Just Breathe

Chapter Thirty

Lin and Lia both grinned as they watched Stella hamming it up in the large dance studio downtown.  Seated in a side room with a large window, they were able to observe the young dance teacher as she expertly herded and corralled a group of preschoolers in therapy, disguised as games and dances.  Throughout class, Stella had to be called back in, easily distracted by the full wall-sized mirrors and ballet barres, but her therapist had a knack for getting her back on track seamlessly.

They were finishing up a mirroring exercise, where the children copied what the other did, which caused lots of giggles.  Neither Lin or Lia were surprised when Stella turned around on her partner and started shaking her butt.

"Typical Stella," Lin commented as both girls erupted in laughter.  Lia just chuckled, once again in awe of the audacity of her little sister.  Lia had been a much more serious child, and never would have dreamed of doing something so silly in front of relative strangers.  She wondered if it was, in part, due to their father's presence in her life at an early age.  Their dad was a total ham, obviously, and instilled a love of fun in them all.  Growing up with just her mother, life had always had a more sensible tone.  It wasn't  that her mother couldn't be fun, but she was definitely the more serious and no-nonsense of the two.  Lia thought about what her therapist had said at their last session about what she'd been like before her dad had come into her life.  How different would she be if he'd always been there?

The therapist called all the kids over and they took their seats in the closing circle.  They all joined hands and sang a song.  Then it was a flurry of children running to the cubbies and parents wrangling their kids into coats and street shoes.

Lia watched as her dad squatted down to help Stella put back on her Paw Patrol tennis shoes. 

"But I wanna wear my slippers!" Stella insisted, pulling her foot away as Lin tried to take her ballet slipper off.  Ever since their mom had bought her pink ballet slippers, Stella had insisted they were princess shoes and was obsessed with wearing them whenever she could.  Usually her parents didn't care what any of them wore, as long as they were dressed and on their way.  Footwear wasn't a battle they wanted to bother with.  However, ballet slippers were no match for the New York City sidewalks and subways.

"Sweetheart, you'll ruin your slippers," he reminded her patiently.  "You can wear them when we get back home."

"No!" The preschooler crossed her arms and kicked the shoe away.

Any other dad may have gotten ticked off, but Lia watched in amusement and awe as her father crossed his own arms and made a ridiculous face.  He made a silly grunting sound, much like Stella would make.

"Don't laugh," he instructed her, with a serious look on his face.  Stella tried to keep up her petulant front, but she was no match for Lin's antics.  He crossed his eyes and tilted his head to the side and that was it.  Stella erupted in laughter.  Lin grabbed her and tickled her, then sat her on the nearby bench.  The tantrum was thwarted and he distracted her with a story about when he had to take dance lessons for a show.  He quickly and expertly switched out her footwear, then took her hand and they were out the door.

"I'll even show you the video," he promised her.  Lia knew the video he was talking about - a clip where he and Chris Jackson danced ridiculously in the club scene of In the Heights.  Her father certainly would never have made it as a professional dancer, to say the least.

As she walked a couple steps behind them, seeing the easy way they had with each other, she felt a pang of jealousy.  Maybe it was immature of her, but Lia felt envious of her little sister.  She'd always had her dad in her life.  Lia could see the way that Stella and Sebastian were the light of his life; how he looked at them and completely adored them.  Of course he loved her too, but it was different with little kids.  Gentler and more patient.  If Lin had been in her life when she was a toddler, she would've been absolutely enamored.  They would've been two peas in a pod, and she would've been showered with a ridiculous amount of love and affection.