Lailah awoke the next morning to the sun shining in her eyes. Oddly enough she felt well rested. She didn't know where she was, or how she got there but she was well rested. It also helped that this was in no way her room back at Joe's so she took comfort in the fact that Lorelai hadn't been a dream. She rose from bed, putting on some pyjama bottoms and a bra, cracking all her limbs and sighing before stepping out into the hallway. It was then that she realized she was in the crapshack with Lorelai and Luke asleep two rooms over, and Rory downstairs. The rest of the house was dark as all the blinds were pulled tight.
She wandered downstairs, skipping as she made her way into the kitchen to get a glass of water. Her eyes wandered around the room and she saw that it was only 5:30 in the morning; no wonder she was the only one up. After hanging around the kitchen for a minute and wondering what the hell she was meant to do for the rest of the morning, the teen crept back up the stairs and into the room she'd slept in. All of her stuff was in there since Lorelai insisted that they were going to redecorate it the coming weeks so that it was specifically Lailah's.
The girl considered just reading or trying to lip read the early morning news on TV downstairs as that was another thing Lorelai said they'd get for her room. After going through the books she had in her suitcase and deciding she didn't want to read any of them just at that moment, she started to unpack her suitcase and stack her clothes neatly in the corner. Her hands stopped on a pair of running shorts and a sporty crop top. Finally Lailah decided to just change and go for a run, she seriously needed to kill some of her built up energy.
When she got downstairs in her running attire and Nike frees she rummaged around on the desk near the foyer, looking for a piece of paper to write on. After five minutes of not being able to find anything she spotted Luke's notepad and pen on the mantle along with his keys and wallet. She scribbled a quick note that read:
"Mum, Dad, Rory,
Gone for a run around town. Be back later. If I get lost I'll find my way to the diner and call.
Love, Lailah. Xxx"
The note got stuck to the coffee maker as she knew that Lorelai would make coffee as soon as she got up, so would Rory, and if Luke were the first up then he'd most probably make it for the girls. Lailah stepped out of the front door and jumped off of the porch, plugging in her headphones and pressing play on a mix her friend Tori had made for her to run to. It was entitled "Misstorie Megamix" as Tori would never tell her what was in the mix, and she always seemed to get called Miss Torie playfully when her and Lai were hanging out. The mix was full of beaty music that pumped the girl up, pushing her forward on even the laziest of days.
Her stretching was thoroughly done after five minutes, and she broke into a jog out of the yard, before breaking into a full out sprint after turning to the right. The morning was beautiful and unlike any other Lailah had seen. America was so different than what she had expected. I mean, sure, she figured it'd be different but it was seriously noticeable in the morning and at night. Here all the leaves were different hues of green and the tree's look strong and for lack of a better word-moist, whereas in Australia the leaves would be a browner colour and the trees all looked dried and brittle.
The sun peaked through the leaves as she ran down a quintessential suburban street with white picket fences and rocking chairs on the porch. She wished she'd brought her phone with her to take a photo but was glad she hadn't a moment later when she had to adjust her iPod sports strap a moment later as it slipped again. It was the perfect morning for running, and the perfect place to do it.
An hour later Lailah ran back into the yard, pushing it the last hundred metres, and slowed her pace to a jog, before walking to the middle of the yard and doing some calmer cool down stretches. The burn in her legs and chest were pleasant and gave her a sense of comfort at being able to still indulge in the small things. She finally pulled her headphones out and started walking up to the porch when she finally noticed the figures on the porch. Lorelai and Rory were sitting with their mouths agape on the porch swing, both nursing mugs of coffee, while Luke was leaning against the front door. "Um... hi?" Lailah said as she took the steps up to be level with her family.
"I cannot believe it." Lorelai said as she looked Lailah up and down. "You weren't kidding." Her shock was evident but the teen wasn't sure what she was so shocked about.
Lailah quirked an eyebrow, and drank from the water bottle she'd stashed behind one of the posts. "I don't think I was. Fill me in about what I was meant to be 'kidding' about." Lailah said and put quotation marks around the word 'Kidding' for emphasis.
Lorelai swung her legs and kicked her and Rory into a more steady swinging motion on the chair. "I figured the note was a joke and you'd be up in bed, but then you weren't and I figured you must have gone for a wander around town, but you seriously ran! I cannot believe a child of mine actually ran!" Lorelai was still in disbelief at the vision of Lailah in running shoes, hair up, and scantily clad in some pretty serious running gear. She'd seen the girl sprint up the street, and if that was any indication of the time that had preceded it, then she could understand the sweat dripping off of her.
While Lorelai was still sitting there with her mouth hanging open, Rory offered Lailah her coffee mug to which the teen declined, furthering Lorelai's shock. "What? I don't wanna get hyped up just yet. The caffeine will totally put me in overdrive. My hearts beating fast enough as it is." She shrugged.
Luke came out of the house with a towel and a bottle of orange Gatorade, taking Lailah's water and replacing it with the opened bottle of drink, before handing her the towel. He gave a small smile and gestured to the yard where she'd been stretching minutes ago. "You were doing that stretch wrong. Probably do more harm than good if you hold it for too long."
