What kind of mischief can Emma and Neal get into when the siblings are couped up inside watching an old movie?
The weather outside is frightful, snow and ice everywhere, but the temperature inside the apartment is warm and crisp. Fourteen-year-old Neal wakes up on a Saturday morning, in a semi-dark room, which causes him to look around dumbly wondering what time it could be. It isn't until after scrambling around his bed like a deranged cat, that he finds his cellphone. He brings the cellphone to life to see that it reads 9:15 am. With a groan, he slides out of bed and rubs his eyes. He expertly maneuvers around, careful not to step on anything sharp that maybe lying around in his messy room. He groggily makes it down the stairs wearing a Radiohead t-shirt, grey sweats and one black sock, his short hair sticking up in all directions and his vision blurred.
On his way down, he notices someone with a full head of blond hair sitting on the sofa. He rounds the couch and plops down on one end of it, looking over at his sister and grunts in acknowledgement. She does the same. He peers over and sees that she is eating a bowl of Froot Loop cereal. With a mischievous smile, he swiftly gets on all fours, grabs the spoon, and takes a huge messy bite.
"Hey," She whines, "that's mine!" She pushes him away and he lands with a thud against the arm of the couch.
"Ouch." He drones, rubbing the back of his head. "You don't have to be so aggressive."
"You don't have to steal my cereal." She mumbles through a large bite. "Get your own."
"Come on Emma." He whines. "Sharing is caring."
"Lazy." She rolls her eyes.
"You're like a bajillion years older than me, aren't you supposed to care for me instead of abuse me." He says, reaching for the spoon.
"You wish!" She smacks his hand away.
"Ugh! Fine." He complains, getting to his feet and dragging himself to the kitchen.
It wasn't an uncommon occurrence for Emma to be at their house on any given day. Everyone in their family was constantly in and out of the apartment, to the point where it felt like the whole motley crew lived there. (And that's a lot of people!) Some days, family members would even spend the night; in the living room, scattered on the floor, taking over his room, his bed, his floor. But he never minded, it has always been this way since he was a baby. This morning in particular, it looked like Emma spent the night on the pullout couch after a long shift at the station with dad.
About thirty minutes later, both cereal bowls are left abandoned on coffee table and the pair of siblings curled on each end of the couch. Eventually, Emma had migrated to lying on her brother's thigh, so that she could extend her entire body on the sofa.
"What are we watching?" Neal asks, staring at the movie on the screen that seemed so ancient, people in the pioneer times probably watched it.
"Karate Kid." Emma responds, hugging his leg close to her. In annoyance, he tries to wiggle his leg out of her grasp, but she holds onto it tighter so that he is forced to relent.
"What is…?" He begins.
"DON'T even finish that sentence." She demands, reaching her hand up and grasping his face with her extended hand.
"No seriously," He pushes her arm away. "What's Karate Kid?" Emma reaches for the remote on the floor and uses it to pause the film. She lifts herself up and stares at her brother as if he had grown another head.
"You cannot be serious." She tells him. "You are not that uncultured."
"What?" He shrugs. "I have never seen this movie."
"Daniel. Moves to a new city. Bullies. Mr. Miyagi. Handyman. Karate ass kicking. Karate Tournament…!" She says, pausing after each word to see if it rattles his memory.
"Just because you yell words and phrases at me, isn't going to change the fact that I've never seen it!" He rolls his eyes and she smacks the back of his head.
"I can't believe you've never seen this movie." She says, lying back down on his thigh.
"I can't believe you expect me to have seen a movie that came out when dinosaurs roamed the earth." Emma laughs and smacks his leg.
"Shut up."
Twenty minutes goes by and Emma soon starts to realize why she doesn't watch older films with her little brother.
"Oh God!
That was so fake!
He didn't even hit him!" Neal shouts at the screen.
"That blood is so fake too!
I can't believe people thought this movie was believable!" Emma rolls her eyes, trying to tune him out, but she soon realizes the attempt is futile.
"Oooooooh! That has got to hurt!
Come on Danny get up!
Damn! That old guy can fight!" Emma tries to cover her ears to try to drown him out some, but it wasn't working either.
"So Fake.
Wow, did they not have CGI's?
Come on!"
"NEAL!" She irately shouts, scaring Neal out of his wits.
"God!" He yells, holding his heart. "What?!"
"I don't need a play-by-play." She tells him, attitude dripping with every word. "Shut-up."
He rolls his eyes, but opts for being quiet.
(It didn't last long.)
"That doesn't even look hard." He says, to no one in particular.
"Wow! That guy totally could have ducked or at least grabbed his leg or something.
Is he serious?!"
That's it! Emma internally tells herself. She grabs the remote and pauses the movie once again.
