Parent Night Part 1

"Oh hey Tilly." Cricket waved to his sister as he walked the short distance to Community Sue's office, taking a seat on one of the cushiony office chairs placed just outside the door. "What're you doing here?"

His sister shrugged as she sat beside him, her hands neatly folded in her lap. "No clue, brother. They just called me here in the middle of arts and crafts, said I better hurry."

"Huh, yeah that's what they told me too." Cricket chuckled as he scratched the back of his neck. "If I didn't know any better I'd say we were in some big trouble or something."


"You're in big trouble!" A woman in a blue jumpsuit neither had ever seen before shouted from behind Community Sue's desk.

"Aw, shoot." Cricket mumbled out the side of his mouth. "Also who are you? Where's Community Sue?"

The angry woman scoffed as she finally sat back in her swivel chair. "Sue's on vacation while she trains for her next triathlon in France. I'm her cousin, Community Rue." Rue explained as she menacingly folded her hands on the desk. "And I'm here to do one thing, and one thing only, to keep this Community Center in tip top shape until she returns!"

"Aw, isn't that sweet." Tilly held her folded hands against her cheek as she gushed. "You two must have a strong bond."

"We do, but that's beside the point!" Community Rue-more like Community Roar- yelled as she slammed both hands against her desk and stood up. "In just the three days I've been here so far, you two've caused some major disruptions!"

"Wha-Well I never." Cricket gasped like he was at all surprised by this information. "Do you have any evidence of such claims?"

"My cousin has an entire filing cabinet on you." Rue answered dryly before forcing out a disgruntled sigh. "I can only assume such behavior is a result of your upbringing, so," Rue shoved a piece of paper across the desk at them. "I want both of your parents to sign this note."

Cricket couldn't help ,but raise his brow as he scratched his arm. This was it? Well no matter, he'd faked Dad's signature a couple times before, shouldn't be too-

"And I will be expecting both of your parents to come in at 7pm tonight for a one on one parent community director conference."

Oh blort.

"Uhh hey, let's not get too hasty now." Cricket laughed, putting his hands up placatingly. "Do we really need to resort to that?"

"Well I suppose I could just go ahead and ban you both from the Community Center right now." Rue replied, sounding like she was seriously considering it. "For life."

"Oh no don't do that?!" Cricket and Tilly cried. Where else were they supposed to spend their Saturday afternoons!?

"I uh," Cricket coughed. "What I meant was, our parents can get pretty busy sometimes." The ten year old nervously laughed. "See my dad's a farmer, who's very passionate about his crops right now, and our mom's got this biker repair shop she's running so-"

"Then I'll simply reschedule." Community Rue answered as she sat back down with her arms crossed. "And believe me, I can be very flexible." The community director cracked her knuckles as if to demonstrate. "In fact I can go ahead and call them up right now so we can work out-"

"NO!" Cricket and Tilly yelled as Rue reached for the phone.

Cricket laughed again, awkwardly sitting back in his seat. "You know what we just remembered they're totally free tonight. We'll see you at 7 sharp, promise!"

Rue narrowed her eyes, reluctantly putting the phone back. "Well alright then, they better be here." Their substitute community director leaned over the desk. "Otherwise, you can find a new Community Center to wreak havoc on."

Cricket couldn't help ,but gulp as he shared a frightened look with his sister.


"Well this is just a big bowl of peaches and cream!" Cricket cried as they walked back home together. "I can't get in trouble right now Tilly, Remy's birthday is next week and if I can't go because I'm grounded-"

"I just can't bear the look on Papa's face!" Tilly sniffled as she wiped her eyes with the inside of her elbow. "I can already see the overwhelming disappointment and it's just, too much to bear!"

"There's gotta be a way out of this." Cricket shook his head as he stared down the note Rue wrote. "Hey, wait." Cricket stopped in his tracks as they finally made it back home. Tilly paused to look back at him as she gripped the door knob to the front door.

"Community Rue hasn't met Mom and Dad yet…hmm." Cricket tapped his chin as the gears in his mischievous little head began to turn. "What if we brought a, different Mom and Dad to the conference tonight."

Tilly hummed as they walked inside and headed straight for their room. Cricket quickly stuffed Rue's note into his front overall pocket. "You're saying we should clone them."

"Wha-No." Cricket waved his hands in the air. "We already agreed no more genetic modification in this house." Tilly shrugged as Cricket continued. "What I meant was, what if we got a pair of actors to pretend to be our mom and dad."

Tilly raised her brow.

"Just for tonight, that way we don't get in trouble." Cricket explained as he started to pace their room. "Then I can still go to Remy's birthday, and you can be saved the emotional torment!"

Tilly hummed again. "While that does sound like a pretty solid plan brother, who could possibly fill such demanding roles?"

Cricket shrugged. "Heh…no clue." The ten year old scratched his arm as he thought, man was he itchy tonight. "They'd have to be willing to do it for free too since I spent all my savings on this Barry Cuda keychain." Cricket turned around to show it off as it hung from the back of his overalls. He pressed play to hear the shortened tune play with a relaxed sigh. "Oh yeah, that's the stuff."

Tilly meanwhile was busy stroking Saxon's bag fibers in concentration. "It's also important they're able to do this on such short notice, so who do we know who doesn't get out much and rarely has plans?"

The two siblings pursed their lips as they both hummed aloud. Yeah who-


"Okay, what do you want?" Gloria asked with her arms crossed beside Chip as they both sat crouched in Tilly and Cricket's too small desk chairs.

"Oh Gloria," Cricket laughed, waving her off as he poured them each a glass of freshly squeezed tap water. "You're so funny, and have I mentioned talented?"

