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Mibba

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Here, Darling.

This Is Becoming A Catastrophe.

Ava sat at the table; a ream of paper in front of her and a rainbow of coloured pains surrounded her as she painted a picture, tongue poking out of her mouth slightly and forehead wrinkling with concentration.

Alaska was busy in the living room, tidying around the house since Chris had gone back home for a while, his Dad had been in an accident and his mother needed all the support she could get. Alaska felt bad that she couldn’t be there for Chris like he had been there for her but she couldn’t just leave and take Ava out of school.

Ava had not stopped talking about Zack since he had stayed at their house the previous week, she was constantly asking when he was coming over again, and if he would like to play games with her and draw pictures deciding that the boy would know be her friend. Zack, being the nice guy he was had popped around occasionally for a little bit, gratefully taking some coffee off of Alaska as he helped Ava with some pictures of a jigsaw puzzle but this was all just fuel to the little girls fire.

Alaska felt sorry for the poor boy, not realising what he had got himself into, she was pretty sure that Ava had developed a little crush on him and the next time she would see him, if she would see him again, Ava would be glued to his side.

“Mama, I need more water” Ava called, jumping off her seat and heading to the sink, not exactly tall enough to turn the tap on and refill the dirty cup with new clean water for her to clean her brushes in.

“Okay, I’m coming” Alaska replied, climbing off the chair she was stood onto clean the windows in order to assist her daughter, pouring them each a glass of juice after handing her the clean water.

“What you painting Baby?” Alaska asked, taking a long sip before helping herself to one of the cookies they made, taking a nice neat bite and beheading the pour gingerbread man. Ava didn’t reply straight away, to busy concentrating on trying to perfect her sun before turning to her mother.

“A picture for Zack” she stated simply, placing the paintbrush down and declaring herself done. Her dark hair was tied back into two neat pony tails but that was the only thing neat about her. Ava’s face and overalls were speckled in paint, huge smudges all over her cheeks and forehead from when she had touched her face.

“Oh” Alaska mumbled, not sure on what to say or whether to laugh or not. It was simple to say that Zack had made a big impression on Ava. “Well I need to go look at some spaces for a shop, so are you ready to go?” Alaska asked, running a hand through her hair and over her clothes to make sure they were all straight and in place before offering her hand out to Ava.

“Yes, I don’t want to change. Can I take my picture to Zack?” She asked hopefully, smiling widely while playing the puppy eyes card on Alaska, something she couldn’t say no to. With a small sigh, Alaska nodded, she didn’t want the rest of the group to know about Ava yet but since Ava was so keen to see Zack it didn’t look like Alaska had a choice.

“Alright, but at least let me clean up your face” Alaska suggested, trying to lead Ava into the bathroom but she was having none of it. Grabbing her picture and letting go of her mother’s hand she ran down towards the front door pulling her coat and her little boots on before standing there, hands on her hips, waiting for her mother to do the same.

It wasn’t an ideal thing to take Ava with her while looking at possible places for Alaska to open up her shop, the thing she wanted to do and that would allow her to leave O’s for good. But she didn’t really have a choice, with Chris gone there was nowhere else she could go.

Max lived back home, along with her parents, but they didn’t know about Ava so it was impossible for them to do anything to help. Not that Alaska wanted to. She didn’t like how her parent’s had reacted to her leaving school, practically cutting her from the family and she didn’t want that for Ava.

It had always been Alaska’s dream to open up a bakery, something that was a home away from home. A place where in summer you could sit and relax and talk about the upcoming school year while chowing down on some cake and in winter where you could get wrapped up in a book enjoying a nice pastry and a cup of coffee.

It had been something she had been dreaming of since she was a little girl and had received her first play over, making pretend cakes and getting Max to eat them. And Alaska was adamant that this was going to happen, something that Ava could be proud of her mother for.

It took them about an hour pushing on two to look around all the spaces Alaska had found before finally finding one that had stole her heart. As soon as she walked in she could picture it all done up, the counter along one side of the wall connected to a large cabinets full of different types of pastry’s and cake’s in all different shapes, colours and sizes.

Booth’s along the opposite wall where groups of teenagers would sit and gossip with the friends, small tables surrounded by large over sized chairs and sofas that you just sink into and never want to leave. It all seemed so real.

Unfortunately, she still couldn’t afford it but she was closer to where she was before, only a small amount away from the complete sum which she was sure she could get covered in the upcoming month but that was if the place hadn’t been snapped up since then.

“Mama, we need to show Zack my picture” Ava dragged her mother away from her thoughts as she tugged onto the bottom of Alaska’s sleeve causing her mother to turn and look at her, nodding simply as she took her daughters hand and headed out of the building and towards her car.

“Shh” Alaska motioned, pulling her phone out of her bag and dialling a familiar number, waiting patiently until a voice answered on the other end of the line.

“Alaska?” Lucy questioned sounding half asleep, Alaska just chuckled, moving to place the phone to her other ear before answering.

“Hey Luce, is Zack there?” Alaska asked, trying to keep her voice as natural as possible. The confusion was evident in Lucy’s voice as she said she was going to try and find him, wondering why on earth her friend wanted to talk to her boring old brother.

“Hello?” Zack’s voice sounded down the phone, Ava’s smile instantly widening upon hearing the voice.

“Hey it’s me” Alaska replied awkwardly down the phone running a hand through her hair as she turned to look at her daughter before quickly averting her gaze out the window. “Are you busy at the moment?”

“No, why?” Zack almost instantly replied his warm voice echoing in Alaska’s ear.

“Ava has painted a picture for you and was wondering if she could drop it off at yours now. If it’s a bad time it is totally fine and we can just do this another time –“ Alaska began to ramble, unsure of why exactly she was so nervous: was it because she was talking to Zack or the fact that everyone was going to soon know that she was a mother.

“Adelaide” Zack immediately cut her off, an involuntary shiver going down her spine at the sound of her old name, no one called her that except for Zack and she didn’t know if she was going to be able to get used to not being called Alaska. “It’s fine, come by now if you like”

The drive over was silent, well on Alaska’s part. Ava was too busy rambling on about different things to not realise that the conversation was one sided. Alaska had deliberately took a longer route, giving her a chance to clear her head before going over. Preparing herself for a slightly crazy Ava.

“Is this his house, Mama?” Ava shouted clapping her hands together excitedly as she looked out the window as Alaska pulled up the drive, looking at her daughter through the interior mirror but not even getting a chance to answer as Ava was out of the car like a shot, running up the drive before banging excitedly on the door.

“Ava get back here!” Alaska shouted as she tried to chase after her, tripping as she tried to quickly get out of the car, her foot getting caught on the seat belt before she could finally free herself, quickly shooting her door and doing the same to Ava’s before running up the drive after her daughter. But it was too late. The door was already opened and a confused looking Alex stood there, a hand scratching his neck as he waited for Alaska.

“Did a little girl just run past me and into the house or am I losing my mind?” Alex questioned, not even getting an answer from Alaska as she rushed passed her and into the house, running from the living room and into the kitchen, eyes scanning widely for her daughter.

Finally she spotted her in the kitchen, hands wound tightly around Jack’s neck while he spun around quickly laughter spilling from Ava’s throat as Jack suddenly stopped.

“Hey look what I found” Jack beamed at Alaska, proudly showing her the Ava that was clutched in his arms, Alaska didn’t even laugh marching towards Ava and pulling her tightly from Jacks arms and placing on the floor.

“Don’t do that again, okay” Alaska said, crouching down to Ava’s level, eyes starring into her daughters as Ava simply nodded, sucking her bottom lip through her teeth, eyes widening when she realised that she had upset her mother.

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