Hello my readers, thank you for all you WONDERFUL feedback. You really gave me an idea of what you want to happen, so thank you. Here we go big chapter 20! Eek I can't believe that I have written 20 chapters! I have decided to break this chapter into two as you can see this is a long chapter, I am up to 5 word document pages, I promise to update the second half of the chapter soon! If I can get 85 reviews before part two goes up the 85th reviewer gets a special mention! Just to let you know the next chapter after this one (chapter 21 or 22) will be the birth of our CHAX BABY! Yay! Let me know what you think! Review! Dannielle x
[DISCLAIMER/COPYRIGHT: I do not own any of the existing characters or storylines in Home and Away but any characters, storylines or ideas used in this story are strictly copyrighted and are not to be used by any other person/s without written permission of the author of this story. Thank-you.]
BELLA POV
I woke up at the sound of my alarm, I rolled over and pressed the button instantly silencing the room. It was 3:50am and I was only awake this early so that I could get a head start on making the food for the shower which started at 11:00am. I threw back the covers and walked into the bathroom. I emerged about 10 minutes later a fluffy purple towel wrapped around me as I tiptoed down the hall to my room where I changed into a pair of black tracksuit pants and a purple racer back tank top. I dried and straightened my hair before pulling it up into a messy bun in the back of my head. I grabbed my apron from my closet and slipped on a pair of socks to keep me warm in the cool winter air. I turned the kitchen lights on and opened the curtains in the kitchen and living room, I grabbed my recipe box down from the top shelf and sat at the table. I flicked through until I found the recipes I wanted.
I decided to make baby vanilla cupcakes first, I turned the oven on and placed the cute pink and white polka dot cupcake pans into the tray and set them aside. I got out all my ingredients and measured them out before putting them away again. I mixed everything together and spooned the batter into the pans. By now the oven was hot enough so I slid the trays onto the racks and closed the door, I set the timer on my iPhone to make sure I didn't wake anyone and set to work making the icing and fondant.
40 minutes later and I had made the vanilla buttercream icing and the hot pink and pale pink fondant, cut them into shapes and set them on a tray to rest covered tightly in plastic wrap. I had also managed to make a batch of larger chocolate cupcakes and set them beside the oven until the mini cakes were ready. I pulled them out and heard my stomach rumble at the smell of warm vanilla, I lifted the cakes out of the tin and placed them on the cooling rack.
I then started on Charlie's favourite oreo cheesecakes. I tied pieces of baking paper into a circle using cooking yarn. I filled the paper circles with the cookie crumbs and put them into the oven, I mixed the creamy filling together and added the processed biscuit crumbs into the mix and filled the paper circles before putting them into the outside fridge to set. We decided to use the fridge outside so that Charlie wouldn't see any of the food before the party, she was leaving with Brax at 7am but still we didn't want her to see any of it.
The cupcakes had cooled so I spread a thin layer of buttercream onto the mini cakes and added the large light pink flower onto the top. I placed a dab of icing in the centre and added the smaller hot pink fondant flower into the centre. After I had completed the rest of the cupcakes I ran upstairs and grabbed the bag of little girl cake toppers we had bought, I ran back to the kitchen and pressed the into the centre of the hot pink flowers. There were little baby carriages, rattles, onesies, and the word baby girl, I smiled they looked so cute. I put them into a white cake box and took them out to the fridge. I pulled the large chocolate muffins out of the oven and set them on a cooling rack to cool and decided to go for a run since nothing else could be made for a while yet.
I ran upstairs and changed into my running pants and shoes and re tied my hair into a ponytail, and headed downstairs. I got home 45 minutes later, it was 6:00am so I decided to take another shower and cook everyone breakfast. I got back into my comfy black tracksuit pants but switched to a red tank and started breakfast. Everyone would be awake within half an hour or so. I put the toast, bacon and eggs down along with the juice and pot of coffee. Since I had 15 minutes to spare I filled the piping back with the buttercream icing and piped the chocolate cupcakes carefully using the star nozzle. It only took 10 minutes so I continued, sprinkling little silver candy balls on the icing and poked pink and red heart toppers into the cakes. I assembled another two white cake boxes and place the cupcakes inside and put them in the fridge, just as I was shutting the back door Brax and Charlie sleepily padded down the stairs.
