8// ~Dinner~

Sitting down at the table, I have a clear of everyone. All my girls.

I lean back in the chair and wait for them all to get settled before we start eating.

I can tell Arabella's nervous. I mean, I can see why. We all look very... intimidating, and yes we can be, when it's needed, but we would never be that way towards her. Not to someone that sweet.

Even though Morgan does most of the cooking, I helped her out this time, having nothing better to do. We made marinated chicken, cutting up Arabella's in small pieces that would resemble chicken nuggets in hopes that would make the meal better for her. We also made a vegetable stir fry, and baked mac and cheese and a side that she would enjoy, hopefully. Who doesn't like mac and cheese, you know?

As they begin to talk, I grab Arabella's plate that is next to me and scoop a bit of the sides onto it, the chicken already on her plate, as we had cut it up differently for her.

"Thank you!" She smiles looking at me.

I brush a strand of hair that was in front of her face, behind her ear. "No problem, sweetheart." She blushes and looks back down at the food on her plate. "Eat up." I tell her, and she picks up her fork, digging into the mac and cheese first, of course.

"So, I heard you made some cookies with your Grammy last night, did they turn out good?" Morgan asks her.

She finishes chewing what's in her mouth before responding, "Yup! We made snickerdoodles and they were so so yummy!"

"That's good." She responds.

"Um...can I ask you guys something?" She says nervously, placing her fork down and looking around at us.

"Of course, ask away." I say.

"So, you guys are all dating each other right?" She furrows her eyebrows and I coo in my head.

"Yes, we are." I nod.

"How did you guys meet?" She asks us curiously, tilting her head.

Daniella begins speaking before me, "Well, Athena and I met first, I'm a professor at the local college and teach psychology and she owns a law firm. Many of the phycology students I take want to go to law school so we would take little trips down there occasionally and we saw each other and that was that. Then a few months into us dating, we went on a date night out to eat, and Morgan happens to own the restaurant we went to and was there that night helping out in the kitchen and making her way around checking on tables, making sure everything was running smoothly that sort of thing. One thing led to the next and here we are." She finishes, smiling at Arabella.

"Wow!" She says. "I've never seen someone date more than one person, it seems cool though." She shrugs and goes back to eating her food, unbothered. We all look at each other, smirking at her reaction.

"Ya, it is cool." Morgan says. "So, tell us a little about yourself."

She looks nervously towards Daniella until she nods once letting her know she's safe. She already has such a good bond with her. I'm not jealous, I know that it's because she is the one she has been talking to and met first. I just can't wait till I'm also that source of reassurance for her.

"Um, I'm 18 years old, my birthday is February 29th so I usually have to celebrate the day before or after, although some years i can have my birthday on the real day!" She laughs before continuing, "What else? Um, I love the color pink, oh and I love to read! I live with my Grammy and, oh, I never went to a real school before. I did get my GED though, I think that's what it's called. I don't know, Grammy helped me set it up and stuff, she's better at technology, which is weird cause I'm younger but ya" she shrugs, taking another bite of mac and cheese.

"That's pretty cool, about your birthday." I say.

She nods, continuing to finish her mac and cheese before moving onto to her chicken, not stopping to respond.

I smile at her and move on. "So, have you ever had been in a relationship before, you seem pretty interested in ours." I tease her.

Her eyes widen in fear, "I- I didn't mean to pry, I'm sorry." She rushes out, her eyes welling up a bit.

"Oh no honey I didn't mean it like that, I'm perfectly fine with you asking as many questions as you want, I'm just teasing okay? No crying, come on." I hold her cheek in my hand and wipe the one tear that had fallen down her face before it could fall off of her face and into her lap.

She looks me in the eye and sniffles, trying to laugh it off, "right, sorry, I just cry sometimes, too emotional." She shrugs.

"No you're not, don't say that about yourself sweetie, your emotions are valid and it's okay to feel them, alright? Now, you wanna ask that question for me?" I pull my hand away from her and resume eating.

