United we are one: Chapter 1: Marylands Dilemma
time period: Sometime before the Civil War.
Maryland looked down at the little bundle of joy in her arms. She forced herself not to squeal in her excitement. "How lucky am I that Father is letting me take care littel DC while he's arguing with Mexico." She rocked the little DC in her arms. "Oh I can't wait to show you off to Pennsylvania, she will be so jealous mother of the north ha!"
Maryland gently place the miniature version of America down in a cradle. "Now you be good while big sissy gets dress, we want everything to be perfect so we can show her up don't we."
The baby cooed in response.
Maryland quickly ran into her room. She quickly put on some powder and perfume. She tied her red hair up in a pretty blue bow, and put on her blue formal dress.
"Perfect." She said smiling. Everything was perfect.
She called for a carriage and before you knew it they were off.
Before no time they made it to Pennsylvania's old brick house. DC wiggled around in her arms as she approached her sisters house, determined to take in his new surroundings.
Maryland knocked on the door.
"I told you people I'll be ready when I'm-!" Pennsylvania stopped in mid shout, her face a second ago filled with frustration and rage turned into confusion.
"Good day Pennsylvania." Maryland chimed out. "It's been a while."
"Mary? What are you doing here?" Pennsylvania questioned, her brows furrowed. Her pale blue eyes seeming to see through Maryland. "Don't you have a party to plan or something?"
Maryland stiffened, but forced herself to continue to smile. "Well I wanted to introduce you DC." She said motioning to the baby she was holding.
Pennsylvania, eyed the baby for a moment then nodded. "My apologies, things have been pretty hectic. come on in have a seat."
Penny led her sister into the house. She let out a small sigh and ran a hand through her silky platinum blond hair.
Maryland frowned, noticing how deep in thought her sister appeared. She cleared her throat. "So dear sister where is our other siblings."
Penny thought for a moment before shrugging. "I believe Indiana and Ohio are outside picking flowers, Wisconsin is in his room taking a nap...and I believe Michigan and Illinois are in the barn tormenting the stable man."
Maryland paled slightly. "Shouldn't you be keeping an eye on Indiana, and Ohio? What if something happens?" She questioned nervously. Penny's land was a lot bigger than hers, what if little Indy and Ohio got lost?
Pennsylvania didn't seem affected by her sisters worry. "Ohio and Indy are fine it's that terror Michigan that i'm worried about." Penny turned to Mary eyeing the dress. "Now why are you dressed up like that?"
Mary put DC down on the ground, letting him crawl around. She frowned. "Is there a problem with the way I dress?"
Penny shrugged. "Guess not."
There was a loud knocking at the door.
Penny let out an annoyed grunt and headed for the door. "Yes what do you want?" She snapped.
The young gentleman at the door fumbled with an apology. "I-I'm sorry Miss Jones, but the Governor wants to see you, apparently who have gotten behind on your paperwork."
A stern frown planted itself on Pennsylvania's face. "Look I don't have time for this I have siblings I have to take care of!"
"I'm sorry Miss but we have our orders we are not to leave till you come with us."
Pennsylvania looked like she was going to argue some more, but stopped herself, she seemed to be thinking very hard about something. Finally after a moment she nodded. "Fine wait here I'll be out in a bit."
Before he could say anything she slammed the door in his face.
Pennsylvania turned to Maryland, her face set with determination. "Maryland can you do me a favor?"
"Of course." Maryland replied, wondering what her sister would need.
"I need you to look after our siblings while we are gone."
Mary's eyes grew wide. "What?"
"Just for a few hours." Penny attempted to assure her.
"Certainly you must have some help that can watch them!" Mary questioned, unease rising up within her. She knew nothing about her 5 siblings here, she only took care of little DC and that was done by the help for the most part.
Pennsylvania's face grew sterner, it was clear she was not going to take no for an answer. "The only help I have is the stable manager and half of the horses there are his anyway. Mary I have no time for this, can you please watch them for me."
Mary glanced hesitantly at DC. "Alright..."
Pennsylvania smiled victoriously. "Good, now you will need to get dinner ready, Wisconsin has premade powder for his bottle, just add water. He should be fine just check him every once and awhile. Try to keep a small distance between Ohio and Michigan they tend to get into arguments. Give Indy a piece of paper and she will be fine, now Illinois-"
There was another knocking at the door. "Miss Jones sorry to rush you but we really must be going."
