Danny had turned 16 almost 10 months ago, but both Rachel and Ben decided that they would make him wait longer before they let him drive other people around in a car. He was a good kid, responsible, and always obeyed the rules, but Rachel was paranoid. He didn't mind for the most part, they let him drive their second car around by himself whenever he wanted to so he couldn't complain too much.
However he was grateful when they did finally lift the ban, until he found out it was to drive Aaron's twins to the Christmas tree farm for the petting zoo and whatever kiddie holiday stuff was there.
"I already told Aaron you would take the twins, Charlie has some schoolwork she has to finish up tonight, besides haven't you been asking when we were going to let you drive someone other than yourself and us around?"
Danny narrowed his eyes at her, "yeah but I didn't think I would be assigned to chauffeur the terrible twins around as my first act of freedom. That sounds like even worse punishment."
The first three years Danny and Charlie spent around the twins was a disaster, they were like mini tornadoes that destroyed everything in their path. Charlie started calling them the terrible twins and ever since that name just kinda stuck with them.
Rachel crossed her arms over her chest; Danny knew her 'firm voice' was about to make an appearance. She always got that look in her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest when she was about to lay down the rules, "they aren't terrible, and honestly I wish you two would quit calling them that."
Rachel obviously knew that Charlie was the instigator behind the name, "and secondly Aaron said he would pay you, we are all going out tonight, and you know how generous Aaron can be."
Rachel sighed, "Ok here's the deal you do this and I'll raise your curfew to 11:30. Think of this as kind of like a bribe," when she thought about it she retracted her statement, "scratch that this is a bribe. I am bribing you."
Danny laughed, he was already going to saw yes when she mentioned that Aaron was paying, but when he didn't say anything except raise his eyebrows Rachel took it upon herself to up the ante, "deal, how hard could it be?"
Rachel didn't say anything to deter him from agreeing, but her mind started thinking about just how 'hard' Danny and Charlie had been at that age, "great Aaron and Priscilla will be over any minute now."
"Hey! You weren't even really giving me a choice, they were coming regardless?" Danny cried in a mock outrage.
Rachel just laughed and ruffled his hair, "sweetheart you're just like your father, say the word 'bribe' and you're all in."
Danny's nose scrunched up in disgust at the comment, "ew gross mom, don't say things like that."
Rachel glared at her son and pointed a finger in his direction, "you're spending too much time with Charlie, who spends too much time with Miles. He's rubbing off on the both of you."
Even though Miles was still a sensitive subject Danny still laughed because no matter what she always blamed Charlie or Miles. 99% of the time Danny could be the instigator, but no one would ever assume it was him, which was how he got off the hook most of the times while Charlie was left on the line. She didn't mind though, she always laughed about it.
The doorbell rang bringing them back to the present moment and in walked Aaron, Priscilla, and the terrible tw—Cynthia and Layla. They looked disgustingly adorable tonight with their matching velvet red leggings, green long sleeved shirts with sequins and penguins, and Santa hats on top of their head. No doubt Priscilla picked out their outfits, even at six years old.
"Rachel you look nice tonight," Priscilla greeted her with a hug.
Aaron did the same, only addressing Danny, "thanks again kid for doing this and don't worry we totally trust you to drive them around. Even though you haven't driven anyone else except Ben and Rachel. And you're taking them in a little GM car, which doesn't have the best safety ratings, and did you know the faulty headlights are their 79th recall this year? Have you checked the ignition switch to make sure it's—"
"But we aren't worried or paranoid at all," Priscilla added and laughed at Aaron's frantic rambling, "honey I'm pretty sure you don't even know what a ignition switch is."
Mostly likely true, though Aaron was a certified genius, he was inept when it came to cars. He got the hint and just laughed, "point made, but I do happen to know what the ignition switch is thank you very much. The New York Times article included diagrams."
Everyone just laughed and even Aaron had a slight smile twinge up at the corner of his mouth. Ben chose that moment to interrupt Aaron's fascinating ramble to greet them. All the while Danny was observing the twins who, for the most part, seemed relatively calm today; maybe they weren't so terrible anymore.
"Ok Danny we're leaving now, call us if you need anything, but if not we'll see you shortly. Have fun tonight girls," Rachel smiled and patted their head as she walked out the front door, Ben and Priscilla in tow.
Aaron hung back for a few minutes and pulled Danny aside, "I've taken the liberty to calculate some statistical odds of you getting into a crash so I'd just like to take this time to highlight some of them with you—"
"Aaron Pittman, leave the poor boy alone and let's go before we leave you and take Danny instead," Priscilla's voice could be heard all the way from inside of the car.
