Author's Note: This is one of the three stories I meant to release back in September, only like everything else, it got pushed back by a month, due to other things going on in my life at the time, and I was inspired to write this story, after watching one of my favorite Full House episodes from season 5, and reading Nairobi-harper's story, 'No Girls Allowed,' which I hope she gets back to soon, as it's far from being finished. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this story, despite its tragic ending.
Rosie's Regretful Return
Summary: Rosie tells the story of her final trip to visit Tommy as a 4-year-old toddler, only to be met with the regretful fact that he's going through his, 'I don't wanna play with girls stage.' Rosie is owned by Nairobi-harper, and this story is an homage to a Full House episode, when Michelle's best friend Teddy, was going through a similar stage.
Disclaimer: I do not own the original Rugrats characters, they're the property of their original creaters. I own any OC's you don't recognize, like Zack, Reggie, his aunty Celeste, and Miss Weamer of the East Coast, you'll see what I mean when the story gets started, while Rosie and her family, Skyler and Bonnie are owned by Nairobi-harper, Aaron is owned by Cute_Sean, Hazel and Hanna are owned by HazelNutSwirl, Courtney is owned by Tropical Blue Jay, Anthony is owned by Sovietlolliepop, Natalie is owned by Emma Pickles, Tom Daniels is owned by LilNate03, Bassum is owned by TheUnkownAuthor, Jesse is owned by Jesse Barrow-Stories, and Peter is owned by TCKing12.
Chapter 1
Rosie POV
I was standing in the doorway of my closet, when I glanced up at the top shelf to spot something very familiar. It was the pink Dummi Bears throw blanket I had received as a birthday present a hair over two years ago from him. Yes, from him, the boy who shall no longer be named. And why was I no longer referring to him by name? While I stared up at that blanket, I had a flashback to when it all happened. To that day when I almost chopped up that blanket to shreds. The day I returned from what had to be, the worst vacation I ever took in my entire life.
It all happened over April vacation during my second and final year of preschool. On the Friday when we were getting out of school for break, I recall how the day ended.
"Have a nice vacation kids." Said Miss Weamer, as I and my other friends, walked out of the classroom and piled on to the schoolbus.
Now you may be wondering, how could I have a preschool teacher named Miss Weamer, and she was also the teacher of Tommy's cousin Angelica and neighbor Susie a couple of years prior? Wwell, there are in actuality, two Miss Weamers. There's the teacher out where Tommy lives, who was currently Tommy's teacher, as he too, was in his second year of preschool, as during our first year in preschool, he was taught by a lady named Miss Applebee, while I was taught by Miss Melody, but I guess it was tradition for people last named Weamer, to teach the four-year-olds. Turns out Tommy's Miss Weamer, and my Miss Weamer, are twin sisters who ended up with teaching jobs on the opposite sides of the country, and oddly enough, they were both in four-year-old preschool classrooms. I got on to the bus with my friends, Hazel, Courtney, Bonnie, Hanna, and Natalie, while the bus driver rolled Skyler up the handicap access ramp and got her wheelchair strapped in near where we were sitting.
On the way to my seat, I saw Aaron and Z sitting together near the front of the bus. Sadly, Aaron ditched our group sometime earlier that year to go play with the new kid, a four-year-old boy named Z, who had dark green spiked hair, and wore leather clothing. My parents didn't care much for Z, because he wore clothing that made him look like a bad boy, and sadly, Aaron followed right along with him, as the two boys constantly blushed at one another, shared lunches, and spent practically every moment they could together in preschool. I even caught them holding hands at circle time, and did all I could to keep myself from laughing, because it was obvious what was going on. Aaron and Z weren't just friends, oh no, they looked like a serious couple, who would most likely be together for life.
As a result of this change, this caused me to mainly play with the girls, which I didn't mind, because there was one boy who was still a part of my life. My purple haired Facetime friend, Tommy Pickles. Little did I know though what was about to happen that upcoming week. However, I didn't know quite yet. While on the bus ride home, me and the girls talked about our plans for spring break.
"So what are you guys doing for spring break?" I asked my friends.
