Thank you to MrsBNDO, krizue, kutebloo, 4everdreaming, JeniRose, lilmonkeygirl31, CCScott23, xSmile, iftheyonlyknewthetruth, hybridwolf10, utterlylost1108, Tiffany Rae, and deli41321 for reviewing. I really appreciate the comments.
I'm glad everyone likes Faith. I keep thinking maybe I'm making her too clever – but she is a very smart child, and insightful, so maybe not. Plus, with her upbringing I can easily see her being more mature than other children her age.
This chapter is sort of transitional. I didn't want the story to stay stuck in New York in limbo, so am trying to move them back to their natural habitats. Plus, that'll mean that soon Karen can come to visit, and I'll let you know what's happened to Deb (and maybe Dan).
Anyway – enjoy, and let me know what you think by reviewing!
Everything had seemed to go very fast. One moment, Faith had been living at home with her father, going to school and doing everything she was supposed to be doing, and then she had found out she'd been kidnapped years earlier and was actually the only child of celebrities, and now she was in Los Angeles, in her mother's luxury apartment, getting dressed for her first day at a new school.
Her daddy was even there – mommy had decided that he could live in the extra bedroom. It was blue. Faith thought that was kind of cool, actually!
Smoothing her hands across her pretty orange cardigan, and twitching her green ruffly skirt into place, Faith stared at herself in the mirror of her new bedroom.
She looked nice. Or, at least, as nice as she was going to look.
She really wanted people to like her. They didn't at her old school, but mommy had assured her that everything would be different here.
Breathing in, Faith reached for the backpack her mommy had helped her fill with books and pens and things the previous night, pushed her door open, and headed into the sun-filled kitchen. A bright apple green, with stainless steel appliances and benches, it was a pretty room, with warm wooden chairs and stained glass roses etched into the upper windows.
As she walked in, her parents turned to her. They had clearly been discussing something, but the animosity Faith sometimes sensed seemed entirely absent. They looked pleased to see her.
"Hey, Faith." Daddy smiled, and reached out his hand to draw her onto his lap. "Ready for school, I see!"
Faith nodded as she discarded her bag next to the chair, and reached for the cereal her daddy drew in front of her. Her mommy smiled, and picked up the backpack, placing it on the chair next to Faith. Retreating further into the kitchen a little, she retrieved a brown paper bag from the fridge.
"I made some lunch for you, baby. Let me know if you want something different tomorrow, though." Faith's mommy gave a sad little smile. "I haven't made one of these before, so it could be a little hit and miss."
Faith, her mouth full of cereal, nodded. Swallowing, she said. "What's in it today?"
Mommy frowned as she sat across from Faith and her daddy. "Ummm . . . a chicken salad sandwich, and an apple, and a pottle of yoghurt, and some raisins. Oh – and your daddy insisted that we also include a little chocolate. But you shouldn't expect that every day."
Faith smiled. "That sounds yummy, mommy."
Her mommy nodded, relief in her face. "Good, baby. I want your first day to be perfect."
Daddy chuckled.
"And, with that in mind, are you ready to go yet, Faith?"
Faith swivelled a little on her father's lap. "I only just got up! And I haven't finished my breakfast yet."
"Oh." Daddy seemed surprised. "Silly me. I could've sworn that you actually wanted to get to school on time for your first day."
Shocked, Faith turned to her mother. "Am I going to be late?"
Her mommy shook her head, smiling. "You have plenty of time, baby. No need to rush. Your father's just being funny." She directed a playful glare at him from across the table.
Faith resumed eating her cereal. A comfortable silence filled the room.
Putting her spoon in the bowl, reaching for her juice, and draining the glass, Faith turned to her daddy.
"I'm finished now," she announced.
"So I see," daddy's eyebrows wriggled comically, and Faith giggled. "So, are we ready to go?"
Faith nodded her head emphatically, and jumped down from her perch on daddy's lap.
"I'm ready. Can we go, then?"
Daddy groaned and stood, slowly, frowning at Faith. Faith became a little uncertain. Daddy seemed upset. And then he smiled.
"We're going to miss you when you're at school today, Faith. Will you be good?"
Smiling again, Faith nodded.
"Yes, Daddy."
Reaching for her hand, her daddy grabbed Faith's backpack from the chair it had been deposited on, and slung it over his shoulder. Meanwhile, her mommy also stood, clearing away Faith's cereal bowl and juice glass and stacking them in the dishwasher. When she finished, she rushed toward the other two, and reached for Faith's other hand.
"We'll both come with you, baby. It's your first day!"
The car ride there was silent, but Faith would've been unable to speak anyway. It was so exciting. New parents, and a new school, and hopefully soon there'd be new friends, too.
And it was a pretty school, Faith decided, as her daddy's car swung in through the main gates. The buildings were brick, and pretty, and there were plants and a cool looking playground. Luckily it wasn't very busy – mommy and daddy had arranged to come a little after school was due to start – so there was no trouble parking in the visitor parking spaces.
As she emerged from the car, and daddy shepherded her, his hand on her shoulder, toward the administration office, while her mommy carried her backpack, Faith couldn't help but feel a little nervous. It was a few months into the year, and almost Christmas now, and maybe the other boys and girls wouldn't like her because she was new. Faith frowned, not noticing her mommy dart a concerned look down at her as she did so.
Crouching down next to her as they reached the door to the office, mommy smiled at Faith. "Don't worry, baby. Today will be a good day." She seemed so certain, as if there was no other possibility but that today would be wonderful.
Faith trusted mommy.
So she smiled, and lunged forward, enfolding mommy in her thin arms.
Haley gasped as her daughter initiated her very first hug since they had recovered her. Her eyes filled with tears as she hugged her daughter right back, and looked up, her vision slightly blurred.
Nathan was staring down at the two of them, a hesitant look in his eyes. He stepped forward, a little.
Haley smiled at him.
He smiled back, and crouched down with his wife and daughter, and joined in on the hug.
They all huddled there, slightly awkwardly, as Faith calmed down and gained the courage to face her first day of school in L.A. And then she started to wriggle, and her parents started to laugh, and stood.
It was time to get their baby to class.
And as she signed Faith in, and talked a little about the logistics of Faith's situation with the principal while Nathan distracted their daughter, and as they were led to the first grade class where a plump, smiling, forty-ish woman pulled Faith off to participate in the class's art project, Haley started to fantasise.
She started to fantasise that this really was her life. That Nathan really was her husband. That there were no complications, no strangeness. That the domesticity and togetherness of that morning were typical, were normal.
She wondered if Nathan felt the same.
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