A/N: Hey y'all, I've been trying to get back into writing, but can't seem to find my muse when it comes to Be My Baby or An Affair to Remember. I cannot say yet if I will update them, it just depends on if I ever get inspired to do so. I have had this story idea floating around in my head so I have decided to go ahead and write it. I hope you enjoy it!
It was a little past five in the morning when Shelby's phone vibrated against the wooden bedside table. She let out a low groan and peeked an eye open just enough to get a glimpse of the alarm clock. Her groan became frustrated, realizing she had an hour left of sleep before she needed to be up in order to get breakfast made before having to wake her children for school. The phone had only vibrated five times and Shelby decided to try and go back to sleep. She would check the text message later.
Shelby snuggled her head into the fluffy pillows and tugged her heavy quilt to rest just at her chin. Her breath evened out and Shelby was sure she wasn't going to have a problem going back to sleep. This thought was short lived and seconds later, her bedroom door was thrown open, bouncing off the door stop as three sets of feet made their way over to the king sized bed.
"Mommy!"
Shelby's eyes flew open just in time to see Rachel flying through the air after jumping from the edge of the mattress. Somehow, she managed to catch the girl before Rachel could land on top of her. She moved Rachel to be beside her and she sat up, waiting for Quinn and Santana to climb on the bed.
"What on earth are you three doing up this early?" Shelby groggily asked, trying to rub the sleep from her eyes. "You don't have to be up for school for another hour and half."
"There's no school today!" Quinn cheerfully clapped her hands. "It snowed!"
"It snowed?" Shelby questioned. While she was aware it was supposed to snow an inch or two overnight, that surely wasn't enough for school to be cancelled.
"Yeah, it's really, really high! You can't even see the mailbox!" Santana said, her eyes wide.
Shelby assumed the three year old was exaggerating, but still, her interest was peeked. She carefully swung her legs off the side of the bed, making sure not to knock either Quinn or Santana in the head. She slipped her bare feet into her house shoes and grabbed her white, fuzzy robe off the hook that was on the back of her bedroom door as she stepped out of the room. As she entered the hallway, she stopped and turned to the three girls just inches behind her.
"Quinnie, would you please get my phone for me?" Shelby asked the four year old.
Quinn gave Shelby a quick nod and hurried off to fetch the device. By the time she returned to the hallway with the phone, her mom and sisters were at the stairs. She picked up speed, running as fast as she could to catch up.
Shelby heard the rushed foot steps and turned to face Quinn with a raised eyebrow. The blonde quickly slowed her pace, giving her mother a sheepish look in return. Placing her hands on her hips, Shelby lightly lectured Quinn as the girl stood before her.
"You know better than to run inside the house, especially by the stairs." Shelby firmly reminded Quinn.
"I'm sorry, mommy, I forgot."
"Then I guess being sent to the corner isn't working anymore." Shelby replied, taking her phone from her daughter. She glanced down at her phone, reading the alert from McKinley school district, announcing classes were closed for the day. "Perhaps a trip over my knee will leave a longer lasting impression. What do you think?"
Quinn's hands flew to her backside and she frantically shook her head. "No, I don't want a spanking."
"I suggest this be the last time you 'forget' about not running in the house."
"Yes, ma'am." The girl nodded.
"Good." Shelby motioned for Quinn to walk past her. The moment she did, Shelby took a strong hold of her upper arm and landed a single, spine straightening swat to Quinn's bottom.
"Ow!" Quinn howled, rocking on to the tips of her toes. A thin line of tears welled up in her eyes.
"Just a little helpful reminder." Shelby kissed the top of Quinn's head and held her hand as they descended the stairs.
Quinn scowled the entire way down the stairs and when Shelby let her hand go at the bottom landing, she crossed her arms over her chest.
It wasn't unusual for Quinn to be mad after receiving swats or a full spanking. Unlike her sisters, most of the time after being punished, Quinn would spend at least two hours, sometimes more, with a sour attitude. Shelby did not acknowledge the poor behavior much during those times, knowing it would only cause Quinn to act out even more, leading to a second round over Shelby's lap. Besides, it was only fair to let Quinn deal with the aftermath of a spanking in her own way, just like she let Santana and Rachel, who both were clingy and whiney after being punished.
After letting go of Quinn's hand, Shelby moved to the front door, where Santana and Rachel were waiting rather impatiently, eager to show their mom the snow fall from the night before. She unlocked the deadbolt and the handle, then opened the door.
