hey hope everyone is enjoying their halloweekend :) here is a slightly festive update for you guys. thanks everyone who read and reviewed and followed and alerted and all that and as always leave lots of reviews so i know what you guys are thinking :)
"So what are you going to be for Halloween?" Rachel asked one night as she and Lucy watched Halloweentown in her basement, and Lucy quirked her signature eyebrow arch.
"I'm not dressing up."
"Oh yes you are."
"Why would I?" Lucy challenged.
"Because I am." Rachel smiled smugly, knowing that would be a good enough reason for Lucy.
"And what are we doing all-dressed up?"
"I promised my aunt and uncle I would take my cousin, Freddie, trick-or-treating and I thought maybe you would join me?" Rachel finished shyly and slightly blushed. For all her confidence earlier, she still felt a little nervous asking Lucy to do something out of the ordinary with her. When Lucy didn't answer immediately, the brunette began to do her signature ramble. "I know it's not exciting, like the party Stacey's throwing..."
"As if we were invited," Lucy interrupted, "I wouldn't go anyway. I'd much rather go with you to take your cousin trick-or-treating." She smiled widely at Rachel as the brunette squealed in delight
"Yay and we can get candy and come home and watch scary movies and gorge ourselves on our candy."
"I'm with you on all that except the gorging ourselves on candy part. I don't need any extra pounds. It's going to be hard enough to find a costume to make a fat girl not look ridiculous." Lucy looked at the television not able to meet Rachel's eyes when talking about her weight.
"Stop that. You're beautiful." Rachel said reaching out and laying her hand over Lucy's.
"I'm not." Lucy countered still unable to meet Rachel's eyes.
"You are." She tilted Lucy's face up to meet her eyes. When the girl's reluctant hazel ones finally met her warm brown ones she repeated, conviction in her voice. "You are."
Lucy felt the warmth from Rachel's eyes spread throughout her body. She wanted to kiss the girl. Of course she had thought about it before, but she had never wanted to feel the other girl's lips on hers as bad as she did right now.
"Rachel, Lucy dinner in five." Hiram yelled as he stuck his head through the basement door ruining the moment. Both girls moved apart a few inches, and laughed a bit nervously.
"So you excited to go trick-or-treating?" Rachel asked breaking the tension.
"Yeah I think so." Lucy said a bit nervously. "I haven't been since I was like six."
"Why'd you stop so young? I've gone every year since I was like five. Of course now I bring younger children with me to seem acceptable to my peers but I really love it." Rachel got this goofy smile on her face as she said that.
"I think six was the last year my parents thought I was cute. Then I started to…" Lucy pushed her two palms together and then moved them apart indicating she started getting bigger. "I ballooned."
"Girls dinner." Hiram called down again. Rachel watched Lucy head up the stairs and felt a sadness in her chest. She couldn't believe how awful the Fabrays were especially to such an incredible girl like Lucy. She also felt lucky to be the girl's friend and show her how special she really was.
When Halloween came around, Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella stood in Rachel's living room with a little werewolf between them.
"Oh, don't you all look so cute." Hiram said as he snapped a few pictures with his camera.
"I'm not cute. I'm scary." Freddie stated emitting a low growl.
"Right of course. I'll make sure to put the good silver in our bedroom for tonight just in case we need a weapon." Leroy winked at his husband.
Rachel spun around in her red cape, delighting in the way it fanned out around her. When she came to a stop in front of Lucy, the taller girl's eyes were sparkling with amusement. "You look really pretty, Rach." The brunette ducked her head and a slight blush crept across her cheeks. "Thanks. You do too, Cinderella. Although," She looked up at Lucy with a tiny pout forming, "I still think you should have dressed as my lumberjack."
"I'm a girl." Lucy said trying to be the proper girl her parents raised. They would've never understood cross-dressing even on Halloween. Rachel's mouth formed into full pout mode.
"It's Halloween. Who's going to protect me from the big bad wolf?"
"Considering the size of the wolf, I think Cinderella will do just fine." Rachel smiled at her and the girls' linked arms as they left the house being led by the "big" bad wolf.
Outside Mrs. Shapiro's house, Rachel and Lucy stood waiting for Freddie to finish at the last stop for the night. It was close to his bedtime.
"I can't believe the Goldbergs' gave out little bags of carrots." Rachel said fishing the little bag out from her basket. "Although I appreciate them promoting a healthy lifestyle, it's Halloween." She practically whined the last part.
"I know. The house before that gave me a box of raisins. Not exactly what kids are looking for on Halloween." Rachel nodded sagely in agreement as a blue convertible pulled up on the curb beside them. Inside sat Stacey and Amanda in the backseat with their high school boyfriends in the front.
"Aww how cute the wittle babies are trick-or-treating." Amanda cooed in a mocking tone.
