A Tribe United

Chapter 21

"Hurry up, girls!" Laura yelled.

"We're coming!" Quinn yelled back.

"We don't have much time!"

"Okay!"

Marc, Mike and Mal stood by Laura by the front door. "They're taking forever."

"Yes, they are." Laura bit off.

Marcy ran downstairs. "I'm ready."

"What took you so long?" Mal didn't get it.

"Maddie."

Maddie ran downstairs. "I'm ready! Don't leave me!"

"Mercy! Quinn! Hurry up!" Laura shouted.

Xhi-Xhi and Gertie walked downstairs.

"Thank you!"

"Talent is never late, everyone else is simply early." Xhi-Xhi said.

"Grandmother, I'm trying to teach them to be considerate."

Gertie blinked. "Considerate?"

"Yes." Laura set her hands on her hips. "If you're not down here in sixty seconds, I'm leaving without you!"

Mercedes flew downstairs. "I'm ready, Laura!"

"Put on your things!"

Mercedes pouted as she did so.

Quinn finally came downstairs.

"What on Earth were you doing?" Laura snapped.

"Getting ready." Quinn lifted her nose.

"Put on your things and let's go."

Quinn sulked as she did so.

"We'll see you when we come home." Laura told Marc. "Are you sure you can handle everything on your own?"

"Yeah, yeah." He waved her away. "We're only getting two desks and cabinets for upstairs and two beds for downstairs along with dressers. We can handle this. You've got no faith in us."

"Because you forgot about bathroom stuff." Marcy monotoned.

Marc grimaced. "We'll remember."

"Uh huh..."

"We're counting on you." Laura ushered her female family out.

"We got this!" Marc swore. "You just go see Bernie and do your shoot!"

Laura protested but he shut her out.

"We got this, right?" Marc looked at Mike and Mal.

Both nodded. "Right!"

"Okay then! Let's hit it!"

ATU

Laura smiled for the camera. She shivered a bit because she was by a window even though the building was heated. She tried to not let it show.

Arthur Billings, the photographer, yelled for everyone to stop what they were doing. He had an idea.

Laura looked at him flatly as he backed away. She didn't want to wear this big floppy hat.

"No, no! Lose the hat!" He changed his mind. He ran his hand through his disheveled hair. "I want something big!"

"This dude is a bigger diva than Paul." Marcy snacked on a pretzel rod covered in veggie dip.

"He's eccentric." Mercedes agreed wholeheartedly.

"He's insane if he thinks that hat is a good idea." Quinn scoffed.