linger - gilmore girls

𝐢. 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰

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chapter one

WELCOME TO STARS HOLLOW

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THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER WAS, Cleo Fisher was innocent. She was not a saint, but she was certainly not a liar, and the fire at St. Agnes was not her fault. Truly, the cigarette that fell to the ground and nicked a stray piece of paper belonged to Yasmin Gonzalez. But, that was the thing about Yasmin Gonzalez, she had a wicked sense of self preservation, and when the spark turned to flame with a sickening sense of finality, she was out of the church and down the street in an instant.

Cleo was not so lucky.

Cleo couldn't even call Yasmin her friend. Cleo did not have friends, she had family, associates, and classmate that fell in between the two. Yasmin was her first—and possibly last—attempt at expanding her social circle, per her father's request. And look where that got her; in a car going ten over the speed limit hurtling toward a town Cleo hadn't seen in years.

"You'll like it," her mother said for the fifth time that day. Elena LaCosta-Fisher was optimistic in a way that both vexed and amused Cleo. Even when her father was screaming at her for the fire, veins protruding out of his forehead, his neck, his eyes shaking, Elena rested a hand on his shoulder and told him everything happened for a reason.

"So you keep saying," Cleo mumbled, working a hang nail off of her thumb.

Elena flashed Cleo a quick smile. "You remember my sister, right? Patty's so excited to see you, Cleo."

Cleo vaguely remembered anyone in the town of Stars Hollow, especially her aunt. She never saw her for more than two days at a time. Even when Elena and George dragged Cleo to visit their extended family, Aunt Patty was always greeting her at the door then running to her dance studio or engaging in some argument with a guy named Tyler. Or, was it Taylor? Cleo could have sworn it was Tyler, she didn't know any man over the age of twenty named Taylor.  "I remember her a little bit."

Elena sighed like this was exactly the wrong answer. "Just, make an effort, okay? It was generous of her to take you in, especially now."

It was generous, more generous than Cleo was expecting. Elena had infinite connections in both Connecticut and California, from her time as a college cheerleader. It just so happened that one of her former teammates married a guy who knew another guy, and so on and so on, until that line of connections landed all the way into the LAPD.

St. Agnes dropped the charges, but the parents of the private school wanted nothing more than to have Cleo's head on a spike.

Cleo nodded, resting her head on the window glass. She closed her eyes and muttered, "I'll try."