17-year-old Olive St. James sighed loudly as she paced the floor of her bedroom. Normally, pacing helped her combat writer's block, but it just wasn't cutting it today.
What was especially frustrating was that it wasn't like she was working with nothing. She had her notes from weeks of research. But for some reason, despite this, and the fact she was a pretty good writer in general, she just couldn't do it. The paper wasn't due for another week, but next weekend she'd be heading to the Hamptons with her family, which included her 46-year-old father Jesse, 44-year-old mother Rachel, and 3-year-old sister Clementine.
Well, technically Clementine was 3 1/2. Ever since Rachel had made the mistake of telling someone that in front of Clem, any time anyone referred to her as 3 years old, she'd put her little hands on her hips, tilt her head and say, "actually, I'm 3 1/2."
Olive finally decided to sit at her desk and at least start typing…anything. After typing out the header with her name, the date, and her class period, she started to type out an introduction, knowing she could always delete and edit as she went.
A few minutes in, Olive heard knocking at her door - knocking that lasted several seconds.
"Clemmy, I'm doing homework!" Olive chuckled a little bit.
"Come play with me, Oli!" Clementine called from the hallway.
"I can't right now. Later, okay?" Olive was still calm, and trying to be as patient as possible, but was starting to get a little frustrated.
Olive was startled when the door opened, revealing Clementine standing there and grinning. Olive was caught off-guard because all the doors in the house had childproof door covers to prevent this exact scenario from occurring. Olive looked down and saw the door cover split in two on the floor.
"Clementine Jessica St. James!" Olive scolded. She sounded just like her mother and that was kind of scary in and of itself.
"I want to play!" Clementine whined.
"I told you I would later," Olive's voice was rising. "But then you broke into my room! Now I don't know if I will."
"It's not fair!" Clementine cried dramatically.
You know how people talk about having "out of body experiences?" Where they do something but don't even feel like they're the one doing it because they become disconnected from their own body at that moment?
Olive could honestly say she didn't feel like it was her hand that raised and pushed Clementine, until her sister was on the floor crying. That's when what she had done actually clicked.
"Clemmy, I -" Olive started, but at that point Clementine was already on her way down the stairs yelling, "MOMMY! DADDY! OLI PUSHED ME!"
Olive froze. She knew she was done for. She didn't have to ponder her next move for long though, because soon she heard her father's distinguishable steps coming up the staircase.
"Olive Maria!" Jesse called out angrily. Olive couldn't m recall her father ever using her middle name when reprimanding her, that was pretty much a Rachel thing.
"Clementine said you pushed her?" Jesse stopped when he saw his eldest standing there frozen in the hallway.
Olive started crying. "I did…I'm not going to lie to you because I did.."
Jesse's face softened at the sight of his distraught daughter.
"What happened? That's so unlike you - your mother and I almost didn't believe it, but Clementine is downstairs crying uncontrollably," Jesse said.
"I was doing my homework and she knocked on my door asking to play. I told her nicely I would play with her later because I was doing homework. She got more persistent and broke my door knob cover and opened the door.
Jesse looked down at the broken door knob cover.
"She really did," he murmured.
"Dad…I know there's no excuse for what I did even if I was angry with Clemmy…I hate that I hurt her. I'm her big sister and I'm supposed to protect her and I -" Olive was sobbing so hard she could barely speak.
Jesse pulled Olive in for a hug and started rubbing her back.
"Shh," he soothed. "We're gonna work this out. I know you love your sister."
"Am I in trouble?" Olive asked, after Jesse had pulled away.
"No. You recognize what you did was wrong and I can tell you feel horrible about it. Clementine is old enough to know better than to bother you when you're studying and I will definitely be talking to her about that. I feel like, just like you owe your sister an apology, as you understand, your mother and I owe you one, too. While, like you said, nothing could excuse you pushing Clementine, I'm sorry that I didn't ask for your side of the story before scolding you like that," Jesse said.
"It's okay," Olive gave her father another quick hug. "I want to talk to Clementine."
*
Jesse and Olive made their way downstairs to the family room where Rachel was sitting on the couch, Clementine snuggled up to her chest.
"Clementine, Olive has something she would like to say to you. When she's done, I have something I would like to say as well," Jesse told his youngest.
Clementine turned to look at her sister. Olive stepped forward and knelt down to Clem's level.
"Clemmy," Olive said softly. "I am so sorry I pushed you. I was really frustrated because you weren't listening to me and letting me do my homework, but it still wasn't okay for me to hurt you. Are you okay?"
Clementine nodded. "Yes, Oli."
"Clementine," Jesse sat down next to Rachel. "Olive told me that she was doing her homework and told you she'd play with you later. But you didn't like her answer so you broke the door knob cover and went into her room without permission," Jesse said solemnly.
"Yes, we were talking a little bit about that," Rachel said. "But I didn't know about the door knob cover," Rachel looked down at Clementine who quickly averted her mother's gaze.
"Clementine, you're a big girl now," Jesse continued. "I know this is something that we've been talking about quite a bit lately. When someone tells you that you need to wait, then you need to do that. You need to listen to what they're saying because you can't always get what you want. When Olive told you she would play with you later, you should've found something else to do while you waited. Olive told you she was sorry, but I think you need to tell her sorry as well," Jesse said firmly.
Clementine turned to Olive. "I'm sorry, Oli. I love you. I still think you're the best big sister in the world."
The tears were starting to come back to Olive's eyes, but for a different reason.
Olive scooped Clementine up and hugged her tighter than she ever had before.
"And I still think you're the best little sister in the world," Olive said, kissing Clementine's forehead.