A/N: I don't own anything…except the plot line.
A Fresh Start
Jasmine came down the stairs the next day, sometime only slightly before midday, to find the rest of her family in the lounge. She waved to Gabriella because Troy was on the phone, before heading through to the kitchen to grab a glass of juice and then headed back through to the lounge and plopped down onto the couch next to Gabriella.
"Morning sleeping beauty," Gabriella greeted quietly, just as Troy finished his phone call.
"And she's awake," Troy said in a laugh, as he threw the house phone onto the coffee table and moved along the couch so that Jasmine was sandwiched between him and Gabriella.
"Yeah, yeah, morning guys," Jasmine greeted her parents, who simply laughed, before hugging her good morning…just.
"So who was on the phone Dad?" Jasmine asked, as she put her finished glass of juice on the coffee table.
"It was a member of staff from the office at East Albuquerque Middle School; I told her your situation and she said she'd see what she could do. She just phoned me back and said that the head teacher would be happy to meet with us tomorrow to discuss you maybe starting there on Wednesday, are you alright with that?"
"I guess so, is Mum coming?" Jasmine asked, as she cuddled into Troy's offered embrace.
"Yeah, we're all going, Grandma's got a meeting so she can't look after the boys, but they said it's fine to take them, the lady I spoke to said the head teacher hasn't been back long from maternity leave herself, so she understands more than most at the minute, alright?"
Jasmine nodded. "That alright with you Mum?"
"Of course it is sweetie. It'll all be alright honey, I promise you," Gabriella said, as she pulled Jasmine to her, allowing Troy to wrap his arms round them both.
"Why don't you go and get dressed, while I make you some breakfast, which will be our lunch, so I guess it's your brunch?" Troy asked.
"Sounds good, can I have spaghetti hoops on toast?"
"I don't see why not, I reckon that the boys will be awake by then as well, you might get a hug with them awake if you're lucky, you haven't had many of them yet." Jasmine smiled, her cheeky Bolton smile, before kissing both her parents on the cheek and running upstairs to get changed.
TGTGTGTG
Jasmine's nerves were obvious, as they followed the secretary along the corridor to the head teacher's office. Gabriella had a comforting arm wrapped around her, while Troy was carrying Michael and Mitchell as they slept in the car seats. She'd barely said a word to anyone all day; she was only just about in this world, as was obvious when she was sat down in a chair and didn't even realise it.
"Jazzy sweetheart, Mrs Wilson was talking to you," Jasmine blinked back to reality to see that her hopefully new head teacher was indeed looking her way.
"Sorry," She blushed as she apologised, not wanting to seem rude.
"Its fine Jasmine, I can tell you're nervous, but there's no need to be, we really are all quite nice here. Alright, so before we get down to business, we need to get the introductions out of the way, but there's a catch. You have to do the talking, you're the one that's going to be coming to school here, not your Mum and Dad, so it's you I want to get to know, is that alright with you?" Jasmine nodded with a small smile, but still tightened her grip on Gabriella's hand. "Alright then, my name is Lorna Wilson and this is my forth year here as head teacher, fifth if you include my last year off for maternity leave." Lorna finished and gestured for Jasmine to begin.
"My name is Jasmine Bolton, my Dad's name is Troy and my Mum is called Gabriella."
"And what about those two cuties over there?" Lorna asked, gesturing off to the side of her office, where the twins were still sleeping peacefully.
"The one on the left is Michael and the other is Mitchell, they're my little brothers and they're…three weeks old now." Mrs Wilson nodded her understanding before shifting through some papers in front of her.
"Now young lady, I understand that you've had a bit of a tough time at your old school and that coming here would be a new start for you?" Jasmine nodded and felt Gabriella squeeze her hand in support. "Well we would be happy to have you here and luckily have enough room for you in our seventh grade classes, your grades look amazing and I'm sure you will be a fantastic member of our student body. So, if Mum and Dad agree then we'd be happy for you to start attending school here tomorrow." Jasmine nodded unsurely and looked to Troy for support.
