Amelia/Leah pov
It's been three days since mom's funeral, and funny enough. I'm okay. I questioned who has a funeral on Wednesdays but I guess we did. It was rather small. It was the browns, crystal and Sam, a few of my mom's work friends and her best friends that she got drunk and went to parties with. There was also an unknown man with 2 teenage boys in the back of the church. That was kinda suspicious, but I assumed they were just more friends of my mom's.
I also caught up with Jade, Crystal and surprisingly June. She wasn't replacing me but she was around alot more than she usually was which is okay, we like June she a genuinely nice person.
Even max stayed home that night so that we can talk. I miss them. I miss our late nights, our movie marathons, our Sunday feasts. School. I missed everything but that's okay because I could do alot of those things with Harper at the foster home which honestly is not that bad. Okay it's better than that it's pretty good. I see why nobody wants to leave... Which brings me to yesterday, Friday. I had a talk with Ms Mary about my life and my future, my goals and my ambitions. I told her how I'm not really smart so I don't see myself doing much in an academic world like being a doctor or an accountant or something smart. She then gave me advice about being anything I want to be if I'm motivated enough to reach for my goals and achieve it, which brought us to my passion for bossing people around and being sarcastic and most importantly directing. I told her about sokovia and the directors I met there also what Elizabeth banks said about me and my skills. She then told me I should start a blog or a gofundme link so that I can actually become a director somewhere in England.
I told I wanted to go to New York. She explained to me that the world is bigger than it seems and there's more to the world than new York the noisy crowded place. She wasn't lying but I wanted to be there and I explained to her why, this part of our conversation ended up with me in tears as I spoke about lizzie and Scarlett and our love and the great times we had. Even Ms Mary shed a tear at our story. In the end I told her that I haven't felt more at home.
Which is true, well kinda. There was lizzies house, but I guess here in Africa. I haven't felt so loved in a home since forever. I loved all the siblings I now had and the fun and love we have for each other. I was at peace. Yes I miss my old home but I loved it here. Like for example today, right now, we at the beach. Most of us that is . Ms Mary stayed home with the younger kids so no 8 year olds and younger. We were with an organization that was going to teach us how to surf. I was chilling on the sand with harper in complete silence, it was peaceful. She's building a sand castle and I'm just here with my thoughts staring out at the sea. We were waiting for the leaders to get back with our surf boards...
Lizzie pov.
It's been six days since we jumped on a plane to find Leah. We haven't really had much luck, even Micheal the waiter from the library coffee shop started helping. His a cool guy.
It's currently 7am and I'm chilling in bed. Scarlett is asleep next to me.
I've been so caught up with myself that I haven't even noticed how much my best friend is struggling. Yes, everyday she takes care of me and makes sure I'm doing okay, because my anxiety and panic attacks are bad lately but how selfish could I have been. Scarlett has been working her butt off to find Leah, alot more than me. She's been online since forever, she's even got out of her comfort zone and opened multiple social media accounts to join Chris and more recently myself on the search to find Leah. Yip that's right, I got myself a phone. I couldn't deal with not knowing what people are saying. Point is Scarlett has multiple sleepless nights, when I wake up at 3 to use the bathroom she's still scrolling through millions of comments to find Leah or going through the printed list of Leah sameuls and Samuels in general to pin point our girl.
Honestly I believe it's because she already lost her little girl all those years ago and she trying to make up for it by making sure the same thing doesn't happen to me.
She left her angel at the foster care in Russia to take care of work in New York, the foster care promised to bring her to New York a week later, but their ship never reached shore in New York. We were all devastated, we lost our little angel out at sea and there's nothing we could do about it, we couldn't have a proper funeral because the body was never recovered.
Point is Scarlett has a million things running through her mind and I decided it's time that I take care of her. So I'm making breakfast, nothing to big just waffles with cream, fruit and honey, maybe syrup if she opt for it. In honor of Leah I also ordered 2 iced caramel lattes with 3 shots of expressos. Did I order this from the only coffee place she hates for crushing her dream? Yes, yes I did. Look, don't judge. I don't know the other places around town, so I don't necessarily trust it.
