Drowsy in the early morning, Schuyler woke up from bed, didn't move for a while but just rubbed at her eyes before slowly getting up out of bed; she started a bath and stared at her reflection in the mirror. How much she's changed from six years ago, then she was a fifteen year old, newly Blue Blood, now she was twenty one years old, a single mother whose hair was shorter and curlier every day. Her eyes were the same color, and her skin wasn't always as healthy as it used to be, her main priority wasn't her looks, but her daughter now.
She ran her fingers through her hair and grabbed a toothbrush and started to get into her morning routine. Brush. Clean. Brush. Undress. Bathe. Dry. Blow Dry. Curl. Dress.
Ready for the day to come, a little before seven, Schuyler walked out of her bedroom, into the living room and turned a corner, down the narrow hallway, and turned on her right through the doorway into the kitchen, she went into the kitchen cabinet and got a bag of Folgers and started to make her coffee for the day, and then she turned around and put a pop tart into the toaster before walking back into the narrow hallway and walked to the bedroom at the end of the apartment, right across from the front door, and she opened the door and knocked on it with it open wide.
"Wake up honey, its morning," she told her daughter, and saw the little, fragile body under the covers roll onto the side and then groan in the morning fear.
"Already?" She groaned, but Schuyler just smiled and turned back to the kitchen to start making a bowl of Lucky Charms for her.
"Little girl Bella, come on darling," she sang out of the kitchen as she was getting finished with the bowl of cereal and turned around on her heel to the right and with the bowl in her hand, she placed it on their long, rectangle dining table and then called out again. "Isabella, come on, at least it's a Friday, and then you have the weekend and only two days next week before Thanksgiving break!" Schuyler reminded her as she stood in her bedroom, leaning against the door, staring at her six year old daughter lie in her bed, under the safe, comfortable covers.
"Ugh, fine, I'll get up," Bella said and then jumped out of bed in her cute, pink pajamas with the different colored roses printed on it. Her golden blonde hair ruffled in the morning and her bright blue eye, eyes like Schuyler's, still awakening.
"You have cereal on the table," Schuyler told her and then went back into the kitchen, grabbed her pop tarts from the toaster and then pushed the play button on the phone machine, not remembering the last message she had heard, but that didn't play this time, something else did.
"Hey Sky, it's… It's Bliss," her half sister said over the phone. "I'm sorry it's been so long," chills were going down Sky's spine. No, no, it's a dream – she's dead, she's dead Schuyler chanted in her head, no, no, this is just a nightmare or a prank or a… oh god. He was telling the truth.
"I've missed you so much, and I wish to see you again, see… the whole Mimi and Kingsley thing happened and Jack hired that private eye, I just had to take my chance. My chance of speaking with you, though that's not happening right now… Look, just call me back, okay? I really miss you, and I… I just had to try," and the phone call ended, as well did Schuyler's breath.
