Carina loved her sleep, complaining in Italian as Maya gently tried to wake her wife. She'd already been awake for a while, having went for a run and showered before getting properly ready for the day. She brushed some hair out of her wife's face, peppering little kisses on her cheek.
"My love, I know you don't want to wake up but we have the meeting to get Fynleigh into school."
The Italian woman huffed softly and finally opened her eyes, forcing herself out of bed as much as she wanted to bury herself back under the covers.
"What kind of school only has early meetings available? Maybe we should just do home schooling." Carina yawned, joking as she grabbed some fresh clothes and padded toward the bathroom to shower and get ready for the day. Early mornings were for work or emergencies, neither of which were happening at present.
"We're too busy for that and you know it Car but we could probably teach her more useful things than the school curriculum." Maya mused, following her wife in the hopes of joining her in the shower.
"Ah ah bella, go and wake the bambina. People really shouldn't be awake at this hour." The brunette huffed softly, shaking a finger at her wife before she shut the door (much to Maya's dismay).
"It's ten am! It's not that early." The blonde called to her wife before she did as she was told and moved to wake up their teenager.
Maya knocked on the door softly, peeking her head in after a short moment of silence and chuckled quietly at the sight.
The teenager was so similar to her wife, cocooned in the duvet and her face buried into the pillow as she remained in a deep sleep.
"Honey, it's time to wake up." She murmured gently, softly rubbing her arm and was met with a whine of resistance from the red head.
A soft sigh escaped the blonde as she tried to figure out her next move, she'd never had a loving wake up call just water dumped over her. She swore she would never do anything like that to her own kids and hoped she'd be able to practice the gentle approach instead.
"Please? The meeting is at half nine and we really can't be late. We were lucky the principal could squeeze us in at such short notice." Maya the queen of the clipboard Bishop was dying inside as the stubborn teen still was yet to move - she hated being late.
The pleading tone of her foster mother caused the red head to reluctantly open her eyes, glancing up at Maya with a mix of confusion and visible fear as the blonde just smiled. She was shocked how patient the woman was, expecting something way worse than what she received. The experience she'd had with previous fosters had been very different - from physical violence to mental and having her blankets and other things taken away for her defiance.
"Thank you, is fruit okay for breakfast? No blueberries, I promise." The older female squeezed her shoulder gently before she stood up, a playful smile on her face as she joked about the small blue fruit. It had been incredibly obvious that she hadn't liked them previously or maybe more than that - Maya having her own issues with food and she was more than sympathetic.
Fynleigh just gave a small shrug, confused as to why she was asking her permission to do something. She'd usually just have to eat what was given to her if anything was given to her or starve. She seemed to take as a yes as the blonde still smiled, leaving her bedroom to go and prepare breakfast.
A short shower later as the teenager worried for upsetting her blonde foster mother, she was dressed in jeans and a very patterned, oversized sweatshirt - some might say obnoxious. She was greeted with a smile from both of her foster mothers as she shuffled into the kitchen with her sock clad feet, sitting down opposite them at the table. As a bowl of fruit was set down in front of her and a glass of apple juice, a small smile crossed her face as she noticed strawberries and watermelon - especially the lack of blueberries as promised despite their presence in the women's bowls.
"Thank you." She uttered quietly, still only beginning to eat after the couple had began. A comfortable silence settled over the table, the two women seeming to be overly smiley at the teen as her anxiety practically radiated off her in visible waves. The truth was she hadn't been to school for a little while, her last set of foster parents hadn't thought it mattered and would just kick her out of their house - as they desired, leaving her to her own devices on the street, no matter the time.
After breakfast was finished or Fynleigh had ate as much as she could, 3/4 but at least she was eating something and as Maya put the dishes in the sink she caught the time on her watch.
"Oh shoot, we need to get going to beat the traffic."
The sentence that sent the teen spiralling even further as she reluctantly pulled on her shoes, following Maya to her car and fighting to urge to run far, far away. It seemed stupid to still carry an attachment to to the worn down, once shiny white - now more of a muddy colour converse, scuffed and worn down over time but familiar. Many shoes sat in her wardrobe due to Carina's clear joy of shoe shopping during their previous shopping trip for the teen but they remained untouched, not feeling comfortable enough to engage with them.
It was always hard starting a new school but even harder when the year had already started and you are the new kid, again. As the teen walked down the hall with her fosters, so glad most kids seemed to be in class as they stopped outside the principals office. A soft knock on the door and an invitation to come in, Carina entered first with Maya following and the teen begrudgingly following behind.