Penny let out an annoyed sigh. "Alright I'm coming. If there is a emergency go to one of the neighbors, but be careful they don't know about them being states."
Before Mary could say another word Penny was out the door.
Mary glanced at DC, who was staring up at her disapprovingly.
She sighed. "Alright ah, I guess I should find a place for you to stay while I deal with the other-"
At that moment there was a loud bang and for kids ran into the room.
"Penny! Michigan threw mud at me!" One of them shouted, before coming to a complete halt. She stared at Mary in complete shock.
The three others seemed just as surprise to see her.
Mary unsure what else to do forced a smile. "Hello children." She said calmly as she looked them over.
There were two girls of course one covered in mud, the other with some splattered on her but not much. They were both wearing tattered old ugly farm clothes.
The one covered in mud, was somewhat pale but appeared healthy. She had pretty blue eyes, with small specks of brown in was hard to be sure what her hair color is but it looked
curly.
The cleaner one was a definite blond like they're father America, her hair was straight, but towards the end had a waviness to them, but her eyes were a green color with a hint of yellow.
Mary's eyes went to the two boys behind them. The first boy was wearing overalls, and looked a lot like his sisters, he had the same colored hair, that went every which way, refusing to lay down. His eyes seemed to be a mix of the two sisters, a bluish green with hints of brown.
The second boy looked nothing nothing like the other, his skin had a nice l tan to it, his hair was a dark brown with a slight curl, and his eyes was deep dark blue.
The dark haired boy was the first to speak. "Who the heck are you?"
Maryland frowned. "Really that's quite rude."
"Says the stranger in our house." The green eyed girl said, her eyes narrowed to a glare similar to Penny's.
Mary forced herself to keep smiling. "I am your big sister Maryland, Pennsylvania had to go do some paperwork and left me in charge of you."
"Lair!" The dark haired one declared. "I bet you kidnapped her, what did you do to our big sis?"
Frustration flared up inside Maryland.
"Relax Michigan, she's at least telling the half truth." The clean girl analyzed.
Michigan frowned at his sister. "How do you know?"
"Her pictured is on the mantel." The mud covered girl replied for her sister.
Michigan pouted. "Fine, but I'm keeping my eye on you!"
Maryland decided it would be best to ignore him, and focused on her sisters. She leaned down in front of the green eyed one. "You must be Ohio, it's nice to meet you." She chimed.
The green eyed girl frowned, and the blue eyed one looked like she was just smacked.
"I am Ohio." The blue eyed one whimpered.
Marylands eyes widened. "Oh I'm sorry!" She said quickly. "I didn't know sorry, please don't cry!"
"Please cry!" Michigan shouted from behind them.
"Shut up!" Ohio shouted, any sign of how sad he was a second ago replaced with angers. "You're a big jerk!"
The two instantly began to wrestle with each other.
"What are you two doing stop!" Mary shouted desperately trying to separate the two 6 year olds.
Both Indiana and Illinois watched from the side, they have seen this plenty of times before.
After finally getting the two apart Mary was greeted with the sound of crying.
"What now?" She groaned.
It was Illinois that answered.
"It's Wisconsin." Illinois said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Without a second thought Mary quickly ran upstairs, quickly followed by Indiana and and Michigan wandered off to do there own thing. Leaving baby DC alone.
Mary ran up to Wisconsin's room. "Someone get a maid!" She shouted. She picked up the three year old and began rocking him back and forth.
"But we have no maid." Ohio told her in confusion.
Mary ignored her sisters. "Shhhh" She attempted to hum a small tune. But he continued to cry. "Why won't he stop crying!?" Mary questioned, pleading for him to silence.
Ohio frowned. "Your suppose to-"
Mary ignored her. "What's wrong!"
"You're not very good at this are you?" Indy questioned.
Maryland's eye twitched. She glared down at her sister. 'cheeky little brat.' She mentally growled.
Ohio leaned forward and looked at her brother. She pulled on Mary's sleeve. "Maryland it's getting late, I think he's hung-"
"Ah yes food!" Mary suddenly shouted. She ran off completely ignoring Ohio.
Ohio shot Indiana an uneasy look, and the two followed their sister.
Mary sat the balling Wisconsin down on a chair and quickly began to dig around the pantry looking for his bottle.