Gloria raised an unimpressed brow as Tilly handed them the water.

Cricket forced out a fond smile. "Especially with your acting, why I was just reminiscing the other day when we filmed that Big Coffee commercial together."

"I was literally a background character with no speaking parts because you took both lines." Gloria pointed out, her gaze turning flat real fast.

"Uh.. and what a fantastic background character you make!" Cricket grinned as wide as he could, congratulating himself on that awesome save in his head.

Gloria let out something between a growl and groan, causing Cricket to lean back just slightly in fright. At Tilly's deliberate elbow bump, Cricket quickly turned his attention to Chip.

"And Chip! Can I just say what an amazing Bill impression you do? Like that time at Farm Con not gonna lie, for a second I almost thought you were my dad."

Chip's confused frown loosened slightly as he let out a smug snort. "Well,it was mostly improv.."

Gloria rolled her eyes. "Cricket c'mon. That's cheating. You know Chip can't resist easy flattery."

Cricket groaned with a slouch, finally letting his kind facade crumble. "Well, the situation's kinda desperate Gloria." Tilly nodded in agreement as Cricket began to pace their room. "We got into trouble with this substitute community director and now she's demanding to meet our parents!"

"Wow, that is desperate." Chip said. "But, what does that have to do with us?"

Cricket shared a look with Tilly before they each took a deep breath and said. "We need you to pretend to be our parents."

"...What?" "Excuse me?" Gloria and Chip said together.

"Absolutely not." Gloria shook her head as she made to stand up, having just a little trouble getting out of the child sized chair. "Sorry guys ,but I'm not going behind your parent's back like that."

"Aw, c'mon Gloria." Cricket blocked their door before she could walk out, clasping his hands together as he begged. "What'll it take to get you to do this for us?"

"Unless you have a first class ticket to Paris I don't know about, or you know, blackmail, literally nothing."

Cricket raised his brow. "Wait, blackmail? Like that time you accidentally forgot to pick me and Tilly at the park and made us promise not to tell Dad?"

Gloria's eyes widened. "Uhhhhh,"

"Oh I remember that." Tilly pitched in. "The burrito vendor felt bad for us and gave us each a free beefy surprise."

"So y'all can remember that, but putting my pastels back in their case when you're done using them is just too much to ask for?" Gloria sarcastically asked.

"Heh, yeah our brain's are funny like that." Cricket snorted with a shrug. "But yeah, be our mom tonight, or we tell dad."

"Urghhh, c'mon! I said I was sorry!" Gloria threw her head into her hands. "Fine, but I'm not getting a tattoo."

"Good enough!" Cricket cheered with relief.

"Ha. Good thing I've literally never done anything wrong ever." Chip laughed, crossing his arms as he leaned back in Cricket's desk chair.

"Really? What about the time you broke one of Gramma's angel figurines and I had to help you glue it back together?"

Chip's face dropped almost immediately, as did he, falling backwards onto the floor with the chair still stuck to him. "Wha-You said you were helping me out of the kindest of your heart?!"

"I was." Cricket clarified with a mischievous smirk, almost appearing ominous as he leaned over Chip. "And now you're going to repay that kindness, right Dad?"

"Oh c'mon!" Chip barked. "You're seriously threatening me to get what you want?"

"Uh, yeah." Cricket shrugged as Tilly offered a single head nod in reply.

"Huh." Chip blinked dumbly. "Maybe we are related…"

Gloria rolled her eyes, dragging her hand down her face in exasperation as she groaned. "What time's the meeting?"


"Heeeeeeeey, we're just gonna go out for some… ice cream, be back in uh roughly two hours. That alright, Bill?" Gloria asked.

The farmer blinked as he stared at his children and Gloria and Chip all huddled up against the front door.

"You're a little well dressed for ice cream aren't you?"

"Oh Bill," Chip laughed. "You're so funny. It's a fancy place downtown."

"Oh..well you sure you guys have enough cash-"

"UhyeahcauseyouseeGloriaactuallyhasthisgiftcardshegotforherbirthdayandwefiguredweshoulduseitnowbeforethesummerendsokaythanksDadbye!" Cricket waved goodbye as all four of them quickly disappeared out the door, leaving Bill all by his lonesome on the couch.

"Well…have fun."

Bill waved a weak goodbye as he watched them file into Gloria's car.

Two hours huh….there was rarely a time when both Cricket and Tilly got out of the house without him or Nancy chaperoning.

Maybe, that meant-

Before Bill could even finish the thought he got to his feet and quickly walked to the kitchen phone.

"Hey Nancy? Are you free right now?" Bill asked once she picked up.

"Yeah why?"

"I think, now's finally a good time to, you know."

"Know what? Bill what are you-Oh wait….that?"

Bill sighed. "Yeah that."

Nancy sighed on the other end. "Okay, I guess tonight's as good a time as any. Are the kid's at least away?"

"Yeah, they just left for ice cream."

Nancy sighed again. "I'll be over in ten."


"Can't believe…got got by a ten year old…." Gloria kept grumbling a bunch of incoherent complaints as she started her car. "And why did you bring that hat"

"Uh, it's called method acting." Chip snarked as he put on one of Dad's trucker hats he snagged from his room before they left. "I'd expect a professional to understand that."

Gloria rolled her eyes for the thousandth time that night as she turned her headlights on and they drove out onto the road.

"So can we at least know what you two did to get in this much trouble?" Chip casually asked, eyeing Cricket and Tilly through the rear view mirror.

Cricket grimaced, covering it with another nervous laugh as he scratched his arm. "Heh,you'll uh see soon enough."