I almost forgot to say Happy Mother's Day before publishing this. So ... Happy Mother's Day.
If this chapter ever has or starts with a sad mood, just know that I just listened to 'Sign of the Times' by Harry Styles for the first time and it brought me to tears; especially since the meaning of the song is a mother who just gave birth to a newborn baby but the mother is told that she has only five minutes left to live. I mean, the song is beautiful and this is my Mother's Day chapter. Also, the song is on repeat.
Photo #64: The Singer Women
And in the middle of all the redheads in the next photo, Eadlyn spots herself as the soul brunette. There was her mother, her grandmother, her aunts May and Kenna, and her cousin Astra. In other words, they were all the redheads on the family tree with that one brunette. Each woman in there (minus Eadlyn) was pretty much a copy. If you lined them all up in a straight line, they would basically be clones. She pretty much sees that photo as an apple tree and she's the one spoiled one.
It was a surprise to all of them that Eadlyn came out as a dark brunette, not even a redhead or a blond. When everyone realized that she took after Grandma Amberly, Grandma Magda's words were most notable.
"Amberly is a beautiful woman who I still greatly respect to this day, but it would've been nice for Eady to take after me!"
Those words always make Eadlyn smile, especially when she looks at the photo of them all together. She could picture Amberly in that group hug as well, breaking her regal form to mesh in. Then Eadlyn wouldn't have been the only brunette in the pile of redheads. Then it dawns on Eadlyn that this photo was the last Mother's Day that Leo and Astra spent with their mom. She rapidly blinks back her tears, keeping her vision clear as she prays that her own mother lives till her next special holiday.
-o-
"Today is my holiday!" Magda sings as she prances through the palace.
Despite her advanced years and grandchildren, Magda still has the heart and soul of a woman half her age. It's remarkable how much youth she still has (though she claims it never left her), but someone has to be able to keep up with her growing number of grandchildren.
"Settle down, Mom," Kenna says, smiling brightly.
Magda looks at her eldest daughter with slightly narrowed eyes.
"I remember a certain someone being excited for Mother's Day after Astra was born."
Magda nudges Kenna who concedes in trying to stop her mother from being loud. From beside the both of them, May lightly laughing to herself. It's funny because even America was the same when she was pregnant with the twins.
Then, Maxon walks out from a nearby room and Magda joyfully bursts out when she sees him.
"There's my beautiful son-in-law!" She exclaims, startling Maxon before she kisses his cheek.
"Happy Mother's Day, Magda," Maxon says. He looks over at his sister-in-law. "And to you, Kenna."
Kenna smiles before hugging Maxon. Then he gives May the tightest hug of them all. He swings her around a little and she still shrieks of excitement whenever he would do that.
"Where's Ames?" May asks Maxon.
"Still getting ready," Maxon replies.
"Did she get breakfast in bed?" Magda asks.
She raises an eyebrow and crosses her arms at Maxon. Her tone and stare dictate that her question really meant, 'she better have had breakfast in bed.' Lucky for him, he did the deed successfully.
"Of course she did," Maxon replies as if serving his wife on her holoday wasn't even an option. In fact, it was more of a pleasure for him and the kids. "The kids and I worked extremely hard on the perfect omelette."
As the four of them catch up, May sees America approach them. Given that today's a casual day, she's wearing jeans and a simple t-shirt with a cardigan. America opens her eyes wide and May runs over to her. Maxon suddenly gets trampled once Kenna and Magda went to go hug their other redhead.
Maxon looks over at the women and can't distinguish which head of red hair belongs to who since all their faces are buried into each other.
"Auntie America!" Astra exclaims, running from across the castle.
She jumps into the group hug and pratically dissolves into it. Maxon and James, who reappeared after following Astra's run here, have to both rub their eyes in order to see into that hug. It just looks like a pile of red curls, laughs, and smiles. That's it.
"Hold on," Magda says, popping her head out from the hug. "We're missing someone. Eadlyn Schreave come down here!"
Seconds later, Eadlyn comes running down the stairs. She sees the massive group hug and wants to bolt away but Maxon and James grab her arms and escort her over to get eaten. Eadlyn didn't want to get involved in the hugging much, especially since in this case she would be the only brunette.
"Ah, my beautiful Singer women," Magda says.
That statement makes a lot of problems for most of the other women in that hug.
"I was born a Schreave," Eadlyn says.
"I was born an Orders," Astra says.
"I married a Schreave," America says.
"I married an Orders," Kenna says.
Magda frowns a little. "Well, I married a Singer and what I say goes, especially since it's my special holiday."
Nobody really bothered to correct Magda anymore about the fact that she wasn't the only mother in the room. She was determined enough to convince anyone else otherwise so it'd be bette to just go with it as if it was the truth.
"I'm still a Singer," May chimes in brightly. Magda ruffles her hair.
"If you came out of my womb, then you are a Singer," Magda states, eyeing Kenna and America. She then looks at her granddaughters. "And you two are also Singers because without me, your mothers wouldn't be mothers."
Astra and Eadlyn nod their heads. Maxon and James would say differently but keep those comments to themselves since Magda would always be right (that strategy is called 'How To Please Your Mother-In-Law #1: just agree with her'). Besides, Magda would actually throw her shoe at them (and she had a good arm).
"Here's to the Singer Women!"
I don't know if this was really a Mother's Day chapter but oh well. I consider it to be one.
Also, was Astra a redhead? Because I don't remember it saying anything so I just went with it.
Stay Tuned - "What would you like to eat?" "Nothing that you're serving."
