🌟She's Special🌟

Skating & Contemplating

Tuesday, January 13th (6:15 AM) (Bella's Perspective)
I woke up and looked over at Hannah. It was quarter past six, so I was up at a good time. We needed to go downstairs and have breakfast before catching the bus at 8 sharp!
"Hannie, wake up. Sapphire's in the shower." We have a shower order from quickest to slowest, it just works better that way for us. So, the order is Sapphire, Hannah, Me, Leah, Paisley, and Hilary.
"What? She's in the shower?" She asked in the middle of a yawn.
"Yup." She cracked her neck and held her clothes she'd laid out the night before. I'd done the same but I decided to make our bed instead.
"Last night was epic."

"Cause I feel better when I'm dancing! La da de da da da da da la da da da da da!" We danced on top of the beds. We were playing childhood songs because we wanted a bit of a throwback.
"Remember that Just Dance dance?"
"Oh my goodness! Yes." We jumped from bed to bed in a ring around the rosy type of situation. We really shouldn't be doing this, considering it's 12 AM and we need to make it downstairs in time for breakfast. I heard a thud.
"Leah, how the hell did you fall?" We paused the music and just about died of laughter.

"It was great. We should jam out again." Sapphire came out of the shower and Hannah went in.
"I'm loving the mom jeans on you!"
"Thanks!" Paisley and Leah woke up.
"Breakfast?"
"After you shower." Hilary smiled.
"Gosh, when they wake up in the morning they have the mental state of two-year-olds."
"You didn't lie."
"Gosh I'm so hungry, I just want to eat an entire stack of blueberry pancakes."
"Well, we can't do that until we're all ready. I'm showering! Be right back!"
************
The Precinct (8:45 AM EDT) (Olivia's Perspective)
"Emma, I can't help you honey darling until you tell me what happened."
"I don't want to get in trouble."
"You won't get into trouble sweetheart. You trust me, don't you? Have I ever lied to you?"
"No, it's just that I'm scared." She continued drawing.
"Why are you scared?"
"Because my parents are going to find out. And I'll be in trouble."
"In trouble? Did you do something that you're not supposed to?" She began to cry.
"Please let me help you."
"I have to stay over at my Uncle's house because my parents are getting a divorce and I don't want them to fight more. I'm just tired of the fighting."
"What happened at your Uncle's?"
"He invited one of his friends over for dinner. He left to go pick up ice cream, his friend was being weird. He kept his hand on my leg, kept touching me weirdly. I told him to stop doing that, that it made me feel uncomfortable and he pinned me onto the couch and he raped me. He said if I said anything, he'd make sure I regretted it." I hugged her.
"If they know, they're going to make this whole deal over custody. Because it happened at my Dad's brother's house. I just can't catch a break." The thirteen-year-old said. I hugged her.
"Emma honey, I can't promise that I can prevent your parents from fighting, but I'm going to talk to them, and ask them to be understanding of your situation so that we can put him in jail. Understand?"
"I do. Thanks, Olivia." She hugged me and I gave her one back. She needs justice. I gave Emma a break and looked at my phone. I have to say, I'm quite disappointed in Bella. I can't believe she's choosing to ignore me right now rather than talk to Elliot and I. It's really immature of her.

Me: Bella, how long are you going to ignore me, young lady? If I were you, I'd answer if I wanted to go on the summer senior trip.

