Chapter eight
Not off to a great start
Chris was still not looking forward to starting kindergarten despite his parents' and brother's efforts at convincing him it could be fun. As a last attempt, Leo had decided to take Wyatt and Chris school shopping. Leo parked the car and Wyatt unbuckled his seatbelt but Chris didn't budge. "I don't want to go to school," he whined. Wyatt sighed, he was very tired of hearing his little brother complain about school, especially since he himself loved going to school. "We're not at school we're at the mall. We're getting what you need for school," Leo clarified. "That's no fun." Leo took a moment to think up a way to get his stubborn kid out of the car without a complete tantrum. "If you boys behave and get everything you need for school we will go to Mcdonalds for lunch." Chris perked up and untied his seatbelt. Feeling as though he had won this battle, Leo got out of the car and helped his sons out. He took their hands after locking up the car and brought them into the mall.
Chris kept attempting to drag his father into every store they passed only to be guided back in the right direction. They entered the bag store, Leo had thought this would be a good place to start as he thought Chris would find it fun to pick out his very own school bag and lunch box. He led them over to the selection of bags meant for little kids. Wyatt immediately let go of his father's hand and started looking over his options. Chris looked unimpressed until he spotted the bags with the superheroes on them. He let go of his dad's hand and went to look at them. He went through his options by throwing the bags onto the floor after looking at them. Leo didn't want to cause a scene, so instead of telling Chris off knowing it would only cause a tantrum, he just picked up the bags and put them back on the hooks. Chris removed one final bag, it was blue and had superman on it. The bag looked a lot like his blanket at home.
"I want this one."
"Good pick, son. Wyatt? Have you picked yours yet?"
Wyatt lifted up a blues clues bag. Leo nodded to him and Wyatt happily put it on. Leo led the boys over to the lunch boxes. The boys quickly picked out two similar blue lunchboxes and Leo brought them over to the counter to pay. With the fun part done, Leo nervously brought the boys into Walmart, distracting Chris while they passed the toy aisle. They stopped at the corner the school supplied had been displayed. For a few minutes, Chris cooperated. The boys were told what to go find and then returned to the carts with those items. Just when Leo let his guard down, it all when downhill. Chris threw a pack of markers into the cart. "I'm bored," he whined. "You still have a few more things you need," Leo told him. "I don't care. I want to go to Mcdonalds." Wyatt was now getting impatient because his father hadn't given him the next item to find. "Daddy," he called out. Leo didn't hear him as he was busy with Chris. "You need these things for school." Chris stumped his feet on the ground. "I don't want to go to school! I hate school!" Leo remained calm though people were starting to stare. "How do you know you hate school, you've never been there?" Wyatt lost his patience and yelled for his father's attention. "Don't you start," Leo scolded him. Wyatt started crying due to being confused over why he had been scolded when he hadn't done anything wrong, he just wanted to know what item to get next. Chris started screaming how he hated school and wasn't going, and Leo had a crying child and a tantruming child on his hands. People were giving them side locks and shaking their heads. "Wyatt, I'm sorry I yelled. What did you want?" Wyatt was too upset to calm himself down and express what he wanted. Leo lost his patience.
"That's it! No school shopping! No McDonalds! We are going home!"
Coop was at home with all five of the babies when Leo came in with two grumpy boys. Wyatt was not happy school shopping had been cut short just because his little brother wouldn't behave himself. Chris was pissed over not getting his McDonalds. "Go to your room and stay there," Leo told them harshly. Wyatt started crying again and Chris stomped up the stairs. Wyatt orbed up. "I'm sorry to do this to you but the boys really do need school supplies. Can you stay here with all of them for a while?" Leo asked. He felt bad Coop would have to watch all seven of the kids on his own, especially when two of them were in foul moods. "I can see you need a break from them. You go ahead, I've got this under control." Leo nodded and headed back out.
"Wyatt? Can you come here please?"
