☀️She's Extraordinary ☀️

The Fourth

The Kitchen (July 4th) (Eli's Perspective)
"Dad?!" He was seasoning some meats to grill later.
"Hey, Eli." The morning of the Fourth of July is always hectic.
"Thought you did this days ago?"
"Well for the other ones, I did. Olivia invited some more people last minute."
"Ohh. Is Mom coming?" Dad sort of paused, as if he was thinking of how to reply.
"What is it?"
"She's having a party at the house."
"Jesus-"
"Don't call his name in vain please."
"Why did you wait until now to tell me?" I groaned. You'd think after being divorced for so many years they'd go about things better.
"Because we're still figuring things out."
"Figuring things out? But Dad, Cody and Bradley are coming."
"They can still come, you just have to go by your Mother's house first."
"I don't want to go."
"Eli." Leia came into the kitchen.
"Morning!" She hugged me and sat next to me.
"Hey."
"Where's everyone else?"
"Some went to the store with Mom to get some things, some are still sleeping."
"Oh. Why are you guys arguing?"
"Because Dad isn't being fair right now." I told her. That made him even more pissed off, but he couldn't say what he wanted to say because Leia was standing there.
"Daddy, be fair to my brother." She said with a frown.
"I will, okay?" She nodded.
"Can I sit outside on the chair?"
"Of course, babe. Sit where I can see you." When she was gone Dad eyed me.
"I'm only spending 3 hours tops over there."
"Okay, fine." He said, giving up.
******************
The Backyard (2:45 PM) (Olivia's Perspective)
"Woah, that looks so cool Lei!" She ran off and went to go play with her friends.
"Thanks for coming, Munch."
"No problem, how could I miss the party of the year." I rolled my eyes, remembering the years of parties that he missed.
"Where's Cragen?"
"Apparently, he's in Cote D'Azur."
"Ooo, la-la! Why haven't you taken the kids to Europe yet? Well...more or so Bella and Leia."
"Because time is not my friend. Elliot and I do have a trip planned for Italy in August."
"How come I wasn't invited?"
"How come you never told me about that nude picture of you painted by your artist girlfriend?"
"Good point." Leia came running back, leaping into my arms and begging me to start the watermelon game.
"Watermelon game?"
"Mhm! Mommy puts oil all over a watermelon and she throws it into the pool so it's super slippery. Whoever wins gets a treat. You wanna play, Munch?"
"Maybe I'll sit this one out, you're crazy competitive."
"More watermelon for me!" I kissed her. Everyone was soaking up the sun and it was beautiful to see.
"I'm coming back, I gotta go talk to Barrett!"
"You know, you're a great mother Liv. Look at the way the kids have turned out. Funny, polite, smart."
"It doesn't feel like that to me sometimes."
"Elliot told me about what happened. That was not your fault."
"I know, and yet it still feels like my fault."
^^^^^^^^^^
The Pool
"Someone's in the spirit."
"I'm not feeling the Fourth of July." Bella said while putting down her phone.
"Why not? I thought it was one of your favorite holidays."
"I have a hard time celebrating a holiday that centers around freedom when people were oppressed and still are after all of this fighting for independence." I nodded. This isn't the first time Bella and I have had this conversation, and she has every right to feel the way she does. I wish that I could take away all of the nasty in this world...but I can't unfortunately and it's hard to see my girls experience the racism they do.
"Well, we don't have to think about it in that way, think of this as just a little pool party." I said, to make her feel better.
"I guess." She sighed and went back on her phone. While she was distracted I grabbed some water from the pool and sprinkled it on her.
"Mom, what are you doing?" She laughed.
"Hey, quit splashing me!"
"You're gonna have to get me then."
"You're so annoying." She joked while grabbing a water balloon.
************
Halsey Path (8:21 PM) (Bella's Perspective)
It was starting to get dark so I thought this would be a good time to sneak away from the party. I grabbed my sweater and threw it on before leaving.
"Hey."
"Hey. What'd ya bring?" I asked Jake.
"Nothing. Why don't you have anything?"
"My parents have begun to hide the alcohol really well ever since Eli took a bunch of their drinks and downed them with his friends. Now, I would steal some from the table outside but Elliot's been eyeing it every couple of seconds."
"Yikes."
"So where are we going?"
"Kenz told me about this really good spot..."
"You mean the spot where she goes and makes out with all of her boyfriends?"
"How do you know about that?"
"Oh, you innocent thing, your sister and I are great friends." We started walking towards the trees. The sun was beginning to set.
"Well, there's this other spot. I bet you don't know about that."
"If it's anything your sister told me, I certainly know about."
