Chapter 8: Morning Songs
"You are my sunshine, my one and only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are grey." Mommy sings, very happily. "Please don't take my sunshine away."
My eyes are closed and I roll over. The singing goes on, to wake me up. But all I want to do is sleep.
"Come on, my sunshine." Mommy lightly shakes my shoulder. "Time to wake up."
I open one eye to see Mommy's smiling face. She is very cheerful. I close my eye, now both are closed so I can go back to sleep.
"Rise and shine, Nessie." Mommy says in a sing-song voice. "It's Monday morning, today is a school day. Time to wake up."
"No thank you." I say in a sleepy voice.
It's too early to wake up, the sun is not even awake yet. But Mommy keeps trying. She keeps singing and worst of all, she's now pulling the covers off of me! I try to grab them but she is too fast. I am now laying in bed with no blakies to keep me warm. I don't like this.
Mommy's fingers start walking up my ribs. I squirm and move around. She begins to tickle me, to wake me up in a happy mood. I don't want to wake up but I'm giggling now. Her tickling hands become faster as she becomes the tickle monster and I laugh loudly.
"Okay! I'm awake!" I say between laughter as I open my eyes.
"Great." Mommy stops tickling me. "It's time to get out of bed, my squishy." She kisses my cheek.
I laugh because she keeps kissing me. But I still don't get out of bed.
"Wake up, my squishy." She kisses both of my cheeks and my whole face.
She calls me by my nickname 'squishy' because I am squishable, unlike a full vampire. When I was a baby she used to call me nedger because she said that I nudged her in her tummy a lot. But now I'm too old for that, so she calls me squishy.
Mommy starts getting crazy and starts to kiss my whole face again and again and won't stop. At the same time she tickles me again. I can't stop laughing as I try to get away from her but, she grabs me before I can even leave my bed.
"Okay! Okay! Okay! I can barely get the words out as I laugh. "Enough kisses."
"It's never enough." Mommy laughs, letting me go. She gives me one last kiss before she gets up from my bed.
I look up at her, she stands next to my bed. She likes kissing me way too much. I don't know why.
"I just woke up." I rub my eyes. "Why must you kiss me three hundred and a zillion times?"
"Because I love you so much." Mommy smiles at me. "Now, time to get dressed."
I sit up and stretch.
"I know." I look over at my closet. Over to where my unikitty outfit that has rainbow leggings and a matching tutu hangs on a hook.
All of a sudden Daddy comes into my room. I am surprised. Usually early mornings are for me and Mommy. He does other things in the living room while Mommy wakes me up. I don't know why he's in here. But I'm happy to see him.
"Good morning, my Vampire Princess." Daddy says cheerfully.
"Good morning, Daddy." I returned his 'good morning'.
Mommy smiles at Daddy as she walks over to my closet to get my outfit that I am wearing today. She doesn't seem surprised that Daddy is in my room.
Sitting up on my bed and letting my feet dangle from the side, I look at Daddy. I make one eyebrow go up, doing a question face.
Daddy does a crooked smile as he walks over to my bed. "Aren't you curious about what the Tooth Fairy brought you?" He asks, pointing to my pillow.
"Oh!" I do a happy gasp.
I almost forgot about my tooth that I left for the Tooth Fairy. Quickly I turn around, lift my pillow up and see what is there in place of my tooth. And it's a five dollar bill!
With my five dollars in my hand I jump out of bed and do a little dance.
"The Tooth Fairy came!" I shout, real happy. "She remembered."
"Of course." Daddy says.
"Tooth fairies don't forget." Mommy reminds me.
"The tooth fairy took my tooth and gave me money. Money. Money. Money. That's what the cheeky little Tooth Fairy gave me." I sing as I dance around my room.
Daddy and Mommy both giggle.
I sing my song a few more times but they are still giggling. I can't understand why. I stop dancing and look at them, they are standing together. Both of them are smiling and giggling. Why are they giggling? Did I do something funny?
"We find your dancing and singing adorable." Daddy smiles, reading my thoughts.
"It's very cute." Mommy agrees.
"Oh." I say.
I then rush over to them waving my money in the air so they can see it better. I want them to get a good look at it. Especially Daddy because I don't think he ever saw a five dollar bill before. He always has bigger money.
Daddy chuckles. "I've seen a five dollar bill." He shakes his head.
"What?" Mommy asks, looking at him.
With a smile Daddy explains to her what I was thinking. I don't know why but, she starts laughing like it's the funniest joke she has ever heard.
I feel like I'm being made fun of. I look up at Mommy with my hands on my hips, tapping my foot. This is what Grandma does when Uncle Em does something naughty. I learned it from her.
Both of my parents look at me. For some reason both of them look like they want to laugh but are trying hard not to. I don't know why.
"This is not a laughing matter." I say real seriously, letting my hands drop to my sides. "There's no funny business here."
