Savannah Moore (missmoore) wrote in the_dome, @ 2013-11-19 19:46:00 |
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Entry tags: | 04-14-2017, lia, lia and savannah, savannah |
A Little Bit of Jealousy and A Lot of Advice
Who: Lia and Savannah
Where: Elementary School to the Ranch
When: Early afternoon
It was days like these that Lia was grateful that Sophia’s school wasn’t terribly far from the ranch. Despite her umbrella, she was soaked as she stepped into the school. Lia lowered the umbrella and brushed some wet hair back from her forehead as she started down the hall to Sophia’s classroom. She had a bag already packed for them two of them to stay at the ranch overnight, so she wouldn’t have to drag Sophia all the way home in the storm. It was a bad one, which likely meant they wouldn’t be able to see the horses much, but Lia figured she and Riley could keep their daughter occupied enough before bedtime.
As she rounded the corridor, she spotted Savannah in the hall, and Lia offered her a smile, despite being soaked to the bone and her shoes squeaking on the floor. “Hi, Savannah.”
Savannah’s class had quickly dwindled down to one student in the last hour and a half due to the weather, and the mother of that child was on her way. The mother had called to apologize for Savannah having to wait so long after all the other children had left, but she was having a difficult time leaving work. Savannah had assured her that it was perfectly okay and to take her time, feeling badly for the woman. Being a single mother of five boys was a job in itself, never mind the full time gig she had going to support all of them on top of that. She had been in the hall hanging pictures with the boy when the mother appeared, dripping wet but still smiling at the sight of her youngest. They exchanged a few quick words before sharing a warm farewell, turning her attention back to the remaining pieces of children's artwork she was displaying for the next few weeks. She glanced up with picture in hand when she heard her name, smiling. “Hey, Lia. Coming to get Sophia?” With how progressively drenched parents were throughout the morning when they stopped in to get their kids, she had an idea of how her own walk home to the ranch was going to go.
"Yes." Lia sighed and then smiled again. "I thought about bringing her umbrella with me, but the minute she sees the puddles, she's going to take off and starting jumping into them anyway. The storm has been pretty bad. Thankfully we're just headed down to the ranch today, rather than home. How's class? Are your kids behaving?" It had been difficult for Lia to concentrate on teaching since being bitten, but somehow Lia was managing to keep up with the work.
Savannah let out a laugh at the mention of puddle jumping, knowing that all too well. She never understood what it was with children and muddy pools of water, but they never failed to gravitate towards each other. “It’s looked pretty nasty out there.” She agreed, not looking forward to the trek home. Her small frown at the idea faded once Lia announced she was going to be at the ranch today though. “Oh, that’s great! Mr. Pollard will be happy to see you, I’m sure. And class is going so well! We all have our difficult moments here and there, but the kids are so wonderful.. I’m really blessed to have them.” Her smile was warm when she talked about her students as if they were her own, her drawl even seeming to thicken up some at the affection. “And how about yourself?”
It always amused her on some level to hear anyone call Riley ‘Mr.Pollard’. It seemed so formal. And it was slowly dawning on Lia that Savannah was a boarder at the ranch. How she had let it slip from her mind, she didn’t know. Though it might have been work, the werewolf thing, her marriage with Riley… Lia hadn’t been able to put a lot of thought into many things lately. “Oh, everything’s fine,” Lia said with a small smile, trying not to wring her hair out on the floor of the school, despite the fact that her clothes were still dripping. “I’m starting to think Riley and I need a vacation, but unfortunately, there are no tropical beaches to run away too. School has been… well, school. I always thought it was hard keeping the attention of a six year old, but teenagers are definitely more difficult.”
Savannah listened intently, her eyes brightening. "If ya'll want to go out sometime, I'd be happy to watch Sophia." She appreciated Riley allowing her to help out at the ranch and board there too, so if she could help him in other ways to pay him back for his generosity, she was more than willing to. "I know a vacation far away is out of the question, but maybe a night or two by yourselves would be nice? I can't help but feel like I owe Mr. Pollard for being so kind to me."
The offer to babysit was a nice one, and Lia lifted her brows as she smiled. She always had Carol next door, since her son and Sophia played together a lot, but lately Carol had been Lia's only option in the dome to watch Sophia and Lia occasionally felt guilty since she was sure Carol didn't get a lot of her own kidless time, and Sophia really did have a never ending supply of energy. "I'm pretty sure Riley would argue that particular point. It's just in his nature to be kind to everyone." Well, except Micah, apparently. And of course, Lia felt a bit of stirring inside of her, probably at the simple knowledge that Riley spent time around other women. Of course he did, seeing as how women worked for him. And there were female boarders, which she knew. It was ridiculous to feel any spark of jealousy, and she quickly attributed it to the wolf part of her. "Are you heading back to the ranch? I could grab Sophia and we could walk together if you wanted," Lia suggested.
