Chapter 2, The Talk
As Angelica and Reggie continued walking through the park towards where the ice cream truck would pull up, they had a very interesting conversation.
"Thanks for sharing your ice cream coupon with me Reggie." Said Angelica.
"No problem Angelica. How old are you anyway?" Reggie asked.
"I'm five, and I'll be starting kindergarten soon." Angelica replied.
"Neat! I'll be starting kindergarten soon too." Said Reggie.
"Yeah, it sure beats going to preschool." Said Angelica.
"I never got to go to preschool." Said Reggie.
"You didn't?" Angelica asked.
"Nope. What was it like?" Regggie asked.
"Well, it's interesting, if you like standing next to the most clumsy boy in class on picture day, just because the hairball has never taken a good picture in his life, or you end up in a tree when you're only trying to put on a news television show, or you end up playing the tree in the school play, or you end up losing the keys to the supply closet, well, just a few things I managed to do during my time in preschool." Angelica explained.
"Wow! I wouldn't have minded playing a tree." Said Reggie.
"You would have hated the role. Trees can't talk or do nothing." Said Angelica.
"Anyway, I see that you're a big kid, and I'm guessing you don't share with babies. I never share with babies." Said Reggie.
"Uh, me neither. Well, I try not to. I even recall a time when I had ice cream coupons just like the one you shared with me. I tried to get the whole park's worth of ice cream one day, but those dumb babies overthrew me." Explained Angelica.
"Oh? Tell me more!" Reggie pleaded.
"Well, I had all of the ice cream coupons for myself, but my grandpa had been reading us some story about the heros and outlaws of the Wild West, and my cousin Tommy pretended he was the brave cowboy of the wild west, while I was Captain Kate, the robber, and I had to force up my ice cream coupons to those dumb babies, or get kissed by a bunch of slobbery natie Americans." Explained Angelica.
"So what did you do?" Reggie asked.
"Well, I hate baby kisses as much as the next big kid. So I said I was sorry and those babies got their coupons. I did get one ice cream cone, but it wasn't enough, I wanted more! I'm sick of those babies always winning. Really! I am!" Angelica snapped, stomping her feet in frustration, just as she and Reggie approached the spot where the ice cream truck would pull up.
"Well Angelica, that makes two of us. I don't like it when babies mess with me neither. I have a crew of my own babies back home. But you see, I don't show them no mercy. I make sure those babies have plenty of booboos on them by the end of the day." Said Reggie, just as the truck pulled up.
Reggie and Angelica briefly stopped their conversation long enough to go up to the truck and each get an ice cream cone. Angelica got chocolate while Reggie got strawberry. As they were waiting in line for their ice cream, Reggie got an evil idea in his head.
He decided he'd get revenge on those babies, but he'd have Angelica do his work for him. Thinking what a clever idea this was, he decided to get to know a little bit more about Angelica's ways of bullying. What were her motives? What were her strategies? After all, he hadn't gotten to meet such a pretty girl like her who had an interest in being mean to babies just as much as him, and he was eager to use her to his advantage. Once they had their ice cream cones, they walked off and found a set of trees in a deserted part of the park, where they could continue their conversation without any interruptions.
"Like your ice cream Angelica?" Reggie asked.
"Yeah! Chocolate's my favorite! It's coconut ice cream I don't like." Angelica replied.
"Really? I don't like coconut ice cream either! I got a strawberry ice cream cone." Said Reggie, as he took another lick of his ice cream and sat down in the grass next to Angelica.
"So Reggie, tell me, what are some of the things you've done with your babies back home?" Angelica asked.
"Well, not sure if you've had the pleasure of meeting a pink haired toddler named Rosie Hall, but I had the pleasure of attending her first slumber party, which was in turn, my first slumber party too, and I got all of the babies to play, Truth or Dare." Explained Reggie.
"Did you do anything really mean to them?" Angelica asked.
"Of course I did, but in the end, those babies won when I dared them to open the window in the room where they were sleeping, only to let the rain in, getting in trouble. Rosie's mommy and daddy made me clean up the mess, and sent me upstairs to sleep in their guest room, ruining my fun." Explained Reggie.
"Really? That's nothing! I too have met a girl named Rosie, and she has taken a liking to my oldest cousin, Tommy." Said Angelica.
"Oh, you mean, Pickled Shrimp Casarole." Said Reggie.
"Listen mortal, nobody calls my cousin a casarole except me, got it?" Angelica snapped.
"I'll call him whatever I want, thank you very much." Said Reggie.
"Fine, I take it you've had the pleasure of meeting him." Said Angelica.
"Unfortunately, I have. He came to Rosie's birthday party, got sick all over her kitchen floor after eating some cake and ice cream, and before that, we played Boston Marathon, and your little cousin threw up all over me." Said Reggie.