Aaron just sighed and retreated, "ok but just remember to be careful."
Danny laughed and nodded, "you got it. Look at me, I'm the epitome of careful."
Aaron who was in the midst of hugging the girls turned to give him a skeptical look then just laughed, "oh yeah, you Mathesons are all careful," he laughed to himself like it was some sort of inside joke, but nevertheless he left shortly after saying goodbye.
"Ok girls let's get this over with," Danny ushered them out of the door and into the car, making sure they were buckled in before he took his place in the driver's seat.
It wasn't 10 seconds before one of them spoke up, he wasn't sure which was which because they always just lumped them together, "daddy always lets us choose the music. We wanna listen to frozen."
"No we don't," the other one whined from her seat.
"Yes Cynthia we do, we like frozen," Layla said with a demanding voice. Danny thought there was going to be more of an argument, but Cynthia just grumbled and crossed her arms over her chest.
The last thing Danny wanted to hear right now was Christmas music, but lucky for him he didn't have the frozen soundtrack, "well it's your lucky day Cynthia because I don't have frozen on my phone so looks like we're in luck."
Cynthia's face beamed from the back seat only to be crushed by Layla's words, "daddy put the CD in your car before you left and he said you had to play it for us."
For a little girl she had an awfully smug face about her, but she was right. Sure enough when Danny changed from AM/FM to CD frozen began blaring through the car.
"Let it goooooo, let it goooooo, can't hold it back anymoreeeeee," Danny groaned as he listened to Layla signing every word by heart, Cynthia looked unimpressed in the seat beside of her sister, no doubt used to her antics. This made Danny smile, but that faded quickly when he realized is was the only song on the CD, it just kept repeating.
They made it to the tree farm at a tantalizingly slow pace, not because Danny was driving that slow, but because listening to Layla sing that song over and over and over again made time drag on. He was never more excited to get out of the car than when they arrived, "we'll go the petting zoo first and then you girls can ride the train."
"Can we get hot chocolate too?"
"Yeah can we?!"
This was the first time Danny had heard Cynthia agree with her sister, but who could refuse hot chocolate. He smiled as he opened the door for them, "if you're good."
"We're always good," was Layla's answer, Danny highly doubted that but paid no attention to it.
They walked around looking at the animals first, Danny read the little information plaque about each animal to them, and other than them being hyper and wanting to run everywhere, they were, for the most part, good.
"Look it's a reindeer," Danny could feel Cynthia tugging on his shirt, when he looked he saw that it did resemble a reindeer, but they were mostly called Caribou in North America. He didn't correct her, "it sure is, isn't it beautiful."
"But it doesn't have a red nose like Rudolph," Cynthia sounded sad, while Layla only laughed, "no but you look like Rudolph!"
With that Layla burst into a fit of giggles, covering her mouth and pointing at her sister's nose. Danny looked down to see that Cynthia's nose was turning red, probably due to the cold and her running around. He didn't laugh because she looked worried and said, "am I turning into a reindeer?!"
Before Danny could answer Layla jumped in, "I bet you are! You're gonna start growing fur next and fly."
Danny glared at Layla and bent down at Cynthia's level to look her in the eye, "you aren't turning into a reindeer, but if you were then you would be the coolest of them all because you would be Rudolph."
That satisfied her because she smiled and wrapped her arms around Danny's neck. Crisis averted, he didn't really think he could handle her crying right then. His head was already pounding from 'let it go' he didn't want to hear crying next.
He could tell they were getting bored with the animals so he offered to get them hot chocolate. He led them over to a bench that was right across from the coffee stand so they would still be in his sight, "sit tight and I'll get you some hot chocolate ok?"
They both nodded, but as soon as Danny was out of earshot Cynthia turned to her sister still anxious, "I'm not really gonna be a reindeer am I?"
There was a twinkle in Layla's eye when she replied, "I know how we can find out."
Danny had literally only been gone for maybe two minutes, but when he looked back at the bench they weren't in plain sight. He started panicking thinking of all the possible things that could've happened to them. Immediately he dialed Charlie's number, not waiting for her to say hello before he started talking, "I hate you do you know that? Because you were busy tonight I had to listen to them sing frozen all the way here, chase after them, make sure one of them didn't have a mental breakdown because she thought she was turning into a damn reindeer, and now I've lost them and it's your fault."
