Chapter 3, Monday, Popcickle Brawl
Nell POV
Dear Journal,
Today was Monday. Of course, we all know how Mondays can go at points, but I can't ever recall a Monday going nearly as horribly as I had today. I awoke, got my sisters, Tommy, and Dil up, and Peter was already up downstairs, fixing some breakfast. He made everybody scrambled eggs and bacon. I was amazed that he, a king of royalty, could fix such amazing food, but then he told me how he use to have to cook at points for the Confederacy army when they were fighting for their independence, so he got plenty of practice. Plus, he gave me a good lesson in royalty. Just because you have servants to tend to you at all times, it never hurts to be proficient in some simple skills of caring for yourself, in the event any of your servants are ever sick or something. No matter, we all finished up our breakfast, and I saw to getting Sabrina and Madeline ready to go to school. The trouble didn't start until it was about time to head out the door. Tommy, thinking he was well enough came downstairs, dressed in a blue Reptar t-shirt and a pair of kacky shorts, claimed he was ready to go to school. Unfortunately, his forehead stated otherwise.
"You still feel warm Tommy, afraid there's no preschool for you today." I said, just as Peter walked into the living room, Dil clinging to his side.
"And I need somebody to stay here to let Alliance Appliance in at nine. Would you mind staying here to let them in? I'll take the girls to school." Peter said.
"No!" Madeline cried, bursting into tears and collapsing to the carpet.
"Nell always takes us to school." Sabrina added.
I turned to my two younger sisters, trying to encourage them to give Peter a chance, just as they did with story time the other night.
"Come on girls, can't you give Peter a chance? He'll make sure you get there safely. Plus, you'll get to go to school in a limo. Now who gets to do that very often?" I said with a smile, hoping to encourage my little sisters.
Sabrina jumped up excitedly and smiled at this news. Madeline though, not quite so much. I then got a brilliant idea. I ran up to the room where they had been sleeping, and grabbed her Elsa doll off of the bed, bringing it back down to her.
"Would you like to take Elsa to school with you today?" I asked, holding the doll out to my younger sister Madeline.
The redhead slowly nodded.
"You can take her, if you calm down and act like a big girl." I said.
"Okay, I'll be good." Madeline squeaked out in a tiny voice, as I handed her the doll, Peter ccame in carrying the girls' backpacks, and soon, they were off to school.
However, no sooner did we see the limo pull out of the driveway, when Tommy turned around from the window, tears welling up in the corners of his eyes.
"Now Tommy it's okay. Hopefully if you rest today, you'll feel well enough to go to school tomorrow." I said, just as his hand wiped his tears away.
It was obvious he was trying to hide his tears from me, but unknowingly, I saw them. However, I decided not to say anything, worrying I might only embarrass the poor child. I got him and Dil to go play quietly in the playpen while Alliance Appliance was suppose to be there, though they were running late, and Dil wouldn't sit still and work on a puzzle with Tommy. It was obvious he needed to go play outside. Luckily, it was a nice day, and the backyard was fenced in, so I agreed to let Dil go play outside. However, Tommy wanted to go too, which I unfortunately, had to put a stop to, closing the back door to the kitchen and standing in front of the door, blocking his exit.
"But I wanna play outside too!" Tommy said, in a croaky voice.
"Tommy sweetie, you're sick, you can't play outside until you're better." I said.
The three-year-old stared up at me, a sad expression on his face. Just then, the doorbell rang. I went to answer it to find the man from Alliance Appliance standing there.
"Who are you mam?" The man asked.
"I am Helen O'Mally, I am here this week looking after the children of Mr. and Mrs. Pickles. I hear you're here to replace their water filter in the fridge." I said.
"That's correct mam. Anything else you need done while we're here?" The appliance man asked, walking through the house towards the kitchen, with me on their tail.
"I don't think so, but I'll double check with Peter Albany, the other person left in charge, just to be sure." I said, going over to the phone on the wall and dialing his cell phone.