"Ah! You must be the Deluca-Bishops! So lovely to meet you." The middle aged woman smiled, little bags under her eyes highlighted as she did. She introduced herself as Marie and invited the two to sit, beginning to go over a few personal details with the couple which Fynleigh easily tuned out of.
"You must be Fynleigh, is that Deluca-Bishop?" The principal stopped typing in the desired information, her eyes moving to look at the wives for an answer.
"Ah no, it's Sutton. This is a fostering arrangement at the moment." Carina tried to handle the matter delicately, watching their nervous teen out of the corner of her eye.
"Got it, such a wonderful thing to do. I'll just need those documents I referenced in the email and she'll be all enrolled."
As she was handed the required documents and she scanned them into the computer system, handing them back with a smile.
An akward silence settled in the room as the woman turned to Fynleigh with a kind smile, clearly not noticing how she'd zoned out entirely. She jumped slightly as Carina placed a hand on her knee and squeezed softly - summoning an apologetic smile to her face.
"As I was saying, I hope you'll be happy here Miss Sutton. We've been through all the boring bits, there'll be a standard online test to complete- just to gage your levels and where is best to place you to provide the most support. Feel free to do all that at home, I'll send the link over to Carina. I trust there'll be no cheating."
The red head just nodded and gave a forced smile in return, waiting till she could finally leave. With the meeting over and Carina's handbag now filled with a ton of papers that probably amounted to half the rainforest, they were able to leave.
"See that wasn't so bad eh, now how about some lunch?" Maya smiled as she draped her arm over the teens shoulder, receiving a shrug in response. She wanted to press so badly about how the kid was feeling, at least something in response but she restrained herself. Patience.
After a short lunch at a nearby cafe, the teen had managed to finish a kids sandwich meal and dessert as convinced by Carina. Apparently the chocolate cake looked so good and she didn't want to eat alone, making both of her loves join her in a chocolate coma. She was suprisingly content with the double espresso she'd received - sending her compliments to the barista and the two had began a longg conversation after discovering she was Italian (also conversing in Italian).
Maya and Fynleigh sent each other confused looks at what on earth the two were saying, the older woman pulling a playful face of boredom sending the teen into a quiet laugh. The woman behind the counter, apparently named Anna, had sent them home with her special recipe cookies - fresh out of the oven and specially for the teenager. She called her a bella ragazza, whatever that even meant (hopefully a compliment).
Fynleigh sat at the kitchen table, the borrowed laptop from Maya preloaded on the testing page silently threatening her. They would find out she was stupid, granted she'd missed out on a lot of school but she didn't let that stop her from beating on herself and she definitely thought of herself as rather stupid. So many random facts rattled around her brain which were so useless but at least she knew something.
"Remember to not pressure yourself bambina, it's just to get a sense of what you know and where you might need some support." Carina smiled warmly - totally relatable words from a woman, already super smart and medically certified! The teen fought the urge to scoff, knowing her foster mother was just trying to be encouraging and instead pulled a face at the bottle of nutritional milkshake that Carina set down for her. Oh goody!
The order Carina had put in after Arizona's recommendation had recently had arrived and the Italian was already firm with the one shake a day rule as Fynleigh's eating was improving but still disordered. With a soft squeeze of the girls shoulder of encouragement, she joined her wife on the sofa as to not hover around the girl as much as she wanted to.
Luckily, the test only consisted of two parts, maths and English as they were the only classes that were grouped based on ability but unluckily she found she sucked at both. Fyn squinted at the letters on the screen as they seemed to move and cross over, she was already failing at the first few questions. Great, so great.
She fought the frustration that bubbled inside her, fighting the urge to do something she'd regret to the computer and managed to complete the first section with great difficulty. The teenager was reluctant to move onto the maths section and find out how much more of a failure she was. Instead, she swung her legs from the dining chair she sat on and clicked the pen repetitively against the notebook she'd given.
Finally she reached the second section, under Carina's watchful eye as she watched from the sofa. It was either work through the worst subject in the world where she couldn't care less if x found y (they could be apart forever for all she cared) - or drink the dreaded shake. Maths seemed like the safer option although she didn't like either choice. Many questions and so many questions of her own later, like why the hell does Jamie need 29 oranges damn, loose the fruit - newsflash it's a bit weird, she was glad to be finished.
Her success was short lived as it was now apparently Maya's turn to remind her about the horrid drink that sat beside her still unopened, yayy two against one. The small red head pulled a face and reluctantly opened the bottle, taking the smallest sip possible with a visible cringe as the weirdly salty liquid hit her tongue. So gross.
