Hello Strangers!

This is a continuation of the sisters' childhood. I have always been curious about Bella's childhood- I mean, I could kind of imagine what things were like for her when she went to Charlie's for the summer. But what about the time she spent with Renée in Phoenix? What was that like?

Anyway, happy reading!


Chapter 3. Instigating line of thinking

Bella's pov:

Bella remembered being in this room before. She remembered the light blue walls, the peaked wooden ceiling and the lace curtains that hung around the window. She remembered being here a lot with her Annie. And she remembered her mommy's soft tones and a more distant lower tone which she knew belonged to the man who was now talking to that elderly lady in the open doorway. She knew she knew him because his colours and face was familiar to her Annie's. She'd been held by him a couple of times already and she's also seen her Annie be held by him too.

Bella didn't know the older woman, but she reminded Bella a little of her mommy's mommy so she was sure that she was okay. The older woman made a lot of noises like her mommy did too. She didn't understand what most of it meant but sometimes she pulled a funny face while talking and it would make Bella happy.

"Dada wook!" Her Annie said loudly from next to her and Bella let out a hum in response. She remembered that word too! Mommy would always leave the room when it was said- was her Annie also aware that their Mommy hadn't been around for a while now?

The familiar man let out a happy sound and walked closer to them, sinking to the floor in front of them. "Yes, Dada needs to go to work for now- but I'll be back soon. Be nice to Mrs. Galvaz, alright?" He then kissed the both of them on the head like their Mommy and Mommy's mommy does and left the room.

The fun bright pink ring was laying next to Bella and she reached for it with her chubby fingers- wobbling slightly as she moved closer and then eventually managed to grab onto it. Bella liked the ring because it made a rattling noise when she shook it.

The unfamiliar woman chuckled and settled herself down with them on the soft blue blanket. "Hola querida niñas. Your papi told me a lot about you two."

"Dada." Bella heard her Annie said, "Dada, home?"

"Oh! Your papi is going to work for now but he'll be back soon enough." The older woman let out a happy sound, "I don't think I've ever seen him less reluctant to go to work."

Her Annie made a happy sound and Bella squealed back, happy that her Annie also liked the noise of the pink ring. She turned to look at her Annie and made another sound, the ring in her hand rattled loudly.

The elderly woman chuckled again at the excitement, "It seems Bella enjoys her play time. Wouldn't you like to play too Annie?"

"Dwaw." Her Annie replied back steadily.

"Dwa?" The woman repeated confused.

Her Annie nod and pointed her little chubby finger at something behind the woman.

"Oh! Draw. Bien, I'll let you draw." The older woman chuckled and moved away from them.

Bella recognized the things the older woman was gathered- her Annie was always playing with those little sticks and making colourful lines. Bella liked to colour too but found it hard to make her lines as pretty as her Annie could. She didn't know what her Annie did to make her lines resemble things but she was sure that eventually she'd get it too. Bella hummed loudly and confidently, swinging her rattling pink ring about once more and giggled.


Renée's pov:

Renée breathed out a long shaky breath as she shut her car door.

It was the day she had been waiting for for years. She was finally- finally- moving out of her mother's home. And hopefully, this time, it was for good.

She tiredly rested her forehead on the steering wheel and took in a deep breath- the familiar scent of sugary candies and that oddly specific, stuffy car smell her Honda Civic seemed to carry brought some comfort. The last time she left her mom's house had been when she'd gotten so sick of the woman's frigid attitude that she practically jumped onto the first offer that got her to leave. She hadn't known Jenny Johnson long- having only officially met the girl in senior year when they had to do a History project together… But Renée had liked her well enough and the thought of living with witty little Jenny had been much more attractive than staying with her disagreeing mother. So the decision had been made for her really… Renée wondered what Jenny was up to these days. She wondered if she still possessed the same drive to becoming famous. Renée sure had never seen her in any movies. So perhaps she'd decided on work on her writing instead? Or maybe she finally found herself a nice guy to hook up with? Renée had always thought it weird how Jenny never cared to flirt with any of the guys when they went out, seemingly preferring hanging back with the other girls at the parties- shy, Renée had believed, and yet Jenny was always the first to insist on staying just a little bit longer...

Renée decided to call the girl sometime in the near future- she believed she still had Jenny's number somewhere in her cell… Wait, did she pack her cellphone? Renée furrowed her brow and shot back up straight in her seat, patting down the pockets on her thin jacket and sweat pants. A lump in her sweats told her that her cell was present and accounted for- she hummed feeling pleased.

