"I think the most important thing a woman can have-next to talent, of course-is her hairdresser"-Joan Crawford

I'm going crazy. It's as simple as that. At this point I'm getting scared that I'm not going to be able to keep my sanity in this family. Between Nonna trying practically force feed me food, Pavel analyzing all jokes that are made around him, everyone constantly supervising me, and don't even get me started on the arguments between Sergio and Theodore. It's only been 2 days since they have gotten here but it feels like 2 years. To make things worse everyone is convinced that it would be a crime to send to school until my ribs are healed. I love my family, I do, but that love can only go so far.

So using the little brainpower I have left I have devised a plan to get my father to agree to let me go back to school. This plan consists of me agreeing to clean the entire house, in order to go back to school. A place where only my twin brother will be, instead of the entire family. I glance at the time 8:33am. My brothers left for school around 45 minutes ago which means we'll be having breakfast soon. So someone should be coming here soon to tell me and escort me down the stairs since 'we can't risk me injuring myself more.'

Too much time has passed so I don't have enough time to take a shower. I walk to my closet to pick out my clothes for today.

A gentle knock on my door came as soon as I finished the brushing out my hair. "Isa, sweetheart, are you ready?" Aunt Andrea's voice sounded from the other side of the door.

"Oh, um, yeah. You can come in." I looked at my, now, very poofy hair in the mirror, cringing slightly. Trying to pat it down with my hand. Come on, I need you to cooperate with me. The door opened, my aunt's head peeking through the door. My eyes immediately looking toward her perfectly straightened red hair. How can hair looks so perfect?

Her eyes landed on my hair. A soft but comforting smile graced her lips and her hazel eyes looked at me with the same softness.

"Do you need help with your hair?" Aunt Andrea wondered, her eyes finally leaving my hair.

"Please do." My eyes widened, "But only if you want to, of course!" I quickly specified. My aunt just laughed as she walked over to my bathroom, motioning for me to follow. I rushed to her, joining her in the bathroom.

"Alright, just stand right there," she motioned to in front of the sink, "Where do you keep your towels and do you have an empty spray bottle?"

I nodded my head, "My towels are in the middle cabinet and there is an almost spray bottle in here," I pointed at the cabinet under the sink, "So we could use that I guess if we just dump the rest of whatever is in it out." Aunt Andrea nodded her head in agreement of using the bottle. I squatted down to open the cabinet under the sink while my aunt grabbed a dark blue, fluffy towel.

"M-may I ask what you're going t-to do to my hair?"

"Oh right! If you're ok with it, I plan on spraying some water on your hair to make it a little less puffy. After that I'm going to brush it out really quickly then I'm going to do Dutch Pigtail Braids. Again only if you're ok with it. If you're not then we can do something else." Aunt Andrea assured me, I smiled at her.

No one has ever asked if I was ok with something before, that was before I got here at least. Not even when I was in one of my good foster homes. Wait hang on! Isabella what about about breakfast!

"What-what about breakfast, will it be fine if we're l-late?" I questioned with panic seeping into my voice causing it to sound squeaky.

"Calm down Isa, it'll be fine. Being late to breakfast isn't a crime." Aunt Andrea said calmingly. putting her hands on my shoulders, her hazel eyes looking into my blue ones. Reassuring me rather quickly as my heart beat slowed down. Seeing me calm down she removed her hands my shoulders, moving to stand behind me. She grabbed the towel she had placed under her arm, and wrapped it around my shoulders, gently lifting my hair onto it.

"Alright let's get started." Aunt Andrea announced, beginning to spray the water into my hair.

"Ok the first side is officially done now we just need to do the next side." My aunt declared, with a smile showing off her pearly white teeth. "Wanna look?" she asked raising one of her eyebrows. I nodded at her question, turning to the side to see how it looked. Wow, how can she Dutch braid so well? I never learned, I only ever learned how to do a regular braid and I can do a pretty decent French braid. Dutch braids I always messed up on.

"How does it look? Do you like it?"

"I love it, it looks amazing! How are you so good at Dutch braiding? I could never figure out how to." I questioned looking at her curiously as she just chuckled grabbing the other bundle of my hair to braid as soon as I turned away from the mirror.