Charlie remained silent for a moment, but then collected her thoughts, "what the hell are you saying? Reindeer? Where are you, and who is 'they'?"
Danny huffed into the phone, "The terrible twins who mom said are not terrible anymore, yeah she lied, go figure. I'm at the Christmas tree farm…I don't have time to explain I lost them and now Aaron is going to kill me, or have Priscilla do it because let's face it Aaron and death don't sound like they go hand in hand. I bet he didn't compute the statics of me losing his children when he calculated everything else. And why the hell has GM had 79 recalls?"
All the while rambling, catching his breath in between pauses he was searching for the girls, going back to the animals and everywhere they had been before in hopes of finding them. "You're at the Christmas tree farm, they couldn't have gone far, there are always rent a cops monitoring the area, plus it isn't that big. Just retrace your steps."
"Oh gee Charlie what a great idea, so original. I could've called Miles if I wanted unhelpful advice," Danny's sarcastic voice told Charlie that he was obviously already doing that while they spoke.
"What were they talking about last when you left them, which by the why is an idiot move, speaking of Miles."
"I don't know they're kids who knows what they were saying, they were arguing and like always the brattier one got her way. She reminds me of you as a kid and how you forced me into trouble."
He made it back to the where the reindeer were, but still no sign of either girl and he was starting to panic more. Charlie's voice rang through the phone, "hey it isn't my fault you lost them. Now take a minute and think about what they were talking about."
Danny sighed, "I already did think. They were discussing reindeer, so I went back to where they were but the twins aren't here. I've retraced every step. I even went back to the car. Dammit, Cynthia's nose is going to fall off if I don't find them soon."
This confused Charlie to the point where she wasn't even sure what he was talking about, "her nose? What's the matter with it?"
Danny snapped, "it was red before I went to get them hot chocolate. Then Layla started making fun of her telling her that she was turning into a reindeer. She is really is mean to her sister, who says those kinds of things besides you—"
"I know where they are, maybe not exactly but I have an idea where they might have went. What do reindeers do?"
"I don't have time for riddles Charlie, tell me," Danny said deadpanned.
"Fly idiot, they fly. If Cynthia thought she was a reindeer, and Layla is as bossy and mean as you say, which I wasn't for your information, then she probably convinced Cynthia that if she could fly then she would know if she was a reindeer or not," Charlie was confident in her answer.
She didn't tell Danny that once when they were younger, she told him that he could fly, so naturally they had to try it out, but luckily their parents stopped them before someone could get hurt. So maybe she really was like Layla.
He started scouring the place for somewhere high enough to where they would be able to test the theory. Panicking he was about to tell Charlie there was no place high enough to jump when he saw the barn way past the petting zoo, "I gotta go Charlie, thanks, but it was your fault you couldn't watch them, so really I saved you and you're welcome."
He rambled so fast and clicked his phone shut that Charlie didn't have time to respond. He ran as fast as he could, which wasn't very fast due to his asthma that still acted up every now and again.
Bursting through the barn doors he heard their voices from the top, "young ladies what do you think you're doing?" He screeched from below as he searched around for the ladder they must've used to get up there. Finally his eyes landed on it in the dark and he quickly pulled himself up to meet their frightened faces.
He must've looked pretty angry because they both shrunk away from his gaze. Cynthia fidgeted nervously with her hands while Layla just looked anywhere but at Danny's voice.
It was Cynthia that spoke up first, "we just wanted to see if I was a reindeer or not."
"Did I not tell you that you were fine?" Danny put his hands on his hips and waited for their rebuttal.
"Yeah but how do you know? Layla said the only way to be sure was to jump and see if I flew."
He cut her off before she could continue, "well if Layla said to jump off a bridge would you do it?" Realizing his mistake he took it back, internally beating himself up for asking so dumb a question, "did you think about what would happen if you weren't a reindeer and you fell instead of flew?"
Cynthia just shook her head and Layla spoke up this time, "we didn't get that far. I'm only six."
She sounded exasperated which angered Danny more; "exactly you're only six which means you should not be telling your sister to jump off of barns. Do you know how dangerous that is? She could've gotten really hurt!"
Layla flinched at his tone and started crying, which made Cynthia cry. Oh great, now they were both hysterically bawling and hugging one another saying sorry. Danny took in his appearance, how he was standing, the language that he was using, he sounded like Rachel. That thought instantly horrified him, he was turning into a parent, he had to fix this.
"Listen, I have an idea, do you girls want to do a experiment?"
