Author's note: This was a story requested by Celrock; personally, I think that it was a lovely idea, and I'm glad that I've been given a chance to write a story for it! As you probably know if you've been reading my stories, I don't write much about the Rugrats' East coast gender bender versions, so this will be a good change for me.
I did indeed make a few changes to this story that weren't in the original episode, but still, hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Rugrats/All Grown Up, nor do I own (most) of the OC's used in this story. Rugrats belongs to Klasky Csupo; Reggie belongs to Celrock, Peter belongs TCKing12, Rosie and Bonnie belong to me, Hazel and Hannah belong to Hazelnut Swirl, and Courtney is owned by Tropical Blue Jay.
Rosie and the Secret Club
It was a cold winter day in Boston; in most other places, it would've been spring at this point, though winter generally tended to last longer in Boston. While some people preferred to be outside at this time, three-year old Rosie certainly didn't.
Since she was so introverted during the winter, she sat inside of the room that she and her eight-year old sister, Mary, shared, playing with her new toys.
"Hey, Rosie!" Mary suddenly shouted from the other room.
"What?" Rosie asked, dropping her toys.
"Peter's on FaceTime," Mary replied. Knowing that this very likely meant that her boyfriend, Tommy, would be there, as well, Rosie hopped up as quickly as she could, running into the living room. Mary, without another word, set the iPad on the floor for her. "Rosie's here to talk to Tommy if that's alright with you, Peter."
"I see," Peter said, turning to Rosie. "Hello, Rosie."
"Hi, Peter!" Rosie shouted excitedly.
"Tommy and Dil have actually just finished up their lunch, so Tommy should be just about ready to talk to you," Peter told her. Rosie, trying to hold in all of her excitement, waited for Tommy to come to the line. Though it took about another two minutes, Tommy was eventually right in front of her, smiling.
"Hi, Rosie," he said.
"Hi, Tommy," she responded, ecstatic to talk to him. They hadn't had a discussion in what had felt like months, which was why she was so excited to hear from him again. "How's your day going?"
"It's been pretty good so far," Tommy said. "Peter's been babysitting me and Dilly for most of the day, and my mommy and daddy aren't home." The second part of his sentence sparked Rosie's interest.
"Why aren't your mommy and daddy home?" she asked him.
"Oh, well, my daddy's at some sort of inventor's convention, and, as for my mommy, she joined a club," Tommy explained. Rosie was, needless to say, surprised.
"What club?" Rosie asked.
"I don't 'member the name, but, I remember my mommy saying that it was a parenting club, or something like that," Tommy responded. "She said it was real easy to get in." As he told her this, it made Rosie recall an incident where she'd been apart of her club herself; however, the experience had not been a good one.
"Well, I'm glad that it was easy to get in," Rosie told him. "I've been in a club before, just like your mommy, but it was a secret club. Reggie was the one who started it, and when me, Courtney, Hazel, Hannah, and Bonnie all wanted to join, he made us go through a bunch of challenges and stuff 'fore we could."
"Whoa, really?" Tommy asked, astonished. "The same exact thing happened to me, 'cept it was with Angelica. She made us recite a poem without messing up and we had to drink a whole bottle of milk; whoever was the first to finish was the winner. I wanna know more about how the whole secret club thing went with Reggie."
"We seem to have really similar lives," Rosie said, amazed. "I'd be real glad to tell you how my version went, though."
Rosie's POV
It was a real cold winter day in Boston, the place where me and my family live. I was at my house, and I had Reggie, Courtney, Hazel, Hannah, and Bonnie over. I know that you remember Hazel and Reggie, but if you don't remember everyone else, here's a few small descriptions of them.
Courtney is a nice little girl with an accent; I haven't known her for as long as Hazel or Reggie, but we're still really good friends.
Hannah is probably the most creative out of all of us; she likes nature a whole lot, and she takes pictures for us whenever she goes places. Her mommy's kinda strict, though.
