Piece Of My Heart - Fifth Harmony Adoption

chapter five - last minute shopping

Lauren giddily entered Gymboree, her eyes training the entire store as she decided on what Willa would like. From what she could gather from her new daughter was that she didn't like dresses and skirts but had a thing for princess and superhero costumes. She liked onesies to sleep in and overalls to play outside with. The child had a few sweaters but she needed new ones as well as underwear that didn't sag from the broken waistbands and socks that weren't two sizes too big.

Thankfully Lauren had the other girls with her, everyone holding three bags each as they went a little overboard with their shopping spree.

"Can we please get her these shoes?" Ally asked, holding up the shiny black strap dress shoes that would most likely lead to the purchase of white socks with lace surrounding the edge.

"She does need a pair," Lauren assessed, looking down at her bags that held a few sneakers and boots. She chuckled at the sight of the light up pooh bear sneakers she had purchased. Willa was going to flip when she saw them.

"If she comes to award shows with us she'll need more dresses then," Normani pointed out, lifting a small white short sleeve shirt that had a small bunny on the left chest.

"And hair things," Ally added, abandoning the shoes momentarily to grab small snap on bows and clips that could be added to Willa's hair.

"She'll need another closet," Dinah teased, going to the boy section where she grabbed a dinosaur shirt without a second thought.

"Fine, you two can be on award show duty. I'm taking Dinah to the play clothes," Lauren said, pointing to the other end of the store that had clothing suited for running around opposed to posing for a camera.

"Okay," Ally and Normani said in unison, diving at the chance to grab cute dresses and socks.

"Come on DJ, let's get the things that Willa will actually like," Lauren said, laughing when the others rolled their eyes.

"She needs rompers," Dinah said, coming across the simple long pant, tank top style one pieces that were varying in colours.

"How about one grey one and one yellow one," Lauren said, knowing yellow was Willa's favourite colour.

"I also want her to have this," Dinah said, pulling up a long sleeve black shirt with three white flowers in the middle.

"That's cute," Lauren gushed taking the clothes from her friend and looking at a far shelf. She approached it and plucked the stuffed teddy bear up, taking a moment to analyze it and stroke the fluffy hair of it.

"Cute bear," Ally said from behind her, snapping Lauren back to earth. "I think Willa will really like it. It has green eyes like you."

"I want to get her something special. Something that conveys just how much I love her," Lauren explained, turning around to face her best friend.

"Get the bear. I think giving her something to love when you aren't there is a promise enough to be around forever," Ally said, running her fingers over the cute ears of the teddy bear.

"I'm bringing a little girl home tomorrow, Al. My daughter," Lauren said, swallowing thickly as she finally wrapped her head around just how excited she was. Suddenly worry set in as she ran over her own words in her head once again. "Oh god, Ally. I'm bringing a little human home. What if she gets scared or hates her room. What if she sees that I can't braid hair too well or I burn cookies all the time because I get too lazy to remember them-!"

"Hey, Lo, breathe. You're not doing this alone," Ally said, her hands resting on the upper arms of Lauren, stopping the woman's rant. "That's why you have us. Willa has you but she also has three aunts to help her braid her hair, and make cookies that aren't black because you burnt them. Sure she may be scared, but that's because it's in her nature. You read her file. We all did. She needs time to adjust and find safety in her surroundings. She will be scared but it won't last forever."