Beyond The Tribe - alternative and parallel stories by the fans

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Laigh's New Life

Episode 1

“I want it to end,” she said softly. “That’s all I want. I want to start again, somewhere as far away as possible. Somewhere were no one knows what has happened to me and so won’t feel sorry for me.”
“Are you sure?” Amber couldn’t believe that Laigh had just said that. “Yeah I’m sure.” Laigh pulled herself out of Bray’s arms and looked at her.
Bray went to stand next to Amber and took hold of her hand. “If that’s what you want, then it’s fine by me.” Bray said sadly. He couldn’t believe that he was letting his precious cousin go again. “But what are we going to do? How are you going to leave without the others asking questions?”
Laigh’s eyes widened as she exclaimed, “The dream! Pretend I’m dead! I fell down the hill and banged my head badly!”
“WHAT?!?” Amber was bewildered, what was she saying? She knew that Laigh was upset about Max but the plan seemed a little drastic.
“Perhaps that’s a good idea,” Bray said thoughtfully. Amber stared at him as if he was crazy. Bray stood and looked fondly at Laigh for a few minutes then finally said, “OK, let’s do it. Laigh, get going. Amber and I will make a grave.”
Both Laigh and Amber were shocked. Bray was agreeing to it? Tears came into Laigh’s eyes again and she stepped forward and flung herself into Bray’s embrace. “Thank you so much! I love you!” She looked at him, then reached around the back of her neck and took her feathered necklace off and handed it to Bray, “Keep this to remember me by.”
Bray looked down at it, tears streaming down his face. “Thanks. I love you too Laigh.”
She then turned to Amber, who was also crying. They hugged. “I love you as well Amber, you’ve been a good friend to me. And now we’re related!” Laigh said as they held each other. She looked at Amber and winked as she said “Look after Bray for me, won’t you?”
Amber laughed and sniffled, “Of course I will, cus! Oh this is crazy Laigh, but if it’s what you want, then go.”
Laigh stood back and looked at her newly-wed cousin and his bride, who were holding each other tearfully. She smiled and started to run. When she reached the bottom of the hill she called out “Bye! Look after yourselves! I’ll miss you! I’ll let you know where I am soon, I promise! Good luck and let me know about your baby as soon as it’s born!” She waved, then turned and carried on running, Bray and Amber waving after her. Laigh, her hair flying back as she ran as fast as she could, smiled to herself - she was free at last!

Laigh was thinking back. That day had been the beginning of a new life for her, the moment she’d left everything - her friends and relatives - behind.
“Hey Leia, are you alright? You look miles away.” Her thoughts were interrupted by Tammy. Since she had started again, she had decided to call herself by her proper name. Tammy was one of the acrobats with the Wandering Minstrel tribe. That’s who she was with now, and they were great. She was doing something that she’d always wanted to do - perform in front of audiences.
“Oh, I was Tam. Sorry.” Laigh shook her head.
“That’s OK. It’s just Connor was looking for you...” Tammy said with a twinkle in her eye.
Laigh smiled coyly but rolled her eyes. Everyone seemed to think there was something going on between them, but there wasn’t. They had just clicked the day he’d found her sleeping under a tree the day she’d left Bray, Amber and the others. He had invited her to join him and the rest of the tribe for dinner, but when he discovered that she could sing and dance so well he invited her to stay and perform. Since then she’d become a star attraction, she dressed all in white and wore a feathered mask (to disguise herself, just in case the Mall Rats or anyone else who knew her happened to come and watch) and always seemed to ‘disappear’ after her slot. Thanks to this she had become known as ‘The Ghost Dancer’ and audiences were enthralled by this mysterious girl and travelled from far and wide to see her.

Tammy cleared her throat as she had noticed that Laigh had gone deep into thought again.
“Oops, sorry” she said sheepishly “Where is he then?”
“Outside, do you want me to tell him where you are?” Tammy asked.
“Sure,” Laigh smiled gratefully.
Tammy left and Laigh went back to her stretching exercises and thoughts. She smiled as she thought of the day she’d got in touch with Bray and Amber and had asked them to bring the others to a performance. It was before she achieved her high status. She remembered seeing the proud faces of her cousin and his wife, whose pregnancy was just starting to show then. That had been about three months after she’d left and it was now four and a half months later, which meant that Amber must be about eight and a half months pregnant (she had been about a month pregnant when she found out), the baby was due any day soon. She remembered the others faces as well. They had looked amazingly at her, but the thing was they had no idea that the dancer just happened to be their old friend Laigh! She thought about Josh and Lucy. I wonder if those two ever finally got it together, she thought to herself. She then started to think about a certain couple that she had put to the back of her mind - her ex-love Max and Harley. She wondered if he had stayed with her after he’d discovered that she was expecting his child. She could still see his face, the look of sheer horror on it when Harley announced the news to the unsuspecting Mall Rats, who were in the midst of celebrating the marriage of Bray and Amber.

