Brynn watched as her mother walked quickly back and forth across the kitchen. Jade was preparing for a family party at her mothers house, although she knew that she was going to hate every minute of it.

"Mommy?"

"Yes, Brynn?"

"Is it true that the skeletons on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride are real skeletons?"
Jade set down the cake pan that she was holding, and turned to meet her daughters gaze.
"What in the world makes you think those are real?"

"Well, because when I was at the playground, Rowan told me that they're real."

"No, Brynn, they aren't real."

"But she said her uncle works there, and he told her it's true!"
Jade sighed, pouring the cake mix into the pan.
"Brynn, sweetheart, that man is a liar."

Brynn gasped, taking in what her mother just told her.
"Mommy, we don't call people liars! I'm telling daddy!"

Jade mumbled something under her breath, most likely using profanities. She was struggling to get the cake mix to cooperate, and she really didn't have the patience for her daughters little shenanigans today.

Brynn ran as fast as her little legs could take her, through the living room, down the hall to the right, and straight to the room at the end. She knew that she wasn't supposed to just walk right into her parents room, so she decided to do something else.
"DAAAAAAADDDYYYYYY!" She screamed at the bedroom door.
"WHAT?" a startled Beck yelled on the other side. He opened the door, his heart pounding.

Brynn ran in and jumped into her dads arms, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck.
"Scared you!" She giggled.

"Not funny, Brynn."

"Is too!"
"I don't believe so."

"We can talk about how funny I am at a later date, daddy. Guess what mommy said?" She bounced in his arms as she waited for his answer.

"Did she tell you something mean?"

"Yes! She called a Disney-worker-man a liar!"

Beck pulled out all of his acting skills, gasping and acting horrified at what his daughter had told him.

"Oh, no way! We will not stand for this, Buggy!" he said as he began walking to where Jade was.

"It's true! She said it because Rowan told me, that her uncle told her, that the skeletons in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride are REAL!"

"Real? But doesn't that scare you?"
"No, I'm tough! GRRRR!" Brynn said and she showed off her "muscles".

Beck laughed as he walked into the kitchen to find Jade rinsing out a cake pan.
"We're going to the store." Jade said, anger oozing from each word she said.

"Why?" Beck asked as sat Brynn back down on the floor.

"I think she messed up the cake.." Brynn giggled, noticing the vanilla cake mix dripping from the counter top.

"Don't talk about it!" Jade snapped, "Get in the car. Now."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"Daddy, I don't want to go to this yucky party."

"Why not?"

"Because, Uncle Roy always pinches my cheeks, and everyone treats me like a baby!" Brynn huffed as she crossed her arms.
Beck looked at his daughter through the rear view mirror, smiling at her actions.

"Trust me, I don't want to go either. These people are obnoxious as he-"

"As obnoxious as porcupines!" Beck cut her off, saving their daughters young ears from hearing what was going to come next.

"Porcupines? Really, Beck?"

Brynn giggled from the back seat.

"It's better than what you were going to say." Beck shrugged.

"Look, there's yucky grandma and yucky Great Uncle Roy," Brynn said as she pointed at her grandmother's house, "Turn around daddy, they haven't seen us yet! We can still go home!"

"The kid has a point."

"We're going because your mom invited us and we don't want to be mean, Jade."

"Just stick with me, Brynn."

"Jade, be nice to everyone, please." Beck begged as he parked the car.

Jade got out of the car, and walked around to Brynn's car door. She helped her daughter unbuckle, then she picked her up and carried her into the house.

"Oh yeah, that's fine! Just go ahead, I'll get the cake!" Beck called after her.
"Yeah, yeah. I got the kid." Jade yelled as she continued walking.

Beck sighed, rolling his eyes. He grabbed the store bought cake and carried it into the house.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Beck and Jade were sitting in the home's small living room, trying to have a conversation with a few random family members. Brynn had found another little girl to play with, and had taken off into the backyard.

"Well he sure is a handsome one Jade, how'd you manage to get him?" Jade's cousin, Laney, asked, trying to get Jade mad.
"If you're insinuating that I'm not good enough, I will gladly shove my boot up your a-"

"That's enough of that." Beck cut her off again.

"Right, sorry Jadelyn."

"It's Jade." Jade answered, talking through gritted teeth.

Beck placed his arm around Jade, rubbing her shoulder gently. He knew that if Laney kept this up, there would be a fight in no time.

"So, Jadelyn, why does your cake say 'Happy Anniversary' on it?" Jade's mother, Mary, asked as she walked into the room.

"It's Jade." She said, even angrier this time.

"Jadelyn was your given name, actually."

"Well, mother, if that name wasn't completely awful, I wouldn't go by Jade."

"There was a mishap with Jade's cake, we had to buy one." Beck jumped in, trying to keep Jade from arguing with her mother.

