Picking up the Pieces

16

September 2, 2002

Stevie was in tears while her daughter was eating her chocolate chip pancakes. 

"Momma, why are you crying?" Her four-year-old questions. 

"You're going to start school and you aren't going to get to spend all day with me anymore," Stevie explains to the best of her ability sipping on her coffee. 

"Is Kenna going to be with me?" Brielle questions. 

"Yes, she is." Stevie nods.

"Yay!" Brielle cheers going for a drink of Apple Juice. 

Brielle finished eating and Stevie glanced at the clock. She winced at the green 7:30 on the stove clock, she should not be awake but here she was. 

"Alright, my little peach...Will you go stand infront of the fireplace for me?" Stevie asks taking her daughter's plate and putting it into the sink. 

"Okay, momma." She grins, climbing off of the barstool and running towards the fireplace. 

It takes Stevie a minute but she eventually trails into the living room and looks at her baby girl, she brings her hands to her mouth and tries not to cry. Brielle's little blonde waves are pulled back into pigtails and she's wearing a little purple teeshirt with a jean skort and matching jacket. On her little feet were some little brown sandals, Stevie paid a lot of money for them so she was definitely going to get as much use of them as her little girl could.

"Alright Sweet girl, can you smile for Momma?" Stevie questions. 

Brielle smiles and does a little pose by bringing her little hands up to her cheek. Stevie snaps a photo and then Stevie hands her the little Winnie the Pooh backpack. When they get out to the garage, Stevie gets Brielle in her seat and then goes around the front to head to the school. 

***

When they get up to Mrs. Vanderman's classroom, Stevie helps her take her backpack off and hang it up at her cubby. Brielle was shy at first, but then when Brielle sees Makenna, she's off like a bat out of hell. 

Liz makes her way over to Stevie and the two coo over their little girls. 

"Hello. I'm Mrs. Vanderman." The young teacher walks over to Stevie and Liz. 

"Nice to meet you, I'm Stephanie...Brielle's mom." Stevie shakes her hand. 

"It's a pleasure." Mrs. Vanderman smiles. 

"Elizabeth Geoffry, I'm Makenna's mom." Liz also shakes her hand. 

"So nice to meet both of you. I'm going to take good care of your girls." Mrs. Vanderman grins. 

"We have no doubt that you will." Stevie smiles. 

"Alright, well if you want to say goodbye, I'm going to take them outside." Mrs. Vanderman states. 

The mothers' nod and then they go to their daughters. Stevie kneels down on the floor next to Brielle and she wraps her arms around Brielle. 

"Alright my sweet girl, I have to go. But I'll be back around four to come and get you alright." Stevie grins 

"Do I have Dance tonight?" Brielle questions wrapping her arms around her mother. 

"Not tonight, Friday we have registration and then next week you will. But hey, what do you want for dinner?" Stevie asks squeezing her little girl. 

"Can we have...mac and cheese?" She asks. 

"Absolutely." Stevie smiles kissing her daughter's cheek and standing up to leave. 

***

That night after a wonderful dinner of grilled chicken, homemade macaroni and cheese and broccoli and cauliflower, Stevie was bathing Brielle.

"Momma, I had so much fun today." Brielle grins. 

"Oh yeah." Stevie smiles scrubbing the shampoo into her child's honey-blonde curls. 

"I made so many friends. There's Scott and Sadie, and Cody, and Hallie." Brielle lists off. 

"That's good baby. So good." Stevie grins kissing her daughter's wet little cheek before rinsing the shampoo out of her hair. 

After Stevie dries her off and puts her in her little purple and yellow-flowered nightgown, she brushes out the curls and then carries her daughter into her room. 

The nursery is drastically different now. The mahogany dresser is still there but the baby stuff has been moved out. The rocker is still in there and there's a new mahogany headboard The bedspread is grey and it has little pink bows on it. The white fuzzy rug is now a light pink shag rug, and the sheets are puppy dogs. Instead of the crocheted blanket which still sits on the rocking chair, Brielle chose a little grey and white dog stuffed animal and the grey and white owl blanket as her safety blankets, but her favorite toys are a grey stuffed owl, which also sleeps on her bed, and a sixties suitcase, which at one point was Stevie's filled with Barbie dolls. 

"So...what do we want to wear tomorrow?" Stevie questions. 

"Purple." Brielle smiles. 

"Purple, you always want to wear purple." Stevie replies nuzzling their noses together. 

"It's my favorite color momma," Brielle replies. 

"Mine too." Stevie smiles again kissing her daughter's cheek. 

Stevie makes her way to Brielle's closet and pulls out a little ruffly tunic top. the top ruffle is light purple, the middle is regular, and the bottom one is dark. There's also a little quilt like flower on the left strap. 

"How about this ?" Stevie questions.

Brielle nods and Stevie smiles placing it on the rocking chair. Then she goes to the top dresser drawer and grabs a white sweater and a pair of white leggings. 

"Alright, what book shall we read tonight?" Stevie questions. 

"Beauty and the Beast." Brielle cheers. 

"That's my favorite too." Stevie nods collecting the book of the new mahogany bookshelf. After she reads the book, she kisses her daughter's forehead and tucks her in.

The next morning, it's extremely hard trying to get her butt out of bed at five forty-five in the morning, but she does. She gets in the shower dries her hair and gets dressed in a light blue long dress and throws her own jean jacket over her shoulders before sliding her feet into her light brown platform boots before going to wake her little angel. 

She pins the curls back, half up and half down with a white bow and today's breakfast consists of omelets. Stevie has hers with a whole bunch of veggies in it, but she makes Brielle's with just cheese. 

When she gets to school the morning goes just like the prior but instead of going to Walmart she's driving to Karen's condo. They have to discuss Fleetwood Mac's newest album. She'd be leaving Brielle here with Christine and it was tearing her apart because she had never been away from her little girl for so long, but there was absolutely no way that she could move into a house with three men of Fleetwood Mac with Brielle. Especially because she was Lindsey's and he didn't know that. She couldn't just show up with a four-year-old. Not to mention, Brielle had dance and school now. This year was taking Tap and Ballet, not just Ballet.