Limelight

Chapter Six

~~Strange People~~

Aaliyah didn't know what to think of her new mattress.

          She was so used to that thin, lumpy mattress back in San Diego, that lying in Will's bed felt like she was about sink right into the floor.

          It was so soft, like a cloud, and though it was a lot better quality than what she was used to, anxiety racked in her brain. She really felt that at any moment she would fall right into oblivion, and that was her worst nightmare.

          She couldn't say she slept all that well.

          She got up at bed at five AM, an hour earlier than she usually did, but she was tired of constantly waking up as though she had landed on hard ground after falling for what felt like a million years. She got up at the first sign of dawn and she stumbled over to the ensuite, grabbing her ratty old bag as she did so.

          The bathroom was unsurprisingly spotless. White-tiled floors, and white pristine walls, Aaliyah was afraid to stain. A white bathtub with a translucent glass divider and a shower faucet attached to the wall, a dark oak vanity, a toilet to the right of the bathtub, and a towel rack to its left. She padded across the bathroom and stopped in front of the vanity, turning to take a look at herself in the mirror.

          She saw the same thing she usually saw each morning she managed to grab to herself before her day really got started. Her hair was half out of the bonnet she had it in from last night. She sighed annoyed at the pitfalls of having her hair type, as she readjusted the bonnet, packing in the curls that fell into her dark brown skin and taking in her tired eyes. Then she found herself smiling. She was in New York, in a penthouse apartment, in a bathroom attached to her room that wasn't an attic infested with spiders. Her room.

          Her first day in a city that promised her opportunity. The opportunity to pursue her dream, the opportunity to become someone else, the opportunity to be herself, without fear of her foster parents holding her back. She was free.

          With that thought in my mind, she started with her day; washing herself off. She decided that she would wash her hair too, which was a mission in itself, but she found herself not minding anymore. Her untameable curls never failed to remind her of the fact that she had no idea where she came from, now that she did, maintaining them didn't seem like such a burden anymore.

          It didn't make it any easier though. Aaliyah had made sure to pack light when she left San Diego, not that she had much to bring anyway, a few clothes including her pajamas, a toothbrush, her songbook, and all her hair and skin products. Danica and Quincy hadn't been all that invested in managing her hair, and usually just bought her off-brand shampoo and conditioner. Lauryn, who was the oldest of three girls, was appalled by this. She was firm when it came to hair and skin care. She took it upon herself to smuggle quality hair and skin products for Aaliyah, including shampoo, conditioner, mousse, essential oils, and moisturizer, and three different hair combs. Lauryn made sure that Aaliyah was just as obsessed with her self-care as she was.

          Her next challenge was deciding what she was going to wear today. After everyone had left her room the night before, when Jacks decided to head home and Blair and Jenny retired to their own rooms, Malcolm had come up to ask if she had settled in well.

          Whether Aaliyah was or wasn't she would have answered the same way. "Of course," She said with a pleasant smile, "And thank you again for all of this, I don't know how I'd repay you—"

          "There is no need to thank me, Aaliyah," Malcolm said with a slow smile, "I'm just as determined to have you here as you are, possibly more."