"Of course." Mommy pats my head.
"No one's laughing at you, princess." Daddy reassures me. He looks at my hand that holds my money. "Alright! Five dollars." Daddy puts his hand up for me to high five it.
I smile real big and give him a high five.
"Time to put your money away and get dressed." Daddy says and leaves my room.
As fast as a cheetah I put my five dollars in my Minion piggy bank that's on my dresser, that's next to my sparkly gold tiara. On one foot I hop over to Mommy and take my clothes from her. She leaves my room so I can get dressed. I do speedyquick.
All dressed up I run out of my room. Mommy meets me in the bathroom to brush my hair. She puts my hair up in a high ponytail and places my rainbow unicorn bow on top of my head. It's the most beautiful bow ever. It's sparkly rainbow and looks like a unicorn horn, and best of all, it matches my outfit perfectly.
"Beautiful." Mommy says, looking at me.
I answer with a big smile.
With my hair all done I turn to skip out of the bathroom. But before I can leave Mommy stops me by putting her hand on my shoulder. I spin around like a ballerina and now she's holding my toothbrush and toothpaste.
I do a frowny face.
"It's time to brush your teeth." She says in a sing-song voice.
I do a big sad breath. She doesn't say anything. All she does is hand me my teeth brushing equipment with a giant smile.
I take my toothbrush and toothpaste from her and she cheers. I look up, giving her a crazy look. I will never understand why she acts like this is the most exciting thing in the world to do. It's not. From down the hall I hear Daddy chuckle. He must be reading my thoughts.
As I open the cap to my toothpaste Daddy walks in the bathroom.
"Bella, would you happen to know where the tape is?" Daddy asks, looking very confused.
I look at him wondering why he needs tape so early in the morning. I try to squeeze my toothpaste on my toothbrush but it won't go. I keep squeezing but nothing happens.
Mommy sees that I'm having trouble and she tries to help me but I want to do this on my own. Daddy asks her again for the tape. The way daddy asked for it the second time makes it sound like it's an emergency. I don't understand why.
"Sure. It's in the kitchen. In the drawer by the sink." Mommy answers him. She then turns to me, trying to grab my toothpaste. "Please let me help you, Ness."
"I can do it." I protest, squeezing my toothpaste even tighter.
Mommy looks at me. She really wants to help me but I am a big girl. I don't need any help. Finally the toothpaste lets me squeeze it out but, instead of it going on my toothbrush the pink stuff squirts on Mommy's shirt, the sink and all the floor.
Everybody gets quiet for a long minute.
I look everywhere the toothpaste is now. I didn't mean to squeeze the tube that hard, sometimes I forget I'm very strong. I feel sad.
"It's okay. Accidents happen." Daddy wastes no time in getting a rag and cleaning up the toothpaste mess.
Mommy looks in the mirror. "That's just great." She pulls at the bottom of her shirt and closes her eyes.
"Oops." I say, looking at Mommy's shirt that has big pink blotches all over the front.
I feel bad that Mommy is now wearing bubblegum toothpaste, even though she says it's okay. She walks out of the bathroom to go change her shirt, but not before Daddy asks her again about where the tape is. He then puts toothpaste on my toothbrush and hands it to me, telling me to brush.
I plop my toothbrush in my mouth and start brushing. I don't stop looking at Daddy. I wonder why he needs the tape really badly.
"Edward, I already told you." Mommy calls from down the hall. "It's in the kitchen."
"I looked there. Three times." Daddy sighs, very frustrated as he raises the toothpaste out of the rag. "It's not in the kitchen. Like I said, I looked."
"It's in there." Mommy does a big breath. I can tell she's in her bedroom now. "It's right next to the glue."
"The glue isn't there either." Daddy sighs.
I keep brushing while Daddy stays by my side. He's making sure I brush for a very long time. Mommy and Daddy won't leave me alone when I brush my teeth anymore. All because I once didn't brush for three days and they said I had human breath and must brush my teeth. It's really not fair, since no one in my family has to brush their teeth but me.
"That's because you're half human." Daddy answers my thoughts. "Keep brushing." He says to me, then looks over at the open door. "I really need the tape, love."
Brushing my top teeth but making sure I don't brush my gap tooth because that would hurt. I raise my eyebrow at Daddy. I know that Mommy is really good at finding missing things. After all, she did find my Pokemon card last week behind the refrigerator, that I didn't even know was missing. But I still can't figure out why Daddy seems to be panicking. Over missing tape.
"Why do you need the tape so bad?" Mommy walks in the bathroom wearing a green stripe shirt.
"It's for that Family Trait's project that's due in Science today." Daddy explains, tapping my shoulder. That's his way of telling me that I am finished brushing my teeth. "All of my pictures that I put on the poster board keep coming off. And we need to leave soon. So, I really need the tape."
