Smoke

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Tee scowled with his arms crossed on the bed

Ratted out by his own kids

Anny walked into the bedroom and looked at him, a little angry, but obviously more hurt as she tossed a half empty pack of cigarettes next to him.

"We said we'd both stop when we first found out I was pregnant with Andy." She said in a soft, stern voice.

Tee winced, "I know, it's just…" he slid his hands over his face until he was combing his hair back with his fingertips, "I dunno, sometimes it helps take the edge off."

"Edge off what?" she asked, sitting on his other side.

"Work." He said plainly.

"Like?"

He sighed as he looked down at his feet, ashamed,

"Like how the studio's not been doing very well lately, like how, if I don't somehow figure out how to get more people coming in, the bank'll probably shut it down and take it, and if I really don't find a way to get more people, then they might even put a lean on the house."

Anny looked at him, concerned, "Why didn't you tell me?" she asked, hurt now the only emotion he could hear in her voice.

"Because I didn't want to let you or the kids down." He said softly.

Anny pulled her husband into a tight embrace,

"Tee, you've never let us down and you never will."

Tee hugged back, feeling a weigh lift off his chest now that he told Anny what was wrong.

"Okay." She said, "We'll go over the numbers together and then we'll brainstorm some ideas of what to do with the kids, they might have some ideas about what other kids their age want to do in their spare time and then we can get people to come."

Tee nodded in agreement, grateful that she was so understanding about everything and knew a good way to fix his problem.

She then scooped up the pack of cigarettes, "And from now on, whenever you're stressed, you rely on us, not this crap." She said firmly as she tossed it into the trash.

Tee smiled.

"Sounds good to me."

.

Birds

.

Anny scowled as she dashed after the stupid seagull that had snatched her new earrings from her hand, An and Double-N right behind her as she shouted at it.

Her mom had gotten them for her for her birthday and she had wanted to show them to her friends, so she pulled them out of the fancy box that they had been in and held them up for her best friends to admire…

When the stupid seagull stole her earrings.

"I hate birds!" Anny said with a snarl as she unknowingly chased it into the trailer park where it then remembered it could fly higher then Anny could reach and soared towards the sky.

Anny stared up at it, defeated and heartbroken as her best friends finally caught up with her, looking up at the seagull, then at their short friend's expression as it flew away with her earrings.

Anny felt as if she was gonna cry, she had really liked those earrings, they were pretty and they had been one of the nicest presents she'd ever received.

Then, outta nowhere, a rock whammed into the seagull, making it drop Anny's earrings into her hands.

The Ans looked in the direction the rock had come from, only to see Tee Kanker snarl up at the sky from the doorway of his trailer home.

"I hate birds." He grumbled as he slunk back into his home, grumbling about 'stupid winged rats, making so much freaking noise, can't a guy watch TV in peace?'

Not noticing the Ans were basically right in front of his trailer.

Anny looked at the trailer for a moment, processing what just happened,

Did she and Tee Kanker actually have something in common?

She felt her face grow hot for some reason before shaking the thought away and turning to her friends,

"See? Even Kankers can't stand 'um!"

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Son

.

Andy stomped into the house, fuming and grumbling.

Anny looked up from her laptop and watched as her short twelve year old son then stopped in the middle of the hallway, "FRIGGIN' JERKS!" he finally shouted, obviously frustrated.

"Something you wanna talk about, kiddo?" Anny asked him. He looked at her, fury burning in his eyes, "A bunch of jerks from school were making fun of me for being short!" he cried, kicking at the air.

Anny looked at him for a minute then closed her computer and got up, "Come here, I wanna show you something." She told him as she walked into the living room. Andy followed her as she pulled out a thick photo album and sat onto the couch, patting on the spot beside her for him. He sat, pouting and crossing his arms across his chest.

She flipped through the pages until she got to the one she wanted him to see and gently poked him with her long fingernail then indicated which photo she wanted him to look at.

Andy leaned over to looked at the photo and his eyes widened as he then grabbed the book from her and looked from his mom to the picture and back again.

"This was you?" He asked her, dumbfounded, "But you're so… so… tiny!"

Anny nodded, "I was the shortest kid in the cul-de-sac, even the younger kids were taller then me, but I went through a huge growth spurt before high school and look at me now." She then gently kissed the top of his head, "Be patient, you'll be looking down at those losers soon enough."

Andy smiled and hugged his mother tight,

"Thanks, Mom."

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Daughter

.

Tee's jaw was hanging down from his face as he watched his three year old daughters doing a part of 'The Nutcracker' for him after only watching it an hour ago being done by his advanced class, wearing feathery pink boas and crowns made from construction paper and tape.

When they were done, they ran up to him, their eyes wide with anticipation and said,

"Did we do it right, Daddy?"

Tee pulled his baby girls in to his arms,

"Of course you did, you two are absolutely perfect!"

Mia and Tia flushed with pride as he gave his little girls each a kiss on the cheek and hugged them tight. He then let them go and gave a little bow that made them giggle as he asked, "May I have this dance my ladies?"

