Chapter Thirteen A Day In The Life Of A Not So Normal Family Part Two (What’s Wrong With Her?) *****Marshall’s POV***** March 1st 2003 **8:00am** Marshall walked into Hailie’s bedroom.  The little girl was still fast asleep in bed.  Walking over to the blinds he pulls them to let the sun into the room.  He couldn’t help but smile at the groan that escaped his daughter’s mouth.  ‘Seven years old an already hates to wake up.’  He thought to himself, as he walked over to the dresser. “Come on Hai, lets get a move on, we are going shopping for the nursery today remember.”  He watched her sit up in bed and rub her eyes.  Oh how he loved his little girl. “I can get dressed myself daddy.”  Said Hailie trying to hide her yawn. Marshall laughed and shut the drawer.  “Ok then, just get dressed and come down stairs for breakfast, papa and I want to get going before it’s to late.”  With that he walked out of the room and back down the stairs where he found AJ poring himself a bowl of corn flakes. “Save any for me?”  He laughed kissing AJ on the head. AJ just smiled and shoveled a spoon full of the flakes into his mouth. “Hailie seems pretty excited about being able to pick out the furniture.  Are upset that I allowed her to do that?”  Asked Marshall getting himself a bowel. AJ swallowed what was in his mouth.  “Yeah, it’s a good idea Marsh, but are you sure we should trust a seven year olds opinion on furniture?” “You’ve got a point.”  Said Marshall with his head in the refrigerator so AJ couldn’t hear him. “What did you say?” “I said you have a point.” Repeated Marshall.  “Maybe having her pick it out wouldn’t be the best idea.”  He turned to see Hailie bounce into the room.  ‘I’ll break the news to her later.’  He thought to himself before sitting down to eat breakfast with the two people he loved the most. *****@***** The store AJ had wanted to go look at was one of the most expensive department stores in Detroit.  Even better this store only carried children’s furniture.  Marshall walked into the brightly colored store holding tightly onto AJ’s hand.  This store was pretty amazing.  It had everything you could think of for a child’s bedroom and then some.  Marshall turned back to see Hailie standing in the middle of the doorway in awe. “Hailie, come on sweetheart, I thought you wanted to help us pick out the furniture for the baby’s room.”  Called Marshall. “You are gunna have to tell her sometime, you’re going to break her heart if you don’t.”  Whispered AJ while walking over to a display of furniture. “What do you think of this one Hai?”  He asked. Marshall didn’t miss the look of disgust on his daughter’s face. “You have so gota be kidding me.”  Said Hailie looking at the crib AJ had pointed out. Marshall looked at Hailie in shock. She never talked to anybody like that. “Hailie Jade, you don’t talk to him like that.”  Scolded Marshall. “That’s a great crib Alex.  I think we found the one we want.” Hailie glared back.  “You said I get to pick out the crib.” “Well, if you are going to have that attitude then maybe you wont.”  Said Marshall through gritted teeth trying not to make a scene. This behavior to Alex was getting crazy.  It hadn’t just started today, but the last few weeks had been building. He didn’t understand it at all. She was fine two weeks ago, what happened in that amount of time? “Marsh, it’s ok, she’s right that crib is a little much.”  Said AJ a little scared at the way Marshall was acting. Marshall shook his head.  “No, that crib is great, we are going to take that crib.”  Marshall walked off to go get somebody to help them.  AJ looked at the sad little girl in front of him. “Hai?” Marshall watched as Hailie didn’t respond to AJ and just walked off in the other direction.  This was getting beyond weird.  Where had his baby girl gone? *****@***** 12:30pm Marshall held AJ’s hand as the threesome walked down the crowded Detroit streets.  “I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry.”  Said Marshall looking around at the different restaurants that were around them.  “Do you want McDonalds, Alex?” AJ shook his head.  “After last week, I don’t think I could go near a McDonalds again.” Marshall laughed thinking about AJ’s problem with chicken McNuggets the week before.  “Alright so how does Chinese sound?” “Sounds fine to me.” “Come on Hai, we are going to the Chinese place over there.”  