Beyond The Tribe - alternative and parallel stories by the fans

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Laigh's New Life

Episode 7

Connor and Laigh looked at Tammy and Anton with confusion.
“Come on! You are going to be so shocked!” Tammy started to run, closely followed by Anton. Intrigued, Laigh and Connor ran after them to where a girl was stood. As they came a stop Laigh noticed that Connor’s jaw had practically hit the ground and Tammy and Anton were grinning. Laigh looked at the girl. She had wavy flame-red hair that tumbled to her waist, wrapped around her forehead was a piece of fabric which just touched her right shoulder. She was wearing a loose-fitting top, multicoloured flares and a pair of sandals. Her clear blue eyes danced as she smiled at Connor. “Surprise!” she said.
Connor started to choke suddenly. “Dove?” he finally managed to splutter. She smiled and opened out her arms to him, into which he ran to hug her. “What are you doing here?” he exclaimed.
“I came to see if my step-brother had arrived yet” she replied.
“You mean Marco? Yes! He arrived this morning, and he passed the audition easily,” he laughed. “Oh this is such a shock! I thought I’d never see you again!” They hugged some more.
Laigh looked at Tammy with a look of mystification, Tammy noticed Laigh’s facial expression and walked up to her.
“Who’s she?” she asked quietly.
Tammy gasped, “Of course! I’m sorry, I forgot she left before you arrived! That’s Dove, the love of Connor’s life before...” Tammy stopped herself “Oops. Maybe I shouldn’t have told you that...”
“Told me what?” Laigh asked. “That Dove and Connor were an item? Look, Tammy, for the last time there is NOTHING going on between me and Connor!” However, Laigh couldn’t help but feel a little jealous of Dove and Connor, who were still laughing and chatting away. “Now what were you going to say before you stopped so abruptly?”
“What?” Tammy had forgotten what she was saying.
“You said that she was the love of Connor’s life before something, but you stopped before you said what,” Laigh reminded her.
Tammy remembered, “Oh yeah, I know what I was going to say! Do you remember the day you sprained your ankle? I told you that Cecily had driven someone out of the tribe before?” Laigh nodded. “Well that was Dove.”
“Why?” Laigh asked.
“It’s a long story...” Tammy sighed.
Connor and Dove had stopped talking, “Who’s this, Con?” Dove asked, obviously meaning Laigh.
Connor smacked his hand against his forehead. “I’m so sorry! Dove this is Leia” he introduced and stepped over to stand next to her. “Our star attraction and newly-appointed joint leader!”
He grinned at Laigh, who stuck her hand out to Dove. “It’s nice to meet you Dove” she said politely as they shook hands.
“Star attraction?” asked Dove. “You’re the Ghost Dancer?” Laigh nodded proudly. “Wow! I’ve seen you dance, you’re good!”
“Thanks!” Laigh replied.
Connor was puzzled, “You’ve been to a show? I haven’t seen you.”
“I’ve been to three! I hide myself so there’s no fuss, I don’t want Cecily to see me...” Dove began but stopped when she saw Marco running up “Marco! Here you are!”
“Hey Dove! I made it, I’m part of the greatest tribe alive!” he said excitedly.
“I wouldn’t call it that, you’ll make Connor’s head swell!” Laigh laughed. Connor pushed her playfully but couldn’t help laughing himself.
Dove smiled and said “I hope you’ll look after him, I’d better get going...”
“No don’t, please! The others would love to see you!” Connor and Tammy exclaimed at the same time.
Dove look a little nervous at the thought of seeing the tribe again. “I don’t know... What about Cecily?” she said apprehensively.
“Oh she won’t say anything, especially when she finds out who your step-brother is...” Laigh smiled cunningly, glancing at Marco.
“Oh, no way!?! Cecily fancies Marco?” Dove exclaimed.
“I’m afraid so, you’d better watch yourself,” Laigh said to Marco.
“I will, thanks for the warning,” he replied flashing another one of those smiles in her direction. Laigh felt her head spin, she hadn’t felt like that since she’d been with Max! Perhaps she was as bad as Cecily, but who could help it? Marco was friendly, warm and not to mention totally gorgeous!

