Chapter 4-10: Waiting for a Girl Like You

                “Hey mom, I’m heading over to the gym for the afternoon,” Brielyn called over her shoulder.

                “Okay honey. Have a good time. Don’t push yourself too hard,” Yalena advised.

                 Brielyn didn’t bother taking her mom’s advice. Her mom had never really been the athletic type and thought “pushing herself” meant breaking a sweat. Brielyn wanted to feel the burn, she wanted her muscles to ache and complain. She pressed on, climbing the rock wall at Core Fitness higher and when she made it to the top, she just dropped down and started over at a harder level. She kept climbing, even when her muscles started to shake and protest, feeling that they couldn’’t make it one more hold. She made herself reach for the completed button before she would give up. No one could ever get away with not calling her persistent.

                 Yalena had decided that it was a fine day for a trip to the park. There was supposed to be a big event later that night and she wanted to see if she could score a chance to perform. She spoke with the proprietor about it but he shook his head and turned her down, without so much as an addition.

                ‘What an ass,” she muttered to herself. The show wasn’t starting for another couple of hours so she decided to show him what he was missing out on and began performing for some of the park visitors. She was pleased to see that most of them enjoyed her performance, even if half of them were her relatives.            

                 The next day, Yalena and Jeanie had scheduled a play date for Camille and Hunter. It was nice having your best friend and sister in law who had a baby the same age as yours living so close. Yalena couldn’t help but hope that Hunter and Camille would grow up close.

                “So, tell me, why exactly did you two choose Hunter as his name,” Yalena asked.

                “Don’t get me started,” Jeanie groaned. “How awful to grow up a vampire with that name? Much less with Fierce as part of your hyphenated last name. Your darling brother thought it would be cute and I was a little out of it during the labor process.”

                Yalena laughed. “You didn’t consider changing it?”

                 “No. I just threatened him that if he named the next child Chase or something similar, I would strangle him and leave him human.”

                “So…you are going to turn him?” As much as she had accepted the idea of her best friend being a vampire, she still was unenthusiastic about her brother being one as well.

                “It’s what he wants. We’re his family. He doesn’t want to grow old, watching as our children slowly stop aging, knowing that one day he will die and we will continue to live on without him. I don’t want to live without him.”

                “What are you waiting for then,” Yalena asked curiously.

                “Your father. He…he still doesn’t know what I am. Zane doesn’t want to tell him. He thinks it would just be too much to handle. So, we’ll wait…”.

                Yalena glanced over to her daughter on the floor with Hunter. She couldn’t imagine watching as her daughter grew old and died yet Yalena stayed the same. She could comprehend a little of how Jeanie would feel with Zane. At the same time, she considered the ramifications of Camille growing older and watching her cousin stop aging. She wasn’t sure how to proceed from here.

                 She couldn’t believe how quick her Camille grew up. Before Yalena knew it, Camille was walking. There hadn’t been many bumps and falls along the way. It seemed that just one day she had decided that she was ready and went for it.

                 The same happened with talking. The little girl would watch the people around her with those big, brown eyes, hanging on to their words. Then one day, as Yalena was playing with her on the floor, she just up and said “Mamma, hungwy.”

                 “Mom, the Homecoming dance is Friday night. I was hoping that I would be able to go,” Brielyn asked.

                “Friday is Camille’s birthday. It would be really nice if we celebrated as a family.”

                “Mom, please,” she begged. “I’ll stay so Cami can blow out her candles. It’s just, there’s this boy I kind of like and he didn’t ask me or anything and I don’t even know if he knows I am alive but I was kind of hoping that maybe, if he saw me there, we could talk or dance or something,” she spurted all this information in rapid fire.

                “Okay, as long as you stay until the candles are blown out, I don’t see a problem with it.”

                “Oh, thank you, thank you!”

                Brielyn went out jogging that evening. She wanted to make sure that she looked as best she could for the dance. Alan was a cute boy from her math class and, even though she had never talked to him before, she had a huge crush on him. He was on the football team and she had seen him out practicing with one of his teammates. He seemed to enjoy physical activity as much as she did. Plus, he was really cute. She just hoped that he would like her too.

                 Camille’s birthday finally arrived. Yalena invited over Lyric and Cody, Jeanie, Zane, and Hunter, Zarah, Marshall, and Joe, and, of course, Ace. The toddlers formed a circle on the floor, all eying each other. If Yalena hadn’t known better, she would have suspected Cody was Camille’s half-brother instead of her cousin. The only feature he seemed to have inherited from Lyric were those brilliant green eyes.

                 “Time to blow out the candles,” Yalena announces cheerily. Though she was sad that her daughter was a child now, she was more relieved that the baby stages were behind her. She was ready to pursue singing more now that she would have some free time while both her daughters were in school.

                “Why don’t you visit me more,” Camille asked her father as they sat down for cake.

                “Well, I’m busy with work. And I’m getting married soon. We’ll have to visit with your step-mother before the wedding.”

                “Why are you getting married,” she asked.

                “Because I am in love.”

                “Why are you in love,” she pestered him even more.

                “Camille, enough. I love Kristi and we’re getting married. No more questions,” he snapped.

                Monday morning, Camille was up bright and early for her first day of school. She was excited about learning new things and meeting new people and had barely slept the night before.