That hushed them right up; they dried their tears and wiped their eyes on the sleeves of their shirts. Both of them instantly nodded and Danny smiled, "If you really want to find out if you're part reindeer or not jumping is the only way."
Layla gasped and interrupted, "but-but you said that was dangerous!"
Danny nodded, "and it is doing it by yourselves, however I'm going to be at the bottom to catch you."
With that added bonus both of them squealed and jumped for joy. Layla ran back over to the opening of the barn, while Cynthia took her time walking back over there, "how come I gotta be the one to jump?"
Layla looked at her with a duh expression, "cause you're the one with the red nose Rudolph."
Cynthia just glared, peering down to see Danny standing at the bottom calling out to her, "alright it's now or never, let's find out if you'll be taking your place on Santa's sleigh delivering Christmas gifts."
As ludicrous as this was Danny was actually laughing, he never got to play the older sibling role, it was always Charlie talking him into doing stuff that would eventually get them in trouble. And by them he meant Charlie, she's the one who got the brunt of it from their mother; their dad was always silent. He wasn't one for reprimanding them or scolding them, he just smiled once he realized no one got hurt, which infuriated their mom even more.
He waited carefully, but she was still just standing there, he frowned "don't be scared I'm going to catch you I promise. Just let it gooooo, let it gooo."
He did his best rendition of the song, but neither of them heard anything past the first let it go because they were laughing too much. Cynthia took one last look at him before closing her eyes and jumping. Layla looked surprised beside of her, but squealed when Cynthia landed safely in Danny's arms.
Layla climbed down the stairs and raced outside to meet them as Danny stood Cynthia up on her feet, "see that wasn't scary I told you I'd catch you."
Cynthia looked sad when she turned her face up towards Danny, "yeah but I'm not a reindeer, I'm not special."
Danny smiled, "you're even more special, you just jumped out of a barn and I'm pretty sure you flew for a few minutes. I didn't think you were ever coming down."
Layla nodded her head along with Danny, "he's right I took a long time climbing down and you still were in the air!"
Cynthia smiled and clapped her hands together, her rosy red cheeks now matching her red nose.
Danny smiled, "plus reindeers are really smell and Santa is heavy, you wouldn't want to carry him."
Both girls laughed and nodded as they all three made their way back to the car. It would be time for Aaron and Priscilla to come back shortly Danny thought as he checked his watch. Their experiment set them back time wise, but both girls were still exclaiming how much fun they had one the ride back, they didn't care that they didn't get to ride the train or anything else.
Danny parked the car in the driveway of the house and, before he got out, turned to them both, "it'll be our little secret okay, grown ups wouldn't understand."
Layla nodded sympathetically like she knew that feeling all too well, "they never do, we won't tell, we promise right Cynthia?"
She as well nodded and smiled lovingly at Danny, "we promise!"
While they still had a few minute left before all of the parents were supposed to come back Danny led the inside and as they sat on the couch he turned to go to the kitchen to make them some hot chocolate before he abruptly turned towards them, "you aren't going to run off this time are you?"
He said it in an accusatory tone, but they both giggled and shook their heads. He smiled and went about making all three of them hot chocolate. After making sure it was cool enough for them to drink he brought back two plastic cups, and his in a coffee cup and set theirs down on the table in front of them.
They moved to sit cross-legged on the floor, greedily gulping down their hot chocolate. Moments later the door opened followed by the parents all shuffling in out of the cold. The twins jumped up from their positions and ran in the direction of their parents. One went to Priscilla and the other ran right into Aaron's arms. "We missed you two, did you behave for Danny?"
Priscilla looked to Danny when she asked the question but he just nodded, "oh yeah they were great, minus making me listen to frozen, thank you for that by the way Aaron, I'll remember that."
Aaron just laughed, "hey don't mention it, we get enough of it, thought maybe we could pawn it off on some other poor yuppie for the night."
"Hey! You said you liked our singing," cried Layla's voice in Priscilla's arms, no one answered but they just smiled and laughed.
Aaron's phone started blasting music from his pocket; he untangled Layla from his arms and went outside to answer the call. Priscilla asked them about what they did, the only giggled and told her about the animals that they say, looking to Danny every so often, until Aaron came back inside.
"So is anyone going to tell me about reindeers and jumping off of barn buildings cause I'm pretty sure that's the opposite of being careful. Like the literal opposite."
He didn't sound mad, mostly because he knew they were both ok, he just sounded like he figured that was coming, Danny was dumbfounded, how did he find out so fast?