The group walked to the chilling-out area together, chatting. The tribe members who were sat around were already eating. “Hey you’re late!” Petra exclaimed “I dished dinner up about ten minutes ago! You’ll have to help yourselves...” her voice faded as she noticed Dove “Oh my...”
“Dove?!?” Rochelle and Sandy screamed at the same time. It didn’t take long for the riot to start after that, everyone wanted to hug Dove and talk to her at the same time. Soon Connor and Laigh had managed to calm them down.
“OK, I have a couple of announcements to make!” Connor said loudly. “OK the first is that Dove had come to visit Marco, who is her step-brother, and she’s staying for dinner.” The tribe started to cheer. “And,” Connor continued, “The final announcement is that I would like to introduce you to our new joint leader - Leia!”
Laigh stood up and smiled, this was followed by more cheering and then silence, as Cecily made an entrance. “What’s going on here?” she asked moodily.
“Hi Cecily” Dove said.
“What are you doing here? How dare you come back!” Cecily shouted and stormed off again, followed by Michaela and Lois.
Dove looked sad, Laigh noticed and went to sit next to her. “Just ignore her Dove, you should know that” she said gently.
“I know, but I just wish that we could get on!” she sighed.
“Do you mind me asking, what exactly happened between you two anyway?” Laigh asked cautiously.
“Don’t you know? Then I’ll tell you,” Dove began. “Once upon a time I was part of this tribe, Connor and I were happily in love and everything was perfect.” She sighed again, “Well it was until Cecily decided that I wasn’t good enough for Connor.”
“What did she do?” Laigh asked.
“She accused me of trying to hurt her. She thought of EVERYTHING - witnesses, stories, you name she did it.” Dove looked sadly at Laigh, “In the end I couldn’t take anymore of her and I left.”
“You poor thing! You must have been heart-broken, having to leave Connor like that.” Laigh exclaimed.
“I was, and Connor was gutted.” She stopped. “Sorry, I can’t go on.”
“That’s OK, Dove,” Laigh smiled reassuringly. “Why don’t we eat?” I think we’re going to become friends, thought Laigh.

A while later, Dove, Connor and Marco were sat talking when Cecily stalked up again. “You still here? I thought you would have gone by now” she said nastily.
“Actually, she’s staying for a while, just to make sure Marco settles in,” Connor replied casually.
“Oh poor Connor, had darling Dove got a new man in her life?” Cecily taunted. “I bet you’re so upset.”
This angered Marco a lot. “Actually she’s my step-sister, try getting your facts right before you start accusing!” he snapped. “Oh yeah I forgot, you like to accuse people of things they haven’t done don’t you?”
Cecily turned bright red and rushed away. Connor smiled, “You’re going to become a big favourite on camp if you keep being like that with Cecily!” He laughed and got up, “Anyway I’ll leave you two to talk for a bit!”
He walked away and Dove turned to her step-brother. “So, what do you think so far?” she asked.
“It’s great! Everyone’s really great, well apart from Cecily” he said enthusiastically “I think I’m gonna like it here!”
“Anyone you particularly like?” Dove asked.
“Connor’s great, so are Liam and Damon, and Anton’s pretty friendly” he replied.
“What about the girls?” Dove hinted.
“They’re friendly enough,” he smiled.
“Come on, I know you’re hiding something!” she exclaimed. “How about... Leia?”
Marco turned slightly red. “She’s so sweet, I really like her,” he admitted.
“I think she likes you too,” Dove replied.
“You do?” he asked. “How can you tell?”
“There’s just something about her, that’s all,” she smiled secretively. “You’ll find out soon enough, I’m sure...”