"Morning" I said chirpily Charlie groaned "I made everyone breakfast so dig in" I said as Ruby and Casey entered rubbing their eyes "mmm" Casey said taking a sniff. I pulled the covers off the trays keeping in the heat and everyone sniffed deeply. We took out seats and began to eat. After breakfast I showed Ruby the cakes while Brax and Charlie got changed. Soon they had left and Casey had decided to go for a surf and was spending the day with Xavier and Dex. Ruby and I were standing in the kitchen "where do you want to start first?" she asked "well, we still have some of the food to cook, I have to run into Yabbie Creek and pick up the cake and then head over to Leah's to get some of the food she made. So maybe I will do that in about half an hour" I said and Ruby nodded "okay so what do we start on first?" she asked looking around "well, I made the two batches of cupcakes and the cheesecakes and Charlie asked for cheese sticks with honey mustard and ranch dipping sauce. So we can start there" I said as Ruby nodded
In half an hour we had managed to make two batches of pastry cheese sticks, we had used 8 sheets of pastry and half a block of cheese. As Ruby pulled the last tray of sticks out of the oven, I grabbed my hand bag and phone and slid my sunnies onto the top of my head "okay Rubes I am going to get the cake and stuff, do you want to make the dipping sauces while I am out?" I asked "yeah sure, what about all the lollies we bought?" she asked "well we were going to put them in the terracotta pots we got, so if you could paint them and fill them with the foam we can just stick the lolliepops in the foam like flowers and we got that brown straw stuff for onto to hide the foam" I said as Ruby nodded "okay great, I am on it" she said as I grabbed my keys and made my way to my car.
RUBY POV
I was in the middle of painting the pots we had bought and I couldn't help but think that this baby shower was going to be the greatest ever. Bella had put so much thought and planning into it and had had so much fun shopping together yesterday. I still can't believe that she hadn't given that hot guy her phone number but again I could see why she was reluctant to give her details to a random guy after everything that she had been through. I kind of hoped that he would come and find her, he seemed like a nice guy and it was about time Bella had something good happen to her. I finished the last pot and picked up the first one I had painted, it was dry now and the hot pink shone nicely in the sunshine. I picked up the pack of foam stamp brushes, we had got them in all different baby shapes. Baby carriages, dummies, rattles and teddy bears. I squeezed a blob of white, purple and hot pink paint onto the plastic plate and pressed the baby carriage stamp into the white and carefully pressed it onto the pot as few times and picked up the small star stamp and dabbed it in the purple arranging them around the pot. I set it aside to dry and picked up the second which was painted purple and placed hot pink teddy bears and little white hearts all over the pot. I covered the third which was painted a pale pink in hot pink dummies and purple rattles. I set them aside to dry and went inside to wash my hands and make the dipping sauces.
BELLA POV
I pushed open the door, I was carrying the large white box containing the cake from the bakery in Yabbie Creek. I put the box down on the counter and looked around for Ruby, seeing she was outside putting the foam in the pots I went back to the car and grabbed the paper Pier Diner bags containing the food that Leah had prepared and brought them inside. I put them on the table and pulled out the containers as Ruby walked through the door carrying two of the pots, she had put the rainbow swirl lollypops in the foam and they looked great. "hey, you get the cake?" Ruby asked putting the pots on the table beside me "yeah it's on the bench, take a look it you want" I said pointing to the big box on the counter. Ruby walked over and lifted the top "wow, it look fantastic" Ruby said her eyes wide "I know the bakery did an amazing job, it's just what we asked for" I said as I tasted the dipping sauces "Rubes these sauces are great" I said putting the spoon in the sink. "oh thanks. What should we do now?" she asked "well it is 9am so maybe we should start decorating" I said as we headed upstairs to collect the countless bags .
An hour later and we had decorated the living room, the room looked like a pink marshmallow had exploded over everything. We had two hours until everyone arrived so we headed into the kitchen to make the salads and the platters before covering them and putting on the table. With an hour to go we headed upstairs to change. I took a shower and headed to my room giving Ruby the bathroom and I changed into my tracksuit and tank while I did my hair and make-up. Ruby knocked on by door 15 minutes later "come in" I said "hey, can I ask you a favour" she asked sheepishly "come and sit here and I will do you hair and make-up" I said "how did you know?" she asked smiling "Ruby, seriously you're so obvious" I said as she sat down in front of me and I got to work on straightening her hair.
