By Sun and Candlelight / CAMREN

Chapter 17 - Mulan and Dinah's Very Hard Day

Lori was bouncing in her seat as Lauren pulled the cupcakes from the counter and put one on her plate.

"Mani?" Lauren asked, holding out the plate.

"God no," Normani said, "I'm about to bust already from the croissant. Ruby and I can take ours home and eat them later."

"Yeah, I'm pretty stuffed right now," Ruby said.

Lori was already trying to take a bite, with the paper still around the bottom of the cupcake. Icing was smearing across her face and the cupcake was beginning to fall from her hands.

"Lori, wait!" Lauren said, putting the plate down and grabbing the cupcake from her daughter.

Lori had icing smeared across one cheek and on her nose.  She had an irritated expression on her face, both from failing at eating the dessert and the fact that her mother had taken it away. Normani grabbed her phone and quickly took her picture. Camila was trying to stifle her giggles. Lauren took her napkin and dipped it into her water then dabbed at Lori's face.

"You have to take the paper off first," Lauren said, "Let me help you."

"I wanna do it myself," Lori answered indignantly.

"You want to do everything yourself," Lauren sighed out, "But if you'd let me show you first then you'd learn how to do it right."

Lori was turning her head from side to side, trying to avoid Lauren's cleaning. Lauren let out a big huff and waited until Lori looked at her again.

"If you don't let me clean your face, you're not getting the cupcake back," Lauren said sternly.

Lori pouted but allowed Lauren to clean her off. Lauren then showed Lori how to peel off the paper and handed her the cupcake. She looked at Camila, who was still giggling a little bit at the whole thing.

"Would you like one?" Lauren asked.

"They say there's no such thing as a stupid question," Camila said, chuckling as she reached for a cupcake, "But that comes pretty close."

Camila peeled off the paper and took a big bite, smiling at Lori as she chewed. Lori smiled back and continued eating hers, still creating quite a mess even with the paper off the dessert. When they finished everyone began to help clean up the dishes. Lauren helped Lori off her booster seat and looked over at Camila.

"Camila, why don't you and Lori go pick the movie," Lauren said, "The remote should be on the coffee table."

"Oh, I didn't realize brunch came with a movie," Camila said, grinning.

"I hope that's okay," Lauren said, looking at Camila with an expectant smile.

"Of course," Camila said, taking Lori's hand, "Let's do it."

"No Finding Nemo," Ruby piped up loudly, "We watched that two weeks in a row."

"It's my favorite," Lori answered, walking with Camila to the sofa.

Camila sat down and Lori climbed up onto the couch. Lori sat and leaned back against the cushions. Her legs stuck out straight and barely reached the edge of the seat. She looked at Camila, waiting for her to turn on the television. Camila grabbed the remote and turned it on and began flipping through the menu of streaming channels.

"Go to Disney," Lori instructed, making Camila chuckle.

Camila found the streaming Disney channel and began scrolling through the options. Ruby walked in and sat down to join them in the selection process while Lauren and Normani finished up in the kitchen.