A/N: This Fanfic was inspired by an RP idea thought up by tumblr user NorththeGem. Check out our RP group at oneforall-allforeleven over at tumblr!
Every chapter will go back and forth between Rose Grove and Royal Woods. Hopefully I'll be updating this weekly, so stay tuned!
Royal Woods
Luna paced to the door, trying to let the moment sink in. In her hand were the papers: she had passed her driving test. Taking a deep breath, she unlocked the door, only to find it already unlocked. Luna rolled her eyes as she pushed it open. Immediately, all four of her currently present sisters jumped out and congratulated her on her efforts. Lucy, Lana, and Leni immediately jumped in for a hug, with Lisa and Rita joining in at their own pace.
"Thanks, little dudettes!" Luna said, "I can't wait to start driving y'all around soon."
As much as Luna loved the positive vibes in the house, it wasn't enough to make up for the missing seven from this house. Of course, Lori was in college, but without Luan, Lynn, Lincoln, Lola, and Lily, this celebration felt hollow. There would be no celebratory prank from Luan, no congrats punches from Lynn, no awkward gift from Lincoln. Lola wouldn't brag about how much better her ride was – that was Lana's now. Still, Luna held up a grin as she presented her new driver's license documents to half of her family.
"I have an idea," Luna continued, "Let's go on a road trip to see Dad at some point!"
The younger girls cheered. Leni looked back at Luna a little bit more confused. The concept of a divorce hadn't quite processed in her head yet. It didn't help that Leni had been out shopping most of the time that the reorganization happened. The last time Leni had seen her Dad was a week ago. She had just assumed he went to buy more groceries for dinner and was late. Like many other things that didn't involve aesthetics or morality, she didn't really give it a second thought.
Leni raised an eyebrow. "Wait," she started, "I thought Dad was just going to the store."
The celebration halted. A silence flickered throughout the living room. Leni stared at everyone, curious as to why the fanfare stopped. Luna broke away from the family hug. What a way to ruin the moment, Leni, Luna thought as she sat over by the couch.
Their Mom was the first to break the silence. "Leni?" she started, "I have some news to tell you. Your father and I divorced."
Leni gasped, "Oh em gosh! Just now?"
Everyone slapped their forehead at this remark out of habit. Usually, Leni was used to this type of reaction, but with less people, it seemed to be even more distressing somehow. She knew she wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but she couldn't help it. Leni, while she was a master fashionista and adept craftswoman, she was a bit blunt and dense. Usually, she would make up for this with her kindness, but in this situation, everyone seemed to hate her. The wave of totality finally hit Leni.
She backed up onto the couch, next to Luna, and sat down. For a moment, she was speechless. When she finally spoke, she mumbled.
"I was wondering where Luan, Lynn, Langston, Lola, and Lily were." She said, defeated, "I never got to say goodbye..."
Luna looked over at her older sister, then over to the rest of her present family. The living room was so much bigger without the seven missing pieces to the puzzle. Leni was clearly holding back tears as she stared into the void. Lucy's lack of an expression was even more morose than it usually was, whereas Lisa just seemed to hold her own as she usually did. Lana was diverting her eyes from the scene. Watching Leni fully process the absence of her father was painful to say the least.
Tears began to well up in Leni's eyes. "W-will I ever see them again?"
"Yes," said their mother, "Lincoln, Lola, and Lily will be coming back over the winter."
"Oh, okay," Leni tried to calm herself down with this news, but it was only a matter of time before her tears fell. Luna gently massaged Leni's neck as she began to cry a little louder. She let Leni's head fall onto her shoulder, allowing her to sob like a baby. A pang of nostalgia hit Luna, reminding her of Lily. Of all of her siblings, Luna held Lily the most, since when she wasn't laying down sick jams, her hands were usually free to help out. As a result, Luna picked up a few tricks for consoling the sad.
"Don't cry," Luna started, singing a song she used to sing to Lily all the time, "Don't brace your eyes. It's only teenage wasteland…"
Before long, the rest of the siblings began to react to the scenario, with Rita leaving to her own room. Lisa walked back up to her room to continue whatever experiment she was doing. Lucy stood still, unsure of how to interpret the situation. In the end, she only sighed and walked up the stairs to her room. Lana walked forward, wanting to join in helping Leni out. Even if she was usually covered in mud, she was still as loving as the other siblings. Yet, as soon as she was done hugging Leni, she walked outside. While Leni never outright cried a river, she was still floored that no one told her that her parents went through a divorce. For Luna, the celebration of her finally getting her driver's license was long gone. It was clear that nobody really cared about the license anymore.