As for Bonnie, I actually met her a couple a months ago. She's really shy and she has troubles talking to people, but she's really nice and she can sing really good.
If you're wondering about Mary, she was at Krystal's house on this day.
Now that I've explained their personalities to you and where Mary was, I'll continue on with the story.
Reggie was the last person to arrive; since I'd just gotten a few new toys (which were what we were all playing with,) we expected Reggie to come over and steal them or break them. That was why we were surprised when, after 'changing a few words with my mommy, he just came into the living room and then walked outside of the patio.
"What's he doing?" Bonnie whispered.
"I don't know," I replied. We all watched him carefully, trying to see what Reggie was gonna do out in the snow. Since Bonnie's not a big fan of playing in the snow and gets cold real fast, we all decided that we wouldn't go outside early on; that sure didn't stop us from being curious, though.
"It looks like he's building something," Hannah pointed out. She was right, and a few seconds later, Bonnie was even able to figure out what exactly he was making.
"He must be making a snow fort," Bonnie said. "Look at what he's doing."
We figured out a few minutes later that yes, Reggie was making a snow fort. If I had to guess how much time we spent watching him make it, I'd say it took about three minutes.
After he finished with his snow fort, he came back inside, grabbing something; at this point, we were all wondering what exactly he was doing, so Courtney asked the question.
"Reggie, what are you doing?" Courtney asked him.
"Making a secret club," Reggie answered, grinning. Without another word, he walked into the kitchen,
After he told Courtney this, we were all really upset, so we started whispering about it.
"Why does it have to be a secret club?" I whispered to my friends. "Why can't we all join?"
"Yeah," Hannah agreed. "If Reggie makes a secret club with just himself in it, then he wouldn't have any fun anyway."
Apparently, Reggie overheard us, since he stopped walking once he came in.
"Fine," Reggie told us, his hands on his hips, "if you little brats want to get into my secret club, we're gonna have two contests."
"Y'know, Reggie, we don't really appreciate you calling us brats," Hannah pointed out.
"Yeah," we all agreed - that is, except for Bonnie. She kept her mouth shut, almost like she was scared that Reggie would hurt her if she spoke up.
"Well then," Reggie said, turning around with his eyes closed and his arms crossed, "I guess none of you want to be the bestest baby lady. I guess you all wanna just be 'membered in history as whiny little babies." Now, that sure did make me angry.
"No, we don't!" I insisted. "We won't be remembered as whiny little babies, cuz we're gonna do this challenge, and we're gonna show you!"
"You mean one of you is gonna show me," Reggie corrected me. "Only one of you gets to win."
"What about the rest of us who don't win?" Bonnie asked quietly. Bonnie's always real quiet, and she talks quietly, too; I think Mary once told me that there's a word for that, but I forgot what it is.
"Whoever doesn't win can't be apart of my super cool secret igloo club outside," Reggie told us. He had an evil grin on his face. "I guess you baby ladies all better work hard if you wanna join."
"That's not fair, though," Hannah said. "I think we all have just as much of a right to be inside your secret club as anyone else does." We all nodded, until Reggie walked up close to Hannah.
"It's fine with me if you wanna be a whiny baby lady brat for all your life, Hannah," Reggie said. "I really don't care." That sure set Hannah's buttons off, and almost in a flash, she was agreeing to do the challenge.
"Fine, I'll do it Reggie!" Hannah shouted. "I'll show you!"
"Maybe you will, maybe you won't," Reggie said. "Anyway, I'm getting sick of wasting time arguing over this, so I'm just gonna tell you what the first contest is." He walked around the room like a big businessman. "For the first contest, I wanna see who can do 'The Cup Song' the best."
"'The Cup Song?'" Courtney asked, confused. "Excuse me, but what is that?"