Episode 8

It was a week later and Laigh was skipping happily to the practice room. Rochelle had told her that her ankle was now strong enough to dance on again and so she was eager to start practicing for that afternoon’s show. She was just walking into the room when someone tapped on the shoulder. “You’re in a good mood!” Marco said over her shoulder.
She turned and grinned. “My ankle’s better! I can dance again!” she announced with a little jump to prove it.
“Hey that’s brilliant news!” he replied, putting his arm around her in a friendly manner, which made Laigh feel a little faint “Do you mind if I watch?”
“No, I’d be glad of the company actually,” she told him, and so she began to practice.
Connor and Dove were walking towards the practice room themselves. They had spent a lot of time together that past week, reminiscing about old times. “I still can’t believe you’re here!” he said with awe, for about the hundredth time that morning.
“I know, you keep saying!” Dove laughed. “It feels strange to be back though, it’s almost as if I’d never left.”
Connor smiled understandingly, “It must have been a tough decision to come and see Marco after all of the trouble.”
Dove sighed and looked at the ground. “It was, I didn’t know how the others would react, especially Cecily... And you,” she looked at him.
“Why were you worried about how I would react?” he asked, slightly dumbfounded.
“Well, I thought you’d be mad - I mean, I walked out on you,” she admitted. “It wasn’t only that though, I was worried you’d... You’d have found someone else.”
Connor looked at her with an honest glow in his eyes. “I couldn’t move on Dove,” he confessed.
“Really? Not even when Leia joined?” she asked.
“Why does everyone automatically think that Leia and I are together?” he exclaimed. “I know it annoys her as much as it annoys me. We’ve got a lot in common and we trust each other. She’s told me a lot of things she doesn’t want the others to know and I supported her when she first came here,” he sighed frustratedly. Then calmed himself as he said “The truth is, Dove, that I had this feeling you’d...”
“Come back?” she finished. “Well for once you were right.”
“For once?!?” he asked, trying to look appalled with her, but he couldn’t help but laugh which started her off. They were still laughing when they entered the practice room, where they found Marco holding Laigh in his arms, they were also laughing about something
“I see what you mean, you really can’t dance, can you?” Laigh chuckled, and then saw Connor and Dove staring at them.
Marco quickly let go of Laigh and they both turned bright red. “Oh hi, when did you two walk in?” Marco asked, trying to hide his embarrassment.
“Just a second ago,” Connor replied, with a suspicious look on his face.
“Hey Connor, my ankle’s better!” Laigh announced, trying to keep them from asking what was going on.
His face lit up, “Hey great! Do you want your slot back?”
“If it’s not too much trouble, but what about Tammy and Anton?” They had been using the slot while Laigh recovered from her injury and Cecily was still banned.
“No, I can put them in Cecily’s old slot, she’s still got two weeks of punishment left,” he replied.
Dove, meanwhile, was giving her step-brother a knowing look. “Marco? Can we talk please?” she asked.
“Sure,” he replied and they stepped outside.
“So...” she began “What were you two doing when we walked in?”
Marco turned red again. “I was proving a point.” he explained “I told her I couldn’t dance, so she told me to prove it, so I did.”
“Oh,” she said. “But how did you end up with your arms around her?”
“She was trying to teach me to waltz,” he smiled. “It didn’t work, I’ve got two left feet!”
“I know!” she laughed.
Just then Cecily came walking past. “Oh hi Marco,” she said casually, totally ignoring Dove, “I was just looking for you.”
“You were?” he asked with a worried tone.
“Yes, I wondered if you’d like to go for a little walk,” she said, gazing intently into his eyes.
“Sorry Cecily, no can do I’m afraid,” a voice spoke up from behind him. “He’s helping me with something.”
Cecily turned to glare at Laigh. “Oh yeah? Is that true Marco?” she asked him sweetly.
“Actually, yes it is,” he replied. “I’m helping her... cook lunch.”
She looked at him with disbelief. “Fine, you have no idea what your missing though. But if you’d rather slave over a hot stove than spend a relaxing day with me...” she stalked off.
Laigh, Dove and Connor began to laugh. “Cook lunch?!?” Connor howled. “I don’t think Petra would appreciate Leia and you taking her job!”
“Sorry! It was the first thing that came into my head!” he exclaimed.
Dove and Connor smiled at each other and Dove said “Hey, will you help me find Tammy, Connor? It’s been ages since we’ve had a proper chat!” Connor nodded and they walked away. Laigh and Marco were left alone - again.
“Thanks a billion Leia, I don’t know how I would have got out of that if you hadn’t appeared,” he smiled gratefully.
“No problem at all Marco,” she smiled back. “Just remember - you owe me one! See ya soon, I’ve gotta go and sort out some things for this afternoon” she waved as she walked away.
Marco sighed to himself, “She is too cute...”

“Well done everyone!” Connor shouted, clapping them all.
“Yeah, it was great!” Laigh told them.
“Yeah, thanks to you!” Tammy shouted.
“Let’s all hear it for the return of the Ghost Dancer!” Anton stood up and declared, everyone started to cheer loudly and Laigh took a sweeping bow. That afternoon’s performance had been a total success, there had been no stupid mistakes and Laigh had been so happy to be on the stage once again and this had shown through in her dancing.
“You were fantastic!” Dove told her. “I wish I could dance like that!”
“Thanks, Marco did well too” she replied.
“I know, I’m so proud of him!” she said. “I’m glad he decided to join the Wandering Minstrels, it’s about time everyone saw how talented he was.”
“Yeah, he’s also helping pull the crowds in” Laigh said cunningly.
“How?” Dove asked.
“He’s pretty big with the girls, did you see them all cheering for him today?” she asked.
“Yes actually I did,” Dove grinned. “Anyway, I’m going to help Connor sort the stage out for tomorrow, bye!” and she walked away.
Laigh decided to go to her room to relax as she was feeling a little worn out, it was hard work being the Ghost Dancer and joint leader. However, as walked into her room she stepped on a note that had been posted under her door. When she read it her heart leapt and she rushed out of the room again, suddenly feeling full of energy. On the paper it said -
“Dear Laigh,
We are in the usual meeting place, hope you can come as we want to introduce you to someone very special!
Lots of love, Bray and Amber.”

