The End of March, 2 Months after the attack,
A Month and a half after Héctor Banuelos Rodriguez's memorial service
"Instead of using the definition of a derivative, you can use this way since it takes less time and work." Skye points to the writing, that can only be described as chicken scratch, in Dominic's calculus notebook. She was sitting on the cold stone of the stair's cement railing on the steps of Leo's school with his friend Dominic, who is absolutely hopeless in math.
"If you do that then it's easier, and if you need help you can just get my number from Leo and ask me."
"What does Dominic need your number to ask you?" Leo asked while coming up behind them.
"He sucks at math. Like he's a new level of low on the challenged at math scale." Dominic lightly shoves her shoulder as he grabs his backpack.
Leo's mouth quirks up into a half smile, "Yeah, I can see that." Leo walks over to stand just behind the rail Skye is sitting on and throws his arm around her shoulder. "It's not just math either. You should hear about this one time that He mixed up a blender-"
"If you finish that sentence, I will kill you."
"I'd pay to see you try to get past his security." She jumped down from the railing to walk with them towards the secret service agents hanging by the car.
"I'll see you guys later."
"Bye Dominic." They wave bye to Dominic and step into the black escalade. Leo turns to face Skye instead of the window to his right.
"So, are you coming home with me to actually spend time with me or spend time with Penny?"
"Hey! I'm gonna spend time with both of you, but I am gonna give Penny a little more attention since I see you more often."
"You know, I never thought my little sister would steal you away from me."
"Oh shut up." Skye rolls her eyes and levels him with an esasperated expression. "You can't take away a best friend so stop pouting and let me entertain your little sister for a while."
"Yeah, yeah." He leans his head back against headrest and the rest of the car ride is filled with small talk between the secret service agents and the two teenagers in the back scrolling through their phones. When they arrive at the Whitehouse, Skye of course has to go through security and bag check. Watching a security guard go through bags is normally not too embarrassing, but when you have both birth control and tampons in your bag and the security guard is an older man, it gets embarrassing. Skye normally blushes when she is flustered, but now she can tell even her neck is red with the warmth that fills her face and neck because of the look the guard gives her at the birth control. If he would stop judging that would be just great, who is he to think anything? She can do that she wants, although she's only on it for the acne benefits, the guard could be less judgey. She must be showing some of her annoyance and embarrassment on her face when she meets him after security because Leo is looking at her like he's trying to figure out exactly what has her like this, but before he can ask a small person bolts towards them and launches itself at Skye.
"Skye!" Penny yells from her koala-like hug position on Skye.
"Oof. Hey Penny, so what are we doing today? Movie, dress up, or adventure?" She rubs Penny's back as the girl loosens her tight hold on Skye.
"Dress up! Can we do Cleopatra again? Please?" Her puppy eyes are in full use the moment she looks up at Skye. She's already working on dragging Skye towards her room, but Skye holds her ground.
"Sure Penny. Go make sure your room is clean before we go back to Egypt ok?" Penny nods eagerly and rushes to her room as Skye turns back to Leo with a small smile on her face. Penny never ceases to lift Skye's mood, but when she makes eye contact with Leo, he's looking at her with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. His question is clearly displayed on his face, so she levels him with the same smirk and answers him.
"When we dress up, we pick a time or place and I teacher about the time, culture, and geography." Skye shrugs and shifts her weight so that one hip is slightly out as she rests most her weight on one leg, "It's fun and educational."
Leo shakes his head with a small laugh, "Only you would somehow make dress up a history lesson."
"Ok one: history is cool to learn when you aren't getting tested on it, and two: Cleopatra is the essence of girl power so Penny should definitely learn about her."
"I don't know, I think you probably give Cleopatra a run for her money." Skye rolls her eyes but smiles at this and turns away from Leo to walk to Penny's room.
"Do your homework so by the time I'm done with Penny we can actually do something." She calls over her shoulder at him.
"What about your homework?" She looks at her over her shoulder and answers his question with a look he knows too well. "Of course." Leo groaned and rolled his eyes, "You already finished it." With that he turns to go to his room, and she walks into Penny's' slightly cleaned room.
