Thank you for your Reviews, So glad to be back. This chapter isn't what I wanted it to be, but I promise there will be more Will and Alicia Romance, and more Twin drama soon enough.
"Good Morning Sweetheart" Alicia said as Grace made it down to breakfast she was the first of her children.
"Morning" Grace replied giving her Mum and Dad a hug before sitting at the table.
"Have you got your Gym kit?" Alicia asked
"Yep, it's in my bag" she replied as she grabbed toast from the toast rack and spread some butter on it
"Good Girl" Alicia smiled
It wasn't long before Zach was soon down closely followed by Rachel who slumped into her seat without any morning pleasantries or without even looking at her parents who she knew were disappointed in her.
"Do you want some toast Rachel?" Alicia asked as she noticed the toast rack was lying empty on the table.
"No thanks, I'm not hungry"
"You need to eat before school, I'll make you toast" Alicia replied.
"I don't have time" Rachel said
"Rachel I will drive you to school. Zach and Grace off you go and get the bus, and remember straight home after school, I will call Kate today to let her know you are all grounded."
Grace and Zach quickly finished breakfast before heading off to get the bus, Will had a lot of paperwork to do, and had no meetings scheduled this morning other than one with Alicia and Diane at nine am which he would video conference in to so would work from home for the morning.
Alicia gave Rachel her toast and went into the hallway with Will.
"I'll get Lucy up and ready and meet you at the School at 10am" Will said
"OK, I'm going to have another chat with Rachel in the car"
"OK, let me know how you get on" Will said before kissing Alicia as she and Rachel left for school
….
Alicia got into her Audi and fastened the seatbelt followed by Rachel who plugged her IPod into her ears. Alicia pulled the earphones out her daughters ears.
"I want to talk" Alicia said.
"Mum, I know you hate me, can we just forget this"
"I don't hate you, I am disappointed in how you have been treating Lucy, but I love you"
Rachel didn't reply, but continued to sit in silence.
"Rachel, do you at least understand that your sister is sad, she is upset and scared"
"What is she scared of?" Rachel asked
"She is scared because she feels like she has no friends, you seen what was on her facebook page.
"I don't hate Lucy, I just want some space, some time to be with my friends"
"I can understand that, but I will not put up with you bullying your sister"
"I'm not a bully" Rachel replied offended by the remark.
"No, so what would you call your behaviour?"
"I just want some time to be me, and not a twin"
"That is fine, and you can have time. We know you are individuals, and we have never stopped you from having your own interests or your own friends, but Lucy is your twin, and that will never change"
"I know, but I can't change it if other people don't like her"
"Maybe not, but you don't need to add to her suffering, and if you are doing it to try and be cool then you are being a bully"
"In a weeks time everyone will have forgotten about it" Rachel replied as Alicia drove up to the school gate and kissed Rachel goodbye.
"Remember, straight home Rachel" Alicia called after her daughter before heading off to the office.
….
"Lucy it's time to get up" Will said as he gently shook his daughters shoulder
"Is it time to get up" Lucy said whilst rubbing her eyes.
"Yes, I have a meeting I'm going to video conference into in 20 minutes, so I need you to get up and ready before we go visit Mrs Murray"
"Can't I just stay here?" Lucy asked
"No, I want you to come and I don't want to leave you in on your own"
"OK, I'm going for a shower" Lucy replied as Will left and went downstairs to dial into his video conference.
…
"How are things at home?" Diane asked Alicia as she met with Diane in the board room.
"Not so well, I don't know what has got into Rachel, she doesn't want to be friend with Lucy, as she isn't popular"
"Really?" Diane asked more than a little shocked.
"Yes, I spoke to her again today and she has ensured me that she doesn't hate Lucy, but that she just wants to be an individual, but I'm not so sure"
"If you need me to talk to her let me know, sometimes it's easier to talk to someone else other than your parents"
"We might take you up on that, Will was furious with her last night, I had to hold him back from bursting out of her room and dragging her out of bed after I told him"
"Well that doesn't surprise me, Lucy always was a Daddy's Girl, and he would do anything to protect his girls, even from each other." Diane replied before connecting to Will on the Video call.
"Did you get Lucy up OK" Alicia asked as soon as they got through to each other.
"She is in the shower" Will said.
"OK" Alicia replied before the 3 partners got on with business.
…
"Hay Rachel" Kelly shouted from her locker. Rachel walked over, Kelly was the coolest girl in school, and head of the cheerleading squad, she was the one who would decide how popular she was.
"So, the tryouts are next week, are you going to make them?" Kelly said as she pointed to her wrist.
