"You Belong With Me" By Taylor Swift

She Takes After Her Mother

Cynthia froze with her hand on the doorknob to her recording studio, hearing someone quietly singing something in a half-hearted voice, obviously tired of something or other.

"You're on the phone with girlfriend,

she's upset

She's going off about something that you said

She doesn't get your

Humor like I do," Cynthia heard from inside the music room and she carefully opened the door enough to catch a peek of who was singing. Dark auburn hair and a light gray hoodie surprised her, she didn't expect her youngest daughter Cleo to be the culprit, the teenager was usually busy with either her sports, her friends, or her twin brother and her mother had never known that she liked to sing, she hadn't ever heard it before either.

"I'm in the room, it's a

Typical Tuesday night

I'm listening to the kind of music she doesn't like

and she'll never know

Your story like I do." Cleo sang most of it under her breath, barely loud enough for Cynthia to hear her, the teenager was slumped forward over her mother's lyric writing desk, idly tapping the end of a pencil against the desk to the beat of the half mumbled lyrics she was singing.

"But she wears short

Skirts, I wear t-shirts

She's cheer captain

and I'm on the bleachers,

Dreaming about the day

When you'll wake up and find

That what you're lookin

For has been here the

Whole time!" Cleo's voice got a little stronger at what sounded like the chorus of sorts and Cynthia silently slipped into the room, gently closing the door behind her and taking a seat in one of the beanbags she never had the heart to get rid of, noticing how her daughter had her head resting on her arms, face turned away from her mother's direction and staring blankly at the wall to her left.

"If you could see that I'm

The one who understands you

Been here all along so why can't you see!

You belong with me!

You belong with me!" Cynthia knew that was the chorus, she could tell by the way her daughter didn't fumble over the words at all, choruses were easy to make compared to the actual verses themselves so usually they were easier to recite. She studied her daughter, blue eyes empathetic as she looked her over, taking in the tired and defeated position and mumbled words.

"Walkin the streets with you and your worn out jeans

I can't help thinking this is how it ought to be

Laughing on the park bench thinkin to myself,

"Hey isn't this easy?"

And you've got a smile

That could light up this whole town

I haven't seen it in a while

Since she brought you down

You say your fine,

I know you better than that

Hey, whatcha doing with a girl like that?" Cynthia continued to watch her daughter, legs curled beneath her on the beanbag as she leant back in the comfortable and fluffy seat, watching and listening to her daughter's mumbled singing, Cleo's voice was clear despite the low tone and half-hearted emotion in both her voice and her body language and it made Cynthia wonder if Cleo wanted to pursue a musical career like her mother or continue with her sports and chemistry.

"She wears high heels, I wear sneakers

She's cheer captain and

I'm on the bleachers,

Dreaming about the day

When you'll wake up and find

That what you're lookin

For has been here the whole time!

If you could see that I'm the one who understands you

Been here all along so why can't you see!

You belong with me!

Standing by or waiting at your back door

All this time how could you not know baby

You belong with me!

You belong with me!" Cleo's singing trailed off and Cynthia breifly wondered if she was finished and even moved to get up before stopping and settling back into her seat, listening as Cleo continued singing.

"Oh, I remember you driving to my house

In the middle of the night

I'm the one who makes you laugh

when you know you're about to cry

I know your favorite songs

And you tell me about your dreams

I think I know where you belong

think I know it's with me...

Can't you see that I'm the one who understands you?

Been here all along so why can't you see

You belong with me

Standing by or waiting at your back door

All this time how could

You not know baby

You belong with me

You belong with me

Have you ever thought, just maybe

You belong with me

You belong with me…" Cleo abruptly ended with a heavy sigh, letting the pencil drop from her fingers to clatter down onto the desk.

"I've never heard you sing before," Cynthia said quietly after letting Cleo gather her thoughts together, watching her worn out daughter with gentle blue eyes.

"Yeah, well I don't do it very often." Cleo sighed, not showing any surprise at finding her mother there, half the time her mother lived in here anyway so it wasn't too surprising to her. She sat up and leaned back against the chair she was sitting in, rubbing a hand tiredly over her face before allowing the chair to slowly spin around and face her mother.