Tommy, I'm not sure if you know what "The Cup Song" is, either, but it's this really cool song where a really nice lady sings about leaving her job while she plays with cups in a really cool way. Mary showed me the movie that's it from, which is called "Pitch Perfect," and soon enough, she and Krystal started doing it at home, so I kinda picked up on it.
I was about to tell Courtney what "The Cup Song" is, but Reggie said something before I could.
"Gee, what kind of dummy doesn't what 'The Cup Song' is?" Reggie asked, rolling his eyes.
"I don't know what it is, either," Bonnie admitted, looking down at the ground. Reggie groaned before he turned to me, Hazel, and Hannah.
"Rosie, Hazel, Hannah, have you guys seen the video?" Reggie asked.
"Yeah," I answered. "Mary watches it all the time."
"Uh huh," Hannah said. "I saw the movie."
"I saw it when I was on a playdate with Rosie," Hazel said. She was telling the truth; see, a few months ago, she came over to my house for a playdate, and we were about to ask Mary if we could borrow her iPad when we see that she was watching the "Cups" music video. We ended up watching it with Mary.
"Well then," Reggie said, looking at Courtney and Bonnie, "most of us have seen it, so you guys just have to go along." Courtney and Bonnie sighed, nodding.
"But I don't remember how it goes!" Hannah exclaimed, scowling.
"Me neither," Hazel said.
"Fair, schmere," Reggie said. "You baby ladies are gonna do the challenge whether you like it or not." He looked over to me. "Where are the cups in this place?"
Since I knew that the lady in the music video "Cups" plays with plastic cups, I told Reggie that I was just gonna go into me and Mary's room to find us some plastic cups.
"Alright," he agreed. As I started walking off into me and Mary's room, he shouted after me, "Hurry up, though!"
Once I was in me and Mary's room, I went straight to the corner of the room; that's where my tea party table always is. Just like I remembered, I had about ten cups stacked on top of each other; obviously, I just chose five, since, if you wanna do the same thing with your cups that the lady in "The Cup Song" did with hers you need only one cup. I came out with four cups.
"Good," Reggie said, grinning. "You baby ladies know what to do."
Actually, it was nothing like he said. I knew what to do, but I could tell from just looking at everyone else's that they didn't. I set up my cup on the floor, waiting for the next instruction; I could see everyone else glancing at mine and setting theirs up the same.
"Hey," Reggie said strictly, "no looking at anyone else's cup."
"Well, Reggie, we don't know what to do," Hazel reminded him.
"Do I look like I care?" Reggie asked.
"No," Hazel answered, "but you sure should." I couldn't have agreed with her more!
"Well, I don't, so too bad for you, Hazel," Reggie spat. "Everyone, start doing what the lady in 'The Cup Song' video did with your cup."
If you don't know what the redheaded lady in 'The Cup Song' did with her cup, Tommy, let me explain the whole thing for you. So, first, your cup has to be upside down. Then, you clap two times. After that, you have to hit the top of your cup three times - first with your right, then with your left, and then do it with your right hand again. After that, you pick the cup up with your right hand; then, you move it a few inches to your right. Then you clap once.
There's a lot more than that, but, I think that it's too hard to understand through words, so, you might just wanna watch the video for yourself, Tommy.
Anyway, I could see that I was the only baby who wasn't having troubles with it. Hazel's ended up sliding across the table, Courtney dropped hers, Bonnie just slammed hers against the carpet, and Hannah just hit the side of the cup with her hand. Obviously, Reggie didn't like this. In fact, around a minute after we started, he declared the winner.
"Whelp, Rosie wins this one," Reggie said. "Somehow, you other dumb baby ladies couldn't even get 'The Cup Song' right."
"I've never seen the video," Bonnie pointed out for the second time. She didn't look like she was gonna cry, but she looked really stressed out.
"Yeah, so it's not fair," Hannah added in.
"Well, who cares?" Reggie asked. "Point is, 'side from Rosie, you four completely failed."
"Yeah, well, so what?" Courtney asked.