He answered on the third ring.
"Sorry it took me so long to answer Helen, I had a bit of difficulty getting Madeline to let go of my leg and head into class." Peter said.
"Did you finally get her to head into class nicely?" I asked.
"Yes. Luckily, her friend Reggie showed up, offering her a lollipop, which got her attention settled elsewhere. She let go of my leg, ran off to play with him, and I was free to leave. So, what do you need?" Peter asked from his end of the phone.
"The Alliance Appliance guy is here. Mr. and Mrs. Pickles didn't need anything else done, other than getting a replacement water filter put into their fridge, correct?" I asked.
"Nope, that's it." Peter replied.
"Okay, just checking. See you back here shortly. Oh, how did Sabrina do with going off to school?" I asked.
"Just fine. She even said she'd see me later, so guess I'll be heading to pick them up this afternoon as well." Peter said.
I breathed a sigh of relief at his comment.
"Works for me. Anyway, see you back here shortly." I said, hanging up the phone and attending to the repair man, letting him know that all we'd need done is the replacement water filter.
"Okay good cuz I'm finished." The man said, closing up the back of the fridge, turning it back on, and making sure the water portion of the dispenser was working properly.
"I thought those things only did ice. They do water too?" I asked out of curiosity.
"Yes they do, until the filter becomes clogged and unuseable, that's when it stops dispensing water, and what prompted the Pickles to call me to come repair it. Though I've been out here three other times, and the first time I ccame, a recycled filter was in its place, held in place with chewing gum and paper clips. That's long since been removed, and I believe I was the one who told them they really shouldn't try to repair such an item themselves." The man explained.
"I see." I said, putting a finger up to my lips, a bit confused, but more or less, getting what happened here, just as I heard the front door open, and footsteps head towards the kitchen.
"Now, before I can leave, you need to pay me of course." The man said, sitting down at the kitchen table, after testing the dispenser to ensure everything was working properly.
"So do we, pay you out of pocket? Or do we have a bill sent here in the mail or what?" I asked.
"I'll take care of that." Peter said, as I glanced up to see him walk into the kitchen and sit down at the table.
I went into the living room at this point to check on the boys, while Peter saw to paying the appliance man, where Tommy had just finished putting together a Reptar puzzle.
"That's a nice puzzle you got there." I commented, squatting down to the floor to have a better look.
"Yep, that's Reptar, and over there, that's Robosnails." Tommy said, showing me his puzzle, which was at least fifty pieces large.
"Well you did a nice job on this." I said, just as I heard Peter escort the repair man out the door, and Dil trying to come inside, forgetting he still has trouble opening the back door, being only two-years-old and all. I let him inside and sent him into the living room to play with Tommy for a little bit, while I went into the kitchen to talk with Peter.
"So did you pay the appliance man?" I asked.
"Yes I did, all the more reason why Didi scheduled the appointment on the week she and Stu were going to be out of town. Stu, being an inventor, insists on fixing everything himself, but it always ends in disaster. They've needed a new filter for the fridge since Christmas, but being of royalty, and being financially stable, I offer to help pay for a lot of these things." Peter explained, as I took a seat across from him at the kitchen table.
"Wait a minute, what does Stu invent? And shouldn't his inventions be bringing him some money?" I asked.
"He specializes in making toys, but he's made his share of other items as well. Unfortunately, most of his inventions malfunction, or in the case where he had a shot at winning five-hundred dollars, like in the case with the Reptar wagon he built right before Dil was born, well when your invention ends up lost in the forest with everybody's kids inside, and not in Japan at the Reptar corperation, it's kind of hard to win anything if your invention never ends up making it into the contest in the first place." Peter said.
"Did he eventually enter it into the contest?" I asked.
"Nope. By the time his kids, along with the Finsters and Devilles' kids were rescued, the deadline to enter had passed. Plus, the kids had so much fun with the toy, had Stu taken it away, the kids would have been pretty upset." Peter said.