"I'm going to visit grandma! She makes the bestest pancakes and woffles, Mmmm!" Said Hazel, licking her lips and smiling.
"My mommy and daddy are taking me to Disney World." Signed Natalie, as I interpreted it to the rest of the group, though by this point in our lives, only Bonnie and Skyler needed the verbal translation, the rest of us, could more or less, speak sign language with Natalie.
"I'm going to visit family in Russia, since we didn't get to go at Christmas, because I was sick, and the weather was too bad during winter break in February for us to leave town." Said Courtney.
"I'm going to New York to visit my uncle Myles." Said Hanna.
"Uh, my mommy and daddy are taking me to visit my aunt Martha up in Maine." Said Bonnie.
Just then, Skyler typed something into her device and it read something back to us.
"My grandparents are coming up for a visit. We're heading for the airport to pick them up as soon as I get home, and I won't be available at all next week to play, because we'll be busy taking my grandparents on tours of Boston." Read aloud Skyler's communication device.
This made me a little sad. None of my friends were going to be around to play with, and while chances are Aaron would be in town, as his family never took vacations, he'd probably be off somewhere, playing with Z all week, not caring about us girls. I will admit, the same thing had happened with Reggie in recent months. He was now in the first grade, and had a new friend, a blond boy by the name of Anthony, who was just as mean as he was, though at least with the two of them off playing together, he wasn't picking on me or my friends anymore, but I could only hope something exciting would come my way that upcoming week. My only living grandparents, my daddy's parents, came to visit us at Christmas, and at winter break, Hazel was in town, so we played a lot together in the snow, or if I was indoors, I kept Tommy company via Facetime, while the poor boy was sick in bed on his break with the Flu, but what would be going on over April break? I slumped back in my seat and sighed as I pondered that thought.
"Something wrong Rosie?" Hazel asked me.
I turned to my friend.
"Oh nothing Hazel, I'm just, kind of disappointed that I'm gonna be all alone for spring break." I said with a shrug.
"Don't worry Rosie, you can always talk to Tommy on your sister's iPad if you should get lonely." Said Hazel.
She did have a point. I could always go to Tommy if I was feeling bored or lonely, so I took my best friend's advice for what it was worth, as I saw my friends get off at their bus stops, and told them all to have a nice vacation. Then, it finally came time for me to get off at my apartment building, where I went home and met up with my sister. Later that night at dinner though, was when I got the best news I could receive all week.
"After dinner kids you need to pack up your suitcases and get ready for bed." Said my mommy, as she lay down a bowl of Italian Wedding soup in front of me.
"How come mommy?" I asked.
"Honey? Do you wanna tell them?" My mommy asked my daddy.
"Well Rosie and Mary, your mother and I have business trips out in California this next week. So, we spoke with our good friends out there, and, you'll be spending the week at Stu and Didi Pickles!" Said my daddy.
I was so excited, I nearly choked on my first bite of soup!
"A week? With Tommy? Oh mommy, daddy, thank you thank you thank you!" I said excitedly, as I bounced up and down in my chair with excitement.
I'll admit, I hadn't heard much from Tommy lately via Facetime, so it would be nice to see him in person. Perhaps he was avoiding me because based on this last minute announcement, I could tell they set up this trip as a surprise, so maybe he didn't wanna accidentally spoil it for me. Unfortunately, I would soon find out the truth, and not a very pleasant truth at that.
After dinner, I got everything packed that I would need for my trip. A week's worth of clothes, some toys for the airplane, and the one thing I never left home without, the Dummi Bears throw blanket that Tommy had given to me for my birthday a couple of years ago when he came up for a visit. I went to bed, too excited to sleep, but I started counting off all of the things that I hoped Tommy and I would do together, and sleep, finally came. I awoke early the next morning, and got on the plane, where the flight was uneventful. We transferred in a place called Dallas, Texas, and continued on to California, where we got off at our final destination.
Just like when we went back when me and Tommy met for the first time, my parents rented a car, and we were on our way to Tommy's house. I could hardly sit still on the ride over there, it took my sister constantly patting me on the leg to keep me calm. Finally, we made it, and no sooner had my daddy pulled the car into the driveway and shut it off, when I jumped out of the car and ran up the sidewalk to the door, ringing the doorbell, while my parents and sister were still getting out of the car and getting our things.