"What's a matter no invites to parties with people your own age instead of lame elementary school kiddies." Stacey added nodding toward the younger children coming down the steps.
"Cause you only hang out with people your own age." Lucy countered eyeing the boys in the front seat.
"I'm moving up. You know the right way."
"Does that mean you won't go down?" The driver asked elbowing his friend and laughing lewdly. Stacey glared at the back of his head. "Sean." She said in a warning tone.
"Sorry babe." He said still chuckling.
"So Red," The other boy started looking at Rachel, "I see you brought the whale," he nodded in Lucy's direction, "so we brought the water." Both boys grabbed water balloons from a bag on the floor of the car and pelted them at Lucy. She shrieked as they exploded on impact with her body. The water was ice cold and made the chilly October air feel frigid.
"Hey." Rachel yelled and tried to step in the way but they sped away just as quickly as the exchange had taken place. "Jerks." She called after the car. She turned back to look at Lucy. The girl was soaked. One balloon had hit her in the chest and drenched her whole upper body along with splashing her face. The other had hit the ground at her feet and sprayed her legs. She slowly moved her eyes to Lucy's face. She wasn't crying but her chin was quivering. Rachel took off her cloak and handed it to the other girl. Lucy accepted it and wrapped in around herself.
"Can we go now?" Lucy managed to ask without the inevitable tears spilling.
"Of course." Rachel found Freddie in the crowd that had gathered and grabbed his hand, with her other she intertwined her fingers with Lucy's. They made the walk home in silence.
As they opened the front door to the Berry house, Leroy and Hiram sprang up from the couch.
"Did you guys have fun?" They asked with excitement before they could take in Lucy's appearance.
"I did." Freddie said in his state of childhood obliviousness. He lay down on the living room floor and dumped his candy so he could inspect each piece. Leroy and Hiram faces fell as they looked at Lucy.
"Honey, what happened?" Hiram asked her, his voice soft. Finally being addressed brought Lucy to action. She ran up the stairs to Rachel's bedroom. Both men looked at Rachel expectantly. She shrugged sadly and quickly followed Lucy to her bedroom. She found the girl in a heap on her bed, head buried in the pillows. She could see Lucy's shoulders shaking from crying; finally releasing the tears she had been holding back.
"Oh, sweetie." Rachel said softly crossing the room and sitting down on the bed. She reached out her hand and laid it on Lucy's arm. Lucy recoiled at the touch. Rachel retracted her hand and felt stung. She wanted to comfort the girl.
"Lucy." She said almost begging. She was pleading for the girl to let her help. "Lucy, I…"
"Don't." Lucy said tersely. She pushed herself off the bed and stared down at Rachel. Rachel could see the wet tracks streaking the girl's face.
"Don't tell me I'm beautiful or pretty or per…perfect." New tears spilled as Lucy tried to get the words out. "Don't lie. I'm huge. I'm tubby. I'm a whale. I'm Lucy Caboosey." She said referring to a common name the kids used for at school. "And I guess I don't deserve to be happy and I don't get to have fun even just a little bit on Halloween because I'm gross and disgusting and…and…fat." Lucy spat the last word with so much venom it sounded like the most detestable thing a person could be. Rachel watched as she stood there in her anger at everyone and her revulsion for herself and it broke her heart. She couldn't understand how everyone, every single person Lucy had every encountered, couldn't see how amazing the girl was.
After her speech the anger seemed to sap out of Lucy. She sat on the bed and her shoulders slumped. Rachel ventured a bit closer and sat next to her.
"I'm sorry. This was all my fault. I made you go out tonight." She said sadly. Lucy tilted her head and saw silent tears streaking down the brunette's face and if possible she felt even worse. The last thing she wanted to do was make Rachel cry.
"No, it's mine. I should've known better." Both girls sat in silence for several minutes.
"Lucy, it's neither one of our faults. It's those stupid ignorant jerks." Rachel finally said a fire burning inside her.
"Rachel…" Lucy tried to halt the shorter girl's impending rant.
"No." Rachel said standing up as Lucy had before. "You don't want to hear that you're beautiful or pretty or perfect or amazing or incredible even though you are all those things and people are just too dumb to notice. That's fine for tonight because it's been traumatic, but I'm not going to sit here and blame myself and let you blame yourself for what happened. It's them, everyone else, society. They're the problem, not me and you." She looked right into Lucy's hazel eyes. "I wish we didn't care about what everyone else said and you could believe me when I spoke the truth about how extraordinary you are. I wish I could be all that you needed."
"I wish everyone hadn't damaged me to the point where I can't believe you when you say those things about me." Lucy sighed a determined look on her face. "But I'm going to try to get over it because Rach, you're my best friend. You are all that I need."
Rachel finally smiled and sat back on the bed next to Lucy. She rested her head against the girl's shoulder and Lucy rested her head against Rachel's.