When Hate Turns to Love

Ch. 1

Nini Salazar-Roberts sighed in relief when she finally saw the child support check in her stack of mail. It isn't much, but every little bit helps. She's in between checks right now and Connor needed new shoes while Charlotte needed some new shirts. Nini let out a heavy sigh. She was so tired, and was basically at her breaking point. She works at her friend, Ashlyn's bakery three times a week and gives private music lessons at the local music shop when she has time. She's also in school, so to say her life is hectic was an understatement. She has a passion for music and is hoping to graduate with a degree in music and a concentration in songwriting.

Nini, however, was also the mother of two very adorable five year old twins. She glanced at the clock in the bakery and gasped. She was late picking them up from school, and she had a shift at the music store in an hour. Normally, when she works the evening shift at the music store, her friend Gina watches the kids, but all of Nini's friends chose tonight to be busy, leaving her with no choice but to bring them along. Lord knows what kind of damage they could do to the instruments.

She grabbed her keys and ran out of the bakery. Great, now she's forgetting her kids. Her moms were always willing to help out, but Nini is the type of person that hates relying on other people. It was her fault for marrying that dumbass at nineteen and her fault for getting pregnant a year later; not that she doesn't love her kids.

After picking the kids up from school, she drove to the music store and parked what felt like forty miles away, finally making the trek to the store.

"Something's going on..." she muttered to herself. The shopping center that the music store was in got crowded from time to time, but never like this. When she got closer to the store, she was shocked to see a line of people wrapped around the building and a crowd inside.

"What the..." she whispered.

She tried to get through the door but was stopped by a man who could be mistaken for a tank.

"Wait your turn, Miss." he growled.

"My what?! I work here. Let me through!" She yelled at him. Needless to say, it had already been a long day and she didn't have the energy to deal with all this nonsense.

"Nice try. You'll have to wait in the line with the others."

"Yeah!" She heard some teenage girl yell from behind her. Nini could tell the twins were getting nervous at the confrontation she was having and took a deep breath. "Look, sir. My name is Nini Salazar-Roberts, these are my kids, I'm a music teacher here, and I've had a really long day so please just let me through." She said, rifling through her purse to grab her ID. The tank man didn't care though and just kept shooing her away. "Back of the line, lady."

Nini felt like she wanted to scream.

"You're Nini Roberts?" A red head asked, walking up to the front of the store. "You teach piano lessons and songwriting here?"

"Yes!" She said, desperate for someone to believe her.

The man beamed and pulled on Nini's arm, dragging her and the kids into the store but Nini couldn't figure out why he seemed so happy.

"And you are?" She prompted, still feeling slightly annoyed.

This only made the man smile wider. "I'm Big Red. Come on, I'll get you in." He said, continuing to drag the family through the massive crowd.

"What's going on here, Red? Mr. David never mentioned any events happening here..." she asked. She couldn't help but like the guy with the strange name she was talking to.

"You don't know?"

Nini rolled her eyes. She wouldn't have asked if she knew.

"No, Red. I don't." Nini was so caught up in trying to figure out what was happening that she didn't realize the kids had let go of her hands and wandered off.