It was a quarter to 12 and both Ruby and I were dressed. Ruby was wearing a flowy knee length orange dress. The skirt of the dress was embroidered with silver swirls and beads, she was wearing a pair of black peep toe pumps and she had painted her toe nails orange to match her dress. I had decided on an aqua blue figure hugging bandage dress that finished halfway up my thighs. I was wearing black pumps and my gold heart anklet. We had bought sashes for Ruby, Charlie and I to wear, I slipped Ruby's pink Future Big Sister sash over her shoulders and slid my mint green Aunty To Be sash over my own. We grabbed Charlie's sash, crown and pin and headed downstairs. We set up a chair for Charlie to sit in decorating it in all different decorations, we placed the crown, sash and pin on them until she arrived. At that moment the doorbell rang.
Ruby and I opened the door, on the other side was Marilyn, Roo and Gina stood smiling broadly "HI" they cried loudly "hi" both Ruby and I greeted giving them all a hug and taking their presents and putting them on the table. "Wow girls this place looks great!" Marilyn said as we handed them a pink striped paper cup filled with orange juice. "thanks, but really it was mostly Bella" Ruby said as I nudged her "no it wasn't, you did great" I said smiling "so when does the guest of honour arrive?" Roo asked "um, she should be here shortly" I replied checking the clock on the wall. The doorbell rang again and behind it was Bianca, Darcy, April and Leah "hey guys come in" I said giving them all a hug and pointing to the table for the presents. Ruby handed them their cups of juice as the doorbell rang again. This time it was Indi, Sasha, Colleen and Irene. I greeted them and took their presents while Ruby gave them their drinks, Morag was the last to arrive and I greeted her and took her present while a nervous Ruby gave her a cup, I went over to Ruby "hey what's up?" I asked confused "nothing, Morag has never been fond of Charlie and Brax's relationship that's all" she said looking at the floor "well too bad, Charlie and Brax are married and having a baby. Wether Morag likes it or not they are in love and together, she'll just have to get used to it" I said as Ruby looked up at me "you know what your right!" she said giving me a hug as my phone beeped on the table beside us I picked it up. It was a message from Brax, it read Hey Belle, just about at house. U ready? I replied instantly Yeah all ready, everyone's here I said as I put down my cup as Brax black ute drove up the driveway.
"HEY EVERYONE, BRAX AND CHARLIE HAVE JUST PULLED UP!" I called as everyone stopped talking and bunched together. Brax helped Charlie up the drive to the door and opened it for her. She walked in smiling at everyone "HI" she said chirpily "CONGRATULATIONS!" everyone called all at once causing Charlie and Brax to laugh.
CHARLIE POV
As Brax helped me through the door I saw the faces of all my friends and family. The room was decorated beautifully, there was a cute owl banner hanging from the far wall that blocked the view of the kitchen that read 'sweet baby shower', there were little pink hanging decorations on the ceiling with cute pink baby feet and the words baby girl on them. Pink, purple and silver balloons were bunched together into groups and tied down with pale pink and white polka dot weights and scattered all around the room and tied in groups of threes in the corners of the roof. Cute decorative balloons were floating behind the present table, which was stacked high with brightly wrapped presents in front of the stairs, there was a cute clear one with pink, blue and green polka dot one with a black baby carriage in the centre, a pink foil baby carriage with pink and green polka dots and 'baby girl' written in the centre, a blue tinted clear one with a brown teddy bear and 'baby girl' spelled out in baby blocks and a stork dressed in pink carrying a pink bundle from its beak. Pink, purple and white streamers also hung from the ceiling and were wrapped around the stair case railing. On the mantel piece were white lanterns with pink dots and pink lanterns with white dots. On a spare spot on the was a large yellow board where guests had signed their name and written special messages, I looked over to the food table and my mouth watered. There were two cupcake stands filled with yummy cupcakes, some with pink flowers which I think were vanilla and larger chocolate ones with buttercream icing, cups of the cheese sticks and dipping sauces I had asked for we scattered along the table, two big bowls of salad (Greek and Caesar), a bowl of fruit salad, sandwiches, and Bella's oreo cheesecakes. Sitting on a small square table was the cake, it was three tiered and I assumed chocolate, it was covered in three colours of fondant. The bottom cake was dark hot pink, the middle layer was a lighter pink and the top layer was white with pale pink polka dots. Sitting on top of the cake was a gorgeous white and pink baby carriage, the other layers were covered in cute pink and white cherry blossoms and on the middle cake were the words 'Welcome Miss Braxton' in cute curly black writing. Each of the cherry blossoms had swirls coming out of them in the same curly black shiny icing. It looked amazing, almost too good to eat. Ruby and Bella led me over to a cutely decorated chair that sat in a circle of chairs, I sat down and Bella placed a crown on my head and Ruby slid a sash over my shoulder. It was then that I noticed they too were wearing sashes, Ruby's a big sister one and Bella's an aunty to be one. It made me laugh at how excited they were about this little girl. My sash was pale pink with silver writing which read 'mum to be' and my crown was the same, the words decorated in sparkly stones.