Wyatt orbed down to the living room and seated himself on the couch. Coop sat down next to him. He found it hard to believe Wyatt had simply misbehaving knowing how well-behaved he normally was and how excited he had been to go back to school shopping. "Can you tell me what happened at the store today?" Coop asked him, his tone gentle and non-judgemental. Wyatt nodded and explained he had wanted the next item to find but his dad was too busy trying to get Chris to behave. "Chris is a big brat. He always acts bad and gets all the attention." Coop, who like Phoebe was an empath, was able to feel how Wyatt felt he had been treated unfairly. "It can be hard being a big brother sometimes, huh?" Wyatt nodded in agreement. "What do you think you should have done differently?" Wyatt shrugged, he was under the impression he hadn't done anything wrong. Then he thought it over. "I should have waited until daddy wasn't talking to Chris anymore." Coop nodded to agree with him. "That would have helped. If you had waited, your daddy would have heard you. Is there anything else you think you did wrong?" Again, Wyatt thought it over. "I yelled at daddy." His uncle again nodded in agreement. "If you hadn't yelled at daddy, daddy wouldn't have yelled at you." Wyatt nodded but Coop wanted to make sure Wyatt understood what had led to him being yelled at. "Daddy was mad at Chris because Chris wasn't being good. You yelled at daddy which made him angry at you. He thought you were being bad too because he didn't know you had been trying to get his attention." Wyatt understood now and realized many things could have gone differently. Chris could have started listening, Wyatt could have waited until his dad had dealt with Chris instead of demanding his attention. Leo could have dealt with him in a nicer tone even though he was angry with Chris.
After his talk with Wyatt, Coop called Chris down and had him sit next to him on the couch. Wyatt was now playing with his sister and the twins. Baby Prue and baby Henry were asleep in the playpen. "I want us to have a nice talk with no yelling and no whining. Can we do that?" Chris nodded his head. "What happened at the store today, let's be honest, okay?" Coop asked the toddler. Chris didn't respond. "Is it possible you were being notty?" A moment passed before Chris nodded his head in admission. "What happened when you were being notty?" "Daddy yelled at me." He sighed then said, "no McDonalds." A brief moment of silence passed. "What do you think you should have done differently?" Coop asked. "Listen to daddy and be good." Coop nodded. "You think if you had done that you would have gotten McDonald's?" Chris nodded his head. "Let's talk about school. Why do you not want to go?" Chris let out a scream. "Remember, we are having a nice conversation with no yelling and no whining," Coop reminded him. His tone calm and nice. "School is boring and they tell you what to do." This was what Coop had expected him to say. "School isn't always boring. It can be but sometimes it can be fun too. You will get to make new friends and play with Wyatt. You will get to color and read stories." This didn't seem to make the child anymore excited about school. Now, Coop was feeling something else from Chris. It was fear.
"Chris? Are you scared about starting school?" Coop asked the child.
"There will be big kids there," Chris said.
"Yes, there will. You're only in kindergarten though so I don't think you'll be seeing the big kids very much."
"Really?"
"Well, I can't promise it but I don't think so."
"What if the other kids are mean to me?" Chris asked.
"You tell them they are not being nice and you don't care what they say."
It was the morning of the first day of school. Coop came downstairs and informed Piper the babies were up. Piper went into the twin's room and picked them up, and brought them into the kitchen, where she placed them in their high chairs and then prepared their meals. Coop beamed to the fourth floor and told Melinda to orb into her high chair. He then beamed into Prue's room, picked her up, went to Henry's room, picked him up and beamed to the kitchen where he placed P.J. in her high chair and got a bottle from the fridge, and fed Henry on his lap.
"Ok I know I know, you're all hungry, I'm doing this as fast as I can," Piper told four crying babies
Piper rushed around pouring cheerios into bowls and pulling four bottles out of the cabinet. She quickly poured milk into the bottles and spilled some everywhere. Ignoring the mess, Piper put the lids on the bottles and gave the bowls of cheerios to the girls. As they stopped crying and ate, Piper cleaned up the spilled milk on the counters but forgot about the floor. She then picked up the bottles and she started walking, she slipped on the milk and fell down in the puddle.
