Beg

"Please mom!"

"For the millionth time, no!" Sam said firmly as she walked through the front door of the Benson household with Emma and Ashton at her heels. "How much clearer can I be?"

Freddie looked up from his laptop on the couch, where he was currently putting the finishing touches on a project for work.

"But it's not fair!" Ashton moaned.

"Yeah, we should be allowed to!" Emma agreed.

"Well, you're not allowed to!" Sam said. "So I don't care if it's fair or not, it's not happening, okay?"
"What's going on?" Freddie asked. "And can it go on a little quieter? I'm trying to finish designing the Velmont website for work."

"You have no idea all the non-stop begging I had to hear from these two on the way home from the mall," Sam said, rolling her eyes.

"We wouldn't beg if you'd just let us!" Ashton pointed out.

"Alright, what's the problem?" Freddie sighed, closing his laptop, knowing perfectly well he wouldn't get any work done until whatever this was had been solved. The three Benson girls could argue for hours, after all. "I'm sure if we just talk it out, some compromise about whatever this is can be reached, and then daddy can finish his work in peace."

"Alright, wanna compromise?" Sam asked, sitting down next to her husband. "Your daughters want their ears pierced."

"What?" Freddie exclaimed. "Well, nope! That's not going to happen!"
"What? That's not a compromise!" Ashton exclaimed. "A compromise is when two groups make a mutual decision. It was on my word-of-the day calendar you bought me, daddy!"

"Yeah, good call with that, Fredbag," Sam said, rolling her eyes.

"How come we can't get our ears pierced?" Emma moaned.

"You're too young!" Freddie said.

"We're nine!" Ashton said. "Which is just one year away from being halfway to twenty! We're practically adults!"

"Oh, well now we'll change our minds," Freddie scoffed.

"Really?" Emma grinned.

"Sarcasm, sweetie," Sam said. "Look, we've told you guys, you can get your ears pierced when you're thirteen. Until then, the answer is no!"

"No other girls have to wait until they're thirteen!" Ashton said. "We're the only ones in the entire fourth grade without earrings, I hope you know."
"Right, because out of all the fourth graders in the world, you two are the only ones without holes in your ears," Freddie said.

"Clarissa has her ears pierced!" Emma pointed out. "She's had them since she was a baby."
"Well that's her parents' choice," Sam shrugged. "We're your parents, and we're telling you that you're not getting your ears pierced until you're thirteen. You don't like it, call Aunt Carly up and ask her to adopt you two."
"Okay," Emma shrugged, reaching for Freddie's Pearphone on the coffee table.

"No! I was kidding!" Sam snapped, grabbing the phone. "Alright, this discussion is over. You're not getting your ears pierced now!"
"That's so unfair!"

"You guys are ruining our lives!"

"Hear that Sam?" Freddie smiled, looking over at his wife. "You know what that's the sound of?"
"Us being top notch parents?" Sam grinned, giving him a quick kiss.

"Gross!" Emma cringed. "First you won't let us get our ears pierced, now you're trying to make us puke?"

"That's right," Sam nodded. "Wow…you have two parents who love each other and who won't let you put holes in your heads…you do have it rough."

Emma looked over at Ashton. "That was sarcasm again, wasn't it?"

"Yes," Ashton moaned.

….

"Mom and dad are so unreasonable," Ashton fumed later that evening as her and Emma sat up in their room. "They're acting like earrings are some huge deal! Mom has her ears pierced! I've seen pictures of her when she was younger and she definitely had them way before she was thirteen!"

"We should just get them pierced anyway," Emma mumbled. "I bet they wouldn't even notice."

"We can't," Ashton sighed. "They won't do it at the store unless you're either an adult or have your parent with you. It's so lame! Hey, you think maybe if we can ask Aunt Melanie when she comes for Thanksgiving this year? She's cool! And if anybody sees us getting it done, they'll just think it's mom with us!"

"Nah, you know Aunt Melanie will ask mom before she takes us," Emma pointed out. "Face it…we're out of luck. We'll just have to go the next four years as the only girls in Seattle without earrings."
"Yup," Ashton said heavily. "Unless they invent some way for us to pierce our ears on our own."
Emma jumped to her feet. "Ash, you're a genius!"

"What?" Ashton frowned.

"We don't need to go to some fancy store to get our ears pierced!" Emma said. "We can do it here! By ourselves!"

"We can?" Ashton said. "How?"

"I don't know, but that's what the Internet is for!" Emma said, hurrying over to their shared desktop computer. "If Quincy's dad can find recipes for organic fish food on here, then we should definitely find out how to pierce our ears."

