Sorry for not updating my stories for a while, I've been really busy with school. Anyway, hope you enjoy!
"DAAAANNNNNNYYYY!"
No answer.
"DAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNYYYYYY!"
"WHHAAAAAAATTT?"
"I DON'T WANNA GO!" Jamie screamed. Danny looked at his younger sister Erin pleadingly but went into his little brother's room nonetheless.
"Come on kid, we're leaving soon!"
"BUT I DON'T WANNA GO!" Jamie shrieked. The little one was actually hiding under his bed, and had strategically positioned pillows, toys, chairs and various bedroom objects around himself so that nobody could reach him.
"Jamie come on, it'll be over before you know it."
"NO!" Jamie shouted. Danny almost exploded with frustration. The elder Reagan violently pushed a computer chair out of the way, knocking over a box of Lego with it, and grabbed onto Jamie's ankles. "NO!" Jamie shrieked again.
"YOU-ARE-COMING-WHETHER-YOU-LIKE-IT-OR-NOT!" Danny shouted and yanked Jamie out from under the bed.
"NOOOOO!" Jamie screamed again and clung onto one of the bed legs.
"JAMIE! WORK WITH ME HERE!"
"NOOOOOOO!"
Danny finally pulled Jamie from the bed legs and swung him over his shoulder in a fireman lift. "PUT ME DOWN DANNY!" Jamie screamed and started punching his older brother's back.
"JAMIE! DANNY!" Mary screamed.
"YEEEEEES?" Danny shouted back.
"ARE YOU TWO READY?"
"UH…"
"DANNY?"
"WELL, I AM, BUT JAMIE ISN'T…" Danny paused. "HE'S REFUSING TO GET DRESSED."
"HE'S NAKED?"
"NO… HE'S STILL IN HIS WOLVERINE PYJAMAS!"
"BUT IT'S SIX O'CLOCK IN THE EVENING!"
"I KNOW!"
"DAAANNNNYYY! PUUUTTT MEEEE DOOOOOOWWWWNN!"
"What are you doing to the poor kid?" Henry Reagan asked in the doorway of Jamie's bedroom, fiddling with his tie.
"He's refusing to get dressed!" Danny said and put down his younger brother.
"Come on Jamie, it'll be fun." Henry tried to convince his youngest grandson.
"No it won't!" Jamie replied.
"Look on the bright side Jamie, it won't last forever!"
"But it will be sooooo boring!"
"Okay, so I agree with you there," Danny handed a shirt to Jamie. "But it's for Dad. Do you want to ruin his very formal birthday dinner for him?"
"No." Jamie said quietly.
"Then can you please get dressed?"
Jamie reluctantly peeled off his Wolverine pyjama top and replaced it with a crisp, crystal white shirt and changed into some black trousers. "I want my Wolverine pyjamas." he whimpered.
"You can't go out in your pyjamas, Jamie."
"Why not?"
"Because… you sleep in your pyjamas, you don't go out in them." Danny mentally congratulated himself on thinking of an excuse. Jamie sighed and looked longingly at his favourite items of clothing that were crumpled on his bedroom floor. "We leave in ten!" Erin shouted from the landing and ran into Jamie's room. "Let's fix your hair Jamie." Erin cooed and held up a comb menacingly.
"NO!" Jamie panicked and hid behind his brother, who started laughing. Erin sighed exasperatingly and looked pleadingly at Danny. Danny too sighed and grabbed Jamie round the shoulders and squeezed them tightly, preventing the younger one from running away. "NOOO DANNY!" Jamie shrieked as Erin began attacking his hair with the comb.
"See Jamie, it wasn't that bad!" Erin exclaimed once she had finished her attack. Jamie gave her a death glare and pouted (that was going to be a grudge for the next few weeks).
"Why are you all dressed up?" Joe asked sleepily in the doorway, still in his pyjamas.
"Joe! Its dad's birthday dinner!"
"Wait- what?"
"RUN JOE RUN!" Danny screamed as Mary came plodding up the stairs. Sensing certain death Joe bolted back to his room, slamming and locking the door behind him and desperately pulling clothes out of drawers. Mary knocked on the door.
