Okay, you asked for it so here it is. The next chapter, and this one leads up to the ultimate meeting you've all been waiting for. Have fun. ;D thank you for all of my wonderful reviews.
As Lailah walked into the school, all she could think about was the fact that she'd have to face Ms Davidson, the school librarian.
Ms Davidson knew everything about Lailah, from her mother abandoning her to Joe often kicking her out. It was even harder to face somebody who knew your deepest, darkest secrets. With anybody else Lailah would just put on a facade of indifference and power through the awkward pauses, grumble through the concerned gestures and laugh away the hurt of rejection when they told her they couldn't help her anymore. With ms Davidson though, she couldn't use any coping mechanism, all she could do was walk in as herself and leave as herself, heart and soul opened to the world.
The library doors felt heavy as she tried to push through them and into a place of only mild judgment. Coming around to the counter, Lailah stood up taller and greeted the middle-aged woman warmly. "Hey."
A light brown head of hair spun to meet her as a smile crept onto her features and her posture slacked a little, relaxing in the comforting environment. "Well hello there Lailah." Ms Davidson greeted. "So I hear that you've had a mishap with your textbooks."
Lailah's chin fell to her chest in shame. "Yeah" she began but quickly continued, "but Lorelai's replacing them. She said to call her and she'd pay."
The librarian smiled warmly and actually turned around, arms filled with textbooks of all sorts. There was a business one, a maths one, a tourism one, a science one, and a history book. On top of the pile was also a brand new, barcode free copy of Macbeth. "Yes." Said the older woman, "I've heard." There was a wink in her expression and the pile of books fell to the desk with a heavy thump, mildly scattering.
Lailah watched in horror as each and every book was checked out in her name and the copy of Macbeth was merely put on top of the pile. "What? All these? I didn't have all of these before." Shocked was a word that came to mind when she tried to put her feelings in order.
"I know." Muttered the woman warmly, "Lorelai just wanted you to be prepared for next semester. I also mentioned to her how you were sharing a copy of Macbeth with Steph and she decided that she'd rather you have your own copy, and she also insisted that it be new and not part of the schools property." Lailah's eyes grew wider and a smile overtook her face. "Also" ms Davidson added as Lailah started packing her bag full of the heavy books. "I've heard through the grapevine that she purchased you a new uniform and paid your school fees until the end of next year."
Lailah was in awe. Lorelai had done so much for her already, why this too. The question rolled around her mind as she left the library with a small "goodbye" to ms Davidson and almost tripped out the door. Making her way over to the uniform shop, Lailah became aware of just how badly she needed the new clothes. Her uniform was only just holding together after four years of use, the seams were torn and everything was too small which, honestly wasn't that bad of a thing.
As she entered the tiny portable building, she was met with an employee who gave her biggest grin and muttered in an overly sweet voice, "how may I help you?"
Lailah grinned back, half genuine and half mocking, "There should be some clothes here for me, paid for."
"What name was that?" Asked the assistant.
The reply fell from her tongue before she could think. "Lailah Gilmore." The attendant went behind the desk and looked. A frown creasing her features.
"We don't have a Lailah Gilmore, only a Lailah James."
Lailah's head snapped back as she realized her mistake and quickly corrected herself, "James, that's what I meant, sorry."
The attendant who's name tag read 'Heidi' frowned again and then asked for some id, just to be sure that someone else's property wasn't being claimed. Lailah produced her school card and smiled shyly, knowing the photo was overly un flattering. Her hair had gone unwashed as she'd spent the night at the park, her face was covered in ugly zits and her uniform had dirty spots all over it. "Okay, this way."
Lailah was taken over to the clothes racks and asked her t-shirt size, pants size and jumper size. When she had given her sizes; 8 pant, 10 top, 10 jumper, and 8 skirt, she was handed one of everything. Literally, and a pair of the black leather 'T bar' school shoes.
Lailah changed into the short sleeved polo shirt, knit jumper, navy skirt, new socks and T bars. She felt all new and shiny. New and shiny deserved a new hairstyle. Pulling the black hair tie from her freshly washed hair, Lialah let the waves fall down her back. After leaving he dressing room, old clothes in hand, she asked the attendant to take a photo of her.
Lailah posed with her handful of old clothes over the trash can and one hand on her hip, a huge grin covering her features and shining through her eyes. As soon as the photo was snapped and saved, she dumped the clothes in the bin and attached the picture to a txt message, "thank you so much. Xx" she sent the message to Lorelai and then left, slightly overwhelmed by her heavy backpack and the two plastic bags that weighed down her arms. Her phone began to ring and Lailah glanced at the caller id before answering eagerly. "Hello?"
