Paint

Freddie yawned as he stepped out of the bathroom in the adjoining bedroom, adjusting the towel around his hips. It was six-thirty in the morning, and all he could think about was how great a cup of coffee was going to taste when he got downstairs.

He quickly threw on his clothes and then turned back to his bed, where his wife was still fast asleep.

Now came one of the hardest tasks of his day.

"Sam," Freddie said softly, gentling shaking the blonde's shoulders. "Sam, baby, come on, it's time to wake up. We've got to get the kids ready for school."

"Get off; ten more minutes," Sam mumbled, burying her head in her pillows.

"Sam…come on, you know we're going to all be late if we don't get going right now," Freddie told her.

"Five more minutes."

"Sam, the more time I spend up here trying to get you out of bed, the less time I'm going to have downstairs to cook the bacon for breakfast. Is that really what you want?"

"Are you threatening my bacon?" Sam snapped, suddenly wide-awake.

Works every time, Freddie thought triumphantly.

"Look nub, you just get down there and cook mama her bacon!" Sam ordered.

"Are you going to wake up?"

"Fine! Fine, I'm up!" Sam moaned, sitting up. "You happy?"

"Very," Freddie smiled, giving her a quick kiss.

"Ugh, now I have to go wake up the kids," Sam sighed, looking at the clock on her bedside table. "Man, they're impossible to get out of bed!"

"Consider it karma," Freddie chuckled.

"Watch it," Sam yawned. "I'm not too tired to give you a wedgie…"

"See you downstairs," Freddie smirked. "Good luck…"

"That nub's asking for it," Sam said as Freddie headed out of the bedroom. With one last yawn she heaved herself up out of bed, threw on her robe and started down the hall to her oldest son, Jason's, room.

Sam opened the door and saw the ten-year old fast asleep under his Galaxy Wars sheets that she still hadn't completely forgiven Freddie for buying.

"Jason," Sam said, turning on the light. "Jason, wake up. Your alarm went off ten minutes ago."

Sure enough, Sam saw the alarm clock laying on the floor, no doubt shoved there when Jason had slammed his fist on it to silence it.

"I'm awake," Jason mumbled.

"Well then get out of bed."

"No!"

"Jason," Sam sighed. "I'm gonna count to three. If you're not out of bed, you're grounded. One, two…I'm gonna say three, Jason. I mean it! One, two…three! Alright, that's it! You're grounded!"

"Fine, can I sleep now?"

"No!" Sam exclaimed. "Get up!"

"I don't want to!"

"Okay, I-Ugh, I'll come back for you!" Sam conceded. "And when I do you better be up, young man!"

She retreated out of Jason's room and headed to the next door where six-year old Emma and Ashton were both in a deep slumber.

"Girls, come on, wake up," Sam said, turning on their light. "Time for school."

"Turn off the light!" Emma exclaimed, pulling her covers up over her head.

"We're sleeping here!" Ashton echoed.

Sam walked over and picked up the blaring alarm clock that had been buried underneath a pile of clothes in between the girls' two beds.

"Does nobody realize the purpose of this thing is to wake you up?" Sam said. "Let's go! Daddy's downstairs making breakfast, and if you two don't get out of bed right now, you're not gonna get any yummy eggs and bacon. You'll have to have plain, old cereal."

"Okay," Emma agreed.

"I like cereal," Ashton yawned.

"Really?" Sam groaned. "At least I'll wake up when there's food involved! You know what…fine! You all have left me no choice!"

She turned on her heel and left the room and stepped across the hall to Tyler's bedroom.

The two-year old, unlike his siblings, was already awake and happily entertaining himself by bouncing up and down on the new racecar bed that Sam and Freddie had bought just a few weeks ago.

"Mommy!" Tyler exclaimed, beaming, holding his hands out for her to lift him. "Hi, mommy!"

"Well good morning sweetie," Sam smiled, picking up her son and kissing the top of his dark haired head. "I can always count on you to at least be pleasant in the morning. Your brother and sisters just want to sleep."
"No sleep!" Tyler said firmly.

"Oh…you'll be eating those words soon," Sam chuckled. "But hey, wanna help mommy out?"

"Yeah! I help mommy!" Tyler nodded excitedly.

"Perfect," Sam grinned.

She carried Tyler back across the hall and set him down in the doorway of the twins' room. Both girls were still sleeping.

"Alright," Sam whispered to him. "Go wake up Emmy and Ashey."

"Okay!" Tyler said loudly, running over to Ashton's bed and bouncing up on top of her. "Ashey! Ashey up! Play!" he said loudly. "No sleep!"

"Tyler!" Ashton moaned. "Ow! Get off! Mom!"

