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Happy birthday to my two favoritest girls in the world! God I sound like a mom even though they're just my OCs Anyways! I've been really into character boards lately so I decided to make some for Ella and Marcella's birthday today! Happy birthday baby girls, turning 44 today 💖💜💙
Stanuary: Love
Stan leaned on the edge of the crib, watching the two little babies inside. He didn’t know what “higher power” thought he was ready to be a dad, but they were so full of shit. What if he fucked up? What if he fucked them up? Twins, when they could barely afford the shitty one-bedroom apartment. What if he turned out just like-
One of them squirmed a bit, opening her eyes. Stan’s breath hitched. Ella- Ella was the one with black pajamas. She stared up at him, hardly moving except to wave her arms a bit. “H-hey, sweetie.” Stan swallowed, reaching down to sort of hold her hand. Her little hand curled around his finger.
“G-d, you’re as beautiful as your mom,” Stan murmured. How were they only a few days old? It felt like forever ago they were born.
Ella began squirming a bit more and whining. Stan almost panicked, lifting her up so she didn’t wake her sister. “Hey, hey, c’mon. Your mom’s tired. What’s up? Are ya hungry?”
He remembered when his ma would watch his nephew for Shermie sometimes, and tried bouncing Ella a bit like she had. He shushed her lightly and carried her to the kitchen. He squinted at the instructions on the formula bottle, trying to focus on them as Ella whined in his arm.
“C’mon El, I’m tryin’ here.” Stan adjusted her in his arm before mixing and preparing the formula. He tested it on his wrist like he’d seen his mom do- but it occurred to him that he never knew why she did it.
He shrugged and settled on the couch with Ella and the bottle. She latched onto it, starting to drink the formula. He watched her, breathing softly. “I love you, Ella.”
And he’d be damned if he let anything happen to her.
Homework: The Game
“Lee. Can ya come here, please?”
Lee slid into the seat across the table, avoiding looking at Bella. His leg bounced against the floor, and he kept staring at his hands.
“Ah got yer report card t’day,” Bella said, setting it on the table and sliding it across. There were a majority of D’s, one F, and a single A. In gym class. “What’s goin’ on?”
“I don’ know…” Lee said quietly.
“Sweetie, y’ain’t in trouble. Heaven knows Ah struggled in school, too. ...yer case manager called an’ said ya haven’ been doin’ yer homework very much. Is there a reason?”
“It’s too borin’,” Lee said, pouting a bit. “It’s like torture!”
“Ah. Yup.” Bella nodded and sat back, folding her arms loosely. “Yeah. That’s what Ah thought might be the problem.”
“You did?”
“Homework never was fun past elementary school.” Bella grimaced. “Alright. So we gotta figure out a way ta make yer homework fun.”
“How?”
“...we make it inta a game.”
“Girls! C’mere!”
Ella and Marcella came down the hall to where Bella was waiting. Marcella had her headphones around her neck and a pencil behind her ear.
“What’s up?” Ella asked.
“We're helpin’ yer brother do his homework. Wait in the living room.”
She hurried off, leaving the twins to look at each other in confusion. Bella found Stan in the gift shop, counting the profits from that day.
“Stan! Money down, t’ the livin’ room.”
“What? Why?”
“Helpin’ Lee with his homework. C’mon.”
“Alright y'all, here’s the rules.”
Stan, the twins, and Lee were all sitting at the dining room table with a sheet of paper and a pencil. Bella sat in front of them, holding the math worksheet Lee had for homework.
“Ah’ll read out the problem. Whoever completes it first gets a piece’a candy.” Bella grabbed the bag of candy from the chair and set it on the table in plain sight. Lee sat up a bit, grinning. “An’ if it’s right, ya get a second piece. There’ll be absolutely no cheatin’. If Ah catch ya lookin’ at someone else’s work, ya miss the opportunity ta earn candy fer the next round. Everybody clear on the rules?”
“Yup..”
“Yeah.”
“Mm-hm!”
“Alright. You can start workin’ soon as Ah finish readin’ out the problem,” Bella instructed. She looked at the worksheet. “77 times 6.”
The four of them started on the problem, and Lee was moving quickly to finish first. A few seconds passed before he shouted “Done!” and held his paper up. Bella looked over the problem, entering it into her calculator.
“Good job, Lee!” She grinned and set two pieces of candy on Lee’s paper. He quickly ate them, beaming and bouncing his leg as he got ready for the next problem.