A cheery voice came through the line, "I take it you like them?" Lorelai asked slightly nervous. She could tell you what was in with casual work wear but she had no idea what the kids were wearing at school. She had just told the woman on the phone to purchase one of everything, including the most popular girls shoes they stocked and to pay for all of Lailah's books for the year.
Lailah's voice was wavering, in happiness thought, not sadness like almost every other time, "Are you kidding, I love it. I cannot believe you did this. Well I guess I can because you said you would but I didn't expect clothes and extra books. Thank you so much Lorelai."
As the tears started to happily cascade down her cheeks, Lailah sniffed and then listened as Lorelai spoke, "Well I needed to take care of my second favouritest girl, didn't I" it was a rhetorical question but Lailah still replied.
"I guess but this is too much, I mean the shoes are a hundred dollars on their own. I couldn't get the knit jumper because it was too expensive and I know my school fees have got to be crazy expensive." A scoff rang through the line and Lailah was taken aback, not sure what Lorelai was making that noise for. "What?"
Lorelai let out a small laugh at Lailah's questioning tone. "You think your school fees are bad? Trust me hunny, five-hundred bucks is nothing. Rory's school fees were five thousand dollars. And her uniform; one skirt was a hundred and twenty. Your whole uniform only cost me four hundred. You have nothing to worry about." It was very Lorelai-centric (Little thing there for Iscah McKrae) to just spend money willy-nilly and not really care about it. Although, the American dollar was something like double the Australian dollar so maybe it really wasn't that big of a deal.
"Thank you again Lorelai. It's nice to be cared about." Lailah grinned cheerily.
Lorelai laughed again but was cut off with a yawn which was stifled as much as she could. "That's okay sweetie, now get to class and use your books. I am going to bed." Lorelai cheekily continued with, "Haven't been getting much sleep lately, had some brat calling me at all hours of the night."
Lailah laughed cheekily and spoke down the line, "Goodnight Lorelai, don't let the bed bugs bite."
A heartfelt laugh came from the other side of the phone. "Na, I'm too sweet for them. Talk to you later baby."
The phone call ended and Lailah made her way to her locker, jamming as much of her clothes as she could in the small space. From behind her, Lailah heard some snickering and whispered words. A quick spin on her heels had her facing Grace and her two other little plastics, Isabella and Nikole. "What? Something funny?" Snapped Lailah, her hands slamming the crammed locker shut.
Grace looked at each of her sidekicks before answering haughtily, "just wondering who took pity on the orphan-looser."
The nickname didn't hurt nearly as much as the comment in a whole. Lailah had been the 'orphan-looser' for a while now but to insinuate that Lorelai was pitying her hurt somewhere deep inside her chest. "Nobody is taking pity on me!" she yelled.
"Sure looks like it." Grace sneered as she began to walk away, brushing past Lailah she whispered, "Besides, who could love someone like you!"
Lailah took a moment to try and calm herself but it wouldn't work. Doing the only thing she could do, she reached out and grabbed a fist full of bleached blonde hair and wrenched Grace to the ground, kneeling beside her and slapping her across the face as hard as she could. A crowd had gathered and the fight set off. The minions stood by in shock as Lailah went postal, punching, scratching, slapping, pulling hair and almost biting. After about ten minutes, teachers finally started to intervene.
The first person on scene was Mr. P. He pulled Lailah off of Grace and wrangled her down the hallway. Once they were in an empty classroom, Lailah began to take stock of her emotions. She was angry, she was upset, but most of all she was hurt. What if Grace was right and Lorelai was only taking pity on her? What if she really didn't care?
Libby, the school counselor who was a young, slightly rounded woman, came into the classroom and looked at Lailah who was hunched over, staring at her feet while tears steadily fell from her eyes. "You can go now." She dismissed Mr. P and he did as he was told, truthfully postal Lailah scared him. Not Libby though, she understood how shit the girls life was. "You okay?" Libby asked as she sat next to the weeping girl.
Lailah looked up through her dark hair, into the caring eyes of one of her only confidants. "no." she ground out. Libby slid her chair back, knowing that there was a fifty-fifty chance that Lai would skits. After only another moment, Lailah stood abruptly, flinging her chair back and starting to throw over tables, being careful not to break anything. There were ten casualties, three tables, five chairs, a ruler, a set of drawers and one poor glue stick that was now squished against the wall.