The door soon opened and Didi, Tommy's mommy was staring down at me.
"Hi." I said with a smile.
"Hello Rosie, glad you could make it." Said Didi, as she smiled down at me.
"Where's Tommy?" I asked.
"He's out back with his friends." Said Didi, as I scooted past her and ran for the double glass doors in the kitchen and ran outside, where I found Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Dil, Zack, and Jesse all playing in the yard.
"Hi Tommy." I said.
"Hey Rosie." Said Tommy, as he stopped what he was doing, and ran over to give me a hug.
No sooner were we embracing, when he julted back and ran inside.
"What's wrong?" I called, but I didn't receive an answer.
All I heard was a toilet flush, somebody sneezing and blowing their nose, then, a minute or two later, Tommy came back outside to play with us.
"Come on you guys, let's play jungle explorers." Said Tommy.
"Oh boy I love jungle explorers!" I said excitedly.
"Great idea Tommy." Said Zack.
By this time, I had gone around and told everybody hi, and we started our game. We were only playing for a few minutes, when Tommy ran inside again.
"What's going on with Tommy you guys?" I asked.
"I don't know Rosie, he's been acting like that all day." Phil replied.
A minute later, he returned to the backyard, appearing to be all sweaty and out of breath, with some snot hanging from one of his nostrils.
"Uh, Tommy, what's that?" I asked, pointing to his nose.
"It's nothing." Said Tommy, as he sniffled, wiped his face with his hand, and we started to continue our game, when Chuckie spoke up.
"You're coming down with a cold, and don't want Rosie knowing about it, aren't you Tommy?" Chuckie asked.
I saw Tommy's face get red with embarrassment, as he turned towards Chuckie.
"I'm fine, now come on!" Said Tommy, as he started to guide us through the jungle again.
"Come on guys, to the drain forrest, where there's lots of big aminals, like…" Tommy started to say, before he started coughing.
He had quite the coughing fit, as I went up and put a hand on his shoulder. He turned and looked at me.
"Are you sure you're ok Tommy? You don't sound all that good." I said.
"I'm fine Rosie, I just…" Tommy started to say, before he sneezed again.
"Wow! You do got a cold." Said Jesse.
Tommy got up from the ground and ran inside, this time, not returning. I knew it. He got sick probably on the day of my arrival, as had he been sick beforehand, none of his friends would be over playing, and his mommy would have said something, but he didn't want me to know and worry about him. However, this was only the beginning. It was then that I noticed something very odd. While we waited for Tommy to return, which, he didn't, I looked across the yard, to see that Lil and Kimi, weren't playing with us. Rather, they were having a tea party, all by themselves. Noticing they were all alone, I struck up an idea.
"Well guys, while we wait for Tommy to return, why don't we ask Lil and Kimi to come play with us." I suggested.
Dil, who had overheard this, along with the other boys, started laughing. Even Phil and Chuckie, who were their brothers were laughing.
"What?" I asked, but they kept on laughing.
"You don't know, do you Rosie." Said Zack.
"No, what Zack?" I asked, but before Zack could explain, my parents walked out into the yard.
"Who's ready to go see the Dummi Bears exhibit at the children's museum?" Asked my daddy.
I jumped at the sound of this news, as did everybody else in the yard. Even Lil and Kimi stopped their tea party to come and join us, and we all went to the museum. I couldn't help but notice that Tommy didn't come with us.
"Where's Tommy mommy?" I asked.
"Tommy has a cold and had to stay behind, but his mommy told me she'll take you two back later on in the week when he's better, if you're interested in going to see the exhibit a second time with him." My mommy replied.
"Oh, ok." I said with a sigh, as we went into the museum, and looked at the exhibit.