Savannah continued to smile and nodded. "He's a really great guy. It's so nice that he's willing to help people." She perked up at the idea of walking back with Lia and Sophia, thinking conversation might be a nice distraction from the chill that was sure to hit her once she began the trip home. "That would be fantastic!" She replied happily. "I'll go put these away and meet you back here?" She lifted the remaining pictures to show what she was speaking about, taking a small step back towards her classroom.
Lia had a feeling the possessive side of her was going to grow tiresome after a while. Savannah was sweet and kind, and Lia knew she had nothing to worry about. It would be so ridiculous of her to get her hackles up over a pretty girl being around her husband after she and Riley had argued about Micah the night before. But... there were young, pretty girls around Riley, and maybe on a daily basis, and Lia wondered just how kind he was to them. Which was a horrible, unfair thought and Lia hated herself for it immediately. There were just aspects of her wolfism she was still getting used to. "That sounds great," Lia said. "I'll go get Sophia and be back in a few."
Gripping her umbrella, Sophia headed down the hall toward Sophia's classroom. Her daughter was inside with two other children and the three of them were coloring. Lia spoke with the teacher for a few moments before she helped Sophia get into her jacket and put her school work in her bag. Then she took Sophia's hand and led her back toward Savannah's classroom. Sophia waved, beaming ear to ear. "Hi, Miss Savannah!"
Savannah had been tidying up while Lia made the rest of the trip to pick up Sophia, doing a quick glance over the room before she took steps towards the door. Waiting for her within the doorway was little Sophia with the most endearing smile, it inspiring one to match on Savannah’s lips as she lifted her hand to wave. “Hello, Sophia! How was school today?” She reached for the light switch, flicking it off so the classroom behind her grew dark. She drew the coat she had slipped into around her tightly, adjusting the hood to protect her as much as she could manage then moved the umbrella tucked beneath her arm to her hand. She looked to Lia to see if she was ready, confident neither of them would enjoy the weather as the little girl would.
"We read poems," Sophia exclaimed. "And did math and we got to sing too! I've got a horse! Did you know?" Sophia gripped Lia's hand as they started toward the front entrance of the school to leave. "Her name's Ophelia and Mr. Riley gave her to me. But I want a dog too. Do you have a dog?" Sophia asked Savannah, wondering if maybe she would have someone else on her side to convince her mother how much fun dogs were.
Lia did her best not to sigh out loud, but she gave Savannah an apologetic look. If she had the money, or the means to acquire one, Lia would have likely found Sophia a dog already. But pets cost money, and were a big responsibility. And frankly, with the dome shut, Lia had no idea if there were any dogs around anymore anyway. That didn't stop her daughter from trying to rally as many allies as she could in her quest for a pet.
Savannah listened to everything Sophia had to say, following along openly like it was the most important conversation she'd ever have in her lifetime. "You are such a lucky girl to have your very own horse! I bet you could even ride her to school when you get older." But then the topic was moved on to dogs and the quick change made her laugh. The way children's brains worked was always amusing to her. "I don't have my own dog, but I happen to like them a lot. Maybe you can just pretend Ophelia is a really big dog, for now?" She shook her head lightly to Lia, silently communicating that it was more than okay. "Do you think you could do that?" She lifted her hands to begin readying her umbrella once they approached the doors, opening one and holding it open for the two of them while rain mercilessly began assaulting her being without hesitation.
Sophia giggled loudly and covered her mouth. "Maybe. I don't think horses can bark though." She gripped Lia's hand more tightly as Savannah opened the door, and Lia fumbled a bit before getting her umbrella open. It wouldn't do much to keep them dry, but it was better than nothing. Sophia almost immediately tried to pull away go run through the rain, but Lia held her back. "Let's try not to get soaked, okay?" she told Sophia before shifting her attention back to Savannah as the three of them began to walk quickly toward the ranch. "Do you like boarding at the ranch? I'm sure it's got to be interesting, being surrounded by all those men."
"You make a good point!" Savannah answered Sophia with a laugh, appreciating her umbrella for the small bit of coverage it was offering her. Despite the rain coming from all kinds of directions, it was still just a tad bit nicer than not having an umbrella at all. She looked to Lia as she spoke, taken aback slightly by her question. She supposed some girls would like the guy to girl ratio there, but that had never really occured to her until Lia pointed it out. "I love living at the ranch. Mrs. Haggerty is very sweet and like I said, Mr. Pollard has been nothing but kind." She gave a slight shrug of her shoulders, continuing to smile. "I keep to myself mostly, though. I talk to the animals a lot. I think Mr. Pollard was confused the first time he and Tom found me having a conversation with them." She grinned, finding the situation humorous now. At the time, however, she was more than embarrassed.
