Little Girl Don't Grow Up Too Fast

Things I Just Don't Understand

 "What are you doing Friday night?" Carrie asked her daughter as they entered the house.

"Um..." the teenager thought. "I don't think I have anything. Why?"

"Well, I have a performance at the Opry and I was wondering if you wanted to come."

"Wait...are you serious?!" Charlotte raised her voice. The older blonde gave a hesitant nod, nervous as to whether or not she was excited or appalled. "Oh my gosh, of course I want to go! I can't believe I'm gonna get to see you perform. My mom, performing at the Opry, it still just sounds so unreal to me sometimes."

"Hopefully unreal in a good way," Carrie prayed.

Charlotte grinned, "In an amazing way."

Those words flying from Charlotte's mouth made Carrie's heart almost burst. She didn't expect Charlotte to truly think of her as her mother. She hoped that one day she would, but she never expected it to come as soon as it did. Quite honestly, Charlotte didn't expect it either, but she didn't take any of it back. She meant every word and she meant it with love, just like Carrie was doing for her as well.

"There's going to be a lot of people at the Opry, right?" Charlotte asked.

"Quite a few."

"Are they going to wonder who I am when they see me with you?"

"Maybe," Carrie shortly replied. Deep down she knew that eventually the news of her having a daughter would break out, and once it did, it was going to explode. She had yet to really figure out how to handle it with the media.

"What are you going to say if they do?" Charlotte wondered, nervous about the truth. She knew that things would get hectic if the news about her came out, but at the same time, she didn't want to feel like she needed to hide either.

"What do you want me to say?"

"I don't know," Charlotte shrugged. "It's kind of complicated."

"You aren't wrong with saying that," Carrie sighed. "I don't want to hide it anymore now that you're in my life. I want people to know what my priorities are now and who the most important people are to me now. But I don't want to flip your whole life upside down."

That night as soon as Mike and Charlotte were at home together alone, the Opry was the first thing that popped into her head. She was so extremely excited she could hardly handle it.

"Daddy," Charlotte caught her father's attention. "We don't have any plans Friday night, right?"

"Not that I know of."

"Carrie asked me if I wanted to go to her show at the Opry tomorrow. She said that she could get us in backstage and everything," she told him.

"Us as in?" Mike asked.

"You and me, Dad," she chuckled.

Mike started to get nervous in more ways than one. "I don't think that's a good idea."

"Why?" Charlotte whined. "Is it because of the media?"

"Yeah, actually a big part of it."

"Carrie and I talked about it."

"What did she say?" he questioned, wanting to know more.

"She told me that if they ask she would tell them whatever I was comfortable with," she answered, sensing there was more to the situation. "Why do I feel like there's more to this than what there is?"

"Because it's complicated!" Mike stressed.

"And you think I don't know that?! I'm almost thirteen, not four, Dad!"