I wish I could sleep until late afternoon on a Sunday.

I wish.

However Granny, as a devout Catholic, took the chance to drag all three of us 'unbelievers' to Church early morning. Personally, I don't think someone who wears a cross and thinks about God once in a while is an unbeliever... but that may be just me.

So that's where I was. Wearing a white gown that would reach just past my knees, sitting on a bench and listening to the speech the priest gave while two heads were nodding away on my two sides. Clary and Carly tried to not come to Church, giving me some amusement on an otherwise bleak morning. Once Granny decided something, not even Granny would change it easily. That's the kind of person she was. Since the twins only had short outfits that would cover the bare minimum, they were given two of Granny's five white dresses... and two long chains with a silver cross big enough to see from quite a distance.

The sight of my 'trendy' cousins in that bland dress sporting identical scowls was just too hilarious.

I stifled another bout of laughter into a cough as my mind conjured up the image. Carly and Clary frowned in their sleep slightly before their faces became peaceful again. Seeing other people looking weirdly at the two sleepy heads, I let out a silent sigh and pulled both their heads on to my shoulders. They promptly adjusted themselves and smiled in their sleep. Their breaths were slightly ticklish on my neck, so I had to force myself from squirming at first. But soon, I adjusted to it and was counting the number of white hairs on a woman's head three seats in front of us. I had reached twenty-four when a slight tug on my dress made me look down.

"Hello, Miss", the little girl whispered not-so-silently, "are these your children?", she asked pointing to the twins who were still sleeping.

"I suppose..", I smirked thinking about what the twins would have done if they heard this conversation.

"Weally?!", the little girl gasped, "but you look so young!"

"Oh." was my intelligent reply.

The little girl smiled a toothy grin, "I have two baby bwothers. They're also sleeping, leaning on my mother. That's why I realized you were their mother.. otherwise, you all look like ..." she frowned and finally took notice of how different the twins looked from me, with blonde hair and tanned complexions as opposed to my ebony hair and pale skin. 

"..like cousins?", she tilted her head, making her brown curls bounce around her face. She was confused by her own guess, although she couldn't have been more right. But she didn't know that! The confusion in her brilliant turquoise eyes was just so cute that I almost wanted to clear the air.

But, where's the fun in that?

"That's because they're adopted", I whispered with a solemn expression.

The turquoise eyes flashed with understanding, and an adorable smile swept over the girl's features.

 "I knew it! So I was right!", she giggled. That was the moment the priest decided to end the preach. The little girl must have been a regular, because she caught on to the prayers immediately and was reciting them as loud as the next Catholic, while I sat there awkwardly with two sleeping teenagers on each shoulder.

Some people gave me weird looks for sitting down as they all stood, so I tried getting up and almost instantly, two little hands stopped me.

"Mamas with sleeping babies can sit, you know", she said seriously and waited for me to nod before turning back front. Surprisingly, the little girl's words were enough for all the 'starers' to mind their own business.

And so, I spent the next half an hour watching the little girl for future reference, as, she obviously knew a thing or two about Church etiquette.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

"What a bummer", Carly muttered from beside me as we watched the downpour. We could've run to the car, but that would only result in muddiness and a total ickiness. None of us liked that, so we were left to glare at the pouring skies while Granny went about greeting and laughing, and smiling or nodding in acknowledgement whenever Granny would point us out to someone.

"How long do we have to do this again?", I sighed.

The twins' face brightened up, "Finally! We were wondering where our claustrophobic cousin had gone off to."

I wasn't claustrophobic... I just preferred open, airy spaces to a limited amount of area enclosed within four walls, which in this case, also had the added disadvantage of all sorts of gossipers around. 

If you didn't know it by now, I like it when I have enough silence for me to be surrounded by my thoughts alone.

However, the amount of information one could glean from these rumors was unnerving. Suppose there was someone in need of data? They just had to coax these old ladies and then it would be a Niagara waterfall of information getting dumped on them.

A bell rang, signifying the end of the catechism class, and a lot of tiny giggling kids swarmed out from the stairs. The sight of them running to their parents was nostalgic.... too nostalgic, so I decided to watch the very interesting rain.

Clearly someone had better plans than to leave me be, as they tugged my dress. I looked down and saw 'the' little girl.

"Hey Miss! Who are you waiting for?", she grinned.

