Title: Moving On

Fandom: Jessie

Summary: Christina fires Jessie after a terrible fire and now the Ross kids must learn to adapt a new school with new friends in a new life.

A/N: So this one is explaining a lot of what's happening with Luke. I will get more into the details of the fire in one of the next chapters. Also, I have a few twists up my sleeve. Sorry for the long wait, this isn't really worth it because this is mostly a filler chapter and isn't very exciting. Lastly, I put some fun fanfic links in my bio, tour their new house and see their clothes and such, so check them out! Anywayss, enjoy!

Words: 1782


Chapter Three

The thunder rumbled low into night. Christina flipped through the pages of some book she found on a stand somewhere between 4th and 6th Ave. The book wasn't very thrilling and was about as exciting as a bar of old soap to Christina. Though she continued to flip the page she couldn't remember a word on any of them. Her mind was busy thinking about her new home, her kids, money, work, and how she was going to pull of dinner again tonight. She had just barely gotten by last night without giving the whole family food poisoning.

"Can I watch TV in here?" Christina turned to see Luke standing in the doorway with his usual look of annoyance and desperation plastered onto his freckled face.

"Is your homework finished?" Christina asked.

"Yea," Luke answered dully walking over in front of Christina and picking up the remote next to her. He stood in front of her for a moment just watching. Christina sighed.

"Am I not allowed to be in here with you?" she asked him calmly.

"Unless you want to watch Ridiculousness, then yes you do," Luke explained sounding more annoyed by the second.

"Actually, I was just planning on watching that; I guess I'll stay," Christina said patting the spot next to her for Luke to sit.

"I-Uh, actually I might watch Family Guy," Luke corrected. Christina raised a brow.

"My other favorite show?" she asked causing his face to go red with frustration. Christina held in a bitter chuckle.

"What does it take with you?" Luke exclaimed fists curled at his sides. Christina took a deep breath and shook her head softly and firmly as she stood up. She stayed right in front of Luke for a minute or two. She focused her eyes deep into her son's brown ones. After a short moment he turned his head and starred down at the frilly carpet beneath them.

"I didn't want to hurt you; I was trying to help you. I just want you to know that," Christina said softly, tenderly.

"Oh you sure helped me! I hate it here Mom!" Luke cried voice angry and deeply filled with sadness. It pained Christina to see him like this. It triggered memories of Luke's adopting, the foster home, and the scared little boy looking for anyone to love him. She saw that little boy in Luke's brown eyes.

"I know sweetheart, I know. I'm trying as hard as I can to make things right for you, but you have to help me. You have to try," Christina said, her words soft and smooth as she placed a hand on Luke's bony shoulder. She pulled it out of her reach and stepped back.

"I am trying! Everybody hates me here and I hate them too. I hate this house, I hate not having Jessie or Bertram, and I hate how you're always trying to 'help' me. Guess what, you're just making things worse!" Luke cried his eyes wet with unshed tears. Christina felt her own eyes dampening from the outburst.

"What do you mean everybody hates you?" Christina asked gently placing one hand on each shoulder. He didn't try to pull away this time. Christina took that as a plus.

"Th- they just do, drop it okay," Luke said voice light and hollow.

"Is this where that black eye came from? Luke did the kids at school-," Luke cut her off as she rambled frantically.

"Drop it. It's not important," he demanded.

"Honey, if it wasn't important it wouldn't have you this upset," Christina reached out to softly cup his cheek, turning his head gently so she could see the swelling blackness of his left eye.

"Mom, I wanna go home," Luke said softly leaning towards his mother. Christina wrapped an arm around him as she sat them both down on the couch.

"If something is going on just tell me, I can talk to the teachers or something," Christina tried to get Luke to open up but he just shook his head.

"Mom, I just hate it here. At our old school I was cool, here I'm a joke," he sighed resting his head on Christina's forearm.

"Tell me about things. I can't help you unless you talk to me," Christina tried. Luke was silent for what seemed like hours before he opened his mouth.

"The kids here are bigger, tougher, they're scary as heck. The one kid is almost the size of Dad. None of them will talk to me. One told me the elementary school was down the street and after that nobody would come near me. It's not that I'm not the only one who isn't as big as they are. No, now that the biggest guy told me off nobody will come near me. The kids won't look me in the eyes. I had to eat my lunch behind the dumpster because nobody would let me sit at their table," Luke went on tears threatening to spill.

