Wrong End of the Stick
Neal sighed in resignation as he watched his dad ponder between three presents for his brother's birthday. Every offer Neal had put forward was immediately shot down as either being too immature or it was considered to be something Neal was more likely to play with than Mozzie.
"Stop the sighing young man, we will be finished shortly", Peter's soft rebuke did nothing to settle the fluffed up feathers of the little moppet. Poor Neal was in kid heaven with the stacks upon stacks of toys just itching to be played with, but his dad kept him on a tight leash.
The Kindergartner class has finished with a half day today, as the teachers needed to compile the end of term reports and had staff training. This right before the end of the summer term left both parents and their children rather unhappy.
Neal having had the rocky start he did with attending school had begun to flourish over the past academic year. Quite often he had to literally be dragged away from the school by his parents. He was the class' Casanova and with his smile, charm and wit, he regularly had both fellow peers and staff eating out of his hand.
The three people who were exempt to this factor were his mum, dad and teacher. However, they all had moments of internal battles to overcome his power. For the pint sized moppet was well aware of his good looks and if he didn't have such a lovely nature, could quite easily use them to his advantage. No for now, the adults were quite happy with him trying to earn more smiley stamps on his behaviour record.
The introduction of the behaviour record by Mrs Roberts had proven to be a success. At the end of every day before going home, Neal religiously went up to the desk to receive his smiley or sad face stamp, dependent upon how he had followed the rules.
The boy's rules were quite simple; listen to all lessons, participate in every activity (that was one rule never broken anymore, the children scrabbling to be able to sit next to Neal), speak verbally when spoken to and to speak to a teacher if there was a problem.
For everyday that ended with a smiley face at school, a star was placed on his chart at home, as long as Neal respected the rules of the household. And for every 10 stars, a treat was given. Currently Neal was saving up his treats as he wanted a day out with his family to Disneyland in the summer. His parents had agreed as long as both children maintained their excellent behaviour records.
Today was going to be the final day before Peter and El made a final decision about the trip. Both boys had been on their very best behaviour for the past 6 weeks, they had already started to pack their bags with the necessities for the trip. Sunglasses, autograph books and the cameras Peter and El had bought for them at Christmas, and of course in Neal's bag was Sunny the Seal, complete with his own Disney badge.
Neal, who had grown bored of his dads pondering, stopped to look at the Disney toys hanging above the shelf. It was busy in the store so he kept close to his dad, as the last thing he wanted to do was lose him, so soon after finding him.
As the child started longingly at Bambi, a bustling customer barged through and pushed the child to the ground. Neal landed with a loud thump, on the shelf taking the contents with him.
Peter, who had finally decided on a present for Mozzie, heard the small sounds of a child trying to hold back tears and looked round to keep Neal away form the area. His son had a heart of gold and would be the first to offer some form of comfort, but in a store this busy, Peter was taking no changes.
Instead as his gaze searched the area around him, he found his youngest son, in the middle of a pile of toys, with bits of display and shelf lying around him in a hazardous pile.
Rushing over to pick up his small moppet, Peter dug through the mess and pulled Neal into his arms, whom promptly burst into tears from the shock. One or two of the bystanders started to look on sympathetically before moving off to take advantage of the emptier shelves.
"Ok buddy, your all right, Ssh now." Peter soothed his youngest while balancing his toy selection and Neal's discarded backpack. Quickly making his way over to the checkout, Peter continued his soothing words whilst paying for his purchase before making a great escape to the exit.
Striding purposefully through with an armful of purchases, bag and Neal, Peter didn't counter on the security buzzer sounding. Freezing and backtracking, Peter handed over everything apart from Neal.
Looking up, the security guard held up the offending item which had sounded the buzzer.
"Care to explain this sir?"