Snippet #2585036

Gabriella was more than pleased when Kimberly showed signs of life. Despite being woken abruptly and without any real reason, Kim didn't complain and complied with Ella's request for her to get up. The patience that Kimberly had for Gabriella was saintly, and although she was too used to it to recognize its significance, Ella did cherish her sister. She was her world, really. There had never been anyone who cared about and for her in the way that Kimberly did, and even if she didn't fully understand how much the older girl had sacrificed to help her, she did appreciate her. Gabriella just showed that appreciation in different ways than others would.

When Kimberly reminded her to be quiet in case anyone else was still asleep, Ella turned her attention to her surroundings. Luckily, it looked like most of the others were awake. Kieran had started playing his guitar on the other side of the room, David was laying on his mattress but didn't seem to be fully asleep, Roman and Alex were gone, and Nala had just come downstairs. Besides Axel, Brooklyn was the only one missing, but she had been gone for weeks and Ella had gotten used to not looking for her anymore. It was certainly sad not having the blonde around. Gabriella was definitely not Brooklyn's favorite person and her negativity was directed at her very frequently, but her presence in the group was still essential. While Alex was viewed as the head of the group, it had been said that Brooklyn was actually the first one to be living here. Ella didn't put much thought into most things, so she never really worried about where Brooklyn was, but she would occasionally ask Kimberly about it. Her sister worked with her, so she normally would just get a reassuring response that Brooklyn was living somewhere else and would move on with a new conversation.

While Kimberly was dressing, Gabriella moved from her mattress to her sister's. She was tempted to approach Kieran and question him about what song he was playing, or tell Nala, for probably the tenth time, about the cute dog she had seen the day before, but Kimberly addressed her first. The library definitely was not one of Ella's favorite places since reading and being quiet were probably two of the things she was worst at. "Can I go on the computers when we go?" she asked after a slight pause.

However, the next comment about being able to get ice cream after the library negated any objections that she had, and she nodded in agreement. "Did you get a lot of money at your job yesterday?" was her next question. Gabriella knew what Kimberly did for a living to an extent. She knew that she got money for dancing, but in her naive mind, she imagined it to be more like a ballet or talent show, rather than her sister half-naked, hanging onto a pole.