Prologue:
Nalla as a new born.
Declan and Scarlette Petruva arrived at their house with their infant baby girl. They were exuberant with happiness and exhaustion. Declan couldn't stop looking at the two most important girls in his life with a tender smile gracing his lips. He held his baby girl in his arms and couldn't help the protective feeling that overcame him. He was terrified of that fact that this little life was in his hands.
He would raise this beautiful girl into a woman. She's probably going to grow up and be just as beautiful as her mother. Knowing his luck she would meet a boy that is just like him. No! Declan decided once his little Nalla started walking, he would put her in a plastic bubble and teach her that boys were bad. Maybe even send her away to become a nun.
He sat on the couch and just stared at Nalla. He thought about what would become of this little person he was holding. He knew she would be the most beautiful girl in the world. She had a head full of dark hair and an olive complexion that matched his own. That's where the similarities stopped for him though. The rest of her features belonged to Scar. Yep. He was screwed. His girl yawned and blinked a few times before looking up at him with stormy blue eyes that matched her mother's.
Her tiny hand wrapped around his pinkie finger and he melted. Declan knew this little girl just stole his heart. He was terrified of his ability to be a father, but damn it all to hell if anyone thought he wasn't going to protect her with his life.
He heard voices from the kitchen and knew that his extended family had arrived with their spouses and children. Scarlette led all of them into the living room and collapsed on the couch next to him.
Vincent and Tyler walked up to him and peered at Nalla. Tyler frowned and Vince looked upset. "I thought it was a boy." Vince's bottom lip trembled. His mother shrugged.
"I said maybe Vince." The pair of two year olds looked utterly pissed as they walked away. Next came Logan who toddled his way through to the bundle of blankets. Declan bent down lower so he could see. Logan hadn't started talking yet. His parents were going mad with getting him to say something. He gazed down her and Nalla looked right back up at him.
"This is Nalla, Logan." Scarlette smiled at the boy that had become close to her heart. Vince, Tyler and Logan were special to her, but Logan got most of her attention due to his parent's frustration towards him because of his muteness. Scarlette knew that Logan understood the world around him and that he would start speaking when he was ready. Logan looked at Scarlette before his gaze zeroed in on the girl.
Logan stared at her longer before opening his mouth.
"Nal-la." Spencer and Victoria Ash gasped at the sound of their young son's first word. Victoria knelt beside Logan and the baby.
"Who is this Logan?" Victoria asked him, referring to the infant girl. Logan grinned and repeated the name with more certainty. Sudden tears of relief sprang to her eyes and she hugged her son close.
Drake Petruva looked down at his granddaughter and smiled at his youngest son with pride. "You did good Dec. She's a precious one. I can tell she's going to do great things." Declan smiled at his father and then back down at his pride and joy.
Nalla started fussing and wiggling around. Logan was next to her in a second. "Oh no." He said and looked upset. His mother's jaw was on the floor and Scarlette grinned at the little boy's sudden talkativeness. She knew this boy was smarter than his parents gave him credit for.
A look of determination crossed over his face and he looked up at Declan. He held out his chubby arms. "Hold." He reached for the baby, and Declan immediately moved her away in a protective manner. Logan's lip started to tremble.
Scarlette picked up Logan and set him on the couch in between her and her husband. She gingerly took her fussy baby from Declan and set her in Logan's lap whilst supporting her. He instantly quieted and smiled at her. Nalla latched onto Logan's fingers and stopped crying. The infant eventually fell asleep.
Dominick videoed his niece and the encounters with his son and the Ash boys with his new video camera. He felt a burst of joy spread throughout his chest at the memory he just captured. Nalla's homecoming, Logan's first word, and Vince and Tyler's first tantrums.
After that day Logan Ash became the most talkative boy in the group.
Nalla at 7 years old.
"Daddy! Daddy!" I screamed running up to my father who was grilling burgers and my uncle who was tinkering with his video camera. My uncle pointed the lens at me and chuckled at the sight.
My clothes were wet and muddy. My curly hair was a tangled mess with knots and dried mud. My mother would be upset of she saw me, so that's why I'm running to my daddy.
"Nalla, why are you covered in mud?" Daddy sat in a lawn chair and placed me in his lap. I folded my dirty arms over my chest and huffed.
"I got in a fight with the boys." I said to him. Uncle Dom full out laughed this time.
