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"ᵂᵉˡˡ, ᵗʰᵉʸ ˢᵘʳᵉ ʰᵃᵛᵉ ᵗʳᵃⁱⁿᵉᵈ ʸᵒᵘ ʷᵉˡˡ!"
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Emily Gilmore didn't whine. She didn't yell. She didn't scream. And Emily Gilmore never begged. But here she was, almost on her knees in front of the sixteen-year-old girl who stood in front of her, dark brown eyes brimmed with tears of anger.
"Calm down Gabriella, please." The normally so collected woman repeated, voice thick with urgency.
"I am calm." Gabriella snapped sarcastically, reminding Emily of Lorelai. The blonde ran a hand through her long hair, exhaling deeply before looking at her mother. "Why?"
"Just to give you more freedom, a change of scenery. Me and your father agree it's what's best for you, and Lorelai says she doesn't mind you staying." Emily consoled the teenager softly. Despite knowing that her mom's words were coated in sugary lies, Gabriella let herself believe that it was true.
"When?" Gabriella asked, meeting her mom's eyes.
"As soon as possible. Lorelai has cleared out her spare room for you." Emily told her, just as the door opened and closed, signaling Richard's arrival. He walked in, greeting the two warmly as they sat at the dining table. He kissed Emily's cheek and rested his heavy hand on Gabriella's shoulder for a second before he took his seat at the end of the table. The family of three sat in the same seats as the day before and the day before that, a maid coming in and placing three plates of salad in front of the three.
"And what are we talking about?" Richard asked, folding his napkin over his lap, looking up at Emily and Gabriella.
Gabriella twirled a piece of lettuce on her fork, and didn't look up from the gold rimmed china plate. "Mom was just telling me how I'm going to live with Lorelai." She told him, voice strangely calm for the way her heart was pounding.
"Ah." Richard said, and then silence fell upon them.
"In fact, I'm not hungry, I'm just going to go start packing now." Gabriella decided, letting the fork clatter to the china as she stood up, smoothing her school skirt down as she turned to leave.
"Gabriel-" Emily started but fell short when the girl shook her head, turning to look at her parents.
"I don't mind. I don't want to stay where I'm not wanted any longer." She said softly, leaving the room.
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"I mean, I know what's it like to be unwanted-"
"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."
"I mean it though, thank you." Gabriella repeated, looking around at the room. It was big and airy but cozy too, and very Lorelai. She turned to her sister, who was looking at her, scrutinizing her.
"Are you okay, Gabby?" She asked gently. The younger girl was silent for a minute before she nodded, "Yeah, I'm good. Thank you Lore."
"Good, now come on, I'll show you your room, and then a tour of the house and the town. Rory'll be home soon, she's just at her friends house. You've never met, have you?"
"No, we haven't." Gabby confirmed, going upstairs after Lorelai. Rory only came round the elder Gilmore residence on holidays, and then, Gabriella was often with Melissa or the family that fostered her until she was five. "I'm sure we'll get on well." She commented politely and Lorelai chuckled.
"Well, they sure have trained you well!" She laughed, referring to their parents.
"Yeah, I guess so." Gabriella offered her big sister a half-hearted smile. "Is this my room?"
"Yep. I cleared it out yesterday, so it's clean. Do you need help unpacking?" Lorelai offered.
"No, thank you." Gabriella shook her head, flicking a plait behind her shoulder and looking around at the spacious room. It was smaller than her room at home, but warm and clean, with a big closet and nice cream wallpaper, faintly patterned with flowers. "It's nice."
"I haven't changed it since I brought the place, so it's all yours." Lorelai said, running a hand over the surface of the vanity by the door, the mirror reflecting the image of Gabriella in the middle of the room. "Bathrooms down to the left, my room is to the right and Rory's room is downstairs anyway."
"Okay. Thank you." Gabby nodded, feeling the words escape her lips for what must be the tenth time since she arrived. She placed her bags on the bed, and hearing Lorelai turn and go back downstairs, sighed. Deciding against her emotions in that moment, she opened the closet and then her suitcase, beginning to unpack her clothes silently and methodically.