"Of course. Jade never was any good with food!"

"Actually, she is. She just had a hard time today because she had to watch Brynn while I was writing."

"Oh right, your daughter!" Mary smiled at Beck.

"I was talking to Brynn earlier, she seems to have a lot of Jade's personality.." Laney said.

"Yes, that's Brynn for you."

"You act like my kid is completely horrid because she acts like me."

"Well, it isn't very cute for a little girl to act like she hates the world." Another random family member chimed in.

"She doesn't hate anyone, especially not the whole world. She just doesn't like you people because you're all so annoying. It's a shame you're sitting here, talking bad about my four year old daughter. I hope that makes you feel good, champ!"

"Jadelyn, watch your attitude!" Mary scolded.
"I'm leaving." Jade said as she got up, breaking free from Beck's grasp.

"I don't see how you deal with her, really." Another one of Jade's cousins said.

"Yeah well, I love her. I love my daughter, too." Beck said as he got up and followed his wife.

He followed her to the back porch; it was screened in with a chair swing on one side of it. Jade took a seat on the swing, resting her head in her hands.

"It's alright, babe." Beck soothed as he sat next to her.

"No, it's really not. I want out of here, you don't understand."

Beck knew that there was nothing he could say to ease Jade's anger, so he pulled her onto his lap and held her, gently rubbing small circles on her back with his thumb. They sat quietly like this for at least five minutes, until they heard the porch's screen door slam shut.
"Mommy!" Brynn said as she ran towards Jade.

"Hi, pretty baby." Jade said quietly as she watched Brynn climb onto the swing, sitting contently next to her father.

"I'm playing hide and seek with my cousin. She's hiding. I'm not looking for her. Oops." Brynn said sarcastically. For just being four years old, she had picked up on a lot of her mother's sarcasm.

"That's not very nice, Brynn." Beck laughed.

"Well it's not my fault she's so annoying!"

"We're going to leave soon anyways. Why don't you go find her and tell her goodbye?"

"Blech, no! She'll never let me leave!"

Jade stood up, picking Brynn up as soon as she was on her feet.

"Let's go." She said to Beck.
"We should at least tell everyone we're leaving." Beck said as he stood up.

"No. I'm not going to be nice to the people that just ripped me apart. And the fact that they were talking about Br-"

"Yes that was mean." Beck cut her off. He didn't want Brynn to know that they had been talking badly about her.

"Br? Does that mean Brynn, momma?"

Beck gave Jade a look, taking Brynn from her mothers arms.

"No, baby, it doesn't mean Brynn. Now let's go say bye to everyone." Beck said.

He made his way into the house, carrying Brynn along with him. Jade didn't follow them, but instead walked around the house in an effort to get to the car without seeing anyone.

As she passed by her mother's garden, she saw a little girl in a pink dress staring at her.

"What do you want?"

"Are you Brynn's mommy?"

"Yes.." Jade trailed off, realizing this must be the cousin Brynn was playing with.

"Will you tell her to come find me?"

"Oh, uh, she can't play anymore. We're leaving."

"Oh, alright.." The girl said, obviously sad.

"Whose kid are you? Maybe she'll see you again soon."

"My mommy's name is Laney."

"Yeah... Bye." Jade said as she continued to walk to the car.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

The Oliver family was making their way home, replaying the day's events in their minds. It was getting closer to eight o'clock, and Brynn was starting to fall asleep in her car seat.

"Guess what happened when I took Brynn in to tell everyone we were leaving." Beck whispered, trying not to wake his sleeping daughter.

"What?"

"When I turned to leave, one of them started talking about what a 'brat' B is."

"Tell me you didn't just let them talk like that."

"Of course not," Beck smiled, "I sent Brynn to the car, went back in there, and punched him square in the face."

"Oh my God, Beck Oliver actually punched someone? Who was it?"

"One of those cousins of yours. I don't know which one it was."

Jade laughed, picturing the scene in her head.

"Well I ran into the little girl that Brynn was playing with. It was Laney's daughter."

"I swear that kid is some kind of spy, every time I turned the corner, she'd be standing there just staring me down. She never would tell me her name."

Brynn started to whine, trying to find a comfortable sleeping position in her car seat.

"We're almost home, baby. It's ok." Jade cooed as she reached back to Brynn, gently rubbing her leg.

"Mommy?" Brynn mumbled as she sucked her thumb.

"Yes?"

"My cousin's name was Brenna. I told her it was too close to Brynn, and I changed her name to Sophia. Sophia is a much nicer name, anyways.." She trailed off as she started to fall back asleep.


The reviews that I'm getting are simply amazing, thank you so much for reading and reviewing! I'm so sorry it took so long for this chapter! I'm slowly running out of ideas, hopefully I'll get back on top of things soon.

xoxo

Cassidy