Chapter Two
Katherine looked all over, but couldn't find Lucy anywhere. Then she remembered something, Lucy left her backpack in her home ec room. Katherine walked back to the classroom and found Lucy's backpack and earbuds. She placed the earbuds in her backpack and found a schedule of Lucy's classes. She was in her math class. Katherine grabbed the backpack and held it while she looked for Lucy's math class. Room 206, it was on the top floor. Katherine made her way upstairs and walked into the classroom. "Can I help you?" the teacher asked. "Yes, I'm looking for my daughter. She goes by the name Rachel Russo?" she asked her. "Rachel is over there in that group in the back to the right." the teacher replied. Rachel was paired with three other boys who were just staring at her, not paying attention to what she was telling them.
Katherine walked over to her and gently tapped her on the shoulder. "Ms. Mayfair...I thought you would have left." Rachel told her. "No, of course not. I've come to withdraw you from school after all so you can transfer." Katherine told her. "What do you mean?" Rachel asked her. "Lucy, you didn't really think you'd continue to live here did you?" Katherine asked her. "Well...I thought..." Rachel started. "Don't be silly, come now, I've already signed the paperwork." she said to her daughter. She signed it while she was looking for Lucy. "Oh...alright..." Rachel said as she picked up her finished assignment and handed it to her teacher, explaining that she was being transferred to another school. The then walked to Lucy's locker while she cleared her things out and placed them into her backpack. Lucy then put on her coat and walked outside with her mother to the rental car. Katherine then put in her daughter's former address into the GPS and went to her house.
"I'm home." Rachel said as she entered the house with Katherine. Midna came running up to her and Rachel pet her. "Hi girl, did you miss me?" Rachel asked Midna as she scratched behind her ear. "Oh, this is Midna, and she's a very good girl, yes she is." Rachel said in a baby voice used for speaking to dogs. "Yes I met her." Katherine smiled as she looked at Midna. "Oh one thing you should know, Midna is non-negotiable. Where I go, she goes." Rachel told her as she continued to pet Midna. Katherine was going to argue, but she knew that she was quite serious. "Alright, but she's your responsibility." Katherine replied. "As always." Rachel smiled. Katherine thought if it eased her into living with her then it was worth it.
"Lucy, I called the moving company in the car, they will be here in the morning to collect your things, so you may want to pack for the trip. They said it would be a few days before your things arrived so you may want to make sure to pack for a week." Katherine informed her. "Oh alright." Rachel replied as she stood up. She walked downstairs to the basement of the house and into her room. Katherine followed her into the room, it had a lot of pictures on the walls, done by her along with a lot of game consoles as well as a colorful desktop computer with an RGB setup. She also noticed a keyboard with sheet music on it as well as several instruments. The room was however, neat and tidy with everything in it's place. Lucy got out her suitcase and started to pack a week's worth of clothes. "How long will I still be here for?" Lucy asked her. "We leave the day after tomorrow, why do you ask?" Katherine asked her. "I just want to make sure to leave out some clothes not to pack." Lucy replied as she continued to put her things away.
Katherine saw a very odd shaped object on a shelf and walked over to it, picking it up. "Oh, please be careful with that. It's very fragile." Lucy told her. "What exactly is it?" Katherine asked her. "It's an ocarina." Lucy replied as she walked over to Katherine. "A what?" Katherine asked as she examined the object. "An ocarina, it's a musical instrument. Here let me show you." Lucy said as she took it from Katherine and then began to play the Fruits Basket opening theme. Once she was finished she placed the ocarina back on the shelf gently. "Wow impressive. Do you play all of these instruments?" Katherine asked. "Yeah, I pick them up here or there." Lucy replied as she went back to packing. "How many do you play?" Katherine asked as she looked around. "Let's see..." Lucy said as she put her finger up to count them on hand.
