BALLERINA DAUGHTER WITH JOHNNY ─── (teen parent au)
ꫂ᭪݁ ─── since Cadence took Eloise to see The Sleeping Beauty during a visit to New York for her book tour, your daughter was obsessed with ballet.
She wanted to see every show she could, danced around the house, put a tutu with all of her outfits, adamant it matched.
Seeing her obvious passion for the art, you brought up enrolling her in some ballet classes to Johnny, who didn't understand your hesitation.
"Some teachers can be insanely cruel and encourage eating disorders. She isn't even in school yet; I don't want her first introduction to an educator being some bitter ballet teacher."
"Then we won't pick one of those," Johnny responds, popping a piece of banana he was cutting up for Eloise into his mouth. "And aren't kids first teacher's their parents?"
"I mean professionally."
"Right, because Ellie's pretty smart already aannd that's all you."
"And you."
"Hmm, I'm pretty sure it was you," he insists, stabbing another piece of sliced banana with Eloise's Disney princess fork.
"Is that for you or Ellie?" you playfully question.
"It's a good banana!"
ꫂ᭪݁ ─── following the first company you tried (that Ellie got kicked out of because she attacked a girl for repeating what her snobby, New York 'art world' type parents said about you and Johnny when they did the math on twenty year olds having a four year old), the second studio was heaven sent.
Eloise's teacher was an angel in tights, a leotard, and wrap skirt: Aliyah. She obviously had such a love for not only ballet and teaching ballet, but working with kids, extending endless patience, and excitement when they learnt something new.
Most importantly, Eloise loved her dance classes, bouncing on her tippy-toes to leave for them Monday afternoons.
ꫂ᭪݁ ─── with everything Eloise learnt, she needed to show you and Johnny, giving you both a one girl tiny tots performance night after night. Johnny always gave her a standing ovation, cupping his hands around his mouth to woo and cheer, until she told him he was being too loud, and he'd apologise, reasoning his noisey support with her dancing was just so amazing.
Eloise loved when she'd see uncle Gat, aunty Cady, or aunty Mirr, because it meant she had new audience members.
ꫂ᭪݁ ─── being one of the fathers — if not the only father — at rehearsals, Johnny was often a compliant pack mule, carrying all of Eloise's stuff, and offering to take things for the other mothers so they could focus on photos and not juggling what they had to hold for a free hand.
The kids would approach their moms for things in their backpack, just to be pointed over to Johnny, focused on Eloise. "Go get it from Eloise's daddy," and they would, waddling up to him, tapping his leg for his attention, "Mr. Sinclair, my mommy said you had my backpack, can I have it please?"
"'course, sweetie/buddy" Johnny'd answer, handing over the bag with the kid's name written on the inside of the shoulder strap in Sharpie, "and Ellie's dad is fine, little mister/lady."
"Okay, Mr. Ellie's dad."
ꫂ᭪݁ ─── Eloise took it upon herself to invite the Liars to her recital, tapping through your phone like she'd seen you do so many times for their names, holding the phone to her ear with both hands.
Mirren: "What's up?"
"Hi, aunty Mirr!"
"Ellie? Did you steal your mommy's phone?"
"Kinda, 'cause I have a re-cite-tal, I don't wike that word, I dancing on Saturday. Can you come?"
"I'd love to come. Do you know what time Saturday?"
"Uhh..." precedes, "DADDY!" causing Johnny to run in.
"Yeah?!— Why do you have mommy's phone?"
"I talking to aunty Mirr; when I dancing Saturday?"
"Ellie, put me on speaker," Mirren tells her, "it's the noise icon one, not the microphone or the camera, or person."
"One sec," she says, finding the button.
"How about you give me mommy's phone, Els?" Johnny suggests, holding out his hand for it.
"Okay, aunty Mirr, daddy wants to talk to you," she signs off, passing it over.
"What were you asking Ellie about," Johnny asks.
"She said she had a recital Saturday. I wanna come; what time is it?"
Gat: "Hello?"
"Uncle Gat, I dancing Saturday, so you gotta be there at ten thirty in the morning. Not night. I not awake then. My bedtime's seven."
"Ellie? Give your mom her phone back."
"I will!" she whines. "Will you come watch me dance?"
"'course, Ellie. I'll be there."
"Okayy! Bye, uncle Gatt!"
"Bye, Eloise."
Cadence: "Hey! How's everyone over there?"
"We preparing for my recital."
"Ellie?"
"Hi, aunty Cady! Do you wanna see me dance on Saturday? ten firty in the morning?"
"How didn't I know about this sooner?!" Cadence asks excitedly.
"I don't know..."
"I'll try to figure it out, okay, cutie? I love your dancing."
"Otay!"
You call from the other room, "Ellie? Who are you talking to?" coming to investigate.
Eloise whispers into the phone, "mommy's coming. I not meant to be on her phone."
"Better hang up then," Cadence replies, "see you Saturday!"
"See you Saturday!"
"Who did you invite this time?" you ask, finding her with your phone and taking it back to check the call history.
"Just aunty Cady!"