She'd packed everything then. Her old bedroom was empty in her mother's house and all of her girl's things were already packed into the back of her car. It was a good thing that she managed to plan the 'moving-in' during the summer months. Charlie was always happy to take their girls off of her hands and Renée found that she liked the idea of spending the next few years with a couple of 'child-free' weeks during the summers- now secretly intended to make a tradition out of it. She liked to think that she deserved it. Being a mother while also working a full-time job was simple exhausting. She could kind of understand why her own mother had turned out the way she did- though Renée had long since promised herself that she would never allow herself to end up the way her mother did… No, she wanted to be the kind of mom that she would've just loved to have as a child. A fun mom- someone who was willing to bend the rules a little and would take her daughters' on fun trips every few weeks to keep thing from becoming too dull.

Renée smiled to herself in the rearview mirror and felt her confidence surge. She switched on the ignition, felt the car growl to life beneath her and grinned widely as her radio instantly turned up on her Blondie CD. It took her three attempts to properly turn out of the driveway- the boxes on the backseat blocked her vision just enough to be troublesome. Once she did manage though she speed off to her future in the sun with no further backwards glances.

Two days later, she pretended that her phone run out of battery right after her mother called to inform her that one of her garden lights had been trashed.


Brandon's pov:

It had been a while since the young girl had come into his classroom but Brandon was starting to wonder why little Annie seemed so unwilling to socialize with other children her age- well, others than her twin sister that is.

He figured that it wasn't because she was shy, per say. He'd gone to talk to her plenty of times, had seen her interact easily with the other kids and had even seen her walk up to another teacher on a few occasions. So, no, it wasn't that she was shy. Yet every day, this little girl seemed to prefer to sit alone in a corner of the classroom, either reading one of the picture books or drawing.

That was another thing which struck Brandon as strange. Annie's drawing weren't anything like what the other kids made- sure, she drew the usual things; animals, furniture, vehicles, shapes… But there was always something slightly off with the way she drew them. She would fill the pages, either constantly repeating the same picture over and over again until she ran out of space or she would switch colours around, neatly filling in every inch of the paper. It was… too evenly spaced, he realized. Too neat for what he'd seen other kids her age do. Annie's drawings were… Brandon hardly believed it himself but he got the feeling that she was purposefully doing it. Like she was trying to hide something…

Imagine that- a five year old girl. What in the heavens would she have to hide? Absolutely ridiculous, of course.

And yet, at the end of each day she would tear up all the drawing she'd made- safe for the few that somehow seemed to have passed some kind of evaluation that Brandon couldn't even begin to understand.

Which brought up yet another odd thing- Annie went through her day like clockwork. Most kids her age would get caught up in whatever they were playing with and forget the time. Brandon always had to bring the class to attention, multiple times, to announce when he was about to start a group activity or if they were about to have a break- sometimes he even had to do this when they were nearing the end of their school day… But it was as if Annie was aware of the planning. Brandon knew of some kids who learned how to read the analog clock a little earlier on than the others- but none of them actively kept an eye on the time like little Annie did.

"I'm telling you, Cyn, either that kid is a genius or a demon."

"Brandon, don't call one of your kids a demon." His coworker- Cynthia- scolded at him with disinterest, the two of them were finishing off some paper work that had accumulated over the course of the week and were now driven to have it all cleared off before their weekend started. "I'm sure she's nothing of the sort."

"You have no idea how creepy that kid can be." Brandon defended himself, though there was no heat behind his words- he was mostly joking anyway… though not really. "Sometimes I catch her just… staring at me. But not in the way Elijah did- that was adorable since he thought I was Ironman… No, little Annie's stare is like that of a dead fish-"

"Brandon!" Cynthia snapped, sending him a disapproving look. "I swear if you don't stop-"

"Okay, okay!" Brandon threw up his hands in surrender, "No bad mouthing the kiddos, I know. Bad Brandon."

Cynthia huffed under her breathe and took a sip from her- now probably lukewarm- coffee. "Honestly, maybe the girl is just a little bit more advanced. That's nothing to break your head over. Just tell her parents to get her checked."

"But that's the thing, Renée- you know that preppy teacher that took over classroom 5?- she's apparently Annie's mother and she told me that she's already had both her kids tested."

"Ah- so Annie isn't a little genius then?"

"Exactly."

"What? no-"

"There's only one-"

"Brandon-"

"-option left."


I really want Brandon to be a returning character.