Dress up time with Penny lasted for about and hour and a half. An hour and a half of Skye acting as Penny-Cleopatra's handmaiden and tutor. Skye always did both their makeup and hair to fit the time period and character as much as possible. The Costumes they had accumulated were either from party stores or styled from pieces found at the thrift store. Overall, they both fit the part enough for their game, with Penny in a party store Cleopatra outfit with the wig and all, and Skye in a diy outfit of a fitted wrap skirt and a white top tied just under her chest. Both of them had the signature Cleopatra eyeliner. Penny had learned everything about Cleopatra and Egypt that Skye could teach her and got to play a queen, a win-win as Skye told Leo and the Kirkman parents when they first walked in on their dress up, but that time they where "in" sixteenth century England. After each of their adventures Penny either gets bored or tired so they stop, and she'll take a nap or watch a movie while Skye goes to spent time with Leo. Today was no different except that when Skye left Penny's room to go to the bathroom to change out of her costume, Leo saw her and snorted. That's right, snorted.
"Don't. say. A. word." She gave him her best murder look and went into the bathroom. Looking into the bathroom mirror, Skye tries to find what would make Leo snort at. Sure, it wasn't the best costume, but Skye thought it looked good on her. The skirt was earth toned and went down to below her knees in the back, but the wrapped part exposed up to the middle of her right thigh and the white top was knotted under her chest. It showed her hourglass, leaning towards pear, body shape. Her makeup was beautiful and perfectly cleopatra and her dark hair was parted in the center. Whatever. Leo must be on something, because as far as Skye was concerned, she looked good. With that thought, she changed back into her school uniform, put the costume back in the costume bin in Penny's room, and headed into Leo's room. of course, she knocked as she opened his door and plopped into the beanbag chair next to him.
"Okay so what are we doing?"
"You changed back into your uniform?"
"Yeah. The Cleopatra handmaiden costume isn't the most comfortable outfit on the planet. So what are we gonna do?" Leo gets up to get something out of his TV stand's drawer.
"Wanna do a throw back and play Crash Bash and Sly Cooper on my old PS2?"
"Oh my god yes. How is that a question you even need to ask?" With that he tosses Skye a controller and starts to setup the console.
After an hour of playing the PS2, Leo needed to finish up a beat he's been working on, so Skye laid across his bed just listening and watching him work. This is one of the few times she can admire him without him noticing. He was always to focused on his computer to know that she was analyzing him as he worked. Whenever he was really focused on something his left eyebrow would raise just a little bit and he'd chew on the inside of his cheek whenever he was trying to figure something out. Watching him work never failed to calm her and make her feel at peace, it probably helped that his expressions are cute. She knew that having even the slightest bit of romantic thoughts about your best friend is a big no for a teenager, Skye just figured she'd entertain them and see where they went. If they continued and grew then she'd tell Leo, but if they were only temporary then she would just let they run their course. She wasn't about to over react about small feelings she's only had for two months. They continued in their positions until about ten when Mrs. Kirkman said it was too late on a school night for them to be hanging out. Plus, Skye had a curfew at 10:30 so she should probably leave before Mateo calls her asking why she isn't back yet, or worse Monica calling her in a panic asking her why she is worrying them by being late. A secret service agent, Mike had called him Jeffreys, took her back home and she spent the rest of the night watching home videos that she eventually fell asleep to.
The next day progressed as normal, an iced coffee from the bakery for breakfast before school then four long hours of English, physics, chemistry, and government classes followed by lunch. Skye always sat with a group of girls that are in the SWE club with her. She has been friends with them since she enrolled here because they have most things in common and they don't like or cause drama which is rare in an all-girls private school. After lunch she went through two hours of calculus and human geography, then she was finally on her way home and free to veg on the couch for a three-hour Narcos marathon. Or that's what she was supposed to do before her phone rang with a call from a random number.
"Hello?" Does everyone else answer calls from unknown numbers awkward too, or was it just her?
"Hey Skye. It's Dominic, Leo said I have to call you because I'm the hopeless one, total bullshit if you ask me-"
"Dom you ARE hopeless!" That got a snort from Skye.
"Shut up Leo! Anyway, we're in the Whitehouse's library studying for math and chemistry. Do you think you could come and help?"
"Uh sure, I'll be there in twenty or so minutes. Did Leo leave my name at the gate?"
