Hi, everyone. Thanking you all for your support and kind words on our first chapter! Glad to know some of you are already enjoying this story. Here's to hoping we can keep that up!

Just an FYI: some of the chapters in this story will be backstories, setups of events from different perspectives, and different versions of the events centering different characters. This chapter is the second one of those and is a glimpse of Mercedes' life just before Sam. Here we go!

"Mercedes, girl, get your butt down here and roll out this dough."

Mercedes appeared at the bottom of the stairs. "I'm here, Grandmother." She went to put her apron on and tie back her hair. She went over to her grandmother and kissed her on the cheek. "Goodmorning."

"Mornin', Sunshine." Abeline hugged her.

"Which ones am I working on?" She asked as she went to wash her hands.

"The ones in the fridge. The hard part's already done for you." Walking over to Mercedes, she looked around as if to make sure no one could hear her. "I just finished some blueberry filling from the last ripe bushes in Mr. Herbert's backyard," she said quietly, "but you didn't hear it from me." She gave a maniacal laugh as she walked away.

Mercedes didn't know whether to laugh or gasp, so she did both. "Grandmother, that's stealing!"

"Oh, hush." Abeline waved her off. "He's so old, he probably doesn't even know what season it is to go and check for them."

Shaking her head at her, Mercedes began rolling out the cold dough. "So, I was talking to Santana last night, and she said that the cheerleading team wasn't even what it was made out to be. I'm almost glad that I didn't try out."

"I'm not. You should've gone out for that team and you should've made it. You wanted to try out, Sunshine. I know you did. You need to stop finding excuses to kick it with you grandma."

"I'm not finding excuses! I just really like helping you out here."

"And, you can do that," Abeline said. "I ain't been trying to stop you from helping me out. I need some good young hands to help out and keep this machine well oiled." She smiled. "You can run around here a lot faster than I can. But you need to get out there, Sunshine. You can't just stay up here with me all the time. You need to go out. Find yourself a house. Better yet, a man. Give me some great-grandchildren-"

"Grandmother!" Mercedes gasped.

"Or a woman, I don't care. I'm a firm believer in adoption when the plain old-fashioned way won't work. Or that thing, what's it called? Superficial regeneration. That one."

Mercedes tried to forget that her grandmother just suggested artificial insemination to a 16-year-old.

"Just make sure my great grandbaby's daddy, whoever he is, graduated college."

"Oh, my goodness, Grandmother." Mercedes felt her face get hot.

"What? I'm just letting you know, Sunshine. Your brother doesn't get to be lookin' like he's gonna give me any babies any time soon, if ever. And I don't know what Maiya's gonna do. By the time she gets to be child-bearing age, I'll probably be done left this Earth. You're my only hope, Sunshine." Abeline chuckled pitifully.

"I'm not your only hope." Mercedes smiled. "And I bet that by the time Maiya gets to be older, you'll be right here, where you've always been." She began laying the dough in the pie pans and filling them. "You're probably going to be here when I have children and they have children."

"Come over here, child." Abeline went and sat at one of the tables in the bakery not too far from the kitchen. "Let me talk to you." She watched as Mercedes stared at her. "Come on."

Oh no, time for the 'I'm on my last leg' talk. Again. I should stop doing this to myself. Mercedes went over and sat at the table across from her grandmother. "Yes?"

"Give me your hands, Sweetheart." Abeline stretched her frail, wrinkled hands out for Mercedes flour-dusted ones to grab. "Look at you." She smiled widely. "You're so beautiful. I've always said that out of all your mama and daddy's youngins, you look almost exactly like your mama. You got your mama's eyes, your mama's nose, her smarts. Got your daddy's big, bright smile, though. You filled out just like your mama, too." Abeline laughed.

"Thank you, Grandmother?" Unsure of whether or not it was a compliment, Mercedes frowned and chuckled a bit.

After pausing, Abeline continued. "You got that beautiful voice just like your mama. I swear I could listen to your voice all day. Brings back memories. Do you remember what your mama sounded like?"

