Your Smile Lights Up the Room

After about three weeks of knowing her, he noticed one of the very few bad things about Lulu - she didn't smile.

Sure, she would show an occasional grin when talking to her friends or family, but the smile soon faded and he could tell that she wasn't truly, deeply happy. And it bothered him.

"Hey," he said, sitting down on the couch next to her.

"Hey," she said, briefly looking up from her phone and smiling.

"Why don't you do that more often?" he asked impulsively.

"What, text?" she asked, confused.

"No," he said, laughing a little. "Smile."

"I smile all the time!" she protested, placing her cell phone on the table.

"Yeah, you smile, but you never seem happy."

"I'm happy," she said, her fingers picking at her shirt, which was covered completely in silver sequins.

"You sure? Whenever you do smile, if disappears immediately, like you're forcing it," he said. "I'm just worried about you," he said quieter. And he had a right to be worried, too, they had been 'dating' for the past few weeks, though neither one of them had been bold enough to make it official so quickly.

"I guess you make a point," she said. "I'm never really, completely happy, and I don't know if I ever will be." Her voice went up at the end, signaling to Dante that there was a much more painful story hiding behind her words.

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," he said, even though he was secretly begging to know what made Lulu upset.

"No, I think I need to talk about it. Plus, you deserve to know." After a shaky breath, she began. "It's really more about my family than anything else. I've always felt sort of... rejected by them. It's not like they try to keep me out, I've just never felt like I fit in with them. My dad is always off on some random adventure, so I barely ever see him. And on the off chance that I do see him, he always refuses to take me with him, saying I'll get hurt or something. My brother Ethan is the same, I just found out about him a few years ago and he left about six months after I met him. Lucky's been addicted to alcohol and drugs, and he's always caught up in some drama with his on-and-off wife. He never has any time for me, as selfish as that sounds. My other brother Nikolas is literally a prince, and his family is the most evil group of people in existence. And my mom..." she paused to breathe again, finding it harder as she went on. "She's the main reason I can never be fully happy. I'm sure you've heard this only about a billion times at school, but she's in a mental clinic in France because she went into a catatonic state. I haven't seen her in five or six years, and I've really needed her since then, especially through the whole Logan disaster. Carly's been there, but it just hasn't been the same," she finished quietly, and Dante was sure she would break down in tears, but she didn't.

"It's okay for you to cry," he said, sensing the sadness in her.

She shook her head. "I don't cry. At all. When my mom went away, I cried hysterically every night, and I haven't cried since. There just hasn't been anything that made me as sad as I was then."

Dante didn't have to say anything, he just pulled her into his arms, and she knew that was where she wanted to be.

Lulu and Dante sat in science class the following day, Lulu scribbling down notes furiously and Dante trying to write something as well, but distracted by the girl sitting next to him. Lulu's messy, color-streaked hair tied up in a messy bun, blonde wisps falling down to frame her face, which had healed from her scuffle with Logan a while ago. She bit her bright red lip slightly, focused entirely on what the teacher was saying. Her hazel, heavily mascaraed eyes were following her hand as it raced across her sheet of paper.

The phone rang obnoxiously and Ms. Basker went to answer it, murmuring quietly to the person on the other end. The teacher's eyes darting briefly to Lulu, but she didn't look up from her paper to see her worried glance.

"Lulu, Mr. Benson needs to see you for a second," she said placing the phone back down. Lulu rose slowly from her seat and glanced over at Logan in the back of the room, hoping he hadn't made up another lie to tell the guidance counselor. She sighed and walked towards the door and into the hallway. She felt strangely alone in the large, empty hall, her footsteps louder than they should have been. She walked past the principal's office, which she knew all too well, looking away to avoid the watchful eye of the prissy old secretary. She turned into the guidance office, coming face to face with her landlord from her old apartment.

"Nice to see you again, Ms. Spencer," said Mr. Benson, not sounding too happy at all. "I'm pleased to say that, for once, you're not here due to your bad behavior regarding Mr. Hayes." Lulu's eyes narrowed in anger. "This man asked me if he could speak with you about your living situation," he said, gesturing towards the landlord.