"Why did you fight the boys Nalla?" He asked whilst zooming the camera in on me. He loved making family videos and capturing every moment he could. The camera seemed to be with him everywhere he went. I guess it was a habit with him being a movie director.
"Beacause!" I flapped my hands wildly. "Tyler and Vince won't let me play games with them cause I'm a girl, and Logan went with them cause he wanted to be with the older boys. Of course they left him out of the games like always, so he went and played with me in the tree house. Well Tyler and Vince started picking on him saying that I was his girlfriend and Logan got upset, so I decided to show them how tough a girl could be. Then Logan got mad cause I fought his big brother, and started to fight me too." I said it all in one breath. I caught my breath and then I pouted. "I don't like it when Lo-lo gets mad at me."
My daddy patted my matted curls and uncle Dom looked at me with a smile then his eyes widened. The smile was gone. "Nalla did those boys make you bleed?" He pointed to the red stain on my muddy shirt.
I shook my head at him and grinned. "No. That's Vince's blood. He pushed me in mud so I punched him in the nose."
"You know that's not nice minha princesinha." My dad scolded lightly while using my nickname. "My little princess" in Portuguese. I hopped off his lap and looked at him with wide eyes.
"Those meanies shouldn't pick on my Logan." I was protective of my best friend. His older brother and my cousin were best friends and seemed to leave him out of everything cause he was a year younger than them. He was a little over a year older than I was, but he was rarely mean to me. I loved my Lo-lo more than anyone.
Just as I said that the three boys slowly made their way to us. Vince had his shirt balled up and pressed to his bleeding nose, Tyler was limping, and Logan just looked upset. All three of them were muddier than I was.
"She put a hurtin' on y'all." My dad said grinning. "You should know better than to make a female mad. Especially a Petruva female. Take this for future reference boys." My uncle was shaking his head while getting good footage of the boys before setting his camera down.
"Come on boys; let's go check out the damage." Vince and Tyler glared at me as they walked away. Logan looked at the ground with a sad face. I stuck my tongue out at the older boys.
I sat down on my daddy's lap and he smiled down at me before tickling my sides. I giggled and wiggled around. "Nalla, you don't need to be mean to those boys. One day you'll need them more than anyone." I looked at his really big hand holding my dirty small one and nodded.
I heard the glass sliding door open and looked up as my mommy came out looking pretty...and mad. "Nalla Manuela Petruva! What did you do to yourself!?" She looked horrified by my appearance. I buried my face into daddy's chest which caused my father to chuckle. I felt happy when his laugh reached my ears.
"The boys and her had a bit of a misunderstanding, but it's all taken care of meu amor." I smiled when my mother picked me up and kissed my daddy.
She looked at me. "That's why the boys are beat up? I thought another boy did it." My father threw his head back and laughed.
"That's because our little girl is head and fist strong just like her mother." He said to her. She shook her head smiling.
"Let's go turn my dirty girl into a little lady." I pouted.
"I don't wanna look like a lady mama. I wanna wear play clothes an-" One terrifying look from her and I was shut up.
After my mommy scrubbed my dirty skin, she put me in my poofy black skirt with my blue, sparkly tank top. She tried to put shoes on me, but I kicked them off immediately. She dried my hair and tried to pull it up, but I shook it out. She decided to let me have my way and left to go cook with my Aunt Lyza and Logan's mommy, Toria. When I started talking Victoria was too hard to say.
Once she was out of sight I ran back outside and climbed up to the treehouse. Logan was already there. He wasn't muddy anymore.
I sat by him and was sad that he wouldn't look at me. He acted like I wasn't there when he was mad at me. I threw my small arms around him and leaned my head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry I hit Tyler and then pushed you into mud, Lo-lo." I looked up at him with wide eyes and bit my bottom lip when it started trembling. "Please talk to me."
I saw him glance at me then sigh. "It's okay. I'm sorry I yelled at you, Little Lion." He called me Little Lion since my curly hair reminded him of a lion's mane, and the girl lion in The Lion King's name is Nalla. Like me!
"It's okay." I smiled at my best friend. He put his arm around me.
"Wanna put gross things in Vince and Tyler's chocolate milk?" I asked grinning up at him. He grinned and nodded. We climbed from our tree house that Tyler and Vince weren't allowed in and took off running.
Nalla at 10 years old
I sat in the tree house and watched as the last of our guests left. I couldn't stand being in that house anymore. Everyone kept saying they were sorry, but it wouldn't bring him back. It wouldn't change that he wasn't here anymore. I closed my eyes tightly and took big gulps of air.
