A TCP. Moviemom44, as always, for which I'm endlessly grateful to her, did the beta work on this. It was she who proposed the title for the story, as well. All I have out of the whole story is the characters. Speaking of the characters, cousin Elijah to whom and his family the references are made is a character from "They Never Discovered Their Powers". MarvelMaster616 wrote then in his review that "Elijah sounds like the kind of guy who is bound to his family, but has aspirations that go beyond where he grew up" and it was which made me think it would be a cool idea to make small mentions on other characters from my TCP stories in the other TCP's by me. Like those connections in Stephen King's works. Thanks for this idea, MarvelMaster616.

Gran's Revenge

"So how was it, gran? Tell us once more."

"Aren't you bored with the same old story yet, kids?"

"No, Gran, your stories from your childhood are always the best! Aren't they, Nicky?"

"Yeah, Gran's always full of the bestest stories ever. So tell us once more about your great grandfather's birthday, pleeeease, Gran, you promised."

"Oh, well, if you like this story so much, then so be it. I wasn't much older than you, Zoe, then. I was ten. Great grandpa Benjamin's hundredth birthday was a great occasion to call a family gathering. You know it doesn't happen often for anyone to celebrate their hundredth birthday, so it was no surprise that the whole family arrived. Even the distant cousins. Well, every occasion is good to show off in the local newspaper. The people from the editorial staff arrived later to take a photo of the oldest inhabitant of our town, surrounded by the family, to put in the paper with the article...To be honest, the photo wasn't as good as it could have been… not after what happened… but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

I knew the birthday party was going to be boring. With all those adults treating me like a baby it couldn't be otherwise. Mom's sister, Aunt Karen, would pinch me on my cheeks and want to know if I had already kissed any boy. Cousin Anne Miller from Shipshewana who was your uncle Elijah's mom would compare me to her daughter, as always, and the first thing I'd hear from her would be that I wasn't as tall as Liz when she was my age. Cousin's Julie's twins would keep calling me 'stinker' and 'fatso'... she never could teach them any manners… I knew it would be like that. It always was. I wouldn't be surprised that much if it was she who told them to call me those names. She didn't like me. She told them to keep away from me. I knew my relatives well enough to know what to expect. I didn't want to go to the birthday party. Not at all, but my parents told me I had to, the same as they made me go with them to all those other family gatherings before. Like Aunt Karen's birthday, two months before. Or Liz's wedding. She and her husband were there at great grandpa's party, the same as Elijah… it was before he left the family… I'm not surprised at all that he wanted more from life than living in that Amish town. There was also Uncle Preston with that new Polish wife of his; his brother, Uncle Eric, who always got drunk at parties...I was always so afraid of him then; and my adult first cousin, Charlotte, who arrived from Ohio. You remember Nicky, she's the one who gave you this blue hoodie. The whole family was there, which meant around 30 people, including kids. Yes, I knew what it would look like, well enough to not want to go there from the bottom of my heart…"

"Gran!"

"What's wrong, Zoe? Ah, you want me to get down to business… All right, so I shall. Great grandpa's birthday was the day when I did it again. I knew it would be nasty, I knew it even at the moment when I actually was doing it but it didn't prevent me from doing this. Your parents wouldn't be very glad hearing me tell all of this to you but now when they're out of town, I can tell you the truth – I planned it a week before the party and enjoyed this. I didn't tell anyone but I knew well before it happened that apart from his turning 100, there was also another reason for which great grandpa's birthday party was going to be out of the ordinary."

"Go on, grannie. Nicky and me like this story. It's so funny."

"It was. But the adults then didn't find it funny and I'm not surprised. I could be a nasty kid sometimes. Auntie Agnieszka, my uncle Preston's wife told me once that in her country there was nothing like preteens and that at the age of 11 – and I lacked only 4 months to it – you were already an official teenager. I loved this idea. I know now and I knew even back then that I was too old to do what I did at the party but I couldn't help it. It was my sweet revenge for being forced to squeeze myself in this uncomfortable dress from Aunt Julie because if I didn't wear it then, she would be upset, according to my mom. For being called a smelly fatso by Evan and Ethan and I couldn't complain because I always had to give in to them because they were younger and didn't understand it was impolite to say so – that was what aunt Julie said to me when I told her about what her sons told me. For being forced to watch drunk Uncle Eric and listen to Cousin Anne who was always telling me that I didn't have such good marks at school as her children when they were my age. And for Aunt Karen pinching me on my cheeks like I was six, like the twins."

