" I just wanna be myself " (A Hunchback Of Notre Dame fanstory)

Chapter 11

A exhausted sigh escaped past Esmeralda's lips as she placed the last box filled with her children's various toys on top of another box filled with toys. Her back was sore, along with her arms, legs, feet, and shoulders. She was also very nauseous, but nevertheless, she was finally done with packing all her kids stuff so she and her family would finally be able to move away and move to another country. Another country that hopefully, Madellaine and her insane family wouldn't follow them.

Quasimodo gently patted his spouse on the back as he wiped his forehead clean of sweat, clearly exhausted as well " At least we're all done packing everything. I hope we can finally loose track of that family " He spoke " They just... Won't leave us alone! No matter what we do! "

Esmeralda nodded " I hope we loose track of them too. Every single time i see Madellaine or Phœbus. I just wanna shove my foot down their throats. They have absolutely ZERO respect for people! " She then covered her mouth as she felt a wave of nausea wash over her, but it went away as quickly as it came.

Quasimodo took notice of his spouse's nausea as instantly became worried. Esmeralda has been nauseated for the past couple of days, nearly a whole week at this point in time. The couple had their suspicions about it. They knew that it was almost entirely possible that Esmeralda was pregnant. The constant nausea, parts of her body becoming sore (Legs, Ankles, Lower Back, Etc, etc...), and on top of that, Esmeralda was also starting to get headaches that would come and go every few hours, and no amount of medication would make the pain go away.

Meanwhile, their children were all sitting in the living room, watching some cartoon about a dog that was always afraid of everything around him yet always made sure his elderly owners were out of harms way. Out of the Five children sitting on or around the couch, three of them were making snarky remarks at one another while the other two watched the cartoon show in silence.

" I'd never be scared of anything in this show! I'm the bravest out of all of us! " Charlotte remarked as she pointed at the screen, which in turn made Felix roll his eyes at his siblings snarky remark.

" Yeah you would! If your mattress came to life and was harming you or us, you'd scream for Maman and Papa! Don't act like you wouldn't be scared of a haunted mattress! " Jade clapped back, pointing at Charlotte.

Charlotte rolled her eyes in annoyance " No i wouldn't! "
 
" Yes you would! Yes you would! "

The two siblings went back and forth about whether or not Charlotte would be scared of anything, as she considered herself to be ' The Brave Older Sister ' and that she would never, ever be afraid of anything in her life, no matter if it was a horror movie or something scary in a cartoon.

Micheal, Felix, and Edgar were ignoring their sisters arguing and were paying more attention as the commercials ended and the cartoon had resumed. In fact, the three were so invested in their cartoon, they didn't even notice their parents walk into the living room.

" Alright, Enough with the arguing Charlotte and Jade! " Esmeralda called out, catching the attention of her children " It doesn't matter if Charlotte would be brave or afraid, besides, it's just a cartoon, haunted mattresses don't exist in real life. "

Jade giggled quietly as Charlotte let out a sigh of defeat. Felix yawned as the cartoon continued to play.

In the cartoon, the dog was trying to avoid being shaved by a freaky barber, who just so happened to be the nephew of one of the elderly owners. This barber had a large, wide-toothed smile, hair all messy and frazzled out, and his eyes looked sunken in. The barber character was holding the dog character and was trying to shave his fur away with a hand-held shaver.

The sight of this started to make Edgar very uncomfortable, as he started to fidget and he slowly backed away from the T.V, despite this barber character being 100% fictional, he was making Edgar's skin crawl. While his siblings were absolutely enjoying the cartoon, Edgar just wanted to leave and to go back to his room, but he didn't want to look like a coward in front of his older siblings. So he continued to watch the cartoon, despite his body language clearly stating how much he didn't want to continue watching.

A shaky sigh escaped past Edgar's lips as he slowly shuffled away from the couch, he then slowly picked himself up and limped to his bedroom, only his parents noticing.

Edgar slammed his bedroom door closed. His bedroom itself was now barren as his parents had packed nearly everything in his room, say for his bed and his comfort items, which he was gonna carry onto the plane that his parents had spent a lot of money on in order to buy tickets for everyone. He looked down at the wooden floor, his lips curling into a frown, eyes filling up with tears. He was genuinely scared of the cartoon he had just watched, but he just didn't want to look like a chicken or a coward in front of his siblings.