"I play piano, flute, ocarina, saxophone, violin, guitar, bass, drums, harp, trumpet, clarinet, cello, kalimba, and ukulele, so like fourteen?" she said as she counted them. Katherine was thoroughly impressed. She then noticed all the art on the walls. They bore Lucy's signature. "You drew all of these?" Katherine asked. "Yeah." Lucy replied. Katherine saw the sketchbooks lining the desk shelves and picked one at random. It was titled 'Memories?', which confused Katherine. She opened one up and flipped through the pages. They were all drawings of her? "I have what's called an eidetic memory, as soon as I saw you in the home ec room I thought it was a dream." Lucy explained as she snuck up behind Katherine. She continued to flip through the pages. "An eidetic memory?" Katherine asked, that was a term she had never heard before.
"It's often called a photographic memory. Everything I see is like a photograph in my head. Everything I hear is like a record player, playing everything back to me whenever I want in exact detail. So when you came into the classroom it kind of freaked me out. I kept seeing you, in my dreams. That's why it's titled Memories with a question mark, because I wasn't sure if it was a dream or a memory." Lucy told her. "So you remember..." Katherine started. "Not a lot...I remember seeing you, but that's about it." Lucy replied as she looked at the drawing before going back to packing.
Once Lucy had finished she placed her bags in the spare bedroom. She packed clothes, but hadn't packed toiletries yet because she was still using them, she also left out her Switch and her Quest 2, along with her iPad Pro with pencil, keyboard and case, as well as her phone and watch chargers and the chargers for the Switch and Quest 2 which were inside their cases. Lucy looked at her watch. "Oh look at the time, I should probably start dinner. Would you care to join us for dinner?" she asked Katherine as Katherine placed the sketchbook back on the shelf. Lucy was quite the talented girl.
"I would love that." Katherine smiled as she followed her daughter up the stairs. Lucy put on her apron and approached her Aunt Lily who was fine with still being family with Lucy. "Hey there Rachel, I've been waiting for you." Rachel said to her. "Sorry Aunt Lily, I was packing my things. I'm going to miss you guys." she said to her. "I'm going to miss you too kiddo, you know, even though we aren't related by blood, you are still family to us, don't ever forget that." Lily told her. "Thanks." Lucy replied as she tasted the sauce that they had been working on for three days. "Oh it's perfect." Lucy said out loud. "Lucy, would you like some help?" Katherine offered. "Oh, you're our guest, you don't have to help." Lucy replied as she smiled at Katherine.
"I know I don't, but I want to, besides I enjoyed baking with you today." Katherine told her with a smile. "You're welcome to join us if you'd like." Lily told her. "The aprons are over there." she added as she pointed to the shelf with aprons hanging on them. Katherine walked over and put one on and then walked back over to her daughter and Lily. The three of them chatted as they worked on the spaghetti and the garlic bread. Once it was finished they all sat down and ate. "I can see where you get your incredible cooking and baking skills from Rachel...wait Lucy right?" Lily asked. Katherine nodded. "Thank you, I really appreciate that." Katherine replied with a smile as she ate. Even the sauce was incredible.
"You must give me your recipe." Katherine insisted. "Sorry Ms. Mayfair, it's a secret family recipe." Lucy replied. "Oh come on now Lucy...of course I'll give you the recipe." Lily told her. "But grandma said..." Lucy started. "What? To take it to our graves? Besides it was your grandfather's recipe not hers. I've always said that food should be shared with the ones you love and that includes recipes, you want the recipe Katherine then it's yours. Besides Lucy, she's your mother, she is family." Lily replied. "Well alright." Lucy replied.
They continued to talk with Lily's son Sam ignoring everyone with his headphones and his sister McKenna eating messily, even with the bib on. Katherine noticed that McKenna was flapping her arms as she ate. "McKenna has autism." Lily answered. "So does Sam, but he's much higher functioning." she added as she looked at her kids. "Where is your husband?" Katherine asked her. "He's at work, he works the graveyard shift." Lily replied. "What about Lucy's father? Is he in the picture?" Lily asked her while Lucy helped clean up McKenna's mouth. "Ummm no...I don't even know who her father is." Katherine lied. She knew exactly who the father was, but he was to never find out about his part in Lucy's existence. "I see." Lily replied.