By the time she had finished, the sky had darkened slightly. The closet was full, her clothes in categories of type and colour, her shoes lined up underneath in colour order. Her makeup was in the vanity, other necessities in the bedside tables, books and school stuff in the desk by the window and photos on the three shelves above the vanity. The room looked lived in and Gabby smiled in satisfaction, looking around. The snapshots of memories framed with wood smiled down at her, most of her and her friends, two of her and her parents and one of a couple, young and smiling. The girl looked like Gabriella but the boy had the same dimples and the same eyes. Melissa and Rio, young, only fifteen. She looked at the laughing pair, eyes trained on the vaguely familiar faces of her birth-parents. She wasn't close with Melissa but saw her enough to know her, but Rio? She had never met the man.
Turning away from the haunting faces of what could've been, she walked down the stairs one at a time, looking around for Lorelai and Rory, who she'd heard arrive. Walking into the kitchen, she was greeted by the view of her sister and a girl who was almost identical.
"Hey, Gabs. This is my daughter Rory. Lorelai, but Rory for short." Lorelai smiled and Rory did too. Gabriella's heart panged in loneliness at the sight of her sister and niece and she swallowed the lump of glass in her throat. "Hi Rory, nice to meet you."
"Hi Gabriella, nice to meet you too. Do I have to call you aunty?" Rory asked, voice high with nerves. Gabriella laughed airily and shook her head.
"No, Gabriella's fine. Or Gabby or Gabs or Ella. I answer to most things." She said and Rory's shoulders sagged in relief.
"Rory, Gabby goes to Chilton." Lorelai told her daughter, pointing to Gabriella with a coffee mug.
"Oh, that's cool. I start on Monday." Rory told her and then gestured to a seat, which the other girl took gratefully.
"I didn't know that. It's a good school, you'll do well." Gabriella smiled politely. She wasn't lying, it was a good school, with a good curriculum, good teachers and good facilities. But it was the people and the pressure that would threaten to break Rory.
"So, my friend Sookie is coming round in a minute and Rory has to try on her skirt." Lorelai hinted the question of what she was going to do. Gabriella nodded and was silent for a second. There was homework, or she could call Demi, or Leah or Marcus. She could call her Mom and Dad. She could read.
"Am I alright to walk around town for a bit?" she asked, almost tentatively.
"Yeah, of course. It'd be hard to get lost. Just be back in time for tea, yeah?" Lorelai smiled, "You might need a jacket." She added and Gabriella nodded and smiled, turning and going back to her room and grabbing a jacket.
As she walked out of the house she heard Rory speak :
"She seems nice."
"She is. Just give her a while, she'll come out of her shell." came Lorelai's reply and Gabriella's smile grew as she shut the door behind her and walked down the porch and started down the path. She'd be fine here.
By the time she got back, she was reconsidering her statement. Gaining stares from the townsfolk she had passed, she quickly realised that this town was not for her. These people lived in a world of chunky sweaters and festivals, of hot chocolate and town meetings. She had lived in a world of ballrooms and private schools, pressure and money. She didn't belong here, but maybe if Lorelai had grown to be apart of the town, so could she. Though part of her hoped she wouldn't be here that long.
Lorelai smiled at the sight of her little sister walk up to the house, expression thoughtful and a little put out. Not noticing the arrival of Gabriella, Rory returned inside in her very long school skirt, leaving her mom and Sookie on the porch. Gabriella smiled softly to the adults as she walked up the step.
"Gabs, this is my best friend Sookie St James, chef extraordinaire!" Lorelai introduced, wine glass in hand, "Sookie, this is my little sister, Gabriella Lopez-Gilmore." She continued, changing to a fake posh voice at her sister's name. Though she had already left the house when Gabriella was adopted, she had grown to know the girl in snippets of holidays and meetings, and knew that if anything, she was a good kid.
"Hi. It's nice to meet you." Gabriella smiled politely, "Sorry, but I'm exhausted, am I alright to go up to bed?" She asked tentatively and Lorelai swallowed a laugh, nodding and smiling instead.
"Of course, go on." She said, "Night!" she called as Gabriella's figure hurried up the stairs. The girl was far from 'exhausted' and was currently wanting to throw herself of the roof at her cringey choice of words. She was too awake to sleep and everything felt unfamiliar and strange. She wanted to go home.
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Hope you enjoy ;)
- La x