Full
grown women were not always the lightest people to carry; but from
the time that Brooke had jumped onto Luke's back just outside the
practice gym he had carried her for the whole twenty minute walk back
to the apartment building.
"You are going to give yourself
wrinkles." Brooke scolded lightly as her blond boyfriend tried to
get the key into the lock; she leant forward to kiss his cheek.
"You're too young to have wrinkles." She had been in Chicago
for less than twenty four hours but she already felt younger, more
playful and more flirtatious. She knew that she could credit that
solely to being around Lucas again, and she had no problem admitting
it.
"It's your friends." Luke grumbled, at least half
joking. "Rachel is just so…" He couldn't come up with a word
to describe the red head model and Brooke laughed as she jumped down
off his back.
"I haven't seen Rachel in like a year."
Brooke smiled, Lauren had raced ahead of them and was now flipping
through the hundreds of television channels that Luke had on his
television, by which she was still fascinated; even after all the
time she had spent in this place recently. "So excuse me if she was
a little excited."
"A little excited?" Luke exclaimed. "That
wasn't a little excited."
Brooke brushed her lips past his
lips, silencing him.
"They'll get over it." She promised
him confidently. By They
she
meant the cameras and reporters that had gone crazy trying to get the
money shot of the Model and High School Girlfriend.
Luke didn't
look so confident, but Brooke was determined to take his mind off it.
"If you're going to worry, there's more fun stuff to worry
about."
They had left Lauren to her own amusement in the living
room and had entered the kitchen where Brooke had jumped up onto the
kitchen counter, wrapping her legs around Luke's waist, managing to
pull him in closer to her.
"What's that?" He responded by
wrapping his arms around her waist so they were a tangle of limbs.
"We need to find a school for our daughter." She loved having
her family underneath one roof but she needed
to
get her daughter out from this apartment before she drove both of her
parents crazy.
"I do like that idea better." He smiled,
pearly white teeth flashing slightly. Having Lauren enrolled in a
Chicago primary school meant that the two girls who had recently
re-entered his life wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon.
"How much
longer is this going to take?" They had dragged an unwilling Lauren
from the large, mesmerising television screen and had been walking
for at least half an hour. Not only was Lauren bored, but Brooke was
also starting to lose interest, she had expected this school hunt to
be easy; after all how many primary schools could fit into one
district?
"Just one more school." Luke promised. He had bribed
both brunette and blonde with ice creams to keep them happy and
peaceful while they toured school after school, and as evident with
Lauren's whine, she had almost finished hers. Luke wrapped his arm
around Brooke's waist as they walked up the path to the final
school.
"If this school isn't any good, she can go to a
private school." Brooke grumbled. In Tree Hill finding a school had
been easy, there was Tree Hill Primary School which was where Lauren
went and St. James Episcopal Church Day School where their nephew
Jamie went to school. Here in Chicago, there were just too many
choices.
"I like the look of this school." Brooke smiled as
Luke opened the glass doors that took them into the school and
hopefully to the administration offices.
"You've said that
about the last two schools."
The glass doors to the left of them
opened without warning startling both adults, but also announcing
that they had found the administration. The teacher who had opened
the door, looked up distractedly, stressed about some issue that
affected her class.
"Lu…Lucas Scott." She stammered,
bringing her files closer to her chest. "What are you doing in this
school?"
"I've come to enrol my daughter." He placed his
hands on Lauren's shoulders and pulled her in front of him. The
women looked down at the little blonde girl who smiled sweetly, like
she'd been instructed to do, back.
"You're daughter." The
women sighed. Of course Lucas Scott had a daughter. "You'll want
to speak to the principal then." She opened the administration
doors again. "Come on, I'll take you."
Sitting in the
office, after a successful tour of the school and two confirmations
that this is where they wanted to send Lauren when school started
again a week later, Brooke was bored by the enrolment process. The
principal was also female and she found herself asking if her
boyfriend was really that much of a sex symbol.
"What grade
will she be joining?" The principal, who had introduced herself as
Mrs. Winters asked.
"First." It was Brooke who answered even
though the other woman's brown eyes had so much as glanced at her
after the initial greetings. She focused on her computer and pulled
up a couple of files.
"And what is Lauren's full name?" She
asked fingers over the keyboard ready to type away.
"Lauren
Haley Scott." Luke answered quickly, confidently.
"Lauren
Haley Davis-Scott." Brooke amended, and could feel the glare from
Luke as she did so; she didn't turn to look at him. Even though
Brooke's correction was what was typed into the system, Brooke knew
that at home later that night there would be a discussion, and if she
knew Luke it would be a heated one.