"Do you know how to do it yourself?" Hazel asked, growling.
"Course I do, but that's not important," Reggie said. "For the second one, I wanna see who can sing the best. Also, make up your own song."
"But we're all no older than three years old," I pointed out. "None of us know what we're gonna sound like when we're older."
"Well, I could care less," Reggie replied. "As the creator of my cool club, I need entertainment, and if you can't give it to me by singing real good, then you don't deserve to be in my club." He stomped his foot, making a few of us flinch. "Now who's going first?" His eyes were on Bonnie, who was staring at my carpet like her life depended on it; to be honest, Reggie was so threatening that she probably felt like her life almost did depend on it. "You know that we're all looking at you, brat. Go up and sing for us." Sighing, Bonnie walked up to the front, and Reggie handed her a fake Hannah Montana microphone.
"Hey, that's Mary's!" I pointed out.
"'Hey, that's Mary's,'" he mimicked. "Too bad if this belongs to your sister. She's not using it, and she never said that she plans on using it, so I'm gonna use it." I groaned, staring at him with mean eyes. I got even angrier when he yelled at Bonnie for just standing there. "What are you doing? This isn't entertainment! Sing for me!" She sighed one last time before she started.
"Why must you look at me like a clown," she began, "why must you treat me like I can't think for myself? Why must you believe that I" -
"Booring," Reggie interrupted. I could see how hurt Bonnie was by looking in her eyes. She flinched as he said it, and her eyes seemed like they were filling up with tears.
"Bonnie, it's okay," Courtney tried to assure her. "Reggie's just being mean. That wasn't boring! It was really good, actually!" She wasn't lying, either. Bonnie's really quiet, but her voice actually sounds really nice. None of us knew what Reggie meant by calling it "boring" but a second later, he explained it to us.
"If you want to win, you have to add some dancing," Reggie explained. "Otherwise, I'm just staring at a rock."
"Well, why didn't you tell us that before you had Bonnie perform?" Hazel asked angrily, looking over at Bonnie. She was crying as quietly as she could, and we were all trying to comfort her and make sure that she was okay.
"Well, I didn't realize it until I saw, okay?" Reggie asked. "Anyway, Bon, sorry, but you lost. Next!" Tommy, I don't usually hate things, but I absolutely hated how he said "next" like Bonnie's performance was nothing. Like I said, it was really good, and I wish that you could hear it, but maybe you'll have to next time we come out to where you live.
Anyway, Hazel ended up going next. I really liked her dance, but I didn't really like what she was singing about, and turns out that Reggie didn't, either; I'm sorry to say that she was rejected almost as soon as she started.
"Worms are delicious, worms are" -
"Cut!" Reggie interrupted.
"What?" Hazel asked. We could tell that she was real annoyed.
"I don't want to hear about worms!" he yelled. Hazel sighed, scowling.
"Well, can I sing something else?" she asked. What Reggie said next made her face turn red.
"No, you sounded too much like an old lady, anyway," Reggie said, looking bored.
"I did not!" Hazel yelled. "Right, guys?" We all stood up for her, cuz I can tell you that while I have to admit that hers wasn't as good as Bonnie's, she still didn't sound like an old lady.
"You're right, you don't sound like an old lady," I said. "Plus, your dance was awesome!"
"Her dance was okay," Reggie said, waving it off. "Anyway, Hannah, you're next."
"But you can't just" -
"Hannah, you're next!" Reggie interrupted, gritting his teeth.
"But what about Hazel?" Hannah asked. At this point, Hazel almost seemed like she was about to cry, too, but more from anger than from sadness or stress like Bonnie.
"Hazel's just another little whiny baby lady, just like Bonnie," Reggie said. "She doesn't know how to 'spond to constructive criticism." I just had to roll my eyes at that comment. Of all people, I don't think that Reggie should be anyone talking about constructive criticism, cuz I know constructive criticism, and what Reggie did to Hazel was nowhere close to it. But, Courtney pointed it out before I could.