"Wow! So not only do you keep up your villager skills like cooking, cleaning, etc. you also help villagers in need, not just by doing things like babysitting, but also lending them money or paying for things they might not be able to afford, like the case with the Alliance Appliance guy." I said.
"Exactly. Not only did I pay the repair fee, but I also paid for the new water filter for the fridge, which isn't cheep." Peter said.
"About how much do those things usually cost?" I asked.
"They usually cost about…" Peter started to say, before we were rudely interrupted by the scream of two young toddler boys, and a loud crash from the living room.
Worried, we quickly got up from the kitchen table and went into the living room to see what was going on. There were blocks scattered everywhere, a toy fire truck on the floor of the playpen in between Tommy and Dil, with Tommy still holding on to the ladder of the fire truck.
"Come on Tommy, you do the bestest siron. Please! Make the fire truck go!" Dil begged.
"But Dil, my throat really hurts." Tommy said in a barely audible voice.
"No!" Dil cried, bursting into tears.
I ran over to the two boys to see if I could rectify this situation.
"Why don't we propose a compromise. Dil, you know how to sound like a fire engine, don't you?" I asked.
"Yeah, but Tommy does it betterer. He's also good at making the fire truck go too." Dil said.
"But I just heard Tommy say his throat is hurting." I said, approaching Tommy, while Peter ran and got me a flashlight.
"Here you go." Peter said, handing me the flashlight, while I bent over the side of the playpen, where Tommy had come up to the edge of.
"Okay Tommy, can you open your mouth wide for me real quick?" I said.
He did as he was asked, and I peered into his mouth with the flashlight.
"Boy Tommy, your throat does look pretty red. We might need to take you to the doctors tomorrow, but for now, let's try to rest your voice." I said.
He backed away and sat back down on the floor, grabbing hold of the ladder of the fire truck.
"No!" Dil screamed, and before we could stop him, he ran up to the fire truck, grabbing at it, and snatching it away from Tommy.
In doing so however, he caused the ladder to break off the top of the fire truck, as Tommy still had it in his hand.
"You broke it!" Tommy cried.
"No! You broke it!" Dil argued back at the top of his lungs.
"No you did!" Tommy screamed with what little bit of a voice he had left.
"No you did!" Dil screamed.
"Boys! Stop!" Peter cried, interrupting the fight and putting a hand up to stop them.
I turned to Peter.
"What do we do now?" I whispered to Peter.
"We keep the boys separated for as long as we can." Peter whispered back.
"But first." I said, taking the broken fire truck and ladder away from Tommy and Dil.
"Hey!" Both boys cried in unison.
"I'm sorry boys but it's broken. And it's only going to break worse." I said, noticing a sharp piece on the top of the fire truck where the ladder had broken off, making the plastic toy all the more dangerous.
After the fire truck and ladder were properly disposed of, Pewter took Dil over to the couch to watch some episodes of Curious George on Hulu while I had Tommy go up to his room and take a nap, then headed back downstairs and got lunch ready, consisting of chicken alphabet soup for the boys, and ham and cheese sandwiches for Peter and me. An hour later, we all sat down and ate our lunch. I don't think Tommy was too hungry, but he ate a little bit of the soup at least. I only hope it helped his throat a little bit.
"Is that helping your throat a little bit Tommy?" I asked.
He quietly nodded, then went back to slowly eating his soup, while Peter got their bottles of hot milk ready, as it would soon be afternoon nap time for both boys. We put them down for their nap, and I went and read some more of my book, Uncle Tom's Cabin, until it was time to get the boys up, and to see Peter off to pick up my sisters from school. It then hit me that nobody called in Tommy sick from school. Panicking, I approached Peter about this before he left to pick up Sabrina and Madeline.
"Did you think to call Tommy's preschool and state he'd be out today, and possibly all week, depending on how serious his illness got?" I asked.
