Late Nano Challenge #2 Post (Summer) Alanna laid on her stomach in the middle of the living room floor coloring in her book while chaos ensued around her. They were going to have a party! Alanna loved parties. They had balloons and toys and lots of cake and sometimes candy too! Her parents didn’t like her eating too much sweets because they told her that she became an animal. Alanna liked sweets though and so she pouted until her Mama or Daddy gave in and gave her something.
“Come on, Mijia, we have to clean this up because people will be arriving for Hallie’s birthday party.” Josh said, plucking the crayon from her hand and placing them back into their box. Alanna pouted but allowed her father to take away her fun. She’ll have fun with her cousins later anyway. Taking his hand, Alanna pulled herself off the floor with a smile. “Oh no…” Josh mumbled, taking in her appearance. “Mija, how did you get a stain on your dress already? You only put it on ten minutes ago.” Alanna shrugged, still grinning. “Danae!” Josh called out to his wife. “I need your help with a stain.”
Josh’s voice interrupted the finishing touches that Danae had been putting on Hallie’s birthday cake. Of course, it was the third time that she was doing finishing touches, because every time she thought she was finished with the cake, she found an imperfection or thought of a little something that she could add. It was part of the dangers of having become a pastry chef. She was a perfectionist and certainly so when it came to giving her daughter the best birthday cake ever.
Unfortunately, doing anymore would have to wait since Josh needed her. She gave one final look at the cake before heading to where Josh was with their other daughter. “Oh, honey,” she said, crouching down to get a better look at the stain. “How did you make such a mess already?” Her words may have seemed harsh, but were softened with a kiss on the cheek.
Alanna giggled when her Mama’s lips brushed her cheek, but shrugged at the question, “I don't know, Mama.” She replied sweetly.
“Let’s get you cleaned up.” Pulling out her wand, Danae aimed it at the offending area before saying the appropriate charm. When she was done, she examined the dress again. “There we go. All clean!” Danae made eye contact with Josh. “Perhaps, we need to find another activity until Hallie’s party.”
“I thought coloring was a safe activity.” Josh muttered under his breath. He kissed his wife’s cheek affectionately, “Gracias, Mi Amore.” he picked Alanna up from the floor. “Let's have you play with your dollies while we wait for our guests to arrive.”
“Okay Daddy!” Alanna exclaimed. “Will you play with me?” She asked, pouting and giving him ‘The Face’.
“Let's check on Hallie first. And make sure Mommy doesn't need my help.”Josh suggested. He put Alanna back down and watched while she ran off to the back of the house yelling out her sister's name.
“Haaaaaaallie” She cried into the door as she knocked. “Daddy wants to know if you are readyyyyy!”
Hallie opened the door. “Lennie!” The nickname had come from when Alanna had been born and Hallie had been unable to say her name, it had turned into Lennie and had stuck. She grabbed her little sister’s hand and pulled her in. “Today’s a really special day. Do you know what’s going on today? It’s my birthday and everyone is going to be coming.” They had a really big family full of aunts and uncles plus cousins. She didn’t get to see everyone very often, because they lived all over the world.
“Yes I know what today it is.” Alanna stated with a pout. Hallie was going to get all the presents and Alanna wasn't going to get any and it wasn't fair!
Hallie spun around once so her new dress, a pretty pink with ruffles, flared out. She loved how special it made her feel. “I’m all ready. Let’s go and see all the decorating.”
Alanna’s face brightened. “Mama says I have to do another activity, do you want to play with me?” Alanna asked this innocently to her sister as she followed out of her bedroom.
“Okay, but we have to make sure not to get dirty,” Hallie said in an overly serious tone with a quick glance down at her dress. She wanted to make sure not to get anything on it before she had a chance to say hello to everyone. Besides, she didn’t like being messy anyhow. She much preferred doing things like having a pretend tea party or playing with her dolls. That actually sounded like a good idea. “What do you want to play? Maybe a tea party?”
Alanna threw her head back in exasperation when her sister said they couldn’t get dirty. Hallie never wanted to get dirty! Alanna liked to play with paint and mud and her food and all the other fun stuff that sometimes got on her clothes and hands and face. Her parents always cleaned her up and made her wash her hands and face so she didn’t see why it was so bad. “Haaaaallliiiiiiiie” Alanna whined while jumping up and down from being overly energetic. Before Alanna could say much else, the doorbell rang, signaling the arrival of their first guest. Alanna’s face lit up with excitement. “Oh my gosh, they're HERE!” She shouted, turning away from her sister and running towards the front door.
Relief washed over Hallie momentarily at not being guilted into one of Alanna’s adventures. Somehow, her sister ended up getting what she wanted and Hallie ended up being a mess. But there wasn’t much time to think about that now since she was more than halfway down the hall. “Lennie! Wait for me!” She shouted and started running after. So much for being ladylike.
Danae raised an eyebrow at her daughters’ running towards the front door. “Girls, settle down now.” She motioned them closer before opening the door to what was an awkward group. Her older brother, Devian, stood there with his family and a little bit from them stood her cousin, Nicoletta, and her family. It was a rather odd mixture. Devian was the epitome of what some purebloods prided themselves on while Nicoletta was considered a disgrace among them. Though, she thought her cousin to be brave to have gone after love. She looked to her own husband. She had been lucky in many ways to not have had to choose, but if she had been in the same position, she would have done the same. She would always choose Josh.
Josh had been instructing the house elf on when to serve the food when the doorbell had rang, so by the time he walked up behind his wife, the door was already open. Grinning, Josh held open the door and invited everyone in. “Welcome, thank you for coming.” He said as he shook Devian’s hand and then Adam’s before kissing the cheeks of the women. The Duprees were so different than the Santoro’s but he had grown used to their more… uptight ways. “I can take the gifts for you.” He said, taking them to the designated table.