"Despite your efforts to keep it a secret," the old landlord began, "It has been uncovered that you have been living alone for a while now. Authorities have confirmed your father's activities in foreign countries for quite a long time, proving him guilty of child negligence and abandonment. Since your mother is mentally unstable, your brothers cannot be considered reliable caretakers, and your cousin is married to an infamous mob boss, there are no remaining relatives that can provide a stable home for you. The state has been forced to place you into the foster care system, and you will likely be moved out by the end of this week."

Lulu stood frozen with shock. "But - I - I'm sixteen! I can take care of myself!" she protested.

"Not according to the law, you can't."

"What's wrong with my brothers?"

"Your brother Nikolas is frequently traveling to foreign countries, so he is not deemed a reliable guardian. Your brother Ethan has had multiple altercations with the law, and Lucas has been addicted to both drugs and alcohol."

"You can't just say that! You don't know any of them, they're perfectly able to take care of me!"

"Not according to the state."

"But there's no point in putting me in foster care if I'll be out in two years," she tried to reason.

"I can't tell you how many times I've heard that. This wasn't my decision, Ms. Spencer."

"Can't I stay with one of my friends?" she asked weakly.

"I'm afraid not. You'll be notified when you'll be moved. If no foster care opportunity opens up by then, you will be placed in an orphanage until appropriate accommodations can be acquired."

Lulu was appalled by his announcement, and by how proper and calm the old man was acting while delivering the depressing news. "An orphanage?" she said loudly. "I'm not an orphan! I've got two parents and three brothers, you can't send me to an orphanage!"

"Ah, but I can. I hope you realize that this was in no way my decision, nor do I wish for this to happen to you, I was simply asked to deliver the news. As they say, don't shoot the messenger."

"This isn't fair," she said weakly.

"I apologize. Your family will be notified. I suggest you pack your belongings quickly," he said before leaving the office.

Lulu shot a frantic look at the guidance counselor, who simply looked at her sympathetically and squeezed her shoulder. She sank into one of the chairs and pulled her knees into her chest. Staring out of the window, she desperately tried to think of a solution to her problem, but she couldn't come up with one. Maybe it was time she accustomed herself to the fact that life really hated her.

Lulu decided not to tell any of her friends about the news; it would only upset them. Dante couldn't help but notice that she seemed detached from everything for the rest of the day. No matter how many times he had asked her what happened in the guidance office, the best answer he had gotten was, 'It was nothing, he just wanted to check up on me because of my fight with Logan.'

After her shift at Kelly's, Lulu went back to Carly's. She threw her jacket on the sofa and stormed up the stairs, despite pleas from Carly to talk about what she had heard over the phone. She slammed her door and locked it before walking over to her bed and delivering a punch to her pillow. She kicked the bottom of her bed and threw herself onto it. She buried her face into her pillow and let out a frustrated moan, cursing the universe for thrusting this upon her. She could feel her blood pressure rising as she grew angrier and angrier. She pushed herself off the bed and walked over to her vanity, searching for her anemia medication. When she had gotten sick when she was younger, the doctors all said she would die without a transplant. Luckily Nikolas came to Port Charles and was a match, but at the last minute she made some sort of miracle recovery and didn't need it anymore. When Logan had first attacked her, the doctors put her back onto the medicine because of the stress her body had been put under.

She looked under everything on the vanity but couldn't find the bottle of pills. She pulled open every drawer, looked under every piece of furniture, practically tearing apart the room. The longer she went not finding her medicine, the more stressed she became and could feel the disease affecting her. Her muscles felt weak, her breath felt short and she started to feel dizzy; and these actions didn't help calm her down. Suddenly the room started to spin and she found herself falling backwards towards the floor before blacking out.

Logan chuckled as he tossed the pill bottle in his hand, staring out onto the Port Charles Harbor. All he had had to do was get Johnny to convince Carly to let him in because he 'had to borrow something from Lulu for school' and, since Carly knew Maxie had gone out with Johnny and hadn't heard of their break-up, she willingly let him in. He popped open the bottle and emptied the pills into the water before tossing the empty bottle in and walking away.

A/N: Okay, so I don't know much about anemia and I barely know anything about the adoption/foster care system, so forgive any mistakes I might have made with them.

Also, I encourage everyone to stay strong during this rough patch Lante is going through, we/they will get through it! Don't give up! :)