We all sat down in out chairs as Ruby and Bella came out from the kitchen carrying something behind their backs "what have you two girls got?" I asked curiously "oh nothing, it is just a little something from everyone here, that you can keep to remember this special time" Bella said as they pulled out a large stuffed yellow duck covered in black writing "it's an autograph duck, everyone has signed it and written a little message for you and Brax" she continued as tears began to fill my eyes. Ruby must have caught on because she produced a box of tissues from behind her back, everyone laughed as I smiled and took a few before standing up, taking the duck and pulling both girls into a tight hug. "thank you" I whispered in their ears as I pulled back and wiped my eyes. I sat the duck on my lap as I read the comments. Everyone was happily chatting and eating the food, Bella came over to me holding a paper plate filled with cupcakes, sandwiches, cheese sticks and two cheesecakes. "thanks Belle, so what have you got planned for today?" I asked taking a bite of my cheesecake.
"Oh my god, this is so good!" I said my mouth half full "uh thanks, we have some games and obviously there is presents and food" she said chewing on a cheese stick. "ooh what kind of games?" I asked excited "ah, you will have to wait and see, actually we could probably start them now anyway… RUBY" Bella said calling Ruby over. "yeah what's up?" she asked while munching on a cupcake "wanna start the games?" Belle asked and Ruby nodded as the two girls walked away. "okay everyone, first off we are going to play a game of Baby Trivia" Ruby announced to the room. Everyone clapped lightly and took a seat, as Ruby and Bella passed out slips of paper and pencils.
"So how the game works is we are going to ask 10 questions relating to pregnancy, birth and babies. You write down the answer you think is correct out of the three we give you and at the end we will give you the answers and you tell us what you got." Bella told the girls who nodded "so the first question is: What are nappies called in South Africa? Diapers, Nappies or Disposables" Ruby asked as everyone wrote their answers.
The girls waited a few minutes before asking the next question "Who was the original Gerber baby? Shirley Temple, Ann Turner or Mrs Butterworth" Bella asked. Pencils scrambled quickly and heads flicked up "Question 3: When does a baby's eye colour set? 6 to 9 months, 4 to 5 months or at 2 to 4 weeks?" Ruby quizzed. "Question 4: How many bones are babies born with? 300, 206, 275" I quickly wrote down my answer and waited for the next question "Question 5: What is the first sense that babies develop? Hearing, taste, touch or smell" 'What the hell? I have no bloody idea!' I thought to myself, almost missing the next question "Question 6: When does a baby first begin to smile? At birth, 3 to 4 weeks, 4 to 8 weeks, 6 to 9 months" 'haha, I know that one… beat that suckas!' I triumphed "Question 7: how long on average does it take for a man to change a nappy? 30 seconds, 3 minutes, 2 minutes and 5 seconds, 1 minute and 36 seconds" 'well, the average man… hmm I wonder if Brax will be like that?' I thought being distracted again "Number 8: What body part are babies born without? Kneecaps, elbows, tail bone or shoulder blades" 'eww, if you had no kneecaps – how could you stand up, that is so disgusting!' I thought "Question 9: Which celeb named their baby Phinneaus ? Angelina Jolie, Julia Roberts or Courtney Cox" 'There a 104 days of summer vacation and school comes along just to end it' I sung to myself "And finally question 10: what percentage of babies are actually born on their due date? 80 to 81%, 24 to 25% or 3 to 4%" 'well , like none!' I thought. "okay everyone hand us your papers and we will check out who wins a prize!" Ruby said as the girls collected the papers
5 or so minutes later the girls returned to the circle "okay we have a clear winner, with 10 out of 10 the winner is….
Okay, not a real juicy cliffhanger, but I wanted to put the chapter up. I am not done this is only part one, part two will be up when I write it. So leave me a review and tell me who you think will win!