As soon as she felt the phone vibrate in her purse, Luna took it out and checked the message. Smirking a little at Sam's name, she was pleased to hear that at least someone cared about Luna's accomplishments. Luna quickly texted her back, affirming the news before attending to more pressing matters. Leni started to mellow out once Luna turned on the TV. Thankfully, the same reality shows that Leni used to watch with the rest of the family were still available. Luna passively enjoyed the trashy TV while Leni got engrossed in the drama. She smiled, watching her simple minded older sister quickly forget about the divorce. Soon enough, Luna was able to stand up and stretch. Her stomach grumbled a bit, so she got up to go to the kitchen.
Mac and Cheese balls. Goulash. Nothing beat Lynn, Sr.'s cooking. Yeah, they might have had a limited diet during busier weeks, but after having dinner at Sam's a few times, Luna learned to appreciate her father's cooking. The fridge was empty. Besides a few half eaten sandwiches, a carton of eggs, and half gone half and half, the entire fridge was gone. The freezer only showed a bag of frozen sliders. Disappointed, Luna slammed the door of the fridge shut and washed her hands.
As she walked back to the couch in defeat, her Mom came out of the room, fully dressed up in a new outfit. It was a black dress with spaghetti straps and ended at her mid thighs. While it was a beautiful dress, someone of Rita's age probably shouldn't have been wearing it out in public. Luna seemed more confused than anything. As her mom twirled around, Luna tried to ignore it as she rushed herself back to the couch.
"What do you think, Luna?" her mom asked, "I had an idea earlier today. If you passed your driving test, maybe we can go for a ladies' night out, or something like that. Just you and me."
"What about Leni?" Luna said, hoping to get out of the possible problem.
Rita looked over to see Leni eagerly listening in, much to her chagrin.
"Nice outfit, Mom!" said Leni, "Are you going to be going out for dinner?"
Rita forced a grin. "Yes, Leni, it's a ladies' night thing."
Leni didn't get the hint. "Oh wow! Sounds exciting! Can I come?"
Not wanting to go alone, and feeling bad for accidentally making Leni upset earlier, Luna pounced at the opportunity for her to come.
"Of course!" Luna screamed, excited, "You're my older sister, I'd love to go out to dinner with you!"
"Oh em gosh, Luna!" Leni said, "Thank you for, like, being my sister!"
"No prob, Lennon!" said Luna, touting an old nickname. She held her hand out to Leni and helped her get off the couch.
Rita sighed in defeat. "Okay, I'll fix our reservation so that it's us three. The only problem is that the girls don't have a babysitter."
"I thought Lily went with Dad?" Leni asked.
Luna rolled her eyes, "Look, I'll try to find someone. Can you give me a minute?"
"Sure, you have till 5pm to find a babysitter!" Rita said, walking up to the bathroom to do her makeup.
Walking out to the porch, Luna paced around for a few moments. She had a few friends who might be interested in babysitting, but that's not the part that Luna was concerned about. Mainly, Luna didn't like making phone calls. It always made her nervous not seeing the people she talked to, and it didn't help that she had made some embarrassing voice mails on Lori's inbox before. Luna tried to justify this to herself: she was asking for a favor, she could negotiate payment later with Mom. Sucking her problems up, she dialed the number. Within two rings the person on the other line picked up.
"Hello?" said Sam. A moment passed, Luna felt a knot in her throat. "Luna?"
Luna stuttered. "H-Hi, Sam."
"Hey!" Sam replied, "Congrats on passing your driver's test babe!"
"T-thanks, I was wondering if you'd be down to c-c-c" the knot tightened. The two had been going out since before summer, but Luna still had a hard time talking to her. The divorce hadn't helped.
"Take your time, babe."
Even though she was herself a frequent poet, Luna had a hard time thinking of how to word her sentence. She wanted to get her point across without making it sound like a date. Though with a few more moments of silence, Sam began to get more worried.
"Lunes?" Sam said. "Here, I'll come over quick, you can tell me in person."