"I'll call him off when you're out of bed," Sam said simply.

"Alright, I'm up!" Ashton groaned, escaping from the toddler and scrambling out of her bed.

"Okay Tyler, switch!" Sam said.

Tyler obediently jumped over to Emma's bed.

"Emmy!" he said, poking his sister's face. "Emmy! Up! Up now!"

"Mom! Get him off of my face!" Emma moaned.

"You know the drill," Sam laughed. "He does this until-"

"Fine! I'll get out of bed!" Emma said.

"Alright Tyler, you can stop now," Sam said as Emma stood up.

"We hate it when you do that," Ashton said, crossing her arms.

"Well then the solution is for you to wake up when I tell you to the first time," Sam said. "Or better yet…use the alarm clock your dad I spent twenty whole bucks on! Clearly I should used the money for paintballs. Now hurry up and get dressed and then go downstairs."

"Wait, mommy," Ashton said, rifling through her backpack at the foot of her bed. "We need you to sign these field trip forms. They're due today!"
"What? Then why are you giving them to me now?" Sam frowned.

"We forgot about them," Emma shrugged. "We're going to the dairy farm! Oh, and we need ten bucks each for it!"

"Okay, okay, just bring them down and I'll handle it at breakfast," Sam said, picking Tyler back up.

She headed out of the room and back into Jason's room where, just like his sisters, he was still under his covers.

"Last one, honey," Sam told Tyler, setting him down once again.

"Jason!" Tyler yelled, climbing up on his older brother's bed. "Up! No sleep! Sleep bad!"

"What the-Get off!" Jason exclaimed as Tyler sat down on his stomach.

"No! You play!" Tyler said.

"Jason, I'm giving you two choices," Sam said firmly. "You either get out of bed now, or I give Tyler free access in here to play with anything. And I think he has his eyes on that fancy Proton Cruiser on your desk…"

"No! Not my Proton Cruiser!" Jason exclaimed, suddenly fully alert.

"Good, then let's move," Sam said as Tyler ran back over to her. "And next time don't make do this to get you out of bed!"

Sam carried Tyler down to the kitchen where Emma and Ashton were already sitting at the table and Freddie was just setting down a large platter of bacon.

"Alright, they're all up," Sam said, placing Tyler in his highchair and grabbing a piece of bacon. "Now I just need to do the lunches…"

"Mommy, our field trip forms!" Emma reminded her, holding up the paper.

"Um, daddy will sign them!" Sam said quickly. "Right, daddy?"

"Yup, no problem," Freddie said quickly, setting his coffee mug down on the table. "Let me see them."
"They need money too, so make sure you get them that," Sam said as she began to quickly make three peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

"Right," Freddie nodded. "Hey…Where's Jason? You woke him up, right?"

"Yes," Sam sighed. "And he better not have gone back to bed after I left or he's in serious trouble! I swear, that kid would sleep until noon if you let him!"

"I wonder where that could've come from," Freddie chuckled just as Jason dragged his feet into the kitchen. "Oh good, Jason, you're up."

"Barely," the ten-year old mumbled.

"So what's on the agenda for today?" Freddie asked, handing each of the girls their signed permission forms back.

"I need to do a bunch of script edits and send them into to office to Cary or she'll freak on me," Sam sighed, tossing a Fat Cake in each of the kids' lunchboxes and then, at Freddie's raised eyebrow, added a banana as well. "So hopefully Tyler will be a good boy for mommy so she can work. Okay, Tyler?"

"I good," Tyler nodded proudly.

"Daddy, our money," Ashton said.

"Oh, right," Freddie nodded, reaching into his pocket for his wallet. "Well, just remember, Sam, you and I need to sit down tonight and finish going over our taxes."
"Ugh, can't you do that by yourself?" Sam asked. "It's so boring! Besides, you were in that business club in high school. Or, better yet, we can be like most families and hire an accountant to do this for us!"

"And waste all that money? Ha!" Freddie scoffed. "That's what those big accounting firms want us to do. Alright, girls, how much is this field trip?"

"Um, we each need twenty dollars," Emma said.
"Twenty?" Sam frowned as she set each of the lunchboxes down in front of the kids. "Upstairs you said it was ten each. Let me see this…"
She took the permission form from Ashton's hands. "Hey!" she said. "This says this field trip is free!"

"What?" Freddie exclaimed. "Then what did you guys need the money for?"
"They were trying to scam us!" Sam said. "Unbelievable!"

"Huh? No!" Freddie gasped. "Not my baby girls!"

"Yup, our little girls are con artists," Sam said. "Alright, you two, you just lost T.V. for today."

"Aw man!" Emma moaned.

"You said it would work!" Ashton hissed.