"Don't worry, I took care of it while in the limo on the way to the girls' school." Peter said.
"Thank goodness!" I said, breathing a sigh of relief.
I decided to wait and get the boys up until the girls were home, figuring everybody could have a snack together, and we could hear about their day. Boy was I only asking for trouble. A little while later, Peter returned with Sabrina and Madeline, who both had good days at school, and both girls had pictures to show me that they had made in art class. I'm guessing all of the commotion awoke the boys, because before I knew it, Tommy and Dil had come downstairs, rubbing the sleep out of their eyes.
"How are you doing Tommy?" I heard Sabrina ask him, running up to him.
"I'm alright." Tommy whispered.
"He has a soar throat Sabrina, and can't really talk. Which reminds me! Who'd like some popcickles for a snack?" I asked.
"I do!" Madeline cried.
"Me too!" Sabrina ccried, both of my sisters running for the kitchen.
I caught up to them while Tommy and Dil snuck past, as I pulled open the freezer and found a nearly empty box of Reptar popcickles on the shelf. To my luck, there were enough popcickles in the box for the four kids. A yellow one, an orange one, a blue one, and a purple one.
"Okay we have yellow, orange, blue, and purple. Which color does each person want?" I asked.
"Yellow nanna." Dil cried.
"I want the blue one." Madeline said.
"I'll take orange." Sabrina said.
"Which leaves purple for Tommy." I said, opening up the purple popcickle for Tommy and putting it into a bowl.
I did the same for everybody's popcickles. Reptar's tail broke off of one of them, but I put it into the bowl with Sabrina's remainder of Reptar orange popcickle on the stick, and everybody saw to eating their treat. Everybody except Tommy, who didn't seem impressed by what I had given him.
"Do you like your popcickle Tommy?" I heard Sabrina ask.
He shook his head no.
"Come on Tommy, try it, you never know, it could help your throat feel better." I said, sitting down in an empty seat at the table next to him.
He took a tiny nibble out of his popcickle, while Madeline went on to tell us about her day, in between bites of her blueberry popcickle.
"I had the bestest day! Me and Reggie made Valentines, and played on the monkey bars on the playground!" Madeline said excitedly.
"Reggie's mean." Tommy whispered to Madeline.
"Reggie's not mean he's very nice. You don't even know him because you're just a baby." Madeline said.
"I am not a baby!" Tommy squeaked.
"You are too! And one that needs Nell's attention!" Madeline screamed, throwing her popcickle at Tommy's head.
"I am not!" Tommy screamed, sounding quite hoarse at this point.
"Then if you don't like that popcickle, why are you eating it then?" Madeline asked, standing up on her chair.
"Nell made me!" Tommy screamed, throwing the popcickle into Madeline's face.
Soon, all four of them were throwing their popcickles at one another, until I finally had to whistle and shout, stopping the fight.
"Children! Enough!" I said, running to get several paper towels wet, and seeing to cleaning off all of the kids.
Luckily, Peter overheard everything and came in to see what all was going on.
"What's going on in here?" Peter asked.
"Just a popcickle brawl is all." I said, wiping off Dil's forehead.
"I think everybody needs to take a time out." Peter said.
"I agree. Everybody, up to your rooms for a time out." I said.
Madeline got all fussy over this, as did Dil, but Peter and I both knew what was best for them. Right then, I really wanted to give the kids a spanking, but I knew it wasn't allowed, so bit my tongue, completely dismissing the idea. Sometime later, time out ended, and seeing tomorrow was going to be Valentine's Day, I helped Madeline and Sabrina make boxes to take to school to collect Valentine's in from the other kids, while Peter helped them get their valentine's ready. That's when I brought up the question about Reggie, while Tommy and Dil were quietly in the living room, each playing with some toys and watching a Reptar movie on DVD.
"Tommy seems to think Reggie, Madeline's little friend is very mean. Peter, do you know anything about a little boy named Reggie who hasn't been very nice to him in the past?" I asked.
