Slumber Party [Maxine Baker]

|Twenty two|

"I can't believe you've grown so much, your all grown up now!" Georgia says as she smiles at Emilia before taking a sip out of her whine.
"oh please, you've changed a lot too, you got two kids!" Emilia said all excited as she sipped on her coke. Georgia smiled at the younger girl sitting in front of her. She had really missed that girl, when she got to know that her parents had sent her away, she couldn't really believe it. That wasn't the way she had remembered Emilia's parents, her mother was Georgia's very close friend, she didn't remember her like that.
"how's mom?" Georgia stops and gets serious for a second.
"I don't know, last time I talked to her was just a few days ago, but we didn't really talk about her wellbeing" Emilia started to stir her straw around in her glass.
"What did she want to talk about?" If anyone would ask her this she would hesitate to even give an answer, but with Georgia- her second mother, she feels completely safe answering the question.
"Well.. they want me to come home" Emilia sighs and continues to stir her straw in circles.
"She said that she misses me. But I don't really know what i want to do, if I even want to get back to LA. I have no idea what I'm gonna do" Georgia sight emphatically and touched Emilia's leg with her hand, making her look up at the older woman.
"I'm sure they miss a lot back home. And I would be mad too if I got sent away to a whole other state to live in a stranger's house, but I do think they regret it very much. And hey, didn't get you to meet your new bae?" Georgia smiles as Emilia chuckled at the last part.
"Never say 'bae' again" Emilia laughed as Georgia's smile got wider.
"But thanks, I do think you have a point. The thing is, when I came here all I wanted was to get back home, and now I just wish I got more time" Emilia said sadly, looking down at her hands.
Right then, Joe comes with the food in a paper bag.
"There we go, four hamburgers to-go" Joe says not knowing that he came right in the middle of their conversation. Emilia sniffles quickly, not realizing before that she had gotten teary. She gave a quick smile at Joe and took the bag.
"Thanks"
"I think I should head back, the others are waiting for me" she looks at Georgia with a kind smile and left the building.
Georgia turned to Joe who was still smiling after Emilia.
"She's a good person" he said as he returned his eyes back onto Georgia's.
"Yeah" she sighs as she breaks their eye contact and looks back at the door that had closed after her.

______________________

It's the sophomore sleepover at the school and the Baker family was sitting at the breakfast table. Without Ellen, she was standing up too mad to sit down. Ellen and Maxine was shouting loudly at each other as they were signing with their hands so that Clint would be in on the conversation. Emilia had just woken up and was getting out of her bedroom, she was wearing a pair of pyjama pants that looked to be one size too big and one of Maxine's long sleeve sweaters. She pulled at the sleeve as she brought it up to her face, it smelled like Max, a smell she had recently fallen in love with. Emilia yawned with the palm of her hand against her mouth as she bumped into Marcus,
"Hey" Marcus nods.
"Morning" she answers as they accompany each other down the stairs. As they come downstairs they were met by a screaming mess.
"Do you know what they're fighting about?" Emilia turns to Marcus who shuddered,
"I know just as little as you do" Marcus looks at me before he nods over to the kitchen and we go over to the kitchen island. He takes two bowls and two spoons before taking them to the table where the rest were. No one was screaming now, they were signing loudly with their hands back at each other. When nobody said anything Marcus just asked,
"What are you guys fighting about?" He says while he signs each word. Clint answers his question and Emilia nods her head understandingly.
"They're not letting me go to the sophomore sleepover tonight" Maxine complains to Emilia who raises a brow, she leans over to Marcus and whispers,
"Should I know what that is?" She asks him and he just shrugs and sits down at the table with his bowl of cereal. Emilia roles her eyes at Marcus' answer and raised a brow at Max.
"I don't know what that is" she says and chews on the inside of her cheek. Max sighed, clearly annoyed,
"It's the one night were us students gets to sleepover at the school, there's like a dance and a bunch of shit to do. But mom won't let me go!" Maxine says irritated but Emilia understood that the frustration was towards her mother and not her so she didn't take it hard.
"Have you asked her why?" Emilia asks her loudly, eyeing the table where Ellen sat with a raised brow and a frustrated look and Clint who had his brows scrunched together bot having a clue of what they were currently talking about.
Maxine looked into Emilia's eyes and took a slow heavy breath, as she calmed down she started smiling,
"Good morning Em" she just smiled at Emilia as she looked back at her with a wide eyed look. Confused by the out of nowhere change of mood.
"Sorry, I have already drank two cups of coffee" she says before Emilia chuckles and nods her head.
"That explains it" she says and kisses Maxine on the cheek before taking her own bowl and sitting down at the breakfast table. Marcus poured himself some milk into his bowl before giving it to Emilia who takes it.
"Thanks" she said as she poured the milk into the bowl. Emilia took a spoon full of cereal into her mouth before she looked up to see Clint. 'Good morning' she signed to him as he smiled widely, and signed back, 'good morning'. Emilia smiled back. 'Why can't Max go?' Marcus comes out of nowhere and signs, 'we don't trust her' he signs back but Max walks toward the table quickly. 'that's bullshit' she signs before they all get interrupted by the front door that swings open. Georgia walks into the kitchen with a mixed smile and a grin on her face. She held onto money in her hand as she walked right up to Ellen.
"I came to leave the money for the sophomore sleepover" she says with her accent. Ellen points to a metal box on the counter,
"You can just put it in there by yourself" she says and Georgia does so.
"Look mom, Ginny gets to go" Maxine yells at Ellen who sighs and then turns to Georgia who's standing right beside the kitchen counter.
"You're letting Ginny go?" Ellen asks Georgia who shrugged,
"Yeah, I mean. There's going to be chaperones and grownups there so I'm not that worried" she said before she looked around the room and her eyes fall onto Emilia who sat in the corner next to Marcus. Their eyes met and she smiled back at Georgia. Maxine looked intensely at her mother before she looked over at Clint and signed. 'What do you think? Should we let her go?' He just shrugged and signed back, 'you choose'.
"Fine, you can go" Ellen says before Maxine jumps.
"Yes! Thank you mom"