They made it through the
rest of the questions, with the only other hiccup being Lauren's
birth date and then they were free to leave.
"It was nice
meeting you Mr. Scott." Mrs. Winters shook his hand warmly. "We're
very excited to having Lauren join us next week."
Brooke was not
used to feeling so jealous all the time, and she found herself
mimicking the actions she had done back in Tree Hill. Fingers
intertwined into each other to remind the other woman just who was
with the basketball star.
"Miss Davis." Brooke just smiled
sweetly, not trusting her self-control if she was to actually talk to
this woman.
Lauren was in
bed early that night, without an argument, exhausted from spending
the day walking around the city. That left Brooke and Lucas alone, in
the kitchen, to talk about issues that Brooke would rather avoid.
The
brunette girl was sitting on one of the kitchen stools, her elbows
resting against the marble counter top while Luke paced the empty
kitchen floor.
"Did you really have to do that?" He was
obviously referring to her correction made at the school. "Lauren
is a Scott, that's all anyone needs to know."
"Lauren is a
Davis-Scott and I'm not going to let her forget that." Brooke
snapped back at him, suddenly in a bad mood. Were they really going
to bicker over a technicality like a hyphened surname?
"It
looked like I knew nothing about my own daughter. It was bad enough
that I couldn't answer the exact date for her birthday."
"Luke,
its okay. It's not a large secret that you didn't know about
Lauren until recently."
"It's not okay. She's still my
daughter. Is there anything else I should know about her."
"No."
Brooke climbed off the counter stool. "I'm not going to fight
about Lauren with you. I don't want to fight with you. When you've
calmed down come to bed."
The she disappeared from the kitchen
to give him some breathing space.
"I'm sorry." Brooke had been
drifting off into an uneasy sleep before Luke joined her in bed, his
voice a whisper as his lips brushed up against the nape of her neck.
"I don't want to fight with you either."
Brooke managed
to open her sparkling emerald eyes again before she rolled over to
smile back at Luke; her dimples only just showing. Luke kissed her
again, this time putting a bit more energy into it than the first
kiss, and Brooke knew that from here on out that her request of
'taking things slowly' would be well and truly dead; even if it
was never really started in the first place.
"Are you
ready Lauren?" Brooke called out as she took a third glance at the
wall clock in the last five minutes. It was Monday morning and it was
Lauren's first day at her new Chicago school. She knew that
transferring her daughter three quarters of the way into the school
year would be difficult on her, but she really didn't have a
choice.
Lauren emerged from her bedroom, dressed casually in jeans
and a t-shirt, her backpack securely on her back and her blonde curls
tied back into two pigtails.
"Is daddy coming?" Lauren asked
in a small voice, suddenly terrified at the thought of a new school.
"Daddy's waiting downstairs for us; he's getting you a
special treat." Sending her daughter to school straight after
eating a doughnut was not something she was sure she should be doing;
but she couldn't let herself worry about it. She didn't want to
fight with Luke again today about their innocent daughter.
"You like it
here remember?" Lauren clung to Luke's neck; he had bent down to
hug her goodbye and she had latched on tightly. "You liked this
school."
Brooke knelt down next to Luke, she was aware of the
young teacher drooling over Luke but she needed to forget about her.
"Lauren Haley I want you to listen to me." She said quietly, and
Lauren knew that she meant business if she was using the middle name.
"You need to go to school. Daddy's going to be here to pick
you up at three o'clock on the dot. You like going to school and
playing with your friends."
"I don't know anyone
though."
"That's why you have to go make friends. Lauren
Scott isn't a shy girl."
Lauren nodded in agreement and let
go of the tight grip she had on Luke. She kissed both parents on the
cheek before running off without so much as a second glance
backwards.
"So what do you want to do today?"
Luke asked Brooke as they made the long walk into the city. "I can
take you shopping; we can do a little sightseeing."
Brooke
nodded as they walked along the path, until she caught sight of the
glimpse of red hair that she had been waiting for.
"Or I can
hang out with Rachel." She smiled as the model spotted them and
waved.
"Don't be like that." She scolded as Luke grumbled
next to her. "Just forget about the media today, and hang out with
your favourite girl and her best friend."
"Fine." He
conceded as the model flung herself straight into Brooke. Today was
going to be a long day.
A/N: So, I'm not one hundred
percent sure about this chapter considering that I've had really
bad writer's block recently, but I finally managed to finish it. It
IS another fluffy, family chapter and I promise promise promise that
more drama is forthcoming.
So please don't forget to review and
hopefully I'll have an update for either this story or another
story up soon =)
Casey xXx