I was done with the waffles and the coffee just arrived and as if on cue Scarlett walked in.
"GoodMorning sleepy head, how'd you sleep?"I asked, handing her a cup of coffee.
"GoodMorning."she took a sip of her coffee "Oooooh Leahs favorite. I slept well. I was up at 3 this morning " I was genuinely not surprised by this information. Nothing new.
"and I found something. It's kinda a lead, but not really. " WHAT!
"WHAT? SHOOT! WHAT IS IT? " I was excited. Anything that can help is a lead.
"well, a guy named Nathan. he was married to a Claudia 13 years ago, they got devorced. There's nothing about Claudia on the system Micheal gave us access to but it's worth a shot. " I sequeled and jumped up and down in excitement.
"okay, we can check that out later. First I made my very special friend breakfast to show how much she means to me" I smiled and pulled out a chair at the table gesturing for to have a seat.
Breakfast was pretty awesome, well duhh, because I made it. I'm just kidding I'm not that self involved.
We got ready and headed over to the cape gardens where Nathan agreed to meet us, took some convincing and a video call. We told him we had questions but also that we extremely famous. He knew us both. Scarlett from marvel obviously and me from peace love and misunderstanding.
He said he'll be in the rose garden with a red and white stripped t shirt so it's easy to spot him. I'm about to play Where's wally.
I was nervous I didn't know how this was going to go. Will he answer our questions? Is this the right guy? Are we on the correct path? Will we get another lead?
We were at the gardens walking to the rose section and all I'm going to say is, I love nature and plants and gardens but not this one. It had cute squirrels yes but also massive rats, one of my biggest fears. I swear if finding Leah wasn't on the line I'd be a 100 miles away from this place.
We reached the rose garden and spotted Nathan we greeted each other took a few pictures and signed a few things before actually getting into the serious business.
"sorry to ask such personal questions but we really need to know about Claudia Samuels and where we can find her. " Scarlett was the one to speak, I was nervous. Basically on the verge of a panic attack. Scarlett held my hand rubbing it with her thb trying to calm me down and honestly it usually works but not today.
"I'm sorry to give you bad news, but Claudia passed away recently. Her funeral was Wednesday. "
Great another dead end. Or that's what I thought. Scarlett wasn't having it.
"that's okay, do you know if she had a child named Leah and if that kid was in New York recently. "
"She did have a kid named Amelia. I'm not sure about her life I wasn't interested. But if that's the person you looking for you can head over to 23 Nelson Road Crawford. There you'll meet a crazy woman named Sam. Amelia was friends with her daughter Crystal "
" OMG. OMG. THANK YOU SO MUCH. AHHHH" I jumped up and hugged the man said thanks again and goodbye. I pulled Scarlett by the arm and ran to the car. For two reasons, One I saw another rat and two WE FOUND LEAH.
We got in the car and put the address in the GPS. I really hoped Sam is at home because it's Saturday and she's usually out. Maybe Crystals home as she doesn't have to babysit her mom anymore as it's their home town.
Scarlett was driving because she believed I wasn't in the right state of mind to drive, which is true but just know that's she's not far behind me either.
I closed my eyes for a bit remembering all our times together.
My audition for Annie when she came running to us
"I saw her” “Elizabeth was it? And
she was great, hi. You're a great actor" the panic on her face because she just met Elizabeth banks and was asked to audition for Annie. And how I calmed her down in the parking lot and how we shared a house together.
To the time she asked me about pizza and I got mad.
"I was about to call a pizza place to order pizza, but unless I want to wait 14 hours for it to be delivered from another country. I don’t think it would be the advisable route”
I smiled softly remembering how I scolded her for wanting to walk alone at night.
I also remember the doubt about the pizza and butternut stew and the 3 months of our lives wasted.
Ooh and the time she was In hospital and Scarlett was there or shall I saw aunty Scarlett.
“Butternut! You will not believe what’s in these containers!”
Leah giggled at Scarletts excitement
“I probably will. What is it?” she asked curious to know.