"Oh right." She giggles. "No, I've never been in a relationship, I guess I had just had other stuff to focus on and everything, plus I don't really get approached by anyone when I'm in public, which is rare in and of itself." She smiles.

"Why is that?"

"Well, I guess cause I didn't go to school when I was living with my-" she pauses and her eyes widen like she said something she wasn't supposed to before whispering "my dad," and continuing on "and now that I live my Grammy I just don't need to go out and do much stuff. I would like to! I just, it's not really safe I guess. Grammy says she doesn't trust me in public alone a lot cause I wonder off and talk to strangers or something, I don't know, maybe she's just dramatic." She finishes.

I stifle a laugh. "That makes sense then."

She nods and sets her fork down, slightly pushing away the plate. Bringing her knees up, she places her feet on the chair. Sticking out her tongue, she looks around the house, peering at the shelves on the walls, and the chandelier above us.

"What are you doing honey?" Daniella asks her, placing her hand on top of Arabella's knee, jerking her out of her own head.

"Just looking around."

"Are you all done with your food?"

"Uh-huh." She nods, answering Daniella's question. "I'm full." Her plate still has most of her chicken on it, and all of the veggies. I didn't expect her to eat a lot considering her petite stature, but we would like her to eat her vegetables.

"Alright, I'm gonna let it go this time because you're full and I am not going to force you to eat more, but next time I want you to start by eating some of your veggies." She tilts her head down to make eye contact with Arabella.

She tries to avoid the eye contact with Daniella but eventually gives in, looking at her. "Okay." She squirms in her seat a little.

The rest of us finish up eating and stand up from the table. We pick up the plates and bring them to the sink, Arabella grabbing her own before one of us could, and follows us to the sink.

"I can wash the dishes!" She says, smiling at us, holding her plate.

I grab the plate from her hands, giving her a warm smile. "Don't worry it sweetie, we got it. Why don't you go sit down in the living room and pick out a nice movie for us to watch, huh? You wanna have a movie night?"

Her face lights up and she bounces up and down on the ball of her feet. "Yes, yes please!" She turns around to walk out before stopping and turning on her heel. "Wait...I don't, um, know where the living room is." She says, playing with her fingers.

"Come on honey, I'll show you." Morgan grabs her hand and leads her out of the room.

"That's good." I say to Daniella as we finish loading the dishwasher, "It gives them a few minutes to bond. I feel like they've talked the least, you know?"

"Ya, I agree." She nods. "I just hope she's not nervous. You know right after I texted you that we were here she got scared that you guys wouldn't like her and she started tearing up. It was one of the saddest things I've ever seen." She pouts slightly. The living room is far away from the kitchen due to how big the house is, meaning I know there's no way she can hear us discussing this.

"Awww, stop." I pause and make a sad face towards her. "She so cute I feel like my heart can't take it." I laugh slightly.

"Agreed."

We finish cleaning up from dinner until the kitchen and dining room look as stunning as they always are, before making our way to the living room.

Walking in we see Arabella and Morgan sitting side by side on the couch, the remote in Ara's hand as she scrolls through the movies on the tv.

"Hey guys you decide on a movie yet Ara?" Daniella asks.

"I think so. Can we watch Bedtime Stories please?" She pauses on the movie and looks at Daniella.

"Such nice manners," she smiles at her, "of course we can watch Bedtime Stories. All right everyone get comfy, and let's start the movie."

Danielle sits down on the other side of Ara and she leans subconsciously towards her. I take my seat next to Morgan, grabbing a blanket from the back of the couch and placing it over the two of us. I can see Daniella place one over her and Ara as well.

Pressing play on the movie, the room goes silent except for the tv and we all watch intently.

About half way through the movie I hear a yawn and look over to Ara, seeing her eyes looking sleepy. I peek at the clock and realize it's about 7:30 pm. I figure her bedtime is soon considering she texted Daniella around 8 last night when she said goodnight.

Daniella wraps her arm around the small girl as she leans into her. "You sleepy?" She asks, rubbing her hand up and down her arm.