Oh! Now I understand why Daddy needs the tape. It's for his school project.
Unlike me where I am homeschooled and Grandma is my teacher. My parents go to High School, even though they graduated a lot of years ago. I am in first grade and they are in 9th grade, again. That's why I have to wake up so early, because they go to school and have to get there on time.
Since Mommy and Daddy are in high school they always have a million school projects. That they have to do on the weekends. Then they have to take it to school on Monday morning.
The project Daddy needs the tape for, both of them had to do one. The project was really fun and I got to help them with it. It was all about family traits and how people in a family are alike and different.
Both of their projects were different yet the same. They had to write down different family traits that they got from their parents. Then glue family pictures to a giant poster board along with things they had to write down. I helped Daddy glue his project together. But maybe I didn't use enough glue. Or maybe it was too dry because I didn't put the cap back on like I was supposed to. I don't know.
With one eyebrow up, Daddy looks at me but doesn't say anything.
"Come on." Mommy grabs Daddy's hand. "Let's go find you that tape."
"Thank you!" Daddy sounds so happy.
I blink my eyes and they are out of the bathroom. I rinse my mouth out with fresh water and clean my toothbrush. I take a look at myself in the mirror. My face is all clean and my bow is in place. I skip out of the bathroom and down the hall.
I find my parents in the kitchen. All the draws are open and they are looking around the entire kitchen. Everything is scattered all over the place. It looks like either of them can't find the tape.
I watch both of them run around the kitchen. I wonder where the tape ran away to.
An idea pops into my head. I know how I can help Daddy but it will be a surprise. I start thinking of my favorite cartoon so Daddy won't know what I'm up to.
Just as I'm getting ready to run to my room to grab my unicorn glitter stickers, that I will stick Daddy's papers on his poster board with. The front door flies open.
"Oh dear brother! I have tape." Auntie Alice burst in the living room, holding the little plastic thing of tape in the air.
I squeal happily and run right into her arms. I'm happy to see her. She's happy to see me too. She gives me a big hug.
"Don't you look fabulous." Auntie Alice approves of my outfit.
"Thank you." I grab the bottom of my tutu and do a curtsy.
Mommy and Daddy come into the living room.
"Oh my goodness!" Auntie Alice does a dramatic gasp, looking at Mommy. "Bella, you can't wear that top with those shoes."
Daddy's eyebrows go up. He happily takes the tape from Auntie Alice and Mommy rolls her eyes.
All at once, Auntie Alice takes Mommy's hand and rushes off to go help her find a more fashionable shirt. While I follow Daddy over to the kitchen table where his and Mommy's Science projects lay. Mommy's project is all put together but Daddy's isn't. A lot of the papers and pictures fell off. It doesn't look good.
I silently lift the paper off the table that has a picture of all of Daddy's siblings and how they are like him, though everyone is adopted. Well, almost everyone. I'm on that page too as his little sister. That's because in the human world him and Mommy can't say they are my parents because they look too young. So we say he's my big brother because I look a lot like him. And that my grandparents are my parents and they adopted both of us. People believe it.
"Of course they do." Daddy answers my thoughts. "It makes sense to them so they don't question it."
I nod my head. There are a lot of things that we have to say that's not really the truth. Just so we can live in the human world.
I put the paper down that I was holding. I pick up another one. This one has his hand writing on it. I like the way he writes.
I look up at him. I wonder if he wants help putting his project back together.
Daddy smiles at me. "Would you like to help me tape everything back on?" He points to the poster board. Of course he heard my thoughts.
"Yes!" I shout happily. I love helping Daddy.
Very quickly Daddy and I tape everything back on his poster board where it's supposed to go. Once we are done Alice and Mommy are done too, they walk into the living room. Mommy is no longer wearing jeans and a shirt. She now has on a black dress that has a bunch of rainbow sparkles on it.
"Pretty." I say looking at Mommy.
"Thank you." Mommy smiles at me, then looks at Auntie Alice. "But I still think it's a little much just for going to school. I'm way over dressed."
Auntie Alice shakes her head. "Oh, Bella. When are you going to learn to embrace fashion?"
Mommy grumbles as she goes over by the front door to where our backpacks hang on hooks. She grabs her backpack.
"You look lovely." Daddy goes over to Mommy and kisses her forehead. "You should wear this dress more often."
"Thank you." She hands him his backpack.
"See?" Auntie Alice questions. "You are now ready for school. Lets go so we won't be late."
Mommy and Daddy grab their Science projects at the same time I grab my Guardians of the Galaxy backpack and put it on. Now that we have everything, the four of us step out the front floor and into the frosty early morning.
All of us started running to my grandparents' big house.
It's time for my Mommy, Daddy and uncles and aunties to go to school. While I get to spend the day with Grandma and do school at home.
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Thank you for reading. :))
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