"Baby, I know you're upset," Lena said gently, holding out a hand to her sobbing daughter. "But your Belle dress is dirty and you need to wear something else to school today." She tentatively rubbed Mariana's shoulder, which was enough to set her off again. The little girl flailed her arms to push her mother's hand away, and began punching the bed, still wailing. Lena sighed, withdrawing and rubbing her temples. She believed it was best to let children cry it out, and then soothe them and move on. However, Mariana had been 'crying it out' for the last twenty minutes, and she was afraid she'd be late to work.
"What's going on in here, huh?" Her partner's voice at the door was a gift from heaven.
"Mariana, can you tell Mommy what's wrong?" Lena tried, but Mariana continued to bawl and pound on her bed. "Her princess dress is dirty," Lena explained to Stef, "and she refuses to wear anything else, even a different yellow dress." Stef bit her lip to hold back a laugh. "It's not funny, Stef! She's been screaming for twenty minutes!"
"I know, love," Stef said reassuringly, kissing her partner on the cheek. "Why don't you go down and eat breakfast with the boys, and I'll try with this one for awhile, okay?"
"You're an angel," Lena replied honestly, kissing Stef before leaving the room. She started downstairs with a sigh, glad to smell that Stef had cooked something for their sons, however sketchy the blonde woman's cooking skills might have been.
"Mariana," Stef said warningly, "if you don't pull yourself together by the time I count to five…" She trailed off, sure the little girl's imagination could think up much better consequences than she could. Her daughter, still fighting against nothing, turned to look at her. "One." Mariana stopped punching. "Two." She sat up, wiping at her face. "Three." She sucked in a deep breath, and managed to stem the flow of tears. "There's a good girl," Stef comforted, crossing the room to sit next to her baby. Mariana instantly crawled into her lap, pressing her sweaty, tearstained face into her mom's chest. "Hey, baby," Stef whispered, kissing the top of her head. "Want to tell me what's going on here?"
"I gotta be pretty," the little girl choked out, her words muffled by her mother's uniform.
"What's that, sweetheart?" Stef turned her daughter's chin up with a gentle finger.
"I gotta be pretty," she repeated, swallowing hard.
"Baby, you are pretty," Stef said, a little shocked.
"Only in my princess dress," Mariana asserted. "I gotta wear my princess dress or I won't have any friends."
Stef's jaw dropped. Never had she heard her little girl talk like this. "Mariana, that's ridiculous, sweetie. Lexi's your friend."
"But Lexi's pretty," Mariana whimpered.
"You're pretty too, love."
"But not pretty enough."
"Mariana, you're pretty on the inside," her mother assured her, kissing the top of her head. "You're pretty on the outside too," she ruffled her hair, "but that's much less important that this." She tapped on her own chest.
"My chest?" Mariana asked wonderingly.
"Your heart," Stef replied, smiling. "You could be absolutely, stunningly beautiful - and you are - but it wouldn't matter a whit if you didn't have a good heart. And you know what, Mariana?"
"What?"
"You have the best heart."
Mariana wrapped her arms tighter around her mom's waist. "I didn't mean to hit Mama," she whispered sadly.
"I know, baby," Stef said, "and so does Mama. But when we go down for breakfast you can apologize to her, okay?" Mariana nodded. "Now, let's get dressed, okay? How about you pick out something?"
Mariana got up slowly and went over to her closet, where she shyly pulled down a blue flower-print dress. Then she went to her dresser and pulled out a pair of darker blue leggings. Stef whistled.
"Quite the outfit there, my dear," she admired. "You'll be very pretty today. Let's put it on, huh?"
"Mommy?" Mariana asked quietly, as her mother removed her pajamas gently.
"Yes, baby?"
"Will I be pretty on the inside too?"
"Always, my love. Always."