Lailah didn't notice that this was odd behaviour for Luke and easily continued the conversation while wiping sweat off of her face before holding the towel to her bare mid drift. "What one?" she asked.
"The thigh one. You were lunging too far-drink more-into it. You'll pull something if you keep it up. Only lean enough to feel it lightly. The further you lunge, the further you're pushing your muscles before the actual work out. Stretch like that too often and you'll loosen your muscles too much and won't be able to hold distance or speed." Luke had stopped mid sentence to tell Lailah to drink more before continuing. Lorelai and Rory still sat watching in shock of the scene before them, taking a second to glance at each other every so often. It was like Luke was really connecting with Lailah and it thrilled Lorelai to no end. Sure, he did well with Rory and April, but it was different with Lailah, almost like he was able to talk to her about things he'd discuss with his perfect child. They'd had a pretty intense and in depth discussion about cooking the other day, and now this. It's all the stuff Luke had never been able to talk to the girls about, and now here was this girl who was almost the perfect puzzle piece. Both Lorelai and Luke's legally, the perfect mix of Luke's and Lorelai's interests who looked as if she could be their child by birth if not for her brown eyes.
Lailah nodded, clearly taking in everything Luke was saying. "I'll keep that in mind. Gonna head for the shower though. I'll be down in a minute." She waved them all goodbye and disappeared into the house with her towel slung over her shoulder, Gatorade bottle tipped up and the rest running down her throat.
As soon as she was inside the house, Lorelai and Luke clapped eyes and there was a silent conversation that passed between them, discussing how perfect this girl was for their family. "She could run track if she goes to SHH" Rory said, interrupting their telepathic conversation with a very valid point, though they hadn't really discussed Lailah's schooling before.
"Well we don't know if she'll be going to Chilton or Stars Hollow High yet. We can afford either so ultimately it's her decision." Lorelai said with a shrug. It was true, at this point Luke and her had only decided on one thing; that they would share Lailah's financial costs and share parenting equally the whole way. That meant two things- that Lai would have what neither Rory, nor April had had; both parents, and also that they could afford to send her to either school, metaphorically they could afford to send her to both.
Luke shrugged against the post he'd taken to leaning against. "We'll just have to give her the option, make sure she's fully informed, and let her pick. She's old enough to make her own decisions and it sounds like she's had enough of them ripped from her before that she deserves it." There was a moment between the three of them that was mostly filled with thoughts about Lailah's past. "You know, I'd really like to get my hands on that son of a bitch that hurt her." Luke ground out through clenched teeth as he thought of Joe.
"We all would hun." Lorelai appeased with a hand soothingly rubbing his shoulder from where she'd come to stand at his side.
Conversation died down and the three occupants of the porch made their way inside to have more coffee and some breakfast. Lorelai was well into her third mug of coffee when Lailah came downstairs in a pair of tight black ¾ jeans and a ratty oversized Yankees jersey. Rory came out of her room just in time to see Lailah enter the room. She took one look at the girl's top and a quick glance at Luke's turned back before letting out a low whistle and a giggle at Lai's unfortunate future. Lorelai came to the same conclusion and greeted, "Nice pants."
Lailah looked down with a confused look at her legs and back at a giggling Lorelai, "Thanks? You've seen them before. You bought them." She was thoroughly confused.
"Yeah, did I buy that whole outfit?"
Lailah shrugged her shoulders under the huge shirt and pulled at the bottom of it. "Na, got this top from the Salvos like last year. Figured I'd better have something American."
Luke turned around as Lailah was tugging her top this way and that, trying to get it to fall just right. His mouth dropped open and her gestured up stairs with a stern finger. "Upstairs. Change. Now." He ordered firmly but not forcefully.
"What?" the bewildered teen asked which simply caused more laughs to bubble from the brunettes at the table.
Rory figured she had better do her job as the big sister and fill her in on Luke's frustration. "Luke's a pretty hardcore Red Sox fan." Lailah still looked at her confusedly. "The Sox and the Yankees are like arch enemies. Basically in this house the Sox are heaven, the Yankees are hell. It's nothing personal, just go change before he blows a gasket." Lailah spun on her heels and hightailed it up the stairs, muttering to herself that her family was crazy. (A/N: no offence to Yankees supporters-they're my team of choice too- and also no offence to religious people. Every fic I've read around GG and baseball has had Luke as a Sox man so I'm just gonna go with that. Also they aren't that far from Boston... moving on)
"I blame you." Luke said to Lorelai while pointing to where Lailah was retreating up the stairs.
Lorelai held her hands up and demanded jokingly, "How is this my fault? I don't even like baseball." Luke went back to preparing the food he'd been making before the t-shirt incident, completely at a loss as to what he should reply with.
Lailah quietly entered the kitchen in a plain grey t-shirt with an open, faded, baggy mock-denim button up over the top. "It's your fault coz u picked a dud." He grinned, finally coming up with a response. Lorelai and Rory both cracked up at the comment, not hearing Luke joke all that often and always finding it unexpectedly funny when he did.