"You ok?" Coop asked trying his hardest to not laugh.
"Just great," Piper sarcastically said getting up
"I just bought these jeans," she then added.
Piper then looked over at the babies and found Melinda covered in cheerios. Piper rolled her eyes at the ceiling, sighed, and went to pick up her daughter. "What did you do?" Piper asked her daughter as she picked her up. Piper brought Melinda into the bathroom, placed her in the tub, and turned on the water. She tested it with her hand to keep it at a good temperature. Piper then took a face cloth and washed off the cereal. Since it was her bath day anyways, Piper gently rubbed Melinda's skin with soap and carefully shampooed her, starting to get long, hair to avoid shampoo getting in her eyes. After rinsing her off, Piper wrapped Melinda in a towel and took her from the tub. In Melinda's room after putting a diaper on her, Piper dressed Melinda in a cute jean dress with a rose design with a white long sleeve shirt underneath, since it was a cold day.
"Mama," Melinda said
"Yeah that's right, I'm your mommy," Piper said.
Chris was the only one in the family not currently seated at the kitchen table having breakfast. "Listen up," Piper stated. All eyes turned to her. "Chris is going to be down here any minute. He is in a good mood. If anyone of you mentions school... I will shoot you." With that being said, Piper took a sip of coffee from her cup. Sure enough, Chris came in just a few minutes later. He seated himself next to Wyatt as his food had already been placed down on the table. Conversations resumed as Chris started eating. No one dared to say the word "school" or talk about school.
Leo summoned the door to magic school. He had Melinda and P.J. in his arms. He walked through the door which vanished behind him. With Tamora and baby Henry in a stroller and Kat in her arms, Paige rushed out the door. She was running late getting the kids to daycare and she was running late for work. Henry left the house and got into the car to make his way to the local prison where he was checking up on a parolee who had been arrested the night before. (Henry only dealt with juvenile delinquents under eighteen.) Phoebe retrieved her bag ready to get to her office and Coop beamed out to start his daily Cupid duties. This left Piper to take Wyatt and Chris to kindergarten. (There were two years of kindergarten. Wyatt was five and starting senior kindergarten, Chris would be four the following month and was starting junior kindergarten.)
Piper parked the car and was worried over how Chris was going to behave. She turned to look at her sons. "Time to get out." Wyatt and Chris both unbuckled their seatbelts and jumped out of the car. Piper retrieved their bags from the backseat and then took the boys' hands. She led them up to the fenced-in kindergarten area that was located directly outside the two kindergarten classrooms. She got down on her knees and gave both of her sons a hug. Chris hadn't caught on that they weren't just dropping off Wyatt. Mrs. Hudson came over to the gate. "Good morning, Wyatt. I am your teacher this year. My name is Mrs. Husdson." "Hello, I'm Wyatt Matthew Halliwell." Piper giggled at her son. Mrs. Hudson unlatched the gate to let Wyatt in. She then looked at Chris. "Aren't you coming in too?" She asked. Chris shook his head and bolted down the lawn. Piper chased after him as some passing parents and their kids stared.
"Where's Darryl?" Wyatt asked his new teacher.
"Darryl isn't in kindergarten anymore. He's with the other big kids."
Wyatt walked away disappointed but quickly cheered up seeing Austin and Dakota. He ran up to them as his mother returned holding Chris in her arms. Chris was wiggling around trying to escape but he wasn't screaming or kicking. Piper walked right into the play area and put him down. This wasn't something she had ever had to do with Wyatt. She made her quick exit and Mrs. Hudson quickly locked the gate as Chris ran towards it. Chris burst into tears. Wyatt came over and attempted to hug his brother but Chris pushed him away. "If you're going to be like that I'm not going to be nice to you," Wyatt stated. He walked back over to his friends completely ignoring his little brother.