Sophia hopped happily into a puddle. Lia might have sighed with exasperation if she hadn't been soaked already, so she barely noticed as she smiled at Savannah. "Don't let Riley fool you. Back home, I found him talking to the horses plenty, so don't them think you're odd! He has a way with animals, Riley." Lia readjusted her grip on her umbrella. "I'm so used to living alone that being there for a few days was an adjustment. It reminded me a bit of what I imagined university to be like. Living among so many other people. I suppose if you have the patience for it, it's not so bad. Maybe you would never get lonely, I don't know."
"He really does." Savannah agreed, switching her umbrella to the other hand to try and give the other a break from the cold rain and wind. "That's probably what I like most. It's always busy there. I don't have any family here, so it kind of feels like I'm part of a big one." Even though she was likely to keep to herself, it didn't mean that some of the boarders didn't go out of their way to converse with and get to know Savannah. Plus, there was always the sound of chatter outside her room, sometimes even singing, so on the nights she felt particularly shy, she could still close her door, lay down with eyes closed, and feel like she belonged. "How long have you and Mr. Pollard known each other?"
That was a nice thought. Having a larger family around, even if they weren't blood. Lia missed her own family, despite the horrid way she had left them. She knew she would never be able to make it right, to seek their forgiveness, so she thanked God every day that she was given a second chance with Riley. Looking at Savannah, Lia smiled a little, wanting to choose her words carefully with Sophia next to her. Though Sophia was still pouncing on what puddles she could, pulling Lia's arm a bit harder in an attempt to try and slip away. She didn't seem to care at all that she was getting soaked through. "A long time. Since high school, actually. Don't ask how we both ended up overseas and in the same dome together, because I couldn't possibly answer. It was a fantastic coincidence."
Savannah loved the idea of reuniting with lost love and overcoming all the obstacles to do so. It was the kind of stuff they made movies about, and she hoped she would have her own someday. "That's beautiful." She responded with a smile, hopeful for the future. "I've never had a boyfriend." She wasn't sure why she shared that, looking up to observe where they were as she began to feel a little awkward about the random share.
Lia couldn’t help but look at Savannah in surprise. “Never?” That was difficult to believe, seeing as how Savannah was beautiful. But then again, she was young, and for several years before the dome, Lia could see how romance was the last thing on people’s minds. “I’m sorry,” she added quickly, “that was rude of me. I just mean, it’s hard for me to imagine men not lining up to ask you out.”
“Never.” Savannah repeated, looking over to Lia with surprise when she seemed shocked by her answer. “Lining up to ask me out?” She laughed nervously at the idea, a small snort tickling her nose as it slipped out in the midst of her laugh. “I don’t think they notice me.” She shook her head, but she didn’t mind it. Guys just made her feel nervous. Except, Mickey had made her feel funny in a good way when she met him at the barn dance. “I don’t know what I’d even do if someone asked me out.” She spoke thoughtfully, just the idea causing her to be a little anxious.
“They notice you,” Lia said with a soft laugh. “Some men are better at hiding it, but you’re pretty enough that I promise they’re not oblivious to it. And if someone asks you out, you simply say yes. Assuming that you find them kind, and attractive. If not, you politely decline.” Lia grinned a little, finally releasing Sophia’s hand, to which Sophia immediately ran ahead and jumped happily into a puddle. Hopefully her daughter wouldn’t catch a cold.
“Oh..” Savannah smiled a little, reminding herself to be polite with the compliment Lia had issued her. “Thank you.” She switched hands again for the task of holding her umbrella up, grateful to see the ranch ahead in the distance. It really was so convenient to be so close. “There was a boy who talked to me at the barn dance last night. He said I should keep smiling and then things would fall into place.” She looked back to Lia. “Do you think he was flirting with me?” She thought he surely was just being friendly, but she was curious to see what someone else thought and a little bit hopeful that it was more than just that.
Brushing some damp hair behind her ear, Lia looked at Savannah, choosing her words carefully. She didn’t want to jump into encouraging, and risk giving bad advice. “It’s hard for me to say without having actually been there to see or hear the conversation. He could have been flirting, or he could have just been trying to be polite. Maybe if you felt like he was showing some interest, you could ask him out for a bit of coffee, or a drink at the pub. And feel things out from there.”
Savannah nodded understandingly, though she couldn’t imagine herself being so bold as to ask Mickey out. She had stepped out of her comfort zone to ask him for a dance and the answer was a no, but he also seemed to have a legitimate reason not to due to the whole bad knee factor. “Did you ask Mr. Pollard out or did he ask you out?” She paused and frowned. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be bombarding you with questions. Especially not such personal ones.” She looked to the ground, hoping she wasn’t coming across as rude or nosy.
