The Jones Family: Henry Jones IV and Little Maggie
The Jones' have been through a lot, and as the generations head towards the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century a lot more drama has been added to the adventurous family.
Chapter 9-- Double Trouble for Maggie
Nov. 10, 1997
A year has past and life at the Jones' house has been good. On this morning the boys took Pan for a early walk, while Maggie was in school. As they came in the front door, the house phone was ringing, but before they could catch it it was already heading to the answering machine. All three Joneses make new recordings every month that always entertained the callers, "Gobble, Gobble, Gobble!" You could here Mutt say. "Hey come back here, woh!" Maggie called. --crash-- "Yeah, Hey there," Rusty said. "Ruff, ruff!" Pan barked. "Uh, Rusty, Mutt, Mags and" "Ruff" "Yes, and Pan are on the hunt for the golden turkey right now." Rusty continued. "So we can't come to the phone!" Mutt finished. "I said come back!!" Maggie yelled. "Ruff, Ruff!" "Leave a Message!" They all called together. --BEEP!--
Giggling could be heard through the phone before they cleared their throat and spoke in a professional tone. "Hello Mr. Jones... es. We understand Maggie has been sick a lot this year," Rusty gave his father a questioning look, and Mutt shrugged showing he knew of no such thing. "But we're afraid her grades might start to suff--"
At this point Rusty grabbed the phone and asked, "Hi, hello, yes, uh, what is this sick business?" He paused. "I'm her father... She's missed how many?!... No I didn't sign those notes..." He looked to his father, who was giving Pan his treat and then Mutt walked over to his son sharing a bewildered look between them. "No my dad hasn't either..." The look in his dad's eyes told him so. "Yes, I will handle it... Yes... No, no thank you!" With that he hung up. Turning to his with an astonish face and anger building in his voice he said, "Maggie's been ditching school!"
"What? How? She's always home on time..." Mutt replied.
"I don't know, but she been handing in notes the days after she misses class. She's missed over 20 days in three months! I didn't teach my daughter to do this, I can't believe she did this!" Storming to the front door, he grabbed his jacket. "She going to tell me exactly what she's doing, I'm finding her now!"
"Wait Rusty, why go out searching all over town?"
"Because she needs to come home and get a proper grounding, that girl isn't leaving this house till she's 50!!"
"Do you know where she is?"
"No..."
"Then stay here. Don't waste time and gas looking for her because either way she'll still come home at the same time she always does. Let's wait and figure out her punishment in the mean time..."
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"Dad, Grandpa I'm home!" Maggie called happily as she entered through the front door, like always. Normally she was met with happy responses from her granddad and daddy, but all was silent on that front. Pan, as always, came pouncing in to the foyer and Maggie hugged her, "Hey there girl!" Waving her arm in a large circle she called out, "Peter Pan!" Maggie laughed as the dog did a flying leap in the air. "Good good girl, lets get you a treat!... Dad?" She said, walking past a pillar into the dining room.
"I think the treat can wait, Maggie." Her father said. Somehow she knew she was in trouble, she wasn't sure if it was the fact that they both sat at the far end of the table looking straight at her, or if it was that she suddenly had to pee. "Sit." Her father commanded, and she did. what did i do?... i haven't gotten in fights, no smarting off, good grades, and... they couldn't know about that... i mean they haven't found out yet so... "I got an interesting call from your school this morning..." Maggie's head dropped, ok so they did find out... crrrrrrraaappp..."Can you tell me what's so important that you'd miss 20+ days out of 3 month of school?!" He ask patiently, but his daughter's silence was pushing him over the edge. there's nothing to say because if i did... i just can't say anything... "Maggie..." He kinda growled.
Maggie nervously looked up, then down at Pan, who was lying beside her. "Uh, can I plleease get Pan's treat?" She asked, getting up, but a sharp stare from the two men sat her back down. Once again she was looking at her hands and refusing to say a word.
After another minute of silence in the room(or really the whole house), Mutt shared a sideway glance with his son and the two men started to shoot question after question at her. Maggie flinch as the questions came faster and faster. She still refused to look up or even engaged with her dad and granddad while they continued the double trouble interrogation. it used to be a game but now it just sucks! Mutt and Rusty continued the rampage of questions: Where were you? Why did you leave? Why didn't you tell me? What's going on? How are your grades? Is anyone else with you? And those were just a few of the thousand they were asking. Slowly Maggie started breaking down... until... "STOP!! Please..." And her dad and grandpa did and watched her pointedly. "You know you can make someone go nuts with that..." They smiled, she sighed. "Yeah, I did ditch, but I have a good reason!" They waited. "And I have all As!" They, at the moment, didn't care about that. They wanted to know why. "And..." She sighed, if she smarted off right now, like she wanted to, she knew she'd get in trouble. "I'm sorry..." And she explained how some of the promises she made the year before(no more smarting off and fights) wouldn't be kept if she was at school every day, especially the fights. Lindsey's little sister, Samantha, was becoming a big mouth problem just like her sister, and it was so much harder to fend it off with Tony gone. So to fix the problem, she started to ditch(which wasn't in the promises she made last year) and Stephanie joined her originally, but was caught at Hunter Mountain in the first month. Stephanie's oldest sister, who was home from college, wrote the sick notes.
Maggie told her dad she wouldn't do it any more and he agreed. She also told him not to go to the school about Lindsey and Sammie, and although he disliked that a lot he agreed. But if they laid a hand on his daughter, he didn't care, the school was going to hear him. With those things out of the way he laid down his punishment and punishment at the Jones' suck!
NO friends
NO movies
NO tv
NO stereo
NO phone
YOU WILL help clean the bathrooms once a week
YOU WILL clean the dishes after dinner
YOU WILL miss one class of either dance, karate, or gymnastics a month
YOU WILL pick up poop in the backyard
and
YOU WILL be escorted to and from the bus stop everyday
FOR THREE MONTHS!
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Because of good behavior, punishment only lasted two months, which made the Hallor sisters, Lindsey and Samantha, all too happy. As they got off the bus a week after Maggie's punishment was lifted they striked, attacking Maggie, Stephanie, and another girl Maggie made friends with recently. All five wrestled around when more came in helping Lindsey and Sammie. 20 minutes later Maggie made it home, sure she held her own pretty well, mostly thanks to her karate which she once again thanked her mom for. She ran upstairs before her dad saw her and changed, then went into the bathroom. Her dad opened her bedroom door and called her name, but she didn't answer because she didn't want her dad to see. Unfortunately, he came in anyway. "Maggie, what happened?!" He said staring at Maggie's bloody nose. Shrugging she said, "She hit first, but I broke hers."
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a nice long one! how awesome is that! i would made this into two, but decided not too... i hope that cool and that you enjoy this one...
i loved answering machines in the 90s, mine at home was always like that one the Joneses did in this chapter... it was funny because our number was really close to the non-emergency police number... so we had drunks call and laugh there a-sses off at 3am... Jamaican Christmas recordings were the best!
some quick info: Maggie takes 5 dance classes, 2 gymnastic classes, and 2 karate classes... Samantha is a year younger then Maggie...
well on to the next chapter!! please i'd really love some reviews here please!!