And they were all there that Saturday, with flowers for Eloise after the show, helping you tease Johnny throughout for tearing up while he persisted it was just the lighting that made his eyes look glassy!
a/n: ellie you're so fucking cute. and Johnny's through and through.
and of course as Eloise gets older in the sport, Johnny is the tiktoks I linked in this post!
contains: teen parent au, no Johnny because he's literally her dad, they're technically cousins once removed but that's aunty (and uncle), Gat borderline ragebaiting a preschooler, Gat culturing his niece because her dad's so fucking white 😭, Johnny lowkey being a helicopter parent (he's just worried for his daughter's wellbeing, okay?!?), Mirren new ragebaiting tactic for Johnny just dropped, 806 wc
CADENCE AKA "AUNTY CADY":
SENSIBILITY, HUMOUR, AND BOOKS
The others weren't irresponsible, but Cadence was the most responsible — the one majority of people would want babysitting their kid. She was incredibly patient and kind, defaulting to calling Eloise nicknames like "cutie" or "sweetie," and always running things by you and Johnny first, like: "Ellie said she's allowed to come to the bookstore with me, is that true? Or is she a little liar?"
"Can Ellie watch Tinkerbell?"
"Would Ellie be scared of the trolls in Barbie: Fairytopia?"
Cadence fans the spark you'd ignited in Eloise with her love of books, definitely giving Ellie her Roald Dahl, The Babysitter's Club, and Rainbow Magic collections.
Eloise loves watching Cadence do her hair, makeup, and pick out an outfit, referring to it as " Aunty Cady making herself even prettier," asking what everything is and what's it for. When she asks Aunty Cady to do her makeup or hair, Cadence does her hair, pigtails, braids, rarely using any irons and never without heat protectant, but will pretend with the makeup; dusting a clean brush over Ellie's face, flicking a plain spoolie through her lashes, swiping on some lip balm, maybe with a little colour and or shimmer to it, and tells her, "go like this," showing Eloise how to smack her lips to spread the barely there shiny pink.
GAT AKA "UNCLE GAT":
REALISM, SATIRE, AND INTERNATIONAL GIFTS
Gat always got reminded by Johnny, "she's just a baby, dude," until you mentioned how he treated Eloise was good for her development (and she loved it more often than she didn't, like those rare times she'd pout, "Daddy, Uncle Gat doesn't know how to play...").
He came over one time after she got a kitchen playset, so excited to show it to him.
"Okay! I'm the chef and you're the cook," Ellie told him.
"Is this in a restaurant?" Gat asked.
"Uh, yah!"
"Do you own the restaurant?"
"Yea, it's my restaurant."
"Well, then you need to hire me first," he insisted. Eloise's brows knitted. "Bosses don't just force people to start working for them, that's slavery, so why would I want to work for you? How much would I get paid?"
"Umm."
"A liveable wage?"
"What's dat?"
"Well, how much do you pay me and I'll tell if it's a liveable wage?"
"Um, one hundred?"
"Dollars?" She nods. "Every hour, every week, every two weeks, every month?"
"Every...week?"
"Yeah, that's...not a liveable wage..."
"I don't do money! I do cooking! Daddy does money!" makes Gat chuckle inwardly.
"Do I at least get benefits?"
"What's benefits?"
"Like dental, paid time offff?"
"This is a restaurant...not a dentist..."
You and Johnny's relationship with Gat hadn't been conflict free, especially considering the teen pregnancy of it all, but he never took that out on Eloise. He loved her, and loved being that break from the Sinclairs for her. Whether that was just hanging around Brooklyn together during the day like average people, or actively embracing other cultures, Gat made sure she was worldly (because also sometimes the places he'd visit would have really cute stuff for little girls and now he had a reason to get them).
MIRREN AKA "AUNTY MIRR":
FUN, CREATIVITY, AND TREATS
Literally being Eloise's middle name, Mirren felt a lot of pressure to — not only be the favourite aunt — but the best aunt. Ever.
What helped her relax was "if Johnny can be a dad, I can be an aunt."
She never wanted to be boring, so kept a wide array of things for Ellie to do, mostly arts and crafts — not to dismiss Just Dance's hours of work.
For a while it was finger painting and bracelets (where the small purple hand prints either side of
Eloise
Mirren
Sinclair
Dennis
in calligraphy that you had stuck on the fridge at home, and the bracelets you and Johnny wore, yours reading "mommy" and his reading "daddy," came from), then it was crayons and pencils, until Ellie could be trusted not to make a dramatic mess with paints and markers.
You'd pick her up with colours from hair-chalk through her curls, painted nails, a few craft projects, and paint splotches on her clothes if, despite Mirren's art smock's best efforts, Eloise still managed to get it on herself.
And Mirren was not having it when Johnny complained about her giving Ellie too much sugar, because how could she say no when the munchkin tugged on her shirt, "Aunty Mirr, chocolate please?"
"You want chocolate?" she asks. Eloise nods. "I really want chocolate too; let's go get chocolate."
Mirren did thrive on making Ellie annoy Johnny, enlisting her for pranks, telling her things to say to get a reaction out of him; it wasn't like making Johnny's life menially harder was anything new.
a/n: THAT'S MY FAMILY. I MISS THEM SO MUCH. COME HOME. ELOISE MISSES YOU.
They all love each other so much 🥹 So Cute!
They all bring a level (obviously Johnny being the most) of that Ishowspeed clip "Clemmie, Clementine!— GET YOUR FUCKING HANDS OFF MY DAUGHTER YOU BITCH‼️ILL KILL YOU‼️" energy regarding Eloise I really adore ☺️
