Dancing with the Player | Book #1

Thanksgiving pt 1

"Stella! It's so nice seeing you again. Come in dear, your family is also in the kitchen helping out," Shannon widely smiled and let me in.

"It's nice seeing you too," I smiled and walked through the door.

I took off my coat revealed my outfit; a red wool sweatshirt tucked into light denim jeans with black leather boots, and my black purse over my body. My hair was left down straight while my make up was light since I would be eating a lot of food. Shannon took my long trench coat and put it on a hanger while I took  off my leather boots.

Shannon led me into the kitchen. The smell of different foods in the air mix together making my stomach quietly growl. The kitchen was absolutely gorgeous, it followed the theme of white and black. I watched Milton, who was James' dad, my mom, and dad laughing and plating the food. My dad stopped laughing and turned his head in my direction. His eyes widened as they meet mine and rushed over to me. My mom's eyes followed my dad and realized that I was here. My mom rushed over to me with wide arms but my dad beat her to it.

My dad wrapped his arms around me and held onto me tight. I wrapped my arms around my dad and closed my eyes, missing his embrace. After a few minutes he let go of me and held my face in his hands.

"Stella," he whispered as if he was checking to see if it was actually me.

"Dad, I missed you," I smiled while my dad returned the smile back.

My dad stepped back from me and this time my mom hugged me while I pat her back. She leaned back and squeezed my cheeks while I groaned in pain. I hated when my mom would do that to me, it was painful.

"Honey you arrived!" My mom beamed in excitement.

"Yes I've arrived mom and I can't feel my cheeks," I said as she continued to pinch my cheeks.

"You look so pretty and grown up. I remember when you were 8 years old and wore your hair in pigtails. You would always put purple ribbons in your -"

"Milton!" I beamed, wanting to stop my mom from rambling on about me when I was 8 years old.

"Stella it's been a while. How have you been?" He asked me as he took off his oven mittens.

I shrugged my shoulders,"I've been great, just dancing at Juilliard."

He wrapped his arm around me and leaned into me to whispered into my ear,"Don't worry I got you, your mom always loved to ramble."

I quietly chuckled and he winked at me. He walked back over to the over while Shannon helped him plate more food. My parents passed by me and took the food to the table. Milton was like a second dad to me. He's been there for me whenever I needed to get out of trouble, needed help with homework, hide from my mom, and especially when I wanted food. He treated me like a daughter and I'm forever grateful for him.

"Stella come help!" My mom yelled from the dining room. The brown wooden table was already full of food and was beautifully decorated.

"What do you need help with?" I asked.

"Can you organize the plates to look like this? Also we need 6 more plates out here since there will be 8 people in total," my mom replied.

I nodded my head and went back into the kitchen to grab 6 more white plates, silver spoons, forks, and knives. I walked out to the dining room with all the appliances in my hands. I looked at the two examples my mom put on the table and followed it for the other 6. Once I finished I went onto my phone and texted Emma and Elana. I also saw that Dylan texted me saying that he's brushing up on his dance moves to show me next time, which made me laugh.