City Lights, Country Nights

8.Happy memories

"Your Italian is really improving," Liora said as she sat on her bed, opening the first boxes. Jackie looked at her hair and commented,

"You've been speaking it a lot lately, and I like that we can talk without other people knowing what we say."

"Who's that from?" Jackie asked, looking at the box as Liora smiled at what was in it.

"Miss K and the group," Liora said, pulling out one of the DVDs and holding it up. "Happy memories, sister vs. sister vs. sister," she read from the title on the DVD.

"There must be some good ones in there," Jackie said, pulling out another one. "She recorded everything, and each one," she said.

"They had their own name," Liora finished, pulling out a smaller box from the box and holding it up to Jackie. "Well, we can watch them now," she said, giving the laptop box to Jackie.

"They did help us a lot," Jackie said, nodding as she looked up at Liora. "Even when you were mean to them, there was always one of them there," she said. Liora gave a sad smile as a tear fell.

"They are family too. I just didn't see that they were feeling the pain too," Liora said. "I miss liam... and Jackson, Jack, Lily, Miss K. I miss them all," she said, wiping away her tears.

"I miss them too," Jackie said, pulling Liora into a side hug. "Don't cry anymore, Rory. We can still call them and text," she said. Liora nodded as she pulled the other boxes to them and opened them. They were full of things they made when they would have their 'family' get-togethers.

"Do you remember this?" Jackie said, pulling out a bracelet that their sister made. "She was so mad when she couldn't find the right colors," she said. Liora nodded as she put it on her wrist.

"We can hang the rest up. I'll let you pick the ones you want," Liora said, pulling out the card inside and carefully opening it. Liora's eyes widened at what fell out. "Good God," she said, holding up the money.

"How much is there?" Jackie asked as Liora counted it. "500! What does the card say?" she asked as Liora read the card out loud.

"Dear Rory and Jackie, if you're there,

We have been going to many competitions with the dance you made, Rory, and we have been winning big with it. We only thought it would be fair for you to have your part too, so the whole team pulled together. We want you to do something fun and get that smile back on your faces.

So, with all the luck,
Love, the family."

Liora gave a big smile as she looked at Jackie. "Jackie, we're going to build a car, well, a jeep," she said, nodding her head.

"We don't know how to build a car or a jeep," Jackie said. Liora just smiled.

"We can ask..." The first name to pop into her head was Cole, but she wasn't going to ask him for anything. "Will, and if not him, George. He won't say no if we ask for help; he's got to know something!" she said. Jackie just looked at her.

"Come on! We could have our own car! And with the money I've already saved up and yours, we can do it," Liora said, looking at her. "It could be fun! We could do something we actually want to do!"

"I mean, it would be nice to have it," Jackie said. Liora nodded. "Okay, but you're asking about it," Liora huffed. She hadn't thought about the asking part.

"Okay, fine, I'll ask," Liora said. "Now, go make some popcorn or something. We'll watch some of these," she said, looking at the DVDs.

Jackie nodded and quickly went downstairs to the kitchen but stopped when she saw Katherine. "Jackie," she said with a smile, "I made you something to eat. I was about to come up and ask what Liora wanted. I have noticed she doesn't eat anything we make. I just didn't know if she liked it or not."

"No, she, umm, she has a specific diet for her dances. She won't eat a lot if it's not on the list," Jackie said with a smile.

"Oh, I... I didn't know," she said, but Jackie shook her head.

"She wouldn't have told you," Jackie said. "She wouldn't want you to have to make two different meals," she said as she made some hot tea.

"You know that you two being happy here and feeling at home is one of my top priorities," she said. "I just want to know after everything today that you're both okay."

"We're fine. I'm fine, but Rory, it takes longer because she doesn't do different at all," Jackie said as she nodded.

"Is there something we can do? It's just you have your school thing, and when you're not here, she's just up in her room," she said. Jackie let out a breath as she looked out the window. George was outside in the dark, putting something together. "He wanted to put it together for her. It was just mats and poles, but he can't seem to get it."

"He should ask her," Jackie said. "Rory likes to show, like if he would tell her he didn't know how to put it together but he would like to, so he could help her. Next time, she would show him, and if he asked what she did on it, she would tell him and show him."

"Our dad did it with her. He'd ask her about the things she would do, how she did it. Same with piano, she loved giving lessons to show how to do it, making sure they did it right. She just liked to have one-on-one time with them," she said.

"And she's crazy good at math. We would just give her one at random times. Why? I don't really know, but seconds later she would know the answer," Jackie said, looking down. "She's hard and not easy to know. She's just not the same as before. But if it makes you feel better to know, she is trying," Jackie said and gave her a small smile before grabbing her stuff and walking away.

"Good night," Jackie said as she went back upstairs.