"It's fine with us Jaz, as long as it's okay with you?" Jasmine shrugged tearfully and Gabriella pulled her into a hug. "Jasmine suffered some quite severe injuries over her time at her previous school," Troy told Mrs Wilson. "The black eye is the most obvious, but she has multiple lacerations on her back, which we do have to treat with a prescribed antibiotic cream daily. The doctor also advised that she doesn't do anything too physical, is there any way that could be worked round?"
"Most definitely, we want to make this as easy for Jasmine as it can be. We do ask that students take part in a gym class once a week for two hours, but Jasmine can be excused from that for a while, until she feels ready to take part again and there's no need to worry about the changing rooms, there's a member of staff right out side the door, they'll be able to hear straightaway if something is taking place that shouldn't be."
"Does that help at all Jaz?" Jasmine nodded at Troy's question, but didn't attempt to move from Gabriella's embrace and no body seemed to mind.
"I understand that you're having a tough time at the minute Jasmine and it's clear that being with your family is what you need, but I can also understand your Dad's concern about you not missing out on too much schooling. One thing that we've done with students before, who've been ill or have needed to be with family for whatever reason, is that we've offered them half days at school, so you would come in for the mornings and then you could go home at lunch time, but in the time you're in school we'll make sure that the main part of your studies is focused on the key subjects, like Maths, English and Science, does that sound like something we could put in place for you? It would give you a chance to be in school with people your own age in the mornings and then you would be able to rest at home in the afternoons with your family and we'll try not to give you too much work to take home."
"I like the sound of that, being in a school still scares me right now, would that be okay Dad?"
"If that's what you want sweetheart then we'll make it work, you should check with your Mum though, she'd be the one picking you up and such."
"Mum?" Jasmine asked, as she pulled back from their hug to look Gabriella in the eye.
"It's fine sweetie, we'll work it."
"If the school could work that for Jasmine, it would be great," Troy said to Mrs Wilson. "We've also looked in to Jasmine seeing a councillor, does the school have anything like that in place?"
"Our school nurse is a trained councillor and would happily speak to Jasmine when she's in school, although that would mean her being here longer, but I know of another lady who would happily visit Jasmine at home, somewhere she feels safe and may be happier talking things over."
"Home sounds good," Jasmine said softly, once again cuddled back in to Gabriella.
"Alrighty then, before you leave today I'll make sure to pass her information onto your Dad," Mrs Wilson was about to say something else, but was interrupted by a knock on the door and everyone turned to look to see who would come in.
"Ah, it's you Ellie; I was beginning to wonder where you'd gotten to."
"Yeah sorry Miss, I had to stop by my locker first." Ellie smiled politely at the Bolton family, as she entered the room and shut the door behind her; she looked to be about the same age as Jasmine, with long straight honey brown hair and hazel green eyes.
"Alright well you're here now; I'd say take a seat but there's none left."
"You can take mine," Troy said about to get up but Ellie stopped him.
"It's fine, I'll just move her great massive bag and then sit on this table here," Ellie made a show of moving Mrs King's handbag, before jumping up onto the table it had been sitting on, suddenly she froze. "Awwww, babies."
"That's very observant of you Ellie; don't you have two about the same age at your house anyway?"
"Yeah but still, babies." The Bolton's laughed at the banter between Mrs Wilson and Ellie and Jasmine sat up from Gabriella's hug to wipe at her few stray tears, but still reach back to hold her hand.
"Alright Miss Ellie, are you done obsessing over things you see everyday?" Ellie nodded and Mrs Wilson continued. "This young lady here is Jasmine and she's going to start attending here from tomorrow, just for the mornings. She's had a pretty tough time at her old school and when I heard about it, it really reminded me of you, so I was thinking you could show her around, be a friendly face for her and maybe introduce her to the others?"
"Yeah I can do that; it'll be nice to hang round with a girl for once."
