Arc Three: When Life Goes On...
Shadow Of The Girl
PROLOGUE: February 1997
"Emily?"
The small girl turned, clasping the handful of daisies behind her back as she raised green eyes to those of her guardian.
"Emily, it's cold, and it looks like rain." The voice was soft and gentle. "What are you doing out here?"
"Waiting." There was a solemn look in the child's green eyes that somehow surpassed her six years. "If I don't wait they might miss me."
"Who might miss you, honey?" Her companion cast her a startled look. "Who are you expecting to see?"
"Mommy and Daddy." Emily spoke simply. "I'm waiting for them to find me."
The tall slim redhead at her side looked stricken, and she crouched down, gripping the girl's tiny hand in hers and putting a gentle arm around her shoulders.
"Emily, sweetheart, come inside." She wheedled. "Dinner is almost done, and don't you want to play with the other girls?"
"No." Emily shook her head decisively. "I don't like them. I want to go away with Mummy and Daddy."
"Oh, Emily." The redhead's eyes became wet with tears and she hugged the girl, who resisted her embrace, maintaining her solemn, impassive composure. "Come on, where it's warm. There's nobody out here tonight, and you need to eat and get warm before you catch a chill. You're not even wearing your coat!"
"I don't need it. I'm not cold." Emily said decidedly. "An' I told the others I wasn't going back, Kimber. Cos they're not nice to me. I hate them."
"The others? The other girls?"
"Everyone." Now the demeanour of the child changed, as she adopted a decidedly six year old pout and folded her arms. "They call me horrible names and stuff."
"Who?"
"Just them." Emily was reticent to give details. "They say that noone wanted me an' my Mommy and Daddy won't come but I know they're wrong. They just can't find me, that's all."
Kimber was silent for a moment, her expression troubled as she considered what best to do. Emily had been abandoned at birth - seemingly unwanted and still unclaimed by either mother or father. Try as she might, Kimber had not managed to locate the girl's birth mother. But then, she mused, she had not been there when the tiny baby, no more than a day old had been brought through the doors. In the year and a half between Emily's birth and Kimber's involvement in her care, there had been plenty of time for a mother to leave state, leave the country or even die.
She had never tried that hard to look for the father. She had enough fear about his identity from the child's name - Emily-Jayne Raymond. It and her date of birth were the only clues ever given, and Kimber could not help feeling that the girl's silky waves of brown hair came from a father more notorious than any businessman who had ever before or since graced the American music scene.
"Emily, nobody knows where your Mommy and Daddy are gone to." The redhead spoke now, gently tucking stray wisps of the rebellious brown hair behind tiny ears, red with cold despite the girl's words, for even though it was California, a chill wind had been whipping through the city since night had fallen, and it was not far into February. "We don't know if they will come to find you, but either way, wouldn't it be better if you're well fed and healthy than sick with flu?"
"They are coming."
"Well, time will tell that." Gently Kimber hoisted the small child up into her arms, carrying her inside despite the child's protests. "No, Emily, it's cold and I won't have any girl who's in my care getting ill in the wind."
"I don't care what you say." Emily wriggled away from her carer as soon as her feet touched the ground. "You're not my Mommy, my Mommy's gonna come and then she'll show you!"
"Your mother couldn't care less about you, brat." A girl of about thirteen put in from the doorway of the dining room at that moment, a sneer on her face. "You're just another foundling baby so get used to it, huh, and cut Kimber some slack! You owe her everything, without her and the foundation you'd be dead already!"
"Rachel shut up!" Kimber instructed, sending the teenager a glare, for the girl was known for her blunt tongue and provocative comments. "Go eat your dinner. I'm handling Emily, not you."
But it was too late. Emily's sensitive green eyes filled with tears but she would not let them fall, instead stamping her feet.
"That's not true!" She shrieked. "It's not true, my Mommy loves me, my Mommy will come and get me, she..."
"Emily, honey...shh." Kimber tried to comfort the little girl, but it was to no avail. With a screech of
"You're not my Mommy!" Emily took off up the stairs, and seconds later there was the sound of a bedroom door slamming.
"Rachel, you should not have said any of that." Kimber cast the teenager - who had made no attempt to leave - a dark look. "Emily is six years old, the last thing she needs is for people to tell her noone wants her. We want her, that;s what matters."
"She's a brat and she thinks she's special. She thinks her Mom gives a damn when she's like the rest of us." Rachel rolled her eyes. "Only April actually has a Mom who cares and she's never half the brat Emily is."
"April and Emily are different." Kimber reproached, remembering the sunny tempered four year old who was the daughter of a former Starlight Girl, Dierdra Cavendish. Dierdra had been 18 when April had been born and had asked for the Foundation's help in raising her girl. Kimber had willingly acquiesced and the bubbly April, with her golden waves of hair so like her mother was a great favourite with all of the other girls. "And it won't help anything if you upset her. God knows none of us have perfect lives or situations...we have to make Emily think the best of hers, not feel resentful for lacking something that her companions at school have."
"She hit a kid at school, you know." Rachel observed, not seemingly worried by Kimber's scolding. "Some boy who called her names. I know because Ruby told me." Ruby was another girl of Emily's age. "She's just a brat, Kimber. She goes psycho at the least thing."
"No, she's not psycho." Kimber glanced up the stairs, biting her lip. "She's just a little girl with a lot to come to terms with. That's all.
After all, everyone needs to feel that they have family."



Prologue: February 1997  
Chapter One: Sirena's Show
Chapter Two: A Plot
Chapter Three: In California
Chapter Four: About Chimera
Chapter Five: Sirena's Aunt
Chapter Six: A Special Quest
Chapter Seven: The Plot Hatches
Chapter Eight: Eric Strikes
Chapter Nine: Webchat
Chapter Ten: Complications
Chapter Eleven: Handling Emily
Chapter Twelve: A Discovery
Chapter Thirteen: A Birthday Surprise

DISCLAIMER: PLEASE NOTE
Copper, Nancy, Sylva, Anna, Blade, Raesha, Sirena, Topaz, Aaron, Sophie, Justin, Elliot, Rosita, Luis and any other characters in this fiction which do not appear in the animated Jem series are copyrighted to me (E.A Woolley) as of January 2002 <unless otherwise specified> and are not to be reproduced without permission ANYWHERE. Jetta, Pizzazz, Stormer, Roxy, Raya and all other original Jem characters are the copyright of Hasbro Inc, Sunbow, Christy Marx and the other writers of the Jem series. The future world of Pizzazz, Raya, Jetta, Roxy, Stormer, Clash, Synergy, the fate of Jem and her memorial are all copyrighted to me. The future world of Kimber and Shana is copyrighted jointly to myself and Gemma Dawn.
The concept of 'Jewel' is entirely my own, and any apparent link with any fictional or actual person or persons of this name is entirely coincidental. Equally the characters in this fiction are not based on any real life individual.
The concept behind the future world of Danse, Aja and Craig, the idea behind Jerrica's futureworld and the split of the Holograms is copyrighted to Gemma Dawn, whose Teenangel Outsiders fiction is directly twinned with Just a Dream. The character Sammi and any of the other Teenangel Outsider characters mentioned in this fiction are entirely copyright to Gemma Dawn and appear here only with her permission.
Pay her page a visit!