He's Love

#1

Hey! Notice Kevin Love up there? It's around 2008 - 2010 something :)

//

15 June 2002

"Mommy," Georgina calls her mother as she takes a huge bite of her pancake and pouts.

She's about to turn four in a couple of months. Like her mother, she has brown curly hair. They are almost identical except that she has her father's emerald green eyes instead of her mother's brown ones. Her one and a half year old brother, Gian, looks exactly like his father with his dirty blonde hair and green eyes.

Her mom smiles at her, "What is it, sweetie?"

"I think Gian pooped. It makes my pancakes stinky."

They've been having their dessert, the usual late Sunday for their family. She has her 8-layer pancakes with strawberry syrup and a banana cereal for her brother.

"Georgina," her mother chuckles, "we talked about this already, right? No using of the P-word in the kitchen table."

She looks at Gian and kisses his cheeks, "I'm sorry, Gian. But you do smell like poop."

Her mother rolls her eyes but chuckles while her baby brother looks at her in response while playing with his spoon. He's a mess, like he usually is, baby food all over his napkin and clothes. He plays with his spoon again, the cereal on it flying onto Georgina's nose. She laughs and her brother stares at her.

"Gigi," her brother says as he tries to reach the food on her nose. She leans back causing her brother to cry.

"Mom," she wipes her nose and looks at her mother in panic, "I'm not Gigi."

Her mother nods and carries her brother into her arms. She soothes his back to stop him from crying and hands him his milk.

She's not Gigi, she thinks, and for that she starts crying, too.

"Oh, honey," her father, Jacob, walks toward them and kneels beside her asking, "why are you crying?"

"Gian called me Gigi. I'm not Gigi. I'm George."

Her father laughs as well as her mother. "Hon," her father calls her, "Gian's a baby. He's not yet good with his words. You know that, right?"

She nods but pouts still, "Will you teach him to call me George then?"

"George?"

She nods, "I like that name. It sounds cool."

Her father kisses her cheek, "But I like your name. Your mother does, too."

Georgina. She likes her name, yes. But Charlie, her playmate next door, said something to her that made her change her mind.

*

"Why 'Charlie'? You're not a boy." She states to her friend Charlotte as she color the elephant with purple in her book.

Charlotte is a six year old who lives next door. Her short blond hair has blue, pink and green streaks on it which is probably done by her mother, Elise, who works as a celebrity stylist in the city.

Charlotte nods while dressing one of her Barbie doll, "I am not a boy. But people who don't know me and hear my name will think I am. It's cool to trick other people sometimes."

She nods her head and flips the page of the book. She thinks for a moment before picking yellow to color the apple.

"Like coloring the apple yellow so it'll look like a lemon?"

Charlotte -  Charlie as to what she wants to be called, shrugs in response. "Somehow."

After coloring the apple, she stares at it and smiles. It does look good. Even the purple elephant does, too.

She feels something and she thinks it's probably what Charlie felt too. She wants to go beyond normal.

"I want my name to be cool, too," she whispers.

Georgina. George. A boy's name.

*

"But I really like that nickname. Please," she kisses her father's cheek and looks at him with her puppy eyes, "Please let me be George."

Her father pretends to think about it before looking at her mother in the kitchen counter who's busy watching them talk. Therese, her mother, chuckles and walks over to them.

"Okay, George," her mother says and kisses her cheek. She squeals in delight and kisses her mother back.

They're laughing together when Gian suddenly farts and her father runs, still carrying her, to the door.

She continues to chuckle and her father lays her down the couch and opens the TV. As expected from her father for a lazy Sunday evening, it's on ABC.

Her father's fond of watching basketball. He's the head coach of the University of California training young dreamers and hopefully send them to the big league as NBA.

He met his wife there when he's in college. They fell in love and made memories there, so he decided that he couldn't just look away from that place. In return, as soon as he graduated he taught Basketball there.

"Kiddo," her father sits beside her, "What do you want for your birthday?"

The player of the Los Angeles Lakers dunks the ball into the basket before the shot clock rings ending the game. They won and the players high five each other and the opposing team.

"I want to be in a stadium, daddy," she starts as her eyes scan the screen staring at the players, coaches, and the confetti falling down on the court, "I want to watch a league basketball game."