Ella and Marcella decide they want fairy dolls of themselves, so Stan learns to sew
Stan and Bella do one of those fall fairs as an attraction one year and Stan does hay rides. Ella and Marcella get free rides all day
Memories
"Marcella?"
"Mom? Hey!" Marcella held the phone between her ear and her shoulder as she looked for her car key. "I have like, ten missed called from you. What's going on?"
"Sorry, Ah fergot y'were at work- sorry," Bella responded.
"You're fine. Is something wrong?"
"Well- alright, no one died," Bella said.
"Mom..."
"Ok, there's a long story behind this, but quick version- yer dad got his mind wiped an' lost his memories-"
"What?!"
"Don' interrupt me. Ah'll tell ya the whole thing when ya get here- if yer comin-" Bella sighed. "He's havin' trouble rememberin' everythin' 'bout you an' yer siblin's. Ah thought it might help ta have y'all here. T' trigger 'em. That's how the rest of 'em have been workin'-"
"I mean- what, like, he has amnesia?" Marcella frowned.
"Eh- sorta? It's complicated," Bella said. "But there's ways ta get his memories back."
"Well if it helps, yeah, I'll fly over," Marcella said. "Sky'll stay here to watch Jacob and Brittany. And Brandon can fly back with me-"
"Thanks, sweetie. It means a lot."
"Of course, Mom. I'll see you soon."
So whenever I'm writing Ella and Marcella, I have a playlist of 80s songs that they would enjoy and listen to- since the majority of their childhood is in the 80s. If anyone would like to listen, here's a link-
https://open.spotify.com/user/22z5lhez7ivavalkjgdzgbu5y/playlist/3eWEEKF4qQCuEcsDnENZXr?si=fSQnSBO8Sg25vj5xbbHySw
Till Death Do Us Part- 2
Two weeks.
Had it really only been two weeks? Wouldn't it make for sense for it to have been two months? Or two years? It couldn't have only been two weeks.
But Bella knew how time worked. The ironic twist of fate where good things always disappeared and the bad stuck around much longer than you want it to. That's why sad moments in books were drawn out; an author would use longer sentences, and more commas, and more- more- the ones like 'and'. Because the longer it went on, the deeper it sounded, and the more time for the feelings to really sink in and hit at the reader's heart and make them start to cry-
This wasn't helping.
Bella sniffed, rubbing at her eyes with her sleeve. Marcella crawled over, noticing she was crying again, and pulled herself onto the couch. There's no way she could understand what was happening. Sure, maybe by now she had felt that Daddy wasn't coming back. But as to why? That's a concept that a two-year-old didn't understand yet.
"Don' cry, Mommy," Marcella said, sitting on her stomach. She wiped at the tears on Bella's face, and she laughed a sad laugh, like the one when you're so utterly depressed that nothing could really cheer you up, but the kind where someone tries, and they don't even know what's wrong, but they're so cute and they're actually trying that you can't help but laugh.
"Ok, sweetie," Bella smiled softly, running a hand through her daughter's hair. "Ok, Ah won'."
"Cryin' is sad," Marcella said. "Sad is bad."
"Well, bein' sad is ok," Bella said. "But yer right. It don't feel good, feelin' sad."
Ella came over then, crawling up and sitting with her mom and sister. She held out her dragon stuffed animal.
"Scaley is a happy thin'," she said. Bella smiled, taking the dragon and hugging it.
"Thanks, sweetie," she replied. She sighed, sitting up and pulling her daughters into a hug. "Ah'm sorry Ah'm bein' so lumpy. Ah just... Ah miss yer dad."
"Daddy," Marcella yawned, rubbing her face against Bella's arm. The woman buried her face in the girls' hair, her eyes swimming with tears.
There was the light squeak of the mail slot as it swung open and close. Bella looked up. She couldn't see very well without her glasses, but it looked like... like something. It was a piece of paper, that's all she knew.
"I got it!" Ella volunteered, wiggling out of the hold and running over to the front door. She grabbed the paper and hurried back over, climbing back onto the couch and holding it out to Bella.
"Thanks, sweetie," Bella smiled and looked at the- it was a postcard. A postcard? Who did she know who was somewhere postcard-worthy? Gravity Falls, the front said. Fiddleford! Wasn't that where he had gone to work with Ford? Maybe he had finally decided to talk to her after months of not picking up the-
...it wasn't from Fiddleford.