They were supposed to be doing a tour of Park City which is why I wasn't pressing for her to answer right now.
"What time is it in Utah?"
"6:50 AM," Amanda said.
"Rollins please don't scare me like that." I laughed softly.
"What's the matter?"
"Bella's been ignoring me."
"Why?" I showed Amanda the photos.
"That first photo is a very...interesting photo."
"Amanda, you can just say it."
"It is a bit provocative, and so is the swimsuit. I'm not trying to sexualize her-"
"But other people will," I said, finishing her sentence.
"But I'm confused, Bella doesn't usually wear things like that or pose like that either." I nodded in agreement.
"She's growing up."
"I'm more surprised at the fact that she decided to be so sneaky about it. She sneakily bought the swimsuit, sneakily head the post from me. I don't know, it just makes me upset because I thought we were very open with each other."
"I'm not sure Bella feels the same."
"What do you mean?"
"I think she doesn't feel comfortable being so open with you these days, I'm not sure if it's because she's afraid of being judged, or you being upset and disappointed with her. She's vulnerable right now, she's becoming a young woman, and all the things that she was scared of as a little girl are coming back up again."
"Where do you get all of this from?"
"From my conversations from her. She never said it in words of course, but it shows." Amanda's right. When Bella comes back from that trip we need to talk.
*****************
Main Street Historic District (8:45 AM MDT) (Bella's Perspective)
"Woah, it looks like a winter wonderland," I commented.
"I think it's a bit too early to have these lights out."
"You are just a hater." Faith said to Jonathan. I laughed quietly as our teachers walked us down the main road along with our guide for the day. There wasn't much snow, so they decided a tour and ice skating should farewell.
"Wait, Mr. Fletcher, where are we going?"
"To the Park City Museum of course." Everyone rolled their eyes internally.
"Hey, no need for the long faces, isn't it wonderful to get to know the history of the beautiful place we're visiting?"
"If we wanted to know the history we would've asked Durand in class," Janelle said.
"Good one." Jake laughed. Mr.Fletcher walked away in defeat.
"Personally speaking, I think it's too damn early for a fucking museum but here we are anyway," Hilary said.
"Well, maybe if we get this over with we can do something fun! Let's see." We'd been walking for a while.
"Hey, why didn't the bus just drop us in front of the museum?" Preston asked.
"Museum opens at 9, we thought it'd be nice to walk it off."
"Fletcher, you think everything is nice," Hannah said.
"Don't mind her, she's moody," I explained.
^^^^^^^
On The Bus (Park City, Utah) (11:45 AM)
The museum wasn't that fun, but we're going ice skating now! It should be awesome! Just as long as no one slices their hand on a pair of skates, or break something. Can you tell I'm worried about that?
"Okay guys, so the skating rink is about 12 minutes away from here guys. Does everyone have gloves?"
"Yes!" We all screamed.
"Okay, good! Hang tight!" I love ice skating. Plus, Jake said that when we got to the skating area he'd buy me a hot chocolate. Who doesn't love a French vanilla hot chocolate?! And, who doesn't love it when your crush buys it for you?!
"It looks so pretty outside!" Hannah said to me. We sit next to each other on the bus.
"It's so cute. Look at the snowflake! You can see the pattern on it!"
**************
The 16th Precinct (Manhattan, New York) (1:55 PM) (Olivia's Perspective)
"Okay, so Bella, Mommy is going to do your hair, and then we're going to go out to dinner with some friends. How does that sound?" I asked my five-year-old, Bella while brushing her beautiful curly hair.
"That sounds good." She played with her doll, Annie, and then looked up in the mirror.
"Mommy?"
"Yes?"
"Who do you like best?" She asked.
"I love you and Noah the same."
"So you do love me?" She asked with the biggest smile.
"Yes, of course, I do baby girl. Why do you say that?"
"Other Mommy would say love you but did not nice things. So I dunno what love is." She said calmly. I put down the brush.
"Love is when you care for someone a lot, Bella. I care for you a lot, which means I love you. And, you love me too, right?"
"Yes, I care about you a lot Mommy."
"Right, love is giving hugs and kisses, love is saving another person the last ice cream bar, love is being there for them when they're sad."
"You do those things for me. You really love me, Mommy."
"Yes, I love you so much." I gave her the biggest hug and a kiss before continuing her hair.

"Liv?" I jolted.
"Sorry, I was daydreaming. What is it, Fin?"
"I hope you're not thinking about what you're gonna do with Elliot." I rolled my eyes.
"I'm definitely not. I'm just trying to enjoy my lunch. It's the least I can do."
"It's all gonna work out, Emma's story is solid, evidence matches, we just need to arrest the son of a bitch."
"I know, I know." I smiled.
"How's Bella's trip?"
"I don't know, she's not talking to me."
"Why not?" I showed Fin the post and his jaw dropped.
"This post is way more provocative than all of her posts, I hate these things, yes kids shouldn't be specialized, but some things just aren't appropriate, and this is one of them, the posing, the swimsuit. Liv-"
"I wouldn't ever buy her a swimsuit like that. She did this all on her own, it's just worse that she hid it from me. She's growing up Fin." We sat in silence.
"She's a teenager."
"Don't you forget it." I said while leaving the room to go get coffee.

"Mommy, I don't like that swimsuit because it shows too much of my tummy and that makes me uncomfortable, can I get this one instead?"
"Of course baby!"

She isn't my little girl anymore. I have to stop being so fixated on that little girl that I met years ago. She's a young lady. I have a hard time, I do. I adopted Bella when she was six, she was approaching late childhood, and it dawned upon m that I didn't have all the time that I did with Noah, and Leia as well. I haven't been able to get over it.
************
Park City Ice Skating Area (12:15 PM) (Bella's Perspective)
"Race ya!" I giggled. I was certainly not going to let Jake beat me.
"Not letting you win Romano."
"Well, can't be too sure, I'm already ahead." I skated faster and he grinned.
"Nothing's funny!"
"You're lace is untied!" I looked down.
"Why did you fall for that? You shouldn't have fallen for that." I whispered to myself. I tried to catch up, but Jake was very much ahead and he ended up winning.
"You did well." I rolled my eyes. I was beginning to skate away with an attitude when Jake grabbed me quickly. Apparently, someone had almost hit me. Jake pulled me into a close embrace to the point where our faces were less than an inch away from each other. I felt my face go red.
"Sorry about that."
"No, no, it's okay. Thanks for saving me. But I kind of deserved hit considering I was giving you attitude." We both laughed it off. Kelsie, Hannah, and Sapphire skated over.
"Bell, come with us!" They made me leave the rink and sit on the benches with them.
"So once again, you had the chance to kiss Jake Romano, and you didn't do it. Bella, what the hell?"
"In her defense, there's so many teachers and other kids around that's kind of embarrassing. But you guys are too cute." Sapphy said. I smiled.
"I'll take up on the opportunity another time! You know, they say you shouldn't rig your first kiss."
"Alex said that in Grey's Anatomy!"
"Yeah, it has to come naturally. So my first kiss could be Jake, but it could also not be. As long as I like the guy and stuff, it'll be ok."

~To be continued