He sat on his bed quietly, tears streaming down his cheeks, body shuddering ever so slightly. Apparently, his quiet sniffling and whimpers were heard by his parents, as Quasimodo had gently knocked on his door " I'm okay! I'm not crying! " Edgar instantly exclaimed, trying to wipe his tears away. This didn't do much, however, as Quasimodo entered his bedroom and sat next to his child, a concerned look on his face.

' Are you okay? Why are you crying? ' Quasimodo signed.

Edgar sniffled quietly ' Cartoon... was scary ' he signed back, He then buried his face into his parents shirt, weeping silently, his body still shaking.

Quasimodo embraced his child in a hug. He wasn't gonna lie to himself, the cartoon his children were all watching was scary, but then again, it was on a children's channel. But the cartoon itself seemed to be more fit for older children, around ten or so years old, as the cartoon had episodes that seemed to be more on the scary or disturbing side.

' What was scary about the cartoon? ' Quasimodo signed, curious about what could've scared his child so much that they started crying.

' Large smile man ' Edgar signed ' Large smile man '

Quasimodo raised an eyebrow out of confusion ' Large smile man? ' He signed ' He was scary, wasn't he? '

Edgar nodded ' He was gonna hurt the doggie! ' he signed as he buried his face into his parent's shirt, shuddering ever so slightly.

Quasimodo let out a quiet sigh as he continued to comfort his child, he understood why his child was so afraid, the cartoon was scary.

' You wanna watch cartoons with Maman and Papa? ' Quasimodo signed, to which, Edgar nodded in response.

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Late into the evening, Edgar sat in his room, blanket wrapped around him, blankly staring at his empty wall. Tomorrow was the day, the day that he and his family would all move half-way across the world and would finally be free of Phœbus and his family, but at the same time, he really didn't want to leave his home, but what choice did he and his family have at that point?

As he stared at the wall, his older siblings, Micheal & jade walked into his room, noticing that he had been silently staring at his empty wall.

" Hey, Edgar? " Jade called out " Are you okay? " she sat next to her little sibling, a concerned expression on her face.

Edgar blinked as he turned to face his siblings " I don't wanna leave, I'm scared " he had a rather depressed look on his face.

Jade sighed as she shook her head " I don't wanna leave either, I'm not gonna like it either, but Maman and Papa said we have to, to keep everyone safe. "

The three siblings all cuddled one another, as it was the last day they would be in their home country until they moved all the way to America.

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A quiet yawn escaped past Edgar's lips as he clung onto Esmeralda's shirt, his eyes filled with sleep, trying to focus on the clock on the wall, unable to read what time it was.

" Going to America, huh? Have a safe flight " The Ticket checker spoke as he checked everyone's tickets.

Esmeralda gave a silent nod as her family walked to the waiting area near the boarding gate and sat down.

It was very early in the morning, so everyone was extremely exhausted and somewhat half-asleep, the only ones who were truly awake were Esmeralda, Quasimodo, Jade, and Felix.

Edgar was barely even awake, he was trying his best to stay awake, but it wasn't working, no matter how hard he tried.

" It's too early... I wanna go back to sleep! " Felix groaned out, his little eyes filled with sleep.

" You can go back to sleep once we all get on the plane, okay, Mon Amour?  " Esmeralda spoke as she ruffled her child's hair softly. To which, Felix nodded as his eyes kept fluttering between open and closed.

Finally, after hours of waiting, the family was finally called to board their plane. One by one, they all boarded their plane, sleep filling their eyes as most of the children fell asleep the second they were in their assigned seats, except for Edgar. Despite how tired the poor child was, he was also restless, the plane was crowded, it seemed as if the entire plane was small and was filled to the brim. He was afraid and just wanted to be near his parents, which, thankfully, he was.

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Halfway through the flight, Esmeralda was exhausted, she had gone to the bathroom three times in the past 2 hours, her stomach was doing flips and she was not a fan of it at all, she knew exactly what this was; Morning Sickness. She knew she was pregnant, these symptoms were near exactly what it was like when she was pregnant with Edgar. Thankfully she was drinking some water, which stayed down.

