𝐮𝐧𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 | 𝐝.𝐦

𝟓𝟑

Kaimana Valencia | May 1996

"Mama!"

Kaimana gasped and slowly walked around the bed. "Who is that?" She was playing hide and seek with Zaiyah in their dorm. "Did anyone hear that too?"

She heard her daughter's lively giggles from under the bed. "Mama!" she shouted again, supposed to be in a taunting way.

"Oh my goodness. I keep hearing my name get called, but I see no one." Kaimana feigned frustration. "Where is Zaiyah? I can't find her." She scratched the back of her head, her other hand on her hip. "She's really good at hiding."

Zaiyah had been obsessed with the game ever since Elijah and Flynn taught her what it was. Now, she begged Kaimana to play or any of her Titos and Titas to play every chance she got.

"Zaiyah, darling!" Kaimana cupped around her mouth, walking around the dorm. "Where are you?"

Silence.

"I guess she's not here." Kaimana sighed sadly and walked to the door. "I guess I'll go get cookies by myself without Zai." She opened the door, held it open for a second, and then closed it.

She heard a small gasp and shuffling from under the double bed. A small hand appeared on the wooden floor as Kaimana sneakily walked back around the bed. Another hand stretched out and then a small body was being pulled out.

"I found you!" Kaiamana beamed, and rushed to Zaiyah.

She squealed a shrieking laugh of surprise and wiggled herself back under the bed. "Mama bad!" she shouted, now furious with her mum. "Mama cheats!"

"Mama did not cheat." Kaimana crouched down and laid on her stomach on the floor. She was looking under the bed, seeing Zaiyah laying on her stomach too. "Mama is just smart."

"No." Zaiyah's brows furrowed in anger. "Mama cheats." Her chubby baby hands were pressed on the spotless, dark wooden floor of the dorm.

And since Zaiyah was obsessed with playing hide and seek and hiding at the same hiding spot—under the bed—Kaimana had to make sure nothing dangerous was under the bed that could hurt Zaiyah.

"Zai, come out please." Kaimana lifted her chest from the floor, so she was sitting up straight. "Mama needs to talk to you, baby."

"Mama aw Iyah?" Zaiyah was pulling herself from under the bed.

"Yeah." Kaimana nodded as Zaiyah dropped herself onto her lap. "Mama talk to Zaiyah."

"Wa?" Zaiyah's baby, delicate features were frowning with confusion. Her legs were over her mum's thighs, and her arms wrapped around her neck.

"Mama needs to talk about your biological dada," Kaimana said softly, brushing her daughter's soft hair behind her ear. "Do you know what a dada is?"

Zaiyah's brows creased in confusion before she smiled and her face lit up. "Mama dada!"

Kaimana had to suck in her cheeks to stop herself from laughing. "Not quite," she said slowly. "A dada is like a mama, but... but he doesn't have you suck their nipples for milk."

"Mama is Mama," Zaiyah concluded, nodding confidently.

"Mama is Mama." Kaimana nodded with a vivacious smile as she stood with Zaiyah in her arms. She sat on the bed, and put Zaiyah on her lap, her chubby legs on either side of her thighs. "Can Mama just vent to you, darling?" She leaned against the headboard.

"Mama ven." Zaiyah nodded and played with the strings of her mum's sweatshirt. She had no clue what vent meant or what a lot of things meant, but she tended to just repeat a lot of Kaimana's vocabulary.