Life of a Reformed Wild Child by Valerie Ziegler (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud .TXT) 📕

Introduction
By some miracle or by some means of fate, Elaina Maracle finally caught a break. When Elaina was growing up, she had always been different from other girls her age. She was extraordinarily outgoing and always spoke her mind, she got into trouble constantly, and she really did not care what people thought of her. Most that ever took the chance to get to know her thought she was incredibly straight forward and obnoxious. For example, when Elaina was only two years old, she got herself band from the YMCA for demanding a new swim instructor. By the age of four, she could not hold her tongue to save her life. While shopping at a grocery store with her mother, Elaina informed a worker that his bald head was shinier then her father’s new car. By the age of six, Elaina’s mother began seeing shrink to calm her nerves due to Elaina’s poor behavior.
As Elaina grew older, she changed very little; literally. While all the other girls at the age of thirteen began to look like adults, Elaina maintained the appearance of an eight year old girl. For this reason, she had a hard time fitting in. No guys were interested in her, and most girls didn’t even bother getting to know her. All though it was rough, Elaina always managed to get by. Her favorite pass time was inflicting torment on the snobby girls in her class. Worms in their food, ketchup on their seats, resetting their locker combination, and anything else that bothered them never ceased to amuse her.
This behavior continued until she was around sixteen. At that point, she had entirely stopped caring. She paid no attention to her colleagues but channeled all of her energy into studying, writing, acting, reading, or anything else that blocked out reality. No one cared for her, and she cared for no one. Or at least she thought she was incapable of caring for someone, but that was before she met Jason.
Chapter one
‘Storming again’, Elaina thought as she grabbed her keys and prepared to make a run for her car. Her day just kept getting worse. First the library was closed, then she got called into work the late shift at her job, and now it was pouring down rain. At twenty-two, Elaina currently worked at a small deli. Ironically, there was nothing more foul to her then meat raw or cooked. Touching it and smelling it all day was her personal hell, but she needed the money and refused to complain.
As she pulled up to the deli called Munchies, she felt around her purse for her perfume which she always dabbed on her nose to bloke out any nauseating smells. Opening the car door, she stepped out. She looked around slowly because she did not want to have any more encounters with the man she referred to as “the creeper”. The creeper stalked her at least twice a week. At first she thought that she was coincidentally bumping into this creepy man, but it just didn’t make any sense. When she went to the library he was there, when she got a cup of coffee, he did too, and he was always sitting outside of the deli. She didn’t see him today, however, so she felt more at ease, but her ease slithered away when he popped out from his hiding place.
“Hey girl! Come for a ride with me. I can show you things you ain’t ever seen before!”
Reassuring herself that she could handle this, Elaina replied, “I’m sure you could, but I’m not into trash like you.”
“Feisty! But baby, you’re gonna wish you hadn’t said that,” the disgusting man shrieked back as he slowly approached her.
‘Don’t panic. Don’t panic. The deli is only a few feet away. I can make a run for it, or at least choke out a scream,’ she assured herself. But just then she felt the man grab her wrist. She gathered up every ounce of courage that she had and let out the loudest screech. Apparently, no one was at the deli because no one came to her rescue. Ignoring the man’s loud laughter, she thought of every possible way of distracting him. As she struggled with him, she came up with two options: she could flash him because that would surely distract him, or she could kick him and run for it. She decided on option two because she had no intentions of losing her dignity to this pig. She gathered up all her strength and kicked him as hard as she could and was quite satisfied with herself when the man groaned in pain and staggered back. But her plan did not go as smoothly as she had hoped because it became suddenly very dark. Her head was spinning, and Elaina felt that her end was near.
Suddenly, Elaina heard two men talking in the distance, and then she felt two strong arms close around her. She felt herself being flung over the man’s shoulder as she finally realized what was happening: she was being kidnapped.
As the man placed her unmoving body into his car, Elaina tried her hardest to come back to reality, but she was out cold. It was so frustrating. She was completely aware of her surroundings, but she could not make herself respond to any sound. She listened carefully searching for any means of escape. Just then she heard the sound of a phone.
‘Perfect!’ she thought, ‘He’ll pick it up, and I will start screaming.’
As she wrestled with herself, she heard the man answer the phone. To her surprise, the voice she heard sounded nothing like the voice of her stalker. This man sounded sober and his voice was attractive. Elaina began thinking that she had hit her head a little too hard. It didn’t matter who her kidnapper was; she still needed to get away.
