Moana My head was still reeling from Edrick’s sudden change of heart and change of attitude when one of the children, Clara, suddenly spoke up. “Moana…” she whined, “can we have ice cream? Pleeease? It’s so hot out!” The little girl’s request tore me away from my thoughts, and I nodded in agreement as all of the other children began to join in and beg for a frozen treat. It was hot out today, and the mention of something cold and refreshing to eat got me a little excited as well. “Okay,” I said. “Let’s have some ice cream.” The children cheered excitedly as they followed me to the kitchen. Edrick followed at the back of the group, but only because Ella grabbed his hand and yanked him along unceremoniously. When I got to the kitchen and opened the freezer, however, I was disappointed to see that there was no ice cream or any sort of frozen treat. “Sorry, guys,” I said with a sigh, turning to face the disappointed children. “Looks like there isn’t any.” The children all began to po
MoanaSophia didn’t ask about Edrick again after that. I knew that she could tell that something more was going on than I was leading her to believe, but she didn’t pry any further and just enjoyed the remainder of the walk with me. We talked a bit about her plans with the foundation a bit as well as her need for a secretary to help her out; up ahead, as we talked about the secretary, I swore I could see Edrick glancing over his shoulder at us as though he was listening intently.Finally, we made it to the ice cream parlor. It was a cute little mom and pop shop on a small strip of quaint little stores, and when we went inside it was like stepping back in time. There was a long counter with stools to sit at and there was a nice older man working behind the counter wearing a red and white striped uniform.“Well, hello there!” the old man said cheerfully as we entered. “So many little ones!”Sophia and I smiled and helped the children sit at the counter. Once they were all seated, we sto
Moana The children quickly forgot about the emotional moment between Edrick and I by the time they finished their ice cream, and we left the ice cream parlor to make our way back to the orphanage. By the time we made it back to the orphanage, the sun was already beginning to set. Ella would have her werewolf training in the morning, so we needed to get home in time for dinner and bedtime. As Ella said her goodbyes to her friends in the foyer, Edrick and I stood patiently by the door. Finally, when Ella had hugged all of her new friends as though she would never see them again, I gave Sophia my last goodbye and we began to head out. “Wait! Moana! Mr. Morgan!” Clara’s little voice called out, causing us to stop in our tracks. “I have a question!” “What is it, Clara?” I asked, feeling a smirk spread across my face at the little girl’s urgent demeanor. “Um… Well, actually…” She turned to face her friends. They all whispered for a moment before Joshua reached out and spun Clara back
EdrickI was passing by Ella’s room when I overheard Moana and Ella talking, and my heart sank a little when I heard Ella’s question.“Um… Do you think that you and my daddy really will get married one day?” she asked, no doubt because of the children at the orphanage thinking that Moana and I were engaged.There was a long pause; I almost considered going in there and talking to Ella myself as I wasn’t quite sure how well Moana would handle it, especially after how upset she’d been that morning, but it turned out that I didn’t need to.“Sometimes things just don’t work out that way,” Moana finally replied. Her voice was soft and gentle.“Well… Why not?” Ella asked. “In all of my fairytales and princess movies, the boy and the girl always fall in love and get married and live happily ever after.”Another pause.“Real life just isn’t always like your fairytales or princess movies,” Moana said after several long moments. “But that’s okay. I promise that we’ll all still have our happily
MoanaA few days passed after that. I had a hard time getting over what Edrick said to me in my room that night: that he couldn’t stop thinking about me. Was that true? Why, then, did he try to sleep with another woman? If he really couldn’t stop thinking about me in the same way that I couldn’t stop thinking about him, why couldn’t we just admit our feelings to one another and be done with it? Even if we couldn’t be public with our relationship, part of me still wanted to see if we could make it work in a private setting.Eventually, the day of the banquet came. While there was still a large part of me that just wanted to make an excuse to not go and hide in the penthouse instead, I knew that I had to be there for Ella.On the morning of the banquet, I came out of my room to find that Selina had already prepared a large breakfast for Ella and me. Ella was already sitting at the table, happily shoveling pancakes into her mouth, while Selina poured my coffee for me.“Wow,” I said as I
Edrick“There’s my favorite girls,” I said with a smile.I didn’t even think about it before I said it, but I knew as soon as it came out of my mouth that I’d made a mistake. Ella didn’t seem to notice, but Moana sure did. Her green eyes, which looked even more beautiful with the small amount of gold eyeshadow around them, widened.“Ha,” I said, feigning surprise at myself in the feeble hope that I could get away without Moana dwelling on this too much, “slip of the tongue. Are you two ready?”…When we arrived at the banquet, the party had already begun. The end of summer banquet was a long-standing Morgan family tradition. The banquet that I had taken Moana and Ella to earlier that summer was solely for more immediate family and close friends, but this banquet was different. Each summer, practically every single member of the entire Morgan clan, from immediate family to cousins several times removed and all of their own friends and extended families through marriage would come from
MoanaAs I watched Edrick and Kelly walk away together, I couldn’t help but feel a little jealous. Not only that, but she was wearing the exact same dress as I was! Even Verona did a double take when she saw Kelly walk up to us.When they were gone, Verona quickly came over to me and took my hand.“Don’t worry about it, dear,” she said gently, giving my hand a squeeze. “Kelly… Well, she's not a bad girl, really, but she’s always had a bit of an infatuation with Edrick. She’ll get bored eventually and stop pestering you.”“It’s alright,” I replied with a smile, even though I couldn’t help but feel bad. “It’s just a dress.”Verona gave me a sad look. I felt as though I would cry and ruin my makeup if I kept standing here, so I quickly excused myself under the guise of performing my job duties as a nanny and went to look for Ella. After several minutes of walking around and weaving my way through the growing crowd, I finally spotted Ella over by the snack bar with her friends. As childre
MoanaI was so utterly, unbelievably stunned by Michael’s cruel ‘proposition’ and his rough mannerisms during our dance that I was frozen to my spot. Even as he walked away and disappeared into the crowd, I still felt as though my heart would beat straight out of my chest. I could already feel the vomit bubbling up in my throat from the fear, which was the only thing that got me moving.I quickly ran to the bathroom, which was thankfully empty. Tears welled up in my eyes as I burst into one of the stalls and doubled over.Nothing came up, thankfully. I gagged a bit, but that was it, so I took a deep breath and walked over to the sink to splash some cold water on my neck and try to calm down.Surely, Michael’s threat meant nothing. Edrick would certainly handle this; I didn’t need to worry. I would tell him after the banquet so as not to ruin his fun, and for now I would just try to have some fun of my own and not think about what Michael said. I just needed some fresh air, and then ev