The Delacours: Part Deux

forty-four.

The next morning, Ava was up early. We waited for everyone else to wake up and eat breakfast before heading out. She was beaming as she ran to the car, sat in the back seat and strapped on her seatbelt before I could even 'waddle over' to the car as Chris had so nicely pointed out that I had started doing. As I drove, she was silently excited in her seat.

"You're not gonna ask me where we're going?" I asked, looking at her reflection in the rearview mirror.

"I already know, Momma!"

"Really?"

"We're going to the bookstore!" I laughed.

"Yes, we are."

"And then maybe we can get ice cream?"

"Let's see how the bookstore goes first... okay?" She nodded.

There were plenty of kids Ava's age excited about the book release. We got in line to collect our ticket number and walked around a bit. I picked up a few books for myself, throwing them in a basket and followed Ava around as she looked through a couple books herself. I looked down at my phone as I received an e-mail from Steph, giving me a quick update on Sebastian's progress – "slow going" – and when I looked up Ava was floating a book from the top shelf to her hand. I grabbed it before it reached her.

"Ava," I said sternly. "You know you're not supposed to do magic in front of humans unless it's absolutely an emergency."

"But Momma, that was an emergency!"

"Not being able to reach a book doesn't constitute an emergency. Why didn't you ask me to reach it for you?" She crossed her arms and stamped her foot. I struggled a bit to kneel down in front of her, steadying myself on a book shelf. "I know you know about the magic thing... what's going on? Mom says you're acting out at school, too." Her eyes watered a bit as she looked away. "Do you want to go home? We can pick up the book later."

"No. I just... I don't want to be left out!" She started crying. "All Noah does is talk about 'Bee this' and 'Bee that' and his stupid video games! And Odie gets everything because of that stupid fight! What do I get?" I grabbed her hands in mine.

"What do you mean 'what do you get'? You get the same thing your brothers do – four parents that love and care for you."

"Nuh uh, and when the baby comes I'm gonna be forgotten about even more! It's like you guys don't even see me sometimes!"

"Of course we see you, Ava. But you also don't need as much help with things as Noah, or even Odie, does. You are so independent and you've always been that way – between you and Noah, you held your own bottle first, you walked first, you got your magic first... You can't act out because you want attention."

"I didn't know what else to do..."

"You tell us how you feel, just like you are right now. You can come right up to me, or Mom, or Daddy, or Poppa, and say 'I want to spend time with you' just like we're doing right now and talk to us. Yes, with the baby coming it will be hard, but I'm counting on you as a big sister to be a role model and help us show the baby how much they're loved." She sniffed as her tears stopped.

"You want me to help?"

"Of course we want you to help. The role of a big sister is pretty important – big brothers are too, but the baby will have two of those. You're gonna be very special to them." She reached her hands towards my belly and her hands lit up. "See? They know you're their big sister already." I placed my hand on top of hers.