                “Daddy, do you think you can walk me to school with Momma this morning,” she called her father as soon as it was light outside.

                “Oh, honey, I don’t know. I’ve got some meetings I need to prepare for this afternoon and some budgets to go over before that and Kristi wanted to meet for breakfast to discuss wedding plans,” he hesitated, making excuses, without actually saying no. “I’ll see what I can do.”

                 Camille showered and donned her best dress for her first day. She wanted to make a good first impression and, hopefully make some friends. Her cousins her all a year behind her in school and wouldn’t be starting for a few months. As they approached the school, she glanced around, hoping to catch of look of Ace coming to at least give her a hug and wish her luck before she went in.

                Yalena watched her daughter out of the corner of her eye. She had hoped that Ace would be a better father than he had a boyfriend or fiancé but he seemed to have more important things to do. It infuriated her that he could stand his own child up but she kept her cool, trying with all her might to be the bigger person instead of poisoning her daughter’s mind because of her own failed relationship with him.

                After her first day of school, Camille went home, ready to work on her homework. She liked her teacher and some of her classmates looked promising for potential friends. Brielyn remembered her mother’s horrible attempt at helping with homework and was waiting for her sister when she came inside.

                “Like this,” she asked, pointing to her math problem that her sister had helped her solve.

                “Yeah, just like that. Good job,” Brielyn smiled, ruffling her sister’s hair when they were finished.

                “Wrong, but I’ll fix it before class tomorrow,” Camille thought, looking over the problem. Obviously Brielyn wasn’t very good in math but she didn’t have to know that. At least, Camille wouldn’t be the one to tell her.

                 She quickly discovered that one of her favorite past times was playing chess. They didn’t have a table at home but, often after school, she would head to the library to rifle through the books and would get on the computer there. She hadn’t actually beat the computer yet although she had sure gotten close.

                 “Ms. Avendale,” an unfamiliar voice asked when she answered her cell.

                “That’s me. Can I help you,” she said warily.

                “This is Ms. Griffin from the theater. We remember your audition with us a few years back and, although we don’t have any permanent spots, we do need a sub for a concert tomorrow night. It pays,” she added helpfully.

                “I’ll be there,” Yalena agreed, jotting down the details.

                Yalena left the theater absolutely exhausted. She was lucky Brielyn was old enough to stay home and watch Camille herself at night because it was close to midnight by the time the show had ended. Yalena had been well congratulated on her performance and her promised check was more than doubled when not one, but two encores were requested.

                 With her birthday just around the corner, Brielyn and Camille quickly set to work, coming up with a surprise for their mom. They didn’t receive allowances but Brielyn was able to train with some of the athletes at school, earning her a little money. Ace, feeling guilty for not spending as much time with Camille as he should, have her just about anything she asked for. With this money, they were able to get tickets to see the Green Man Group, a performance they knew Yalena had wanted to see.

                 The next night, Brielyn agreed to babysit so Yalena could have a private birthday date with Lyric. Camille wasn’t very happy about it though.

                “Mommy, do you have to go,” she whined.

                “Honey, Lyric has been planning this for a while.”

                “But Lyric is Cody’s daddy and Cody is my cousin. Doesn’t that make Uncle Lyric your brother,” she asked. She knew very well that it didn’t but maybe it would work.

                “No honey. Aunt Katherine is your daddy’s sister.” No such luck. It was time for a different angle.

                “But, that means that Uncle Lyric is her husband then. Why do you want to go on a date with him? Aren’t dates for unmarried people?”

                ‘Camille Avendale. I am going on this date. You know very well that Aunt Katherine and Uncle Lyric are not married and don’t even live together. That’s why Cody visits his daddy on the weekends, just like you and your sister visit your daddies.”

                “Ugh, boys are stupid,” Camille muttered under her breath, stomping off to her room.

                 Lyric arrived and took her to the beach for the evening. She didn’t think she had really ever been to a true beach before, not like this. Not one that had water that stretched as far as the eye could see. Yalena, not growing up around the beach wasn’t really sure about getting in that open water so they decided to take a dip in the salt water pool on site.

                 She glanced over the horizon as they floated in the cool water. She couldn’t believe how much things had changed yet not changed since she had first run here. She and Lyric were still circling each other, though much closer than before. They still weren’t officially a couple though and, finally leaving her young life behind her, she wasn’t sure how she felt about that.

                 “Hey, c’mon,” Lyric called to her as he hoisted himself out of the pool. She followed him down the beach to the sand where they sat next to each other, holding hands, watching the sun go down. She leaned into him, relaxing in his arms. When he leaned in to kiss her, she let all her worries melt away with it.

                 This was what she had wanted, right from the start. It felt so right to be with him. She wasn’t sure how she had gone so long before realizing that he was the right one, but this was what she had been waiting for all along.

                 The hard questions and decisions could wait for tomorrow.

Chapter 4.9                                                                                                                                              Chapter 4.11
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I just want to say thank you to Reya/Cece for helping me, though probably unintentionally, with the dialogue between Jeanie and Yalena. It was just us joking around in chat. I love to hear people's takes on my screenshots (when I am nice enough to show them, that is) and her commentary was just too good to pass up.