She was not about to go all the way to the White House to not get let in, especially when she's taking the metro. Skye turned the other direction to make her way to the line that'll take her towards the White House and started searching for her MetroCard. She really shouldn't have moved it out from behind her phone case, but she did and now she needs to find her wallet at the bottom of her bag.
"Oh thank god. Yeah he did. Thanks Skye, you're a lifesaver."
She would have hung up right then and there, but she didn't have any free hands and her phone was wedged between her cheek and shoulder, so she just waited for him to end the call. Apparently, he thought the same thing as her because he never hung-up.
"Why were you so nervous to call her? I know our generation is all about text but come on man." That was definitely Leo's voice.
"Dude she's hot, funny, and smart. That's why I was nervous."
"I know what you mean. Her in that little skirt is a sight to see. Never knew I had a thing for schoolgirl outfits until I saw her." That's a voice that she doesn't recognize and honestly doesn't want to get to know.
"Could you not?" Leo's tone has changed from joking and light to annoyed and low. He sounds aggravated, even more so than when Skye almost broke his headphones.
"What? She is." Said the same voice with an underlying amount of attitude that she knew would piss Leo off.
"Yeah Leo. I know she's your best friend, but there is no way you don't agree." Said a new voice that seemed to be a bit farther away from the phone then the others.
"Just stop talking about her like that ok? And stop staring at her whenever she's around." Now Leo was getting close to loosing his shit. Skye could just tell by his voice that he was clenching his fists and gritting his teeth, not unsimilar to how she was reacting to what this douche was saying.
"It's a little difficult when she wears the plaid skirt and knee highs. And don't even get me started on the little heels. I wonder what she would look like in them bent over-"
He didn't get to finish what was sure be a lude description of her that would make her want to punch this guy right in the face, because there was a loud sound like a chair's legs scraping across the floor and then some raised voices. Leo's cool had definitely snapped from that last comment because she could hear jumbled up sounds of Leo yelling at the guy mixed in with everyone else yelling at them to back off each other.
"Ok Leo chill. We'll stop. Besides, Bryan you went way too far." Dominic finally chimes in sounding a little out of breath.
"Just be glad we have to do a project together Bryan, or you wouldn't be able to walk tomorrow." Yeah Leo sounded way passed pissed at this point.
"Sorry Leo." So apparently it only took Leo going at this Bryan guy for him to apologize for being a jerk.
"You should be apologizing to Skye. It's her you were objectifying like a piece of meat."
"Ok, let's just review quietly before Skye gets here. I don't think anyone wants her to know about this when she gets here."
With Dominic finally calming the situation down a bit, Skye hung up and boarded the metro towards the White House. It took about ten minutes to get to the entrance she needed but it took ten more minutes to go through security and get escorted to the library by secret service. The library looked as expected with old dark wood furniture and large bookcases lining the walls. It even smelled similar to an actual library. She saw the group of guys right as she walked in. acting like she knew nothing of what happened earlier was hard because she wanted to glare at whichever of the two guys sharing the table with Leo and Dominic was Bryan, but she knew she couldn't so she just acted as pleasant as she normally is.
"Hey guys."
A chorus of heys followed her greeting. The only seat left at the table was between Leo and Dominic. Something tells her this wasn't a coincidence. And it definitely wasn't because the second she sat down and got her stuff settled, she looked up and made eye contact with the blonde boy sitting diagonal from her. Leo must have been watching her settle in because when he saw this he grabbed the leg of her chair and pulled it towards him, and once she was what he deemed close enough, he settled his arm around the back of her chair and gave the boy a cold stare that made him look quickly back at his work. This must be the Bryan guy. Although she may want to punch this guy in the face and she may hate the situation, she isn't complaining about Leo showing his protective side. She is not gonna lie, him pulling her closer to him as a back off action to Bryan made her smile a little and may have made her want him to show this side of himself more often, because the chair thing was very attractive in her opinion. But right now, is not the time to internally fawn over Leo, she came here to help Dominic, so she might as well do that and finish her homework as well. Turning towards Dominic, they got started on the tutoring session that lasted for about three hours. Luckily Bryan and the other boy who she found out was named Allton, left two hours in when they finished the project they had with Leo. They left as quickly as possible, even the secret service agents hanging around the entrance seemed glad they were gone.
"Thanks again Skye. I owe you."
"Just get me a pack of mini m&ms, they're my weakness."
