Phil and Lil were playing in the mud at the park one afternoon when Lil noticed something. None of the other girls were playing mud and they didn't like getting dirty anymore either. Lil trudged out of the mud and began cleaning herself off with water from the water fountian.
"What's wrong Lilian?" Phil asked walking up to his sister.
Lil sighed before answereing."I just don't feel like playing in the mud anymore."
Phil gasped and backed away."First you don't want to eat bugs no more and now no more mud?"
"That's right." Lil declared crossing her arms.
"You guys something's wrong with Lil." Phil told his friends as they played on the playground during recess. They were in their second year of pre school and Phil was starting to notice things he hadn't before. The girls and boys were begining to play seperately.
"What do you mean Phil?" Tommy asked.
"Yeah. She doesn't look sick." Chuckie added.
"That's cause she's not sick. She doesn't want to play in the mud with me anymore." Phil explained.
"Well she is a girl." Chuckie pointed out. He remembered when Kimi went through the change when she turned four. Sure she still played with him sometimes but things were not the same as before. She was into different things."Once they turn four they don't like the same things as boys."
"But me and Lil are gonna turn four soon." Phil said wringing his hands."We always have our birthday together. I don't want a girly party."
"Just talk to her."Tommy suggested."I'm sure you guys can work something out."
"Uh Tommy do you know who you're talking to?" Chuckie asked he watched Phil play in the dirt.
Tommy looked confused."Yeah why?"
"Phil and Lil have been argueing since the day we met them. Do you really think they can work this out?" Chuckie asked. Tommy shrugged his shoulders in response.
Later that afternoon Lil found Ji Yeon digging in the sandbox. She approached her and sat down in the sand.
"Can I ask you something?" Lil started.
"Ji Yeon stopped digging and looked up at the older girl. She put her shovel down and gave Lil her full attention before nodding her head yes.
"Can you teach me to be girly like you?"
"Sure." Ji Yeon answered."But why do you want me to teach you. Don't you have other girl friends?"
"Yeah I do, but you're the girliest girl I know." Lil answered.
"I want to be girly too." Kimi said running over to the sandbox.
"Ok go ask your mommies if you can come to my house later." Ji Yeon told them.
Lil and Kimi ran to ask to their moms if they could go to Ji Yeon's house. Mi Sun agreed to let the girls spend the night since she didn't have to work the next day and school was out for the older girls.
"We can stay at your house tonight." Lil cried excitedly once they reached the sandbox. The girls soon left to get their bags ready.
Once Ji Yeon got home she got to work setting up the playroom to help Kimi and Lil become more girly. The first thing she did was get out every princess movie she owned. Next she dug in the toy bos for her Areil tea set, it took awhile but she eventually found all the cups, plates, and plastic wear. She set them all up on a small pink table in the corner of the playroom. The last thing she got out of the toy box were some princess outfits and crowns. She sat down and began playing with some blocks until the girls arrived.
Kimi and Lil soon arrived and headed down to the playroom.
"Hi guys." Ji Yeon greeted once she noticed the two older girls standing in the doorway. She knoced down her block tower and crawled over to them.
"Wow it looks so pretty in here." Lil mused as she looked over the table laden with the plastic tea set.
"i heard you guys talking with my mommy so I got everything set up for our princess tea party." Ji Yeon explained."We even get real food soon."
"We brought some food too." KImi said holding up a container."We got cookies shaped liked Disney princesses."
"I never had cookies like that before." Ji Yeon said excitedly. Kimi put the cookie container down so Ji Yeon could get a closer look. Inside the box the cookies were white with a chocolate bottom and each one was shaped like Ariel, Belle, and Cinderella. They were outlined with purple or pink frosted lines.
"It looks like you girls are all ready for your tea party." Mi Sun said setting down a tray with some cucumber sandwiches and tempora on the table.
"Yep." Lil agreed. She was eager to get started so she could be more like the other girls her age.
"I have some things to do upstairs, so just come find me if you need anything." Mi Sun told them heading back up the stairs.
"You want to wear one of my princess dresses?" Ji Yeon asked once her mother was gone.
"Uh I think they're a little small for us." Kimi said holding up a purple dress.
Ji Yeon frowned."I can't ever share clothes with nobody. I wish I was bigger."
"It's ok. We have our own dresses." Kimi assured the younger girl.
"Yeah, sides it's not fun sharing all the time." Lil added.
"Maybe you're right." Ji Yeon agreed.
They all got changed into a dress. Lil was dressed in Merida's dress, which was light blue and shiny with gold trim. Kimi was dressed in Rapunzel's dress, which was light purple. Ji Yeon was dressed in Tiana's dress,which was light green and shiny. They all picked out a crown to match their dress and sat down.
"Now what?" Lil asked.
"We can eat." Ji Yeon suggested.
"Just start frm the outside and work your way in." Ji Yeon told them motioning to the turquoise plastic fork and spoon.
"How do you know that?" Kimi asked.
"Yeah when Angelica teached us manners she didn't tell us that." Lil added.
"I heard it in a movie that my mommy watched." Ji Yeon explained."There was a bunch of fancy peoples on a boat."
They all picked up the fork that was on the outside and stabbed at the cucumber sandwiches that were on their plates. Things didn't go so well with the spoon. Food went flying everytime they tried to use the spoon.
"Let's just use our hands." Ji Yeon suggested picking up some tempora. She bit into it and immediately spit it out.
"That's not very girly." Lil commented.
"I hate onions." Ji Yeon said in discust.
"I'll eat it." Lil offered taking it off Ji Yeon's plate.