"Next time we just have to ask daddy when mommy isn't around," Emma whispered. "He's easy to trick."

"Oh, mom?" Jason said as Freddie sat down next to Tyler and began to help him eat his breakfast.

"Yeah?" Sam said, finally taking her seat.

"Can you try to find me some maroon paint at the store today?" he asked. "I need it for my history project at school."

"Where am I supposed to find maroon paint?" Sam asked.

"I don't know, but I need it."

"Okay, fine, I'll try to track some down," Sam said. She looked at her watch. "Hey, Freddie, you guys should probably get going or you're gonna be late."

"Right," Freddie said, gulping down the last of his coffee. "Come on kids. Say goodbye to your mom and then let's move."

"Bye mom," the three older kids said as the got to their feet.

"Bye, see you all later," Sam smiled as she watched her family head out the door.

As the front door closed shut behind them, Sam let out a long yawn. "Man I wish I could go back to sleep…"

"No sleep!" Tyler said, grabbing a handful of eggs in his fist and throwing them at Sam.

Sam sighed. "Yeah…Yeah no kidding."

"Come on…come on Internet…don't let me down!" Sam moaned as she watching the small, spinning cursor on her computer screen. "Come on…this has to be in by the next hour or I'm dead!"

"Mommy! Eat!" Tyler said, toddling over to Sam and handing her a Clay-Dough cookie he had made.

"In a minute…" Sam said, anxiously pressing every button on the laptop. "Dang it! Figures this happens when the nub isn't around to fix it!"

Just then her phone began to ring, and she looked down at the screen and saw Carly's name flashing across the screen.

"Hello?" Sam said, holding her phone between her ear and her shoulder as she desperately continued to try and send her work in.

"Sam!" Carly said on the other line. "Sam, where are the edits? They need to be in soon!"

"I have them but I think my Internet is out here!" Sam said. "I can't send anything!"

"Well Sam, if we don't get those in by the deadline, we're both in trouble!" Carly said anxiously. "Isn't there something you can do?"

"I-Okay, I guess I can I can just copy all this onto a flash drive and bring it into you myself," Sam said. "My God…this is like living in the caveman times!"

"Well just do it!" Carly hissed. "Please!"

"Okay, I'll be there in half-an-hour," Sam said. "I'll see you soon."

She hung up and looked down at Tyler. "Alright, Ty. We're gonna go on a little field trip…"

"Do you have it?" Carly asked at once when Sam rushed into her office, balancing Tyler in one hand and digging through her bag with the other.

"Yes, yes, here it is," Sam said. "Don't worry; I'll send it and it will be in in a second!"
"Okay," Carly said, relieved, as Sam quickly handed off Tyler to her. "Hey Ty…how are you sweetie?"

"Cookie!" Tyler said proudly, holding up his Clary-Dough cookie.

"Ah, you were baking today?" Carly chuckled.

"Oh yeah," Sam sighed. "And just as we were leaving I saw that he got the stuff all over the living room carpet, which means I get to have fun cleaning that all up…There! It's sent."

"Thanks," Carly said. "And hey, about that Clay-Dough, Spencer has some stuff that gets it right off carpets. I mean you know how messy he is with that stuff."

"Oh good thinking, I'll swing by there," Sam said. "Hey, speaking of art stuff…any idea where I could find maroon paint? Jason needs some for a class project."

"Probably a craft store or something," Carly shrugged. "There's one across the street."

"Cool," Sam said, running a hand through her hair. "Guess I can add that to the list of errands I have to run."
"Well what else do you have to do?"

"Pick up Freddie's dry cleaning, buy the girls new shoes, pick up something for dinner, and pick up some light bulbs for the lamp in Tyler's room," Sam said.

"Wow…that's pretty hectic," Carly said.

"Yup," Sam sighed. "Actually…what am I thinking; Frednub can pick up his own dry cleaning. I'm not his servant! Alright, well, I've got to get going. I'll see you later, Carls."

"Good luck," Carly chuckled.

….

"Hey, how was school today?" Sam asked as Jason and the twins piled into her car in front of the school.

"Good," they all replied simultaneously.

"Of course," Sam sighed. "Oh, Jason, here you go."

She tossed him a bag. "There's your maroon paint. It wasn't easy to find so you better get an A on this project. I had to go to three different craft stores."

"Oh, um, thanks mom, but it turns out I actually need beige paint," Jason said.

"Beige-What?" Sam exclaimed. "Jason!"

"Sorry, I forgot!" Jason said.

"Well your dad can pick that up on his way home from work," Sam sighed.

"Mommy?" Ashton said as Sam drove. "Can you help me and Emma with our homework when we get home? We have to write ten sentences about our hero."