Added to that, it wasn't even for her. It was for Stan, from his brother. Of course! The first time in ten years Ford tried to talk to his twin and he was dead! Of course, Bella had been the one to put off calling him to tell him that Stan had been shot-
She wiped at her eyes again, reading the card.
PLEASE COME!
Well. What other choice did she have?
Two days. Yikes, Bella had no clue how her dad could do this for weeks on end. Two full days of driving and she was tired. Then again, she also had two toddlers in the car and her energy had been zapped of late anyways. No doubt that it was going to be more exhausting.
She tugged her hood up, cringing as she felt it already soaked from the snow. She unbuckled the twins, carrying Marcella and holding tight to Ella's hand. The baby bag slung over her shoulder, they walked up to the porch, and Bella brushed snow off the two of them once they reached the door. She knocked and waited for a few seconds before the door was flung open and something was pointed at her face.
"Who is it?! Have you come to steal my eyes?!"
Bella jumped, moving to protect Ella and Marcella. She and Ford stared at each other for a few seconds before Bella realized what was happening.
"Jesus Christ Ford, yer gonna give me a heart attack!" Bella shouted, pushing the crossbow away. "What in the hell are ya doin'?!"
"Bella?" Ford blinked. "What- what are you doing here?"
"Well, Ah know ya needed Stan, but..." she trailed off as she entered the house. Ford closed and locked the door behind them, an angry look replacing the confused one.
"Of course, he couldn't be bothered to show up," he said angrily.
"W-wait, no-"
"So, what? My mom called you instead?" Ford asked, heading into the house.
"Ford, that ain't-"
"I can't believe that I trusted that Stan would actually help, when he's not getting anything out of the deal-!"
"Stanford, he's dead!" Bella interrupted. Her throat was tight and there were tears in her eyes again. She had thought and thought about it for two weeks, but it was the first time she'd actually said it aloud. The first time she'd actually admitted it.
"He- what?" Ford spun back around. Bella sobbed, wrapping both arms around Marcella. Ella hugged her legs, looking up at her.
"H-he's dead, Ford. H-he got shot, two- two weeks ago."
She made a gun shape with her fingers and placed it against her forehead.
"He- oh..." Ford looked broken right then and there. He copied the action, as though processing it. "Oh."
"A-Ah sorry Ah didn'- didn' tell ya sooner," Bella said. "Bu-but Ah could hardly s-say it. T-t' myself, even."
"I- oh, man," Ford ran a hand through his hand. "I-I didn't- two weeks?"
"Mm-hm."
"...h-how'd you know about it?" Ford asked. "How did you know before- before Ma, or me?"
"A-Ah was livin' with him," Bella said. "W-we were... we were datin'."
"She's sad 'cause Daddy's still gone," Ella spoke up, trying to help, help in the way that made Bella laugh that sad laugh again.
"Ah... I see," Ford frowned. "Well, um- w-would you like to sit down?"
Bella nodded and Ford led her through the house to the kitchen. They sat down and Bella placed the baby bag on the floor with Marcella.
"Y-y'don' mind if they go play in the other room, do ya?" Bella asked, pulling out a few toys.
"Uh- not at all," Ford said. "They can go sit in the thinking parlor. Just the next room."
"Go on, girls," Bella nudged them out of the room. "Be good, m'kay?"
"M'kay, Mommy!" They responded, hurrying off. Bella smiled sadly, resting her head in her hand.
"...Stan's kids?" Ford asked.
"Our kids," Bella replied softly. "Nearly two years old, the both'a 'em. Twins."
"...W-what are their names?"
"Ella an' Marcella. Marcella's the older one- in pink."
"...I have nieces," Ford said softly, looking down at his hands. They were folded together on the table.
"Sure do," Bella smiled softly. "...you ok? With... with Stan?"
Ford hesitated and shook his head. Bella set her glasses on the table and reached over to hold Ford's hand. He entwined his fingers with hers, eyes shining slightly.
"What about you? You were... closer to him. And you're a lot more sensitive."
"Ah'm- I ain't ok, Ford," Bella sobbed. "God, Ah jus' miss him so much. Y'don't expect it. It's just another mornin', and yer sayin' goodbye like yer gonna see him later that day, a-an' ya never do, an'... an' ya never see him again. An' he ain't never comin' back."
Ford pulled his chair around the table, pulled Bella into a hold, rubbed her back and let her cry. She had needed physical affection, he could tell. Had needed it for a long time. And... and he needed it, too. Right then and there, he needed this just as much as Bella needed it. So the two of them sat there, rocking and crying and holding onto each other.
