To grow up...Love...Let Go

Act 1

"You got everything?"

"Big bag, small bag, backpack, skating bag," Laura read off her list, "Yep, I got everything."

"You look exactly like your mother when reading that checklist," Gastón smiled at his 14-year-old younger daughter, as he closed the trunk of the car.

"That's great," Laura rolled her eyes lightly while pulling the backpack on her back and looked at Ivory. "Ready?"

"Yep," Ivory nodded.

Laura was going to be attending a two-week skating camp with her best friend Ivory Alvarez. What could be a better way to celebrate the start of summer than two weeks of fun and skating away from parental supervision.

"The sign ups were in that building," Gastón looked around, "You want me to come in with you?"

"Dad, we're high schoolers," Laura made a horrified face, "We don't need a chaperone."

"I'm not a chaperone. I'm your father." Gastón looked amused, "And you are starting high school in two months, so I don't think you can call yourself that quite yet."

"You can be the Queen of Sweden," Laura rolled her eyes again. "No one else is gonna have an escort."

"Okay, little miss independent, I get that it's super embarrassing," Gastón brushed a lock of hair behind Laura's ear, that had fallen off the confines of the headband, before kissing her on her cheek. "Have fun sweetie. You too Ivory."

"Yeah, thanks for the ride Gastón."

"Bye Dad!"

"Call Mom and I at least once!" Gastón yelled as the girls grabbed their stuff and headed inside the building.

***

"Hey! I'm back!" Gastón pushed the door shut in his house after he had walked in. He saw his wife sitting on the couch in the living room, reading something off a tablet. She jumped when hearing his voice, in that adorable manner she always did. "Did I scare you?"

"No, but how are you already back? You just left," Nina put the tablet down.

"We left before 12, it is almost 2 pm." Gastón pointed out as he sat on the couch next to her.

"It is?" Nina glanced down at her watch.

"Must have been something interesting if you lost track of time." Gastón pointed toward the tablet.

"It was," Nina nodded and turned the tablet back on, "While I was researching Agatha Christie, I found this indie short story that was extremely intriguing. I got stuck reading that and not doing research that I was supposed to be doing for my story. I still don't know who actually killed Renese in the current work. My editor is about to go crazy, like you know."

"Well, how that's solved is by not rushing." Gastón squeezed her hand. "You are the publishing company's star. They're basically wrapped around your finger, as they should, so what you say goes."

"They're also the same people who didn't want me to change my name..." Nina shook her head, "Anyways, enough about that. Did the girls get off at the camp alright?"

"Definitely," Gastón nodded grinning, "Can it be considered a parenting win when your kid can't wait to run away from you?"

"Maybe..." Nina laughed.

"I wasn't even allowed to set foot out of the parking lot, because they can do it themselves." Gastón shook his head, "Teenagers, am I right? But they're gonna be more than okay. We'll be lucky if we hear from Laura once during these two weeks."