"I'll try my hardest, not going to let a little sprain get in my way" Rachel replied
"I don't know how you cope with a Sister like that. Who needs enemies when you have a twin sister" Kelly replied
"Totally" Rachel agreed
"When we thought you had broken your arm, well, we wouldn't have let her get away with that" Kelly replied
"It's only a mild sprain, but still she totally got away with it, she is grounded for half the time than I am"
"What, that is totally unfair" Kelly replied "You know if I was you, I'd do something about it, something to really hurt her"
"Like what?" Rachel asked
"Oh, I don't know, take an embarrassing photo of her and post it online, I don't that to my younger sister, I took a photo of her sleeping with drool down her face and posted it on face book, it got over 1000 likes and over 200 shares"
"I can't my Dad deleted my Facebook since I called Lucy a bitch"
"Your parents sound like kill joys, just set up a new one, here" Kelly said handing Rachel her smart phone and she had soon set herself up with a brand new facebook.
…
Will came off of his video conference and had a quick look on Lucy's facebook which was still logged on, on his laptop, there were even more comments than last night, although not as many, he quickly printed them off and added them to the dossier in his brief case.
"Lucy, its time to go" he called upstairs, but Lucy didn't respond, or come downstairs. Will quickly ascended the stairs, to Lucy's room, the door was opened slightly, and Will could see his daughter visibly upset.
"Lucy, it will be OK"
"I can't get this knot out my hair" she replied crying.
"All these tears over a knot in your hair?" Will asked gently, glad it wasn't something more serious, he took the comb from his daughter and carefully took combed the knot out.
"I know, it's stupid, I don't know why that made me cry" she replied trying to smile.
"It's OK, when your upset about something its funny how the smallest thing can set you off. But that's it all out now"
"I always preferred it when you dried my hair when I was little, Mum used to yank the brush harder than you"
Will laughed, when the twins were young after bath time Will would dry one of their hair, and Alicia the other, more times than most Lucy would want Will.
"We have to go honey, or we will be late, Mum has already left, so pop your school uniform on and we can go"
Lucy quickly put her uniform on and met Will downstairs who handed her some toast to eat on the way and a carton of apple juice before jumping into his BMW.
…
"Are you not going to finish your toast?" Will asked. Lucy had eaten a couple of bites and wrapped the rest in her napkin.
"I'm not hungry" was all she replied before looking out of the window. It wasn't long before they were at the school, Will spotted Alicia's car at the far end of the car park, and slid his into the space next to it.
"Come on then, lets go" Will said gently as he opened his door.
Alicia was still in the car waiting for her husband and daughter to arrive, she let herself out and opened the passenger door of the car next to her, where Lucy didn't move.
"I could just sit in the car" she said quietly.
"I'd rather you come in with us, Dad and I we will be with you the whole time" Alicia said
"Of course we will we will be right here." Will said offering his hand to Lucy who accepted it and got out of the car.
….
Mrs Murrays office had 2 parts, an outer area where people could wait, and inside the actual office, after arriving at the school they were sitting outside waiting for Mrs Murray to finish with her appointment below.
"Mr Gardner, Mrs Gardner welcome" Mrs Murray said extending her hand to Will followed by Alicia. They walked into the office and sat across from Mr Murray at her desk.
"So, we are here to talk about Lucy's suspension" Mrs Murray said. "Lucy's Aunt didn't sign the suspension release form yesterday"
"Is a suspension really necessary, this is the first time anything like this has happened, and I can assure you Lucy will not do it again, if she does she knows there will be consequences" Will said.
"Mr Gardner, as you know, this is not the first time this year that Lucy has been in my office, she was sitting here with Rachel just a few weeks ago after they were caught cheating on a test"
"I don't know what you are talking about Mrs Murray, Lucy an explanation?" Will said looking at his daughter for answers.
"I . …. I… I wanted to tell you, but Rachel was already grounded" Lucy said as she stared at her feet.
"Tell us what?" Alicia questioned.
"I switched places with Rachel to sit her Maths test, we got caught and both got an F" Lucy replied
"And what, you just thought that you wouldn't tell us" Alicia shouted at her daughter
"Mrs Murray, why were we not called?" Will asked
"The girls were sent with letters home, that I asked them to bring back signed, which they did, if you just give me a moments I'll get them" Mrs Murray said as she head to the outer part of the office where there were filing cabinets.
When Mrs Murray left both Will and Alicia looked round to their daughter.
