The New Ginger Princess

A cookie cutter house in a typical suburban neighborhood might not seem special to the average person, but when Marissa heard that this particular one was now her home it became the most special building ever. The cream colored exterior that looks just like every other house on that street isn't enough for a person to find any sort of interest in it, but as Marissa set her green eyes on its plain exterior she thought it to be the most beautiful house in the world.

Austin and Alan gaze at how their daughter stares at the house in a state of awe, smiling down at her as they wait for her to say something.

"Wow, it is the most beautiful house in the whole entire world," the small ginger declares in a hushed tone as she finally finds her words. "Let's see how beautiful it is on the inside too!" She instructs just as she releases both of her parents' hands and starts running to the front door. 

"Here, I will grab her bags, you can let her in the house before she explodes from the anticipation," Austin says, handing the keys to Alan and walking over to the trunk of the car.

Alan hurries over to the little girl who is still hopping up and down on the front porch. As the front door is unlocked and opened Marissa lets out this excited squeal that the shorter parent cringes from slightly before quickly recovering. The two gingers enter the simple home, the child prancing in and continuing straight into the living room where she plops herself onto the couch. This stationary position lasts only long enough for Alan to walk into the room, because she is still too excited to sit still and decides to check out the kitchen that is connected to the living room. 

The living room and kitchen are separated by a wall that only goes up five feet and goes across about halfway, leaving the kitchen to feel mostly open, but still its own area. There is an island in the half of the kitchen that has the kitchen amenities, the other half of the room being the dining area containing a table and four chairs. The sliding glass door leading to the backyard is on the back wall of the dining area and the door to the garage is on the adjacent wall, across from the partition.

Not really needing to go through the kitchen cabinets, Marissa loops around the island and then does the same with the dining table. She takes a moment to stop and press her face against the back door as she stares into the backyard. Upon turning to check out the rest of the house, she almost trips over a little gray and white cat drinking from little water bowl on the floor. Spotting the kitten, in the car she learned his name is Mittens, she let out another squeal and tried to pick him up, resulting in him running off.

"Mittens come back!" The little girl shouts running after the poor cat. The cat hides in his little cat house thing so she decides to just continue checking out the house. She goes back towards the front entrance, turning right down the hallway and finding four doors and a right turn at the end where the hallway continues. When she sees the L shaped hallway she stops and looks back at her parents who are watching her from the front entrance.

"Want an actual tour?" Alan asks the little girl who simply nods her head and reaches her hand out to have him hold it. "This is the bathroom," he points to the first door on the right. 

"Yep," Marissa says, looking into the open doorway and turning on the light as she confirms what he said. She flips the light back off and motions for her father to continue their tour.

"This is the laundry room" he tells her as they reach the next door on the right. She opens the door and turns on the light to see small room with a washer, dryer, and a few laundry baskets, giving him a small nod before she turns the light off and closes the door. 

Walking back a couple steps he motions to the first door on the left and saying, "This is the guest bedroom." As expected, she opens the door and flicks the light on even though there is enough light shining through the window. It is a simple room with a full sized bed covered in a plain blue comforter and pillows with matching blue pillowcases, a side table, and a closet. The room isn't really exciting enough to keep Marissa from her typical routine of confirming that what Alan said is true before she turns the light back off and having him continue with the tour.
 
The next door on the left is just a closet at the end of the hall, but Marissa still chooses to open the door to see for herself and finds it lined with shelves holding extra pillows and blankets. She closes the door and pulls on Alan's hand so they can go down the section of the hall that makes it into the L shape, this section of the hall only containing two doors, one on each side. 

"This door leads to me and Austin's bedroom," he says about the door on the right, looking down at her when she makes no move to open the door. He notices her looking up at him with a slightly unsure expression that he doesn't really understand.

"You can open the door if you want, Marissa," the dark haired parent assures her from his place behind them when he realizes she is waiting for permission to open their door. She smiles back at him and goes to open the door and turn on the light so she can see the room.

"Woah, the bed is huge," the small voice chirps as she sees the king sized bed in the middle of the room. As she peers through the doorway she sees two more open doors on the wall across from where she stands allowing her to see a walk in closet and master bathroom. She switches the light off and turns to face the door on the opposite side of the hall.

"This is going to be your room," Alan says as she opens it and flicks the light switch. Seeing a mostly empty room with just a closet, a simple dresser, and her bags on the floor next to it she turns back to her parents for an explanation.

"We weren't sure exactly who we were going to bring into our family so we didn't want to prepare the room beforehand," the ginger parent clarifies.

"You will have to sleep in the guest room tonight, and we can go get you a bed for your room tomorrow. This way you get the bedspread and curtains that you can help pick out instead of having ones already here that you might not have liked," the taller parent chimes in, receiving a small nod and a huge grin from the child.

