Chapter 11 : Disobedience

Captain’s Log,

Maria absolutely loves the guitar that Ruby gave to her. She seems practically glued to it. Whenever she is not eating, sleeping, or doing school things, she pulls out her guitar and plays on it. She really loves how it seems to gather people around her and brings them joy.

Hilda, however, was still addicted to exercising in front of the tv. She seemed to be even more excited about it because she said that before, when she was a child, she wasn’t able to gain any body points, but now that she is a teen she can. This was very important to her, so I’m just happy that she can do what makes her happy, but I’m still really angry at her for the previous night.

Now that four of us are leaving at the same time everyday, the doorway can get really crowded if we all try to leave at the exact same time. We almost are late for work and school because everyone just kept waiting for someone else to go first.

Ruby hasn’t talked to anyone from her family since the day we got married. I almost feel bad about that because I know what it feels like to be completely separated from your family. Well now that she has a bunch of children she decided to call up her parents and talk to them a little. I’m not sure why she didn’t decide to do this before, but she was really happy for the rest of the day, so I guess I’m glad that she did. Although I think maybe she was trying to escape the same way I do by never being home.

After work I took my now daily trip to the library. I have almost mastered the skill of gardening and I know that I’m going to need to do that before I can gain the last promotion or two that I need to get to my goal in this job.

After school Leila was told to go to the science lab to do some research. I was a little leery of letting her go after what Hilda did, but since she asked me first and it was at my work, I agreed that she could go. After all, it wasn’t like she was going to work, just to do some research for one of her classes.

Hilda, however, has decided to continue to defy me. Even though I had grounded her, she decided to go off and visit that strange boy that Ruby had met before and disapproved of. She didn’t even let us know where she was until she got home. She seems to think that now that she is a teen she should be able to do anything that she wants.

When she finally came home we put her to doing some useless work. She wasn’t happy about it, but I think we may have finally gotten through to her that we are really the ones in charge still and as long as she lives under our roof, she needs to live by our rules.

Nelly called me before she left school asking if she could go to some girl’s house. I told her it was ok as long as she made sure to either come home early, or do her homework there. She was ok with my conditions and went to her friends house. While there, she met her friend’s brother. She thought at first that he seemed like a strange boy and she only barely talked to him.

However, he seemed to take matters in his own hands. He followed Nelly wherever she went he was sure to follow and try to talk to her. I think that he was instantly smitten. It might have been really cute and sweet if it wasn’t my daughter that was involved.

The only peace she got was when she was able to sneak outside and play on their swing set. She really enjoyed the fresh air and the time away from the boy, but soon enough she went back in to hang out with her friend.

Soon enough though she knew it was time for her to either head on home, or work on her homework at her friend’s place. This was her first experience with homework and I wish she had done it at home because she had a really hard time with it. She made it back home just before hew curfew because she struggled with it so much.

The next morning Nelly headed straight towards our new easel. Her first painting showed that she wasn’t naturally talented at it, but she still really wanted to learn how to paint and develop her skill further.

Even though Maria was my only daughter go home after school yesterday, she was also the only one to not finish her homework last night and had to quickly finish up a few problems this morning before the bus came. This is really unusual because Maria isn’t the smartest of my girls, but she’s never struggled with her homework before.

Hilda may not openly defy Ruby and me anymore, but she has decided to show that we aren’t the complete bosses of her. With the muffins that Nelly made a few days ago in the fridge, we told the girls that they needed to start eating healthier, even if it was only for breakfast, but Hilda decided to grab a piece of cake instead. She ate it with a smug smile turned towards me, as if she was daring me to do anything about it.

With her fifth pregnancy, Ruby is getting more and more tired recently. She only has one baby to look after, but even that and the garden seem to almost be too much for her. She’s been spending most of her free time sitting around and either watching tv or reading a book. However, she acted the exact same with her last pregnancy and I know for a fact that her first ones weren’t nearly this bad. It could be that every pregnancy you have just gets harder on the body, but I’m starting to think that she’s just using the pregnancy as an excuse to get whatever she wants. Maybe that was her real reason for wanting five children, so that we would wait on her hand and foot.

Since Hilda was grounded, and actually following it this time, she invited a friend home after school rather than visiting one. They didn’t actually know each other very well, but after her toddler years, Hilda seems to be trying to make friends with everyone that she knows. I really would not have guessed that of her.

After Hilda greeted her soon-to-be friend, she immediately took her out back to toss the baseball around. I had thought of taking that away from Hilda as punishment before, but she just absolutely loves that thing. I guess a part of me still loves my daughters and doesn’t want them to get hurt, especially by me.

Nelly stayed home this time and got some help from Maria as they did their homework together, but she still really struggled with it. If she had gone to Hilda or Leila for help she would have done much better because those two are just so much better at it. It wasn’t helpful that every time Nelly tried asking for help on a problem, Maria would start to talk about her guitar and music and try to convince Nelly that music was the way to go in life. Nelly was really good at the xylophone and would probably do well on the guitar, once she is old enough to play, but music just isn’t her passion like it is Maria’s.

That evening I made my rare appearance for the family as we gathered around the cake for Darryl’s birthday. The girls were very enthusiastic and cheered loudly, but I just stared. She was too young to know what was going on, I’m not sure why we made such a big fuss over something that won’t really be remembered. But my voice was drowned out by the females in the family so celebrate we did.

When Darryl grew up, I still did not care too much. She was a toddler, I had seen four before her that looked almost exactly the same. The only differences between them is how they decided to change their look to after their make-over.

I don’t even understand why Darryl chose what she did. She was very excited about the whole process and kept grinning from ear to ear as she grabbed the clothes that fit her personality. She wanted to wear pants and immediately went outside to play. I had never seen any of our other girls do that even though Hilda claimed she was more at home outside then in. However, Darryl chose to explore the outdoors as much as she could, giggling in glee every time she found something new.

She may be a little different, but the whole process of raising children has grown weary and they all seem to blur together and look alike. I no longer even want to help raise Darryl. When Nelly was a toddler I wanted, if only for a short time, to help her learn how to walk, but with Darryl I just want her to grow up, preferably well, so that she can get out of our way and take care of herself.