A/N: Well, this is yet another Cricket story. She's my favorite to write if you haven't figured that out yet. This is her life around when she's in junior high. Deals with what happened around the time her parents separated. Hope you guys enjoy! Please leave me a review and let me know!

TWO WEEKS LATER
ELIZABETH STOPPER'S HOUSE
FRIDAY AFTERNOON

Cricket had been struggling to cope with the death of her mother. She didn't know when she could go to her father for comfort. He seemed to be nice to her at the hospital and the funeral, but now he was getting cold and just ignoring her. She didn't get it, some times she just wanted to sit with him but he would make up some reason that she couldn't.

She started spending most of her time after school at her friend Amanda's house. Her parents were really nice to her, and they let her talk about what she wanted. Her dad didn't seem to care because he was friends with Amanda's dad and knew his daughter wouldn't do anything stupid there.

Amanda had a younger sister, she seemed to be nice to Cricket, though she was a little young to understand what had happened. Elizabeth and Troy started doing what they could to help the preteen cope because they quickly realized that her father wasn't.

Cricket was sitting in Amanda's room and Full House was on, but she wasn't really watching it. Amanda's little sister came in and smiled, "whatcha doin?"

Amanda gave her little sister a mean look but Cricket smiled, "watchin' TV…."

Ashley looked at the TV and smiled when she saw DJ Tanner on the screen, walked into the room, and sat on the bed next to Cricket. Amanda was going through dresses in her closet because there was a pageant the next weekend and she couldn't decide. Elizabeth was a pageant coach and a lot of Amanda's friends had started doing the pageants because apparently the girls Elizabeth coached were known for being confident. Cricket was one of the few who stayed away from the pageants, mainly because of her father.

Amanda came out of her closet holding a green dress with some sparkles on it, "Crick, this or the pink one?"

"green" the eleven year old said, sounding very monotone.

"I like the pink one. Cricket, you should do a pageant" Ashley said, sounding more excited than the older girl.

"I don't feel like it. Daddy Bo would say no anyways." she said, still focused on the TV.

"momma says Stopper girls are about confidence, I don't think he'd have a problem with that" the strawberry blond girl replied, trying to convince her friend to join in.

Cricket sighed, she didn't understand why her dad had a problem with girly things. She tried to do things like dance and cheerleading but he seemed to show no interest, her momma always took care of those things, and her momma would probably love for her to do a pageant. She never got to ask though, afraid of the fight that would occur, she hated the one that happened when she asked to join cheerleading with Amanda. She felt her eyes fill up with tears and blinked a few times to get rid of them.

"I'm just not gonna do it. it's not worth it" she told her friend, who obviously didn't understand the situation.

"I could have my momma talk to him about it" Ashley said, she was obviously just trying to get her friend to have fun. Cricket had been moping around their house for a while and not doing much of anything.

"forget it . I'm not gonna do the pageant" Cricket said, getting up. She felt like crying and didn't want to in front of her friends.

She walked out of her friend's room and down stairs. She stopped when she saw the case with Amanda and Ashley's trophies and crowns from previous pageants. She sighed, she wanted to do a pageant, but didn't know how to ask her dad.

Ashley had gone to her mom and the redheaded woman smiled when her ten year old sat next to her, "hey kiddo"

"hey momma"

"what's up?" the woman asked, she could tell the little girl wanted to talk about something.

"I think Cricket wants to do a pageant…" she said with a smile.

"did you talk to her?" Elizabeth asked, she wasn't sure if a pageant was something the young girl was ready for.

"yeah, she said somethin about Daddy Bo not lettin her and it wasn't worth it" the ten year old explained.

Elizabeth sighed. She didn't understand what was really going on over at the Caruth house, and was going to find out sooner or later. "she's still sad about her momma, but I'll talk to her, alright"

"will you talk her daddy into lettin her do it? I don't think she's asked him yet" the strawberry blond asked.

"I'll get it figured out kiddo, just don't bug Cricket about it too much, alright"

Ashley went back to her room and Elizabeth got up, she wanted to talk to Cricket, because it was obvious that the preteen was still struggling. She found the black haired girl standing by the glass case that displayed the crowns and trophies. She sighed, she knew the girl was trying to figure out the pageant thing. "hey"

Cricket sighed, "hi Mrs. Stopper…"

"do you wanna do a pageant?" the woman asked, knowing that beating around the bush wouldn't get much out of the young girl.

The preteen shrugged, "dunno" if her momma were still alive she probably would have agreed already, but she was struggling to figure out who would do her hair and makeup, she'd seen Amanda's pictures and there was no way she could do that herself. She could barely manage her hair because it was so frizzy and unruly.

"I think it'd be good for you" Elizabeth said, smiling.

"daddy Bo won't let me" the young girl said, letting her shoulders drop.

"have you asked him?" the woman asked, trying not to sound too concerned.