"Reggie, I don't think that was what you call constructive criticism," Courtney said. "I think that's just being mean." Reggie gave her mean eyes.
"For that, Courtney, you're gonna go right after Hannah," Reggie ordered. "Now, Hannah, we don't have all day, so start!" Hannah looked like she wanted to throw something at Reggie, but instead took a deep breath before she started.
"The Earth is full of beauty, oh just so much beauty," she sang. She seemed so calm as she moved around, almost like the wind; I guess that's what she meant to do. "I love the leaves and the flowers, the trees that grow outside, nature is just so" -
"Cut," Reggie interrupted, crossing his arms. "It was okay, but too hippie-ish." Now, Hannah was mad; it was pretty much a pattern by now.
"What do you mean, 'too hippie-ish?'" Hannah asked. "I'm just singing about how pretty the Earth is! What's 'hippie-ish' about that? The Earth is pretty!"
"Hippies like peace and love and Earth and all that junk," Reggie explained. "I don't want a hippie in here singing about how pretty the Earth is. I don't care about how pretty the Earth is. I want some actual entertainment, and that was boring!"
"It was not boring!" Hannah insisted. Reggie yawned.
"I find a baby crying more entertaining," he claimed. "Next!" Hannah, with tears in her eyes, walked over to sit down next to Bonnie and Hazel. Courtney came up, her hands behind her back.
"I love the snow, so white and beautiful," Courtney sang, doing some steps to dance moves that I've never seen before, "On some days I wonder where it all comes from! And then I remember that" -
"Stop," Reggie rudely interrupted.
"Let me guess," Courtney said, scowling, "you're gonna call it boring and say that it was bad, aren't you?"
"Actually, no," Reggie said. "It was… okay. Both the dancing and singing were okay." He looked over to me. "Now it's between you and Rosie." He grinned. "Let's see who's gonna win. Rosie, you go up."
Let me tell you Tommy, I was real mad at Reggie at this point. I mean, why wouldn't I be? He made two of my bestest friends cry, and he didn't seem to feel guilty about it at all. I had every single right to be mad, in my opinion. That was why I did what I did next.
I walked up to the middle of the hallway, scowling. I put my hands on my hips and puckered my lips. I began walking around like a duck and flapping my arms around, stomping my feet real loud (but not loud enough for my mommy to hear,) and glaring at everyone in the room.
"I'm just a little duck, and I don't like bein' fair," I sang in what my sister would call a 'Southern drawl.' "If I have to be fair, it makes me want to rip out my hair!" I could see that everyone was laughing; heck, even Reggie was laughing, and he seemed to hate almost everyone's performance! "Don't tell me that I'm bein mean, cuz I called you dumb. Don't tell that I'm bein mean, all cuz I shot you with a Nerf gun!" The last part was a high note (think of Mariah Carey and how she sings.) Anyway, since I was getting to the end part of the song, I stopped walking, puckered my lips out as far as I could, and took a peek at everyone in the room. It made me almost smile cuz they were all laughing, but I knew that I couldn't laugh or smile since this was the last part of the song. "What's the moral of the story, kids? Well, it's that… I'm a duck, and I hate being fair!" I sang that last part so loud that when I was done, I was trying to catch my breath.
I don't know why, but everyone started clapping, and Hazel actually had tears in her eyes. (They were from laughter, though.)
"You did a great job, Rosie," Bonnie said, smiling.
"Yeah, great job, Rosie!" Hannah exclaimed.
"Fantastic," Courtney said.
"It was very funny," Hazel agreed.
"Well," Reggie said, "I guess we know who our winner is."
When I realized that everyone was looking at me, I knew who Reggie was talking about.
"I won?" I asked. I was shocked, to be honest.
"Yep," Reggie said. "Looks like you get to be in my super cool club." He grinned at me.