"Joe?"
"YES?" Joe shouted.
"Are you okay in there? I hope you're ready!"
"Uh… yeah, I'm ready!"
"Can I come in then?"
"NO!"
"What?"
"Uh… teenage boy problems." Joe stuttered.
"Oh… right." Mary backed away from the door slowly then quickly went back downstairs again. Immediately Joe ran back into Jamie's room, his shirt open and un-tucked and his black trousers around his ankles.
"Oh crap!" Joe exclaimed as he tripped over his feet and faceplanted into the carpet. Jamie, Danny and Erin all burst out laughing as their sibling picked himself off the floor and buttoned his shirt, his face red with embarrassment. Joe quickly finished dressing and splashed on some of Danny's cologne (too much, may I add), then the four Reagan siblings made it downstairs (after both Danny and Joe stepped on some Lego) with one minute to spare, as Mary kept reminding them, and piled into the two cars outside.
Jamie fidgeted in his seat. There were more than twenty people around the massive table at the fancy restaurant. There was him, Danny, Erin, Joe, Mary, Frank, Henry, Betty and lots of city officials that he either didn't know or couldn't recall their names.
Jamie hated strangers.
Fortunately, the Reagan children were all seated around a corner of the table, and nobody was sitting next to Danny or Erin so they were quite isolated from the rest of the party. But Jamie still pushed his food around his plate in boredom. Danny was making a tent out of napkins while Joe was tapping a beat on the table with his cutlery. Erin was trying to look grown up and had moved further along the table, engrossed in a conversation between two city officials. Jamie fidgeted in his seat for a further ten minutes; before Erin became so annoyed with him that she stopped listening to a riveting conversation about the DA's new budget policy. "Here," she sighed and pushed a fancy glass of cola towards him. Jamie took a sip of the sugary drink, then winced and put it down.
"It tastes funny." he complained.
"It's probably diet cola," Danny dismissed and challenged Joe to a game of hangman. Jamie shrugged and continued drinking the funny-tasting cola.
"Daaannnnyy, I don't feel very well." Jamie complained later on in the evening.
"What? Was it something you ate?" Danny replied.
"I don't knooooow."
"Or was it something you…"
Jamie hiccupped.
"…drank."
"I nneeed thee toileeet." Jamie slurred.
"What's wrong with Jamie?" Erin asked. Jamie started laughing hysterically and fell off his chair, Joe looking at him like he was crazy. "Is Jamie drunk?"
"Damn kid." Danny breathed and clapped his younger brother on the back.
"Danny! It's not funny!" Erin shouted in a panicked manner.
"Is everything okay over there?" Mary asked. Jamie burst into laughter again and slid off his chair, bringing a plate of spaghetti Bolognese down onto Joe's lap. Joe yelped and stood up quickly, knocking the table and spilling some apple juice in between Danny's legs, who in turn flipped a plate of carbonara into the air and down Erin's dress. The three shocked Reagans stood there, mouths hanging open while everyone at the table looked at them, stunned. Suddenly, a young boy's squeaky laughter broke the silence and Jamie stood up, clutching his side.
"JAAAMMMIEE!"
"JOOOOOOOEE!"
"DAAAANNNYY!"
"EEERRRIIIINNN!"
Jamie stopped laughing. All of his siblings were looking either at him or at each other, infuriated.
"I don't feeeelll sssoo gooood…" Jamie moaned.
"Shut up Jamie, now I look as though I've peed myself…"
"But…"
One word was all Jamie could manage before promptly vomiting on the table.
Some of the diners, including Erin, screamed and jumped back, while the rest continued staring. Erin looked down at her dress, which was still covered in pasta, and ushered Jamie to the bathroom. Joe followed her first, shuffling awkwardly while trying to disguise his uncomfort, with Danny right behind him, who was covering the suspicious yellow stain between his legs with a dinner plate. Frank and Mary looked at each other with raised eyebrows and sighed.
"If Jamie's this bad tonight then I dread to think how he'll be tomorrow."
