Hello again lovely people, it's ya girl back at it again. Angela's always a bit harder for me to write but this came to me surprisingly easy. Two small announcements, first of all I have acquired Sunshine Islands so I'll be playing through that for the first time ever. And secondly, this fic will probably have a few spin-off one-shots when it reaches certain points because I am Obsessed. There's surprisingly a lot of things I'd like to elaborate on and characters I want to do a deep dive into so I hope y'all will take a look whenever those get posted. Anyway hope you lovelies enjoy this chapter that has seen me through my messed up sleep schedule. ~Shaymie

Angela

The karaoke machine wasn't the only new addition to the bar.

Hayden had hired a dancer for the bar, a pretty redhead named Selena. Like, ridiculously pretty. So pretty that Angela felt the dancer must have been a goddess in a past life or something. Selena had immediately captured the attention of all the men in the bar... except for Chase, that is. His attention was on Molly, or more specifically the cookbook she had brought with her. Kasey had sent it over in a package, along with some photo albums and some clothes Molly had left behind.

"I've never looked at this before, but I thought you'd might get some use out of it," Molly's voice was quiet as Chase flipped through the book curiously. Angela gave her a sideways glance, making sure she was okay. The reason Molly's never touched the book is because it belonged to their mother, who was a bit of a sore topic. She'd never gotten to meet her. She's only seen pictures of her, heard stories about her, seen the trophies and medals and videos.

"Are you sure, Freckles? This looks... personal." Chase set the cookbook down, raising an inquisitive eyebrow at the way Molly refused to even look at it. For someone who was such a jerk to everyone else, he was... surprisingly soft with her. The sarcasm and snark was still there, of course, but it was toned down. He gave her free food when she came to the bar, secretly checking with Angela to make sure that she's eaten. And Molly never noticed the way he was almost attuned to her or the special look he seemed to have reserved just for her.

Chase was... a surprisingly good friend for Molly. They were complete opposites, but it worked somehow.

"I'm sure."

"And you don't have a problem with it?" Chase turned to Angela, shocking her. He tended to ignore her if she wasn't ordering drinks. He gestured to the book with a bored expression, leaning onto the bar. "Don't you have partial ownership over this? I don't want you kicking my ass because I stole some secret Parker recipe."

"It's fine as long as you don't go around claiming them as yours. And that book better come back to us in perfect condition." She had the entire book memorized front to back, but aside from a few yellowed notes from childhood packed lunches, it was the last remaining thing with her mother's loopy, near perfect handwriting. She didn't want to lose that. There were already so few things left of her, and Kasey had half of them.

"I'm not a complete ass. Your family recipes will be safe with me." He stored the book under the counter and grabbed the pitcher of water, refilling Molly's cup without saying another word. Molly looked up from her near-empty plate with a grateful smile. Angela was starting to feel like a bit of a third wheel, so she paid for her drinks and joined Owen and Luke at their usual table. Owen was openly ogling the dancer, earning him a heated glare from Kathy and a slap upside the head. Luke was staring too, but his stare was almost curious.

"Hey Ange, did Molly do the same dances as Selena? Like, back in the day?"

"Dude, have you met Molly?" Owen asked, rubbing the back of his head where Kathy had slapped him with a slight wince. "Girl's as shy as a mouse. No way she could dance sexy like that."

"She mostly did ballet. Though when she transferred into teenager classes, she started learning some other types of dance. I could never really keep up with the styles."

Molly was shy, awkward, and clumsy now, but when she got on the stage all of that was forgotten. It was almost like she transformed into a different person. Angela always thought it was magical, the way Molly could go from being on the verge of a panic attack backstage to becoming the epitome of beauty and grace the second her feet touched the stage. Dancing gave her confidence, a confidence that had been taken from her by one selfish bitch's jealous manipulation.

Chelsea had sunk her claws in so deep that Molly struggled to blame her for anything. She even refused to press charges, saying that it was all her fault and that Chelsea hadn't done anything wrong. She had a terrible habit of taking the blame for the people she cared about and thought she could trust. The same thing had happened with Mark, the greasy bastard. Maybe it was a good thing they had moved away. If Angela stayed there any longer, she couldn't guarantee the safety of those two assholes.

Molly missed dancing. It doesn't take a genius to see that. Sometimes when Angela goes out to the fields after breakfast, she peeks through the window to see Molly going through her old stretch routine. But that was it. She never does anything past the stretches. She'll get into first position and just... freeze up. Even from her distant viewpoint from the field, Angela could see the way her sister's entire body trembled, her face growing red.

"Whoa, ballet's like that really fancy shit," Luke murmured in awe. Angela rolled her eyes. She shouldn't be surprised by the things Luke deemed fancy at this point. The man thought ice cream cake was some rare delicacy. And speaking of cake, she'd heard that Luke's birthday was coming up soon. Nearly the same day as Molly's. She had no idea what to get him. Maybe she could ask Molly to bake him a cake... But that didn't seem personal enough.

Ah, shit... She didn't need this birthday panic. She was already having a crisis over what to do for Molly's birthday. For years, her plan for Molly's 21st had always been to buy her sister her first drink, maybe even get her drunk just to see what she's like. But because of the incident, getting Molly drunk is a big no-no. Alcohol couldn't be combined with her medication. Molly kept insisting that it was fine, and that she didn't even want anything for her birthday, but Angela couldn't just do nothing.

Maybe Kasey will have some ideas...