banana slices.

"She's fine," Taylor shrugged, "Just nervous for today."

"Why?" Phoebe asked quickly, her mind, as usual, jumping to the worst and thinking maybe Hayley didn't want Phoebe around her family.

"She just wants everything to be perfect," he sighed, "Always does."

Phoebe hummed, moving to put the pie in the fridge, glancing to see if they were coming back yet, but seeing they weren't. She veered back towards Taylor, standing awkwardly beside him, already feeling awkward from the socialization she'd knew would have to happen.

However, before Hayley and Christi had made their way back into the room, her phone started buzzing, "I'm gonna step outside to let Alf out." Phoebe told Taylor, patting her leg for the dog to follow.

Taylor hummed, not fully paying attention as he tried to make perfectly spaced dollops of whipped creme on the pumpkin pie.

"Hey," Phoebe answered the call with a grin as she shut the back door, watching Alf instantly start running around.

"Hey, happy Thanksgiving," Hayden replied easily, his voice holding an evident smile. Phoebe hadn't been allowed to hang out with her friends outside of school yet since the homecoming party, but she and Hayden had grown pretty close between the phone calls and constant texting.

"Happy thanksgiving," Phoebe hummed, "You have anything fun planned for the day?"

"Nah, my parents are out of town so me and Henry are just gonna watch the game and chill all day." Hayden replied, "You should come over, if you're not busy."

"Yeah, no," Phoebe let out a dry laugh, sitting down on the steps, "My parents are having this whole dinner thing here, and my mom is so stressed I'm sure she'd have an aneurysm if I so much as suggested I wanted to go somewhere else."

It always felt easier to just refer to Hayley and Taylor as her parents, seeing as Emily was still the only one who really knew about the whole fostering situation. She just didn't wanna have to deal with explaining it all. Plus, they were her parents in a way.

"That's the worst," Hayden blew out, "With thanksgiving break I feel like I haven't seen you in forever."

"Well, it's only been two days." She grinned into the phone.

"Yeah, but by the time we get back to school, it'll have been basically a whole week." She could practically hear his frown and couldn't help but to laugh at the dramatics. "I miss you."

She felt her heart flutter again and smiled softly, "Miss you too."

"What about tomorrow? Maybe we could go on that date we'd talked about? Just the two of us?" Hayden asked, making Phoebe sigh.

"I can ask, but no promises." She told him, not quite sure if Hayley and Taylor were quite ready to let her do something outside of school yet.

"Phoebe, who are you talking to?" Someone asked, and the teen quickly turned to see Hayley and another woman standing in the doorway.