Edgar could tell that their parent wasn't feeling too well, and neither were they. Their back was causing them pain, their sitting position was becoming uncomfortable and they were exhausted. Yet there they were, with their family, in a plane, flying over the ocean, 40,000 feet in the air, and yet, they felt so squeezed in, like they couldn't breathe, they were scared, they didn't know if their other siblings were scared.

" Mon trésor? Is everything alright? " Esmeralda asked as she wiped her forehead clean of sweat.

" I.... I'm scared, i... i hate planes " Edgar whimpered out as he wrapped his hands around his parent's arm.

Esmeralda gently ran her fingers through Edgar's hair as she began quietly singing in French to keep her child calm, which thankfully worked, as Edgar rested his head against his parents arm and slowly drifted off to sleep.

Esmeralda smiled softly as the captain announced that they were nearing America and would land in Maryland in the next 5 hours.

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Exhaustion couldn't even describe how the family felt as they all entered their then near empty new house. Esmeralda and Quasimodo nearly passed out on the floor as they laid down on the couch that was in the living room. The children were all sleeping on the floor in a large cuddle pile.

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It was now early morning, the bright spring sun shining in through the windows, dew on the grass outside, birds chirping.

And Esmeralda was up, bright an early, quietly unpacking the more smaller pieces of furniture as to not wake her family.

It was currently 6:20 A.M, But Esmeralda has been awake for little over an hour at this point, sipping on some iced tea that she had bought. Her Spouse and children were still asleep, occasionally squirming around and nearly waking, but thankfully didn't.

" I know i shouldn't be moving heavy stuff around, but at the same time, i don't want Quasi to overwork himself " She quietly muttered to herself as she picked up some chairs and placed them around the table that was in the dining room, when an overwhelming feeling of nausea hit her and made her gag. She sprinted out the front door and vomited into an empty trashcan that sat near the fence that surrounded the house.

The sound of Esmeralda's sprinting and vomiting caught the attention of her next door neighbor, who was outside, cleaning his car.

" Assalamu Alaikum, are you okay? " The man asked, peering over his car, meeting Esmeralda's tied back hair.

After wiping her mouth clean of vomit, Esmeralda picked her head up to look over at her neighbor.

The man had dark tan skin, dark brown eyes, short and choppy black hair, along with a beard. He was around 5'8 tall, a bit heavyset, and was wearing what looked like a business suit minus the tie.

" Ah... yeah, i'm okay, just nauseated from my pregnancy, can't really control it, Y'know? " Esmeralda spoke as she stood up " You must be my neighbor, right? " The man nodded in response " I'm Esmeralda, and who are you? " 

" I'm Adeem Salman, I'm from Palestine, i moved here for a better life along with my child and past wife " The man introduced himself.

Esmeralda gulped a little " ' Past wife? ' " She asked " Apologizes if this is too personal on a first meeting basis, and you're free to stop me if you want, but did your wife pass away? " She felt so guilty for asking.

Adeem nodded in response " Yeah, she passed from an infection, she sadly never really got to see our daughter much until she passed, she was too ill and was in the hospital mere days after giving birth "

Esmeralda felt so bad for the man, her lips curled into a frown " I'm so sorry to hear that, i... I shouldn't have asked, i hope you aren't upset at me for asking. " 

Adeem shook his head " No need to apologize, you're curious, and that's understandable. " He gave a warm smile " I also noticed you and your family moving in last night, how many are in your family? " He asked.

Esmeralda flashed a smile back " Well, There's my husband. " She began " He's shy and introverted, he's also disabled, along with our five children, they all inherited it from their father, and i do have a brother, but he's back in France, where me and my family are from " 

Adeem smiled " Well, it's great to have you and your family in this town, I hope you'll like it here! "

Esmeralda thanked Adeem as she walked back inside her house, only to notice that Her spouse and children were all awake, albeit very tired. She apologized about waking them up early with her morning sickness, which surprisingly, only woke up Felix and Edgar.

The Family were all settled into their new home, unpacking their furniture and various items, and they were all excited to live somewhere where they weren't gonna be harassed by someone constantly. Well, at least they hoped.