Hatchetfield.

Mama's ....

Gracie had always been told she was a Mama's girl. From the moment she was born, her parents told her, she would cry nonstop unless her Mama was holding her. This didn't mean she didn't love her Papa, of course, she just always loved her Mama more.

When she was a child, she always felt bad for her Papa. He worked more which meant he was around less than Mama was, which meant the favouritism seemed a lot more blatant when Gracie would get more excited at her Mama coming home late after a night out with church friends once a month (bible study, of course), than she had ever been at her Papa coming home from work.

Papa didn't seem to mind though, so neither did Gracie.

Mama would always be so proud of Gracie, she was a good girl. She would happily read her bible, showing her Mama her favourite verses. She would always enjoy talking about the verses with Mama to understand what they mean so she could gain a higher understanding of God's will. Gracie also loved how much Mama would talk about her to the other parents at church. Mama would constantly talk about how proud she was of Gracie's want to help understand and spread the word of God to others.

Gracie spends a lot of nights in her parents bed. She gets nightmares a lot. Her Mama keeps her safe, just like she's always promised she would. Mama holds her tightly, arms around her shoulders, a hand holding her head close to her chest. Mama presses a kiss to her forehead and sings her a lullaby until she falls asleep.

Over the years, Gracie and her Mama developed a very close bond. They would spend all of their time together, Gracie didn't have many friends but her Mama made up for that. As a teenager, Gracie would tell her Mama all of her secrets, all of the gossip from the others in school. Everything. Until the age of seventeen.

One night, seventeen year old Gracie nervously brought up that two of the cheerleaders, Brenda and Stacy, were romantically involved. Gracie watched as Mama flew into a rage, yelling about how the children of today were ungodly, disgusting creatures. Mama cried over them, prayed for their souls to be saved by God, prayed that Gracie wouldn't be influenced by their sins.

Gracie is glad she hadn't started the conversation with how she felt about Stephanie Lauter.

After that day, Mama noticed that Gracie had started to distance herself a little. She started to call Mama "Mom" and herself "Grace". Grace started making friends and hanging out with them a lot. She started missing church to see her friends extracurriculars.

Mom listened to Grace talk about going with Stephie to different places that her Dad sends her for PR so she wouldn't have to go alone, about going to see Ruthie's first ever performance of Workin' Girls along with Richie, and about going with Petey and the others to ComicCon. Mom doesn't understand it much. All she knows is that they all make her daughter happy, although she's worried that they're distracting her from the church.

Grace especially hangs out with Stephie a lot. She's Grace's best friend. Mom can tell how much Grace cares about Stephie, just like when they were back in elementary school.

"Oh, this is wonderful! Gracie and Stephie back together, just like old times!" Mom smiles.
"It's Grace, Mom. Plus it's different from then, we're different people now." Grace says, texting presumably Stephie.

Different people. Mom's smile falters at that. Goodness, they really are different people. Mama misses her Gracie. Mama misses the "Mama and Gracie nights" where Gracie would tell her everything that was happening. She doesn't understand why it stopped.

Mom just smiles and gets back to her duties, ignoring the pain in her chest.

Mom watches the girls get closer. She sees Stephie come over every Friday for a sleepover, Grace nervously invite Stephie to church over dinner, Stephie excitedly agreeing. She notices the girls secretly holding hands under the blanket whilst having a movie night with her and Papa. She lays in bed that night questioning how to bring it up to her husband.