Her thoughts were once again broken when Connor walked in. “Hey Laigh! I see what Tammy means about you being deep in thought!” he grinned. She smiled back at him and sat down, she was exhausted from exercising so much. “I bet I can guess what you were thinking about again.”
“Go ahead” she replied.
“You were thinking about,” he lowered his voice, “your cousin and co.”
He was the only one who knew about her past and was the only one who knew her by her nickname. She had told him when he found her and she had sworn him to secrecy. She trusted him and one reason she felt so close to him was because, just like her, he was English. He had a really strong accent even though he had moved away about four years ago whereas she’d only moved away about two years ago.
“Good guess” she smiled. “I was thinking back to when I left them, and when we first met.”
“One of the best days of my life!” he said with a sparkle in his deep hazel eyes. Laigh felt her cheeks start to burn, she put her head down quickly to hide it. It was too late though, he had noticed. “It’s OK to get blush, you know” he laughed. “I’m always embarrassing someone!” She laughed and looked at him, Connor was one of her best friends there.

Suddenly the door swung open and there stood Cecily. She glared jealously at Laigh and Connor, sat on the floor laughing. “Do you mind? This is a practice room, not a social place. Now if you don’t mind I’d like to practice my slot for tonight,” she said rudely.
Laigh got up. “Oh sorry, I forgot,” she replied sarcastically. “You need your practice, don’t you?” She stalked out, Connor followed, trying very hard not to laugh.
Cecily had hated Laigh since day one. Before she had come along Connor had (according to her) only had eyes for her and she had been the star of the show. However according to Tammy and some of the others she had never been the star, and she wasn’t that good a dancer. And, according to Connor, he had NEVER had eyes for Cecily, but she’d always had her eye on him. It was quite scary because Cecily reminded her a lot of Harley, but a lot more vain.
Connor suddenly burst out laughing. “I can’t believe you said that!” he said gasping for breath.
“Well I was only being truthful,” she replied honestly.
“And sometimes the truth hurts,” he laughed. “I’ve gotta go and prepare for tonight, I’ll see ya later Leia.”

Laigh watched him walk away, she smiled. Connor was definitely the leader of the Minstrels - he was the one who said who was in and he arranged each night’s performance. However he always denied that he was the leader. He was a bit like a male version of Amber: she never said she was the leader of the Mall Rats but she was the one who kept them together and sorted things out. Laigh stood for a few seconds just watching some of the acrobats back-flip and cartwheel around the performing area when she heard a familiar voice call “Laigh! I’m so glad I found you!...”