Laigh entered the clearing excitedly. There, sat on the bench, were Bray and Amber. Bray looked up from the bundle which Amber was carrying as Laigh cleared her throat. “Laigh! You made it!” he exclaimed.
“Hi Cus, of course I made it!” she exclaimed back as they hugged. “Hey Amber! How are you feeling?”
“Fine thanks,” Amber replied, smiling. “Come here, there’s someone I want you to meet.”
Laigh tiptoed towards her and grinned as she saw the tiny baby in Amber’s arms. “This Leia,” Amber announced, even though Laigh knew very well who it was.
“Isn’t she gorgeous?” Bray asked proudly. “Would you like to hold her?”
“Can I?” Laigh asked and Amber nodded as she placed the baby in her arms.
Laigh sat down, cradling the baby, and said softly “Hey little one, I’m Leia, your name-sake. But you can call me Laigh, alright?”
Amber and Bray stood over her, smiling happily at each other. Laigh looked up and said “She’s beautiful, you two must be so proud.” They nodded.
Suddenly someone else appeared, Laigh gasped as Marco walked up to her, looking confused. “Hi Leia, who are these people?...”

Episode 9

Laigh, Bray, Amber and Marco stood staring at each other in silence. “Marco! What are you doing here?!?” Laigh exclaimed.
“I saw you run out of your room, I thought you were upset about something,” he explained. “So I followed to see if you were OK. Now will you answer MY question?”
Laigh sighed, “Marco, this is Bray, Amber and their daughter Leia. Bray’s my cousin.”
Marco looked shocked, “I thought you had no family or friends? That’s what the others said anyway.”
“Look Marco, it’s a long story,” she sighed again. “Go back to camp, I’ll explain later. Just don’t say a word to ANYONE, OK?”
“OK, I promise I won’t say a thing,” he assured her, and headed off towards camp. “Wait a moment,” he turned and said “Did you say the baby’s name is Leia? I thought that was your name?”
“I told you, I’ll explain later,” Laigh repeated herself. Marco shrugged and walked away. Laigh sighed and handed Leia back to Amber.
“I’m so sorry about this, perhaps we shouldn’t have come...” Amber began.
“Don’t be stupid Am! I’m so pleased that you came to show me Leia, I really am! I shouldn’t have left in such a hurry and I should have made sure no one was following me!”
Bray smiled at his cousin. “Anyway, let’s change the subject.” he said “What have you been up to recently?”
Laigh grinned. “You are NEVER going to believe what’s happened since you last came to visit!” she exclaimed excitedly.
“What?” Amber asked.
“Well, to cut a long story short, I sprained my ankle and couldn’t dance for two whole weeks, got blamed for losing little Taylor, which then turned out to be Cecily’s fault, Cecily found out about you two and nearly told everyone, Marco joined, y’know the guy who’s just left? I became joint leader then Marco’s step-sister came for a visit and turned out to be Dove, Connor’s ex-girlfriend who left because of Cecily!”
“WHAT?!?” Bray and Amber exclaimed rather loudly at the same time.
“Sorry?” Laigh replied.
“You said that you became joint leader of the Wandering Minstrels!” Bray said.
“Did I?” Laigh asked, pretending to have forgotten. “Well I did!” she grinned happily.
“That’s brilliant!” Amber told her, genuinely pleased for her.
“It sure is, who’d have thought it? My little Cus the joint leader of a big tribe!” Bray said, impressed.
Laigh smiled, “So what about you guys then? What been happening with the mighty Mall Rats?”
“Well,” Amber began, “A lot, actually!”
“Yeah, both good and bad things” Bray added.
“Start with the bad things, get them over and done with first” Laigh told them.
“OK, first of all Brady got ill,” Bray began. “Luckily she’s better now. Then we had a run in with another tribe, then...”
“...We had yet another run in with Max and Harley,” Amber sighed. “Harley wanted to show off their child to Lucy and Josh.”
“Well, what is it?” Laigh asked. “Boy, girl or monster?”
Amber laughed, “A girl, they’ve called her Maxine. Well, Harley called her Maxine anyway!”
“I knew Max wouldn’t get a say in the name,” Laigh smiled. “How are they coping?”
“Not too badly,” Bray said. “Max still isn’t interested in Harley, he’s only staying with her because of the baby.”
“He’s still in shock over your ‘death’,” Amber told her. “He said he’d never forgive himself for it. He kept going on about if it weren’t for his stupidity you would never have left and none of this would have ever happened.”
Bray looked at Laigh and said gently “There’s something we should really have told you but never got round to it.”
“What?” Laigh asked.
“Well, after you left and we told everyone you’d gone, Max was really distraught. Harley was trying to comfort him but he didn’t want anything to do with her, which upset her and so she ran off. Max couldn’t care less about her and so we kind of... Invited him to stay with us.”
“You didn’t?” Laigh asked with disbelief.
“We did. Anyway a few days later he disappeared, we eventually found him climbing a tree with some rope. He was going to kill himself because he said he couldn’t cope with any more trouble in his life.”
Laigh’s eyes widened with horror. “I can’t believe he’d do something like that! He’s usually so sensible!” she gasped. “What happened when you stopped him?”
“We talked, and he decided to go and find Harley, he was worried that she’d gone and done something idiotic herself,” Amber continued the story. “And, well the rest you can probably guess yourself.”
“Yeah, I can,” she sighed. “Anyway, what’s the good news?”
“Well, you are going to be VERY happy when you hear this,” Bray said, pausing to add suspense. “Josh and Lucy have decided to... get married!”
Laigh screamed with delight “Wow! That’s amazing! I KNEW they’d get together!” She danced around. “When’s the big day? Oh I wish I could come!”
“They haven’t made any definite plans yet, but hopefully sometime soon!” Amber grinned. “I knew that would make your day!” Suddenly baby Leia started to whimper. “Oops, it’s feeding time, we’d better get back, Bray.” He nodded and put his arm around her.
“It’s been great to see you guys!” Laigh said. “I’d better get back myself and talk to Marco.” She bit her bottom lip, “This is not going to be easy...”