"Funny you mention slumber parties, because at my first slumber party, which was at his house, he threw up all over me too!" Said Angelica.
"So, have you retaliated?" Reggie asked.
"What do you mean?" Angelica asked.
"I mean, did you get him back for that? Did you throw up all over him?" Reggie asked.
"No. I did try to make the growed ups think he and the other babies were sick once to hide my sickness so I could go to Surfti Dummi Bears." Said Angelica.
"Did it work?" Reggie asked.
"Of course not. I actually was doing really good too, until Spike their dumb dog grabbed the feather duster out of my hand, causing me to sneeze, and sadly, I got caught." Said Angelica.
"You know Angelica, I might have a way to help you finally get your way. To finally get revenge on those dumb babies for backfiring every little plan." Said Reggie.
"Really? How?" Angelica asked, as she took another bite of her chocolate ice cream cone.
"Well, I have to ask you, how do you usually go about your evil scams? Tell me all about a day with those babies." Said Reggie.
"Well, ok, I can do that. Well, one afternoon, I came over to spend the day with the babies, when my uncle Stu had made this really neat toy. It was this musical merry-go-round thing. Of course, he told me I had to share it with the babies. I then tried to remind the babies that it was only for growed up kids. Well the babies didn't believe me, so I had them undergo some tests to prove they were growed up to play with the toy." Explained Angelica.
"What did you do?" Reggie asked, as he took the last bite of his strawberry ice cream cone.
"I had them drink out of a sippy cup, without the sippy top." Said Angelica.
"I'm sure that didn't go well." Said Reggie.
"It didn't. Well, everybody got juice on their clothes except for Tommy." Said Angelica.
"So when the sippy cup test didn't work, what did you try next?" Reggie asked.
"I had them stay up through nap time." Replied Angelica.
"Oh, that must have been something." Said Reggie.
"Oh, it was, because you see, I didn't really have them stay up through nap time at all. I had this plan. I was gonna get all of the babies to go to sleep, then I'd sneak the toy off and have it all to myself." Said Angelica.
"Did it work?" Reggie asked.
"Nope. Well, ok, so I got Phil to fall asleep by feeding him lots of food. Then I put Lil to sleep by telling her a bedtime story, because they're twins and they couldn't stand to not sleep together. Then, Chuckie, well, I got him to go to sleep by playing the music from the toy on Dil's crib, but while I had a yawning contest with Tommy, I fell asleep, only to awaken several hours later to find all of the babies awake and playing with the toy. I was gonna break the stupid toy, but my daddy showed up to pick me up, at which time, we went off to some resort place, then to the strange and unusual museum, and by the time I returned, all of the babies were sad cuz Chuckie did everything with his left hand. By this time, I had long since forgotten about that stupid musical toy, but thinking back on it, I should have just, stomped on it and broke it in front of my daddy, breaking their toys as usual." Said Angelica.
"I see. I seem to recall there was more than four babies with you in the park just now." Said Reggie.
"There were. But at the time I tricked the babies into falling asleep, we didn't know Kimi, Zack, or Jesse yet, and Dil was just a baby baby, who my aunt Didi was trying to put down for a nap. Besides, had we known those babies back then, chances are if Tommy didn't beat me out, Zack would have, so I still would have been screwed." Said Angelica.
"I see. You have quite a few tough babies in your crowd." Said Reggie.
"Oh yes, I do." Said Angelica.
"Well Angelica, do you ever feel that simply taking their cookies or breaking their toys is simply enough?" Reggie asked.
"I don't know Reggie. I mean, every single day I try to scheme for what I want, and every single day, I end up losing." Said Angelica.
"Well, what if you had a plan that would make you a winner?" Reggie asked.
"What do you mean?" Angelica asked.
"I mean, a plan where you finally got what you wanted. Look, it sounds to me that you go for the weaker babies of the bunch first, saving the tougher ones for last. And I'm guessing at that time, Tommy was the tough one of your group." Said Reggie.
"Your point?" Angelica asked.
"My point is, if you could go back to that napping incident, you should have gotten Tommy to go to sleep first, not Phil." Said Reggie.
"Oh?" Said Angelica.
"Yes Angelica. Had you done that, since it seems those other babies seem to follow his lead I'm gathering, you would have had all of the babies knocked out within five minutes, and you'd have the toy all to yourself." Said Reggie.
"Hmmm." Said Angelica, as she put a finger up to her lips and thought about what Reggie just said.
The more she thought about it, the more Reggie's strategy made a lot of sense. Get the tough babies out of the way first, then knock the weaker babies down. Realizing she's been doing it all wrong all of this time, she decided she'd ask for some more advice.
