Chapter 23

Yep I'm on a writers block again -_- Also I was gone for two weeks. I'm seeing forwards to pick up on this fic again. I had two chapters more or less ready, so I'm not so lost at all.

Nine days later, Lila Kurtzberg stood by the outside of the elementary school together with Juleka waiting for their daughters to leave the school.

"Nathalie had brought yesterday after school her dictation she solved at the school and she had made three mistakes only. She was very proud of her result," Lila explained making Juleka nod.

"Did Nathaniel practice with her or you?"

"Last few days, Nathalie asked me to do it with her. She's a real treasure, she adores it when I read it to her, she felt very comfortable and inspired to do the task," Lila explained. "Does that really acccelerate her to improve?"

"I don't know. I just know, when you're motivated and interested to learn you do so," Added Juleka making Lila nod.

"That's a point," Commented Lila, then the two looked back as they heard a car honk as it stopped behind them and Kagami, who sat on the co-driver seat pulled the window down to reveal her face.

"You're both reunited here?" Questioned Kagami watching Juleka nod.

"We crossed our ways there at the bakery before," Commented Juleka. "I got for the salon a few muffins,"

Kagami got out of the car to get between the two friends and glimpsed at the entrance of the school waiting for her child.

"Did the bells already…..."Spoke Kagami followed by hearing the school bells ring to end the lessons of most of the present classes. "Oh, it did,"
"It will take a few little minutes and they're here," Commented Lila watching Kagami take out her smartphone to open up her social network to see a new friendship request making her furrow her eyebrows and decline it.

"Who's Nathalie Berger?" Questioned Kagami making Lila shrug her shoulders and look at the Japanese woman, which showed the profile of a tan-skinned woman with dark-red hair.

"She looks exactly like the woman I saw yesterday at Isabella, rebirth," Commented Lila, then Juleka looked at the smartphone as well.

"That is her," Confirmed Juleka. "Lila has her as a common friend on Facestargram as well,"
"I haven't caught up with the whole show, to be honest," Confessed Kagami.

"I know she's in the show, but I have no idea, what's her role there as well,"

"She's one of Donatello's love interests in the series. He has five or something," Explained Juleka making Lila widen her eyes surprised.

"Wow, I had no idea about the amount of romance,"

"It hasn't been shown yet, besides on the announcement of the show the characters were introduced weeks before the start," Said Juleka making her friends nod.

"There's Nathalie coming along with Eireen and Ruby," Commented Kagami earning Lila's attention, which moved her eyes away at the three girls and smiled at recognizing her daughter. Nathalie smiled excitedly at seeing her mother being the one awaiting her and raced towards the woman's arms, which the raven-haired opened up to receive the kid.

"Hey Nathalie," Greeted Lila embracing her daughter, then kissed her on the forehead and looked at the girl's face. "How was school?"

"Good," Answered Nathalie. "I made only two errors in my dictation and at my math homework only one error, but that one was actually right, but my number three looked like an eight," Explained the brunette making Lila smile and caress her daughter on the cheek.

"Bravo, bella! Sono orgoglioso di te!" Lila complimented, then looked at Ruby, which stood behind with Eireen. "Is this girl there by Eireen a new friend of yours?" Questioned Lila making Ruby nod along with Nathalie.

"She's also like Eireen a new friend of mine. Her name is Ruby," Introduced Nathalie watching the Swedish-decendant girl hold out her hand to greet the adult.

"You sure know my mother River Langerak from the news TV1. She's my mother," Stated Ruby with a giggle making Lila smile.

"I've seen her a few times on TV, right. If I know her personally is another question," Commented Lila watching Ruby ponder about it and shrug her shoulders.

"I don't know, maybe she does," Commented Ruby looking at the friend, which shook her head.

"I have no idea," Added Nathalie making Lila chuckle.

"Tell her your friend's mother, Lila Kurtzberg had gotten to know you," Spoke Lila, then Kagami looked at her teenhood friend surprised at the mention of the full name.

"You finally said your married full name," Commented Kagami making Lila chuckle, then stop to ponder about the words she had said.