She pulled up a search engine and began typing away at the keyboard.

"Yup! Here we go!" Emma said after a few moments. "Look, it even has pictures."

"Um, that look kind of painful," Ashton frowned. "It says that you have to use a needle!"

"Well it looks less painful then the gun thing they use at the store," Emma pointed out.

"That's true…" Ashton said slowly. "And it does look pretty easy. You just put the needle through your ear…we could probably do that with no problem."

"So are we doing it?" Emma asked.

"Well…okay," Ashton nodded. "But let's do it now before I chicken out. You go get some needles from daddy's sewing kit. I'll go borrow two pairs of mom's earrings for us to use. Once we can get to the mall to buy our own, we can put them back. And it says we need something to put behind our ears too…"

"I saw in a movie once these girls were piercing their ears and they used an apple," Emma said. "It's supposed to feel really good against your ear."
"Alright, after you get the needles, go down to the kitchen and find one," Ashton said. "Let's do this…"

About ten minutes later, after each of the girls had gathered what they needed, they returned to their bedroom, carefully locking the door behind them.

"Okay," Emma said as the girls spread everything out on Ashton's bed. "So I guess now we just…do it."

"Uh-huh," Ashton nodded, taking a deep breath. "I guess so…"

"Well, lay down," Emma said, picking up one of the needles.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Ashton frowned. "How come I have to go first? Why can't I pierce your ears first?"

"Because you're the oldest," Emma shrugged.

"But-But-How about we flip a coin?" Ashton asked, pulling a quarter from her pocket.

"Fine," Emma agreed.

"Head, I pierce your ears firs, tails, you do me first," Ashton said. She flipped the coin into air, watching as it landed on the floor.

"Tails, ha!" Emma cheered triumphantly. "You're first!"

"You sure you know what you're doing?" Ashton sighed.

"Don't worry, how hard can this be?" Emma said as Ashton laid down on the bed. She placed a piece of the apple behind Ashton's ear.

"Just do it quick," Ashton told her, squeezing her eyes shut.

"I will," Emma promised, picking up the needle and taking a deep breath. She slowly began to press it into the love of Ashton's ear.

"Ow!" Ashton yelled. "Ow! That hurts! Is it through yet? Are you done?"

"Um…" Emma said slowly, frowning as a tiny bead of blood trickled from the earlobe where the needle was now sticking out. "I-It's stuck!"

"Stuck?" Ashton repeated. "What do you mean it's stuck?"

"I mean I can't get the needle out of your ear!" Emma exclaimed, feeling very panicked. "Maybe if I pull a little harder…"

"Ow!" Ashton cried. "It's not working! And my ear feels like it's burning!"

"Well what do we do?" Emma moaned. "I can't get it out! You want me to get mom and dad?"

"No!" Ashton said. "You know how much trouble we'll be in!"

"Well you're ear's bleeding and you have a needle stuck in you!" Emma pointed out.

"Maybe-Maybe it will come out overnight?" Ashton suggested weakly.

"Dude…" Emma said.

"Fine!" Ashton sniffed, slowly getting to her feet, still wincing in pain from her ear. "Let's go tell them."

The twins headed downstairs where Freddie was still working on his laptop.

"Um, daddy?" Emma said softly as they approached him.

"What is it?" Freddie asked, not looking up from his laptop. "Is it important? Because I'm kind of in the middle of something."

"Um…sort-sort of," Emma nodded.

"Alright, alright," Freddie sighed, closing his laptop. "What's-Oh my God!"

He jumped up as he spotted Ashton's ear, now dripping blood onto her neck.

"What-What the-How did-What were you two doing?" Freddie exclaimed, rushing over to his daughter to investigate the damage.

"I, um, fell onto this needle," Ashton said lamely.

"You fell onto the needle?" Freddie repeated. "How in the world did you-wait a minute! You-You two were trying to pierce your own ears, weren't you?"
"Um…no?" Emma said.

"Unbelievable!" Freddie said, shaking his head. "This is the stupidest thing you girls have ever done! Sam! Sam, get in here!"

"What?" Sam asked, coming in from the kitchen. "What do you-Oh my God! What happened to her ear?"

"Guess!" Freddie said, his face red with anger.

"What-No!" Sam frowned. "You can't be serious! They were trying to pierce their own ears, weren't they?"
"Bingo!"

"How could you girls do this?" Sam yelled. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?"

"Yeah, we know!" Ashton sniffed.

"We're sorry," Emma said, looking down at her shoes.

"How bad does it look to you?" Sam asked Freddie, examining Ashton's ear.