"Aw!" Sam smiled. "Really? Well yeah, of course I'll help you guys!"

"Yeah, we need you to tell us all about Aunt Carly," Emma nodded.

"Aunt Carly?" Sam repeated. "Carly's your hero?"
"Yeah, she buys us presents," Ashton nodded.

"I buy you guys a ton of stuff!" Sam exclaimed.

"We know."

"But then why-Never mind," Sam sighed, shaking her head.

…..

"So see, you just divide this here and you've got your answer," Freddie said later that evening as he sat with Jason in the living room helping him with his homework while Sam got dinner ready.

"Okay," Jason nodded, scribbling a few notes in his workbook. "Oh, and dad? I need to have something laminated for school too. Can you take it down to the office store?"
"Yeah sure," Freddie nodded. "When do you need it by?"
"Um…tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow?" Freddie repeated. "Alright, Jason, you've got to start telling us this kind of stuff in advance! Now I'm going to have to rush out after dinner to get to the store before it closes!"

"So you'll do it?" Jason asked.

"I-Yes!" Freddie said. "But this is the last time! Next time you'll just have to deal with the consequences of your procrastination!"

"Daddy?" Emma said, sitting down next to her father. "I need help with my homework too."

"Alright princess, what is it?"

"I have to write about my hero," Emma said.

"Aw, really?" Freddie grinned. "Well honey, that's so-"

"How old is Aunt Carly?" she asked.

"Aunt-Aunt Carly?" Freddie said, his face falling.

"Yeah, they already got me with that too," Sam sighed, stepping into the room. "Alright guys, dinner's ready! And Emma, Aunt Carly is forty-five. Make sure you put that."

"Carly's not-oh," Freddie smiled knowingly as the kids headed into the kitchen.

"That will teach her to spoil our kids so much that they like her more than us," Sam smirked. She leaned down to kiss him. "Hey…I haven't even gotten a second to see you since you got home."

"Yeah, well, the kids…" Freddie chuckled, kissing her back. "So how has your day been?"

"Oh, you know," Sam said. "Just-"

There was suddenly a loud crash from the kitchen.

"I didn't do it!" they heard the kids all shout at once.

"I think that sums it up nicely," Sam sighed.

….

"Tyler! Tyler, pajamas, now!" Sam said, wrestling with the two-year old as she tried to get him ready for bed.

"No bed!" Tyler cried.
"Yes bed!" Sam retorted. "Tyler, this isn't funny!"

Just then she heard the front door close and Freddie came into the room looking absolutely exhausted.

"Where have you been?" Sam demanded. "You've been gone for almost two hours! I thought you were just going to the office store for Jason!"

"I did!" Freddie said. "Only by the time I got there the nearby one had closed because I had to waste all that time here trying to get that bubble gum off of my jacket. So I had to drive all the way across town, and I only made it there by the skin of my teeth. I even had to pay the owner ten bucks to stay open long enough for me to get the stupid thing laminated!"

He flopped down on the couch. "I am not moving from this spot for the rest of the night."

"Daddy!" Emma and Ashton suddenly exclaimed, running into room and pouncing on their father. "Play with us!"

"Oh, um, look girls, daddy's really tired," Freddie said. "Maybe we can play tomorrow night. If you want to do something, why don't you bring me a book and I can read it to you from right here on the-"

"No!" Emma said at once.

"We want to play!" Ashton begged. "Please daddy?"

"I-Alright, alright," Freddie conceded, unable to withstand the looks his daughters were giving him.

"Have fun," Sam grinned.

….

"Jason, I don't care if you're ten or not, you still have a bed time, and that bed time is now!" Sam yelled into her son's room. "So go to sleep! This is why you never want to wake up in the morning, you know!"

"Listen to your mom!" Freddie said reflexively as he stepped out of Tyler's room. "Alright…that one's finally asleep. We're never giving him grape juice with dinner again; it just makes him extra hyper."

"I mean it, Jason!" Sam said one last time before closing the eldest child's door. "Sleep! Now!"

"You know he's just gonna stay up in there anyway," Freddie sighed.

"Yeah, well, at least this way we can say we tried," Sam yawned. "So that's all of them?"

"Yup, all four kids are finally in bed," Freddie nodded. "After only two hours."
"A personal record," Sam grinned, high-fiving him. "Man…I'm exhausted though. Aw…and we still have to do those stupid taxes!"
"Well," Freddie said slowly. "It-It has been a pretty crazy day. And we really shouldn't be doing something so important if we're not feeling one hundred percent. How about we just do it tomorrow and call it a night?"

"I love the way you think, baby," Sam said. "Hopefully tomorrow will be less chaotic."

"Hopefully," Freddie agreed.