Three commenters… let's talk.
TheGoldenYoshichu- Mind if I call you TGY in the beginning? 'Cause spelling is hard. I wouldn't be able to write my stories without autocorrect. Okay, to the response. Lila has to know how to be a good actor, especially around her mom. I wouldn't want to- ahem- Lila wouldn't want to make herself look bad in front of her controlling mother… I don't think anyone but Chris would be happy to go into his "apartment" and I'm pretty sure his landlord just doesn't care anymore. It's not bothering his neighbors, then it's not bothering the landlord. Yep, you've only gotten a taste of how bad he can get.
SilverShadowNoir- You commented on two chapters: 4 and 5, so I'm just going to combine the responses. I'm sure she needs some serious therapy already, but you look at what I'm planning and someone would say she needs it more later than what we have now. Technically, it's not Lila's first argument and lie, she's seven. This is just the first time we see her lie.
The-Poptart-Cat: Well, wow. You're welcome. With this story- the whole thing is summed up to her needing serious therapy. As you will see in chapter, she still has her foxy theme about her, but at least as a little girl she is sweet. She deserves a little more credit. She's smarter than she acts.
Chapter Six: A Fox in the Making
Once out of the car and in front of her large house, Lila seemed to relax a little. Chris begrudgingly followed the seven-year old, silently cursing under his breath. Lila burst into her house.
"The door's unlocked," Lila muttered. "Hello?" Her voice echoed through the nearly empty house.
"No one's home," Chris said.
"Yeah, like I'm supposed to be-" A large crash came from where Lila's new room would be. Lila sprinted into the room to see a middle aged man holding a necklace. Other things were scattered across the floor, clearly nothing else the man wanted. "HEY!" The man looked at Lila with big grey eyes.
"Please, you never saw me," the man said, with a shaky tone.
"I never saw you if you leave the necklace. You take it and you will be reported," Lila said.
"I have one to replace the necklace," the man said, grabbing a replica out of his pocket. His hands were shaking and placed the necklace into Lila's smaller hands.
"It's the same… What's so special about that one?"
"Have you not put it on?"
"No, I don't have an outfit to match that orange," Lila said.
"It was lost a long time ago, and this specific necklace is needed elsewhere," the man said.
"What is, it magic?" Lila scoffed. The man stayed silent. "Oh. You can take it. I'm not in need of magic. Now go before my uncle gets here." The man smiled graciously, and escaped out the window. Lila sifted the new necklace through her fingers. Interesting. It looked like a fox's tail- simply beautiful. She never wore it because when her father got it for her, her mother scoffed, exclaiming that it was an ugly orange, and nothing could match it.
Slipping it around her neck, she hid it under her shirt. Chris walked in. "Well, what happened?"
"Some boxes were placed oddly," Lila said, shrugging. "A little collapse. Nothing too big. I just found something I thought I had lost."
"Good. Now, go get a snack. Sis told me you eat a snack after school," Chris said. He pushed Lila forward. She stumbled forward and glared at Chris. She stuck out her tongue before sprinting away.
…
"I'm home!" Arthur shouted.
"Daddy!" Lila shouted in return, running into her father's arms. She hugged his neck. "I thought you'd never come."
Chris came out holding a Barbie by its legs and looking tired. "How many games can this little girl play?"
"Hmm- how many would you guess, sweetie?" Arthur asked. Lila thought for a moment.
"Five hundred!" she said triumphantly.
Arthur smiled, and set her down, and said, "Well, dewdrop, how about you start making dinner, and Uncle Chris and I will talk."
"Ok!" Lila agreed but was almost certain this would lead to an argument. Chris was Clara's twin brother. Chris and Arthur had never gotten along, but when first married, Arthur and Clara had seen it as a minor setback. They were very wrong that was only minor.
Instead of starting dinner, which Lila knew if she tried, she would make a mess, so she just listened into the "chat" that Chris and Arthur were going to have.
"So, you picked my daughter up ten minutes early from school? What use is that?" Arthur asked.
"I was there, might as well have her come out then," Chris said.
"That's being impatient, the poor girl should at least have a full day at school. It's her first day. At least give her that," Arthur said, his eyes narrowing.
"You know what's impatient? You trying to get a job the first day you arrive!"
"Clara can't do everything for this family! She's lucky enough that I'm traveling like this! Lila shouldn't have to go through this! You wanna know what's impatient? The fact that you and Clara think we can move from place to place to place with only a six month break in between. You encourage it! Lila is SEVEN! She needs friends! She needs people to be by her continuously! But NO! It's what you guys want and not what the most important thing in this life is!"
"You think that that BRAT is important? Lilly is a BRAT! She won't listen to a thing I say!"
"Lila is an angel, so stop saying that crap, Chris." Arthur started walking away and turned around and said, "Get out of my house now. I don't want Lila having an influence like you around."
Chris groaned. "Like father like daughter." Once Chris was out the front door, Arthur started towards the kitchen.
Lila jolted away- running toward the pantry without a sound. She started climbing on boxes, trying to grab the flour that was out already. A little mess didn't hurt anyone, did it?
"Lila!" Arthur called, seeing the mess before it happened. Lila slapped the flour onto the floor, falling herself. Arthur ran and caught her, getting dusted in flour. "Well, you're not getting dinner ready next time. What were you planning on doing with the flour anyway?"
"I dunno," Lila shrugged. "Flour is always so important in so many meals. I thought maybe we could make something from it."
"Well, how about pizza?"
"Homemade pizza?"
"Nah, we'll get it from a restaurant when Mommy gets home," Arthur said. He dusted flour off himself and did the same to Lila. "But how about getting changed and cleaning up?"
"Okay!" Lila said. She skipped out to her bedroom and found a box of T-shirts and jeans. She pulled out a black T-shirt and a pair of jeans. She found a mirror and took her hair out. She grabbed a brush and combed it out and put it in a braid that fell down her back.
She took one more look at the boxes that tumbled over because of the man- and then left to meet her dad for pizza.