Full Circle
AN: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far! I'm hope you all continue to enjoy this! Please let me know what you think, I could really use the help as I get started!
****
Chapter 2- Laughter is Lacking
It was like a joke. He had come back to his mom's apartment last night to find all the suits already waiting for him in the living room. He hadn't even heard that Liz had been arrested, but he never was very privy to any of her secrets. So there he was, standing, shocked, in the apartment while these perfect strangers prepared to tell him that he was about to live with some pseudo-family while his mother served whatever time the judge sentenced her with. And all of a sudden, he was bolting back out the door again. It wasn't like this was his home, it was just a place to crash when he needed it. But he certainly wasn't going to allow himself to be put into the system just because his legal guardian didn't know how to quit while she was ahead.
He was quick. Unfortunately, he had a record, and child services was prepared to stop him at all costs. And the security guys were just a little quicker. So that's how it happened that, after a few hours in the district office, he was now standing at the bright red door of an unfamiliar apartment with two very normal (read psychotic) old people who were just a little too chipper for this hour of the morning. Eyes down, he hoped that the lack of response from him would finally get them to stop talking. No such luck.
The door opened, and he found himself surrounded by white wall-to-wall carpeting. This was what he focused on, because it was so ordinary, but still so strange. He knew no one who owned white carpets, simply because, after enough parties or enough kids or enough break-ins, those carpets are history. He wasn't sure that he would be able to get used to a life like this.
Taking one thing at a time, he shifted his gaze from the carpet and glanced quickly around the room. He was stopped by a pair of bright blue eyes shining back at him. Those were not eyes for a place like this. Maybe for a life with Jim and Angie, but not for the life that you entered as soon as you stepped out of their door. This girl seemed innocent, so out of place, yet there was something, an attitude or an edge, which told Jess that she had adjusted to her life, that she lived in the world outside. Rory. He thought that's what they said. Could've been Laurie, or Tory, but he thought he heard right. But before he even really got a chance to see her, she gave him a disgusted look and forced her way out the door behind him.
They left him alone in his room to unpack. Technically, he was sharing it with the boy twin, Jess couldn't exactly remember his name, but it didn't matter too much because Jess wouldn't be around much for late-night chats about girls and school anyway. He was alone for now, with Jim and Angie down at the flea market, and he was taking full advantage of the situation. Stretched out on the bed, he held out his well tattered copy of 'Howl' at arms length, but found he couldn't concentrate on his reading for once. Instead, he was thinking about how, in the blink of an eye, his life had changed. It was like a joke, some sort of comedic irony that he had never studied before and wasn't quite sure how to handle.
It wouldn't last long he figured. By morning he would have disappeared again. Or that was the plan at least.
****
AN: Well, there it is. Chapter two. Short again, and I'm sorry! It didn't turn out as I had planned, but I'm still rather pleased. Introductions are now complete, and the next chapters will bring us into the lives of our two favorite people. Please let me know what you think!
AN: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far! I'm hope you all continue to enjoy this! Please let me know what you think, I could really use the help as I get started!
****
Chapter 2- Laughter is Lacking
It was like a joke. He had come back to his mom's apartment last night to find all the suits already waiting for him in the living room. He hadn't even heard that Liz had been arrested, but he never was very privy to any of her secrets. So there he was, standing, shocked, in the apartment while these perfect strangers prepared to tell him that he was about to live with some pseudo-family while his mother served whatever time the judge sentenced her with. And all of a sudden, he was bolting back out the door again. It wasn't like this was his home, it was just a place to crash when he needed it. But he certainly wasn't going to allow himself to be put into the system just because his legal guardian didn't know how to quit while she was ahead.
He was quick. Unfortunately, he had a record, and child services was prepared to stop him at all costs. And the security guys were just a little quicker. So that's how it happened that, after a few hours in the district office, he was now standing at the bright red door of an unfamiliar apartment with two very normal (read psychotic) old people who were just a little too chipper for this hour of the morning. Eyes down, he hoped that the lack of response from him would finally get them to stop talking. No such luck.
The door opened, and he found himself surrounded by white wall-to-wall carpeting. This was what he focused on, because it was so ordinary, but still so strange. He knew no one who owned white carpets, simply because, after enough parties or enough kids or enough break-ins, those carpets are history. He wasn't sure that he would be able to get used to a life like this.
Taking one thing at a time, he shifted his gaze from the carpet and glanced quickly around the room. He was stopped by a pair of bright blue eyes shining back at him. Those were not eyes for a place like this. Maybe for a life with Jim and Angie, but not for the life that you entered as soon as you stepped out of their door. This girl seemed innocent, so out of place, yet there was something, an attitude or an edge, which told Jess that she had adjusted to her life, that she lived in the world outside. Rory. He thought that's what they said. Could've been Laurie, or Tory, but he thought he heard right. But before he even really got a chance to see her, she gave him a disgusted look and forced her way out the door behind him.
They left him alone in his room to unpack. Technically, he was sharing it with the boy twin, Jess couldn't exactly remember his name, but it didn't matter too much because Jess wouldn't be around much for late-night chats about girls and school anyway. He was alone for now, with Jim and Angie down at the flea market, and he was taking full advantage of the situation. Stretched out on the bed, he held out his well tattered copy of 'Howl' at arms length, but found he couldn't concentrate on his reading for once. Instead, he was thinking about how, in the blink of an eye, his life had changed. It was like a joke, some sort of comedic irony that he had never studied before and wasn't quite sure how to handle.
It wouldn't last long he figured. By morning he would have disappeared again. Or that was the plan at least.
****
AN: Well, there it is. Chapter two. Short again, and I'm sorry! It didn't turn out as I had planned, but I'm still rather pleased. Introductions are now complete, and the next chapters will bring us into the lives of our two favorite people. Please let me know what you think!