"What about us?" Bonnie asked. I could tell that she and everyone else was hurt.
"You guys didn't win, so you go play inside," Reggie said. He turned to me. "Rosie, you come along with me. We're gonna have the time of our lives!"
I could see how hurt my friends were, but they didn't say anything, mostly since they knew that it was really only what was fair; I'm not saying that I agree with Reggie making it so that only one of us could join his club, but something that I know is that I'd gotten myself into this mess, so I had to go through with what came with it, at least for the time being.
I followed him outside, closing the patio door behind me.
"So, what 'super cool stuff' are we gonna do?" I asked him. I didn't even bother trying to force a smile.
"First of all," Reggie said, "we need hot chocolate."
I stared at him like he was a talking robot, until I realized that he wanted me to get the hot chocolate.
"Well?" he asked me, clearly expecting something. "I just said that we need hot chocolate." Before I continued walking, he stopped me. "And tell your mommy to just pour two cups. Don't give the others any."
"Why?" I asked.
"They're inside," he explained. "They're not cold."
So, I did what he wanted, and I walked over to the patio door, opening it. It felt real awkard to pass my friends as I walked inside, but since I just wanted to get this all over with, I didn't say anything at all to them as I passed by.
I saw that my mommy was on the phone.
"Oh, yes, Bonnie is such a pleasure to have over," my mommy was telling Bonnie's mommy. "I know that she and Rosie have been getting along very well, and from what I've seen, they're starting to become very good friends. I think that Bonnie likes it here very much."
Even though my mommy was on the phone, I know how impatient Reggie gets when it comes to stuff he wants, so I started tugging on her white skirt. She looked down at me, clearly kind of mad.
"Hold on, Tracy," my mommy told Bonnie's mommy. She glared at me. "What do you want, Rosie?"
"Hot chocolate," I answered. She sighed and put her cell phone on the table before walking over to grab a cup and pour some hot chocolate.
"Six cups, right?" she asked me.
"Two," I replied, holding two fingers up. Her eyes widened.
"What about the others?" Mommy asked me.
I shook my head, showing her that I didn't want to talk about it.
"Two cups, mommy," I repeated. She poured two cups of hot chocolate and handed me the cups; my mommy knew that, since they were really light, I'd be able to carry them both. "Thank you."
If you think it felt bad for me to be walking through the living room without talking to my friends at all, Tommy, you would hardly be able to imagine how bad I felt walking through the living room with two cups of hot chocolate, and only two cups of hot chocolate.
Once I came back outside, I handed Reggie his as fast as I could without spilling the hot chocolate.
"Good job," Reggie said. "Now, for what we're gonna do next." He sat down, before pulling a stack of cards out of his pocket.
"...Cards?" I asked, confused. "Are we gonna play a game or something?" To be honest, with what he told me next, I would've been a lot happier if we had played cards.
"Not exactly," he told me. "Well, I mean kind of, but not exactly. Let me explain." He took the cards out of their little patch, turning them all upside down so that I wouldn't be able to see any of them. "So, I'm gonna choose a few cards from this stack that's upside down, and you have to guess which card it is. Anyway, let me tell you which cards there are. There's the King, the Queen, the Princess, the Prince, the Knight, Servant I, Servant II, and Servant III. Got it?" I nodded, even though I doubted that I could remember all those names.
"What do I get if I guess right?" I asked. Obviously, if I was gonna play a guessing game, I wanted something out of it.
"A sticker," he answered. Before I could ask him what type of sticker, he went on with the game. He held three cards in his hand. "Which cards do you think these are?"
"Umm," I said, putting my hand on my chin, "Knight, Servant I, and, uh… the Queen?" I expected to be completely wrong, which was why I was really surprised when I was actually right.
"Whoa, you actually got it right," he said. He took a pack of stickers out of his other pocket; while I usually would've appreciated being given stickers as an award (especially from Reggie,) the stickers that he gave me were Cars stickers.