"Well I'm going to assume they didn't think to even sterilize anything before they did this," Freddie said. "And that needle does look pretty stuck. I'd say we need to have her go to the emergency room."
"The emergency room?" Ashton repeated. "Are they going to cut off my ear?"

"Well if they do, maybe you'll learn your lesson!" Sam said.

"I'm only going to have one ear?" Ashton gasped.

"No, no," Sam sighed. "They're not going to cut off your ear. They're just going to give you some shots for infections. I'll take her, Freddie. You can stay here and start coming up with punishments for these two. When I get back we'll compare notes."

"Deal," Freddie nodded as Sam grabbed her keys and handed Ashton her jacket.

As Sam and Ashton left, Emma looked up at Freddie.

"I love you, daddy," she said in her sweetest voice.

"Aw," Freddie smiled, putting an arm around his daughter. "I love you two, honey. But you're still in more trouble than you can even imagine."

"So…just so we're all on the same page," Sam said several hours later, once her and Ashton had returned from the emergency room. Ashton was lucky enough not have gotten any infections, but she still had to stay on antibiotics for two weeks, and her ear would be sore for quite some time. "Your dad and I tell you that you can get your ears pierced when you're thirteen. You continue to beg and beg. We still tell you that you can't do it until you're thirteen. And then you deliberately disobey us and go behind our backs with one of the dumbest, most dangerous, idiotic ideas you two have ever come up with!"

"Um….that-that's right," Emma mumbled.

"What were you two thinking?" Freddie yelled.

"We were thinking that we were sick and tired of being the only girls we know without pierced ears!" Ashton said. "I know you guys think we're exaggerating, but that's what it feels like to us! All our friends show off their cute new earrings at school, and we feel like a couple of ostracized outcasts!"

"I've got to say, I'm real impressed with her vocabulary," Freddie muttered under his breath to Sam. "That word of the day calendar was a great investment."

"And you guys wouldn't even listen to us!" Emma said. "You wouldn't even discuss it!"

"Well we don't need to discuss it!" Sam said firmly. "We're the parents and what we say goes!"

"Sam…" Freddie sighed.

"Okay," Sam said, rolling her eyes at her husband. She turned back to the twins. "Alright…I suppose we could've been more open for discussion about this whole earring thing. But your dad and I did agree that we thought you were too young right now."

"Yes," Freddie nodded. "But, well, maybe we should've give you two more of a chance to present your argument."
"Really?" Ashton said, her and Emma exchanging surprised looks. "Are you guys admitting we were right?"

"No!" Sam said at once. "We're just saying…"

"Maybe this could've been handled differently," Freddie said. "However, that in now way excuses what you two did. I don't care how unfair or unreasonable you thought your mom and I were being, you should've never tried to pierce your own ears."

"That's right," Sam nodded. "Which is why you two are grounded for the next month."
"A whole month?" Emma repeated.

"And you're both going to be doing extra chores around here too," Freddie said. "Starting with raking all the leaves in the backyard tomorrow."

"And sweeping out the garage," Sam added.

"Fine," Ashton mumbled. "But-But when we're ungrounded, can-can we get our ears pierced? Or at least discuss it?"

Sam and Freddie exchanged glances.

"If you guys behave yourself," Freddie said slowly. "I suppose we can discuss bringing down the age to twelve-and-a-half."
"Twelve-and-a-half?" Emma cried. "That's just as bad!"

"Yeah, well, excuse us for not having the most faith in your maturity right now," Sam said. "Now go upstairs and go to bed. It's after midnight."

Grumbling protests under their breath, the twins headed up to their room.

"It's like they wake up in the morning thinking up new ways to age me," Freddie sighed, collapsing onto the couch and massaging his temples. He looked over at Sam. "Hey, how old were you when you got your ears pierced?"

"Four," Sam replied. "My mom took me and Melanie to get it done at her tattoo parlor."

"Well then why are you so set on the twins not having it done until they're thirteen?" Freddie asked. "I mean, you know I'll back you up, but I'm just curious."

"I dunno," Sam shrugged. "I guess…I guess I just want to try and keep them little and innocent as long as possible. I mean, earrings are just one step away from makeup, and miniskirts and then bellybutton rings."

"Huh…" Freddie said. "I never thought of it that way. Well, in that case, I suggest we raise the age until thirty."

Sam chuckled, leaning over and giving him a quick peck. "I think they'd start a full-blown rebellion at that point. I guess…I guess we're just going to have to face the fact that our little girls are growing up."

"Guess so," Freddie sighed. "And I don't know whether to feel proud, sad or terrified about it."