Always Us

mini me pt. i

This isn't Christmas themed, but Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates!

_____

Sienna heard her name being yelled before she even had a chance to open the passenger-side door of her dad's car.

"Thank you, daddy." Grinning, she leaned over the center console to brush a kiss on his cheek.

Even though she was sixteen now, and her parents had surprised her with her own car—a cute light blue Audi that she had repeatedly hinted at—for her last birthday, most days, her dad still chauffeured her to and from school. It was a routine she had gotten used to and cherished.

He shifted into park and cut the engine. "Any time, baby girl."

The routine had begun in high school when starting school at a different time than her siblings presented an opportunity for some elusive bonding time with her busy dad. Some days they talked, some days they rapped. Either way, those ten minutes were always perfect, and she hadn't had the heart to end it just because she had gained her own mode of transportation.

On the morning following her birthday, the look on his face had been enough for her to know that he had woken up with the same sense of melancholy. He had been trying so hard to act casual, lingering by the door in his usual morning hoodie and sweats, that instead of pulling her new set of keys out of her pocket, she dug them deeper, walked straight up to him, and asked what are you waiting for, old man?

The relief on his face had been instantaneous, and the topic was never discussed further.

"Here she comes," Spencer chuckled, cracking his own door open.

"SiSi! SiSiiii!"

The teen dropped her backpack by the front door and scooped up the tiny ball of energy that had bounced around her on the walk from the car to the house.

"How was your day, Savie?"

Caleb popped up out of nowhere, still in his navy shorts and white polo. "Nani did all the ABC's."

"Oh yeah?" Sienna grinned.

"Our little Savage is a baby genius," Spencer said, coming in behind his daughter.

Sienna laughed at the latest addition to the laundry list of nicknames her baby sister had accumulated in her short two years of life. The list had started when her parents presented her with the honor of naming the last baby of the family. Naturally, at fourteen, she wanted to give her baby sister a name similar to her own. But for a certain pair of five year olds, her selection had turned out to be a mouthful, and now two years later, her choice in name was rarely used since the little girl responded to anything and everything that even slightly resembled Savannah.

The toddler smiled widely. "I miss you, SiSi."

"I missed you, too," Sienna laughed, setting her sister down just as her mom came around the corner.

"Homework! Everybody!"

Groans sounded through the foyer and echoed down the hall in the kitchen.

"And what took you two so long?" Olivia asked, expertly ignoring her kids' exaggerated show of dismay.

Sienna bit her bottom lip. "We stopped for ice cream."

Like the cone of chocolate chip cookie dough she recently devoured, her mother's lips melted into a pout. "And you didn't bring me any?"

Like clockwork, her dad stepped up to her mom, weaving his arms loosely around her waist. "I'll go back and get you some, baby. What kind do you want?"

Rolling her eyes, Sienna steered her younger brother and sister around their weak-kneed mother and led them into the kitchen. Her parents were cool. Most of the time. The rest of the time, they were just downright sickening.