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1.1

"Don't say that! I'll cry!" Demi cried out over the phone as Gabriella folded her clothes neatly, placing them into a suitcase. 

"Don't overreact Dem. I'm just saying, that it's kinda snobbish. I get drunk one time and now I get shipped off to the disgraced daughter." Gabriella exclaimed, grabbing her last few dresses out of the closet and folding them. Nearly all of her clothes were folded away, her books and tapes in another bag and her school stuff was neatly in one more. She was organized and  methodical, even if she wanted to cry. 

"You've met Lorelai before though, right?" Demi asked. She was in her own room, the other side of Hartford, painting her fingernails a soft pink, phone resting between her shoulder and cheek. 

"Yeah, a few times. It's not like we're close though, and if it was up to me, I wouldn't live with her." Gabriella explained, looking around her room. It was white and clean, the plaster around the ceiling and the furniture itself was white, the walls a grey-blue. It looked empty now, without her photos on the windowsill, the books on the shelves, clothes on the floor. She groaned and flopped onto the flower-print duvet, grabbing the phone from the bedside table and holding it to her ear. 

"Yeah, I get that. And hey, you can come and stay with me anytime." Demi offered, voice soothing and calming to Gabriella, who smiled softly, tugging on the strap of her pajama top. 

"I know, Dem, thank you." She told her and then groaned, "And you know what sucks?" 

"What?" 

"We have good lessons tomorrow, and instead I have to spend it moving to some small town half and hour away." 

"Urgh, that means you have to take the history test another day, right?" Demi checked, finishing her left hand. It was a bit messy but would do. 

"Yup." Gabriella nodded. "Anyway, I better go to sleep. I'll call you tomorrow, kay Dem?" 

"Night babes." 

"Night." Gabriella laughed and hung up, exhaling as she looked up at the ceiling, the near-silence comforting her. She could hear her parents going to bed, the maids cleaning the kitchen and an owl outside somewhere, all distant and almost detached from her in that moment. She sighed again, it seemed to becoming a perpetual past-time of hers recently. Demi was the only who knew, she would have to explain all of this to Marcus and Leah at school the day after tomorrow. And that was the other thing, school. Chilton would never change, always and forever how it was now and how it was before, but surely, she would change? 

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"Hold on a minute!" Was the answer to Gabriella's tentative knock on her sister's door. The reply caused butterflies erupt in her stomach and she fiddled with the end of one of her french plaits, the other resting by her lower back. One bag on her bag, another on the floor and the third clutched in her fist, she felt like a vagabond, someone with no home but as she smoothed her skirt out, she knew she didn't look it. The goodbye her parents gave her that morning was emotional for her mother, for her father it seemed like her leaving was a massive sacrifice that had to be done, the only way out and for her, it was bitter and twisted. 

"Hey Gabby, sorry I was on the phone." Lorelai greeted, smiling at the sight of her little sister. Gabriella blushed, pretty pink spreading across her cheekbones as she looked down. 

"Thanks. And thanks for taking me in." 

"That's fine, come in, I'll take that." Lorelai dismissed, grabbing a bag from Gabriella and leading her into the living room, "And don't say it like that, you make it sound like you're a stray puppy at a shelter."