"My mom taught me. She was a master when it came to braiding, she taught me everything I know about hair. Which was a lot. She used to own a hair salon where I grew up."

"Really tha-" A loud noise was heard as my bedroom door was slammed open. Uncle Marco stormed into my room with my very excited looking cousin, Vincenzo, behind him. They quickly found themselves in my bathroom, standing in front of us looking confused.

"Andrea cosa stai facendo, dovevi venire a prendere Isabella per assicurarti che ce I'abbia fatta in sicurezza giu per le scale, perche le stai facendo i capelli? La vostra colazione e ormai fredda e temevo che fosse successo qualcosa a voi due." My uncle bellowed to aunt Andrea in Italian with a aggravated look on his face though his eyes held worry in them. Really, really need to learn Italian.

(Andrea cosa stai facendo, dovevi venire a prendere Isabella per assicurarti che ce I'abbia fatta in sicurezza giu per le scale, perche le stai facendo i capelli? La vostra colazione e ormai fredda e temevo che fosse successo qualcosa a voi due-Andrea what are you doing you were just supposed to come get Isabella to make sure she made it safely down the stairs, why ae you doing her hair? Your breakfast is now cold and I was worried something happened to you two)

Aunt Andrea's smile turned into a frown at his words, turning to face him.

"Mi dispiace amore mio, ma c'e stata un'emergenza capelli e nostra nipote aveva bisogno del mio aiuto, quindi mi sono offerto di auitarla. Va bene, possiamo semplicemente mettere il cibo nel microonde per riscaldarlo, ma mi dispiace di averti preoccupato. Anch'io non volevo dire, dammi solo altri 12 minuti e avro finito con i suoi capelli. Ok, amore mio?" My aunt told my uncle Marco. He huffed crossing his arms across his chest with a pout making him look like a toddler that just got their candy taken away.

(Mi dispiace amore mio, ma c'e stata un'emergenza capelli e nostra nipote aveva bisogno del mio aiuto, quindi mi sono offerto di auitarla. Va bene, possiamo semplicemente mettere il cibo nel microonde per riscaldarlo, ma mi dispiace di averti preoccupato. Anch'io non volevo dire, dammi solo altri 12 minuti e avro finito con i suoi capelli. Ok, amore mio?-I'm sorry my love but there was a hair emergency and our niece needed my help so I offered to help her. It'll be fine we can just stick the food in the microwave to heat it up but I am sorry for worrying you. I didn't mean too, just give me about 12 more minutes and I'll be done with her hair. Ok, my love?)

"Oh dai! Pensavo che ci sarebbe successo un dramma, ci sono 3 minuti della mia vita che non posso tornare!" Vincenzo whined, beginning to copy uncle Marco's pout. Making aunt Andrea and me to laugh at the father and son. (Oh dai! Pensavo che ci sarebbe successo un dramma, ci sono 3 minuti della mia vita che non posso tornare!-Oh come on! I thought there was going to be some drama happening, there goes 3 minutes of my life that I can't get back!)

"Perche nostro figlio e cosi? Siamo sicuri che non sia stato cambiato alla nascita?" Uncle Marco said which earned a small chuckle from aunt andrea, and cousin Vincenzo wiped a fake tear from his eye. Beginning to open his mouth to speak but before he could I gave him a pleading look to talk in English again. (Perche nostro figlio e cosi? Siamo sicuri che non sia stato cambiato alla nascita?-Why is our son like this? Are we sure he didn't get switched at birth?)

"We'll talk about this again later, my not-so dear father. But it seems we have left our dear little Isabella out since she still hasn't learned Italian yet, so shall we switch to speaking English again." Vincenzo interjected, making both my aunt and uncle to nod, agreeing to speak in English. I let out a sigh, being able to understand people is a great feeling. Uncle Marco wrapped his arms around aunt Andrea's waist as she stood doing my hair.

Uncle Marco began whispering something into her hear which I don't quite understand the little bit that I heard. Something about tonight and not being able to walk tomorrow. Whatever he said made my aunt turn the same shade as her hair. Weird.