With the tour over they walk back to the living room and sit down on the couch; Marissa's attention shifts to the cat who decides to climb onto her lap after seeing that she has finally stopped running around. 

While the girl cuddles the cat the new parents are discussing the fact that they need to get a booster seat for the car before they can take the family out tomorrow. Austin offers to go get it but Alan says that he can do it so the taller husband can spend quality time with their daughter. Austin points out that the shorter parent should get the chance to spend the quality time with her instead.

"How about you try to get her hair brushed while I get the booster seat," the younger of the pair suggests. 

"Alright," Austin chuckles at his spouse before looking at his daughter who is still cuddling Mittens. He takes a look at her messy hair, knowing that the ginger locks are going to be difficult to untangle, but understanding that dealing with tangly hair is just a part of having a young daughter. "Marissa, honey, do you have a hairbrush in one of your bags?" he asks, pulling her attention away from the cat in her lap.

"Yes, but you don't need to use it," she replies using a tone that clearly implies how much she does not like having her hair brushed. 

Taking this as a sign that he definitely got the better deal Alan speaks up. "I have to go out for a bit so I can get you a booster seat for the car, and since it's almost four I figure I can pick up dinner on my way home. I could get McDonald's if that works for you two. Do you like chicken nuggets and french fries?" He asks his daughter. The question earns a cheer from the five year old, causing both parents to smile in adoration as Alan goes to grab his wallet and the keys.

"So, Marissa, do you think you could get me your hairbrush so I could try and get rid of some of the knots in your hair?" Austin asks, returning to the task at hand.

"I don't think you need to brush my hair," she says trying to convince him that her hair is just fine. When he asks again she adds, "My hairbrush is actually for emergencies only, so I probably should keep it in bag." Austin takes a deep breath to help him figure out how to get her to even bring him her hairbrush.

When Alan sees just how difficult his husband's task is going to be he decides that it is the perfect time to head out, not before saying goodbye though. He stands in front of the couch where his husband, daughter, and cat are sitting so he can say goodbye. "I am going to head out now. I will get the booster seat and be back later with dinner." 

"We'll be here. Drive safe, I love you," Austin says as he stands up to give his husband a hug and a quick kiss before he leaves.

"Good luck with her hair," the younger whispers during their hug. As they pull apart Marissa gets up from the couch so she can give Alan a hug too. He gives her a hug and kisses the top of her head before going to the door, calling out, "I love you both."

"I love you too," they both call back right before he shuts the door behind him.

"Please, may I brush your hair? It would really mean a lot to me if you let me do this."

After a defeated sigh the child agrees and heads out of the room to retrieve the hairbrush.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

"Alright, I'm done for now."

"Thank goodness."

A half an hour later Austin has managed to untangle a majority of knots from Marissa's ginger hair, which involved quite a bit of squeaks in discomfort from the child and asking him if he was almost done brushing her hair. He couldn't get all of the knots out in one sitting, but it definitely looks much better than before.

With that taken care of the two decide to curl up on the couch and watch Spongebob until Alan gets back. About halfway through the episode they hear the front door open and are met with the smell of french fries.

"I'm back! I have dinner and I even put the booster seat in by myself," Alan announces as he enters the living room and sets the food down on the coffee table. He heads into the kitchen to hang up his keys and comes back with paper plates.

Austin sorts through the food and finds the chicken nuggets, serving five of them onto a plate before putting some fries on it and handing it to the excited child sitting next to him. The adults then serve themselves their food and they all sit around the coffee table enjoying their dinner while trying to keep Mittens from stealing their fries. 

Halfway through the following episode of Spongebob they are all done eating and the remaining chicken nuggets are placed in the fridge. Seeing as the couple typically spends Saturday evenings curled up on the couch watching movies, much like Friday evenings, Alan suggests it as a nice way to spend the evening as a family. When they all agree that it is a good idea both parents tell Marissa that she can pick the movie and point to the shelf full of DVDs.

The two parents sit on the couch watching her look at the movies knowing that she is at the shelf full of basically every Disney movie, especially the princess ones.

"You have Frozen!" Marissa exclaims as she pulls the movie off the shelf and runs it over to Austin who goes to set it up.

When Austin returns to the couch he places himself next to Marissa on the opposite side as Alan. As he presses play on the remote the parents have their daughter curled up between them contentedly watching the movie.

Both parents lovingly listen to their daughter sing along to the songs she knows, and when the movie is over she is so tired that it isn't even difficult getting her ready for bed and tucked in. She falls asleep almost as soon as her head hits the pillow and the couple take a moment to just marvel at their daughter before they turn off the light and head back to the living room. They both relax in each other's arms on the couch as they think about how they just had their very first day as a family.