Laigh found Marco sat outside her room, strumming his guitar. He looked up at her and said “Look, I’m so sorry I followed you!”
“It’s OK, Marco. Come in and I’ll tell you my story.”
They stepped inside and sat on her bed. She looked at him and took a deep breath before beginning “Well, my story begins when I was in a tribe called the Freedom Fighters...”
Marco listened intently to Laigh’s story, his face changing expression all the time. When she finally finished Marco looked at her sympathetically “I’m sorry, you haven’t had much of a happy life recently, have you?”
She nodded sadly. “I know, please don’t say you’re sorry, that’s the last thing I want you to say," she sighed.
“Is that why you couldn’t tell anyone, because you didn’t want any sympathy?” he asked.
“Yes, I was fed up with people thinking they could change everything by carrying on as normal. Faking my death was the best thing I’ve done.”
“Why’s that?” he asked.
“Because it’s given me the chance to start again, make new friends and make a new life,” she explained.
“I see,” Marco went silent. “Hey Amber and Bray seem friendly,” he changed the subject.
“They are, the next time they’re visiting I’ll introduce you to them properly.” she smiled.
“You will?” he asked.
“Sure,” she took his hand in hers and looked at him.
“Can I ask a question?” he enquired.
“Of course, go ahead,” she replied, suspiciously.
“Can I call you Laigh from now on?” he grinned.
“Yes, actually I have an idea,” she revealed. “You start calling me Laigh, then hopefully everyone else will start calling me that because they’ll think you’ve just come up with the nickname!”
“Good idea. So no one else here knows you as Laigh?” he asked.
“Well, no one except for Connor,” she admitted. “He knows my story.”
“Oh OK,” he stood up. “I think I’d better get going. It’s getting late and Dove will be looking for me.”
“OK” Laigh sounded slightly disappointed as she stood up as well.
“I’ll... See you later?” he asked.
“Yeah, later,” Laigh smiled.
Marco suddenly had the urge to kiss her and so leant over and gave her quick peck on the cheek. “Bye, Laigh!” he whispered as he opened the door.
“Bye Marco” Laigh said faintly and as he left she fell back onto her bed and looked at the ceiling. What a good day I’ve had, she thought to herself.

Episodes 10-12
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