OKIES. NEW STORY. THIS ONE ISN'T A CROSSOVER (THANK GOD)!

“Susannah, can I speak to you for a moment?” Jesse asked.

“Sure.” I replied, placing a sleeping Marta in her cot. I walked over to him.

“Querida.” He said. “Marta is turning 3 in a month, and we really don't have space in this small apartment for a growing toddler. And we have a baby on the way, so I think it's time we moved, into a house.”

“Ok.” I said.

“The thing is Susannah, I've been offered a job. In New York.”

My mind went crazy for a moment. I thought YAY NEW YORK! I can go back! I can see Gina! Then I thought about mom and Cee Cee and Adam and Father D. Then I made a decision.

“Ok.”

“Really?”

“Yes.” I smiled. “We can move there. You know how much I miss New York!” I said, hugging him.

“That's great querida. Is Marta sleeping?” I nodded. “We'll tell her in the morning.” Then he kissed me on the forehead and went to make some calls. Ok, so you may be wondering WHAT IS GOING ON?? Ok, so here's the 411.

I'm 25.

I'm married to Jesse.

We live in an apartment in Carmel (for now).

We have an (almost) 3 year old daughter.

Her name is Marta Josefina de Silva (for obvious reasons).

I am 3 months pregnant with our second child.

And we are moving BACK to New York.

We moved in together when I was 20.

We got married when I was 21.

We had Marta when I was 22.

That enough info for you?

I walked into Marta's room. Jesse was right. We needed the space, and with his pay check we could definitely buy a house. Marta's room was baby pink, with ducks on the walls.

“Mamá?” I heard a small voice say. I turned around to see Marta hanging onto the bars in her cot, staring at me, and yes, she called me mom in Spanish. Her emerald green eyes staring inquisitively at me. I walked over to her cot and pulled her out. I put her on my hip, with a little difficulty, and shushed her, and she fell asleep quickly. I placed her back in her cot and brushed her dark curls from her eyes. I kissed her on the forehead.

“Goodnight ángel.” I said, tucking the blankets around her. I felt strong arms around my waist.

“Querida.” Jesse said, kissing me. You may be thinking, 22 was WAY to young to be a mom. But hey, I'm 25 now and coping fine. AND expecting another baby. She is amazing Marta. A perfect image of what I thought she'd be. “You are tired Susannah. Let's go to bed.” And Jesse dragged me away into our room, where I fell asleep quickly.

I woke up with a start to the sound of crying. Well more like shrieking. You could tell Marta was my daughter, I mean, look at her temper.

“I'll get her.” Jesse said, getting out of bed. “Good morning querida.” He kissed me on the forehead. I smiled and laid back on my bed. After Jesse had left the room, I clambered out of my bed and threw on some clothes. A blue flowy dress and flip flops. I strolled out of my room and a 2 year old (almost) clung to my leg.

“Good morning mamá.” Said Marta, clinging to my leg. I grabbed her off my leg and put her on my hip and tickled her. She giggled furiously. Then Jesse grabbed her and went crazy with the tickling. She was laughing her pretty little head off. I walked into the kitchen to make coffee. While the water was boiling I stepped back into the living room to see Jesse spinning around the room with Marta.

“Papá!” She screamed. “Papá I feel SICK!” And he put her down hastily and stepped back a bit. I smiled at them.

“How does breakfast and Grandma and Grandpa Andy's sound?” I asked them both.

“Yay!” Marta screamed, running to me.

“Ok.” He said. “But I have to work at 10.”

“It's 8:30.”
“Then we should have plenty of time.” He said, kissing me.

“Yuck!” Marta exclaimed running to her room. We laughed.

“I guess I'll go get her dressed.” I said to Jesse. He smiled.

“So shall we tell everyone at breakfast?” He asked. I nodded. “I'll bring the car around.” Then he grabbed his car keys and jacket and walked out of the door. I walked into Marta's room. She had already attempted to dress herself. She put on her favourite sapphire blue summer dress with emerald green flowers embroidered on it and green sandals. Except her dress was inside out and on the wrong way round. Her sandals were on the wrong feet and she had threaded a shoelace through them both to keep them on. I smiled to myself.

“Is this right mamá?” She asked. I smiled.

“You just need to neaten things up a little.” I said, putting her dress on the right way and fixing her sandals. Just as I had finished adjusting her outfit, the phone rang. “One minute ángel.” I said, walking into the living room and grabbing it off the hook.

“Hello?”

“Suze?”

“Gina?”

“Suze, I have major news.”

“Me too.”

“You go first.” I didn't know how to tell her, so I plain out said it.

“We're moving.” Silence. “To New York.” I heard her scream.

“WOW! Oh wow. Suze. We can be NEIGHBOURS! Well maybe not neighbours, but anyway...” I heard a honking from outside. I looked out the window, Jesse was sitting in the car, looking up at me through the window, tapping on his watch. I looked at the clock. 8:50. Wow, I sure do take my time.

“Sorry Gina, I gotta go. Love ya. Bye!”

“Bye.” I hung up the phone and went into Marta's room to get her. She was sitting on the floor, playing with her toy horses. I scooped her up and brought her down the apartment stairs and straight into the car. I buckled Marta into her car seat and jumped in the front with Jesse.

“You take your time.” He said, backing his car out of the parking lot.

“Jesse I think we should tell Marta about M-O-V-I-N-G before we tell everyone else.” I spelled out the word so that she didn't know what I was talking about. Jesse nodded.

“Marta.” I said. She looked up. “You know how your birthday is in a month?” She nodded. “Well, you're getting to be a big girl now. So we were thinking of moving.” She got excited.

“To a house.” Jesse said. “In New York.” She looked confused.

“Papá, where is Nue Yok?” She asked. He smiled. “New York, it's where your Aunt Gina lives.”

“You remember Aunt Gina right?” I asked her. She shook her head.

“Will I get a bigger room?” She asked. I nodded. “Ok.” She said, smiling. We pulled up to the boarding house. I saw two small children running around. They were Jake and his wife, Gabriella's. A girl, Summer, aged 3 and a boy Keith, aged 5. Once I had freed Marta from her car seat, she ran straight to them and they ran inside the house. Jake, me and our families were the only ones who came to breakfast that day. All of us sat at the table while Andy cooked up breakfast. Mom wasn't too happy about me being a mom at 22, but it wasn't too young. I mean, I could have been 16, or younger. That would be bad. And she already knew about me being pregnant again. The kids had run away up the stairs. Once Andy had put the food down, Gabriella went upstairs to round up the kids. When they came down, I saw that Marta was wearing MY motorcycle jacket! Everyone laughed when she came and sat down at the table wearing it. It was probably because you couldn't see her head over the table top, so Jesse sat her on his lap.

“Where did you find that?” I asked her.

“In the pinky room with the windowy seat. I found it in the closeeit.” She replied, it was so cute, the way she spoke. Jesse grabbed a plate for her and cut up everything to tiny pieces and she picked it up and ate it with her fingers. She really was cute.

“So, mom.” I started. “You know how there's a new baby on the way, and Marta's growing up and everything, so uh, Jesse, Marta and I are moving.”

“To Nue Yok!” Marta piped up. My mom dropped her fork, because she knew what Marta was saying.

“New York?”

“Mom, Jesse's been offered a job over there, and you know how much I miss it. We can see eachother and call all the time.” She nodded.

“If that's what you guys want, Susie.”

“Thanks mom.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS ONE?