It was lots of fun! There were paintings of the Dummi Bears everywhere, as well as skulptures, and a really fun activities section, where we could make our own pictures, build with blocks, climb up the ladder into this replica of an airplane and slide down the slide on the other side, and more! We played there until the museum closed, at which time, I went back to Tommy and Dil's house, where Tommy was slowly eating a bowl of chicken and rice soup. I joined him at the table, and had some spaghetti and told him all about my afternoon at the museum. He had nothing to say, either because he didn't feel good, or felt bad about missing the trip, but he did smile when I told him that when he was better, his mommy would take us both back.
Originally, Mary and I were going to sleep in Tommy and Dil's room, but with Tommy being sick, they had us sleep across the hall in his grandpa's old room instead. The next day though, I finally got some answers to a question that was pondering in my mind ever since I got there, why weren't Lil and Kimi playing with the guys? Tommy was still too sick to go out and play, and by this time, his throat was soar, so I left him alone to rest, while I went over next door to Phil and Lil's house, where I found Lil and Kimi coloring in coloring books at the coffee table in Lil's living room. I knelt down on the floor at one end and spoke up.
"Hi Lil, hi Kimi." I said.
"Hi Rosie." Lil replied.
"I have a question. Why don't you guys play with the boys no more?" I asked.
"Coodies." Lil and Kimi replied simultaneously.
"Coodies?" I asked in confusion.
I knew that Aaron went off to play with Z, but I figured it was only because they were really good friends. Now, there's this thing called coodies? What was I missing?
"You know, coodies, it's that thing that separates us from boys and girls." Explained Lil.
"No it doesn't." I replied.
"Yes it does, and everybody at preschool says that if we play with the boys, we'll get coodies, and can't return to preschool." Said Kimi.
"And since we're all spose to go to kindergarten nextest year, we can't afford to get coodies and not finish preschool." Lil added.
"Oh, well ok, but you two have brothers you're really close to. How do Phil and Chuckie feel about this?" I asked.
Lil leaned in and whispered something in my ear.
"Don't tell no one, but when me and Phillip are at home, we'll play together. We just, don't play together when the other boys are around." Whispered Lil in my ear.
Then, it was Kimi's turn to do the same.
"Me and Chuckie play together when we're by ourselves, but not when the other kids are around." Kimi whispered in my ear.
"Oh, got ya. But wait a second, Tommy let me play with him and the boys yesterday when I gotted here, when he was starting to get sick before we all went to the museum with my parents." I said.
"Tommy was probably only doing that to be nice. You are his special girl and the guest." Said Lil.
"Yeah you're probably right." I said, as I picked up a crayon and started coloring in a picture of Jelly Bear in the Dummi Bears coloring book that was out in front of me.
As I colored, I started thinking about our little conversation. How the girls and boys weren't playing together with one another anymore all because of this thing called coodies. Then, it hit me, was Tommy only just being nice? Would I soon find out once his cold was gone, that he too, wasn't playing with the girls anymore? And, would he, ditch me? Then, I thought to myself, nah, Tommy wouldn't do that, he's not like other boys. He wouldn't wanna make me sad, so he'd go against the crowd and play with me no matter what.
He had to stay in bed for another couple of days, so I continued to play with Lil and Kimi, and it was amazing how much we had in common. Lil and I were both interested in playing soccer when we got to kindergarten and would be old enough to play on the teams in our home towns, and Kimi and I had quite a love for the Dummi Bears, we talked about our favorite characters, episodes, and even pretended to be the Dummi Bears for one afternoon. Then came the day when it all happened. Tommy was feeling better, so Peter, who was over babysitting for the afternoon, took us all to the park. When we got there, Tommy introduced me to two of his classmates, who were definitely boys, and against playing with girls.
"Uh, Rosie, I'd like for you to meet two of the boys from my class. Teddy Mcnulty and Tom Daniels, meet my friend Rosie." Said Tommy, as he pointed to the two unfamiliar boys that stood before me.
I reached out to shake their hands, only to have them pull their hands away.
"Eeewww! I'm not shaking a girl's hand." Said Teddy.
"Why not?" I asked.
"Because we might get girl coodies." Said Tom Daniels.
"Oh." I said with a frown.
"Don't worry Rosie, I'll still play with you." Said Tommy, who looked at me and smiled.
I smiled back and we went on playing. Unfortunately, the games got to be ones I didn't care for much. The first game everybody wanted to play was pretending to be super heros.
