Chapter 1: Argument
"And that's another one for my collection!" smiled Chelsea as Barbie took her picture with the trophy she had won in her most recent dance competition.
Barbie, Skipper, and Stacie laughed as Barbie took a look at the image on her phone that she had taken of Chelsea.
It was the afternoon after Chelsea had won a dance competition against her friend Lindsay and a few other girls in Hawaii with the help of a few horses, a show dog named Archibald, their puppies Taffy, DJ, Rookie, and Honey, and of course, her older sisters, Barbie, Skipper, and Stacie. Now, Chelsea and her sisters were back in their hotel reviewing the photos and videos that had been taken. Thanks to Skipper, the video of the competition had gone viral across the social media world and comments and likes were coming in like crazy.
Of course, their adventure hadn't come without its drawbacks, After arriving 2 days ago, Barbie had insisted on taking her sisters to a horse festival despite that all 3 of them were clearly opposed to it, instead having their own plans. Skipper wanted to work on her photo blog, Stacie had wanted to try out some island extreme sports, and Chelsea had wanted to practice her dance routine. Eventually, Barbie succeeded in sweet talking them into going. Despite losing their only map, they were able to find and watch the show, but then the puppies accidently hitched a ride in the horse trainers' car and their golf cart got stuck under a banyan tree forcing the sisters to camp out and find the puppies the next day. Unfortunately, their efforts were hampered by misfortune after misfortune including an abandoned town, cliffs, a flat tire, and a large ravine they had to zipline across. With help from the horse trainers, they managed to reach their hotel just in time for Chelsea to pull off her now viral dance routine and win the contest!
Back in the safety of their hotel room, the sisters surfed through the pictures they had taken on their mobile devices. Chelsea and Stacie swiped through the picture gallery on Stacie's phone when they came across an interesting photo.
"Hey Stacie, isn't that Skipper when she was on the zipline?" asked Chelsea, pointing to Stacie's phone screen.
It was Skipper back when they'd taken the zipline to get across the ravine, but she didn't look too thrilled. The photos had been taken when the zipline had stalled out halfway across with her on it. In the photo, Skipper's blue eyes were wide with fear and she was desperately trying to keep her grip on the metal bars as she looked down into the rushing river below her. She honestly looked like she was ready to cry.
Flashback:
"It stopped. Why did it stop?!" asked an anxious Skipper.
"Swing your legs! You have to get your momentum going!" called Stacie.
Skipper looked down into the ravine and stared at the rushing river below her which would surely sweep her off to her death if the zipline were to fail. She could feel her grip beginning to loosen due to her lack of upper body strength.
"I...I can't." she choked out staring at her sisters on the other side of the ravine.
Stacie just gave her older sister a teasing smirk. "Okay, enjoy the view then!" she laughed, pretending to walk away.
Back in the present...
Stacie began to chuckle as she remembered the moment. "Oh man, that was so golden!" she laughed. "The look on Skipp's face!"
Hearing her name mentioned, Skipper looked up from her tablet. "Huh? What's so funny?" she asked.
"Stacie's laughing at a picture of you on the zipline" replied Chelsea.
"Huh? What do you mean?" asked Skipper as she got up and joined Stacie.
Skipper gasped when she looked at the picture on Stacie's phone screen. All the while, her younger sister laughed her head off at her reaction. Skipper's face turned red with embarrassment and she felt her chest beginning to tighten with tension.
"Stacie! Why did you take that?! That's not funny!" cried Skipper.
Stacie stopped laughing and gave Skipper a teasing smirk. "Yes it is Skipp, lighten up! Look at your face! You looked so scared, it's extreme!"
Skipper was lost for words. "N...no it's not Stac! And you think it's extreme? Is that all you can think about?! How extreme something is?!" she asked, her voice beginning to crack.
Stacie frowned up at her older sister. "No its not!" she insisted. "And you don't have to be such a wimp all the time Skipp. What do you think about all the time? Your tablet and your electronics, and your photo blog. That's boring!"
"No, its not boring! It's special! And what about all the photos I took of you that are on there? Are those boring?!" Skipper countered.
By now, Barbie and the puppies had taken notice of the argument. The puppies hid under the soda while Barbie tried to intervene. "Uh guys…" she said nervously.