After her physical outburst, Lailah slid down the wall, sitting on the ground, pulling at her hair ferociously and crying unforgivingly. Libby hesitantly made her way over to the broken girl. "What is it?" Lailah let out more sobs and gasped for breath.
Words escaped her as the tears rolled and only one word left her lips. "Phone."
Libby seemed to understand, picking up Lailah's backpack from where she'd set it down and pulling out her phone. As soon as it was in her hands, Lailah scrolled to the contact entitled 'Lor-outdoor.' And hit call.
The phone rang for a couple of minutes before a tired voice answered. "Lai, it's late. What now?"
Lailah sobbed down the line. Lorelai didn't prod, only listened as Lailah's heart came through the phone. "Mummy." She sobbed.
Lorelai snapped out of it. "Shh baby, it's alright, mummy's here." There was a sound from Lorelai's end, something akin to Luke asking what was wrong with Rory. Lorelai quietly whispered back, "It's Lai. I don't know what's wrong."
Lailah's sobs escalated and Libby looked on confused. Lailah's mum had never really been in the picture so who was she talking to? "Mummy, I did something bad."
"What baby? What did you do bad?" Lorelai asked soothingly. She wanted so badly to take Lailah in her arms and sway back and forth, anything to calm her. A little voice echoed through the phone and Lorelai took a moment to realize that it was Lailah trying to answer. It came out as odd gasps and another choked sob. Lorelai needed answers. "Honey, put me onto someone else. Just for a minute."
Lailah pulled the phone away from her ear and stretched it out to Libby. At the loss of Lorelai's calming voice, she started to sob harder. "Hello, this is Libby speaking."
Lorelai pulled herself together a little and wiped at her tears, obviously being on the phone with a teacher. "Hello, this is Lorelai Gilmore. What's wrong with Lailah?"
Libby listened to the anxious voice on the other line and deduced that this person must care for Lailah a lot. "There has been a fight. One of the other girls made a comment to Lailah and she's having a minor breakdown. I think that you should come down here. She seems to be pretty dependant on you."
Lorelai frowned a bit, didn't this woman know where she was? After a second of thought, Lorelai pulled her laptop onto the bed and spoke back through the line. "I actually live in America but you tell Lailah that I'm coming for her." Clicking onto her banks website, Lorelai checked her balance and smiled at the figure. There was most definitely enough in there.
Libby's brow furrowed but she spoke again, "Here, you tell her yourself." The phone was passed back to the slightly calmer teen and quickly pressed to her ear.
"Yes?" asked Lailah with a wobbly voice.
"I'm coming for you, okay. I'll be there as soon as I can." Lorelai clicked onto the webjet link and quickly typed in her preferences.
A small smile came across Lailah's features and she calmed further. "Okay mummy. I'll see you soon."
Lorelai smiled and finished booking her ticket. "Okay baby. Hold tight, I'm coming."
The call ended, as all the others do. Lailah was smiling as she rose from the ground and collected her bag, waiting by Libby's side to be lead to the front office to be suspended. However, the woman merely gave a sad smile and lead her to the counseling area, telling her that she could stay there for the rest of the day.
That night Lailah signed in to facebook and was faced with Lorelai's facebook status;
Lorelai Gilmore-Danes
Can't wait for tomorrow. Now just to survive the twelve hour plane ride.
Lailah quickly typed back with;
Lailah James
Don't forget that you have the address in your phone. See you soon. Xx
Another comment soon followed hers, one from Lorelai;
Lorelai Gilmore-Danes
I didn't forget, Luke reminded me but thanks anyways. Keep safe.
It took everything in her to simply write back with;
Lailah James
I will, I'm tough.
She went to bed that night, eagerly awaiting Lorelai's arrival. She'd have her mummy with her tomorrow. And as her eyes closed, she saw blue, and curls, and a bright smile, an a well manicured hand waving her off to dreamland.
Dun, dun, duuuu… so next chapter is their meeting. I'm going to make that one double the length so it'll probably take double the time. I should be able to write most of it tomorrow as I have a hundred minute relief lesson which means free reign of the computer. :P
Here is this chapters quote. Now, I have too many stories to write so if you get this correct you can either star in one of my standing fics (your answerer PM must include your real name for me to use in the fic and what fic you want to be in *must be incomplete) or I will write another chapter to one of my fics *also must be incomplete.
Here we go…
"it's like a crime scene in my pants." -? Quick, only one winner so PM in quick!