Under Maya and Carina's encouraging smiles from where they remained on the sofa, not wanting to disrupt her as they were unaware she had finished - she found herself forcing a smile back and turning away from their line of sight to hide her grimaces as she drank the liquid as quickly as possible. With a fake thumbs up and ignoring the horrendous taste in her mouth, she cringed and placed the empty bottle far away from her and decided to use this time to satisfy her curiosity's.
Like with every foster parent, they always had open access to her file but she never knew as much about their lives in return. Maya was a firefighter and Carina was a baby doctor with an obsession with vaginas wasn't much to go off, instead of directly asking she found herself turning to the internet. Maybe they had some skeletons in the closet or something, at least this way she'd know!
The page was flooded with images of the blonde and who she presumed were Maya's fellow firefighters, scrolling through until she found a particularly amusing image of her blonde foster mother printed on the side of a cereal box. Apparently she used to be an Olympian and had won years ago, which impressed and confused her a little as to how she moved from that to firefighting.
Unfortunately, she didn't get a chance to search for her Italian foster mother as she heard footsteps and quickly shut the laptop with a nervous expression.
"Hey, everything okay in here? Car and I were wondering if you wanted to do something once you were finished. I used to hate tests at school to." Maya joined the teen in the kitchen, a kind smile on her face.
"Ah I'm all finished, sorry if I took too long. I'm uhm.. I'm kinda tired, would it be okay if I took a nap?" She eyed her blonde foster mother with slight worry in her eyes, worry about offending her or upsetting her for not wanting to spend time with them right now. In truth, her head was beginning to hurt after the frustration and stress from the tests she'd completed.
"No no not at all, no apology needed. You don't have to ask hun, of course you can. Can I get you anything?" The blonde reassured the young girl, saddened at her visibly panicked expression.
"Sorry.. is it okay if I can have some water please?" Fynleigh asked timidly, seeming to shift in her spot under the blondes gaze. Maya retreated to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, grabbing a small pack of cookies from the snack drawer and some painkillers just in case before returning to their teen.
The firefighter wasn't much of a snack lover, the snack drawer had been introduced as a result of Carina's cravings at a certain time of the month. On a Tuesday in the last month, the Italian had woken up with bad cramps and soon became grumpy at the lack of snacks in their apartment. Maya had drove to the nearest shop and bought all of her wife's favourite snacks, content to give her whatever she wanted - including endless amounts of love and cuddles.
The teenager was quite happy to leave to the bedroom and have some space to herself after this overwhelming day. As she pulled the duvet over her head and snuggled down into the darkness with her stuffed animals under her arm, she was soon out like a light.
"Where's the bambina?" Carina frowned, noticing her wife alone as the blonde dropped down onto the sofa beside her wife.
"She asked if it was okay if she went for a nap, god if I could just meet the people that messed her up Car." Maya sighed, sadness audible in her voice as she relaxed into her wife's open arms.
"I know bella but they can't hurt her now. Poor bambina, today has probably been overwhelming."
The Italian began to loosely play with the ends of Maya's hair, her wife acted tough but deep down she loved nothing more than cuddles with her wife and Carina playing with her hair. It soothed and calmed her in a way she wasn't sure she'd ever understand, clearly her wife had the magic touch.
A comfortable silence settled before Maya broke the silence,
"We should probably order Fyn some school supplies now that she's registered." Maya voiced her thoughts, a wry smile forming on her wife's lips in response.
"Did Maya Bishop just suggest to go shopping?" Carina smirked down at her wife.
"Oh shut up! She'll need it and I want her to have everything she deserves." Maya scoffed playfully, her cheeks a little blushed.
"You're turning soft amore mio." The Italian playfully cooed, smiling all the same and sat up as Maya went to grab her computer.
Maya retrieved the computer and sat down next to her wife, her eyebrow raised at the image on the screen.
"My love.. I think..." Maya struggled to get her words out for laughter. Carina turned to her wife with a similar expression, an eyebrow raised in confusion.
"Our sweet girl searched us online." Maya finished her sentence letting out a breathy laugh, turning to show the screen to her wife.
"Is that... is that you on... cereal?" Carina snorted, her hand covering her mouth in laughter.
"It was years ago! I won the Olympics y'know!... yes I was on a box of wheaties." Maya huffed playfully, lightly hitting her wife's arm.
"I don't know what would even come up.." Carina finally came down from her laughter, a smirk erupting on Maya's face as she checked the history.
"You didn't make the search, I think I interrupted her detective work."
Clearly the blonde's impromptu check in had freaked her out and she'd forgotten to close the tab.
"I can't compete with a.. wheaties.. box." The Italian was finding the printed image of her grinning wife hilarious.
"Carina! At least I look good, right?"
"Of course you do my love." Carina grinned, very content with her little familial life.