“Arianna!” Alanna called out, grinning wildly at her. Alanna always liked it when people came to visit. Although, usually it was mostly just Tio Mateo or their older cousin Jorge and their Tia Lucie, of course. “Do you want to come play with me?” She asked her older cousin with her big brown eyes looking delightfully hopeful.
Alanna was as wild as they came. Arianna looked at the girl, her blonde head tilted slightly in thought. Did she want to play with the younger kids? Moving past the adults, she put herself nearer to the other girls. “Come on, we can play a new game I invented. You can come along too, Victor, if you want.” She was never thrilled at seeing Victor. According to her father, his bit of the family wasn’t on par with theirs, but she had to be nice anyhow.
Victor’s lip curled in dislike when Arianna addressed him and he sighed. He really needed some boy cousins his age to hang with, but his dad didn’t have siblings and Uncle Chris and Aunt Anne didn’t have any kids yet, so it was just him and these people. He didn’t mind Hallie or Alanna really. Hallie was a bit serious and Alanna young, but they were more welcoming than Arianna was. His dad nudged him to follow Arianna and the girls and Victor reluctantly did so.
Once they were all gathered in an open space, Arianna immediately took charge. After all, she was a born leader. “So, the game that I made up is called Sweet and Sour. Someone picks an object for you and then using that object you have to do something sweet and something sour. Like this, so I’m going to pick…” She walked over to the table that held appetizers. Glancing over each item, she settled on something that appeared to have some sort of dip on it.
“I don’t think you should do that,” Hallie warned her. She knew that they weren’t supposed to be getting into anything until the appropriate time. Plus, she would hate to see anyone get in trouble.
Ignoring her, Arianna brought the item back to the group. “The sweet thing I’m going to do is give this to Victor.” She waited for him to take the cracker thing.
Victor’s blue eyes narrowed as he looked at the cracker about back up at Arianna. The game was Sweet and Sour? He could only imagine what the sour was. He didn’t want to upset Hallie on her birthday, but he also really didn’t want to play with Arianna. His dad said it had to do with family politics and that was why Uncle Devian (not his real uncle, but his mom’s cousin, but it was easier to call him Uncle) and Arianna seemed so….not cool. “No thank you.” He finally said to Arianna, taking a step away so that her dip covered cracker couldn’t be thrown too easily at him.
Arianna’s lips turned down in a frown. How dare he not want to play her game! Well, he was going to play whether or not he wanted to. Her frown turned to a pout and fake tears began to form in the corners of her eyes. “Daddy! Daddy!” She shouted. Her arms folded around and she stood with one foot out. “Wait until I tell everyone how mean you are for not playing my game. I was just trying to be nice and include you. All you had to do was try it and say whether it was sweet or sour,” she lied.
Victor rolled his eyes. She was so dramatic. Victor turned his attention to Hallie, “Sorry Hal.” He said quietly to her. He knew that Arianna would do something to ruin this for Hallie. He could have played along, but he was certain that Arianna would have smashed that cracker on him and ruin his clothes. He didn’t care, but he knew his mom wouldn’t be very happy.
Alanna stood wide-eyed next to her sister, confused by what had just happened. “Halllllie.” She whispered (in a way that wasn’t quite as quiet as the five year thought it was). “Why is she crying?” Alanna didn’t understand. Victor was polite about declining, which her parents said when that happened that she had to take it gracefully. “I don’t want to play this game anymooooore.” Alanna declared. “Can we play dollies now?” Alanna asked Hallie.
Hallie didn’t completely understand the politics of the exchange between Victor and Arianna. She did know, however, that it left her feeling protective of Alanna. She wasn’t normally one to take charge, but no one was going to upset her sister. “Let’s go. You can be Princess Veronica.” Hallie didn’t normally allow Alanna to play with that particular doll. She didn’t even play with that doll most times, because she didn’t want to get the beautiful pink silk and lace dress dirty. “Victor, you can come too.” She didn’t extend the invitation to Arianna, but there was no doubt she would end up tagging along.
Alanna’s face lit up, “Princess Veronica! Yay!” She squealed, jumping up and down as she took the lead to her sister’s room while chanting the doll’s name. Victor hesitated. He really did not want to go play dollies or pretend or anything like that. But he looked over at Arianna and realized that without Hallie or Alanna, he was stuck with her or the adults. Deciding dollies were the lesser evil, he turned and quickly followed behind the two girls.
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For the rest of the time, Arianna had pouted and attempted to tell everyone how to play, but otherwise, it had been uneventful. Now had come Hallie’s moment. Everyone was here. And they were here for her. She felt so special. She sat at the head of the table, trying to be patient, but it was hard. She felt like such a grownup. Dinner had been served first and that hadn’t been as much fun. Mostly all of the grownups had talked on and on. But finally they were at her moment. She sat, trying not to squirm as she waited for her cake to be brought out.
Happy Birthday was being sung and there it was. Her mom was carrying out a small cake followed by a towering one that was being rolled out. The personal cake was set in front of her. It was perfect! There were small pink roses all over it along with white pearls. It was the epitome of a princess cake. It was just what she wanted! “Thank you, Mama. I love it!” Taking a deep breath, she blew out the candles that were on the small cake. The ones on the large cake, which matched the smaller, would have to be helped by her family.
Alanna sang loudly and cheered as Hallie blew out the candles. She loved parties! Mama’s cakes were always the best and all she wanted was a big piece of it. Alanna’s little legs kicked excitedly from below the table. Oh, she just loved cake so much!