Though Bella and Abby were happy for their parents and the new baby sister, they were not excited about the smells and noises she omitted. The sisters found ways to keep themselves entertained outside of the home for most of Emma’s infancy.
On one such evening while Abby enjoyed the scenery in the park, she ran into a different sort of scene all together, in the face of a handsome young man from her class. Abby, being the coward she is, shuddered in her heels at the thought of striking up a coversation with this lovely boy, but teenage hormones had the best of her.
His name is Michel Newell. To Abby, he is the epitome of a teenage heartthrob – wow, did he make her heart throb.
With a deep breath and a smile, she slowly took those few steps toward him.
“Hi, Michel? I’m Abby, we’re in the same class,” Abby clenched her hands into fists to hide her trembling fingers.
“I know who you are,” Michel smiled at her, “with a laugh like yours, you’re pretty hard to miss.”
Jackpot, she thought to herself and felt her lips part into a giant, toothy grin. Abby spent a good rest of the night getting to know this heartthrob a little better.
Bella, up to her usual neatfreak antics, spent most of her time scrubbing the house spotless. She felt calmed by the bursting sound of the bubbles beneath her fingers as she ran her hand in circles across the surfaces of the counters. Those tiny grime filled bubbles understood how she felt, ready to break open under the pressure at any second.
Being the only man in a house full of women isn’t easy for Billy, and he liked to take the time and enjoy the fun in life instead of focusing all of his energy on babies or music. Many evenings he would sneak outside and splash around in the sprinklers, leaving the girls to discuss all of the things he’d rather not know about.
Before they knew it, the time had come to welcome Emma into the world of toddlerhood. As selfish as it was, Billy was looking forward to focusing his attention on one little girl and teaching her all she needed to know, instead of having to balance his time like he did with the twins.
And he loved his little girl. Not that he didn’t love Bella and Abby, he loved them with every ounce of his being. “But this time was different,” he told himself, “This time around I am going to be dedicated to what is good for my family, and that means I will be here as much as I can.”
Bella didn’t know how she felt about the opposite sex yet, she viewed boys as another cause of stress she couldn’t handle. Wilson Lothario set his sights on her though, and no matter what excuse Bella came up with, he followed her home from school. She sat next to him on the way home to be nice, but successfully steered clear of him once she got home.
Now that Billy had most days off and only worked at night, he enjoyed taking Emma to the bookstore and reading to her outside under the warm sunlight. He felt so much joy listening to her coo and giggle over the pictures that filled the child-sized pages – he never wanted this time to end.
When Abby wasn’t on the phone with Michel or hanging out at friend’s houses, she was busy with her secret hobby – writing. Abby dreamed of a day when she would be a world renowned author and artist, and worked hard on her first novel to be published, a SciFi novel titled, “The Five-Headed Beastie.”
She was actually quite good, and couldn’t wait to show her parents that she was more than just a party animal.
She was still a party animal, though, and decided to throw a party at the local pool on a particularly sunny day. Michel was of course the first person she called.
“Woo! Party time! Aren’t you excited?” Abby playfully asked Michel.
“Yeah! This is going to rock!” he cheered back enthusiastically. “Almost as much as your body does in that swimsuit,” he kept silently to himself.
The party was a huge success, almost half the town joined in on the fun. Abby had a blast splashing the cute boys - and the girls that got in the way of the cute boys.
Even Bella found time in her full cleaning schedule to stop by her sister’s party.
Feeling awkward and out-of-place, she opted to spend her visit by the door for a quick getaway if needed. Fortunately, this turned out to be a good idea because Wilson Lothario spotted her from the pool and made a bee-line her direction. She liked the guy, but she just wasn’t ready for boys.
“Emma, can you say ‘Daddy’?” Billy took it upon himself to cover all of the other basics, so Mira felt she deserved at least this – teaching her baby daughter to speak.
“Da-dee?” Emma drooled back to her in response.
He had spent so much time with his daughter, Billy didn’t feel guilty for slipping away occasionally to work on a piece for his beautiful wife. She didn’t know he took the candid picture of her, or that he was forever immortalizing her on canvas.
“This way, this family will always know the beautiful woman that made all of their lives possible,” he spoke silently to the face in front of him.
It had been almost a week since Abby had seen Michel, and that was just too long. She was tired of playing around, when was he going to kiss her all ready?
“Hey, Michel? It’s Abby, do you wanna go hang out somewhere?” she wondered if the desperation in her voice was noticeable.
“Sure! Meet me at the theater,” he quickly hung up.
“What’s up kiddo?” Michel playfully punched her arm.
“Kiddo?” Abby was confused.