Said Marshall pointing to the restaurant. “Daddy, why can’t we have McDonald’s?”  Wined Hailie. AJ got green just thinking about it.  “Because McDonald’s makes papa not feel good.  So we are getting Chinese instead.”  Explained Marshall hoping Hailie would understand he wasn’t trying to be mean, but that she wasn’t going to get her way with this one. “But I hate Chinese, it makes me not feel good.”  She continued to whine. Marshall took Hailie’s hand and pulled her off to the side of the sidewalk.  He couldn’t let her get away with acting this way, not in public.  And he had seen the look on AJ’s face.  He knew AJ was about ready to give in to the little girl, but that wasn’t what Hailie needed, she needed to know she didn’t get everything she whined for. “Hailie, I don’t have time to listen to you complain.  I don’t know what’s gotten into you today, but I don’t like it one bit.  If you are going to keep this up, then there will be some consequences.”  He said before walking over to AJ. He heard Hailie mumble something under her breath, but chose not to pay attention to it. *****@***** **3:50pm** “Come on Dre, this is going to work.”  Exclaimed Marshall. He had been on the phone with Dre for the last hour trying to work out some problems going on at Shady Records.  Supposedly one of the new clients had been giving them fake checks, which was putting the record company in some deep shit. He looked down at his watch and sighed.  “Dre, I’ve gota go get Hailie from soccer.” //“Can’t you just send AJ to get her.  We are really in some deep shit here Marsh, and we need to get this figured out.”// Marshall sighed.  “Alright, I will go ask AJ, but I’m not making any promises.” //”Sure whatever man.”// Marshall put the phone down and walked into the family room where he knew AJ was watching TV. “Baby, can you do me a favor?” Asked Marshall. AJ turned to look at Marshall.  “Sure.” “Can you go pick Hailie up for me?  Things are worse at Shady’s then I thought.” AJ got up off he couch.  “Sure, I’ll be back in a few minutes.” *****@***** **5:00pm** Marshall spent the next hour with Dre on the phone; he didn’t get off until AJ and Hailie showed up.  And by the look on AJ’s face something was wrong. “What’s wrong baby?”  He asked. AJ sighed.  “Hailie’s coach thinks she should quit the team.” Marshall was taken back by that.  Why in the world would they want Hailie to quit the team?  “What the fuck? Why?” “He’s seen the other kids picking on her because of…Well because of us.” Marshall sat down on the couch.  He couldn’t believe that somebody could be so rude.  “Well, we can tell him to fuck off.” AJ sat down next to Marshall.  “We’ve seen how much Hailie has changed since she’s started the team She’s been so hostile, maybe it really isn’t good for her to stay.” Marshall thought about this for a moment and sighed.  “She has been acting strange. I never thought it was the soccer team though.” “Either did I, but you have to admit it makes sense.” Marshall got up off the couch and walked over to the stairs. “Hailie! Come down here please.”  Yelled Marshall. “What are you going to tell her, Marsh?” “We just have to tell her that she’s not going to be able to go back to soccer again.  Maybe she really wants us to do that anyway.”  Said Marshall walking back over to the couch and sat down, waiting for Hailie. “What’s wrong?” She asked sitting down in a chair across from them. “You aren’t going to be able to go back to soccer.”  Said Marshall.  So maybe the approach he took was a little blunt, but that’s all he could think of. Hailie looked at her daddy with anger in her eyes.  “What…why?” AJ got up off the couch and walked over to the upset little girl.  “It’s for the best Hai..” Hailie looked at AJ and glared at him.  “This is all your fault.  If you wouldn’t have come into our lives, things would still be normal.”  She yelled before running back up the stairs. Marshall thought he was shocked at all the other times that day when Hailie has acted strangely, but this was just crazy. He was torn between going after Hailie, and comforting his sad fiancé.  Choosing the latter he walked into the Kitchen where AJ had went. “She didn’t mean it like that, honey.” AJ turned around to face Marshall.  “Oh, I’m sure she did mean it.  