"no. I'm done trying new things." She flatly told the redheaded woman, she didn't want her daddy to get mad at her anymore.

"ya know, being a Stopper girl would be about having confidence, and I think your daddy would like that" Elizabeth explained.

Cricket shrugged, "I wouldn't look that good anyways" her hair was impossible to do, and her daddy had fired the nanny simply out of anger, because she got mad at him for ignoring his daughter when she was upset.

"sure you would, you don't have to do it alone, I can help you" the woman reassured her, she decided she probably should teach Cricket how to do something to her hair that was simple enough so it wasn't just a frizzed mess.

The girl just shrugged again, "I guess…." The fear wasn't in the pageant it's self, it was more of asking her dad for money, a dress, and all the other things that came with the pageant.

Elizabeth smiled, "I'll talk to your daddy about it, don't you worry. Now, I bet you'd like to know how to do somethin to your hair before school, huh…."

The girl nodded, she hated her hair, she sometimes got picked on because she had a frizzy mess while all her other friends had pretty hair, because they had their mommas to do it.

Elizabeth smiled at the eleven year old, and led her into the master bathroom. She instructed the girl to take a shower, and wash her hair. After Cricket finished and got dressed again she sat on the side of the big bathtub, with her long, wet tangled hair hanging to her back. She usually just left it like that, since she had never been taught differently.

The redheaded woman had naturally curly hair herself, so she knew enough to tame the young girl's long tangles. She told her to sit on the stool as she gently combed through the matted hair. Cricket tried to hide tears, she missed having her mom do her hair, it actually looked really pretty every time.

About ten minutes later the woman smiled, "see, doesn't it feel better when you brush all the tangles out?"

The girl just nodded, and sighed when Elizabeth started to blow dry her hair. twenty more minutes passed and Cricket had to smile, her hair was the smoothest it'd been since her mom died, and she actually felt better. The woman had turned on her curling iron and styled the girl's hair.

Cricket actually smiled a real smile because her hair actually did what she liked it to do, it hung in loose curls to right below her shoulders, and was shiny instead of a frizzy, tangled mess. She thanked the woman but knew she could never replicate the beautiful curls that framed her face.

"if you try brushin your hair after you shower it'll help make it not so frizzy. But if you're here and you want me to help ya just let me know." The woman told her.

The young girl just nodded, and played with a fresh curl. Elizabeth turned off her curling iron, sat it aside and knelt down next to Cricket so she was at her level, "now, why don't we try a pageant. I can help you talk to your daddy, and I'll take care of everything"

Cricket shrugged, she'd be the only one without her mom there, and she wasn't used to it yet. "does it have to be this one that Ashley keeps talking about?" the girl asked, sounding a little scared.

"no darlin, I bet pageants are the last thing on your mind right now, huh…" the woman calmly replied.

Cricket nodded, people at school were beginning to find out her mom died, and she was still having a hard time dealing with it. She couldn't really sleep, since the terrible memories of her mother in the body bag replay in her mind every single night.

Elizabeth was beginning to notice that Cricket liked to shield her emotions, she wouldn't show if she was upset, scared or hurt. She felt like she needed to pry a little to see how the girl was really feeling. "are ya still missin your momma?"

She sighed when the preteen's eyes filled with glassy tears, and she looked away. She knew she figured out what was bothering the young girl. She put a gentle hand on the preteen's shoulder, "that's okay, you have every right to miss her. and those tears, they don't have to hide"

Cricket sighed, she was a little confused, she couldn't figure out why her daddy hated when she cried, but Amanda's parents didn't care, they always said it was okay, and were nice to her about it. She brought her sleeve of her dress up to her eye to hide the fact that one tear had gotten loose. "but I thought I… never mind…" she started, but got up and went out to their back yard. She really wanted to cry, but she knew crying in front of others was wrong.

She nearly ran into Amanda's dad as she went out the back door, and he started to go after her because he could tell she was upset, but Elizabeth stopped him and told him the girl just needed a few minutes to herself. She'd explained that she was getting worried about the way Cricket showed her emotions, and that they needed to keep an eye on her.

"let me try, she's barely hangin on, and I want to see if she'll open up to me" the man said, giving his wife a smile.

Elizabeth nodded, found Cricket's teddy bear sitting by her backpack and sighed, the girl had become attached the stuffed animal, and sometimes clung to it like it was the only thing she had left, usually late at night. She handed the brown bear to her husband "this little guy usually helps, and I'm pretty sure she wants it right now"

He smiled, took the bear, and nodded. He took a deep breath and headed out to his back yard, where the little girl was sitting on a swing, slowly pushing herself. He just knew they had a lot to work on with her, but she needed their support.

A/N: So a friend told me that in the book, Amanda actually has a sister. I figured that giving her one in this fic would make things better and more interesting. Oh, and in the pilot, Amanda's mom decides that 'grandma' is too old, so she insists that the kids call her Gigi, hence, why her name is Elizabeth in this.