I remember Scarletts annoying smile, the one she makes when she's about to make a silly joke there was a suspense too before she yelled
“BUTTERNUT STEW!”
I remembered our apologies and how she loved my vanilla scent and how she directed the last scene of Annie.
OMG HER FIRST PERIOD.
"lizzie call an ambulance, I'M DYING"
"I'm bleeding out, the sheets are full of it, I'm dying!!!" I remember being so worried and then relieved when I realized what happened.
One of my favorites, our trip to sakovia where she went missing and gave me a fright or the zoo where she and Evans did the flip thing with the giraffe and how she went missing in the museum and Scarlett found her in the toilet. All these memories was great.
I simply couldn't wait to see her and make new memories
Our car came to a stop and we got out. We buzzed in and nobody answered I believed they weren't home, that's when I spotted Crystal an another person leaving the house 2 doors away.
"Crystal heyyy!! " I yelled getting her attention and once I did she ran over to us with her friend.
"OMG, hey guys what you doing here. This is my friend Jade by the way " crystal said. Jade shook our hands and said hi. Crystal on the other hand pulled us in a bone crushing hug.
"heyy. Nice too see you too, we actually looking for Leah."
"well, you won't find her here. She's at Ms Mary's foster home 30 minutes away it's somewhere in town. I'm not sure where exactly but if you Google it, you'll find it."
"thank you so much. Do you have a number for Leah, an email. Anything at this point "
Scarlett asked, her head was clearly screwed on properly. I take back what I said before. She is in a proper state of mind.
Crystal gave us a number, we said our goodbyes and then we were off. We found the foster home on our GPS. I tried calling Leah multiple times but it goes straight to voice mail. At least it rings and works and is a direct line to my baby. After a solid 28 minutes of driving we pulled up infront of a huge house. We entered through the gate and saw kids playing in the park. A lady came walking to us, we assumed it was Ms Mary.
"hi there, welcome to Ms Mary's foster home.I'm ms Mary How may I assist you? " aww she's so sweet. A little kid came running to her which she attended to before giving us her attention again. Nice, she has her priorities straight.
"HI, yes. We looking for a kid name Leah. 12 years" she looked at us confused.
"I'm sorry but we don't have a Leah at this fostering home. " she responded and Scarlett quickly replied.
"WAIT! What about an Amelia. Amelia Samuelson or Samuels? "
Ms Mary smiled.
"yes, we have an Amelia, I'm sorry but she's not here at the moment, she's out surfing at muizen beach"
"thank you so much. This truly means the world to us. If we miss her can you tell her lizzie was here and could you hand her my number " I gave her my number along with Scarletts before heading to the beach. I was desperate at this point along with Scarlett. She was driving way beyond the speed limit. I'm surprised we didn't get a ticket. Well Leah did say. Wait no. Sorry. Amelia said that their Justice system was behind along with their police and everything else so understandable.
We reached the beach and Scarlett and I grew excited. I could see people surfing, was it her? I took off my shoes and ran Scarlett not for behind me I froze when I saw her.
She spotted me. We locked eyes and that's when it happened...
She wiped out, it looked like the board hit her head. She wasn't coming back up. I sprinted towards the sea along with 4 life guards. They got there first and helped her out... She was unconscious so they rushed her to hospital and Scarlett and I weren't far behind, I was now panicking, my baby girl. I just got her back I can't loose her.
I just can't.
_______________________________________________ word count 2681
A/N
Hey sparklers!
Okay, I'm going to start with...
I'm sorry. I know chapter 25 is terrible. The errors alone is bad. I'm really sorry about that.
Here's a better chapter... we find out what happened to Scarletts kid and Chris first love.
We also Find Leah 😁
Also remember any of those memories from the previous chapters? 👀
Which one is your favorite? Comment below!!
Also I read the surf idea in a wattpad book some time ago. I can't remember which one but if you do tag sed person in the comments😇☝️
Also Amelia got wiped out. I'm sorry.
Anyways...
Be kind to yourself and do your best.❤️
Sparkle out!