Clove parted Maddie's hair in two as she brushed through the left side first.
Maddie looked at her reflection in the mirror, and then at Clove, once again, she did not know what or how to feel.
This was something new for her, to see Clove doing her hair, you wouldn't think it would be something a mother would do frequently but no, not in this case, Maddie could tell you that she was sure that Clove hated being near her or touching her, and yet here she was.
Maddie could not lie, it did feel nice to have someone else brush through your hair and not you.
Annie frowned, she saw this as an opportunity for Maddie to talk to Clove and get to know more about her, but Maddie would not take the push, Annie was sure that Maddie was just scared of being hurt again.
So she would help her, Annie was thinking of what to say to get these two to talk to each other, Clove was nice and willing to talk, but Maddie, she was reluctant to.
"So Clove, do you have any siblings?" asked Annie as she smiled and Clove looked at her as she braided Maddie's hair.
Of course Annie knew that the answer was no, but she had to start from somewhere.
"Well no, I don't have any siblings, and what about you Annie, do you have siblings?" asked Clove as she smiled.
"No I don't" said Annie as she smiled.
"And what about you Maddie?" asked Clove as she looked at Maddie and she smiled.
"I don't have any siblings, but I consider Matt and Annie like my siblings" replied Maddie simply.
"Oh who's Matt?" asked Clove in confusion.
"Oh he's our friend, I will introduce him to you later" said Annie with a smile.
"Oh I see" said Clove as she smiled and Annie laughed.
"There" said Clove as she smiled and she was doing braiding Maddie's hair.
"Oh gee, thank you" replied Maddie.
"You are welcome, you look cute" said Clove as she laughed.
"Like a little kitty" said Clove with a laugh as Maddie walked to her bed and she sat down as Clove sat on hers and Annie looked at the both of them as she was stuck in a pickle, just what could she do to make Maddie open up here?
"How about we have a sleepover?" asked Annie as she laughed and both Maddie and Clove looked at her.
"Are you serious Annie, a sleepover? What are we? 5?" asked Maddie.
"Oh come on Maddie, don't be a downer, it will be fun right Clove?" asked Annie as she looked at Clove and Clove laughed.
"I agree" said Clove as she laughed.
"Of course you both think so" said Maddie as she shook her head.
"Oh be nice Maddie, I mean we all have matching hairstyles, so ,let's have a sleepover" said Annie as she knew that they were already in the same room, but she just needed to get Maddie to loosen up.
"Fine Annie, you can do whatever you want" said Maddie.
"Alright, so Clove, how about you tell us something about yourself?" asked Annie as she looked at Clove and she smiled.
"Something like what?" asked Clove as she smiled.
"Well I don't know, just say a random fact about yourself" said Annie.
"Okay, something random" said Clove as she laughed.
"Hmm, well for a very long time, I used to speak to animals, I found them friendly, they still are" said Clove as she smiled.
"Ahh I see, that's cute" said Annie as she smiled.
"Yes" said Clove as she laughed.
"Well tell us more about yourself, we want to know more" said Annie as Maddie looked at her and she shook her head.
"Umm okay" said Clove as she laughed.
"I was the only child of my parents, which often left me feeling lonely, I always wanted a sibling" said Clove as she laughed and Annie laughed.
"I can relate, what about you Maddie?" asked Annie as she looked at Maddie.
"Well siblings aren't all that great, you can fight… a lot" said Maddie as honestly she was glad that she didn't have a sibling that had to suffer the way she did while being raised by Azazel and Clove, that would just be too much.
"I know you can, but you can always resolve your issues, after all, you are siblings, you are family, and you love each other" said Clove as she smiled.
"You are right Clove" said Annie as she smiled.
"Love isn't enough, there are other things to think about, why bring a child into the world when you can't take care of it, or give it the love and warmth it deserves?" asked Maddie.
"Well you can learn as you go" said Clove.
"Clove your parents weren't wealthy right?" asked Maddie as she knew that from reading Clove's diary.
"Well yes, we weren't" said Clove as she nodded.
"And they barely had enough for you?" asked Maddie.
"Well yes, in a way" said Clove.
"So they barely made enough for you and them, how would they make enough for another child?" asked Maddie.
"Well, there would always be a way" said Clove.
"I think it's rather stupid to think like that, after all, this is real life, and not just some sort of fairy tale" said Maddie.
"I know that Maddie, and I know that you are right but…" said Clove as she took a pause.
"My papa always used to say, it is better to live in it, than to dream of it" said Clove as she laughed.
"I life it is better to have no regrets even though it can be tough to go through, but it's still just life, and you only live once" said Clove as she smiled.
"My mama, may her soul rest in peace, she used to tell me all the time, I can just see now saying Clove, life isn't fair, but that doesn't mean you should dwell in its unfairness, you should make it fair for you" said Clove as she smiled and Annie smiled.
"Your parents sounded like lovely people" said Annie as she smiled.
"They were" said Clove as she looked at Annie and she smiled.
"What happened to them?" asked Annie.
"I mean I don't mean to pry or be rude" said Annie.
"No, you aren't being rude, not at all" said Clove as she smiled.
"Well you see what happened was that one day, my parents went out to the market like they usually did, they left me at home alone, so I went into the meadow to collect some plants, I curse myself for not seeing that something was going to happen, because as I was on my way home, I saw smoke, thick black smoke and I rushed to where our house used to be, it was left with nothing but fire and ashes" said Clove.
"There was fire everywhere, burning everything, the house, the barn, the fields, everything was gone, I didn't know what to do, at the time, I didn't even consider a spell to put out the fire, I just watched it burn in shock" said Clove as she looked sad recalling the memory.
"Something told me that my parents were not safe, I ran to the market to find them, but I couldn't so I returned back to the house were the fire had stopped burning, I looked through the ashes and found my Papa's hat, the same hat he wore out that day, I don't know what happened, or why they came back early, but they did, and unfortunately they didn't make it" said Clove as a tear slipped from her eye and she wiped it away.
"Honestly at the time, it didn't dawn on me what had just happened, I was in shock, everything I grew up with gone" said Clove.
"And then I realized that I was alone… all alone, my papa, my mama gone" said Clove as she looked at Annie who felt bad.
"I started to cry because, I didn't know what to do, the pain of everything just fell on me, and I felt so helpless, I wanted to die, that was all I wanted at that point" said Clove.
"I guess that when you realize that you are alone, with no one else in the world, it makes you reconsider, it makes you feel… lonely" said Clove.
"That day was the worst day in my life, I wrote it in my diary" said Clove as she showed her diary.
"I am so sorry Clove, that must have been so hard for you" said Annie.
"It's fine Annie, you get used to it" said Clove as she smiled and she laughed.
"Why do you keep a diary?" asked Maddie as both Clove and Annie looked at her.
"Well I don't know… actually I like to keep stuff, to remember, it's sort of like a memento" said Clove as she smiled.
"When I have children, I would like them to have my diary, and read all about my life, to see what I did, how I lived, how I cried, the mistakes I made, the regrets I had, just for them to know me more, you know" said Clove as she smiled.