Chapter 4;
Add a little sugar, be a little sweeter, gotta give and take, be a little proper, speak a little softer, gotta be a lady, they say
Notes:
This one is for the amazing, kind, motivating and just very sweet SazLance!
You are a huge reason why I write as often and regularly as I do!
I hope you like it. I did my best trying to get into the head of a seven year old but I feel like I failed at it and it sucks! I'm so sorry if it does. And I might actually end up rewriting it at some point, should I ever actually figure out how a seven year old thinks.
Oliver
The seven-and-six-year-olds were sitting on the living room floor working on their projects when they suddenly heard a loud bang.
Oliver flinched and looked towards Laurel, who had jumped up from her place on the floor.
"Hey! What are the rules about slamming the doors, Sara?" Oliver sat up straight, like his mom always told him to at the sound of a booming voice.
"I didn't slam it daddy, I opened it! It's not my fault the wall is too close to the door!" He could hear a petulant little girl's voice answer.
"I understand that you're angry, baby, but that is no reason to try and break both the door and the wall. If you push the door hard enough to slam into the wall, it will leave marks on it."
"But daddy… it's not fair! The coach is a big meanie!" What he presumed was Sara's voice took on a whiny note.
The voices got louder as they drew closer and Oliver could soon make out a tiny, little blond girl and a tall man.
"Well baby, you should have thought about the consequences of your actions before. Coach warned you what would happen, and you decided not to listen to him, baby. So, now you're going to be sitting on the bench for the next two games." her father explained to her.
"But, but daddy, it wasn't my fault!" The tiny little blonde thing standing in the hallway to the living room stomped her little foot really hard, her hands were placed on her hips and her little pony tail was a mess that bounced around wildly.
"Well according to you, it never is…" Laurel piped up and rolled her eyes dramatically.
Sara had run from her place by her father to the living room before Oliver knew what had happened. And it only took another quick moment before she had jumped on her older sister's back, pulling her hair.
"Sara, get off! Ow, that hurts! Daddy, get her off!" Laurel tried to pry the little girl off of herself with no success.
"It was not my fault, you weren't there, you don't know! Stop saying things like that!" Sara seemed really mad at Laurel, and Oliver watched the two of them with gigantic eyes. Maybe not having a brother or sister was a good thing after all. And it took him a moment to realize that Mrs. Lance had come in to the living room too and the two parents were trying to separate their daughters.
"Sara, baby, let go of your sister's hair. NOW!" Mrs. Lance's voice was suddenly very stern, and Oliver's eyes went even bigger. He didn't know it could sound like that. She had always been really nice, and he had never heard her get loud before.
"That's it, baby, let go and now get down from her back. Good girl. Now… go up to your room and sit down and think about what you did today that might not have been that good and why you are spending some time alone in your room. Mommy or daddy will be up with a snack in a little bit. Okay?" Mrs. Lance got down on her knees, so she could look into the little girl's eyes.
"But mommy, it's not fair! It's not my fault! I didn't do anything!" the four-year-old insisted petulantly.
"Honeybuns, that might have been more convincing if we hadn't just pried you off of your sister's back or if you weren't holding strands of your Laurel's hair in your hands. Now go to your room, honey." Mrs. Lance was talking to her calmly but didn't let up.
Oliver looked at the exchange a little confused. His mom and dad would've already let him run off to play again. Why didn't Laurel's parents let Sara just go and play too? Why did she have to go to her room to think about what she did? He wondered while watching the tiny little blonde menace stump all the way up the stairs, muttering angrily under her breath.
"What did she do now, Quentin?" Mrs. Lance turned to her husband and looked at him expectantly.
"Well, let's just say she seemed to have forgotten which game they were playing. She body slammed one kid and tripped two others in order to get the soccer ball into the goal." Mr. Detective Lance told her. And that confused Oliver. Sara was so tiny? How did she do that?
"Did she at least get it in?" Mrs. Lance wanted to know.
"Of course she did, she tripped the defense, and the goalie ended up stumbling over the defense's leg in the process, giving Sara a clear shot. It wasn't until after that the coach reached her and took her off the field, kicking and screaming." Laurel's dad explained.
"Well, at least she got determination. And you know, she is the youngest and by far smallest player on the team... the fact that she managed to take four players down all own her own, without losing the ball is pretty impressive." Laurel's mom seemed amused by and proud of her daughter's actions.
