Chapter 1- Moving In
30 more minutes. Just 30 more minutes and it will be over. Gabriella thought as she tried to maintain the last bit of sanity she had left in her brain. Unfortunately, her sixteen year old mind couldn't handle this for much longer.
Not only has she been stuck in a car for four hours, moving for the hundredth time in her lifetime, but she was sitting next to a baby who had been crying for two whole hours! You would think that the baby's voice would be gone by now, but no. It was still as strong as ever.
Of course the crying baby didn't stop her mom from taking a business call or her sister from killing her eardrums listening to her music.
"Gabriella can you please calm down the baby, I'm on the phone!" Gabriella's mother nagged
"What does it look like I'm doing!" Gabriella snapped
"Excuse me? Don't sass me!"
"Yeah yeah sorry" Gabriella brushed off her mother's answer, trying to persuade the baby to take her pacifier.
"Come on baby girl! What's wrong?" Gabriella asked the baby, Ariela. She had tried feeding, burping, and changing the child but nothing seemed to do the trick!
"This is probably illegal, but you know what? I'm desperate!" Gabi said to herself as she took Ariela out of her car seat."Shh ,Ariela it's okay." she comforted the child, gently rocking and bouncing her. The crying continued.
"Aww, come on Ri Ri! You gotta stop sometime." Gabriella whined. She looked up to see if she could get any help, but both her mother and sister were oblivious.
"Are you hungry baby?" she tried asking the baby ,even though she had already tried to feed her three times. When she put the bottle into the baby's mouth she started to drink the formula. Gabriella's body sagged in relief. Then the baby spit it out and cried some more.
"Are you kidding me?"Gabriella groaned.
This better work she thought as she laid the baby down on her arm so that her head was supported by her hand and started to pat her back. She could remember her mom patting her back when she was a little girl to help her fall asleep.
Amazingly, Ariela started to calm down after a while. By the time they were ten minutes from their new home she was sound asleep.
For the rest of the car ride to the house Gabi sat looking out the window, enjoying the silence. God knew it wouldn't last for long. Around twenty-five minutes later they pulled into their new two-story house's driveway.
"Now I want to get one thing straight before we get out of this car. You two are not going to fight over who gets what room. There is no point. If things go as planned we won't even be here that long." Gabriella's mom, Maria, informed them, "The master bedroom is mine, the one farthest away from it is the baby's. I don't want to be woken up by its crying..."
"Her name is Ariela, not it or the baby!" Gabriella inserted angrily
" Fine, I don't want to be woken up by Ariela's crying. Happy?" Maria asked
"Very" Gabi answered flatly
"Okay, the room next to Ariela's is the new mommy's" she said looking pointedly at Gabriella , " And the other is Catalina's" she finished.
They all got out of the car and went inside, exploring the new house. Gabriella found her and Ariela's rooms easily. They were both on the right side of the staircase when you went upstairs. The bathroom was conveniently right across the hall from Gabi's room. The other half of the upstairs was a mirror image of theirs, except Catalina's bathroom was smaller due to the master bathroom taking up most of the space.
Gabriella carried Ariela into her empty room in her car seat, set her on the floor, and took her out.
"Welcome to your new home Ri Ri. Enjoy it while you can. We won't be here for long."
Ariela's screaming woke Gabriella up in the middle of the night. Morning Gabriella corrected herself after she looked at her clock ,reading 3 am.
Feeding time. Oh the joy. You know if teenagers knew this would happen they wouldn't even look at each other.
She tiredly rolled out of bed and walked over to the bassinet to pick up the wailing infant.
"Shh , shh, Mommy's here" Gabriella soothed as she lifted the baby out of the bassinet. She carefully walked through the darkened hallway downstairs to the kitchen to get a bottle. Ariela's cries become whimpers while Gabriella whispered nonsense to her as she warmed the bottle.
"There you go baby girl" Gabriella said as she eased the bottle into the baby's mouth.
As she fed Ariela Gabriella thought back on how her life has been since childhood. For what seems like her whole life Gabi has always been constantly moving. She has never had any real friends before because as soon as she started a friendship with someone they would move. After this happening a few times Gabriella came to the conclusion that it was better to just stay away from everyone and isolate herself, that way no one got hurt.
One time, just one time, did she ever dare to let down her guard. Gabriella ended up staying at this one school for an unusually long time. Well, long enough for Gabi to make friends at least. This one boy had convinced her that maybe she would be there to stay. Then what happened? She got hurt.
"Well that's over anyway right Ri Ri?" Gabriella asked the eating infant. The baby gurgled in response. "Right."
After feeding and burping Ariela, Gabriella went upstairs to put her back to bed.
"Now we got to go night-night. Mommy has to go back to school tomorrow." Gabriella cooed as she set her back down in her bassinet. Why her mom decided to move in the day before school started she didn't know. You would think that you would move them in on a day where they would have at least a day of resting before going back to work, but no, not them. Well, apparently the baby didn't care that her mom had to go to school tomorrow because as soon as she was set down Ariela started to cry.
"Shh, it's okay baby. You're fine" Gabi soothed, rocking the baby in her bassinet. Desperate to get some sleep, Gabriella started to sing. She vaguely remembered hearing this song, but she really didn't care what it was at this moment .
Amazingly, the combination of the rocking and Gabriella's familiar voice soothed Ariela to sleep. Hmm. I'll have to remember this for next time Gabriella thought as she slid back into bed, and immediately fell asleep.