"You think you can do better?" Emma challenges him, sitting up. Slightly offended that he continues to criticize one of her all-time favorite childhood movies. "That guy went through rigorous training to be able to do that stuff."
"Newsflash Emma. It's fake." Neal says, giving her a look.
"But they represent people who can actually do that." She argues.
"Oh come on, that doesn't even look that hard. We battle dragons, sword-fight, take down witches and evil sorcerers with magic, and tons of other really dangerous things on a daily. What they are doing looks like child's play!"
"Wanna bet?" Emma raises her eyebrow.
"You don't even know karate." He folds his arms.
"But I have wrestled before." She tells him, standing up and smoothing out her navy-blue long-sleeved shirt and plaid pajama pants.
"I can't fight a girl." He says, also standing up.
"And why not?" She places a hand on her hip.
"Because!" He argues. "I can't hurt a girl."
"Oh trust me, you won't be the one doing the hurting." She teasingly smiles, and raises and drops her eyebrows.
"Are you challenging me to a duel, Emma?" Neal laughs in disbelief.
"Indeed I am, little brother."
~.~
Meanwhile, Snow kept herself occupied in the laundry room upstairs, trying her best to get a spaghetti stain out of Emma's white blouse and grass stains out of Neal's white soccer sliders. Usually, being the mayor, having to battle evil antagonists in her life, and being a mom, can cause a major laundry setback. So on lazy days like these, Snow tries her best to keep up with household chores.
Suddenly, she hears a loud thud coming from downstairs, followed by several other thuds, and lots of shouting. She lets out a heavy sigh and lets her head drop forward.
Soon after, she hears a loud, "NEAL!" which she knows is her cue to see what is going on with her darling children. She shakes her head, dropping the garments back into the tub of warm water and allows them to continue soaking, while she goes down stairs.
Moments later, she descends the stairs to find two blonde, thin-framed figures, going at it in the middle of the living room floor. All of the furniture had been pushed out of the way, against the walls and the rug had been rolled up and placed on the couch. She rolls her eyes as she steps off the last step.
"Emma, get off your brother." She says almost disinterested, in a way that would let anyone know that this is one of the many times she has said that phrase. She nonchalantly walks past the tumbling duo, and into the kitchen in order to make some coffee.
Meanwhile, Neal is pinned on his stomach with his left arm being held behind his back, and Emma's knee pressed against his lower back. He grunts in frustration, trying to find a way to get out of his current predicament.
"Had enough, baby brother?" Emma teases, effortlessly holding him down. He continues to wiggle some more, until he is able to roll Emma off him. He scurries to a standing position, as does Emma. They clasp hands, both fighting for dominance, until Neal is able to maneuver Emma's arm in a way that allows him to grab her in a headlock.
"Now what Em?" He laughs, firmly tightening his arm around her neck. What he did not expect to happen was for Emma to hug his torso, pick him up, and slam him to the ground.
The wrestling and loud grunts continue, as Snow shakes her head while stirring her creamer into her coffee. She watches them fight out of the corner of her eye. Emma straddling Neal's stomach, but Neal rolling them over so that he is straddling hers. She was going to let it continue a little longer, let them have their fun, before breaking it up.
She giggles to herself as she takes her coffee into the living room and takes a seat on a lounge chair and crosses her legs. She lifts the mug to her lips and softly blows the hot liquid before taking a tentative sip. All the while, watching Emma somehow outwit her brother into the original position of him on his stomach with his arm behind his back and she using her knee to hold him down.
"Ow!" Emma cries, as Neal fiercely tugs on a handful of long blonde hair. "Don't pull on my hair!" She takes a hand full of his hair, and tugs his head backwards, which is rewarded with a painful cry. "It was cute when you were two! Now it's pathetic!"
"Ow! Let go!"
"You let go!"
"Mom!"
"Mom!" Emma teasingly mimics.
"Let go!"
"No!"
Desperately, Neal lifts his head up and stares at his mother incredulously. "Well?" He groans, as Emma pulls on his arm a bit harder.
"Well what?" Snow innocently asks.
"Aren't you going to tell her to get off me?" Neal cries, struggling to find a way out of his sister's grasp.
Two pairs of eyes stare at her, waiting for her response. One pair pleading, and the other full of mischief. She opens her mouth to say something, but after a moment of thought she simply shrugs and continues to blow on her coffee. "Fight back." She casually says, before leaning back into her chair.
"Yeah, Neal! Fight back!"
"Mom! You traitor!"
Review?
PS. Charlotte isn't forgotten, she just isn't in all the stories. But I would gladly write any stories for those who would like to see her. I'd just need some ideas. Thanks :)