The Overtime Play (The Starting Line #1)

Prologue

El

Mommy already put pink ribbon around my ponytail, and now, it was Eloise’s turn.

I was told to get dressed while Mommy helped Lo, so I shuffled into my bedroom where Mommy had laid out my clothes.

I liked our new house more than our last one, especially because my new room was Disney Princess themed. Sleeping Beauty was my favorite princess because I loved the color pink.

Skipping over to my bed, I giggled at the baby pink dress that had long sleeves. It was the exact same shade as the ribbon in my hair. I liked when Mommy matched our stuff like that.

The dress was soft, a lot softer than some of the other dresses we would sometimes wear. The sparkly dresses we had were pretty, but they itched my skin, and that always bothered me while I was trying to play.

Singing a song I heard in Cinderella while I was watching it this morning, I tried not to ruin my hair when I put my dress on. Mommy always had us wear leggings under our dresses. She picked out black ones for me today, so I put those on too.

I could always recognize the light pitter-patter sound of Lo’s feet as she ran down the hall, giggling. She must’ve been all dressed and ready, so I rushed to get dressed too.

Mommy and Daddy told us that we had new friends coming over today to play. We hadn’t met them before, but I was excited to make new friends. I didn’t have many friends since we just moved here, and school hadn’t started yet.

“Eleanor!” Mommy called. “Come down, honey!”

“Okay, Mommy!” I yelled back as I slipped on my Sleeping Beauty socks.

I was still getting used to all the slippery, hardwood floors in our new house, so I held onto the railing as I walked downstairs to make sure I didn’t fall.

In the living room, Mommy was on her knees, fixing Lo’s bow.

“Did you mess it up?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Lo said quietly, frowning.

“That’s okay,” I said. “Mommy will fix it.”

A gasp came from behind me, and when I turned, Daddy was smiling with his arms wide. “Look at how beautiful you both are!”

“Daddy!” I shouted, running towards him. I laughed when he picked me up and spun me around.

I loved my mommy a lot, but Daddy was my favorite person ever.

He always played with me whenever I asked, even when he was tired, and he got me new toys all the time.

Before he bought our new house, he asked me if I liked it and told me that he would only buy it if I liked it. I told him I loved it!

Daddy was like a superhero. He was the greatest Daddy on the planet.

“You look just like a Disney Princess,” he said, setting me on my feet.

I bounced up and down, head tipped up to look at him because he was so tall. “Really?” I snickered.

“Yes!”

Squealing, feeling like I had all the energy in the world, I ran a lap around the room. “I’m a Disney Princess!” I jumped in front of him, coming to a stop. “Daddy! When are our friends coming?”

He checked his watch. “They should be here any minute.”

“Yay!” Running over to Lo, who was sitting on Mommy’s lap now on the couch, I reached for her hand. “Did you hear that, Lo? Our new friends are going to be here soon!”

“Yeah,” she smiled at me.

Eloise was two years older than me, but we were best friends.

We played together a lot. Our favorite games to play were dress-up or make believe with our dolls.

Last Christmas, Santa brought us a new dollhouse.

It was taller than both of us and had enough rooms to fit all our small dolls.

I was excited to show it to our new friends.

When the doorbell rang, I jumped out in a star position. “They’re here!”

Daddy got to the door first, and suddenly, I was a little nervous to meet our new friends. Hiding behind Daddy’s leg, I peeked around his jeans.

Our wooden double doors were huge, so Daddy just opened one of them.

“Gwen!” he cheered, leaning forward to hug the lady on our doorstep. She had short, brown hair that went down to her shoulders, and light-colored eyes. She was a pretty lady, but she wasn’t as pretty as my mommy.

“It’s been way too long, Mac. I’m glad you guys are back.”

“Me too,” Daddy smiled. “Henry,” he held out his hand to the man beside her, who shook Daddy’s hand with a grin.

“Mac, it’s great to see you again.”

The man was holding a baby with short dark hair. She was wearing a tiny dress that was emerald green with a gold bow on it. It looked like something a princess would wear.

The lady must’ve noticed me staring at the baby. “This is Jade,” she said to me. “And this,” she reached behind her, pushing forward a boy who I hadn’t realized had been clinging onto her the same way I had been clinging onto Daddy, “is Matt.”

I blinked at him silently, and he blinked at me. Glancing around, I checked to see if there were more kids, but I didn’t see any. All I did was frown; I’d been expecting a girl.

My new friend was a boy? Yuck!