"Here it is Maryland." Indiana shouted from over on the other side of the kitchen.
Maryland quickly ran over to her sister. "Thank you." She said smiling. "Now Penny said to add water...wheres the water girls?"
"It the well out back." Ohio told her.
"Oh..." Mary said frowning.
"But Penny brought in a bucket of clean water earlier." Ohio pointed to the bucket by the counter.
Mary's smile grew and she ran over to fix the bottle, before you know it she had Wisconsin in her lap, quietly feeding him the bottle.
There was knocking at the door. Carrying Wisconsin she went to the door and opened it. There stood a young couple, with them was Michigan, and Illinois.
"I believe these two are yours." The man grunted.
Mary still a little stunned, nodded. "Yes, yes they are."
"I found them running around in our fields, they're lucky they didn't hurt the plants." The man grunted again.
Mary nodded. "I'm terribly sorry! I hope they were not much trouble!" She told them shooting the boys a dark glare. "Mi-...Mitch, Lucas apologize now!"
The two boys seemed really surprised by what she called them. Illinois was the first to respond. He mumbled a apology and walked in.
Michigan (Mitch) seemed more reluctant. But after a moment he submitted. He quickly said his apology and ran inside.
The women let out a small chuckle. "They are really adorable. I'm Mrs. Zimmerman we just moved down the road. You must be Penny Jones we heard a lot about you."
Maryland shook her head. "No I'm Penny's older sister Mary. Penny had an important event to go to and she had me watch these-...little tykes. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"And you to Miss Jones. So who's this little guy?" She asked looking at Wisconsin.
"Oh this is...Wade." Mary said after thinking for a moment.
"And the girls?" Zimmerman asked.
"The one covered in mud is ah-Ella, and the green eyed one is... Peony, but everyone calls her Indy."
Ohio now deemed Ella was waving her hands wildly in a hello. Indiana seemed less happy about the name she was given but waved anyway.
Mrs. Zimmerman looked like she wanted to talk more, but her husband decided to stop her. "Well it was nice meeting you, but we need to get going."
"Of course, bye Mr. and Mrs. Zimmerman." Mary said calmly shutting the door. But, as soon as the door was shut, Mary's face twisted with anger. She turned on the two boys. "What on earth were you doing!?" She shouted.
"We were exploring the great west, and fighting Indian's." Illinois told her.
Mary's anger seemed to spark even more. "You can't just go running off like-" Mary stopped in mid sentence. Her anger turned to worry as she looked around the room. "Where's DC?
"Who?" The four asked.
"DC your youngest brother the capital!" Mary told them. She put Wisconsin down on the couch and quickly began to look around for him.
Her heart raced. If anything happened to DC she wouldn't be able to forgive herself! Unable to find them she turned to her little siblings. "Help me find find him. Ohio you stay here and watch over Wisconsin. You other three come with me.
They quickly started looking around everywhere for their baby brother. Finally a half an hour later. Mary found him fast asleep on a pile of tall grass.
Smiling She picked him up and carried him inside. The rest of the night was peaceful. Wisconsin and DC were taking a nap together, Michigan and Illinois were sword fighting with sticks, and Indiana and Ohio were playing with their rag dolls, made out of straw and old cloth.
Once again there was a knocking at the door.
An exhausted Mary went over to open it. In the doorway was Pennsylvania and...Papa?
"Howdy Mary, it's been a long time no see!" America shouted cheerfully hugging Maryland.
"Papa it's so good to see you!" Mary cried out hugging him back. "What are you doing here though?"
America shrugged. "Well I felt guilty for not being able to see you guys in a while, so I was making my way back to DC visiting your siblings as I went. When I got to Pennsylvania Penny told me you were here and I couldn't wait to see you DC, and your other siblings, awesome right!" America let out a loud laugh.
At that moment the for young states ran forward and tackled America. Mary watched as her Father laughed as the four hugged him and started telling him everything that has happened since his last visit.
Penny walked over to her sister. "I hope they were not much trouble."
Mary smiled. "No, not at all."
"Good...Now why is Ohio covered in mud?"
Song of the day: Welcome/ Old New England Home (Opening to Lady and the Tramp 2)
Next chapter. Bleeding Kansas/ Sibling rivalry (Michigan, Ohio)
Authors note: Sorry if anything seems, off hope you liked the chapter.