"Well that's sorted then, everything will be in place for you to start here tomorrow Jasmine," Jasmine smiled brightly for the first time since arriving at this school, she's was actually looking forward to coming here, things were starting to look up.
TGTGTGTG
Late that evening, Troy and Gabriella were cuddled up on the couch watching the telly, knowing that the twins would wake up for another feed and nappy change before they let their parents try to get some sleep. They were silent, apart from the volume of the telly and so it wasn't hard for them to hear Jasmine coming down the stairs. The couple moved apart when Jasmine entered the room and she silently slid in between them, already crying.
"Don't cry Jaz, please sweetheart, you were asleep when I checked on you about half an hour ago, what woke you up?" As usual Gabriella had pulled Jasmine into her arms and Troy had wrapped them both up in his, he hated seeing either of them cry, especially when that's all that Jasmine seemed to be doing recently.
"I h-had a n-nightmare," Jasmine sniffled and gasped for her breath.
"What was it about sweetheart?" Troy asked, as he took Jasmine into his arms when Gabriella got up, he assumed to get something.
"The s-same as always, they were b-beating me up and t-then I hit my h-head and it all w-went black and then I w-woke up." Jasmine's tears were becoming more and more heavier as she spoke and she was finding it increasingly hard to breath.
"Alright sweetheart, you're alright, just calm down for me honey, just take some deep breaths Jaz please," Jasmine did as Troy had asked and her breathing began to slow down, "That's it sweetie, you're doing so well, shh angel, it's all okay, those people are never gonna hurt you ever again." Troy rocked Jasmine from side to side for a couple of minutes, calming her down, until Gabriella came back in with a mug of steaming hot liquid and a box of tissues.
"Here sweetheart, blow your nose and dry your eyes and then you can snuggle up in the corner of the couch, under a blanket, while me and your Dad tend to the boys," As if on cue the twins began to whine and Troy quickly got up to tend to them, while Gabriella helped Jasmine to get settled under the blanket.
A little over half an hour later, Gabriella was climbing into bed, as Troy silently walked into the room, not wanting to disturb the boys.
"That's the first time I've carried her to bed in a long time," Troy whispered to Gabriella, as he joined her in bed and she curled into his side.
"She's gonna be alright you know Troy, it's going to take time, but she'll be alright."
"I know, it's just she's my little girl Brie and it's so hard to watch her suffer and know that she's been suffering for so long and I didn't even notice, I'm her Dad, I'm supposed to notice these things." Troy pulled Gabriella closer and buried his face into her hair.
"It's not just you Troy, I didn't notice anything either, but there's nothing we can do about it anymore, we just have to support her now, as she moves onto better things, alright?" Troy felt Gabriella nod against her head and knew not to push him anymore tonight; instead, she leaned up and kissed him and then leant over him to turn off his bedside lamp, before cuddling back into him to sleep, something they all needed and she hoped they would get.
TGTGTGTG
Troy pulled the car to a stop outside the school and turned to look at Jasmine who was sat nervously in the passenger's seat.
"You are going to be absolutely fine sweetheart, just go in there and be you and before you know it me or your Mum will be back here to pick you up at lunch time. Look, Ellie is already waiting for you, everything is going to be fine, you want me to get out of the car with you?" Jasmine nodded silently and so Troy turned off the engine and got out of the car, walking round to her side to help her out, just as Ellie arrived next to them.
"Hey," She greeted Jasmine with a hug and then turned to Troy. "Hey Mr Bolton, how are you today?"
"I'm good thanks Ellie, how about you?"
"Yeah I'm pretty good thanks, happy that Jasmine is here so that I don't have to spend all my time with those two spanners over there." Troy looked over to where Ellie was pointing and found two boys larking around. "We've always been best friends, but sometimes it's hard, they just don't understand girls."
"Looks like you need me then," Jasmine spoke up for the first time since getting out of the car.