"Dinah, do not encourage her. Her behavior is wrong. And she needs to learn that." Mr. Detective Lance didn't seem to agree with his wife.
"Which is the coach's job in this situation. So, what are the consequences?"
"She's benched for the next two games."
"That seems a bit harsh for a four-year-old." Mrs. Lance looked thoughtful at her husband.
"Dinah, she body slammed one kid, playing soccer and tripped two more. She made four children cry, well make that six, two more cried because Sara's actions led to them losing the practice game and she rubbed it in their faces." The Detective's voice was very stern.
"Alright. Do you want to talk to her or should I? After her timeout? I give you time to decide while I prepare her snack, she'll be easier to handle once her blood sugar's back up. Practice after preschool is a bad idea. The kids don't get enough meals this way."
Mrs. Lance ended up going up to talk to Sara and bring her a snack, while Mr. Detective Lance started to make dinner. Laurel's dad cooked! His parents never cooked, Raisa did all the cooking. That was so cool. He was a police officer, and he cooked dinner! Laurel's dad was awesome!
"It's not fair, Mr. Sparkles. I always get into trouble, Laulau never gets into trouble. This was her fault, she started it, but now I'm in trouble sitting here needing to think about what I did. I did nothing wrong. It's Laulau's fault she started it. Stupid, everyone's stupid. Mommy says I need to stay in my room until I apologize to Laulau for pulling her hair... that's not fair." Sara complained to the colorful plush bird in her arms, pushing her little rocking chair really hard, almost stomping while pushing her feet on the floor.
"Why do you call the bird Mr. Sparkles? It's pink and sparkles. You should call it Mrs. Sparkles." Oliver had watched her from the doorstep for a moment and wondered about her girly plushy's strange name. It was pink, at least part of it. So, it was obviously a girl bird.
"No, silly, he's a bird. The boy birds are the pretty ones, everybody knows that. Plus, also he's a Lilac-breasted Roller that's how they all look. What are you doing in my room? I'm supposed to be here alone… thinking." The little girl rolled her eyes at him and looked at him expectantly with slitted eyes.
"Laurel said that she had stickers in her room that would be perfect for our project. So, I'm looking for her room." Oliver explained his presence in the little girl's bedroom.
"This is Laulau's room silly, we share. Don't you have to share your room with your brother or sister?" Sara rolled her eyes at him again.
"I don't have any brothers or sisters." Oliver let her know.
"Oh. Why not? Who do you play with?" Sara looked confused by the thought of not having another child in the house that she could play with.
"I don't know. No one or sometimes Raisa if she has time and doesn't have to work. But she has to work a lot. She cleans the house and washes our clothes and she cooks too. So, she's really busy most of the time." Oliver explained to the little blonde.
"Oh, I'm sorry. That must be sad. I'm always feeling sad when Laulau doesn't want to play with me. Or when she's in school and I'm here with just me and my plushies. I know where Laulau keeps her stickers. I show you, c'mon." She got up from her little rocking chair, grabbed his hand and dragged him to the other side of the room and a little arts and crafts table.
"I'm Sara. What's your name?" She looked at him expectantly with her big blue eyes still holding his hand.
"I'm Oliver." He answered.
"Oliver, that's a silly name." she grinned at him impishly and he could see the freckles on her face, before letting go of his hand and pulling hard on the drawer in the table, revealing the stickers Laurel had mentioned.
"Oliver, honey, why don't you go back down and help Laurel again, I think Sara needs to think a little more about her actions, unless you decided you were ready to apologize to your sister?" Mrs. Lance stood just inside the girls' bedroom.
"He was just looking for Laulau's stickers mommy, I just showed him where she keeps them." Sara explained to her mom and ran back to her little chair, sitting on it again with her plush bird.
Oliver took the stickers he had been looking for and left the room with Mrs. Lance looking back at Laurel's little sister sitting in her little rocking chair, smiling and waving at him.
"Bye, silly name, be back soon!" He turned back around and saw her grin at him impishly again, her nose was crinkling and her eyes sparkling mischievously.
Notes:
So, this is how I think their first meeting could've gone... like I said, I might end up rewriting it or adding to it at some point but I've been writing and rewriting it for hours and I feel all I'm going to do at this point is make it worse... so here it is.
And yes, I know Sara had a plush shark... she'll get it eventually. I promise. Mr. Sparkles does have his own part in all of that.
As always I'd be happy to know what you think...
Oh, I forgot: Chapter title is from the song 'My Way' by Ava Max.