Cassia sighed as she packed a bag of clothes in her bag, careful not to forget hair and toothbrush in her bathroom. It was Grandparent's day and as usual, her parents had asked her and Poof to pick a grandparent to spend the day with. Her family had also valued family in theory, but in practice, Cassia didn't see much more than a dysfunctional family. It wasn't fair! Why couldn't she just stay with Bongo and his grandma? Sure, she could be harsh sometimes but at least she cared about Bongo. Cassia laughed slightly to herself as she remember her yelling at Bongo to put a sweater on and to, "Close the Door! You're letting all the heat out!"

Interrupted from her thoughts, Cassia heard a soft knock on her door, with Poof, her now 5 year old toddler brother, inched inside, sitting down on her bed with the bag her parents had helped him pack. He sported dark purple overalls with a lavender shirt, and now had straight purple hair that had a slightly curl at the tip.

"Cassia?", he called, "Who are we going with?"

"I'm not sure yet, Poof.", Cassia sighed, "I kind of wished we didn't have to go at all. I don't know. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings and get in trouble with them, but I also would rather be doing something else, to be honest with you."

"It's only one day though. We'll be back tomorrow."

"Yeah I know, it's just.", Cassia rolled her eyes and groaned as she sat down on her bed, Poof sitting by her side, "Why do we have to go over there? Why is it that they're all too busy for us but we have to make special time for them? It's not fair."

"We don't see them a lot. I think they miss us.", Poof said. Cassia groaned but knew that he was putting her in her place. Despite not even being half her age, Cassia knew he had a point. It wasn't like 1 day with 1 of them was going to kill them (or at least she hoped), and she had to admit, she did miss her grandparents, to an extent.

She continued packing as she weighed her options, telling Poof to go play with his toys or something while she came up with an answer. Although Cassia couldn't honestly say she was close to most of her grandparents, they did care about her to some extent (though they all showed them in incredibly strange ways that often made Cassia uncomfortable).

Whenever she would visit her Grandpa Fairywinkle, or Big Daddy as he liked to be called (which Cassia found funny), he would often take her into his office and show him around the building. Despite being a trash care company, Cassia was surprised to see that the office was mostly kept in good condition. She found all the men and woman passing by in striped suits and mafia hats much like his, and it remined her of some sort of mafia.

Most of the time, he did a good job keeping her and Poof occupied by having them sort through the various recycling bins while he was in his meetings (though some felt like they took forever), but occasionally, they would get to ride in the backseat of his garbage truck, running the route since one of his regular employees called out, and if they were good, they would go get ice cream and soda afterwards. It drove Wanda crazy, but hey..a little sugar every now and then wouldn't kill them, and they DID earn it, like Grandpa Fairywinkle said.

Though, if they wanted to talk about fun, they knew his wife was the person to go to. She was the type of person that hated staying in the house for more than a few hours, and always found something to go to, whether it was a club or a party. Several times, she would leave them at her place where she would let them watch TV or order pizza while she was going out, and even let them rent as many movies as she could, just as long as they didn't disturb her. Often times, she would come back to her place wasted, and walking in a somewhat silly pattern, but never looked at the kids maliciously like another certain grandparent would. But to Cassia, it always seemed like she was more focused on her social life than her job as a grandparent.

Though to be fair, it wasn't as if she would abandon them completely. Occasionally, she would invite the kids to a carnival where she'd let them max out their grandfather's credit card, much to his dismay. Sometimes, she would even let them ride the big rides in the amusement parks just so she could claim herself as "the cool grandparent."

Now, her father's father, Linnie, had very little concern with wanting to be the cool grandparent. Every time he came over to them, he smothered them with hugs and kisses, and barely let them out of his sight. He was always asking them if they were still hungry, or if they were too hot or cold, or if they were feeling alright, or if they were safe, yada yada yada. He would also often give them more blankets than they actually needed when bedtime (which was 9 under his careful watch).

Unlike her mother's parents, Cassia knew Linnie was quite the homebody, with the only remotely fun they would do is work on puzzles together (which Cassia didn't hate, but just found rather boring), and then he would only allow maybe an hour of TV max, wanting the children to read and draw pictures instead of staring at Spongebob all day.

She knew he meant well, but sometimes it felt like he still thought they were babies. He would always speak in a soft, high pitched voice, calling them "Sweetheart" and "Darling", though to be fair, he calls everyone "dear". She loved her Grandpa Cosma very much, but it just seemed like he didn't grant her the independence she had yearned for.

Though, nothing Linnie could do compared to what her father's mother, Nora, did. Out of all her grandparents, Cassia felt she was the most estranged from her. Much like Wanda's mom, she was an alcoholic, but it was a less dazed and more angry kind of drinking, often screaming and snapping at Cassia or Poof if they messed up anything. She never hit them like her father claimed did to them as a kid, but she often didn't have much to do with them, keeping to herself and watching something stupid on TV, sipping on beer bottles as if her life depended on it.

One thing that made her somewhat uncomfortable was the fact that Nora often like to talk bad about her husband, or Grandpa Fairywinkle (whom Cassia found out she somewhat met, but she couldn't remember the exact details), and she often told Poof that she hoped she turned out better, claiming that there were too many trashy, good-for-nothing men in Fairy World.

After a little while of thinking it over, Cassia looked over the clock to read 4:00, 15 minutes before she had promised that they would make a decision for the evening. Feeling a slight nervous twinge in her stomach, Cassia called Poof into her room as she pulled out her cell phone, dialing the number of whom she and Poof would be staying with for the evening.

Hey…

Ok, which of the 4 would you prefer? Either for the kids' sake or if you just want to read how they would treat their grandchildren? I'd love to know what you think! I'll write about them next. Thanks- BHG