"You and your sister have a lot of explaining to do" Will said
"Dad, please don't be angry"
"Angry doesn't even cover it, I'm furious" Will said
"As am I" Alicia added
"Please I can explain, Rachel was scared, she thought she would fail and you would be angry with her, she didn't want to disappoint you and she asked me to do it, I said no at first"
"Well, now we have 2 daughters we are disappointed in" Alicia said which caused Lucy to start crying
"I'm sorry; I promise I'll never do it again"
Mrs Murray was back in the office with the letters which had Alicia's signatures on both of them.
"Lucy, you do know that is illegal" Alicia said
"Yes, and I'm sorry"
"We will discuss this at home with your sister and decide on your punishment, lying to us is just not on" Will said. "Mrs Murray, have you got the suspension release form, I will sign it now"
"Certainly Mr Gardner" Mrs Murray replied as she gave the form to him. Will read it, handed it to Alicia to read and quickly signed it.
"If that is everything Lucy can come back to school next Tuesday" Mrs Murray said.
"Actually there is something else we would like to discuss, another matter, Lucy, can you please wait outside" Will said. Lucy didn't have to be told twice she quickly got up and made her way outside.
Will got the print outs from Lucy's facebook and handed them to Mrs Murray, "for the past day, these have been appearing on Lucy's facebook, I would like the kids who are making these comments punished"
"Mr Gardner, we can't do anything about what appears on line, at home these kids are free to do what they want."
"If you look at the time a lot of these were posted, the kids were not at home, they were here at school, now I have other copies of this and as it just so happens that I have a meeting planned tomorrow with the States attorney and chief of police for Cooks County on another matter, but if these kids are not punished then that is exactly who I will be showing this too. Maybe they will take it seriously"
"Mr Gardner, is that really necessary" the last thing Mrs Murray wanted was for bad press for the school, or for it to get a reputation of bullying.
"I think it is, my daughter is being bullied, and her school should do something about that" Alicia replied
"Thank you for bringing to my attention, I will personally deal with any posts by Capstone Students posted during school hours" Mrs Murray said.
"Thank you, if you can please keep us updated, I will be monitoring Lucys facebook page" Will replied as they left to get Lucy.
"Can I go home now" Lucy said as her parents got out of the office.
"No, you are coming to the office with us" Will said as they walked out to the car, Lucy slid into the passenger seat of her Mothers Audi knowing that her Father was really angry about the test,
"Mum, Rachel already hates me, I don't want to give her anymore reason, can we please forget about the test"
"No, we can not just forget about it, and Rachel does not hate you"
"Well don't punish Rachel, just give it all to me"
"No, Lucy why would you say such a thing, you were in this together and will be punished together equally"
"Because I got us caught" Lucy said quietly as they drove to LG&G.
…..
"There is my special Girl" Diane said as Lucy walked into her office and gave her a hug.
"Can I hide out in here for a while away from Mum and Dad"
"Sure you can"
"Great, Thanks"
"Everything OK honey?"
"Yeah, except Rachel and I are in even more trouble, Mum and Dad found out that I tried to do Rachel's test for her a few weeks ago, but we got caught and then both got an F. But we forged Mum's signature on the letters the school sent out"
"Well, that wasn't very clever was it" Diane said sharply
"No, Rachel begged me to do it, why is it every time I get in trouble Rachel is involved"
"Maybe you should do what you want to do, and not what Rachel wants you to do"
"Rachel isn't talking to me anymore anyway, so no chance of that happening"
"The two of you will sort it out, even if I have to bang your heads together to make you both see sense"
Lucy got her book which she was nearly finished from her bag as flopped onto the sofa in Diane's office and started reading.
…
"What are we going to do with those two" Will said as he walked into Alicia's office.
"Something that forces them to be together, you were going to tidy the garden this weekend, the grass needs cut and the shrubs are overgrown. We will get them to do it instead"
"I like the sound of that, anything to get out of gardening" Will said, he hated cutting the grass usually he would pay Zach to do it instead.
"They can also do some extra schoolwork, Lucy is going to be behind after a week off, Rachel can speak to her teachers and get her homework and what she missed and a few extra hours doing homework won't hurt Rachel" Alicia replied.
"Will that be enough" Will said
"Just wait till the lecture the pair of them get when we get home, how dare they forge my signature" Alicia said, usually she was the one who had to calm Will down, but she was furious.
"Alicia, calm down,"
"I will not calm down, how many other times do you think they have forged our signature, I'm going to call the School and Graces, see just how many things I have signed this year" Alicia said as she called the schools back.