"I said Lila Kurtzberg?" Questioned the raven-haired woman making the friend nod. "Well that's kind of strange," Lila snickered for a little thinking about Kagami's comment and looked past her friend. "This may sound crazy, but the name Lila Kurtzberg has a great ring to it,"

"Well the Lila I know has a huge passion for this name," Commented the Japanese woman watching Lila study again about the name.

"You….I'm starting to remember something about this…..y….you were there as well," Added Lila remembering a scene from her past.

"You look so happy today, than usual. I was just asking you about it" Kagami vocaled.

"Oh well, I don't know. I had started drawing this and I've got lost in my fantasies" Lila explained making Kagami curious.

"What fantasies?" Asked Kagami checking Lila's drawing to see she hadn't written her real family name behind her first name. "Really? Why did you write Kurtzberg on it?"

"Because that's gonna be my name…..at least in the future at some point" Lila stated.

"Remember, what I said last year to you. You gotta relax a bit more. You deserve it after the hard-working for your grades"

"I know and I'm trying my best" Kagami promised.

Lila looked at Kagami, which watched Lila massage the sides of her forehead making Kagami feel a little strange.

"Are you alright?" Asked Kagami placing her hand behind her friend's back.

"Are you alright?" Questioned the Japanese descendant girl.

"After everyone figured out, I lied to make some friends there's no one who's going to trust me now.

"Perhaps you could have taken it easy with them…,"

"Hmm, I see," Said Kagami placing her hand on Lila's shoulder. "You know, you can try to stop lying. It's just a question of your own will"

"If I want to stop it, I have to want it?" Asked Lila seeing the blue-haired nod.

"I'm not sure. I don't think I can make it all by myself"

"Don't worry, you got me. I'll help you with it" Said Kagami making Lila smile.

"Really?" Asked Lila smiling at the girl.

"Really" Responded Kagami showing the girl her hand. "Friends?"

"Friends," Said Lila giving the Japanese girl her hand.

Lila dropped her chin as she finally recognized her best friend, then wrapped her arms around the friend tightly shrieking the Japanese woman.

"Woah, you're invading the private area!" Scolded Kagami making Lila chuckle.

"I finally remember you, Kagami. You're Kagami Tsurugi. You're the first friend I made here and to help me deal with the compulsive lying," Lila recounted making Kagami smile and return her sentiments to the taller woman as she remembered her.

Nathalie exchanged looks with Ruby, which smiled about the two women as well and glimpsed at Eireen, which had been looking at the two adults.

"What did just happen?" Asked Eireen, then Nathalie embraced the friend to hear the girl whisper into her ear making her nod in understatement. "Ah"

Elliot came along, then ran as he saw his mother with Nathalie's, then stopped by the trio, which were observing the adults.

"Did Mrs. Kurtzberg remember my mother?" Questioned Elliot earning a nod from Ruby, afterward Elliot smiled at the two and observed them split to see the next kids, that had arrived thereafter Kagami went down to have Elliot come towards her to be greeted as well.

Durant sat inside the bus frowning at his smartphone from seeing he had received an email from a place he had sent a curriculum, then deleted it as it was a decline. Durant rolled his eyes, then opened up a document on his smartphone, then began to edit the text. He felt the bus stop at a bus stop, then glimpsed out of the vehicle to recognize the building where the Couffaines lived He recognized Marinette Couffaine at the entrance to the plot and noticed Nathaniel Kurtzberg from the retirement home there. He had seen the two adults talking with each other, then wondered if the two were befriended or had anything to do with the superheroes. He heard a car honk from across the road to recognize Marinette's son sitting beside a tall man inside a bakery vehicle. Durant smiled as he figured out a new idea on how he could get back into the house of the Couffaines.

At night, Lila sat on the couch with Nathalie beside her watching the TV show Lila acts in. On the screen, at the moment it showed Lila in the role of Isabella interacting with a young boy with glasses and medium-sized hair.

"That's Alessandro. That's the son of Isabella. He's the favorite child of her," Explained Nathalie earning a nod from Lila. "He's got a very important role according to daddy,"

"Oh really? And who in the show is the dad?" Questioned Lila making Nathalie chuckle.