Episode 2

Laigh turned around and gasped as she realised who was calling her.
“I’m so glad you’re here, I’ve been looking everywhere!” Bray said breathlessly. He had a huge grin on his face and sweat was rolling down his forehead. He looked as if he had been running for miles and he was obviously excited about something.
Laigh ran up to him. “Bray! What are you doing here? If the others see...” she exclaimed quietly.
“I know, they’ll ask questions. I HAD to come though, you would have never have forgiven me if I hadn’t...” he said excitedly.
“Come on, let’s go somewhere where the others won’t see you!” she interrupted. Laigh took his hand and led him to her room - a small hut not too far from the performance area. They entered and sat down. However Bray jumped up again and started to pace around the room, he couldn’t sit still.
“Now what is it? What’s made you so over-excited?” she asked.
“What?” Bray said with a confused look on his face. “You don’t know? Isn’t it obvious why I’m here?”
“No!” Laigh exclaimed, feeling a little tortured that her cousin wouldn’t tell her something that was evidently making him so agitated. Suddenly she realised what it was that Bray was here to tell her “Oh my...! Bray, is it Amber? She’s had the baby, hasn’t she?” Bray nodded his head ecstatically “Oh Bray! I’m so happy!” Laigh leapt up and hugged him “How is she? When did she have it? Boy or girl?”
“It’s a girl! She gave birth last night. I would have come sooner but it took a while to sink in,” he said proudly. “She’s fine, just tired, naturally”
“Oh this is brilliant!” Laigh was thrilled. “Has she got a name?”
“Yeah, you are NEVER going to believe what we decided on!” he exclaimed. “The others were talking about how happy you would have been if you’d still been ‘alive’, so we decided to call her Leia - after you of course! The others agreed that it was a sweet thought.”
Laigh was overwhelmed, so overwhelmed in fact that she burst into tears. “Oh Bray! You’re right - I can’t believe it! It’s so... So...” she couldn’t control her tears any longer. She was so happy for Bray and Amber, it was so wonderful of them to think of her. She finally calmed herself down. “Look, you should be getting back, Amber will be wondering where you’ve got to!”
Bray nodded. He was just leaving when Laigh remembered something. She picked up a teddy that was laying on the edge of a table “Here, for little Leia. Give Amber my love and congratulations!”
Bray smiled at the teddy then at Laigh. “Thanks cus, Amber will be pleased I found you. She practically threw me out of her room this morning! Anyway, I’ll see you soon.” He kissed her on the cheek and left.
Laigh was feeling so pleased, that was the greatest news she’d heard in a long time. She just sat and thought about how Amber must be feeling at that moment in time. Just then there was a knock at her door.
“Who is it?” she called out.
“It’s me!” Connor called back.
Laigh smiled. “Come in, me!” she laughed.
He walked in and went and sat next to her. “Was that Bray I just saw?” he asked. He had met Bray and Amber when they had come to the performance.
“Yes, Amber’s had the baby! A girl!” she exclaimed delightedly.
“Hey great! Congratulations!” he replied, genuinely pleased.
“Thanks, you’ll never guess what they’ve called her!” she grinned.
“Sorry, haven’t a clue, what?” he asked.
“Leia!” she announced.
“After you? That’s great! Is it a kind of tribute to you for the other’s sakes?” he asked.
“Yeah,' she smiled. He smiled back.
“They’re really thoughtful, aren’t they?” he asked. However Laigh was lost once again in a world of her own. Connor nudged her and she jumped. “Oh, sorry. What were you saying?”
“Bray and Amber, they’re very thoughtful”
“Yes they are” she sighed.
There was another knock on the door and Anton called out “Hey Leia! Are you in there?”
“Yeah,” she called to him. She opened the door and Anton was stood there, his bright green eyes flashed as he saw Connor sat on her bed.
“Oh sorry if I interrupted anything...” he smiled.
“No you didn’t!” Leia laughed. “We were just talking.”
Connor got up. “Actually, I’ve got to go. The crowds be flooding in to the arena in under an hour, I’ve still got a few things to sort out.” He winked at Laigh and walked out, leaving Anton and Laigh stood in awkward silence.
“So, what did you want?” she asked.
“I was going to ask you if you’d seen Connor about, but I can see that you have...” he grinned.
“There’s nothing going on, honestly!” she exclaimed exasperatedly.
“OK don’t get too stressed, I was only teasing!” he took a step back. “Do you want me to leave?”
“No, I was just about to come out anyway.”