Daddy tapped my shoulder. “Introduce yourself, El.”

“Hi,” I quietly said.

He huffed, giving a grumbled, “Hello,” towards the floor.

“I’m sure they’ll warm up to each other,” Daddy said. “Come in, guys. Elisa and Eloise are right inside.”

“Mac,” the lady said in awe, “this house is absolutely incredible. Business must seriously be booming for you right now.”

“It’s going well,” Daddy nodded proudly.

Appearing from the living room, Mommy brightened the room with her smile. “Gwen, oh my gosh. How long has it been?” Just like Daddy, she gave the lady a hug, squeezing tight like she missed her. It was the same kind of hug she gave to Lo and me whenever she picked us up from school.

“I think since we were pregnant.”

“Five years?”

“Something like that,” the lady nodded.

As they introduced Lo to everyone, I stared at the boy,

wringing my hands together. I doubted that he would want to play with my dolls. All the boys at my old school usually played with monster trucks and Legos. I didn’t really like either of those things, except Daddy bought me a Princess Lego set one time and I really liked that.

The boy’s eyes were wide, peering around our house. I wanted to ask why he was looking around like that, but I already forgot his name.

Daddy placed a hand on my shoulder. “Hey, El, why don’t you show everyone the playroom?”

“Okay,” I smiled, excited for the first time since our guests arrived. Grabbing my sister’s hand, I said, “C’mon, Lo!”

But she pulled her hand back. “I think I’m gonna stay down here for a while.”

Frowning, I sighed. I should’ve known Lo wouldn’t want to come play. Anytime there was a baby around, she preferred to play with them instead. I wasn’t sure why. I didn’t think babies were that fun.

Turning to the boy, I said, “Do you want to see the playroom?”

“Sure.”

With encouraging nods from our parents, I led him upstairs, making sure I held onto the railing again.

The playroom was the very first room at the top of the stairs, and it was one of my favorite rooms. Mommy never bothered cleaning it because we always made it messy again, so there were toys scattered across the floor, and the walls were decorated with drawings that Lo and I made.

“This is our playroom,” I motioned around.

His brown eyes widened the same way they did downstairs. “Woah. Your house is cool.”

“Thanks. My daddy just bought it for us.” Sitting criss-crossed applesauce in front of my dollhouse, I picked up my favorite doll, which I named Aurora after my favorite princess.

She had long blonde hair and a pink dress.

Sometimes I liked to change her into a tutu and ballet slippers so that she matched me when I went to dance class. “Do you have a playroom at your house?”

“No.”

“What’s your name again?”

“Matt. What’s yours?”

“Eleanor, but people call me El.”

Matt sat a few feet from me, but he wasn’t playing. He just looked at me, watching me play. It was making my stomach feel funny.

I sighed. And after a few minutes of it being too quiet, I sighed again.

“Why’re you breathing heavy like that?” Matt asked.

Rolling my eyes, I took a small brush to Aurora’s hair. “It’s called a sigh.”

“Okay. Why are you doing it?”

Matt was starting to bother me. I wasn’t sure why he came to the playroom if he wasn’t going to play. “Because you made me.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m trying to play,” I told him, grabbing another doll and fighting the urge to throw it at him. Instead, I kept playing on my own, pretending that the dolls were talking while getting ready to go to ballet.

In the middle of their conversation, Matt spoke again.

“Do you have a boyfriend?”

“No,” I answered. Daddy told us that we weren’t allowed to have boyfriends until we were much, much older.

“Can I be your boyfriend?”

“No.” My cheeks started to feel hot, and I didn’t like the feeling. There were so many toys around, but he wasn’t looking at any of them. All he was doing was looking at me. I didn’t want to look at him. I didn’t want my stomach to have that funny feeling again.

“Why not?” he asked.

“I’m not allowed to have a boyfriend.”

“Why not?” he repeated.

“My daddy says I’m too young,” I explained.

I quickly glanced and noticed his big frown and bad posture.

Our ballet teacher taught us how important it was to have good posture.

“Well, when will you be old enough?” Matt asked.

Slipping ballet shoes onto Aurora, I answered, “I don’t know.”

Footsteps creaked up the stairs, followed by the sound of Lo’s voice. “Hey!” she jumped in the doorway.

“Hey, Lo!” I smiled, glad she got here when she did. “Do you want to play?”

“Come downstairs! Mommy said it’s time for lunch.”

“Okay,” I stood, not waiting for my newest friend to follow.