"Yes I do. Reggie Greenfield. He lives out in Boston where his friend Rosie lives, and he's, well, a male version of Angelica out in that area of the country." Peter said.
"Aha." I replied.
"But I can see where Tommy might have been confused, seeing that he doesn't know Madeline's friend at school." Peter said.
"Me too." I said, as we helped my sisters finish putting together their shoeboxes and Valentine's.
Sabrina covered her box in purple paper, while Madeline covered her's in blue paper, they both wrote their names on the side, decorated the boxes with stickers, and I cut wholes in the tops of each one so there was a slot to drop the Valentines into. I then sent the girls off to play, reminding them to be nice to the boys, while I saw to getting dinner ready. While fixing dinner though, I overheard some noise coming from upstairs, and soon felt a tap on my leg, while I was at the sink, washing off some lettice for a salad. I turned to see Sabrina, waving a yellow sand pale at me.
"What do you got there Sabrina?" I asked.
"If you gotta go potty, here's a bucket for pooping in." Sabrina said.
I just rolled my eyes at my sister.
"What are you talking about?" I asked, draining the lettice and putting it aside on the counter in a collender to take care of matters with Sabrina.
"Tommy needed to go potty, and Madeline was taking too long in the bathroom, causing Tommy to wet his pants. Peter is up there cleaning him up right now, and the two of them are arguing again. Remembering what happened when Lori and Leni Loud started fighting, Lincoln and the rest of his sisters, had to poop in a bucket." Sabrina explained, about to hand me the bucket, which I declined.
"And maybe that's how they handle fights in the Loud's house, but that's not how we're handling them in this house. I don't think Mr. and Mrs. Pickles would approve of their children pooping in buckets. You're a big girl, you will use the potty like you're suppose to, understand?" I said in a stirn tone of voice.
"Yes Nell." Sabrina replied.
"And I'm not fixing dinner twice so neither Tommy nor Madeline has to dine alone. Instead, you will all either zip your lip and get along, or somebody will have to eat by themselves, most likely Madeline, since she's the one who started this whole thing." I said.
"How could you do that to our sister!" Sabrina said.
"Well, Tommy is sick, and Peter and I do need to make sure he's getting plenty to eat and drink so he doesn't end up becoming dehydrated. Also, trying to fix dinner twice is simply, out of the question. Heck, I don't even see how Mr. and Mrs. Loud could handle such a thing. I mean, they already have eleven children, and then there's the parents. Only fixing one meal for Lori and Leni and two meals for everybody else, that's, twenty-five meals! A bit, unnecessary and a bit extreme. There are better ways to handle brawls, and giving the two arguing people, special treatment, isn't going to help the situation." I lectured, boring my sister Sabrina to tears.
"Okay okay. So what do we do?" Sabrina asked.
"First, you can go put that bucket back where you found it. Secondly, you can go wash up for dinner, and tell Peter it's time to round up everybody and bring them downstairs." I said.
Sabrina took the yellow bucket back where she found it, and we all saw to sitting down for dinner. To my surprise, the fights stopped for the night, and I found out from Peter that he had a talk with Tommy and Madeline both, explaining to them that Tommy was sick, so he's liable to be a bit more cranky and unwilling to play or do stuff, reminding Madeline that she needs to be a bit more considerate and respectful in somebody else's home, and he also told Tommy that if he wasn't feeling well, his best course of action for now, would be to leave and get out of Madeline's sight if she was bugging him. I found this to be a good compromise, and I brought up what Sabrina tried to propose, to which he started laughing.
"I do agree with you, how the Louds handled Lori and Leni's fighting in that Brawl in the Family episode wasn't the best way to handle things." Peter said.
"Yeah, I think how we're handling things is a much better approach." I said.
