Chapter 4- No, really, they are that bad

"Where could they be?" Tessa exclaimed.

Although Sophie was small, only two and a half she sensed that her big sister was very worried, and that troubled her very much.

"I don't know." She offered the only answer had.

"Thanks."

"Think Tessa, think!" She said out loud. "Where would you go if you were three? Well, wait a minute. Your just about three, where would you go Sophie?"

Sophie was silent for a few moments. Then her eyes lit up. She had an idea. The little girl began to walk toward the Central Park Zoo, pulling Tessa along with her.

"Where are we going?" Tessa asked.

"The Zoo, silly!" She said, sounding like she felt, exasperated.

They spent a grand total of fifteen minutes looking for the twins around the Zoo. Tessa knew they couldn't have gotten into the actual Zoo on account of the fact that they were just barely three years old and possessed no money of any sort. Needless to say, Tessa was becoming very, very worried about them.

"Are you sure that you haven't seen them?" Tessa asked. She and Sophie had turned around and were walking back to the playground, hand in hand.

"Yes I am."

"Wait a minute. I have one more idea." Tessa said as she began to walk into the grass to the right of them.

"Where we going?"

"Well, do you remember that big puddle of mud that we saw when we came here?"

"Yap. That looked fun!"

"Well, even so, I think that's where the twins ran off to."

As they grew nearer to the enormous puddle of mud Tessa grew more nervous by the second. What was she to do if the twins weren't there? She did not know what she would do or where she would go if that be the case. Tessa breathed a huge sigh of relief when they came upon the 'mud field,' as she liked to call it, and she saw the twins. She sure was thankful, but she honestly didn't know rather to be happy or enraged. After all, they had deliberately disobeyed her.

"Hey guys!" She shouted to the twins. Sophie tried to run into the puddle of mud, but Tessa restrained her. "Come on, let's go!" She said.

"Why, we're having fun!" Michael said.

"I know guys, but it's going to rain again soon, look at the clouds!" She tried to be enthusiastically convincing.

"Alright." Olivia was the first to relent as she made her way over to Tessa. Michael was not so easy, however.

"Ah, do I have to?" He asked.

"Yes, you have to. You have to right now." She said as strictly as she could manage.

"Okay." He finally gave in, diving into the puddle of mud once more before following Tessa.

So, the reunited foursome began their journey back home. And about two blocks prior to the house the rain came pouring down from the sky. The little girls began to shriek and cry. Michael however was enjoying the rain immensely. By the time that they reached the house the rain had done it's job. The twins were already soaking wet, but now Tessa and Sophie were too.

"Okay guys." She said as she shut the backdoor. "Bath time."

"No!" they all said at once.

"Oh come on, when your older you'll love to take a bath, trust me! And you're going to require one sooner or later. So you might as well just do it and get it over with."

"Hey guys." Zoë sniffed as she came down the stairs.

"What did I tell you?"

"You said tea, soup and covers."

"I know. Which is why…"

"I know." She sneezed. "But I need to get out of bed for a while."

"Good then, could you give Sophie her bath?"

"Sure come on Sophie." She said, taking Sophie's hand.

"Ah, I can't believe this!"

………………….

After their bath, which had taken about three times longer than it should have, purely due to resistance on the twins behalf, Tessa sent them to play as she drifted to the kitchen and planned what they were going to have for dinner. She decided on soup, which, to her surprise, turned out to be quite a popular choice. After dinner they stayed up for a few hours and then after that Tessa put the kids to bed, reading them a story beforehand, of course. Tessa couldn't sleep. Even Zoë, as sick and miserable as she was, was now asleep. So, with nothing else to do, she got up to go check on the kids.

"Hey, what are you doing up?" She asked Sophie, who was standing in her crib. She went over to her and picked her up. "Wow, you're burning up!" she exclaimed, taking her hand off her sister's forehead. Sophie did not reply, but she did sneeze.

"Oh no, you've got it too, haven't you?" Sophie sneezed again, and then laid her head against Tessa's shoulder. She rocked her littlest sister in her arms.

"I…" She sneezed again before she could finish her statement.

"Come on sweetheart. Let's go sleep in my bed, okay?" Sophie nodded in agreement, and with her stuffed bear on hand she went with her biggest sister.

Both their eyes were sagging with sleep. They looked on at Zoë with pure jealousy. She was sleeping so soundly, so peacefully. Tessa had just tucked her sister into her bed, climbed in herself and shut her eyes when she heard someone come in their bedroom door. Her eyes shot open and she looked toward the side of her bed, there she saw Olivia and Michael.

"We can't sleep." Olivia spoke as their representative. Michael sneezed as evidence to their claim.

"Oy vey!" Tessa exclaimed. "This is going to be one long assignment!"