"Your voice is beautiful Cleo," Cynthia told her softly, keeping her voice relatively hushed, attempting to keep the calm peace they had going on at the moment.

"Nah," Cleo shook her head, leaning on one of the armrests on the chair, "My voice sucks, but that's okay, if I do chemistry or something then my voice doesn't really matter now does it?"

Cynthia studied her for a few moments, noticing the faint spark of pride that had flared inside Cleo's green eyes when Cynthia complimented her voice, high praise from a professional singer like herself. "You sound just like me at your age," She said fondly, relaxing a little more, despite the strain her voice had gone through for the past twenty or so years it wasn't dying on her… yet, but she didn't really think about it that much, it didn't really matter at this point. She had done exactly what she had wanted and that's what mattered to her now.

"Seriously? How?" Cleo asked, feeling proud that she was like her mother, even though the two of them often butted heads and Cleo's favorite parent was her father, she was often told she was a lot like her mother, besides the random bouts of music frenzy that made her mother often vanish to the recording studio now.

"Your voice is higher but still a well-ranged soprano like me, plus you like a golden blonde boy," Cynthia's blue eyes twinkle, "So did I at your age."

"Dad?" Cleo asked her mother, the teenager curious about her parents.

"Of course, did you think I liked Brendan or something?" Cynthia rolled her eyes at the idea while Cleo chortled, her mother with who was now her uncle Brendan? Starclan now, her mother would have killed him within the first week. "Anyway, not to mention we seem to use music as an outlet."

"An outlet to what?"

"Our hurt and other negative emotions," Cynthia replied, raising an eyebrow as Cleo blushed.

"Right," Cleo replied, attempting to wipe the blush off her face. It was quiet for a few moments, mother and daughter dreading to next part of the conversation.

Cynthia broke the silence first, "So Leroy's with somebody?"

Cleo shrugged, "Yeah… her name's Irene I think," She continued at Cynthia's raised eyebrow, "I spend most of my time ignoring her so her name isn't really my concern."

"Ah, of course."

"Mom? Can you tell me what happened between you and Dad a while ago?" Cleo asked her mother, "I don't understand it." She needed some kind of advice but really didn't want to say it outright.

Cynthia hummed a thoughtful noise before deciding to reply, "Sure, Cleo, I'll tell you a few things that happened if that'll help." Cleo avoided her eyes and Cynthia smiled softly before her blue eyes distanced slightly, slightly fogged over with memories, "At your age, your father and I got along like most friends did, besides the added sporadic kinds of moments that seemed to happen on a day to day basis."

"What do you mean?"
Cynthia snorted, "We were in constant trouble with Firen and Gunner on physical affection and what not. In fact, Brendan kept suggesting to our siblings to just gluing us together, whether it was by the hand or the face we never found out because I punched him into his locker and wouldn't let him out till he agreed to shut up."

Cleo's green eyes glittered with mirth, she could imagine that kind of scene, Brendan annoyed practically everyone, her mother most of all so the picture of her mother at sixteen punching him into a locker and slamming it closed wasn't too out there. "By the face?" She asked with a laugh and a raised eyebrow.

Cynthia rolled her eyes good-naturedly as she replied, "Yes, by the face, Brendan caught us kissing once or twice in the hallways and milked it for what it was worth, his nose wasn't the same ever again after those confrontations."

"I believe it," Cleo chortled, Brendan's nose was crooked now, he never told anyone the reason for it besides saying he didn't deserve it. "He always says he didn't deserve it."

"Oh he deserved it, it was a very nice moment before he had crashed into us, turned on his heel and ran, yelling how Cynthia Lawson and Leon Bramble were kissing in the hallways the first time. The second time was worst," Cynthia visibly shuddered, "the second time he caught us, he snuck up behind me and pinched the back of my neck before tasering me. Let's just say that I've never jumped higher, squealed louder, nor punched him harder in my life."

"Ouch!" Cleo laughed, "Why were you two doing that there anyway?"

