Chapter 14:

Terrible Two

Crushes are harmless, until they aren't~

The first few steps, Jacob walks confidently. He barely has to hang on the handrail, and Sarah is hardly holding on his bum. It's just a little slide though. He's seen other kids, and some not even bigger than him, fly down story-high waterslides, right into the deep-end. Sarah won't let him do that though, even when he starts crying, and throwing a fit.

But the third step is where trouble arises. He hadn't actually realized how tall the little slide was from the ground. It sure didn't look as big as what it did now. He freezes up on the step and looks frantically back at Sarah, who is hovering behind him.

"It's ok Jacob. You can do it." With a warm smile and even warmer hands, she picks Jacob up and sets him at the top of the slide. He settles into the hard plastic, and his feet bang against it in impatience: his fear already replaced with excitement. Sarah's afraid he'll go flying off; she's taking her precautions.

Finally, Sarah let's go of her son, and immediately he goes flying down the slide. His breath catches in his throat, and Jacob cries out in surprise. It's much, much bigger than he had anticipated. A wall of water sprays up into his face, and he gasps when it goes up his nose. He coughs it out then looks in the direction where he last seen Bella. Sure enough, her little brown head is bobbing in the water a few feet from where he landed, but her back is to him.

She didn't see.

There's clapping from behind him, but its only Sarah. Jacob sighs.

He's been trying to get Bella's attention the entire afternoon, and no matter what he does, she doesn't notice. Going down the waterslide had been the last straw. He decides to just play with mommy for the rest of the party; however, he does make an effort to scream just a little too loudly when Sarah's arms wrap around him.

"Good boy Jake," she whispers and plants a little kiss on his cheek. She rests him on the curve of her hip and carries him out of the water, ignoring his protests along the way. Carefully, Sarah sets her son on one of the plastic chairs that the pool provided them with and ties a loose knot around his waist with her sweater to prevent him from sliding out. It's an old trick that Sue taught her. It works wonders. The boy can't figure out how to undo it either.

"You nearly gave me a heart attack." Sue mutters from an adjacent chair as soon as Sarah sits down. She's reclining back with her feet propped up on one in front of her; she exudes carelessness. Her daughter, swimming out in the deep-end, has screamed for attention for the past twenty minutes. Sue already knows it's just one of her tricks, it's intention to make her jerk out of her chair and run to her aid, only for her to burst out into laughter the second she comes near. Sarah worries for the time when she really needs her.

"How?" Sarah asks, looking at her friend curiously. If anything, it's Sue giving Sarah the heart attack. Nervously, she glances out to where she last seen Leah, to see her bobbing calmly in the waves. Thankfully, she's lost interest in her little game, just like Sue predicted.

"You let Jacob slide down the baby thing without holding him. He could have hit his head against the tiles at the bottom and cracked it open. It's not something I can say I want to see. I don't think I can deal with your crying either Sarah."

"Well he didn't know did he? And what about Leah! She's the one in the deep end while she's hardly over four feet tall!"

"She's tough," Sue mutters around a mouthful of stale Pringles, "She takes after her father. Nothing fazes them. Plus, there's like a hundred lifeguards around. Some of them pretty hunky too."

Sarah snorts out a laugh, and then quickly covers her mouth in embarrassment, "Remember that father figure you were talking about earlier? He's your husband."

"Don't tell me you haven't been looking either," Sue smirks and shovels a few more Pringles into her mouth. Her appetite sure has picked up within the last week, "Is it cake time yet? I'm starving." She eyes the purple and blue unicorn cake across the table with longing.

Sarah glances down at her watch. 3:30. Only half an hour longer until freedom. She can't wait. "Yeah. I guess it's about time. But remember Sue…the kids have to have a piece first. If there are extras after seconds then you can have some."

Sue grumbles something that sounds like 'fine', and Sarah calls in the ten kids (Sarah's surprised Bella managed to make so many friends in such a short amount of time). She wraps a towel around the owners, and leads the birthday girl to the head of the table. The shivering girl slinks into her seat, and nervously wrings her hands together; she never has been good with focused attention.

Sarah places in front of her, and Bella's little face breaks out into a huge grin. All of the other little bodies hover around her, gasping at the supposed magnificence of the cake.

Jared, who Sarah can she can only identify by the scribbles of permanent marker on the backs of his arms as he looks like every other five-year-old boy on the reservation, sits right beside her. He pokes her so hard in the forearm that she nearly tips out of her chair. "THAT LOOKS JUST LIKE THE PICTURE YOU DREW ME," he yells excitedly, hopping in place. He's also easily identified by the obnoxious intensity of his voice.

Bella grins up at him, giggling, "Except I was trying to draw you a puppy."

He shrugs, "It's still my favorite," he glances back at Sarah. The way he holds her eye tells her he's surely going to be a ladies man some day. In fact, it looks like he already is. A few of the other girls swarm him wherever he goes, "Don't we have to sing 'Happy Birthday'?"

"Yes, yes of course!" Sarah answers flustered. She had nearly forgotten. From behind her, Sue chuckles. Sarah starts the chorus and the other little voices follow along. It's so loud, and off-key that all the other parties turn to look at them. Bella, however, refuses to look anywhere but at her feet.

Finally, the song's over and Bella blows out the candles. All of the other kids laugh when she fails to blow out two, rewarding her with two boyfriends. Bella blushes so much, Sarah's afraid she'll pass out. She's just moved the cake aside so she can cut it, when the twins yell out for her attention.

"MOM! LOOK!" Rachel screams from the top of the largest waterslide. They had refused to eat cake with the little kids, so Sarah had let them swim a little longer. Rachel flops to her stomach and rushes down the slide so quickly it makes Sarah cringe. She lands in the water with a huge crash, and bursts to the surface with her arms above her head, wearing a pleased grin. Sarah claps for her, and turns around just in time to see Jacob's fist digging into the centre of the cake, right where the unicorn's face is.

For a moment she doesn't know what to do, she just stands there in shock. Eventually, she lets out a shriek and quickly pulls Jacob back. Happily, he stuffs his face with the cake he managed to grab, and holds out his hand for her to take a bite.

"Looks like his terrible twos are starting a few months early," she mutters miserably while Sue laughs at her expense. From across the table, Sarah can see Bella's upper lip quiver, and the rest of the kids have all gone quiet. Jared wraps his arm around Bella's bare waist and whispers something in her ear, making her crack a smile.

They manage to scrap enough cake to feed everyone, except Sue. She glares at Sarah for the rest of the party.

Back at home; Bella sits in the middle of her haul. She got a few Barbie dolls, and Barbie things; coloring books, markers, books, and a cute little stuffed bunny. But she doesn't seem to notice any of them, except for a handmade scrapbook that she has propped open on her crossed knees.

Billy, who had been able to attend the part because of work, stands behind her, "Whatcha reading Bella?"

Bella grins over at him and hands him the book. Carefully, he flips through it. It's filled, with page after page of drawn pictures, "Who made you this?"

"A boy," Bella whispers to her toes.

Billy chuckles, he hasn't dealt with crushing girls in a long time and he liked it that way. The twins are still convinced boys have cooties. "Does Bella like this boy?"

She blushes and nods, then quickly shakes her head.

Billy laughs and hands her back the book. He hopes her little crush won't cause problems later.

Terribly sorry for this taking forever. .~.