They walked out of her room together and headed towards the area where they all relaxed after or before a performance. A small group was sat around talking, including Tammy and Sandy, who were giggling about something.
“Hey guys, what’s going on?”
“Oh hi Leia, nothing much’s going on, we were talking about Cecily actually.”
“What about Cecily?” she asked suspiciously. “What’s she been saying?”
“Nothing!” Tammy replied. “It’s more what she was doing.”
“This sounds interesting...” Anton said, sitting down next to Tammy and slipping his arm around her waist. She smiled at him and he kissed her.
“So what was Cecily doing that was so funny?” Laigh urged them.
“You know when you and Connor left the practice room?” Tammy explained, “Well, when I was sure Cecily was well into practicing for tonight I kind of crept in to watch - it was hilarious! She’s about as graceful as an elephant!” Tammy could no longer contain herself, she got up and started to prance around, leaping and landing heavily and spinning wildly. “Look at me, I’m an elegant swan!” she announced hysterically. Laigh, Anton and Sandy rolled about laughing, Tammy looked like a fool.
“Tammy stop! You’ll hurt yourself if you keep landing like that! And if Cecily sees...” Laigh howled, tears streaming down her face from laughing so hard.
“Since when have you been bothered about her feelings?” Tammy asked, but stopped anyway. “Hey Sandy, you can finish the story, I’m shattered from being so swan-like!”
Sandy calmed herself and continued “Anyway, Tammy got out of there as soon as possible, she REALLY needed to laugh! She then came to find me so she could tell me what she’d seen, and that made me remember something that happened a couple of days before you arrived.”
“What?” Laigh asked, anything about Cecily was good to hear.
“OK, picture this,” Sandy leant forward. “We were performing as usual, when Cecily leapt out to begin her slot. Anyway Tammy and I were feeling particularly cruel that day as she’d been being bitchy all day. So when she came on, instead of leaving the stage, we stayed on! Boy, was she ever furious!”
“What happened?” Laigh gasped. “I bet Connor wasn’t too pleased!”
“You’d think that, wouldn’t you?” Tammy replied. “But he was in hysterics! He had to put on a huge show of telling us off in front of Cecily but when she’d left, feeling pleased that we’d been shouted at, he cracked up and didn’t stop laughing for about an hour!” .
All this was too much for them all, they burst out laughing again. However, they didn’t notice Cecily walking up behind them “What’s so funny?” she asked.
“Oh nothing, we were just talking about... swans!” Tammy shrieked.
This just made them worse and Cecily looked at them angrily “Tell me! What are you laughing at?!?” she demanded.
“Honestly, nothing to worry yourself about!” Laigh said breathlessly.
Just then Connor ran up. “Come on everyone! The show starts in half an hour! Go and get ready!!!” he ordered. The group started to break up as everyone went to their rooms to prepare. Laigh, Anton, Tammy and Sandy all stood up.
“Meet you out here in fifteen minutes?” Anton asked as he walked backwards towards his room.
“Sure! See ya all later!” Tammy shouted over her shoulder as she started to walk away.
“Yeah see you soon!” Sandy walked off too.
“I bet I’m the last one back!” Laigh started to run to her room.
Cecily stood alone, glaring nastily at Laigh. “I know you’re behind this Leia” she muttered to herself “You just wait, one of these days you’re gonna be sorry that you ever came here...”

Episode 3

“Leia? Hey Laigh, are you in there?” Connor was knocking on the door of Laigh’s room.
“Yeah, come on in. I could do with your help anyway” Laigh called out.
Connor sauntered in casually, but as he did a look of confusion came onto his face. “Laigh? Where are you?” he asked.
Laigh stood up from behind her bed, the front of her white leotard was covered in dust. “Sorry, I seem to have misplaced my mask, you haven’t seen it, have you?” she asked, brushing the dust off of her.
Connor looked guilty. “I kind of, borrowed it,” he confessed. “It was starting to look a little shabby so...” He handed her the mask. She gasped with surprise when she saw it. He had totally re-made it, now not only did have the white feathers, but it had silver glitter on it.
She hugged Connor and exclaimed “Thank you! It’s great! But now I’m going to add some finishing touches to myself!” She grabbed a pot of glitter off of her dressing table and shook it all over her hair, then added some silver makeup to go with the white that she already had on “What d’ya think?” she asked as she put the mask on.
Connor smiled. “You look fabulous,” he replied.
There was a bang on the door. “You were right, you were the last!” Tammy giggled.
Laigh smiled and rolled her eyes as she opened the door. “Told ya, didn’t I?” she teased.
“Oh, hi Connor” Tammy said in a sing-song voice, Laigh pulled a face at her.
“Now now, there’s no time for arguing, it’s show-time!” Connor announced. He danced out of the room, closely followed by the two girls.
“I’ve got some news,” Tammy whispered. “I think Cecily heard what we were saying earlier.”
“You’re kidding!” Laigh gasped. “How?”
“I don’t like to tell tales, but I think we’ve got a rat in our midst,” she pointed towards Michaela, who was standing with Cecily.
“Oh no, how did she overhear?” Laigh groaned.
“Well we weren’t exactly being quiet, were we?” Tammy sighed.
Connor turned around and called out to the tribe, “OK guys, just do your best out there, you’ll be great! Acrobats? Get going, you’re on first!”
Tammy looked apologetically at Laigh and ran off to catch up with the others. Cecily shot a deadly look at Laigh, who turned away. She knew that Cecily was up to something.
Connor noticed that Laigh was troubled about something. “Hey, are you feeling alright?” Connor put his hand on her shoulder. She jumped a little and then looked at him “Yeah I’m fine” she said a little unsurely. He knew she wasn’t OK, but he had to go and check on the show.
“You’re on in five minutes Leia, I’ll be watching.” he walked away.
Cecily strolled up to Laigh and whispered “I know there’s something going on between you and Connor, and I know your little secret - Laigh.” She smiled and walked off with Michaela. Laigh went pale, how did Cecily know her nickname? When she said she knew her little ‘secret’ - did she mean that she knew about her past? She shook her head and started to jog towards the performance area, she couldn’t let Cecily get to her...