"And what was next?"

"I contrived it one evening when I was lying in bed. This idea just came to my mind all of a sudden. Suddenly I knew what I should do to show all those stupid adults what I thought about their boring parties at which everyone treated me like a small kid, even younger than Ethan and Evan. I got prepared for this day well. So for the whole week I collected the whole reserve of the acid I had in stock…"

"Gran, how did you get and store the acid?"

"Nicky, don't interrupt! You know how Gran did it."

"Sorry, Zoe."

"Children, stop quarreling. So to make a long story short, I did it. When that day came, we went to great grandpa's house. Everybody was already present. I exchanged greetings with everybody. Pouring some acid on them, while hugging them. Of course only on those whom I didn't like. I spared those who were nice to me. Like Elijah and Liz – it's not their fault their mother never managed to worm herself into my favor. Or Uncle Preston and Agnieszka. But I didn't spare the double dose to Aunt Karen and Aunt Julie's brats. Nobody saw me do this."

"Gran, I can't imagine doing this without being noticed."

"Well, Zoe, I did. I have my ways to do it, you know. I did it and waited. It was like any other family gathering I took part in. Being pinched on my cheeks, told such a big girl should already start to be interested in boys, asked what my school marks were and why they weren't as good as cousin Anne's children's when they went to school. Like always. And I stopped having any qualms of conscience because of what I planned to do to them. They deserved it."

"And what was later?"

"And later all I had to do was wait. We gave the presents to great grandpa and started eating, waiting for the arrival of the people from the editorial staff. I remember this well after all those years – I was just putting a bite of birthday cake into my mouth a fork when I heard a woman's scream. I jumped, almost dropping the cake. I turned away to see what it was. Or maybe I should say from whose mouth the scream was coming out because as for what it was, I knew it exquisitely well. It was Aunt Karen who was screaming as her smart blue costume was melting. The acid did its work well. The fabric melted away, leaving huge holes behind. The skin itself remained untouched but dear old auntie was bawling at the top of her voice, as if it was her own flesh which was melting so fast that she didn't have time to cover herself from the glances of all the family members who were looking at her at that very moment. And then another scream rent the air. And the next ones followed. Aunt Julie and her bratty kids'. Great Aunt Phyllis's. She was always so virulent. Uncle Eric's. Cousin Cathy's. She was my age and always telling me that there was no place in society for people like me and now she had done it. Their smart clothes worn on this occasion were now melting away, exposing their bodies. They looked so funny when they were swearing and screaming and trying to cover themselves – all of this with such hatred in their eyes. They'd tear me to pieces if they could. They stopped hollering out and the silence, so thick that you could cut it with a knife enveloped the room. The silence was broken by Aunt Julie who turned round to my parents and pointing at me accusingly, hissed:"It's your Grace who did it." And then everybody looked at me and I already knew I wasn't going to avoid the punishment."

"And later? What happened later?"

"I got grounded. I couldn't go out anywhere for a month afterward. I couldn't see Emma and Monica – they were my best friends then – after school. I couldn't watch TV nor eat sweets for the month afterward. But I didn't regret what I did that much. It was a sweet revenge. My parents never took me to any adult family gatherings until I was an adult myself. And then no one pinched me on my cheeks nor asked what school marks I had."

"But before you were punished, how did your parents react?"

"Well, even without Aunt Julie, they'd have found out easily it was me. I knew it from the very beginning that they'd find out. That everybody would find this out. My parents wouldn't need Aunt Julie to discover the truth of who did it. After all, it's easy to guess who is responsible for something like that when you have a child who has the power to disintegrate any kind of inorganic matter using the acid excreted by the small openings on the tips of her fingers."