"Let's play super heros. I'm Captain Squash." Said Teddy.
"I'm Captain Blasto." Said Tom.
"I'm gonna be my favoritest super hero ever, Reptar." Said Tommy, as he let out a roar, pretending to be a dinosaur.
"I'm gonna be Dory." I said excitedly.
"That's not a super hero, that's a blue fish who can't even remember her own name." Said Teddy.
Just then, Peter walked up behind me and overheard the whole thing.
"Hey, I got an idea, how about if Rosie is Wonder Woman." Suggested Peter.
"That's impossible, Rosie's hair is pink, not black." Said Tom.
"What was I thinking?" Asked Peter.
"Hey I've gots an idea, you can be Captain Squash and Captain Blasto's mother." Suggested Tommy.
"What does she do?" I asked.
"Uh, I think she makes their jammies." Said Tommy.
"Well, uh, ok." I said, as we went on playing.
"Captain Blasto, Captain Squash, Reptar, your breakfast is ready." I said, still pretending to be everybody's mommy.
I assumed I was also Reptar's mommy too, since as far as I knew, he didn't have one, so maybe we adopted the dinosaur, but Tommy didn't say nothing, since he knew deep down my parents didn't approve of me having anything to do with Reptar. Of course, I knew to keep quiet about the whole thing, as the three super hero boys came and paraded into my tea set, or rather, the one I was borrowing from Lil and Kimi to use for our pretend stuff, and we all played. After we had our pretend breakfast, I spoke up.
"I've gots an idea, let's play house." I suggested.
"That's a great idea! What do you say to that you guys?" Tommy asked Tom and Teddy.
"Boys don't play house." Said Teddy.
"Yeah, boys play guns, come on Teddy." Said Tom, as he started pointing his finger and pretending it was a gun.
"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!" Said Tom and Teddy, as they ran around the park, pretending to play guns. Then, one of them picked up my Jelly Bear toy and started pretending it was a gun. Noticing this, I went over to those boys and stopped them.
"Jelly Bear is not a gun." I said, snatching my toy out of Teddy's hand.
"Come on you guys, Rosie is my guest, can't we play what she wants to play?" Tommy asked the other boys.
"Yeah, I'm Tommy's guest and I say we're playing house." I said.
"Ok, let's play house and then we'll blow it up with our guns." Said Teddy.
That game turned into a disaster, as Tommy too joined in the gun fight near the end to my unpleasant surprise.
"Come on you guys, let's go back to my house, where we can play my new Battleship computer game, and Reptar race track." Suggested Tom.
"What about Rosie? Can she come too?" Tommy asked.
"Yeah, what about Rosie?" I asked.
"Pickles, you know the penalty for playing with girls. If you bring Rosie with us, I'm gonna tell everybody at preschool that you're a girl lover, and you know what happens to boys who play with girls." Said Teddy.
"What?" Tommy asked.
"They don't graduate from preschool at the end of the year, getting to go on to kindergarten." Said Teddy.
"That's not true." Said Tommy.
"Oh yes it is. Remember Dolse? The kid who ate Miss Weamer's ghinny pig, thinking it was a piece of candy? Well, they say he played with girls, and because of that, he's in some lifetime preschool program far far away somewhere." Explained Teddy.
"I don't know who you guys are talking about, but I'm sure Tommy's right, I'm sure you're just making that up, aren't you?" I said.
"And what do you know Rose bud? You're just a little girl, you don't know nothing. Come on Tom, come on Tommy, let's go." Said Teddy, as he grabbed Tom and Tommy's hands, and ran off with them towards the exit of the park, where Teddy's mom was waiting for them.
"Sorry Rosie." Tommy called back towards my direction before turning to go off with his new friends, but I didn't say nothing. Rather, I just collapsed down to the ground with my head buried in my hands, and started to cry. It looked like the end was near for me and Tommy, and this made me very unhappy.
End of Rosie POV
And this, ends chapter 1. Originally, this was going to be a one-shot story, but I felt it might be best, if I broke it up into 2 chapters at least, so, stay tuned, and see what happens, in the second chapter.