Mercedes nodded. "Sometimes. She hardly ever sang for real, so it's hard to remember that, but I try as hard as I can."

"Up until the last few years of her life, your mother was happy, Sunshine. And I want all of y'all to be just as happy as she was, if not more. After having your sister, we were sure things were on the up for everyone. But then, your mom,"

"Mama got sick, wasn't getting better, and you tried everything, but no one couldn't figure out what was wrong until it was too late," Mercedes said. "You've told me the story enough times for me to remember. Plus, I was there. It's not like I could really forget."

"When she passed, the three of us, your daddy, your granddaddy, me, promised to do our best to raise you."

"Then Dad couldn't handle the pressure. He went to jail. Then, Granddad had his heart attack. And then there was one. Grandmother, I know all of this," Mercedes said. "Why are you telling me again?"

"Because, Sunshine, you got to remember how you got to where you are. I don't want you making any of the mistakes that have been made by people who came before you. Especially not me."

"Well, I know where I've come from and where I am. And just so you know, you've done a really good job. JJ's going to be a doctor because of you."

"He is. And your sister's all over the place, doing gymnastics and cheerleading and everything. She's doing so much stuff, I doubt she's going to be able to decide what she really wants to do." She laughed. "They're good. It's you that I'm worried about."

Mercedes looked down and sighed. "You don't need to worry about me, Grandmother. I'm fine."

"Child, please. I can't get you out of this bakery for nothing. I can't even get you to go out for a cheerleading team."

"I just decided it would be better not to." Mercedes pulled her hands away from her Grandmother's and rested them in her lap. "I didn't even want to be a part of a group that walks around in frilly little skirts leaving next to nothing to the imagination."

"Then play another sport or join one of the academic clubs." She patted her on the knee as if the idea had just struck her. "They've got all sorts of stuff out there at the high school. You leave here to go to school, you come back from school, you read, you do homework, you help me out here. If you're not doing that, you're locked up in your room doing only God knows what-"

"I'm listening to music," Mercedes murmured.

"I don't care what you're listening to, girl. You're not out there making a life for yourself. Soon enough, you're gonna leave this lil' place and go off to college somewhere. I want you to be ready when that time comes." Abeline was interrupted by a timer going off. "That's the Hummingbird cake. Come on. We ain't done here." She got up and marched over to the kitchen. Mercedes' grandmother always walked like a woman on a mission. "Now, hand me that frosting and go ahead and start on some of that vanilla caramel icing. I like that. It'll go well with the other cake. I gotta chop up these pecans to put on top."

"What are you baking all this stuff for? I didn't know we had any orders left to make today." Mercedes almost hesitated to ask. Her grandmother loved to bake. So much so that there didn't even need to be any actual occasion for her to whip something up. Once before, Mercedes and her little sister, Amaiya, came home to an entire sweet spread for them because her grandmother named that day National 'I Love My Granddaughters' Day. Even after giving some of the sweets away and selling them in the bakery, they were eating leftover pecan pie for a week.

"I've agreed to take in that boy I was telling you about. The one who was looking for a place to stay. I figured we could handle it. What, with your brother being gone, I need myself some strong, manly arms that are going to be around here as often as possible. I wanted to have everything squared away before he got here."

Mercedes hadn't moved an inch since 'take in that boy'. "Grandmother, you never told me you were taking him in. You told me that he might spend a couple of weekends at the bakery. Nothing ever came up about him living with us."

"Girl, stop your going on." Abeline waved her granddaughter off. "You know good and well I told you that boy was going to be living with us last week when I got the call from Shelly."

Mercedes put her hand on her hip and faced Abeline. "What day last week did you get the call?"

"I got it almost a week ago on Wednesday. You brought Maiya home, and I told both of y'all together when you walked in the door."

Mercedes sighed. "I was with JJ last Wednesday, Grandmother."

"Huh?"

"He took me shopping, remember? I dropped Maiya off and he took me back-to-school shopping to avoid the weekend traffic. I spent the night at his apartment and came home the next day."

