emerson mitchell

it was february 18th, 1991 that emerson graced the mitchell family with her presence, falling into the hands of her father. at that time, the mitchell family now consisted of dominic and his wife, katherine, and their two beautiful daughters. the family lived in houston, texas, where both dominic and katherine grew up and felt it right to raise their children there. dominic worked as a dentist, katherine as a teacher, and the two of them made things work. it wasn't always easy with two young ones around and things got tough but the two of them knew that the love between their family was enough to keep them going.

well, until emerson was three and her older sister was almost six. it was then that their picture perfect life began to crumble. katherine couldn't deal with having the pressure of everything anymore, and left her family behind to travel. dominic was broken-hearted but kept himself composed to do the best he could for his two daughters. what he thought would be a few months time of soul-searching ended up being a few phone calls and a letter, explaining that she wouldn't be back around but to make sure the girls knew that she loved them. and, so he did. he never favored one daughter over the other but emerson seemed to grab hold of the title "daddy's little girl" and wrapped him gently around her itty bitty fingers.

emerson's personality came together with age: her loving and passionate nature from her father and her mother hen tendencies from the lack of having a mother around. despite the difference in age, emerson became the mother of the household. she was shy, but she knew how to take control of situations. she was stubborn and could hold her own. she made friends easily in the earlier years of elementary school but when she hit third grade, her world began to shift again.

being teased was something emerson never took easily. it shut her down to be laughed at and ridiculed for not having a mother, for mismatching her clothes when she came to school, or being downright different than everyone else. she alienated herself and kept quiet, talking most to her sibling, father, and imaginary friends. by the time emerson was in high school, her older sister was deciding on colleges. it broke her heart when she realized that her sister wasn't going to stay in texas like emerson wanted, no, but she'd take herself all the way to new york.

even though she'd be leaving her father behind, emerson packed her bags and moved along with her sister. they crammed themselves into a small one bedroom apartment and emerson spent her senior year in an entirely new environment. it caused her to branch out more than she normally would've if she were to still be in texas. she met new people and decided that big crowds were more her thing than anything else, as she still felt too self-conscious about her quirks to be alone with someone. it was new york that emerson met gale wildstein and though she was friends with her older sister, the two of them became best friends anyhow. it was almost like fate, as emerson describes it. she had found her platonic other half.

towards the end of senior year, emerson got more and more calls from her father asking what she planned on doing with her life and if it maybe, just maybe, involved coming back down to texas. emerson could never deny her southern roots nor the fact that she missed her father more than life itself and so, she was back to texas. leaving behind her sister was one of the hardest decisions emerson ever had to make but it was the right one and she returned home with gale to attend texas a&m. majoring in child psychology, emerson hopes to land herself a good job but fate can only tell where life will take her.

fast forward to two years later and emerson isn't doing as great as one might have expected out of the twenty year old. a little over a month into her relationship with noah, she got a call saying her sister was in the hospital. despite not wanting to be behind, she took off without notice to be with the one person who has always been there for her. two weeks later, emerson took a week to catch up on her school and now she's ready to get back into action. will she be welcomed with open arms? or will she have to settle back into her shell?