A while later after the bell had rung, Wyatt followed his classmates into the senior kindergarten classroom. It looked very similar to the junior kindergarten classroom. He seated himself on the red carpet where Mrs. Hudson was seated on a chair facing them. "Quiet down," She instructed. "All eyes and ears on me please." The chatter amongst the children stopped as they put their attention on their teacher. "I want to go over some rules. When I am talking you are not talking. When I tell you to do something you do it. No whining." "Well then good luck with my brother," Wyatt stated. "Wyatt, what was the first rule I just told you?" Wyatt's face went pale. "If you break a rule in this class, you go sit on the time-out chair. Wyatt, you broke a rule, go sit on the chair." Wyatt got up and walked over to the time-out chair as all of his classmates watched. He sat down on the chair and sulked. He didn't like his new teacher.
Chris did not want to sit on the blue carpet in his classroom. "Chris please sit down so we can start the class," Mrs. Wellington asked nicely. She was expecting him to be a well-behaved child seeing as his brother had been Angel in her class last year. Little did she know that Chris was very different from Wyatt. "NO!" His classmates all went "oooh." Chris stomped his foot on the ground. "Where's my brother?" He demanded to know. "Wyatt is in the classroom beside ours. You can see him at recess. Please sit down." Chris shook his head. "I want to see him right now!" He stomped his foot on the floor again. "I'm sorry honey but you can't right now. Can you please sit down?" Chris refused. "I am going to half to put you on time-out if you don't sit down," Mrs. Wellington warned. Chris stuck in tongue out at her. Mrs. Wellington took his hand and brought him over to the time-out chair. Never had she ever had to send a kid to time-out within the first five minutes of the school year. She had a feeling it was going to be a long year. When she remembered Wyatt and Chris had a little sister, she couldn't help but wonder which of her brothers she was like. Especially since she'd probably end up teaching her in a few years.
Piper had dropped some milk on the floor. She sighed but at least the mop bucket was already filled with water as she had just washed the floors. She retrieved the mop and dumped it into the bucket. She started moping up the spill when Chris orbed in. Piper crossed her arms ready to give him a scolding. "What are you doing home Mr.?" She asked him sternly. "I have to go potty," Chris replied. "There are potties at school. You just have to ask the teacher," she informed him. "I know," Chris replied. "Well if you know that then why did you come home to go potty?" Chris needed a minute to think up a reason. "This is where my favorite potty is." Piper had to stop herself from laughing. "You have a favourite potty?" She asked her son in disbelief. "Yep." Piper rolled her eyes up at the ceiling. "Go potty and then orb back to school, but next time you use the toilet at school, understand?" Chris nodded and orbed out of the room.
Someone orbed in and at first Piper thought it was Chris but this time it was actually Wyatt. "Don't tell me you have a favourite toilet too?" Wyatt shook his head. "Why are you here and not at school?" Piper asked him. "I don't like my teacher. She put me on time-out." This surprised Piper as Wyatt was very well-behaved. "What did you do?" She asked him. "I talked when she was talking." "Oh, and did she tell you not to do that?" Wyatt nodded truthfully. "Well, when you break the rules there's always a consequence. Now come on, orb back to school." Wyatt gave his mom a look but did orb back to school.
Chris orbed back in. "Why are you not back at school?" Chris shrugged and said, "I'm done with school." He then casually walked over to the snack Cubert and took a donkeroo. "You can't just quit school. You're on your first day of kindergarten." Piper took the snack from him and put it back. "You have lunch at school," she told him. "I'm not going back. School is lame." Piper tossed the mop onto the floor and crossed her arms. "Alright, kindergarten dropout. I've had enough of you. You are going back to school. You are going to go to school every day until June of-" she had to think of what year Chris would be graduating high school. "Until June of 2022!" Knowing he didn't have a choice, Chris orbed back to school.