"That's awful sweetie. I know that this is the last thing you are going to want to hear, but you just have to try and ignore them. You will find friends, just give it time. I can talk to someone about this; get to know some of the other moms. I mean, you can't let this get to you or it will continue. If you want these boys to respect you make yourself respectable, don't let them walk all over you," Christina explained. "I'm not gonna b-s you can tell you that just being kind will solve all your problems. This is the real world and people are cruel. We can't control that or anyone else really. If you don't make yourself a target you won't get fired at. I don't know what else I can tell you."

"Mom," Luke began after taking a moment to process everything. "I don't wanna live here. I don't wanna give it time. I don't wanna have to go to a school where dancing gives me a black eye. Why couldn't we have moved anywhere else? Or why couldn't we just stay at our school, with our friends?" Luke pleaded his voice desperate.

"Luke we couldn't find someplace right for us close enough to that school. It was a public school; we couldn't just drive you across New York to get there. This is a nice private school and you will get a good education here. It can be hard to find your place, but once you do everything will look better. I'm going to coffee with some other moms tomorrow I'll see if they know some kids you grade and you could get together. I could see if they would let you sit-," Luke interrupted Christina again.

"Mom, that'll just make things worse. I'll be the joke, more than I am now. Luke Ross: the only friend he had was the once his Mommy forced onto him. No thanks," Luke grumbled pulling his knees to his chest. "I don't want everyone to hate me. I never even did anything." Tears were silently spilling out of the boy's eyes and Christina pulled him to her chest. Surprisingly to Christina, he accepted the comfort of his mother. She rubbed circles into his back as his sobs grew louder, bigger, more unbearable. "I m-miss Jessie, I-I m-miss Bertram, I miss our h-house, I miss e-everything!" Christina felt tears dribble down her own cheek and she wiped them away so Luke wouldn't see them.

"I know baby, I know," she said feeling speechless. What should she say to him? Christina wanted nothing more than to turn back the clock and put him in a perfect world bubble and never let anything happen to him, but she couldn't. There was nothing she could do and she didn't know how to handle it. She wished Morgan was here to help, to talk to Luke. She wished that the stupid fire never happened and he was still the smiling, laughing boy they all knew and loved.

"Mom, can I-," Christina turned to see Emma standing in the doorway silent with her hand over her mouth. Christina sighed looking down at the crying boy in her arms. He looked so young, so vulnerable. Emma silently walked over to the two of them and took a seat. Luke's sobbing had vanished and now he was just silently crying, hanging onto to Christina. Emma smiled a small smile that only made him chock on his tears and spit out a final sob.

"Want me to get you some ice cream Luke," Emma asked, making Christina smile. It warmed her heart to see her children so loving of each other. Luke nodded and Emma stood up and left the room.

"You're alright, take a deep breath buddy," Christina said motioning and inward and outward motion of breath. Luke took a deep breath and wiped his wet tears away.

"I d-didn't want E-Emma seeing me," Luke mumbled. Christina nodded.

"I know. And I know things are hard right now. But tough times don't last, tough people do," Christina said tenderly. Luke stared down at his hands resting in his lap.

"Why is it so easy for everyone else and not me?" Luke asked despair in his voice.

"You think it's not hard for us too?" Emma asked entering the room with a bowl of chocolate ice cream with a big spoon, placing it in Luke's slightly trembling hands. "Trust me Luke, it's no walk in the park for me either."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. You know where I had to eat lunch? I ate in the girl's bathroom. I have made zero friends and felt socially victimized by my sense of clothes. I've never felt this way before. I've never faced a situation like this and it's eating me alive. But I can't let it do that. I have to show that I'm worth sitting with at lunch, that everyone should want me at their tables," Emma said sounding confident in her wording.

"That's easy, you're you," Luke argued softly.

"That's stupid. You're you and I've never seen you give up on anything before, why start now? Why give up on yourself?" Emma asked. Luke was silent. "I'm going to go to bed now. Good night Luke, night Mom." Emma walked over to Christina and hugged her.

"I love you Emma," Christina said as Emma pulled away.

"I love you too," Emma said leaving the room.

"Can I stay home tomorrow?" Luke asked as Christina began to stand up.

'Absolutely not, but nice try. Now, finish you're ice cream and then go get ready for bed, it's late," Christina said making her way out of the room.


A/N: Soo, soo sorry for the long wait! I know that y'all still have questions and I need to explain stuff but I've had so much writer's block and this took everything I had to even write it. Summer is coming up soon so I should be spending more time writing and less time with school. I don't know if I'll update until summer because I have finals and all this stupid stuff I have to do, but hey, oh well. Thanks for reading and reviewing and all that fun stuff!