"I had my reasons." Cynthia shrugged casually, "Anyway we're getting way off topic. It wasn't till we were about sixteen and a half when the drama started. For years everyone at our school knew your father was mine, everyone just considered the two of us dating and left it at that. Until Isabella or as I still call her Isa, transferred into the school. She took a liking to your father right away and I could tell something bad was going to happen. So for six months, I struggled to keep her away from him in anything other than friends, making sure they weren't alone or anything like that, at the time I didn't know how much courage Isa had."
"What happened?"
"I turned down Haliah's offer of singing for the school," Cynthia hastened to explain at Cleo's confused look, "Nobody knew I could and did sing at that time, and I went to find Leon for basketball stuff he wanted my help with. What I found was not at all what I was expecting." Cynthia said, blue eyes growing distant again, "I found the two of them kissing in the gym and couldn't handle it, so I ran from both of them."

"I would've punched her in the face," Cleo told her mother, green eyes flashing.

"You would have I'm sure, but I'm a coward remember?" Cynthia rolled her eyes, "So I did what came naturally, I ran. A few days turned into two weeks and by that time I had already started the song I would sing to the school and the song that would be one of the best singles I have."

Cleo racked her brain before her green eyes lit up and she stared at her, "You wrote it for him?"

"I wrote most of my music for Leon, not that he knew it at the time, but yes, I wrote 'My life would suck without you' for him, trying to display what I was feeling at the time," Cynthia replied, "After I personally embarrassed myself and practically told him my feelings through the music we got to together, after your father took care of Isa of course."

"Just like that?"
"Pretty much," Cynthia replied looking at her daughter, "that's just how your father and I work, through music, if I'm mad at him I will yell and curse at him in my native dialect, but I will also sing something, for example, I wrote Mr. Know it all because I was ticked off at him."

"I've noticed that a lot of those songs were written within a few months span, did something happen?" Cleo asked curiously, having never heard the story before.

"Did something happen? Boy did something happen," Cynthia replied, a little touchy on the subject years later.

"Can you tell me?... I mean you don't have to tell me." Cleo backtracked, noticing the slightly shift in Cynthia's demeanor.

"Nah, I don't mind, it's not the end of the world or anything. But you have to tell me what's going on between you and Leroy when I'm finished."

"Okay," Cleo agreed, a bit reluctantly.

"About a year after we got together I had an argument with your father in regards to my music, he said it wasn't a career and I should find something else, so naturally I blew up at him and stormed off. Later the night I wrote Don't let me stop you and literally threw the disc at him telling him to listen to it and to not talk to me after. Through the song, I put subtle hints that he picked up on and understood."

"Understood what?"

"That I was done with the relationship," Cynthia replied, "He had to go his separate way if he wanted to treat me like that. For a few days it was fine, awkward and completely platonic friends like every other set of best friends after they break up, at least until the reality of it hit your father and he did something reckless and stupid which I am not telling you," Cynthia said, her voice a little hard at the sentence, but softened back to her previous tone. "Anyway, I had been rethinking my reaction and was going to apologize for blowing up at him but after he pulled a stupid stunt he broke my heart again for the third time."
"Third?!" Cleo stared at her mother, for someone who had never seen her parents fight or argues beyond playful banter that tidbit of information shocked her.

"Yup." Cynthia didn't seem too bothered about the fact that Leon had broken her heart three times before he finally got his act together, "But anyway, he cobbled up a song and begged me to sing the feminine part, I didn't give him an answer, scared he was going to hurt me again. Eventually Holly convinced me to sing in it and I did, very reluctantly and vanished the moment the song ended, but your father followed me, after both of us ended up as emotional wrecks we figured it out again for the third time, this time I didn't do the promising, your father did."

"So you forgave him?"
Cynthia laughed, "Only until I got over my turmoil, after that, I gave him what he deserved, a punishment. Your father got the cold shoulder for over three months and whacking him upside the head became a daily thing or whenever he opened his mouth and I didn't particularly care for what he said for over six months."

"Ouch."

"He deserved it. Now, what's going on with you and Leroy?"
"Irene I guess. He's just so sad all the time," Cleo shrugged, green eyes glittering with worry for her friend.

"In what way? He seems fine to me," Cynthia commented, carefully studying her daughter's body language. Leroy had been off lately and she could tell, but she wouldn't say anything about it until Cleo explained a little more.

