Today is Alyssa's first day back in kindergarten. It's kind of interesting who she came back around the same time she died so now she's back where she left off.
I tip toed to her room to wake her up without waking up the baby.
"Wakey, wakey eggs and Bacon" I sang
She rolled around to face me and groaned, "Mommy just 5 more minutes and I'll go get ready,"
"Lyssa, we only have less than an hour to get you showered and ready for school, you have nap time at 12 to help you catch up on your sleep," I said trying to negotiate
"Mama I don't want to go to school, why can't you just home-school me? Your smarter than the private school teachers,"
"I'm flattered that you think that but what's the real reason you don't want to go to school today?" I asked scooting next to her on her bed.
"Those kids are going to be mean to me like grandma was" she sputtered
She's scared of her grandma because she came into our house, unexpected and uninvited. She saw Alyssa sitting on the couch and asked, "What is this?" in a snarky tone. August and I couldn't think of an excused before Alyssa piped up and said, "It's me grandma, It's Alyssa. Don't you remember me?".
Erica (her grandma) grabbed Alyssa by her wrist and shoved her to the floor sharply yelling, "I don't know that the hell you are but I'm sure you are not my grand-daughter. You are a demon summoned by my daughter-in-law who is known to be a witch and I command you to be sent back to hell where you belong,"
August pulled Erica away from Alyssa and brought Alyssa to me as he was telling Erica it was time for her to leave and that is best if she never stepped foot into our house again. He snatched the key used to get in and tried to drag her out the door. I checked for bruises on Alyssa and went to the kitchen to get some ice to put on her wrist. It was a nasty purplish blueish color..
"You are not choosing that thing over there over your own mother? You never do what I tell you and look where you are now,"
"I'm in a really good place in life right now. I got a huge promotion and now I'm closer to becoming a partner at my law firm. If I had done all the things you told me to do, I probably would have been married miserably to Angela Jenkins from the other side of town whose daddy was a rich pastor and I would've been associate pastor of his unholy ministry. Instead I'm happily married to the love of my life and now I have my whole family together and I'd honestly be happier if all the negative things in my life, which is you, would leave permanently. I tried to hold this in for the past couple years because your my mother but I can't respect someone who would do that to her own grandchildren. Bye Erica," August ranted
"Don't think you can get rid of me that easily. I will tell everyone of your evil-doings. You will perish in hell for having that demon live in your house. That thing there is not your daughter, it's a servant of the devil sent to destroy you. Do not say I didn't warn you. I will inform every church of this devil and every news station as well," she swore.
"How is my daughter a servant of the devil? Things like this has been caused by God in the past. Look at the resurrection of Lazarus or better yet the resurrection of Jesus and the coming resurrection of Jesus once again. God has caused this before and now it's happened again but with your granddaughter. I knew you were heartless before but I thought it was only towards me but I can see that your heartless to nearly everyone," I realized
"You can tell I never liked you. Anyone with eyes can see it. What makes you think that I would like any spawn of yours?"
"Because you always acted like you cared about them,"I explained
"Well honey, what you don't realize is, I'm a great actor. I've acted for 30 years that I cared about August and his dad. I could've acted for another 30 years if I had to," Erica smirked
"Look Erica, don't tell anyone about Alyssa. They might take her away from us again. We lost her once and we can't bear to lose her again," August pleaded
"Sweetheart, the first rule in negotiating is you shouldn't show that you need something. Now I"m just going to use your problems against you," Erica sighed dramatically
"Fine whatever, use it against us. Just don't tell anyone about Alyssa," I sneered
August's mother paused for a while then replied, "Fine, on one condition,"
"Okay what's the condition?" I asked
"You have to pay me $1,000 a week to keep my pretty mouth shut," she answered
Doesn't she mean her crusty mouth? I furrowed my brows in confusion. He ex-husband, gave her a million dollars as a divorce settlements one year ago and gives her an alimony check each month so she can pay her bills and whatnot, why would she need extra money?
"I thought dad pays you alimony, and he gave you a million dollars last year. Why do you want more money? August questioned
"That's for me to know and for you to keep your mind off of, so don't worry about it. All your ugly ass wife and demon child an you have to worry about is sending me that money every week till the day I die,"
"You do realize we are not "Publishers Clearing House" right?" I joked
"Yeah but y'all have the money and you do want me to keep my mouth shut right?" she watched as we both nodded, "Then you should have no problem getting me my money,"
August looked at me and we made a silent agreement.
"Fine, we'll transfer the money to your account once a week, now please get out of our home," I snarled
Erica got up from where she sat and smirked, " this isn't the last you'll seeing or hearing from me,"
She went past our kitchen an d got an apple from our fruit bowl and took a big ole bit in it and walked out the front door, slamming it hard for dramatic effect.
I rolled my eyes and continued to comfort my crying daughter. I moved the ice pack from her wrist to her forehead. August came with Miliani and we all cuddled on the floor next to the couch. I heard sniffling from all three of my babies and soon I started to cry a little too.