"Weird price but ok. I'll give it to you the next time I see you or just give them to Leo to give to you. See ya."
Her and Dominic waved bye to each other, then she turned back to finish packing up her bag. Leo was hanging back waiting for her to finish so he and Dominic just did the "guy nod" as a goodbye. Once she finished packing everything up and hoisted her bag onto her shoulder, she up looked at Leo too see why he was waiting for her.
"I'll walk you back to your car."
"Jeffreys can walk her Leo, your dad wants to see you." Mike interrupted as he strolled into the room to collect Leo.
Leo looks like he's about to protest but before he can she steps up to him and hugs him goodbye, "I didn't drive here anyway. Bye Leo, see you later."
The next day Leo found out about the rumors around who his "real" father is and they didn't talk for the next week. Well more like Leo had told her what was happening and then never answered her calls or texts. He didn't want to see anyone, and she could never catch him after school because he left as soon as his school's bell rang, and she never left her school fast enough to get to him first. This went on for about a week until Friday night when she opened the door to Leo and Mike.
"Leo?" Before she could wave them in, Leo stepped forward and captured her in a long, tight hug.
"Hey Skye." He mumbled into her hair where his face was pressed into the top of her head. She nodded to Mike as a greeting and continued to run her hands up and down Leo's back comfortingly. They stayed in that position quietly for the next couple of minutes, until Leo pulled away and she ushered them into the house.
"What do you need right now? Distraction, pick-me-up, or comfort?"
"Distraction and pick-me-up." Skye smiled in response, she had just the thing.
"I have an idea. I've been wanting to do this for a while so you can help me, but it does have some rebellion in it too." She says as she moves into the kitchen towards the cupboard under the sink and pulls out what she needed. She turns back towards the island where Leo and Mike are and holds up the cans of black spray paint with a bright smile.
"What the fu-"
"Skye-"
"Relax. We're spray painting my room, not public property."
"Do you have permission for that?" Mike is cool, but even he has his limits it seems. And her asking Leo help "deface" her room is where that line apparently starts.
"No. that's where the rebellion comes in. Besides Mateo won't care, He and Monica are in Maine for the weekend. Plus, I need a change in my room and my therapist said to try and draw to relax. I'm being a multitasker and doing both." This gets a laugh from Leo and an amused smile from Mike.
"Whatever you say."
While Leo and Skye went up to her room, Mike stayed in the living room to watch tv if they kept the door open of course. Even without an actual parent they couldn't get away from the "keep the door open" rule. Once they're in Skye's room they start to move her dresser from the front wall of her room. She had already taped the wall off so that the spray paint won't get on the other walls and she opened the windows so the fumes wouldn't overwhelm them.
"So we're gonna do your whole wall?"
"Yepp. Now get to spraying."
Spray-painting a room turned out to be more fun that she had expected. She didn't want an actual design drawn, just scribbles and whatever came to mind. it was exactly what both of them needed. They both hadn't laughed as hard or as long as they had for the last week and it felt good. But now that they had finished, they were lying on the floor of her room listening to music with their eyes closed.
"I just want you to know that if you wanted to talk to me about it you could have, but you don't have too. I won't bring it up again." Skye said after a long lull in the conversation.
"I know you won't." Leo said softly followed by a long pause. "Thinking that he wasn't my dad. That the possibility he wasn't was a lot, but Mike actually helped me put some things in perspective."
At least he had someone that helped him clear some of his thoughts. Skye just wanted him to be able to talk to someone about it, it didn't have to be her, just someone so that Leo wouldn't hold onto any unnecessary negative thoughts.
"Even if the results were different, he'd still be your dad. He just wouldn't be your biological father, father and dad are two very different things."
"That's pretty much what Mike said. It made me realize the same thing, if the test results were different then it wouldn't change. He's still my dad."
They went back into silence for about nine more songs before Leo spoke quietly to her again.
"Does thinking about your dad still hurt?"
At first Skye wasn't sure how to answer him. Of course it still hurt, he was in her life not two months ago and now he isn't anymore. But it also isn't as raw of a wound anymore. She no longer feels empty every time she looks anywhere around their home.
"Yeah. But now instead of just crying, I can smile when I remember him too." She has a sad smile on her face when she tells him this and he responses by reaching out and holding her hand. His silent way of saying he is here for her.