Peter nodded his head in agreement, as he still had a bite of garlic bread in his mouth, seeing tonight's dinner was garlic bread, spaghetti and meatballs, and a garden salad. We all finished up our dinner, and everybody earned a Reptar bar for dessert. Dil wanted another popcickle, to which I had to sadly tell him, we were all out of popcickles, we'd need to get more at the store. He got a little bit fussy, but calmed down when I gave him his Reptar bar for dessert. A short while later, we got everybody ready for bed, and tonight, it was my turn to read to the boys, while Peter read to the girls.
The girls requested he read Beauty and the Beast to them again, while I introduced Tommy and Dil to Pete's Dragon. They seem to enjoy the book very much, and I got the cutest comment out of Tommy before I switched off the light.
"Me and Elliot are gonna go to sleep together." Tommy whispered.
I looked over and saw him snuggling up in bed with his Reptar doll.
"Don't you mean, Reptar?" I asked.
"No, that's Elliot." Tommy said.
Then I chuckled and realized what he was doing.
"Ah, I see what's going on here. You're pretending Reptar is the dragon Elliot from the story." I said.
Tommy nodded his head yes, as he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. Dil had long since fallen asleep over in his bed, so I turned off the lights and left the room to find Peter in the hallway.
"You get the boys to bed?" Peter whispered to me.
"Yes, you do the same with the girls?" I asked.
"Yep. I'm just glad despite the popcickle fight from earlier, we got everybody to calm down." Peter said.
"Yeah, and I managed to stop Sabrina before one of Tommy and Dil's sandbox buckets turned into our new toilet." I said.
"Yeah. I actually know the Louds personally, as they visited me at my castle over the Christmas holiday, and I recently received a letter from Clyde McBride inviting all of us to visit them next summer, which I plan to read aloud at my annual Valentine's Day party tomorrow night. However, if anymore situations get handled in the manner they did with that brawl that occurred after they left my castle, you bet I'll be having a serious talk with them. I mean, had they just, let Lori and Leni work things out on their own, instead of going to extreme like they did, they could have all avoided, well, such a mess." Peter explained, as we saw to feeding the dogs, cleaning up from dinner, and turning off the downstairs lights.
"Agreed. Well, we have another long day ahead of us tomorrow. So, better see to heading to bed." I said, when we reached the top of the stairs to see to getting ready for bed and turning in for the night.
"Yep, and I especially have a big day tomorrow, with my party and all. Which, how are we going to handle that party? I said originally I'd host it here, before Tommy got sick." Peter said.
"Let's see how Tommy's doing in the morning, and we'll go from there." I said, heading into the bathroom to grab me a shower and brush my teeth, before heading off to bed, exhausted from a long day of babysitting, and breaking up fights.
End of Nell POV
And so, the exhausted princess, put her notebook away, said her prayers, and collapsed on the bed without ever shutting off the light, too exhausted to move to go turn it off.
Author's Note: I made a tiny reference to The Rugrats Movie, and the bit where an earlier water filter for the fridge was repaired with chewing gum and paper clips, I got from the episode, The Pirate Light, when Stu attempted that method to fix their hot water heater at one time. Also, references to The Loud House episode, Brawl in the Family were made, and the bit with the popcicle, I have to thank Nairobi-harper for inspiring. You should all know, she hates all popcickles, no matter the flavor, but her family makes her eat them anyway, despite this fact. I couldn't see Tommy hating popcickles all-together, but I could see him not liking a particular flavor all that much, hince, the one he was given, seeing it was the last popcickle in the package. I was also inspired by the Firecracker popcickles, which sometimes, the red end of the red, white, and blue popcickles will break off in the package, to have the same thing happen to Reptar's tail on some of the Reptar popcickles, which, seeing his tail would stick out, I could see that easily happening, especially to popcickles towards the bottom of the package. And just as a reminder, I came up with Reptar popcickles, they weren't something that existed on the show, despite there being practically everything else Reptar, like candy bars, cookies, a cereal, etc. Also, I own the OC of Reggie Greenfield, while the Reggie that Madeline plays with at school, is owned by Sofia2017Planning.