The Party (MCTB)

"The Party" is the first and debut episode of the webisode mini-series My Cross to Bear. It is the first episode overall.

Synopsis
"During the 90th birthday party of Ardelia Potter, an unexpected guest crashes it and brings harrowing news with her."

Plot
The light from the sun shines at mid-day, reflecting off of the tinted window of a red car. The car is being driven by Jimmy Ford. His younger sister, Joanna sits in the passenger seat, having a heated conversation with someone on her cell-phone.

"No, Mom!" Joanna sighs in frustration, "I'm telling you, we aren't going to visit you this weekend."

Jimmy rolls his eyes, clearly used to this sort of conversation. Joanna keeps on arguing.

"No! Stop it!" she screeches, running out of patience. "Don't you start sobbing! You aren't gonna manipulate me like you do with Dad and Aunt Brenda!......Look, I love you, Mom. But you need to get yourself together!" Joanna shakes her head."..No, that's it! This conversation is over!"

Joann hangs up and slams her phone down on the dashboard. Her anger and frustration causing her to barely hold in tears. Jimmy looks over to his sister.

"Little hard on her, don't you think?" He asks.

Joanna glared daggers in his direction. "Don't. Even. Start."

"Look, Jo, I'm just saying, one of these days, you're gonna have to let go of your anger and forgive her."

Her mouth hung open, appalled at his careless sounding words.

"Are you kidding me?" Joanna says incredulously, "I would expect you, of all people, would understand! You went through the same crap she put me through! The same stuff she put Dad through!"

"It's a disease. She's sick." Jimmy argues as tries to keep his eyes on the road. The car is now driving down a wooded area.

"No! Cancer is a disease! What she has is an addiction!" She says, barely holding back a yell. "She's a negectful piece of garbage and until she actually she tries to get her life back together, I don't want to hear anything about "forgiving" her. Not from you, not from Dad, not from Alex, not from Ally, not from anyone!"

Her older brother stays silent. He's clearly processing his sister's words.

After a few minutes of silence, the siblings reach their destination. The car pulls up towards a large manor set in a massive clearing of the woods. Three people are waiting outside on the porch.

Jimmy gets out of the car and greeted with a bear hug.

"Jimmy! You made it!" Benji Ford exclaimed elatedly.

"Of course! I promised, didn't I?" Jimmy chuckles and ruffled his younger cousin's hair.

Joanna smiles and outstretch her arms. "What, no hug for me? I'm hurt."

Benji smiles back and hugs Joanna. His parents, Frank and Eliza, head over. Frank has a tight, fake smile, while Eliza seems less than amused.

"Benji, go inside and help with the decorations. Your father and I want to speak to your cousins."

Her son groans in disbelief. "Ugh, okay Mom!"

As Benji heads inside, Jimmy tries to make small talk.

"Hi Uncle Frank, Aunt Eliza how ar.." Jimmy starts before being cut-off when Eliza raises her hand.

"Look, let me make this clear." Eliza says, the distaste spewing out of her voice. "The only reason we invited you is because Ardelia is your godmother. You can stay here long enough for cake and to give her your gifts. After that, I want you two off of our property."

Frank's fake smile falters. "And if we find out anything our expensive items were stolen, we'll know it was you. We don't want you druggies any longer that you have to be."

Joanna scoffs and rolls her eyes. Placing her hands on her hips, she sizes her aunt and uncle up. "Oh, get over yourselves. I'm on the Dean's list, Jimmy's an officer in the military. Don't compare us to our mother, I hate her more than either of you combined. We'll stay as long as Ardelia wants us to."

She then huffs past them and walks into the manor. Jimmy chuckles, standing a bit awkwardly.

"Um...." He scratches the back of his head. "So....um...I..."

His aunt and uncle glare in his direction.

"I think I'm gonna head inside." He says, wanting to crawl under a rock. He then heads into the manor himself.

Later that evening, a young man, Cress Potter and his younger sister Lenise, come out of the kitchen, carrying a large chocolate cake with candles in the shape of the number "90" atop it. They enter the dining area where Jimmy, Joanna, Frank, Eliza, Benji and the rest of the guests are seated at the large table. Their grandmother, Ardelia, is seated at the head of the table.

"Here it is, Gramma!" Cress says as he and Lenise set the cake down in front of her. "Took us all afternoon."

"My oh my." says Ardelia she looks the cake over. "It's so pretty, I'm not sure I want to cut it up."

Everybody laughs, some more genuine then others. Everyone in the room starts to sing "Happy Birthday". Once everyone finishes singing, Ardelia starts to cry.

"Oh, y'all are so sweet." She dabs at her tears with a tissue.

"Grandma, you need to make a wish" Lenise says. Ardelia nods.

She blows out the candles, everyone cheering.

Frank gets up from his seat. "Alright, who's ready for some cake?"

Before he gets a chance to do anything, a loud scream is heard. A second later, there is a loud banging at the door.

"HELP!!" a woman screams. "PLEASE!! SOMEONE! I NEED HELP!!"

"Oh my god, who is that?" Eliza questions. Frank, Jimmy, Cress and Garrett Hernandez rush out of the dining room and into the foyer.

"PLEASE!! PLEASE LET ME IN!!" the woman counties to yell in fear. "THEY'RE AFTER ME!!".

"What if she's a robber?" Jimmy asks. "We should call the cops."

Frank doesn't heed his nephew's warning. Opening the front door, a young blonde woman practically crashes into the group of men. She is covered in mud and she has a visible wound on her shoulder.

"SHUT THE DOOR!" the woman, Eva, shouts pointing at the door. "QUICKLY! SHUT IT!!"

Frank slams and locks it. Jimmy, Cress and Garrett look at Eva.

"Woah, calm down" Garrett tries to sound comforting. "What happened? Who's after me?"

Eva's eyes widened as she looks out the window. "THEM!!"

The group turn to the window as well and see a snarling, decaying man against the glass.

Co-Stars

 * Keir O'Donnell as Chad
 * Serinda Swan as Leah
 * Jeremy Ray Taylor as Benji Ford
 * Storm Reid as Lenise Potter
 * Erin Hunter as Eva

Deaths

 * None

How would you rate "The Party" out of ten? 10/10 9/10 8/10 7/10 6/10 5/10 4/10 3/10 2/10 1/10 0/10

Trivia

 * Alex Ford, Allison Ford and James Ford from Blood Red Dawn and Karen Ford and Brenda Ackles from Ways of the Dead are mentioned, helping weld the continuity.
 * Chronologically, this episode takes place 4 days before the start of BRD and nearly 3 weeks before the start of WOTD.