Not sure if you've ever seen Cars Tommy, but it's a movie made by Disney, and while I like most Disney movies, I really didn't like Cars. Reggie seemed to like it, though, which is what I guess explains why he had a set of Cars stickers.
Anyway, I pointed out to him that I don't really like the series.
"Uh, Reggie, thanks for the offer, but I don't really like the movie that these stickers are from," I explained to him. He got mad about it.
"Geez," he said, scowling, "be grateful, at least. You're lucky enough that I decided to give you anything in the first place. I could've kept these stickers all for myself." I groaned. He gave me a Lightning McQueen sticker, so I just took it, and put it on my elbow.
We went on with the game, and, to summarize it all, I won about half of the games that we played. What really bugged me was how he didn't let us switch turns, with me being the one who got to look at the cards and have Reggie guess. I got lucky when he had to go to the bathroom.
"I'll be right back," he told me, getting up. "I have to use the bathroom."
After he left, I was considering switching out his cards; that is, before I heard the patio door opening. My eyes wide, I looked behind me, and saw that Hazel was coming out.
"Hazel, what are you doing?" I asked her. She glanced back at the others before running over to me as fast as she could.
"Look, Rosie," Hazel told me real fast, looking back at everyone else every few seconds, "You've been acting real strange, and we think it's cuz you're in this club with Reggie. What do you guys even do here?"
I couldn't help but nod, cuz Reggie was bothering me.
"Boring stuff," I admitted. "I thought that this club was gonna be cool, but everything he's having me do is just, well, it's boring. It's almost like I'm his maid now that I'm in this club." Hazel nodded, glancing over at everyone else every few seconds.
"We think you should leave," Hazel told me. "I know how hard it is to leave Reggie, since he's… well, he's Reggie, but you're Rosie Hall. You're determined and you always fight for what's right! We all think that you should leave him." She looked over to the others; I saw that Bonnie was waving her hand. What they were doing must've been some sort of signal, cuz Hazel got right up when she saw Bonnie waving her hand. "Oh! Reggie's coming out of the bathroom!" She got up. "Sorry, Rosie, gotta go!" She ran inside of my apartment as fast as I'd ever seen Hazel run. She closed it back, obviously, so not to leave any sign that she'd been there in the first place.
About a minute later, Reggie came out and sat down.
"I'm back," he said. He looked at me suspiciously. "Nothing happened, right?"
I nodded, but I knew that that was a lie; remembering what Hazel had just come and told me, I decided to ask him a real important question.
"Reggie, can I please play with my friends?" I asked him. "No offense, but this is getting kinda boring."
"No, you can't play with your friends," he told me. "You joined this secret club, and you're only allowed to talk to people who are in this club."
"What?" I asked, growling. "Why?"
"Cuz, if you talk with them, you might tell them about what goes on here!" he pointed out. "This is a secret club, so we can't be having that! Anyway, let's get on with the next task of the day."
"No, Reggie, I quit," I said, glaring at him.
"What?" he said. He looked like he wanted to throw something. "You can't quit! You're the dumb baby lady who wanted to be in this club in the first place!"
"Yeah, well, I don't wanna be in this club anymore," I told him. "I don't even like it here, anyway, but then you try to separate me from my friends? No way, Reggie. I'm not staying."
And that was why I walked out of that fort, determined to get back to my friends. I knew that Reggie was mad at me, but I just, was so tired that I didn't care at this point. I opened the patio door, and once I saw all my friends staring at me, I sat down with them.
"I'm real sorry, you guys," I said immediately. "I should've turned down Reggie's offer as soon as I got it. The club wasn't even as cool as he said it was. Can you guys forgive me?"
"Yes, Rosie, we can," Hazel told me. "Maybe this is just me, but I'm glad that you left Reggie. You seemed like you weren't having that much fun, and plus, you were acting weird. Good job."
