Growing up on Adelinda's Farm -on hold

Chapter 5

A/N cover by Intrinsic, Thank you!

                Adelinda watched Annalisa and Dai sitting on the floor discussing what they thought they should name the filly. The look on Anna’s face when she found out that she would get to help raise the filly as her own warmed Adelinda’s heart. Both kids were so excited about raising a foal that Adelinda didn’t have the heart to tell them that Dai’s mother was planning to move to a big city in a different state. Things had been hard on her being a single mom of a young boy, especially since she spent so many hours in the nearby city that she would be gone until it was almost her son’s bedtime. Adelinda talked to Dai’s mother and tried to convince her not to move. She knew that it would be devastating not only for Annalisa who would lose her best, and only, friend. But also for Dai who spent almost all his time on the farm. Dai’s mother gave in and agreed to wait a little longer, but told Adelinda that she would be moving within one year.  Adelinda was broken out of her thoughts when Annalisa ran up to her.

                “Aunt Adelinda, we know what we want to name the filly,” Annalisa told her smiling happily; “We want to call her May-Belle.”

                “May-Belle? That’s a beautiful name I think it’s fitting. Her mom is called Bella so it ties in with her mother’s name,” Adelinda told her niece. Why don’t you two go make a name plate for her so we can put it on the stall with her mom’s?” Adelinda suggested.  Anna got a big excited grin on her face as she ran off to her room, grabbing Dai’s hand on her way out of the room. Dai and Annalisa ran to her room and pulled out some drawing books and coloring supplies. They sat across from each other on the floor in front of her bed with a pile of crayons, colored pencils, markers, and pens between them. They each had a notepad in front of them and Dai decided they should make the nametag designing a contest. He challenged Annalisa to see who could come up with the best design. An hour later, Annalisa threw down the crayon she was using in frustration.

                “I can’t do it! My stuff keeps looking all bleh but ours keeps coming out all pretty!” she pouted, stomping her foot and crossing her arms. Dai looked up from his drawing and had to fight to hold in a laugh.

                “The only reason mine came out better Anna is because I learned cursive in school last year, all the third graders did. When you start first grade this ear you’ll learn how to write better,” Dai explained. Seeing that Annalisa was still upset that she couldn’t get her design to come out how she wanted, Dai came up with a way that they both win. “Hey Anna I know what we could do,” he told her, “How about you pick one of my drawings that you like the best and you do the coloring for it? You’re really good at coloring inside the lines, and I’m good at doing fancy bubble letters. This way we both can make the name plate for May-Belle.”

                “Ok, I like that idea!” Annalisa exclaimed as she looked at Dai’s three designs. Picking a swirly design that she liked the most, Annalisa pulled the paper to her side of the floor where she carefully began coloring in the letters. A few minutes later, Annalisa headed down to show the drawing to her Aunt with Dai right behind her. Adelinda told them that the design was very good and that they should go give it to Luke so that he could have the wooden nameplate made. Once Luke had the design, there wasn’t much left for the kids to do. Wanting to see how May-Belle and Bella were doing, the two kids hurried over to the stable and up to the stall that they were in. They looked in and saw the two of them sleeping and they quietly left the stable so the horses could rest. The children went out to the swing set and sat on the swings next to each other.

                “Hey Dai, what if no one at school likes me?” Annalisa asked after they swung silently for a while. 

                “Don’t worry Lis that will never happen. You are awesome and they would be crazy not to be friends with you,” Dai smiled at her. He honestly believed she would have no problems making friends, even though she had been through a lot and was forced to grow up fast, she was a really sweet girl and wanted to make everyone around her happy. Her smile was contagious, and she always went out of her way to care for anything living that needed it. Dai remembered how she saw the little baby bird at the base of a tree a few days before that was about to be eaten by a feral cat. She ran up, grabbed the cat around its middle, and passed it to me to hold while she pulled out a small cloth and picked up the baby bird. She carried the bird to her aunt then took the cat to the kitchen where she got it some food since it was obviously hungry. Anyone else would have either ignored it or just chased the cat away.

                “Dai? Your mother’s here sweetheart,” Adelinda said causing Dai to snap out of his thoughts. He looked around and realized that it had gotten dark out and he was sitting there alone. Adelinda looked at him as he stood to leave, “Are you ok sweetheart? Anna said you had been sitting zoned out for a while now. Is something wrong?”

                “Yea I’m ok auntie, I was just thinking about Anna and how she should have no problem making friends at school. She was worried about it,” he explained. Dai gave Adelinda a hug and walked out the porch where his mother was waiting.

The next few months passed quickly. Annalisa and Dai spent every day playing and helping to take care of Bella and May-Belle.  They were having so much fun they didn’t realize that the summer had begun coming to an end until Adelinda told them it was time to go get their school supplies. It didn’t take long to finish Dai’s shopping because he already had most of his stuff, but they had to start from scratch for Annalisa’s supplies. Since she was starting first grade she didn’t need too many supplies. She got a backpack, which made her feel all grown up, some notebooks, folders, pencils, crayons, and a pencil case. She also got a lunchbox to carry her lunch to school.

                Before she knew, it was Annalisa’s first day of school. She was rushing around getting ready because she wanted to make sure she looked good so everyone would like her. Because she was still a little nervous, Anna took a small faded blue bear out of its hiding spot inside the window of her bed and stuck it inside one of the inner pockets of her book bag.  Hearing her aunt call her down for breakfast, Annalisa quickly threw her bag onto her back and ran down the kitchen.

                “Morning Anna, are you ready for your first day of school?” Adelinda asked, “You aren’t nervous are you?”

                “Morning aunt Adie,” Annalisa said with a smile as she sat at the kitchen island where her breakfast was waiting, “I’m a little nervous but I’ll be ok, I have Betty with me.”

                “Who’s Betty?” Adelinda asked her confused; she had never heard Annalisa mention a Betty before.

                “Betty is my little teddy bear; I’ve had her since I was a baby. Mommy and daddy never took her because I kept her hidden all the time,” Annalisa explained.

                As soon as Anna’s breakfast was gone, they went out and drove to the end of the driveway where Dai was waiting. Dai had told her a few days before that he would be at the same bus stop as her. Apparently a few other kids who lived along their road all met at the end of Adelinda’s driveway to catch the bus. As they waited, three other kids joined Dai and Annalisa at the bus stop. Two boys that were Dai’s age he was friends with, and a little girl Annalisa’s age that was one of the boys’ little sister. Anna was about to ask Dai who his friends were when the bus cam rumbling down the road. They all piled onto the bus with Anna taking up the rear right behind Dai. She was unused to so many kids and didn’t know where she was supposed to sit, so Dai grabbed her hand and pulled her into a seat with him across from his friends. Anna gave Dai a small smile before gazing out the window for the rest of the bus ride.

                When they had arrived at the school, Dai walked her to her classroom and told her that he would meet her at the classroom door when it was time to leave. Taking a deep breath, Anna reached up and turned the doorknob. As soon as she entered the classroom, a little girl ran up to her and asked her to be friends. The teacher called them all to her seats and as she welcomed all the kids to the class and started going over what the year is going to be like, Annalisa thought to herself: This is going to be better than I thought.