"Eat all of them. I want more cucumbers. They help my mouth not hurt so much." Ji Yeon pushed the plate of tempora closer to Kimi and Lil.
"You don't like the green beans?' Kimi asked popping one in her mouth.
"I do but right now I want something cold." Ji Yeon answered removing the bread from her sandwich and just eating the cucumber.
Once they finished all the food they moved on to the cookies. They had one each since they were a littl full from lunch.
"Let's watch a movie." Ji Yeon suggested."I'm tired of playing tea party."
"Ok. What movies do you have?" Kimi asked. Ji Yeon just pointed to the few movies she had pulled off the shelf earlier.
"I think she's getting tired." Lil whispered to Kimi.
"Maybe she can't sleep good at night cause of her new teeth coming in." Kimi suggestedas she and Lil looked over the movies. They couldn't read any of the titles but they recognized some of the princesses.
"Let's watch my princess movie first." Kimi suggested picking up Tangled.
"Ok and maybe later we can watch mine." Lil added.
KImi went and put the movie on and sat down on the couch. She noticed Lil and Ji Yeon didn't join her.
"Are you guys going to watch with me?" She called.
"We're coming." Lil called coming into the room from the bathroom. Ji Yeon crawled behind her. Kimi noticed she was no lonher wearing her dress, only a daiper. They sat on the couch and a few minutes into the movie Lil and Kimi noticed Ji Yeon had fellen asleep. They turned off the movie and crept silently up the stairs.
"We can watch it at my house." Kimi whispered as they made their way up the stairs. Lil nodded.
"What do we do now?" Lil asked once they reached the kitchen which was at the top of the basement stairs.
"Let's find Ji Yeon's mommy." Kimi suggested."Maybe she'll have something fun for us to do."
It didn't take long for them to find Mi Sun. They opened the back door and walked outside. Mi Sun looked up from what she was doing and noticed the girls standing there.
"Ji Yeon fell asleep." Kimi told her.
Mi Sun looked at her watch."It's her nap time and she hasn't been sleeping much at night lately."
"What are you doing?" Lil asked.
"I'm working in my gardne." Mi Sun answered."Want to help?"
"But we're girls." Lil said."We're not sposed to play in dirt."
"If you like playing in dirt then just do it and don't care what people think. Just because you're a girl doesn't mean you have to act a certain way." Mi Sun explained."Just do what you like."
Kimi and Lil sat down and helped plant flowers and other things. Lil was happy to be doing what she loved again.
Later on in the afternoon everyone got cleaned up and went inside. By this time Ji Yeon was awake. Mi Sun went downstairs to get her while Kimi and Lil had a snack. Lil and Kimi tried to hide their giggles once they saw Ji Yeon's crazy hair from sleeping, it was sticking straight up and in every direction.
"What's so funny?" Ji Yeon asked once she was placed in her high chair.
"You got crazy hair." KImi giggled.
"I don't care." Ji Yeon snapped pulling on her hair. She started to cry making Kimi and Lil feel bad.
Mi Sun came over with a small light blue pop sickle and handed it to her daughter, who stuck it in her mouth. After their snack Lil and Kimi helped Mi Sun prepare dinner, but not without some obstacles first. For one thing Ji Yeon was being clingy. She didn't want to sit in her swing and watch Mickey Mouse. Mi Sun placed Ji Yeon on her back and tied what looked like a blanket around them, secureing Ji Yeon to her so she could get things done.
"Sorry I'm not helping much to make you girly like me." Ji Yeon said while her mom cut up some vegetables for dinner."I don't feel good right now."
"It's ok. You're mommy helped me to see that I can still play in the mud and like girl things." Lil said taking the chopped vegetables over to a pot and putting them in.
"We still had fun playing tea party with you." Kimi said as she put some noodles in warm water to soften.
After dinner thay made some popcorn with chocolate candy in it.
"Lil I think I have the perfect princess movie for you." Ji Yeon said after they had finished dinner and were waiting on the popcorn.
"Really?" Lil asked excitedly.
Ji Yeon nodded."It's called Brave and the princess in that movie isn't girly at all."
Lil went downstairs and got the movie. She came back just as the popcorn was finished. It was poured into bags and Kimi and Lil added candy into theirs. They sat on the couch and the movie began.
"I like this movie so far." Lil whispered shoving some popcorn in her mouth. Kimi nodded in agreement.
Ji Yeon tried to get some popcorn for herself but Mi Sun pulled the bag away from her.
"You can't have this yet." Ji Yeon began to cry so MI Sun went to the kitchen and came back a few minutes later with some cut up watermelon. She handed a piece to Ji Yeon but she refused. She wanted what everyone else had.
"Fine more for me." Mi Sun said popping the watermelon into her mouth. Seeing her mother eat the watermelon made Ji Yeon want some too and she happily took a piece and ate it. She ate a few more pieces because the cool fruit felt good on her painful gums. When the movie was over Kimi and Lil were put to bed in Min Jun's room since he was at a sleepover with Phil. Ji Yeon was given a bath and then taken to sleep with Mi Sun so she would hopefully sleep better.
The next day after breakfast Mi Sun took the girls to the park where the other parents agreed to pick up the kids. Lil soon spotted Phil sitting by a mud puddle.
"Aren't you gonna jump in?" She asked him.
"No. It's no fun without you." Phil sighed.
Lil grabbed his hand and pulled him into the mud with her. They splashed around a little until Phil suddenly stopped.
"I thought you was all girly now."
"I can be girly and still like mud." Lil told him.
They played in the mud until it was time to leave.
This story was inspired by the Rugrats episode miss manners.