I guess Vincenzo understood what happened because after aunt Andrea's face turned red he made a gagging sound and walked out of my room/bathroom while shaking his head.

Aunt Andrea walked out of the bathroom as soon as she finished my hair with uncle Marco wrapped around her like a snake.

I checked the time on my phone, 9:18am.

Breakfast should be over by now, which means dad should be in his office on the third floor. So I have to find someone to take me up there. I stuff my phone into my back pocket making my way to the first step on the staircase looking both ways to make sure no one was there to see me going down the stairs by myself. Lord knows that it's a crime to walk down stairs by yourself.

Who can I find to take me to the third floor. Definitely not Vincenzo he's far to nosy, I don't know if Pavel can take me since he is younger than me, I could ask Apollo but then he'd tell Alvaro and Abel then they'd just start following behind us. You know what it would probably be best to find an adult. Now it's just a matter of which adu-

I bump into someone when hopping off the last step. I look to see Nonna holding a tray of cookies, a few of the cookies laying on the floor.

"I am so, so sorry Nonna! Are you ok?" I squeaked, frantically trying to pick up the fallen cookies.

"Of course I'm ok dear, I may be old but I'm not fragile-Isabella Rose Romano! You were walking down the stairs by yourself!" Nonna reprimanded me, my eyes went wide if fear. What if she tells dad? What if he gets angry and kicks me out? No, Nonna nor dad would do that, right?

"I know, I'm sorry, it's just-" I was cut off by Nonna's sudden laughter. I'm telling you this family needs to see someone about their mental issues.

"I was just playing, la mia piccola rosa. I think this whole thing about you hurting yourself when walking down the stairs is ridiculous. I only assume you do too, I mean c'mon you are almost 14, you can walk down the stairs without hurting yourself! You've done it before! Now where were you going?" Nonna jeered with a smile playing at her lips, bumping me playfully on the shoulder. (la mia piccola rosa-my little rose)

"Oh um, I was going to ask someone to take me to dad's office on the third floor so I could ask him something." I replied to my grandmother's question. Scanning the ground to see if I missed any of the cookies.

"Perfect! I was just on my way up there to bring your Nonno and Antonio some cookies, there up in your father's office together. We can go up their together. First, put those cookies back on the tray, the two of them don't have to know what happened." Nonna told me, her smile beaming with cheer. I hurriedly placed the cookies back on the tray.

Walking side by side with Nonna in comfortable silence. As we made our way up to the third floor.

Nonna didn't bother to knock on the door of my father's office as she just barged in with me following hesitantly behind her. Dad and Nonno stopped talking as we walked in, dad beginning to look angry at whoever walked in before he saw Nonna and me.

"Antonio, Rocco, Isabella and I came to bring you some cookies. What do you say?" Nonna asked teasingly as she put the tray down in front of them placing her now empty hands on her hips.

"Thank you, mamma"

"Thank you, amore della mia vita" (Amore della mia vita-love of my life)

Both dad and Nonno answered simultaneously already reaching for the cookies in front of them. Their replies earning a satisfied smile from Nonna.

"Antonio your daughter has something to ask you, go on Isabella." Nonna announced making my father and grandfather turn their attention towards me, their cheeks on the verge of exploding from how many cookies they had stuffed into their mouths. I waited until dad swallowed the cookies in his mouth and nodded his head giving me the go ahead to ask my question. Here goes nothing.

"Dad, I really, really want to go back to school. I'll clean the entire house if necessary but I really want to go back. So can I?" I pleaded with my father. Please say yes, please say yes, please say yes.

Dad looked at questioningly as if he was deciding weather or not I was being serious.

"I'm sorry principessa bu-" Nonna cleared her throat successfully interrupting dad, we all looked towards Nonna to see her looking directly at dad, giving him the 'if you tell this child no, I will murder you in your sleep' look. It's a very scary look, especially because knowing grandma she really would kill someone in their sleep if tested.

I looked back towards dad to see him visibly gulp right, clear his throat then begin to speak again.

"Of course you can go back to school Isabella." Dad murmured still looking at Nonna. I squealed happily and jumped for joy. Running over to my dad giving him a big hug which he didn't hesitate to return.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"