"No, but you know what's boring?" asked Stacie, now scowling fiercely at Skipper. "YOU!" she burst out, pointing at Skipper. "You can never take jokes, all you sit around all day with your electronics, you're so lazy and no fun, and you can't even run fast enough to keep up with me! You're such a big geek and an even bigger wimp!"
The silence that followed was so excruciating that you could hear all 4 of the sisters' nervous heartbeats. Chelsea had joined the puppies behind the couch, Barbie stared in shock and pity at her 2 younger sisters, Stacie clutched her phone tightly, her eyes wide as she realized what she had said, and Skipper… well Skipper was struggling to hold back a flood of tears like a dam ready to burst. She felt the sides of her cheeks become sore and pain shoot out of her chest. After a few agonizing moments, Stacie was the first to speak.
"Skipp, I...I…" she stammered softly, but Skipper cut her off.
"You what Stac?! You're gonna call me wimpy?!" she sniffed. "WELL, GO AHEAD! KEEP THAT PHOTO! SHARE IT WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD AND TELL THEM WHAT A WIMP YOUR OLDER SISTER IS! SEE IF CARE!"
Before Barbie could say anything, Skipper grabbed her phone and ran out of the hotel room without looking back at her sisters, openly weeping.
"Skipp! Skipp, wait! Please! Come back!" cried Barbie, but Skipper was already long out of eye and hearing shot.
Behind her, Stacie looked gobsmacked and ashamed as he felt a tugging at her heart and a sinking feeling in her chest as she came to terms with the truth. It was her fault.
"I..I...I… didn't mean to hurt her feeling! Honest!" she cried as she felt the corners of her eyes become heavy with salty tears.
Barbie put her arms around her younger sister. "I know Stac." she said comfortingly. "You didn't mean to hurt her feelings, but you did. You hurt them really bad. I know that you just want Skipp to have fun, but you need to know that she's not going to like the same things as you. And it's no reason to tease her either. Everyone has their own comfort zone and while it is good to learn to take risks, it's also unhealthy to force others out of their shells so-to-speak. And that's exactly what you've done multiple times." Barbie finished a bit reprimandingly.
At the same time, Chelsea came out from behind the couch with the puppies in tow. "Barbie, it's my fault." she said softly looking up at her oldest sister. "If I hadn't pointed out the picture on Stacie's phone, none of this would've happened."
Barbie responded by pulling Chelsea into a hug. "No it's not Chels. " she said comfortingly, but firmly. "No one blames you and no one ever will."
"Barbie's right Chels. It's my fault. I went over the line when I called Skipp a wimp." said Stacie, now very ashamed.
Chelsea looked out the window, nervously. "Barbie, will Skipper come back?" she asked.
Barbie looked out the window. The sun was setting, but there was still some light out on the beach that simmered off the ocean in the foreground.
"Yes, she will Chels." Barbie replied. "I hope" she added softly.
As the girls settled in for the night, the puppies had worries of their own, especially DJ.
"Poor Skipper!" she said to Rookie, Taffy, and Honey. "What if she doesn't come back?"
Honey gave her sister a reassuring stare. "Don't worry DJ. Didn't you hear what Barbie said? Skipper will come back later tonight."
"Yeah, I hope." said DJ softly as the puppies began heading into the girls' bedrooms to join them for the night.
DJ headed towards Skipper's room when she realized that there was no Skipper for her to sleep with.
"Looks like I'm all alone." she sighed.
"No you're not." said a voice from behind her. It was Rookie.
"You can stay with me and Stacie tonight." Rookie offered.
DJ gave a grateful smile "Thanks Rookie! You're the best!" she grinned as the 2 puppies headed into Stacie's room.
On her bed, Stacie stared out the window, longing for her older sister to return soon so she could finally apologize. Giving an exasperated sigh, she laid down sideways on the bed until she was joined by 2 familiar puppies who climbed up and cuddled on either side of her.
"Thanks Rookie! Thanks DJ!" said Stacie smiling gratefully. "I really needed this."
As the sun finally set, the 3 sisters and their puppies all fell into an uneasy, restless sleep.
To be continued...