“And now, here she is! The moment you’ve all been waiting for - the mysterious Ghost Dancer!” Anton announced. The crowds started to cheer as Laigh spun out onto the stage. She was determined that this performance would go smoothly, without a flaw. She jumped and spun her way through the music. The audience were astounded. She was flying through the air as she leapt perfectly. However when she landed she slipped on something and her ankle twisted under her. She fell to the floor in agony.
Connor ran out in a panic. “Leia! Are you OK?” he asked anxiously.
“No, I’ve hurt my ankle, I slipped,” she groaned with pain. The audience were getting impatient, they started to boo wildly. “Carry on, everyone will want their things back.”
Connor nodded and told the next person to go on. “What happened?” he asked confusedly.
“I don’t know, I just...tripped,” she replied just as confused as him.
Connor’s expression changed as he noticed something. He reached over and picked up a bottle. “Do you think this is what you could have tripped over?” he asked, she just nodded. She was too upset to speak, she knew that she wouldn’t be able to dance for a while. Connor noticed how sad she was and hugged her. “Everything will be fine, now let’s get you somewhere else,” he lifted her up gently and carried her to the chilling-out area.

The show was finally over, Laigh was relieved, she felt so miserable about everything. Rochelle had told her that she’d got a bad sprain, and wouldn’t be able to dance for a couple of weeks. Connor was furious, he knew that it hadn’t been an accident, someone had put that bottle there on purpose. “Right! I want to know who did this NOW!” he shouted angrily. The others stood in stunned silence. They’d never heard Connor so mad. “We’ve lost our best dancer, our star attraction, for two whole weeks! What are we going to do?” The others were still too shocked to speak.
Laigh was getting more upset because of the way Connor was acting. “Connor, please, it was an accident, OK?” she begged him.
“No! I’m going to get to the bottom of this!” he said angrily. “Right, there’s only one way that we’re going to find out who did this - I’m cancelling all shows until the culprit confesses!” He stormed off. The others started to talk at once - would Connor REALLY do that? What if no one EVER confessed?
Laigh was shocked that Connor would go to those lengths just to find out who did it. She jumped up and hobbled as quickly as she could on her crutches to catch him up. “Connor! Don’t please!” Laigh pleaded “The others shouldn’t pay for one person’s mistake!”
He turned and looked at her, his hazel eyes flashed. “Laigh, whoever it was made you look like a fool today, you want them to carry on while you have to sit around feeling miserable?”
“YES!” Laigh shouted. “I do! I don’t think it’s fair! We’ll lose precious food and water if we don’t carry on because no one will trade for nothing, will they?”
Connor sighed, “You’re right, OK the show will go on, I promise.”
She smiled at him “Thanks, you’re a star!” She kissed him on the cheek and he blushed. She winked “See, you’re not the only one who can embarrass people!”

Laigh was sat in her room with her ankle propped up, Tammy walked in. Laigh had asked her to come and see her so she knew just to walk in. “What is it Leia?” she asked.
“I just wanted someone to talk to,” she sighed. “I'm bored.”
“You’ll be even more bored when we’re performing,” Tammy replied.
“I know. Tammy?” Laigh noticed a troubled look in Tammy’s eye.
“Yeah?” she asked.
“What’s up?”
Tammy sat down next to Laigh and the troubled look turned into an angry glare. “I know who did it” she muttered nastily.
“Who?” Laigh asked gently.
“Isn’t it obvious?!?” Tammy exclaimed confusedly. “Cecily, that’s who! She thinks that it was you that started those stories this afternoon.”
“What?!? That’s crazy! She wouldn’t stoop this low, would she?” Laigh exclaimed.
“You don’t know her very well then. She’s driven one person out already, she’ll do it again, I can tell you.” Tammy punched the bed. “She’s gonna pay for this, I promise.”
“Don’t! It’ll only make you as bad as her if it is Cecily who did this!” Laigh begged, but Tammy’s mind was made up, Cecily was NOT getting away with this, no way...

Episodes 4-6
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