Abeline put her hand up to her chin and put on her best thinking face. She then mumbled some words before gasping slightly. "Ahh, yes. I remember now. I told your sister I would tell you later. Never got 'round to it." She paused before clapping with a smile. "Welp, I'm taking in that boy that I've been talkin' to you about. He should be here in a few hours. Thought I should let you know." Abeline went back to chopping pecans.

"Grandma!" Mercedes was shocked. "You can't just spring something like this up on me. I can't meet anyone new right now."

"Well, you don't have to meet him today. He's gonna be living here. You'll have plenty of chances to meet him."

"Oh, my goodness. I'm going to faint." Mercedes fanned herself with a paper plate.

"No reason for fainting now. This is how the world works, Sunshine. If there's one thing about people and things, they spring. Come out of nowhere. Thing is, no matter how sudden they come about, you gotta deal with 'em and you gotta figure it out." Abeline set the chopped pecans aside and got more whole ones. "Look at me, rhyming up a storm." She grinned at herself.

"But that's then, Grandmother. That's when I'm grown up. Right now, I'm still 16. No use in me worrying about stuff like that now-"

"No use in you worrying? Girl, shut your mouth." Abeline quickly set down the knife she was using and went over to Mercedes. "The boy is coming and that's that. Now, I don't care whether you would like to meet him or not, but, unless you're not under this roof when he arrives, you're gonna meet him and you're gonna make nice with him. And that's the end of that. You understand me?"

Mercedes lowered her head in shame. "Yes, ma'am."

Abeline stood next to her granddaughter before sighing. "You know I don't mean to be ugly to you, Sunshine."

"I know."

"I'm just trying to give this boy a home and provide him with the love he can't have right now."

"I know."

"Now, the past four years have been rough on us. I've been trying my best because I've been doing this on my own. And your granddaddy, rest his soul, he was probably a better daddy than my son could've been to you with his lifestyle. He loved y'all and your mama dearly, but he just couldn't do his best."

"I know, Grandma." Please don't let her talk about Mom next, she. Mercedes's grandmother didn't always initiate back-to-back serious conversations, but when she did, she could do it like she got paid for it in another life.

Abeline walked over to the bench "I've said this here before and I'm about to say it again right now. I can't ever be the kind of mother your mother was. I don't try to be, I don't claim to be." Abeline rested her hand on Mercedes' shoulder.

Crap.

"I try to keep a roof over your head, clothes on your back, food in your stomachs, and give you all the love I have because I ain't got nobody else to give it to. I also try to give you the best of me in hopes that you'll be prepared for the things this world is going to throw at you."

Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry.

It was too late. Abeline wiped away at Mercedes' tears as they fell. She knew how emotional Mercedes got about her parents. "I know you don't like these surprises like this and I know you like to have everything prepared in advance. But Sunshine, it's not always going to be that way. I meant to tell you that the boy was coming, I really did. It slipped my mind and I'm sorry. But I need to start doing what's right by you. I've adjusted to not having nobody but y'all, but I'm going to lose y'all eventually if you don't lose me first."

Ugh. Please make it stop.

"Grandmother-"

"Let me finish. You know I don't too often get serious but this isn't something I can just take lightly anymore. Soon enough, you're going to be without me in this world. I just want to do my best for you so that when that day comes, you know what to do with your life and you know how to do it." Abeline took the teenager's hand. "I just want the best for you, Sunshine."

Mercedes finally looked at her grandmother. "I know you do, Grandmother. And I thank you and love you for that. I've just been really stressed lately, is all. SATs are coming up and if I want to make it into a good college, I need to do really good on them."

"Well, why don't you finish up this icing and go wake your sister up. We'll find something fun to do until he gets here. Ease some of that stress." Abeline patted Mercedes on the back and walked back over to the chopping board to finish chopping up the pecans.

Once Mercedes finished making the icing, she put it on the counter next to the pecans. She walked over to the door to the kitchen and took her apron off before stopping to ask her grandma a question. "Grandmother?"

"Yes, Sunshine?"

"What's the boy's name?"

"Samuel. Samuel is his name."