I squatted down to her level. "I'm waiting for my Grandma. See her?", I pointed her out in the crowd, and the little girl seemed to recognize her.

"Oh, so you're Grandma Mawie's Katie?", she turned to me with a smile.

That nickname again. I nodded in assent anyway. Her face lit up at her correct guess and she pointed out a woman next to Granny, "That's my mommy! She'll tell you to call her Gia, so that's Gia for you, 'kay?"

I laughed at that, "Look at you, going around speaking for your mom." I ruffled her hair.

"Hey! You'll make me ugly!", she pouted. I giggle quietly as she patted her hair down. Her eyes drifted in a particular direction as she did that, and I followed her eyes to see...

"You like that boy?", I whispered. She jumped in shock and immediately denied, but her blush gave her away. I had to laugh at her cuteness.

"Y-you need to go home fast, Miss", the girl looked anywhere except my eyes making me laugh even more, "Mommy said we should always get home as fast as we can."

I stifled my laughter and looked out, "Hmm, I would have gone home long back, but I can't."

"Why not?", she looked at me questioningly, all embarrassment forgotten.

"Because... I forgot my umbrella", I whispered the last part as if we were conspiring something.

"Oh!", she gasped. Then, as if remembering something, her face lit up and she ran to her mother. She tugged the hem of her mother's - Gia's - coat, something she always does to gain attention I suppose, and then made all sorts of gestures, even pointing at me to get her point across. She seemed to have succeeded, because at the end of it all, Gia smiled at the little girl in affirmation and smiled at me. Of course I smiled back.

The little girl seemed to have something else in her hand as she barreled towards me again.

"Miss!!", she panted as she came to a stop in front of me. I caught her when she was about to keel over.

"This- this is-"

"Calm down, I can wait.. catch your breath first", I patted her back.

She finally stopped heaving and patted my arm to let her go. That was when I realized I was hugging her the whole time.

"Oh- sorry.."

"I don't mind", she grinned, then thrust that 'something' at me. "Take this!"

"What is it?"

"Umbwella! Now you can go home!", her eyes glittered.

"Oh my! Thank you so much!", I patted her head. This seemed to make her happy as her face lit up even more.

"You can give it back whenever, it belongs to my other bother- he was too sleepy to come today." And, I'm not sure, but I think she muttered somehting along the lines of 'stupid illy' 

"You mean, your other brother?"

"No, I meant bother. He's such a bother", she huffed. Wow, kids are... kids, huh?

"Well, then! Bye Miss!", she ran back to her mother who seemed to be about to leave.

I waved back and was all relieved to go home until she disappeared and I remembered one very important and relevant matter:

I didn't know her name.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *  

"Whatchya doing?", Carly plopped down beside me on the couch. I grunted and pushed her before replying.

"Solving a mystery."

I'd written whatever I knew of the little girl on a paper: 

Attributes- dark hair, turquoise eyes. 

Family- Mother, two brothers and a .. bother..?

I laughed at that one. 'He's such a bother' echoed in my head.

Mother- Gia.

"Ooh, are you finding out who the umbrella belongs to?", Clary guessed correctly as she pointed at the navy blue umbrella in the corner of the room.

When I nodded, Carly huffed, "You should have told me so earlier! I have an important clue too!"

I looked at her disbelievingly as the twins were not around at all when the little girl spoke to me. However, Carly seemed to puff up even more at that.

"It belongs to Grace."

I flinched at that name before regaining my composure and raising an eyebrow at her.

"Oh c'mon! Don't tell me you didn't see it? There's Grace written in the inside! Very faint, but still there."

Clary picked the umbrella and twirled before confirming, yes, there is 'Grace' written on it.

"Funny, though- didn't you say it belonged to a guy?", Carly snorted.

Right... it belonged to a guy. And there's Grace written on it.

What are the odds.....

Meh, I'm just overthinking.

Oh wait, Granny seemed to know Gia! She might know where she lives!

"Oh Granny!", I yelled and ran to her room.

___________________________________________________________

Hola everybody!! I'm BAAAACCKKK!!!

And going back to hibernation. Hehe. I'll try my best to break my curse of laziness and update, but you must help me!!!

So vote, comment, and find who the umbrella belongs to.

I mean, if you can ;)

-ceredeneTT