"Mmhh." She nods and mumbles out a reply, lifting up her hand to her face and rubbing her fist against her closed eye.

"Oh don't do that sweetie, we don't want you to hurt your eye." She gently grabs Ara's hand and pulls it away from her eye, causing her to whine slightly and furrow her eybrows. "I know, I know, I'm such a meanie right." She leans her head down and kisses Ara's forehead.

We continue to watch the the rest of the movie, Ara slowly falling asleep as we do. We figure we'll just wake her up when it's over.

About half an hour later, the credits start rolling and we shut the tv off and turn the lights on, folding up the blankets and placing them on the back of the couch.

"Alright we gotta wake her up now." I say, pausing before I blurt out, "I wish I didn't have to, she looks so cute all cuddled up to you Dani."

"Trust me I know." She laughs. "This is one of the best feelings in the world." She looks down at Ara and pulls her tighter, closer her eyes and taking in the last few moments of the night.

I bend down, squatting in front of the couch. Smoothing the hair out of her face, and placing my hand on her cheek, moving my thumb back and forth.

She squirms a little and her eyes begin to flutter open, her arms stretching out and a yawn coming out of her mouth. I mentally cooed, smiling at her. "Hey honey, it's time to wake up alright, we gotta get you home now." She opens her eyes fully and they connect with mine, blinking slowly. "There they are, there's those beautiful eyes." I smirk at her.

She realizes where she is and sits up a little, mumbling out a sorry before she pouts slightly and her eyes tear up a little. "I have to go home now?" She asks us.

"Unfortunately. You don't want Grammy to worry do you? Hey, we will see you super soon though okay?" I grab onto one of her hands. "You can come over any time you want. Does that sound good?"

She nods, stretching out her arms again. I stand up and she follows suit, getting up from the couch.

"Alright pipsqueak you ready to hit the road again?" Daniella asks and rubs up and down her back.

"One second." She runs over to Morgan and hugs her, her arms wrapping around her waist and head laying against her chest. A shocked look appears on Morgan's face, not expecting the embrace, before hugging her back, pulling her tightly against her before releasing her arms from around her.

Ara moves over to me and wraps her arms around me too. "Aww, thank you sweet girl. I will take a hug any time." I hold her close and rock back and forth subconsciously. I release her and she moves back over to Dani, looking up at her and smiling. "Okay, I'm ready now." She says, a bit more awake and aware of her surroundings now.

"Okay then, let's go!" Dani says, grabbing ahold of her hand and making their way out of the house.

"Bye-bye!" Ara says, turning around as they make it to the door.

"Bye honey." I say.

Morgan replies after. "Goodbye sweetheart."

They walk out of the door, it closing behind them.

We stay silent for a minute before Morgan breaks the silence.

"Well...she's the one."

I chuckle slightly before replying. "100% agreed."

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If you guys don't know, this is Bedtime Stories. It's such a good story, you should definitely check it out!

It's available for free on Disney+ if anyone has that!

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2597 words

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I hope you guys like the story so far! I'm sorry if it's bad, I'm trying my hardest.

Anyways I thought maybe I could do like a question at the bottom as a fun little activity and then answer it so you guys can get to know me better! You don't have to answer if you don't want to of course, I just figured it might be fun!

So, we'll start out pretty simple so they won't require to much real thinking lol.

The first question is: What are your favorite and least favorite foods?

My favorite foods are sushi (but with no raw fish, I like the California rolls the best. I know, basic.), ham and cheese sandwiches, chicken nuggets, chicken parmesan, and cheese pizza.

My least favorites would have to be steak (any red meat really), tomatoes, and sweet candy. I know the candy thing is weird, I like chocolate and chocolate based candies like Reece's (but not Reece's Pieces), and Twix and that stuff but I don't like smarties, skittles, and Swedish fish. Stuff like that.

Sorry that was a lot, you don't have to read that all!

Bye-bye! (I'm now watching Bedtime Stories haha!)

- lauren 💕