They squealed with laughter and nodded vigorously as they each grabbed his hand and laughed loudly as he spun them in circles and lifted them up in the air.

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Hair

.

Anny smiled, swinging her feet excitedly as her older sister carefully brushed her hair so she could style it.

The four year old had begged and pleaded with her sister to put her hair in the pretty bun she had put her own in earlier that week and she finally gave in and agreed.

Anny glanced back at her sister, a huge smile on her face, "Thanks Tiffy!" she said, her eyes bright with admiration, "You're the best big sister ever!"

Tiffany flushed and smiled as she put the brush down and picked up a ponytail holder as she purred, "Tell me something I don't know, Sweetie."

.

Story

.

Andy and his sisters looked at their father with wide eyes,

"Plllleeeaasssse?" Mia begged.

"Prettty pleasssee?" Tia pleaded.

"You three have heard that story a million times." Tee said, "Aren't you tired of hearing it?"

"Are you kidding?" Andy cried, "Hearing how you and Uncle Larie and Uncle Jay met Mom, Aunt An and Aunt Double-N is our favorite story, we'll never get tired of it."

"Never!" Mia and Tia agreed.

Tee sighed and gave his kids a small smile, "Fine. I'll tell ya it again, but then you're all going to bed, okay?"

"Okay!"

"Good. Okay, so it happened a long time ago when your mom, aunts, uncles and me were only six…"

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Babysitter

.

Andy, Mia and Tia were not happy campers today.

Their parents were supervising a dance contest at the studio and wouldn't be back until late, leaving them with a… ughhh

Babysitter

Now, this had been a difficult thing for Anny and Tee, since Andy, Mia and Tia had scared many a sitter away with crazy schemes that seemed almost too laughable to have ever worked.

But they did.

Andy had already come up with three options on how to get rid of this one, while Mia and Tia watched their parents make final adjustments to their formal wear in their bathroom, giving them hurt and angry looks whenever they made eye contact with them in the mirror.

The doorbell rang and Anny smirked as she walked to the door and answered it,

"Thanks again, Sis, I owe ya one." She said, catching her children off guard.

They dashed to the door and looked to see…

"AUNT TIFFANY!" they cried happily as they hugged her legs

She hugged them back, and looked up at her younger sister, "Yeah, cause I hate spending time with my adorable nieces and handsome nephew." Tiffany replied sarcastically.

Tee wrapped his arm around his wife, "We'll be back late and we already ordered a pizza and paid for it, it should be here soon."

"Sounds good, I'll see ya when you get back." Tiffany said, scooping the three Kanker children into her arms and walking further into the house.

Once Anny and Tee left, Andy looked up at her eagerly,

"Are you gonna show us how to make more booby traps, Aunt Tiffany?"

"And how to do our hair all pretty like yours?"

"All that and more," she promised with a smile on her face.

She loved it when she got to babysit.

.

Secret

.

Andy looked back and forth before dashing past the doorway, humming the Mission Impossible theme song, looking determined.

Tee looked up from the TV and saw him then roll across the floor singing, "Dun, dun da da da da, dun dun dun do do do..."

"Andy, what are you doing?"

Andy looked up at his dad, a little embarrassed that he had gotten caught, "…Practicing playing secret agent for when I'm playing it later with Sheldon and Allbert."

"Why are you practicing?"

"Cause Sheldon's good at distracting and All can make all the cool gadgets so I've got to be the sneaky one, so I'm practicing." He then looked up at his dad, "Can you keep it a secret, I don't want them to know that I'm not very sneaky."

Tee smiled, "You're secret's safe with me… Also a little advise, you'd be a lot sneakier if you weren't singing that song."

"But they play them in the movies all the time!"

"They put the music in after they film it."

"Oh!" Andy smiled, "Thanks Dad!"

.

Fixed

.

Mia and Tia looked at the cupcakes they had made that were now smushed on the floor.

Tears began falling down their faces,

They had made them for Andy's birthday since they couldn't figure out what to give him, they decided to make him cupcakes.

And now they were wrecks.

Anny and Tee glanced into the kitchen to find their eight year old daughters sobbing and a large cupcake tray on the floor with smushed cupcakes everywhere.

"What happened in here?" Anny asked as they ran in to inspect the twins for injuries.

Tia barely managed to say, "A stupid bird came in and…"

"…scared us when we –hic!- had just taken them out of the –hic!- oven." Mia finished, hiccupping.

"AND NOW WE HAVE NOTHING TO GIVE ANDY FOR HIS BIRTHDAY!" they wailed in unison.

Tee and Anny were trying to calm them down when Andy walked in.

He looked at the cupcakes on the ground, then at his sisters, then scooped up all the cupcakes off the ground and carefully cut off the parts that had touched the ground and put them on a plate and handed it to his sisters,

"Here, fixed it."

He said, then pushed up his sleeves as he stomped towards the door, saying

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have some stupid birds to throttle for making my little sisters cry."

.