We continued playing and laughing for a few minutes; I was so happy because, after spending most of the day with Reggie, actually having fun with my friends felt really good.
Eventually, though, Reggie must've either gotten sick of playing by himself or gotten cold, cuz he came straight back in, opening the patio door. Obviously, none of us were pleased.
"Why are you back?" Hazel asked, angry.
"It… might've gotten a little too cold out there," Reggie admitted. He turned to me. "Anyway, Rosie, do you wanna try to create another secret club, but inside? I have some really cool ideas!"
However, I'd learned my lesson by now, and turned down his offer.
"Actually, Reggie, I've learned that secret clubs are no good for me," I said, before looking at my friends, "or my friends. I think that, if we're gonna have any clubs at all, they shouldn't be secret." I crossed my arms. "Plus, me, Hazel, Courtney, Hannah, and Bonnie created our own club."
"Well… could I join this club then?" he asked. "It's really cold outside, and I don't really have anything else to do, so…"
I was about to consider not letting him in since he was so mean to us, before I realized that the whole reason why being in Reggie's secret club didn't work.
"Fine, you can join," I told him, "But could you please say sorry to us first? You were really mean today."
"Yeah, you made me and Bonnie cry," Hazel reminded him.
"And you left us all out," Hannah added in.
"And you tried to make Hazel and Rosie not be friends anymore!" Courtney exclaimed. "Now, that was super mean, along with everything else."
"Yeah," Bonnie added, looking at the floor again.
For a few seconds, Reggie gave us mean eyes, and he looked like he was gonna call us brats again. Then, he sighed.
"I'm sorry," he said in a quiet voice, gritting his teeth. "There. Is that good enough?" We all looked at each other, and decided that it was close enough to what we wanted.
"Yeah," I agreed. "You can play with us."
"So… what are you baby ladies doing?" he asked, sitting down with us.
I explained the whole thing that we were doing with our dollies to him (I won't describe it for you since it'll probably sound a bit boring,) and, without any arguing, he ended up playing with us.
This probably sounds surprising, but I actually think that Reggie genuienly learned a lesson himself, just like I did.
Anyway, Tommy, that's the story of how the whole secret club thingie went with me, Reggie, and my friends.
End of Rosie's POV
"Wow, Rosie, that was a really nice story!" Tommy told Rosie. He was seemingly about to tell Rosie his own tale, until, on the screen, Peter came over and whispered something in Tommy's ear. "Oh. Sorry Rosie, Peter has some work to do on his phone." He smiled at me. "I'll talk to you again as soon as possible, Rosie. Bye."
"Bye," Rosie responded, half-smiling, half-frowning. While she understood that Tommy had to leave, she still didn't want him to. After he was gone for certain, she closed out of FaceTime; she then walked into the room that she and her sister shared, handing Mary her iPad. "I'm done talking with Tommy. You can have your iPad back."
With that, she handed Mary her iPad before returning to her room. Once she'd sat down, she began playing with her toys again; however, this time, she reenacted everything that had happened on the day of the secret club.
"Rosie, it's time for lunch!" her mother eventually called.
"Alright then," Rosie answered, getting up.
'Today's been great,' she thought as she walked out of her room. 'In fact, I'm not sure if there's ever been a better day.' She smiled as she sat down. 'I'm glad that I was strong enough to leave Reggie's club. Otherwise, goodness knows what would've happened.'
With that, she sat down and ate her lunch.
I hope that you enjoyed the story! :)
If you were wondering whether or not Rosie's mom asked Rosie about why she only needed two cups later on, well, I can tell you that I did eventually happen, and to be honest, I want to write a one-shot on it. The problem is that I'm not sure if I have the time.
I have a lot of stuff coming up, like state testing and placement tests, so I have to study really hard. I really want to make sure that I pass all of this stuff, so it's very likely that I won't be uploading any new stories until all the testings over, which should be around the second or third week of May.