For Rachel

Epilogue

A year later...

"This one?" Rachel asked holding up a deformed strawberry.

Arabella scrunched her face up, "No no, the other one."

Rachel picked up the strawberry that looked like a heart, "This one?"

"Yeah, that one."

It was the fourth of July, and the girls were invited to a neighborhood cookout to celebrate, making this year Bella's first neighborhood fourth of July celebration.

Since she wasn't a very good cook, Rachel had decided on making one large fruit and vegetable tray with all of the food that had started growing. And Bella, of course, was acting as judge to make sure every fruit and every vegetable looked perfect.

"Do you wanna help me wash these off?" Rachel asked once she felt like they had enough.

Bella nodded and they headed inside, Garfield getting up from his sunbath to trail close behind.

Bella was a smart girl. She was young, so young, but it was obvious she was aware of what her mom had done, and it affected her. She may be too young to understand why her mom did what she did, but she was old enough to understand that her mom hadn't taken her life with mal intent. And along with the paperwork she received, there was a letter that Malaya had written for Bella when she turned 16, so she could fully understand.

"Aunt Rachel, what time does it start?"

"At noon hunny, what got thirty minutes to get you ready."

When they finished washing off the food and placing it into a pretty pattern on the separate vegetable and fruit trays, they headed upstairs so Rachel could help Bella with her outfit.

Arebella's outfit was a red, white, and blue dress along with two big bows to put in her hair, all of which Bella herself picked out.

Rachel went with a matching dress and side braid with a smaller version of Bellas bows to put on the end of it.

"Ohh look at you! So pretty." Rachel cooed as touched up Bellas's buns in the mirror.

And Garfield must've agreed because he jumped up on Bellas lap and cuddled into her.

They admired themselves for a minute before Rachel clapped, "Alright let's get this show on the road before we're late."

But before they could walk out the door they were stopped by four little cats, all orange in color, begging for pets.

The fat oaf managed to knock up some stray.

How, Rachel didn't know. He had been neutered years ago so either the vet lied to her, or he had catnapped some poor mother cats' kittens that looked eerily similar to him and brought them home. Either way, Rachel didn't have the heart to get rid of them, and they had become so attached to Bella that she would feel horrible if she did send them away.

The kittens names were Berlioz, Marie, Toulouse, and Edgar. All expertly named (By Bella) after the cats in Aristocats. And all had been taken to the vet so no more surprise cats would start appearing in Rachel's house again.

But then again, she didn't mind the extra company.

Though she did mind having four mini versions of Garfield constantly yelling at her to feed them.

"C'mon you can give them all the love you want when we get home." Rachel said before rushing downstairs to collect the fruit and veggie trays.

"Can I carry one?" Bella asked, her cute face too hard to resist.

Rachel sighed, "Yeah, just be careful."

Bella squealed and they made their way out the door and down the street towards the houses that were hosting the party.

"Hi, Rachel, it's nice to finally see you again! This is my daughter Stacey; I don't think you guys have met her yet." Bianca, one of the moms in charge, greeted them.

"It's nice to meet you Stacey, this is Bella, I think she's the same age as you if you two want to get to know each other."

The two women watched as Stacey and Bella walked off, Bella starting off the conversation.

"Here I'll show you where you can put the food and introduce you to some of the other parents." Bianca said as she started walking, Rachel following close behind.

Rachel spent that next half hour meeting her other neighbors, Bella joining them halfway through, until finally they were on the last family.

"And this is Oriana and Robert. You guys, this is Rachel and her niece Bella."

"Hi, it's lovely to meet you! This is my son Alex, he's ten, and my daughter Zoe is probably somewhere texting her friends, she's sixteen." Oriana greeted.

"Are you guys new here? I don't think I've seen your faces." Rachel asked.

"We just moved in a couple of months ago, so we are a bit new to the neighborhood."

Bella stuck out her hand and gave her most charming smile, "Nice to meet you Alex."

"Nice to meet you too." Alex shook her hand hesitantly.

They spent the rest of the night eating and having fun, then when night came everyone gathered out in the street to light sparklers and watch the fireworks go off.

It felt weird for Rachel, sitting with the other parents and watching Bella run around with her sparkler. She never thought she would experience something like this.

She always thought she would just live alone for the rest of her life; holed up in her nice home, on a nice street, with a nice job, and a somewhat nice cat.

And she still had all of that.

Except now she had someone else to live the rest of her life with.

"Can we do this every year?" Bella whispered while they were walking back home, hands intertwined.

Rachel smiled down at her, "Of course hun."

"Every year." 

~~~~

10,500 words later...

For anyone who is familiar with the song I chose, and the meaning behind it, then you'll probably understand why I picked it.  And if you're not familiar with it, then I would recommend searching up, "The Meaning of "Fourth of July" by Sufjan Stevens" and it'll make sense.

But anyway, I can't believe this is the end!

It was definitely a short story, like I put in the beginning, but hopefully one day when I'm better at writing I can come back to this and make it less cringe-worthy.