"It isn't, trust me." He started leading me to this part of the woods I'd never been to before. There was a creek and a tire swing.
"Sort of how I remember it."
"Why do you say that?"
"Whenever I was bored I'd come here and play with my friends."
"Which friends?"
"Langston, Taz, Maddie."
"You've never told me about these friends."
"You never asked." I feel bad, how do I not know about my boyfriend's friends. Am I really so self-absorbed?!!
"Right....tell me about them."
"Are you sure? I thought you said you wanted to tell me something."
"We could always worry about that later. What did you guys use to do here?" He explained to me the various games of tag or hide and seek they would play, and how one time Maddie lost her ring and they searched for hours. He looked so happy telling me the story.
"It sounds like I need to meet these friends of yours. Make some plans." I suggested. By hanging out with his friends I can get to know him so much better.
"Yes! Yo, they would love to meet you!" He looks so excited. We talked for a while after that. Suddenly, at one point, Jake leaned in for a kiss, and without thinking I let my lips touch his. This isn't the first time we've made out, but I guess us being in the woods makes it more memorable. His lips were velvety smooth and irresistible. I don't know how else to-
"AHHH!" I screamed.
"What?! What is it?! Did I do something?"
"Something is crawling on my leg!" I jumped up and down. I could hear Jake laughing and my face began to warm up. Ahh, yess. You just had to be embarrassing and ruin a good moment. It's good to know that you're still your old self, Bella.
"What's so funny?"
"I'm sorry, the way you girls go crazy over bugs kill me." I covered my face for a minute. When I moved my arms Jake was still there.
"Can we just pretend this never happened?"
"I don't know, on a scale of 1-10, how easy is it to forget your girlfriend getting scared over one of these things?" He picked up a bug.
"I HATE YOU! GET IT AWAY FROM ME!" I yelled while laughing.
******************
On The Grass (9:35 PM) (Leia's Perspective)
"Look at the fireworks, Leia!!" I did my Snoopy dance in my head. I love fireworks! They're so pretty! Every time it's the Fourth of July we watch the fireworks from our backyard since we're close to them! Sometimes, our neighbor does them too!
"I love it! Daddy, look at the pink one it's so cool!"
"It is, pumpkin!" He kissed me.
"Here we are, another Fourth of July." Mommy said.
"I know. Remember that little joke we made, how every Fourth of July our family gets bigger?"
"Of course."
"I wonder what's happened this year." Mommy said.
"It looks like Ace was the new addition." I petted him and he licked my hand.
"Do you think that there'd be any additions in time for next year?"
"I don't know, you tell me." I looked at them and they were about to kiss each other.
"Mommy, Daddy. No PDA. It's really inappropriate, we're watching fireworks." They both laughed.
"But didn't I just give you a kiss?"
"Yeah, but I'm little! You're big!"
"Oh, Leia! I love you so much." Mommy said while hugging me.
"You keep us on our toes. Can you believe that she'll be seven in a month?"
"And then I'll be 8 and then 9 and then 10."
"Let's slow down for a second, we aren't there yet."
"Hmph." Noah and Eli sat with us and we watched the rest of the fireworks. I was really sad when it ended.
"Mommy, next year we should do our own fireworks! That would be so cool."
"That would be, my sunshine." I looked around for Christina and Courtney.
"You know, someone's missing."
"Who?"
"Bell. Where is she?"
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The Foyer (11:48 PM) (Amanda's Perspective)
I'd just put Billie to bed and was walking downstairs when I'd seen a scene that I'm re-enacted several times in my life.
"Bella?" She looked up at me, her face ridden with guilt, and smiled at me nervously.
"Where have you been?"
"Out front talking to the peeps."
"Well, you sure were being sneaky for someone who was just sitting on the porch. I peeked outside and nobody was there.
"Where are 'the peeps' you mentioned?"
"They left." I could tell that she lying.
"Interesting." She fixed her shirt. It'd looked very disheveled when she walked in.
"I'm gonna go talk to my Mom. This was a nice chat!" She skipped away, and I couldn't help but wonder where she'd been.
"Oo, Amanda, I was just looking for you! We just got called on a case." Olivia said frantically.
"Oh, okay! Who's watching the kids?"
"Elliot will, we've got to go." She said quickly.
"Speaking of the kids, where's Bella?"
"She told me that she was hanging out in the basement. She's been in a mood all week and she doesn't care to talk to me about anything so I don't push her."
"Well, she's definitely not in the basement. I just saw her sneaking back inside from talking to her friends."
"Really...Kylie and Elle left a while ago. I'll have to talk to her about that later. Right now though, we need to go talk to a 7-year-old victim."