"It's okay," Lia assured her. "I don't know that either one of us asked the other out. Not in a traditional sense, anyway. I saw him around school, and had a crush on him. But we sort of ran in different circles, so we didn't talk much. I did what most teenage girls with confidence did. Smiled at him a lot, said hi to him in the hall. He was always really polite about it. Which, of course, was frustrating to me." Her smile grew as she glanced at Savannah. "So one day I got tired of him not taking the hint. I showed up on his family's ranch. I knew he rode his horse around the perimeter in the late afternoons. So I put on this silly red dress, and had my hair perfect. And it started to rain. I looked was a soaked rat in a red dress, and I had to take shelter under this tree. Riley came riding by about ten minutes later and found me. He sat with me under the tree and we just started talking. I think it was then that we kind of knew." Lia paused and blinked, coming back to the present. "Sorry, I rambled there."
Savannah listened intently to Lia’s story, a big smile on her face by the end of it. “That’s like something out of the movies.” The image she had of them in her mind under that tree was probably more romanticized than it may have been in real life, but she liked her imagining of it best. “I hope I can have a story like that someday.” She sighed dreamily. “He was even on a horse.” She was never sure what to expect for her own relationships, if she ever had one, but she was pretty sure right then that she wanted someone to ride in on a horse and do something romantic for her. Or just talk to her. That seemed pretty sweet and like it’d be genuine too.
She sort of sounded like Gin, and Lia couldn’t help but laugh a little, although she knew how the story sounded. Yes, it was romantic, and Lia knew how lucky she was to have that kind of story, and still be in love. But it wasn’t easy. Life certainly wasn’t a fairy tale, by any means. “Riley was always on a horse,” Lia said, affection lacing her voice. “All I can say is, have standards, but don’t expect something out of a movie.” Her smile warmed some. “The way we met might have been romantic, but love is hard, and marriage is even harder. I would think some men might feel too much pressure, if there are these high romantic ideals to live up to right away, you know?”
Savannah wished she had brought a notebook to jot all this helpful information into, but it was good she didn’t either way. The rain would have made it absolutely useless, so her memory was just going to have to serve for this purpose. She nodded slowly to show she understood, not wanting to put an overwhelming amount of pressure on anyone, especially not someone she actually liked. “I can see how that would be a little too much.” She watched Sophia while she happily splashed in anything resembling a puddle, a small smile crossing her own face as a result. “It’s going to be difficult to wrangle her inside.”
Honestly, Lia didn’t feel like she had any right to give anyone relationship advice. She had destroyed her own, once upon a time. It was pure luck that she had somehow gotten another chance to fix everything. But hopefully Savannah would take some of what Lia said to heart. She wasn’t that much younger than Lia was, after all, so hopefully she wouldn’t make the same mistakes Lia had. “I’ve just got to bribe her with some cookies,” Lia said with a laugh. “That, or offer to show her the horses once we’re inside and dried off. Otherwise I think she would be out rolling in the mud if she could.”
“True.. I bet Mrs. Haggerty is whipping up a triple batch considering everyone will probably be staying in for the night.” Savannah smiled, relief settling in her bones when she gauged they were probably only a few minutes away from shelter and warmth. “I hope this isn’t a regular thing now.” It would be bad news not only for comfort sake, but also for crops and animals. If the food supply started dwindling down, would they be able to import enough from other domes? What if the other domes were in the same situation? She did her best to not think in that light, reassuring herself that whoever controlled the weather would get a handle on it and things would be fine. “But at least it gives reason to enjoy a good fire. Not that a reason is really needed.”
Lia was doing her best not to think of what could happen if the crops were ruined. With the Dome doors closed, who knew when they would be able to import anything again. "I think I've been spoiled with the dome weather," Lia admitted. "We dealt with so much rain and snow before the domes opened that I should be used to this." Lia watched Sophia starting running to the front doors. "Thanks for walking with us," Lia told Savannah. "Most of the conversations I have on a daily basis are to teenagers, or a six year old."
Savannah let out a laugh, able to relate too easily to that thought. “No, thank you. Mine typically revolve around children and animals, sometimes I’m surprised I remember how to have conversations with adults.” She took the steps up the porch quickly, a sigh of relief escaping her when she was no longer being pelted with cold, cold rain. She was almost positive she was frozen through, which meant the remainder of her day and evening was going to be spent curled up in front of a fire. “And thank you for your advice.. I appreciate it.” She smiled softly, truly grateful for the words Lia had shared with her to give her some light on what to speak with Mickey about next time she saw him. Well, she was hoping she saw him again.
"Anytime," Lia said. Giving Savannah advice on men might help Savannah avoid the same mistakes Lia had made at her age. Plus, it meant Savannah was interested in anyone else but Riley, which was also a relief. Giving Savannah another smile, she started toward Sophia to get her inside and dried off.