"I mean my daddy," Corrected Nathalie looking at Nathaniel along with Lila. Nathaniel was almost falling asleep, then Nathalie tickled her father causing him to twitch and shrug his arms to prevent the girl to continue her deed. "Tell mommy, why he's important,"

"Who exactly?" Asked Nathaniel while yawning. "The boy?"

"The son from Isabella," Repeated Nathalie watching her father sit up straight on the couch.

"He's the one, who will be able to connect all the puzzles and mysteries about the….spoiler alert…...disappearance of Isabella," Nathaniel stated making Lila chuckle.

"Well, the disappearing act isn't quite a spoiler. It's written in the summary," Lila commented making Nathaniel shrug his shoulders.

"Yeah, that is right. Alessandro's role is quite more important than it seems, but that will be seen only in the future episodes,"

"You know a lot of details about the show. Did I tell you them?" Questioned Lila making Nathaniel shrug his shoulders.

"One part yes, the other part I figured it out," Responded Nathaniel making Lila laugh.

"I think as a comic writer you have the good knowledge of the plots,"

"Back at our school times, you had helped me often with writer's block or come up with ideas at least,"

"What about now at the work, when you've got the time to work on them?" The raven-haired woman questioned.

"I've took notes to myself throughout the day and fix it in my comic. I don't do that daily, cause at some point it kills my motivation. This you'll figure out only when you make something you adore so much as your job or well, part of your job,"

"I understand you," Agreed Lila looking back at the TV screen to see herself on TV putting on makeup. "Did you know, that they had to instruct to me how I should put on myself make up there for the role?"

"But…..you had always done it well," Nathaniel commented making Lila giggle, then elbowed her husband as she noticed something.

"Hey, I remember this point from the acting. Thanks to you," Mentioned the woman, earning a nod from the redhead.

"This I actually wasn't aware of, that it was part of the scene as well," Confessed the man afterward.

A while later, Nathaniel had fallen asleep on the couch, while Lila remained watching the show with a napping Nathalie on her lap. On the TV screen, she saw herself again walking on the sidewalk along the street at night with a grumpy face. The camera moved slowly away from Lila's character showing behind her a fully white-dressed man covered with a unihockey mask. The man began to take bigger steps to approach Isabella, afterward, he pulled out of the jacket a tissue and packed Isabella from behind making her gasp, then he covered her mouth with the tissue making her lose her senses. The man kept holding her, then analyzed her to make sure, she wasn't active and took out from his pants a smartphone to quickly connect himself to another person.

"Point A has been successful, I'll give you green light in about a half an hour," The man mentioned, then placed his smartphone back and smirked at the fourth wall, followed by the sentence to be continued to be shown.

Lila chuckled at the end of the scene. "When we filmed this scene we had about 20 takes all just because I reacted too early or too late. A few times he also was too early, but we made it work at the end. That's what mattered the most," Lila spoke, then noticed Nathaniel had been sleeping for a while. Lila smiled, then took the remote control to turn off the TV and picked up her daughter gently. "Wow you're a little heavy," Commented Lila while the girl snored silent. The woman went upstairs to carry the girl into her bedroom, then lied the girl down on the mattress and pulled the cover over the girl to cover her, and kissed the daughter's forehead.

"Good night," Wished Lila and looked up at the bulletin board with the images of the young Kurtzberg family and smiled. Lila noticed an image, where she was displayed on it along with Nathaniel in front of a yellow wall. Nathaniel wore a white overall filled with sprains of tint and a few spots across his face. Lila on the other hand was all clean in her regular clothing, both standing beside each other posing for the camera. Lila pulled the image down to take a closer look at it and noticed, that she was holding Nathaniel's hand firmly. She passed her thumb over the part, where the hands were located pondering about the occurred day on the respective image. "How wasn't I able to recall my own husband yet?" Questioned Lila herself, then rolled her eyes at the daughter, which was sleeping and turned them back to the image to look at the face of the redhead. Lila lied her back down on the mattress of the daughter, while keeping her eyes plastered on the image wondering about eventual details.

I saw the new Rescue Rangers movie...Don't ask me what I thought about the 40+ children thing of Gadget...