Shelby chuckled softly. She had been right that Santana was exaggerating the amount of snow, however, there was a decent amount of it that cancelling school had been a good call. And thanks to Lima's city snow plows, their mailbox was, in fact, covered by the snow, just as Santana had stated.
"See, mommy," Santana said, stepping out onto the snow covered porch and pointed to the mailbox. "It's gone!"
"Santana Alexa!" Shelby shrieked, plucking the dark-haired girl off the porch. "You don't have shoes on."
"The cold never bothered me anyway." Santana shrugged with a cheeky smile.
Shelby rolled her eyes and closed the front door. "There will be no going outside without proper attire."
"I'm gonna get my boots!" Santana exclaimed and turned to go to the closet, but she was stopped by Shelby.
"We will play outside later." Shelby said. "The sun is not quite up yet and besides, we haven't had breakfast."
Shelby ushered Santana towards the kitchen and ran a hand through Quinn's messy blonde curls as the girl followed her sister. A small hand tugged at the pockets of her sweat pants and Shelby glanced down at Rachel.
"Up, mommy?" Rachel quietly asked.
"Sure, baby" Shelby obliged and lifted Rachel into her arms, carrying her to the kitchen.
She placed Rachel in her chair and pushed the five year old up to the table. Santana and Quinn were already head first in the pantry, digging out their favorite cereal.
"Girls. come sit down." Shelby moved to the fridge and gathered several items.
She shook her head lightly as the two little girls groaned at her instructions. As she retrieved a mixing bowl from a cabinet, she cast a quick glance at the pair, making sure they had listened and sat down. After making sure Santana got into her booster seat without any trouble, Shelby's attention was turned back to making breakfast, satisfied that she did not have to get on to either girl for disobeying.
There was a brief moment of silence throughout the kitchen while Shelby whipped together breakfast and the girls sat at the table. Although, it did not last long. Santana and Rachel were keeping themselves occupied, using the salt, pepper, sugar and cinnamon sugar shakers as goal posts and a corner of a napkin Santana had torn off and crumbled up as a ball. The two were using their pointer and middle fingers as legs to complete their makeshift game of soccer.
Quinn, still in a bad mood from being swatted, watched her older and younger sister play their silly game with narrowed eyes. She did not understand how Santana and Rachel found the game fun. Her glare deepened as her sisters quiet game turned louder and the two full out giggled and squealed as they tried to block the opposing player from scoring a goal.
With a slightly harder than intended flick of her pointer finger, Rachel sent the balled up napkin flying across the round table and it landed in front of Quinn.
"Sorry, Quinnie." Rachel apologized and leaned forward to grab the piece of paper. Quinn's hand shot out and snatched the napkin before she could could reach for it. "Hey, Quinnie, give that back!"
"No." Quinn smirked.
Santana and Rachel watched with wide eyes and dropped jaws as the blonde shoved the napkin in her mouth.
"Quinnie!" Santana screeched, drawing out the older girl's name.
"What is going on over there?" Shelby asked, looking over her shoulder.
"Quinnie took our soccer ball and put it in her mouth!" Rachel said, pointing her finger at the offending girl.
"I did not!" Quinn huffed, sitting back in her chair.
"Yes, you did!" Rachel shouted.
"Rachel, do not shout," Shelby admonished and then eyed her middle daughter. "Quinn, did you take their ball?"
"No." Quinn shortly said.
"Then where did it go?" Shelby raised a brow, knowing full well she was lying.
"I don't know. I didn't take it." Quinn bit. "You always blame me for everything. They are the ones annoying me."
"You know very well that I do not blame you for everything." Shelby said, noticing the other two girls had created a new soccer ball and were back to playing their game as if nothing had happened. She decided to drop the topic for now, but made a mental note to talk to Quinn about lying to her later on. She returned to making breakfast. "I also don't think they are truly annoying you, I think you're still a bit upset about what happened upstairs."
"I am not."
"Okay." Shelby rolled her eyes at Quinn's tone of voice. Yes, the four year old was most definitely still mad. That was okay though.
Quinn stared at Shelby's turned back for several long seconds, then spit the now chewed up napkin in her hand and stuck it to the underside of the table. She looked at Shelby one more time before she reached over and grabbed the new ball Santana had made and put it in her mouth.
