The soup actually tasted quite good that night. Heidi had no idea what her mother had done to it, but it certainly was much better than yesterday, same colour, same texture but the taste was without a doubt better.
The entire Seide family sat around their dinner table, all wearing similar knitted sweaters and old shirts.
Walter reluctantly ate his food. Wilma was busy trying to feed Gisella while Trudy tried to soothe the crying baby Manfred.
"I can hold him if you want, mama," Heidi offered after finishing her plate
Trudy smiled at her but slowly shook her head.
"I think it's best if I keep him." She told her, hushing the poor thing as he kept on crying.
Heidi straightened her posture, she was set on getting to hold him. Heidi Seide could turn stubborn when she put her mind to it. "He stopped crying last time I held him." She smiled at her mother, trying to look as sure of herself as possible. (She failed, but her mother either found her adorable, or pitied her)
Trudy sighed and looked down at Manfred before looking back up at Heidi.
"Fine." She said, standing up to give him to her. "But you have to be careful alright, you-"
"I have to hold him tightly and make sure he doesn't grab anything like a knife or a plate." The little girl finished. Trudy nodded with a slight smile.
Heidi held her hands out and her mother finally handed Manfred to her. Heidi smiled at him and almost immediately as his eyes met hers he smiled widely like babies seem to do for no apparent reason.
Wilma chuckled and put her hand on Her little sister's shoulder.
"Looks like you have talent." She said taking a glass of water. "Do you want to take over my babysitting chores?"
Heidi's eyes widened in horror and she shook her head frantically. Never in a million years. She was only seven for god's sake.
"Nein!" She exclaimed looking horrified.
Wilma almost choked on her water and slammed her glass back on the table.
"I'm kidding Heidi!" She laughed, looking down at Gisella. "You go have fun with the Ficsher boy, I take care of the babies." A slight tone of bitterness hid in her voice, but no one said anything about it.
Alfred raised an eyebrow, and his head peaked up from the newspaper.
"The Fischer boy, huh?" He questioned with a typical fatherly tone, frowning at Heidi with a slight grin that made the girl want to throw her face into a brick wall.
My poor human turned red and looked down at her feet.
"The boy who picked you up from the snow?" Trudy unfortunately got intrigued as well.
"Yes it's that one." Wilma said, smirking. She knew they had barely spoken to one another, but why not have a little fun. "Quite the little gentlemen if you ask me."
"I would have to agree." Trudy said, taking a slow sip of her soup.
Heidi looked up from the ground, her face having the colour of a tomato.
"I think he likes her." Wilma added. Heidi felt ashamed once more, she had barely talked to him. They weren't even friends.
"It's not like that." She whispered, looking at Manfred, it was better than facing any other member of the family. "I have barely talked to him."
"You should." Frieda started. "I mean I would have, but I guess you're too shy to do so aren't you?"
Her tone was so condescending, high pitch and annoying.
"Frieda." Wilma scolded, looking right into her eyes.
"Just saying, maybe if you didn't turn red every time someone you don't know looked you in the eye, maybe you would have a friend or two, like me." Frieda continued, she always said too much. Always.
Wilma sighed and looked down at Heidi with a sad smile basically saying: Don't listen to her
"I agree that Heidi should probably try to talk more to others like you do," Trudy started, not sure of what to do, Frieda always managed to upset Heidi. " But don't say it like that, Frieda." She whispered to her.
Heidi didn't hear the last part.
Frieda, Frieda, Frieda. It was always about her somehow.
She stood up quickly, gave Manfred to her mother and ran upstairs.
Manfred looked back up from his newspaper again, glancing over at his wife and Frieda.
Wilma sighed and stood up.
"I'll talk to her."
She couldn't believe her parents sometimes. Frieda was just six, she could forgive her, but for her parents not to say anything in Heidi's defense was stupid. It wasn't her fault she was shy.
Heidi sat in the corner behind her bed again wondering why she had been so stupid, maybe it was true that if she just tried she would have friends. If she had talked to Alex, he would have been her friend. He had even asked a few hours ago, and she just hadn't anything.
Wilma sat down on her bed without a noise, her blond curls falling out from her bun as always. She sat there in silence, waiting for Heidi to notice her presence. She didn't want to interrupt any thoughts.
Heidi eventually noticed her dark brown shoes and looked up at her.
"Why is Frieda always better than me?" She asked almost immediately, Wilma turned to her with an alarmed expression. Did she really think that?
"She's not," She said, sitting down next to her, having to sit compressed to the corner. "Oh, It's a little tight here." She chuckled, before the sadness on her sister's face brought her back into seriousness. What she had said. She put her arm around her and gently pulled Heidi closer.
"You're not Heidi." She said, simply. "Why would you think that?"
Heidi remained silent, Wilma already had a vague idea, it was obvious to her.
"Just because you're a bit shy-"
"And blind-" The girl added, Wilma looked down at her.
"You're not blind," Wilma quickly corrected, and after thinking for a hot second she got out of the corner and sat down right in front of Heidi. "Whatever you can or cannot see, you're still the Heidi I know. The Heidi I knew is absolutely amazing."
I had never agreed so much with Wilma.
"But not better than Frieda." Heidi muttered, looking down at the floor again.
"Not in everything, no, but in certain things you are." Wilma said with a smile. "She might be able to talk to people and be rude during dinner but you are a great painter."
"I am not!" Heidi protested
"You are" Wilma retorted. "And you're much better at holding Manfred then she is. Do you remember how he wailed last time she held him. It was crazy!"
Heidi giggled at the memory, it was actually quite funny.
"Yeah! He was practically begging mama to take him away from her!" She laughed and stood up.
"Why is he crying like this?! I don't understand!" She imitated Frieda with an exaggerated panicked expression. It did look similar to what the Frieda had looked like that day, I'll give Wilma that.
"She is a horrible babysitter," She then added, sitting back down again. "But let's not forget she isn't all that bad either, okay?"
Heidi nodded still laughing, sometimes just mocking someone you didn't like for two seconds wasn't that bad, right?
"She's good with people, she's a master manipulator." Wilma started. "Walter is a fierce fighter, you're a talented painter,"
She poked her sister's nose, and she turned red. She wasn't good at receiving compliments.
"I'm not-"
"Oh shut up, we all know you are!"
Heidi smiled, and turned away, going more red by the second.
"Gisella is a future little gardener, and Manfred...well, he's cute."
Heidi slowly nodded.
"And what about you?" She asked, poking her nose in a small revenge for making her go beetroot red.
"The babysitter obviously!" She chuckled, once more a bit of bitterness hid in her tone.
"No! The future nurse!" Heidi exclaimed, and after that a long silence emerged between them.
Wilma had always wanted to become a nurse but I think you can guess that was very unlikely to happen.
"I'm sorry." Heidi said after a while, she didn't really think before saying it.
"No no. Don't be, I could still become one." Wilma said.
Heidi nodded.
"You try to become a nurse and I promise to go talk to Alex." She said with a smile, stretching out her hand to her. "Deal?"
Wilma shook her hand.
"You become friends with him and I will try."
Wilma was always a bit sad when she saw Heidi sitting all alone in her corner, but she knew it was hard for her to socialise, but Alexander seemed to be really nice, especially to Heidi.