Once dinner was finished Sam was on cleanup duty. Lucy left to go do a few things downstairs and Lily called Katherine in. "I want to let you know about a few things." Lily said as Katherine sat down. "Oh?" Katherine asked as she looked at Lily. "Lucy...well Lucy's had to deal with some horrible things in her past, things she can remember every little detail of." Lily started to tell her. "You mean like her back?" Katherine asked her. "Oh so she told you huh? Yeah well that's only part of it I'm afraid." Lily replied as she looked at a picture of Lucy when she was younger. "What do you mean only part of it?" Katherine asked.
"Lucy is distrustful of men at best, which is why I asked about her father." Lily continued before sighing. "Look Katherine, there is no easy way to say this, so I'm just going to come out and say it. The reason Lucy doesn't trust men is because Marina's second husband would molest and rape her repeatedly." Lily admitted. Katherine's stomach dropped. "What?" she asked as tears gathered in her eyes. "It took her a long time for her to even trust my husband Liam." Lily admitted. Katherine couldn't believe what she had heard. Now she felt even more guilty about losing Lucy. Katherine put her head in her hands and just thought for a moment. A few moments later Katherine heard a thud. "What was that?" she asked as she stood up, looking around.
Lily hurried downstairs to Lucy's room and opened the door. That's when Katherine saw her convulsing on the floor. Katherine ran in towards Lucy and attempted to shake her out of it. Lily stopped her and watched her watch, timing the seizure. "What are you doing? We need to call an ambulance!" Katherine told her. "Not yet..." Lily replied as she continued to look at her watch. Katherine got out her phone and started to dial 911, but before she could hit send Lucy came out of her seizure. "Lucy?" Katherine said before giving her a hug.
"Hey Ms. Mayfair..." Lucy said weakly. "Lucy, we need to get you to a hospital and have you checked out." Katherine told her with an extremely worried tone in her voice. "That won't be necessary Katherine, she's out of it now. She just needs some rest." Lily told her. "Are you insane? She just started convulsing on the floor. She needs to see a doctor." Katherine replied as she examined Lucy. "As I said, that's not necessary. Lucy, did you forget to tell her?" Lily said. "I didn't forget, I just didn't have the chance." Lucy said tiredly. "Will someone please explain what is going on?" Katherine asked, looking like she was about to tear her hair out. "Katherine, Lucy has epilepsy. These seizures happen all the time. Several times a day in fact. It's when they go over five minutes that you really need to worry, that's when you have to worry about possible brain damage." Lily told her. "Oh and don't try to shake her out of it, you could end up hurting her. Just time the seizure and if it goes over five minutes then call 911. Come on Lucy, now let's get you to bed." Lily told her as she helped her up. Lucy took off her shoes and climbed into bed with her clothes on. "You took your meds right?" Lily asked her. Lucy nodded. Katherine followed Lily out of the room. "Lucy will be exhausted after a seizure, you'll need to let her sleep it off." Lily told her.
"She also has pretty severe asthma so she has two inhalers, the orange one is for every day use, the red one is for asthma attacks. Now I know I'm forgetting something else, but for the life of me I can't remember what it is. Ah well, it will come to me eventually." Lily said as she headed upstairs. "Lucy is out for the night, you probably want to go to your hotel and get some rest. I will see you first thing in the morning for the movers. I'll give you that recipe before you leave with Lucy." she said to Katherine. Katherine took her leave and left for the night. She was worried about Lucy, she seemed to have a lot of health concerns, epilepsy, asthma? Katherine would have to do a bit of research into at least the epilepsy. Once she got to her hotel Katherine opened her laptop and began to research epilepsy so that she could be the best mother to Lucy that she could possibly be.