I’ve been waiting for this to happen.” Marshall looked at AJ in confusion.  “What do you mean?” AJ sat down on one of the bar stools and turned so he was looking at Marshall.  “She’s jealous, plain and simple.” “What in God’s name does she have to be jealous of?” “Well, let me think.  I come into her life, and all of a sudden she’s having people calling her and her daddy names.  Then she finds out that there is going to be a new baby, which she knows will leave less attention for her.  Then you told her she could pick out the baby furniture, and changed your mind.  I’m sorry but I think that gives her a lot of reason to be jealous.”  Said AJ. Marshall thought about this for a second.  “What are we supposed to do about it?  I mean she’s not ready to listen to any of us right now.” “Why don’t you call that Vanessa girl?  You know the one that’s helping her with her reading and other homework.”  Suggested AJ. “That’s a good idea.”  Marshall walked over to the phone and dialed the number that was posted on the wall next to the phone.  It rang for a few seconds before somebody picked it up. //”Hello?”// “Yes, can I speak to Vanessa please?” //”This is she.”// Marshall sat down and explained to Vanessa what was going on.  And after a few minutes the young woman had offered to come over and try and talk to Hailie.  After saying thank you Marshall hung up the phone with a sigh. “Did you talk to her?”  Asked AJ Marshall nodded.  “I sure hope this works.” Ten minutes later there was a knock on the door. “I’ll get it.”  Said Marshall walking to the front door. “Hello, Mr. Mathers.”  Said Vanessa politely.  “Hey, you need to start calling me Marshall, I’m not used to that Mr. Mathers shit.” Vanessa blushed and giggled slightly.  “All right.” Marshall moved out of the way so the young woman could come into the house.  “Hailie is up in her room, thanks so much for doing this.” *****@***** Marshall and AJ waited down stairs while Vanessa was up talking to Hailie.  Marshall was getting to restless to sit around so he headed off to the garage to do the laundry, while AJ went into the kitchen to do the dishes. While putting clothes into the washing machine he kept playing the days events over and over in his head.  Things with Hailie had gone from bad to worse as the day went on.  Had he really been that oblivious to everything around him that he hadn’t noticed his own daughter was having so many problems?  He thought things were alright after they had talked to her and answered her questions the month before, but supposedly he was wrong.  Now, his own daughter hated him. How could he have been so selfish?  This was really going to take some getting used to.  For everybody involved they needed to learn how to situate themselves to get used to not being the center of attention anymore.  Hailie had been an only child for way to long.  Was the conclusion Marshall came up with, and they were going to work on that. *****@***** **6:00pm** Marshall was just walking into the house when he heard laughing coming from the kitchen.  A smile formed on his lips when he heard Hailie laughing with AJ.  So, maybe things were ok after all.  Walking towards the kitchen he stopped to watch Hailie giving AJ a bad time about washing the dishes too much. “Hey, what’s all the laughing in here about?” Hailie turned around to see her daddy standing in the doorway.  She jumped off the stool and ran to him.  “I’m so sorry daddy, I haven’t been a very good girl today.” Marshall hugged the little girl kissing her on the cheek.  “It’s ok baby, I think both of us have some things we need to talk about.”  And that was right.  Marshall and AJ were at just as much fault as Hailie was.  They all were going to have to make some changes in their lives for the new baby. “About soccer?”  Asked Hailie Marshall sighed.  “That’s one of the things.” “Did my coach say something mean to papa?”  Asked Hailie, looking a little bit scared. “No, its nothing like that honey.  Coach Conners has seen the way the other kids treat you.  He just thought it would be better if maybe you left the team.” Hailie shook her head.  “I still wana play.  Those kids aren’t mean enough for me to stay away.” Marshall smiled.  “That’s my girl.”  Yup, the old tough Hailie Mathers was back, and Marshall had to admit he had missed her.