Luna stood there, stunned. "…Okay…"
"See you in fifteen!" Sam hung up.
Staring at her phone, Luna checked the time. 4:40. Great, time to get everyone into place and tell them that Sam was babysitting. Except she wasn't. Luna still needed to tell her that. She started pacing in place, not realizing another family member was standing right there.
"Luna?" Lana said, noticing her older sister in a minor panic, "Who's Sam? And why's he coming over?"
"Sam's my… uh," Luna stuttered, "She's coming over to babysit you, Lucy, and Lisa tonight. Mom, Leni and I are going out to dinner, so you better be on good behavior."
When Luna gave more than a few seconds thought to it, she realized that despite sharing a room with the twin for a short period of time, Luna never told Lana about Sam. Luna had a hard time describing her, or rather, how cool she was. As the bassist to her school band, Sam was a master of scales and harmonies. It seemed whatever Luna and Sam played, it always sounded good. Luna would never forget the second she began to like her, yet before she could reminisce, Luna was distracted by a gentle tugging on her plaid skirt.
Lana squinted in confusion, scratching her head. "You okay, Luna?"
Luna blinked. Another, all too familiar voice spoke.
"Earth to Luna!" Sam teased.
Panicking, Luna jumped back.
"You're here!" she said.
"Of course, Lunes," Sam smiled, "A few minutes early even. What did you want to tell me?"
Luna blushed a bit, completely not ready to ask Sam to babysit her sisters. Without anything to say, Luna just grinned a bit.
"What's the matter?" Sam asked.
"Look," Luna stumbled, "I just wanted to… uh, yeah… ask if I could… uh…"
"Go out?" Sam was jumping the gun a bit, but balked as soon as she realized how much she embarrassed Luna.
Turning blood red, Luna covered her face. Lana stared in awed silence.
"What's going on, Luna?" wondered Lana, "Is this the Sam person you wanted to have babysit us?"
Luna nodded vigorously. Finally taking her hands off her face, she gasped for air.
"Only if you want to though…" she finally spat out.
Sam frowned, looking a bit disappointed at the outcome, but managed to smile anyway.
"Sure, Lunes." Sam embraced Luna. "When are you leaving?"
Luna gave her the gist of what it would be like babysitting the three younger siblings still present in Michigan. It was a quick tour of what to do, and thankfully, the job was mostly just hanging out with Lana for a few hours. Lucy and Lisa tended to be more innocuous in their solitude. Despite the initial embarrassing moment earlier, Luna seemed to be getting along quite well with her crush. Even so, Luna was careful not to completely spill the beans about their budding relationship. What would Mom think of her daughter being gay? Luna wasn't sure of the answer. She was sure it was yes, at least until the divorce. After that, Luna couldn't tell what was going on in her mom's head. Even if she was closer to Dad, Luna still wanted to somehow be close to her mom, though, so she would have to go through this. Thankfully, Sam would be babysitting, and Leni would be there for moral support. At least Luna had company and the knowledge that her sisters are in good hands. Soon enough, it was time to pass the torch, and Luna finally got ready.
Her outfit was handpicked by Leni, a stylish knee-length violet empire dress that Lori wore on a Bobby date once. Leni's outfit was a semi-formal dress Lori wore to a school dance once, around the same time Lori started dating Bobby. Luna noticed this, but Leni just shrugged.
"Really? These dresses are Lori's?" she said, confused, "I thought they were mine. I've never seen her wear it."
As Luna and Leni walked down the stairs, they spotted Sam and Lana chatting together, along with Rita. Luna blushed and looked to the side a little bit, at least until she heard the barrage of compliments. Luna didn't mind trying out new styles, but she was never sure if the style she tried to wear was acceptable in Sam's mind. Since Sam liked it though, Luna mustered herself to look over at her crush. Sam's face lit up upon seeing Luna dressed all fancy, but before anymore words could be exchanged, Rita began to push Luna and Leni out the door. Luna was barely able to throw in a goodbye before the door shut.
Once at the car, Rita handed Luna the keys. Luna was a bit more than confused. "Wait, Mom, I just got my license today," she started, "and you want me to drive to the restaurant?"
"Oh," her mom barely listened to Luna, "And drive me back if you don't mind."
Leni only caught the vital details, saying, "Oh em gosh, Luna! You're like going to drive us? I can't wait!"