While the man continued his conversation, she managed to open her eyes. Everything came rushing back at her all at one. She remembered the man swinging his fist at her and connecting with her face. Then she recalled being slammed into the wall of the deli. As her memories flooded back, so did the pain. Her head was sore, and she smelled blood. There was no way she was going to let someone get away with treating her like that. She flung open her eyes and then choked out a scream.
The man looked at her with eyes full of pity and began trying to calm her. To his surprise, this only annoyed her even more. How dare he try to calm her! She became so furious. Her head was swimming with pain, confusion, and now pure outrage.
“Snap out of it!” she heard him demand, “Look at me. Do I look like the man that hurt you?”
Actually, now that she looked at him, she realized that he did not look like the man that tried to hurt her. In fact, he was incredibly handsome and apparently, he had rescued her. Before she could even question him to figure out if his story was true, she began to daydream about the fairytale life she would have with her hero. Once again though, he interrupted her train of thought.
“What’s your name? How old are you? Do you remember what happened? Do you know the name of your attacker?” asked her concerned hero.
“My name is Elaina Maracle. I am twenty-two years old. I remember being attacked, and sadly, I don’t know the name of my attacker. However, I have seen him before. He’s been stalking me for at least a month,” Elaina answered, “I tried to avoid him, but he just kept following me.”
“Alright, well I’m gonna take you to the police station, and we can tell the police what happened.”
“Wait! What’s your name?” Elaina asked.
“My name is Jason Claymore, and I believe you are forever in my debt,” he replied with a sly smile.
“Thank you Jason. I’m forever in your gratitude. However will I repay you?” she jokingly answered.
“Well, you could start by giving me your phone number, and then you could join me for dinner on Friday,” he said while flashing her one of the most beautiful smile she had ever seen.
Her heart almost stopped beating. She had never been asked out before, but she had gotten a lot prettier over the years. She was now average sized for a woman with big, blue eyes, freckles, creamy, white skin, and sandy blonde hair, and this super gorgeous man obviously thought she was pretty. Oh, and she thought he was too. He stood at over six feet tall with pensive, grey eyes that sparkled when he smiled, dark hair, and a dark complexion.
Getting completely lost in his smile, she forgot his question. He stared back at her and repeated, “Well, what’s your number?”
“Oh! It’s 369-6828,” she answered with a startled look plastered on her face.
That was the beginning of their relationship. They became inseparable from that point on. After two months, they were head over heels in love with each other. No one had ever understood Elaina, but for some reason, Jason could. He was Elaina’s other half. After six months, Jason purposed to Elaina, and of course, she excepted. Three months later, she became Mrs. Elaina Claymore.


Chapter Two
Smiling down at the beautiful baby girl she held in her arms, Elaina was filled with happiness. It had been four years since she and Jason had gotten married. She now had two beautiful children. Avery, her son, was almost three years old now, and Delanie, her daughter, was only two months old. She had been unemployed for the last three years much to her enjoyment. Jason made quite a fortune for he owned his own company; thus, Elaina was able to spend all day with her children. But that was a job in itself. Managing a family was one of the hardest things she had ever had to do. It was hard work to keep her house clean, her children supervised, maintain a good environment for her children, and manage to spend time with Jason, but she managed.
Looking up at the clock, she realized that it was time for Avery and Delanie to go for a nap. Kissing them both, she tucked them into their beds. Of course, Delanie cried and Avery whined and squirmed, but soon they were both asleep. She then headed down to the kitchen to begin preparing dinner. To the Claymores, eating dinner together was the most important part of the day. It was the only time when all of them could be together because Jason worked until seven o’clock and the kids went to bed at eight. Cooking was also one of Elaina’s favorite pass times. It was like edible art. For tonight’s meal, she was preparing a pork roast with onions and mashed potatoes and cooked carrots. It was everyone’s favorite dish. Even baby Delanie enjoyed a few bites of the mashed potatoes with her baby food.
Deeply in thought, Elaina placed the roast in the slow cooker. She began wondering about her stalker. Was he still in jail? Did he ever turn his life around? She knew that he was the last person she should be thinking about, but she couldn’t help but wonder. she decided to push those thoughts to the back of her head and began focusing on more important things like enrolling Avery in the perfect pre-school. She was always worrying about him because little Avery mimicked his mother’s behavior as a child. She admired