I was talking to some lady that Logan's daddy had brought here. She wasn't his mom, but he had his arm around her waist and kept "whispering" gross things in her ear. Umm...ew. Victoria hadn't come to the funeral.
The new lady was going on about how good of a person he was and all of the sudden the walls started closing in. I couldn't breathe. She had no right. She didn't know him. None of them did.
At least, not like I did.
I ended pushing her out of my way and took off running. I don't know how I got here, or where the pins in my hair and my shoes had gone, but now I was sitting in the tree house with my legs dangling out of the entrance. Mud was splattered on my feet, up my legs, and on the hem of my black dress. I hated this. My life was falling apart.
I heard someone climb up and sit next to me, but I didn't look at them. I couldn't tear my eyes away from the house.
"Why can't they just leave already?" I asked in a hoarse whisper. I glanced at him.
"Cause they don't wanna feel guilty for not showing up. It makes me sick. None of those fake people cared about him like we did."
It felt like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders from hearing those words. Someone understood how I felt. Before I knew it I had buried my face into his suit and started to sob.
"My daddy's gone." I sobbed harder and hiccupped. Logan rubbed my back and buried his face into my hair. "He won't be there to tuck me in, or lecture me about boys, or dance with me in those lame father daughter dances my mom makes us go to-" I stopped only to sob even harder. My shoulders were shaking and the tears weren't stopping.
"Logan it hurts so bad." My chest tightened and my stomach dropped down.
"I know Nalla, I know." He hugged me tighter.
Eventually my sobs quieted down to hiccups. Logan only held me tighter. We stayed like that until the sun was dropping low. "You're leaving me in a few days." He stated. I squeezed my eyes shut and tightened my grip on the hand that I was holding.
"I don't want to talk about it." I said quietly.
"Nalla, you're not moving down the street. You're moving to a whole new country. A new time zone. A trillion miles away from me. I can't act like it's no big deal. You're my other half. Who is gonna prank Vince and Tyler with me?" I smiled a little at that then shrugged.
"At least you're not the new kid. I don't know fluent Portuguese and I'm moving to a country that basically only speaks it. I don't know the people we're going to be living with and I'm scared. I'm going to miss you. It's always been Logan and Nalla. Soon it's going to be Vince, Logan, and Tyler. No more Nalla."
We sat in silence for a little while before Logan said something I didn't expect. "What's the point in a kiss?" His question caused me to wrinkle my nose.
"I don't know. It always seems important in the movies, and Vince and Tyler are always talking about kissing girls in the middle school." Logan shrugged and was silent again.
"Nalla?"
"Hmmm?"
"Wanna see what the big deal is about?"
"What?!"
I sat up abruptly and turned to him. "What do you mean?"
He looked at me and his cheeks flamed. "I mean do you wanna kiss me, so we know what the big deal is about?" He scratched the back of his neck and his dark eyes looked anywhere but me.
"Um...sure?" I awkwardly said and his eyes widened and looked at me. I shrugged and nodded.
He turned his body towards me and we just started at each other. Logan leaned in and I leaned back. "What are you doing?" I asked.
"Um...I was about to kiss you..." His eyebrows furrowed together in confusion.
"Oh...right..." I took a deep breath before looking up at him. "How do we know if we're doing it right?"
He shrugged. "The people in the movies just seem to go with it, so why not?" I nodded. "Okay, I have an idea." He said smiling. "On the count of three we both lean in and just do it. Okay?" I nodded again.
"One." He started to lean into me. I took a deep breath.
"Two." I said quietly.
"Three." We leant in and I closed my eyes shut tightly when our lips pressed together. We stayed like for a second before pulling back quickly. Logan's eyebrows were still furrowed together like he was concentrating on something. I turned my head away from him so he wouldn't see my bright red face. We glanced at each other before subtly wiping our mouths of with the backs of our hands.
It wasn't horrible. It was just weird.
Next thing I knew we were both in hysterics. I couldn't stop giggling and he had his head buried in his hands laughing. I didn't know what was funny, but it felt nice to laugh.
"It's nice to see you smile again." He said looking at me with a sweet smile on his face. "It's been a while since I've seen it."
I once again threw myself into his arms and just let him hug me. Other than my dad, Logan gave the best hugs. I took advantage of this moment and processed every detail about it.
It would be a long time before I felt it again.