Phoebe was in her office speaking with her boss Elise Rothman. "No right, I'm almost done I just need to...what are you doing here?" Elise turned around to find both of Phoebe's nephews standing there. "I don't like school anymore," Wyatt told her. "Since when? You love school." Wyatt explained how he had been sent to time-out because he had talked while his teacher was talking right after she had told the entire class not to do that. Chris then let his aunt know that he did not like school one bit and had decided he was not going anymore. Phoebe reached for the phone. "Go back to school or I'm calling your mother." Chris stomped his foot on the ground and told his brother, "See, I told you we should have gone to Auntie Paige." Wyatt smacked his hand onto his forehead. "How many times do I have to tell you? Auntie Paige would just orb us back to school and tell mommy. Auntie Phoebe is the fun aunt." Wyatt sounded as though he had explained this to his little brother multiple times. Elise put her hand on her mouth to stop herself from laughing. "Get your little hybrid butts back to your classrooms and stay there or you are both grounded." Wyatt didn't like to be punished and he orbed back to school at once. Chris didn't care about groundings. He stayed where he was. Phoebe started to dial Piper's cell but when Chris caught on, he orbed himself back to school.
"I know they weren't supposed to be here but you have to admit they're so cute when they use their powers," Elise stated.
"Not always. I can't believe two kindergarteners were trying to play me."
"I think now that they know you have a say over them they are testing their limits. I'm sure they'll go to Paige next."
Paige did get an unexpected visit at her office but it wasn't from Wyatt and Chris. Billie knocked on the open office door catching Paige's attention. "You got a minute? It's important." Billie walked in and closed the office door which told Paige this wasn't a social call, it was a magic call. "Okay, what is it? Warlock? Demon? Wizard? Ghost? Magic gone wrong?" Billie shook her head. "It's Emma. Emma Benson. She's been exposing magic all over Sans Francisco." Paige quickly turned on the little TV she had in her office and sure enough, the news was focused on a thirteen-year-old witch using her ice power to turn people into ice. Paige jumped up from her chair, took Billie's hand, and orbed them to Emma's location. Paige grabbed onto Emma's arm and when the teenager looked up at Paige her eyes flashed red. "You're possessed. Wonderful." She orbed home with Emma and Billie.
"Piper! We have a problem," Paige called out as she and Billie restrained Emma who was thrashing around. Piper came into the living room from the kitchen. The front door opened and Phoebe came in. "Piper! Your children are driving me bananas," Phoebe complained. "What did they do?" Piper asked. Before Phoebe could answer, the door to magic school appeared and opened, Leo came through. "One of my students conjured up a dinosaur, how do I get rid of it?" Coop beamed in with Tamora and Kat and baby Henry. "Daycare called. Henry and the twins are sick." The front door opened again and adult Henry came in. "Guys, Darryl's here and he does not look happy." Just as he said this, Darryl came in. He did not look happy. The boys orbed in and began chanting "no more school! No more school!" Tamora and Kat started crying which set off their baby brother. Piper froze the room. Both Henry along with the twins and Darryl and Coop and Leo and Emma froze. Leaving Phoebe, Paige, Billie and the boys unfrozen.
"I can only deal with so much," Piper stated. She took in a breath. Phoebe, feel free to punish the boys however you like. You two go to school and if I see you again before the final bell you don't even want to know what will happen to you. Emma froze which is not good and means we have a bigger problem to deal with. Paige, Billie get her into a trap up in the attic I will meet you up there." Wyatt and Chris orbed to school, Paige orbed herself and Billie and Emma up to the attic and Phoebe left to head back to work. Piper took in another breath and unfroze the room. "Leo, the student who conjured the dyno has to dispose of it. Before you go, heal the babies. Coop, you can go back to work. "Darryl I'm sorry but whatever it is it's going to have to wait." Leo went over to the sick babies and used his powers to heal them. He took them from Coop who beamed out. "I came about the kid exposing magic but I see you are already handling it," Darryl said. "The cleans will take care of erasing all traces of exposed magic." Darryl nodded and left.