"Quinnie!" Santana angrily said. "Mommy, Quinnie did it again!"
"Did not!"
"Yes, you did!" Santana stood up on the inch or so of chair that peaked out from under her booster seat and leaned forward on the table. "You are being mean!"
"You're right." Quinn smirked. "Here, you can have it back."
Shelby dropped the spatula in her hand on the counter and turned around, taking three, long strides to the table. She sat the three year old down and bent over to get the other half of the buckle to strap Santana in.
By the time Quinn processed what was happening, it was too late. The soggy napkin had already left her mouth. Rachel and Quinn watched in horror as the spit ball flew through the air, landing right smack-dab on Shelby's forehead.
Shelby was about to lecture Quinn on her behavior, but feeling something hit her in the face stopped her. She straightened up and wiped her forehead. Her eyes darkened at the spit ball and she raised her head to look at Quinn, who was trying to make herself disappear as if she had magical powers.
"Ew" Santana loudly grimaced, making the cutest 'yuck' face Shelby had ever seen, but the woman had other things to take care of at the moment.
"Mommy, I-" Quinn stammered.
Shelby raised her hand, pointing to the empty corner beside the sliding door of the kitchen. "Go. Now."
Quinn slid out of her chair, choosing to go behind Rachel, rather than Santana to stay out of Shelby's reach. She put her nose in the corner, chewing on her bottom lip as she listened to her mom tell Rachel to put the shakers back where they belonged at the center of the table. Tears welled up in her eyes, realizing she was in a whole lot of trouble.
Ten minutes passed and finally Shelby let Quinn out of the corner. The little girl took her time in getting to the table, trying to gage Shelby's face, wondering just how mad the woman was. She climbed in to her chair, which happened to be to Shelby's right. The woman pushed a cup of milk towards her and Quinn accepted it, taking a long drink.
Shelby did not mention any part of the incident while they ate breakfast and instead focused on Santana. Though the girl was three years old, she had a tendency to get most of her food on her, and not in her mouth. As breakfast came to an end, things seemed to have gone back to normal, especially Quinn, who apparently figured out that it would be in her best interest to get out of her foul mood. She was in enough trouble as it was.
As each of the girls finished their waffles and eggs, Shelby directed them to put their dishes in the sink and to wash their hands. She helped Santana out of her booster seat and told her to stand in line behind Rachel to wash her hands. After the girls were cleaned up, Shelby used her foot to push the step stool they had used to the side so she could wash her own hands. She took the hand towel from Santana and dried her hands, then followed her daughters into the living room.
"You may play for an hour, and then I know three little girls who have messy rooms that need to be cleaned." Shelby said, curling up on the couch with the remote.
"Awe, I don't want to clean." Rachel dramatically whined, throwing her head back.
"Me either," Santana crossed her arms. "Cleaning is for losers and mommies."
"And teenagers." Quinn said, slumping on the couch beside Shelby.
Shelby tugged Quinn to snuggle into her side and kissed the top of Quinn's head when the girl melted into her. "I do recall giving three teenagers all week to have their rooms clean by the time they went to bed Thursday night or else I would be doing it for them on Friday."
"It's not my fault big Quinn didn't listen." The blonde pouted.
"Be that as it may, you're each going to help me clean your rooms." Shelby said, "Because as I also recall, there were toys and little girl clothes scattered around the bedrooms too."
"I still don't want to clean." Rachel mumbled as she pulled a few Barbies from the toy box.
"Then I don't want to go out to the garage to find our sleds." Shelby shrugged her shoulders as three eyes lit up.
"I wanna go sledding!" Rachel gasped.
"Me too!" Santana jumped up and down excitedly.
"And me!" Quinn piped up.
All three of them knew sledding also meant they would stop and get a special treat on the way home.
"Oh, no," Shelby shook her head. "If rooms aren't clean, I can't find the sleds. So I guess we will just stay home all day and not get to go outside and play and then get hot chocolate from Starbucks."
"I'll clean!" All three exclaimed.
Shelby let out a small chuckle. Sure, the girls were agreeing to clean now, but the moment she sent them upstairs, they'd be singing a completely different tune. Still, she had a hot chocolate bribe to hang over their heads.
Thank you for reading! I would really appreciate any feedback! I know this chapter wasn't much, but I promise in the next chapter or two, more about their family situation will be explained.
Thanks again!
