"Juan!" shouted Pete. "Juan, buddy! Where are you? Come down right now!"
Above him, footsteps shuffled across the top floor in the direction of the stairs.
"Yeah?" said Juan, popping his head into view from the staircase.
"Buddy, what's this? Why is this box unticked?" asked Pete, pointing to the family chores board.
Juan's eyes widened. "Oops."
Beside Pete, Meatball whined.
It was late evening and Pete had gone downstairs to get a snack when he had walked past the chore board. He'd realized the box labelled 'Feed Meatball' -one of Juan's chores- was unticked. Directly beneath the board, Meatball's food was empty. He was not about to let Juan get away with this.
"Buddy I can't believe you didn't do this earlier; you know we always feed Meatball at five!" said Pete.
"Sorry! I forgot!" said Juan, an apologetic look on his face.
"Look at Meatball, poor guy's been waiting for his food for two hours! What's that about?" said Pete.
"I'm sorry Meatball," said Juan as he scrambled around the kitchen for the dog food. The dog whined again.
Juan opened one of the storage cupboards in the aisle and pulled out a massive bag of dog food. He opened it and took out a pouring scoop. Meatball sat down next to his bowl and licked his mouth, drool dripping on the floor. Juan ran back to get Meatball's food bowl and poured out a scoop full of dog food into the bowl.
"Juan, you know how important this is, we can't forget to feed Meatball!" said Pete.
"I'm so sorry Meatball, here you go" said Juan as he put the food down for Meatball to eat.
Immediately the dog pounced on the food, eating away.
"How come you forgot, bud?" asked Pete.
Juan looked up at him, the apology written all over his face.
"Sorry Dad," he said. "I… uhm… it won't happen again" he lowered his head, staring at the floor.
"You bet this won't happen again, I'm giving this chore back to Lita so she can do it with Mom next time" said Pete.
"Noo please, I want to keep doing it," begged Juan, "please I promise I won't forget again! It's just that…" said Juan.
"It's just that what, buddy?" asked Pete.
"Minecraft released an update today and there's tons of cool new features and I really wanted to try them out" said Juan, his head lowered.
"Wait, did they finally release the aquatic update?" asked Pete, suddenly interested in the conversation.
Juan looked up at him and nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! And there're like 6 ocean biomes and so many new items!"
"Including the trident?" asked Pete
"Including the trident! Although you can't mine it, you have to steal it from drowned mobs," said Juan.
"And did they add the heart of the sea for conduit powers?" asked Pete.
Juan smirked. "Oh yeah," he said, nodding.
"No way!" exclaimed Pete. "Why didn't you call me? You know I've been waiting for that update as well!"
Juan bit his lower bit as he shrugged his shoulders. "Sorry…. I forgot!"
Pete shook his head, suddenly remembering the matter at hand. He looked down at Meatball, who had finished eating and was now licking his mouth.
"Okay well… you're forgiven this one time, but if you forget again, that's it, I'm giving this chore back to Lita, alright? Can't be forgetting to feed our good boy here," he said as he patted Meatball on the head.
Juan smiled. He crouched down to Meatball's level and took his face in his hands.
"Sorry buddy, you're a good boy, I promise I won't forget again, even if there's another update from Minecraft," said Juan.
"Alright well speaking about that, c'mon you gotta show me these features, let's go" said Pete.
Juan stood up. "Dad, you really gotta see the deep ocean biome, it's great, and if you craft a turtle helmet it gives you underwater breathing!" he said as he walked up the stairs.
"You can breathe underwater too?!" asked Pete, trailing behind him.
Downstairs, Meatball went over to his dog bed and lay down, satisfied for the rest of the day.