"Well, he's more dreary than a storm cloud and practically has a rain cloud raining on his head every day," Cleo replied in a dull tone, sitting up straighter, tensing up at the subject. Cynthia waited, just watching her, blue eyes gentle and calm. Staying silent seemed to be the right thing to do as Cleo spoke again, blurting out the words. "I don't like her. At all." She got her feet, pacing back and forth with quick strides, the words just coming out of her mouth in a rant like fashion. "She's always around and makes him so upset, demanding for him to do things for her and whatever she wants! I usually don't mind when people swing a punch at me or Miles, but not it's when my best friend doing it because she told him too! Had a bruise on my jaw for weeks and fell down a flight of stairs because of that idiot! She's so frustrating! She fumed, green eyes flashing.

"Leroy, do this! Leroy, do that! Leroy, I don't like her, make her go away! Why're you here Cleo? He's my boyfriend, not yours!" Cleo mocked in a high pitched voice, pointing around as if she was telling someone to do something. Her green eyes gleamed with annoyance and borderline anger when she gestured wildly with her hands, continuing her rant. "As if I care! Starclan! If being Leroy's girlfriend means I get flowers and all that mushy crap all the time then I really don't mind being in the friend zone! And what kind of nickname is a scrawny raven? I mean seriously?! All the other names that are in the world she calls me scrawny raven, and I don't have black hair! Why not blue jay for the highlights?! Or even pathetic grass for my eyes! Why a raven of all things?! It's not like I'm a loner who avoids everyone else and is a scavenger!" She growled, tugging on her auburn ponytail, green eyes wild with annoyance. "And he can't do a thing about it! He has to go along with it and do everything she wants him to! It's ridiculous! He just does everything she says like it's his job to do it all! Cause having a girlfriend totally," Her voice oozed sarcasm, "means you should go punch your best friend because she wants you to! Even if they are trying to have a conversation with her brother and is walking up the stairs!" She scowled as she continued, "Illene the cheerleading captain! Irene student council secretary! Illene the genius!Blah blah blah! I don't give a cent about all of her positions! I'm captain of the soccer, baseball, and basketball teams! Not to mention I created a club! On my own!" She was counting her positions on her fingers, "I'm captain for over half the sports clubs for the thunder part of school, I have the fastest track record for the school since you and dad went to school, I'm the head member of stage crew, and she didn't beat my score for the ACT! *It's an American test you have to take as a junior with the highest score being a 36* I got a thirty-five while she got a twenty-eight!" Cleo fumed, her face flushed from her annoyance, "It's ridiculous!" She deflated, plopping back down into the chair and with a miserable expression, "And he has to get engaged with her after they turn eighteen." She sighed, rubbing her face with one hand, obviously worn out from the whole rant and her situation.

Cynthia seemed alarmed by her last sentence, "Wait, you said he has to become engaged with her after he turned eighteen?"

"Pretty much." Cleo replied with a weak sigh, letting her arm drop to rest on the armrest, "So that's my situation anyway."

Tucking away the information to deal with later, Cynthia looked at her daughter, chin resting on the palm of her hand. "You're in love with him." She stated simply and Cleo looked briefly startled before shrugging in her way of trying to casually deny it. "Right?" Cynthia pressed, wanting to confirm the feeling she had in her gut.

"Do you have to know?" Cleo groaned, hanging her head, "But yes." She looked back up at her mother, "I'm in love with Leroy, my best friend."

"Come here," Cynthia patted the spot next to her on the beanbag, "You need a hug," she grinned at the confusion in her daughter's eyes, "I can see it in your body language." She admitted and Cleo sighed, sullenly trudging over to her mother and dropping into the beanbag next to her, letting her mother hug her comfortingly while she closed her eyes to make the tears go away. "I'm here when you need me, Cleo," Cynthia murmured sincerely to her daughter, "I hope you know that."

"Thanks, mom," Cleo replied, taking a shuddery breath and returned the embrace, "I appreciate it."

Character Emails (all are gmail accounts)

Caylee and any other side character – youngcrazyteenageauthor

Cynthia – athleticsapphiresinger

Leon – athleticgoldenboy

Bree – cheerfulcuriosity

Jay – perfectgrumpytone

Holly – emeraldintelligencequeen

Fini – gingerandwhiteteenager

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