After a couple minutes, I couldn't hear anything from Alyssa or Milani so I thought they were both asleep but only Milani was. Just as I was about to take her to her room to go to sleep I realized that Alyssa, since she was a mini version of her dad, was just in deep thought.
"What's wrong baby girl?" I asked moving the strand of hair on her forehead.
"Why is grandma so mean? Everyone else's grandmas are nice and bake cookies and let their grandchildren lick the cookie dough from the spoon. They don't beat them like grandma did to me," she frowned
"I don't know baby, I've been asking that question for a long time now All I know is that I can't let her get to me and neither can you,"
"How do you expect me to not let it get to me. My own grandma thinks I'm the devil. I know I'm only 6 but that old enough to know your different than everyone else," she cried
Dang my daughter is spitting straight knowledge. I didn't even know she knew that.
"Baby girl sometimes you have to be the bigger person and ignore her," August told her walking into Alyssa's room with a giggling Milani on his hip.
"I'm six dad, It's not my job to be the bigger person,"
She does have a point. She doesn't have to be the bigger person, all she has to do is forgive her so she'll feel better in the future. That's something I learned from good ole Madea.
"Grandma Alsina was really mean for that but everyone else is going to love you. I love you, your daddy loves you even your baby sister loves you," I reassured her
"You promise?" she yawned
I pinky promised her with my pinky sticking high and got her out of bed into the bathtub filled with all her favorite bath time animals. We sang her favorite bath time song and cleaned her up as quick and efficiently as possible.
I took her out of the tub and wiped her with a towel and then carried her back to her room. Her clothes were already chosen by myself the night before so all we had to do was moisturize, put on clothes and eat breakfast.
As I was about to help her put on her clothes she pushed my hand away and said "No mommy, I can do it myself. I'm a big girl remember,"
I put my hands up in defeat and let her put the clothes on herself. I saw her struggling and wanted to help but she still wouldn't let me. My baby is turning to this independent little thing and I'm just not ready for that yet.
She finished getting dressed and I got to fix her little private school uniform collar. I gave her a high-five and raced her to the dining room.
"Eggs and bacon or cereal?" I asked
"Can I have both? I'm really hungry."
"You ate a lot for dinner last night, where did it all go?" August asked carrying Milani
" I don't know. I think it goes to my dissection system"
"Do you mean your digestive system honey," I corrected
"Your such a smart little thing," I cooed at her
"Mommy stop I'm not a baby. People only do that to babies,"
"Babies and adorable people get talked to like this. Now can you start eating so I can take you to school little girl" I replied as I put a plate down for her.
August put Miliani down on the floor to crawl around and took me to the other room.
"Maybe her eating so much is a side affect of her coming back?" He suggested
"Or maybe she's just a growing child who is really hungry," I shrugged
"Tatyana, you can not deny that Alyssa has been eating alot more than she did before she resurrected. If you try then you're lying. She ate two whole sirloin steaks last night at that restaurant and the kids meal we initially ordered her. That's unusual," she retorted
"Her also being here is unusual so I guess we have alot of unusual things going on in the Alsina family. Anyway speaking of family, have you talked to your mother about her rude behavior the other day?" I Asked
"She wouldn't apologize. You know my mother and how she is. So head strong and believing she's right when she's completely wrong. There's nothing we can do to really change her mind or get her to act different," August replied
"Because of that woman, Alyssa is afraid to go to school because she's afraid someone will treat her like your mom did. My baby is scared and doesn't feel safe,"
"Then don't send her to school then. We could home school her or hire a tutor,"
"We can't home-school. We both have very important jobs we have to do. I'm afraid she might not enjoy having a tutor. We'll just send her for today and see how it goes. If it goes well, then we'll send her back, it doesn't then we'll have to have a conversation on it," I said putting my head into her neck and sniffing his cologne
"Okay hun," he said kissing my cheek
"Love you papi," I said pinching his cheek
"Ow, stop baby, you know I hate that shit," he laughed blushing
"Yes of course, to the moon and back mami" he smiled staring into my eyes
"Ewww you guys are gross!" Alyssa's little self yelled
August grabbed her and put her on his back for a piggyback ride.
"Daddy put me down! I have to go to school so I can learn and be smart and pretty like mommy!"
"Isn't daddy smart and pretty too? Don't you wanna be smart and pretty like me?" August pouted
"No offense daddy you're pretty but not like a pretty princess," Alyssa said playing with her hair
August put his hand on his heart like he was shocked and hurt. Alyssa finished her breakfast and put it in the sink. I handed Miliani to August and kissed them both goodbye on the forehead. Alyssa copied me and kissed her baby sister and dad. I held Alyssa's hand and grabbed my keys and rushed to our 2014 Cadillac Escalade.
I opened the back seat door and buckled Alyssa up in her booster seat then got into the driver seat and drove off to the school which was about 30 minutes away.
"Mama, what's private school like?" Alyssa asked fiddling with her thumbs
I moved the rear-view mirror so I could look at her face and give her eye contact.
"Honey I don't really know. I went to public school as a child and public school is good but right now we need a school that no one knows you at. The less people that know about our situation, the better," I sighed