“Yeah, I turned 18 a couple days ago, didn’t you know? I’m done with all of that high school business!”
“Oh, great,” she replied with no hint of happiness.
“So, PG-13 movie for the young one?” he asked.
Needless to say, Abby did not get her kiss, and she did not enjoy the movie – even the popcorn was stale.
“Emma, promise me that when you’re my age you won’t fall for Seniors when you’re a Sophomore, it only ends in heartbreak,” Abby drowned her sorrows in her sister’s laughter.
Mira worried about her outgoing child. She knew what it was like to get caught up in older boys, and didn’t want her to get crushed in her quest to find young romance. But Abby bounced back quickly, and reminded herself in a couple years, the boys would be chasing after her.
Bella, in her quest to find a relief for all of her neurotic tendencies, joined the local chess league and decided it was time she moved up the ranks. She invited over Marisol Lobos in hopes of defeating her and in return getting more respect among the geeky throng of chess players.
The smallest Shaw had other important things to worry about, like that annoying thing tickling the inside of her nose.
Billy was quickly working his way up the ranks to becoming an international superstar, and got a rockin’ outfit to match. He happens to fill it out quite nicely. Mira definitely enjoyed his new look.
Time flew by quickly for the Shaws, and before they knew it, it was time to say goodbye to Emma’s toddler years and hello to her childhood.
Billy was a little saddened by how quickly his girls had grown into beautiful young women. It made him realize how soon his hair would turn grey and his muscles would weaken.
Emma grew up into a fairly attractive young girl. She inherited the round face of Billy and Mira’s nose and eyes. But with her desire to be lazy and lack of desire to attend pool parties with her sisters, she didn’t much of a personality to compete with them for attention.
Even though they didn’t have much in common, Abby felt close to her little sister and liked to sit and read while Emma watched television. The girls used this time to catch up and learn more about one another, but Abby made sure not to mention anything about the rocky times in the family before Emma was born.
Bella picked up a guitar one day, and then never put it back down. She enjoyed playing in her free time, once the house was clean, of course, and playing at friend’s houses after school. It was a calming hobby, and she liked getting lost in the melodies she created.
The calm never lasted long, though, and soon enough she was back home and freaking out over broken appliances or leaky faucets.
“At some point in my life, I will fix all of these appliances to where they never break again!” she promised herself after fixing the dishwasher for the hundredth time.
Billy made it to the big time and soon found himself playing concerts at the sports stadium. Usually he hated the crowds, but being up on that stage with the bright spotlight blacked out the audience and he felt like he was just playing for himself. He was happiest on a stage.
Even though being on stage made him most happy, Billy still liked to see how many tips he could pick up by playing in the park. Now that he was more well known around town, he drew large crowds that would dance and bob their heads to the music.
“The Five Headed Beastie” was coming along nicely, and Abby had found a publisher that was interested. But she occassionaly suffered from writer’s block and took the downtime as a chance to improve her painting skills. She was becoming quite creative with her work, and Billy was thrilled to see how artistic and musical his daughters had turned out to be.
Now that Billy was a dedicated family man, he made sure to show Mira how much she meant to him at every opportune moment. Bella thought the show was always a little too much, and wished they would keep it behind closed doors. But Emma thought it was sweet how her parents were still so in love after being together so long.
It was while Emma was watching Mira smooch her husband that she remembered it was once again her youngest daughter’s birthday.
“Emma, I’m so sorry about the lack of attention we’ve given you. It’s just, between our careers and your sisters being such a handful, you kind of got lost in the crowd,” Mira explained, “Besides, you’re just so well behaved, we never have to worry about you!”
“It’s ok, Mom. I’ll be sure to create more trouble when I’m a teenager,” Emma promised.
Emma had to admit she was a little peeved that she was finally going to be a teenager but her sisters were about to graduate. But it wasn’t her fault her parents had her so much later. She would just have to look at it as an opportunity to hog all of her parents’ attention and be a little more spoiled than they had been.
“It’s my turn to get some attention!” Emma said as she twirled and gracefully tripped over her own feet.
So the Shaws were getting older. The twins were on the verge of graduating and becoming young adults, Emma was finally a troublesome teenager, and Billy was only days away from waking up to a head full of grey hair. Mira was ready to pass off the responsibility of keeping this family going onto one of her girls, but which one would she choose in the end?
You know, I have to say that Billy is more the Billy Joel type than the Billy Idol type. He looks good from the neck down in his rocker gear, but from the neck up, he still looks sort of bookish.
I love how Emma turned out as a teenager. I think that Abby is pretty, but Emma is more interesting.