Ellie laughed. "They're not that bad, I just get out numbered sometimes. So you ready to head in, I'll introduce you to the boys as well."
"Yeah, let's do this, I'll see you later Dad," Jasmine turned to give Troy a hug and he nicely hugged her back, not wanting to embarrass her in front of Ellie.
"Bye Mr Bolton," Ellie said, as she linked arms with Jasmine and began to drag her towards the school, where the boys were still messing about.
"Bye Ellie." Troy smiled as he watched the girls already laughing together and knew that Jasmine would fit in just fine.
"Oi boys, stop trying to kill each other will you; I wanna introduce you to someone." The two boys stopped their 'playing' and turned to look at the girls. "This is Jasmine, she's new here at East and is going to be joining us for the mornings for a while and then she'll become full time like us."
"Stick to the morning's for as long as possible," One boy said making Jasmine laugh, he has short blond hair and blue eyes, but not as blue as her Dad's. "I'm Will," he introduced, holding his hand out for Jasmine to shake.
"Nice to meet you," Jasmine replied, as she shook Will's hand.
"And this lump is Ethan," Ellie introduced, hitting Ethan round the back of the head as she did.
"What was that for?" Ethan asked as he rubbed his head, he had shaggy dark brown hair and amazing green eyes.
"For being very impolite." Ellie answer as she jutted her hip and folder her arms over her chest.
"Oh right sorry, it's nice to meet you Jasmine," Ethan said, offering his hand for Jasmine to shake.
"Nice to meet you to," Jasmine answered as they shook hands.
"I am normally more alert than this, it's just my Mum is ill so I've been looking after her and my little sister recently and sleep has been hard to find."
"Its fine, sleep's not exactly my friend either right now," Jasmine answered, earning her a sweet smile from Ethan.
"Alright people lets go, I need to show Jasmine where her locker is and take her to where she needs to be before class starts." The boys both stared at Ellie like she had a disease and they shouldn't be near her, but still followed her towards the building, Ethan hanging back to talk to Jasmine.
"I swear she's PMSing, she's not normally this moody," Ethan winked at her before jogging off and jumping on Will's back, leaving Jasmine laughing in his wake.
I'm gonna like it here, I already like it here.
TGTGTGTG
When the front doors of East Albuquerque Middle school opened, Gabriella expected to see Jasmine and Ellie walk out, instead she saw Jasmine and a boy.
"Hey Mum," Jasmine greeted happily, as she climbed into the car next to Gabriella and opened the window so that they could speak to Ethan. "Mum this is Ethan, Ethan this is my Mum Gabriella, Ellie needed to eat something before she passed out, so Will took her to lunch while Ethan came out here with me."
"That's very kind of you Ethan, thank you."
"It's no problem Mrs Bolton, when Ellie gets passionate about something, like taking Jasmine under her wing, she kinda forgets about everything else, so she hasn't eaten yet today, if Will hadn't of dragged her to get food, I'm sure she'd of been here now."
"Its fine, food should definitely come first and you seem to be pretty happy to take her place."
"Well Jasmine said she would've got lost if someone didn't come with her so…"
"In that case it's a good job you came with her, have you got a busy rest of the day?"
"Yeah and I'm having a hard time staying awake right now, so it should be interesting."
"Well you should go and eat some lunch Ethan," Jasmine told him, as Gabriella started up the car. "It might help you stay awake…just."
Ethan chuckled, as he gave Jasmine a quick hug through the open window. "I'll see you tomorrow Jazzy, bye Mrs Bolton." The ladies said their goodbyes and watched Ethan jog back towards the school, before Gabriella pulled away from the curb, Jasmine already talking non stop about her new friends.
As they pulled into their street, Gabriella had one final comment to make before they started talking about Jasmine's actual school day rather than her new friends.
"Well at least he's cute."
"MUM!"
TGTGTGTG
Kinda a random place to end it, but it felt right so deal with it.
I actually kinda like this chapter, how weird!
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE REVIEW! THANK YOU!