She found out from the High School that Will had signed a sick note for Zach when he had tonsillitis which they knew about and Alicia had signed a field trip form for the twins earlier in the year which she knew about. This had made Alicia feel better, she had thought maybe there was no need in calling Capstone Junior High where Grace was, but there wouldn't be any harm in finding out. Alicia was even angrier when she got off the phone, just last week she had apparently signed something. A letter to say Grace was Ill and hadn't done her homework. Alicia explained that had not been the case and that she would appreciate her teacher reissuing the homework and she would make sure Grace completed it tonight, along with any other homework she had.
Alicia stormed into Diane's office where Lucy was reading.
"Lucy did you or your sister forge my signature on the letter about your test?"
Lucy thought for a second and remembered that she was the one who signed it.
"I did"
"And did you forge a note from me to say Grace was too ill to do her homework?"
Lucy didn't do that, it was Rachel, but she would take the blame in the hope that Rachel and Grace would start talking to her again.
"I did" she said meekly.
"Don't even think about doing it again" Alicia said as she walked out. Lucy looked up to Diane.
"You didn't do it, did you. Rachel had something over Grace, you told me that on Monday night, Rachel did it, didn't she?"
Lucy nodded slowly "They why did you tell your Mum that it was you"
"It's easier that way"
"You shouldn't cover for your sisters" Diane stated as she sat on the sofa next to her niece and opened her arms, Lucy let Diane hold her tight for a few moments.
"You need to learn to stand up for yourself, so we are going to go into your Mums office, she has court soon, but I want you to tell her the truth"
"No, I can't, she doesn't like us to lie"
"Your parents need to know the truth" Diane said.
"The truth about what?" Alicia was standing at Dianes door with lunch for Lucy. "Come on, I'm waiting"
"I didn't sign Graces letter, I just said that to keep Rachel out of trouble" Lucy sighed
"OK, so Rachel done it then" Alicia said, and Lucy nodded. "I think I know why you pretended it was you, but you didn't have to do that, I have lunch for us, why don't you come and join Dad and I, and we can go eat outside somewhere" Alicia said to Lucy who nodded
They went to a small park across the road and ate their lunch, there was no mention of facebook, or forged signatures, just the 3 of them enjoying lunch and talking about music, and the world going by.
"I have to get to court" Alicia said as she kissed Lucy on the head before wrapping her arms around her husband's neck and kissing his lips.
"Go kick some butt" Will said before putting the empty containers in the bin and walking with Lucy back to the office.
"Dad, do I need to come to the office with you every day?" Lucy asked
"Yes, I don't think it's appropriate to leave you home alone when you're suspended"
"But, it is so boring"
"Well, when Rachel brings you school work you will have something to do, won't you"
"Yeah I guess" Lucy replied gloomily
"Listen, in a week, this will all be over, you will be back at school, back in orchestra, this will all be a distant memory"
"I'm leaving orchestra" Lucy replied
"Why, you are so good at it, and I was really looking forward to your concert"
"Mike is in orchestra"
"Oh, well that doesn't mean that you need to leave"
"Yeah it does, I don't want to be anywhere near him"
"I'll tell you what, how about when we get upstairs we go online and see if we can find another class for you to join, one that is not in School" Diane had seen an advertisement for Chicago Music Youth Theatre last week, and had suggested to Will and Alicia that it may be good for Lucy, They had both agreed that it looked like a good idea for Lucy and would speak to her about it, but after last night, they got waylaid.
"OK, we can have a look" Lucy said.
They got to Wills office and it wasn't long before he had found a the group Diane had mentioned, they would be holding auditions on Friday for Les Miserables.
"OK, so you can go there on Friday and audition" Will said
"Dad, I'm grounded remember" Lucy replied
"I remember, how about this is a secret, no one other than you and I need to know, I'll take you myself on Friday afternoon"
"OK, but this is singing, not orchestra"
"I know, but you can sing, this will be really good for you, you can make new friends, maybe even meet a nice boy and look they do musician auditions too, I'd really like it if you tried this, if you don't like it then you can stop" Will replied
"I'll do it, but only if Mum is happy for me to go, she seems pretty angry"
"I'll sort your Mother, but maybe you should have a wee practice, I can finish this off at home, so lets go, and you can practice before your brother and sisters get home" Will said. Lucy jumped to her feet ready to leave.
"Let's go"
"OK, just give me a few minutes to speak to Diane and log off" Will said.
Will shut his computer down, and walked into Dianes office
"Im going to take Lucy home, I have managed to talk her into joining the drama club you found"
"Really, that's great"
"Yeah, only problem is the auditions are on Friday, I have told her I'll take her, so was wondering if you could take my meeting with Mr Herbetson"
"Yes, that's fine, anything for our Lucy" Diane said smiling, and Will left with Lucy to go home.
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