"Samuel?" Mercedes chuckled. "He doesn't have a last name?"

"Of course he's got a last name, gal. Samuel Evans, he's a couple months younger than you and he's run into a troubling situation with his family. That's just about all I know. The rest, we'll have to learn about whenever he gets here. Now go get your sister up like I told you."

"Yes, ma'am. Going to get her right now." Mercedes smiled to herself as she went up the stairs. A new person living in the house. She wasn't going to lie, she was deathly afraid of meeting new people, but she was going to try and give this guy the love he couldn't have, as her grandmother said.

When Mercedes walked into her sister's room, she was already awake and writing in a tablet that was on her lap. She looked up and smiled at Mercedes. "Hey."

"Hey, munch." Mercedes went and sat on the bed next to her and nudged her shoulder. "Someone's up early this morning."

Maiya shrugged and went back to her tablet. "Of course I am. Who needs sleep?"

"Oh. Well, enjoy that philosophy while you can," she said. "Come downstairs. Grandmother wants us to help open up for the special orders."

"We're not doing special orders today." Maia got up and slipped some shoes on. "Samuel's coming today."

"Then why is she having me make hummingbird cake and forbidden blueberry pies on a Tuesday afternoon after closing?" Mercedes crossed her arms.

"Probably for Samuel's 'Welcome Day Feast'."

"His Welcome Day what now?"

"What are y'all girls chit-chatting about up here? Sunshine, didn't I tell you to bring this girl down here?" Abeline walked over to her youngest granddaughter and gave her a hug. "Morning, Moonshine."

"Grandmother, what's this I'm hearing about a 'Welcome Day Feast?'" Mercedes crossed her arms.

Abeline sat on the bed with her granddaughters. "Well, we have a young man coming to live with us." She counted her points on her fingers. "We want him to feel welcome. When you want someone to feel welcome, you have a Welcome Day Feast." She shrugged and shook her head. "What else are we supposed to do?" She asked as if it was obvious.

"It's only customary, Mercedes," Maiya's voice resembled Abeline's.

Mercedes looked at her sister in disbelief. "You're in third grade, how do you even know that word?"

Abeline gave her youngest granddaughter a look. "She act like she ain't never had a 'Welcome Day Feast'. What's wrong with her, Moonshine?"

"You know how the teens are these days." Maiya gave her grandma a look while she took pity on her big sister. "She probably wouldn't know her hand from her foot in one of them didn't hold her smartphone."

As her sister and grandmother laughed at her, Mercedes came to her own defense. "First of all, I'll have you two know that I'm very different from 'the teens these days'." She used air quotes.

Her sister and grandmother shared another look before walking out of the room and down the stairs.

"Second of all," Mercedes followed them, "a 'Welcome Day Feast is not a thing. Third of all, my foot and my hand are two very distinct parts of my body and I know the difference between them very well without one holding a device."

"Of course, Sunshine!" Abeline narrowly hid the humor in her voice. "Now, come on and help us get this feast ready."

Mercedes grunted as she started down the stairs. Halfway down, she heard someone knocking on the door.

"Oh, my goodness. You're early!" She heard her grandmother say.

Before reaching the end of the stairs, Mercedes quickly realized that her shirt and sweatpants were covered in flour and her hair was in this mess of a low pony. Barely able to stop herself from panicking, She whipped around on the stairs and started going back up. She had to change! This is why I hate meeting new people. How are you supposed to present yourself? How are you supposed to act? Her grandmother had given her no time to prepare. She ran to her room and quickly perused her endless closet of t-shirts. What should she choose? Prince? No, too musical. What if he asks who he is and I have to pimp slap him? She came across one of her brother's Marvel tees that she borrowed (stole). Yeah, that works. Teenage guys like comics, right? Crap! What if he's a DC fan? As she continued searching, she made a mental note to cool it on the trips with Tina to Hot Topic. She could barely find a plain t-shirt to save her life. Finally finding a plain black shirt and throwing on a pair of jeans, she hurried down the stairs.

Reviews and suggestions are always appreciated! 'Till next time!