"Ok Reggie, what other advice do you got for me?" Angelica asked.
"Well Angelica, have you ever threatened the babies with something possibly unchangeable?" Reggie asked.
"Huh?" Angelica asked, confused.
"I mean, have you ever told the babies that if they did something, you'd hurt them or do something really bad to them?" Reggie asked.
Angelica thought about it for a minute, as the five-year-old blond had a flashback to two years ago.
"Well, one time my Cynthia doll went missing, and I threatened to turn Tommy and Chuckie into blobs of apple sauce if I found out they took her. I only didn't do it because Spike brought Cynthia back to me, just in the nick of time." Said Angelica.
"Anything else?" Reggie asked.
"Well, there was that time I ran away from home." Said Angelica.
"Wow really? You've run away from home? I haven't even done that. Why did you run away?" Reggie asked.
"Because my daddy punished me." Angelica replied.
"And you threatened to do something awful to the babies?" Reggie asked.
"You bet I did. I told those babies that if they let any grown ups see me, I'd do something so bad to them, that I eeven didn't know what it would be yet." Said Angelica.
"So, did they keep you in hiding?" Reggie asked.
"Yes they did. I found my daddy on my own later, only to learn he didn't even know I ran away, realizing I wasted my afternoon, and sadly, he's punished me quite a few times sense." Said Angelica.
"Well I'm just curious, what were those really bad things you were going to do to the babies? I mean, have you ever thought about it?" Reggie asked.
Angelica just stared at him, unsure of what to say next.
"Uh… No…" Angelica replied.
Reggie marched up to Angelica, and stared her straight in the eye.
"What if you had a chance, to do some really bad things to the babies? Leave a mark. Give them a booboo or two. After all, you said it yourself that you're tired of those babies winning all of the time. And seeing I'm the biggest bully in all of Bean Town, next to my best friend Anthony of course, I'm gonna help you better your bullying of those babies. By the time me and my mommy leave town, you'll be just as good at bullying as me, and those rotton babies will not have a chance." Said Reggie with an evil grin on his face.
"Really? You mean I'll get all of their cookies and toys? I'll get everything I want?" Angelica asked.
"Yes you will, so long as you do exactly what I say and don't mess up or back down. I can tell there's a soft spot in you Angelica. A soft spot that's stopping you from reaching your full potential. What you've gotta do, is not listen to that soft spot. Forget it exists. Take the Angelic out of Angelica, and live up to the last letter A in your name, which, stands for awful. You get what I'm saying?" Asked Reggie.
Angelica thought about it for a minute. Sure she was soft on those babies, and maybe that's where she went wrong all of these years. Maybe it was time to step up her game a bit. Maybe it was time, to reach to her full potential as a bully.
"Do this for me, and I'll see that you do get all of the ice cream at the park for yourself by the end of the week." Said Reggie.
"Really? You mean it?" Angelica asked.
"Anything for my new friend. Yes Angelica, I like you, and I think you and I are gonna be good friends." Said Reggie with a smile.
Angelica, mesmorized by his charm, blushed at the site of Reggie, taking in his every last detail. The demples in his cheeks, his dark brown messy hair, his strawberry ice cream stained bright red short sleeve t-shirt, his dark green shorts, and his brown sandles that made hardly a sound as he walked. She liked this boy, and if he had the potential to make her a winner, then she'd go for it.
"Reggie, you've got yourself a deal." Said Angelica, as she shook his hand.
At that moment, Reggie's mom and Angelica's parents came up to them on the playground. By this time, they had all met and were talking with one another.
"You know Rhonda, your son seems to be taking a liking to my daughter Angelica." Said Drew.
"Why he does. And my brother and I would be happy to plan your business lunchen for the end of the week Charlotte." Said Rhonda.
"Great! I'll let Jonathan know." Said Charlotte, as she pulled out her cell phone to call him.
"Well, my brother and his wife are taking the kids to the beach tomorrow, maybe Reggie would like to come along." Suggested Drew to Rhonda.
"Well, it would give Reggie something to do. Ok it's settled then." Said Rhonda.
Overhearing this, Reggie turned to Angelica.
"Uh, Angelica, it looks like you and I are going to get to spend plenty of time together this week. And the beach, is a good place to start molding you into the biggest and bestest bully on earth. Your training starts tomorrow. Don't be late or chicken out, cuz I'll only have to come find you, and I don't deal with wimps." Said Reggie, as he clinched his fists.
"You've got my promise Reggie, I'll be there." Said Angelica innocently, as she smiled up at Reggie.
At that moment, they parted ways and ran off to meet up with their parents.
And this, ends chapter 2. So, what will Reggie have Angelica do to the babies? You'll find out over the course of the next three chapters.