Then it clicked in his mind, "Dammit Charlie," he muttered to himself, "well ok, you see what happened was…I was being careful, but we were just doing an experiment. Don't you like that science-y stuff?"
When he didn't answer Danny took that as a 'no' and went about telling the story. For the first few minutes everyone was quiet but as the story progressed they started laughing, especially when one of the twins interrupted him to tell them about him singing frozen.
He just shrugged his shoulders, "you try listening to it all the way there and tell me it doesn't get stuck in your head. It's just so catchy."
Minus the one mishap, Aaron said that he still trusted Danny, and as promised paid him. Danny had even won over the affection of both of the girls who wanted to spend more time with him, after he recovered from their first adventure.
Once they said their goodbyes and, left Danny dialed Charlie's number as he made his way to his room. She sent him straight to voicemail, so he just left her one instead of trying to call again, "well played sister, well played, but just know that I am younger than you and I have more tricks up my sleeve."
It wasn't 2 two minutes after he left the voicemail that he got a text from Charlie, "couldn't resist little bro, thought I would reminisce about old times where I got us into trouble, except this time you were the one taking the blame for it."
Danny left his phone on his bed and ran out of his room, he found his mom in the kitchen and pretended to get something out of the fridge, "you know what's funny when I called Charlie tonight, she was laughing, I was frantically searching for the twins and she was unhelpful. I can't believe she would do such a thing when I was clearly upset."
He shook his head in disbelief and watched from the corner of his eye as Rachel took out her phone and began typing something. He was even impressed with how disappointed he sounded. Once she was distracted he returned back to his room to reply to Charlie's text, "we'll see about that sis :)"
"So Charlie isn't mad at me anymore, well I guess not as mad because she just texted," Miles spoke up form beside Bass on the couch. At the mention of Charlie's name Bass glanced over at him, hoping he didn't look too excited but Miles was reading his phone and laughing.
"Apparently Danny lost Aaron's kids today at the Christmas tree farm."
"Why are you laughing, aren't you the one who lost Charlie one time?"
Miles groaned, "Does no one in this family forget anything? I didn't lose her, I momentarily forgot where I put her."
Bass scoffed, "Miles you forget where you misplace your keys, when it's a kid it's called losing them."
He glared from underneath his lashes as he read the rest of the message, "Layla convinced Cynthia that she was turning into a reindeer somehow, then told her it would be a good idea to jump out of the barn where they keep the horses to see if she would fly."
Miles was laughing, but Bass' wheels were turning in his head, "wait Stay Puft named his kid Layla? Poor kid…wait he knows that song?"
For some reason Aaron didn't really strike Bass as a classic rock lover, Miles just look at him dumbfounded, "dude I just told you she tried jumping out of a barn and you're questioning his choice of names? Why do I tell you anything?"
Bass laughed, "Because I ask the questions you were already wondering."
Miles didn't say anything, but Bass already knew he was right, what was Aaron thinking?
Charlie was finishing up her paper when her phone started ringing, her mother, she groaned but answered anyway, "Hey mom what's up I'm kinda busy?"
She wasn't really busy but she wasn't in the mood to talk to her at the moment, but she didn't have to do the talking because Rachel had already started, "your brother called you needing your help and you laughed at him? They could've gotten really hurt Charlie."
She was tempted to laugh then, what a typical move of Danny, that's what his text meant earlier, she couldn't believe he had gotten her in trouble and she wasn't even physically there.
"He called me and spent 15 minutes rambling, I assumed it wasn't too serious because he went off on a tangent about General Motors and Aaron calculating statistics," at that she started laughing.
Rachel sighed into the phone, "you know when he gets worried he starts rambling, he can't help it, he just starts talking and saying anything."
Charlie resisted the urge to point out that she was doing it now, that wouldn't help her case so she just let her talk, until she had gotten over it and was fine again.
They said goodbye, and as soon as Charlie hung up she texted Danny, "how is it that even when it's not my fault, it's my fault? I hope you know it's only because you're the baby that you get away with everything, it's a good thing I love you, I guess."
By the end of it she was laughing, it was well worth taking the fall for him, even if it meant she ended up having to listen to not only one worried, anxious Matheson ramble on the phone, but two.
Her phone buzzed beside her on the bed with Danny's incoming message, "told you I was younger and I would use that to my advantage."
Charlie laughed, "Oh and by the way, mom never asked me to take the terrible twins. I didn't even know you were going, so the jokes on you bro."