Lailah simply glared at the back of his head jokingly as she held onto a mug of steaming coffee. "Thanks a whole lot." She said sarcastically as she took a seat between Rory and Lorelai at the table.
The man spun with a look of horror on his face, just furthering Lorelai and Rory's amusement, and finally making Lailah laugh. "I am so glad you know it's a joke." He said which coming from him was almost like someone wiping their forehead with a squeegee and producing a river as they wrung it out.
"I know you totally love me." She winked which caused all the girls to laugh harder and Luke to smile.
When the laughter had subsided Lorelai put her hands on top of the table and leant back in her chair with a little groan, "On a more serious note; we need to get you back in school. There are decisions to be made around that and they need to be made quickly." Lorelai took pause to look at Lailah seriously and take a sip of her coffee. "Luke and I have talked and we've decided that you can pick where you wanna go. You can go to Stars Hollow High here, or you can go to Chilton Prep in Hartford."
Lailah thought over the options and really had to think. She'd probably be more comfortable in public school, but then again it had never really challenged her so she seriously considered Chilton, though she wasn't too sure she'd last through their snobbish behaviour without getting in a couple of fights. "What kinds of classes do they have at Chilton and Stars Hollow?" she asked, because in the end it would all come down to which one had the subjects she wanted to do.
Rory figured this was also another area she should cover, considering she'd attended both schools, and because she was the big sister who was supposed to supply all the worldly knowledge around boys and which teachers to avoid. "Chilton is mostly written stuff. There's History, English, Math, science, all your usual subjects. They have art but it's not really that big of a focus. They only have it one semester a year and the same with sport. They do fencing and PE which are your basics but they also have like hockey and lacrosse but not much else and they're the same as art; not a major focus. You have to have studied two languages by graduation, no matter when you start there so you'll probably be pushing it. They have German, Chinese, French, Spanish, Greek, Italian, and Indonesian."
Lailah's eyes were so wide Lorelai was sure they would pop out of their sockets as Rory was talking. Her oldest daughter continued and she took comfort in knowing that SHH was a lot easier going, their work load a lot less and teachers a lot kinder. "At SHH they have the basic subjects like English, math, science, history and such but they have a pretty big focus on sports. They have an amazing track team and their ice hockey and football teams have gotten pretty far into the seasons undefeated the last couple of seasons. They have baseball but it's not focused as the schools they would need to compete against are too far away to travel to. They have multiple art classes that you can take for a semester or major in and take for the whole year and then keep following it till graduation. There aren't really any things that you have to do to graduate SHH except pass all your classes."
Lailah looked like she was thinking hard for a long time and Lorelai decided to interrupt her musings. "What you think babe?"
"I don't know." She rubbed her hand across her face for a minute before looking to Luke for guidance, "Where did you go?" she asked him.
"Stars Hollow High. I was on the track team." Lailah nodded and looked to Lorelai next, simply asking the question with her eyes.
Lorelai released a small laugh before answering. "I went to Hillcrest Prep before I dropped out." Lailah looked a little confused for a minute and Lorelai decided to explain. "Imagine Chilton on steroids in every aspect."
Lailah groaned and thumped her head on the kitchen table in frustration. While it was exasperating and infuriating when people made decisions for her, making her own decisions-especially when they were so big-was hard and she honestly considered handing over the reins to Lorelai. She kept her head down for a while before looking up at Luke and Lorelai through her eyelashes and saying quietly, "I wanna go to Stars Hollow. I don't think I can handle Chilton."
Both adults nodded and Lorelai put her hand on Lailah's back, rubbing soft circles there. "I think that's a good choice, babe. We'll need to see about starting you when they go back. We can do the rest if you'd like? You can just pick your classes?" Lorelai asked with a smile.
Lailah nodded her head with a smile, glad that Lorelai understood her as well as she did. Rory broke the moment between Lorelai and Lailah with a huge grin, "And at Stars Hollow you don't have a uniform, just wear whatever you want. It's both great and stressful."
The teens eyes got wide and her mouth dropped open so wide it looked as if her jaw had unhinged. "WHAT?! Are you kidding me?"
Luke let out a deep chuckle as he brought over the plates of breakfast to the table, kissing Lorelai's cheek as he placed her plate in front of her. "Told you it was a good idea to leave that till last."
So, what you think? Someone suggested I cover Lailah's schooling and I had another review talking about the interaction and decided to slip some Luke/Lailah in for good measure as she doesn't seem to really do anything with him or talk to him from pervious chapters. Anyhow, the person who reviewed under 'MadInSalem' you answered right and I don't know if you gathered it from previous chapters but if you get the question right I'll write a fic for you to a show (Once upon a Time, Gilmore Girls, Parenthood, Buffy) of your choice (you provide characters, storyline, and any other specifics you may want in there), I'll work on a fic of mine which you choose, or you can feature in this though you'll have to provide me with a name to address you by. So get in contact and I can do that for you.
Hope you enjoyed it. Please R&R.
Quote: "Why is our medical rainbow missing brown and bi?" –Character and show are the same thing so provide me with both. :P Probably just gave it away then but anyhow.