Piper entered the attic. Emma was trapped in a circle of crystal and she was hissing at Paige and Billie. Paige and Billie were looking for answers in the book of shadows. "There is nothing in here on witches with flashing red eyes," Paige said as she slammed the book shut. "Maybe instead of thinking of her as a witch, we should think of her as a child, as in a demon child," Piper suggested. "Is there such a thing?" Billie asked. "Oh yes, I've run into some before. As far as I know, good witches don't turn into demonic children, but it's worth a try," Piper said opening the book again. Piper flipped through the book until she came across the demonic children page and began reading the description. "OK well it says here, demotic children can use their powers to make children, either magical or not into a demotic brat. When they are in a demotic action their eyes flash red for a split second. These children will go as far as killing." Paige continued reading from where her sister had left off. "It gets worse, if the child kills he or she will be rewarded with demotic powers given to them by the demotic child, who is their leader." "So in other words, demotic children are making an army of kids by turning them into extremely misbehaving brats, then rewarding them with demotic powers after their first kill?" Piper asked. Paige nodded. "Then the question is who does the army target, and who is the leader?" Billie wondered. "Since they're demons, I'm going to assume good witches. It sounds to me like before the first kill is considered training, and the first kill marks the completion of their training. They then become part of the army after receiving demotic powers," Piper stated. "Is there a cure?" Paige asked. "Yeah to turn all the children back, we need to vanquish the leader, which means we have to find out where she finds her victims," Piper replied. "I'll get started on it, you two try to scry for the leader."
Using a drop of Emma's blood, Paige was able to scry for the leader's location, the leader was in the woods. She orbed there just in time to see a tween boy compel and an innocent girl. Paige had not been spotted and she looked around for a sharp object and ended up having to orb a knife to herself. She threw it at the demonic child causing it to explode into ashes that disappeared as they touched the ground. The innocent girl, about nine, looked around confused. "Are you lost?" Paige asked her. The child spun around and backed away. "It's okay. I'm a social worker. I can help you get home." The girl looked at her unsure if she trusted her. Paige reached out her hand and patiently waited for the young girl to take it. She then led the girl out of the woods where a police officer happened to be nearby.
"Excuse me, office." The female office turned out.
"I found this girl wandering lost in the woods."
"Thank god. We've been looking for this child all day."
"I'm lost," the little girl said.
"Then come with me and I'll help you get home."
Once the coast was clear, Paige orbed back home into the attic. Piper and Billie were still there keeping tabs on Emma. "Paige? What's going on? Piper said I was possessed?" Emma sounded frantic, lost, confused. She had no memory of the events that had occurred. "It's a long story. What's the last thing you remember?" Paige asked her. "Um, mom dropping me off at school this morning. I was excited because this is my last year of elementary school," Emma replied. "Emma, you used your powers in public and turned a bunch of people into ice sculptures," Billie explained to her. Emma gasped. "I didn't kill anyone did I?" She asked frantically, her eyes full of fear. Paige shook her head. "No, and I'm sure the cleaners have already reversed the damage." relief came over the teenage girl's face. "I better get you home, I'm sure your parents have heard what happened and are worried sick," Paige said. She kicked aside a crystal to free Emma from the trap. As Paige orbed out with Emma, Wyatt and Chris orbed back in.
"What are you doing here now?" Piper asked harshly.
"Uncle Coop picked us up. School's done for today," Wyatt informed her.
"Oh. Sorry boys," Piper said as she looked down at her watch.
"Are you hungry?" She asked then them.
The boys nodded and Billie took them into the kitchen for a snack. Piper sat down on the couch and Melinda orbed onto her lap. "I see daddy got home with you and P.J.," Piper stated. Melinda giggled at her mother. "I love you, baby girl but you can't just orb onto my lap whenever you want." Melinda giggled again as Leo came in and sat next to them. "Piper, she's one," Leo reminded her. "Well how do you think mortal babies do it, they know how to ask," Piper told him. "No, they just climb up expecting it to be okay," Leo corrected her. "Oh fine."