Luke has been watching the clock for forty three minutes. Its 6:47 p.m. and Tim and Abby should be just about home by now. Luke jumps started and scared when he hears the door click open. Candy meets his parent at the door. They start talking and Luke can tell that they know about his eye.
He looks up to see his mom studying him. That's when he hears her gasp. He lets out a breath of annoyance. Why did Candy tattle on him? He knows that mom and dad would've obviously seen his eye, but still. She doesn't need to be such a tattle tale all the time. How he got the black eye is going to be really hard to tell and lie about. He loves his parents, but he doesn't wanna get Johnny into trouble. Maybe Johnny will consider liking him; once he finds out that he didn't rat on him.
"Oh my God!" Abby shrieked looking surprised and as well shocked to see her little baby's eye bruised. Tim hands Candy a twenty dollar bill, she waves goodbye to the family. "What happened to your eye?" Abby asked her eyes wide with astonishment.
"Nothin, mom" Luke groaned. "It was a dodge ball in gym." He scratches the top of his short blonde hair.
"Oh my baby, are you okay? Does it hurt? Mommy will make it all better" Abby has gotten into a bad habit of babying Luke. The ten year old rolls his eyes, but lets her hug him anyway.
"It don't hurt much anymore" Luke lied unsuccessfully. It still is throbbing and aching, but he wants to look tough.
"Candy said you already handed in your homework" Tim asked shaking his head, if he fails then that could go on his permanent record. Then he may not get into a very good college. "Why would you do that, son?"
"Cos…cos I-I finished it and I didn't wanna lose it. I got a letter" Luke said really wanting to change this subject.
"What happened? What did you do?" Abby presses the frozen peas to his right eyes. Luke groans he's pretty sure that his eye is already less swollen as it is.
"Mom, my eye is fine. I already put corn on it; ask Candy if you don't believe me" Luke moaned, trying to get her to shove off.
"What do you need to tell us?" Abby pushes the peas harder against his eye. He winces, but remains still so it won't hurt when she has the peas on his eye.
"I don't know. I didn't do nuffin" Luke said pretending to sound as sweet as cherry pie. He really does hope that Sister Ugla didn't catch him cheating. Tim would be really upset if he cheated. Then he'd start feeling ashamed of him.
"You better hope that's true. Give it here" Luke shuffles around in his pocket and pulls out the somewhat dirty letter.
Tim reads it while studying his son. A slow smile breaks onto his face. "This is great, this is amazing. This is incredible" he raved on and on. Luke's face returns to its natural color.
"Abs you have to read this" Tim hands the letter over to his wife. Abby, who still has the peas pressed against Luke's swollen eye; scans down the letter. Her eyes become bright with excitement and utter relief. Their perfect little angel didn't get into any trouble on his first day. That's an improvement, considering how school went with the DiNozzo boys.
"What is it?" Luke asked trying to have a look at the letter himself. Tim doesn't even let him have a good look. He just keeps holding the letter.
"You're moving on up to sixth grade with Sister Kathy. That's Johnny's teacher, we told the school you two are related. Isn't that wonderful?" Abby clapped her hands and grinned wildly.
"Uhh yeah it is" Luke lied. He doesn't think this is great. This is terrible, now people will make fun of him even more.
"My son is a genius" Luke guesses the black eye is all forgotten. He tries to move the peas away from his eye, but Abby presses it harder.
"Maybe he'll move up another grade. This is perfect, wait till everyone at work hears about this" Abby said smiling brightly at her boys. Luke plastered a fake smile onto his face. This isn't perfect. Now Johnny will hate him even worse.
Kyle watches as his parents pull into the driveway. He looks over at Johnny. The eleven year old looks consumed with the television set. They aren't allowed to watch T.V. on school days. Kyle goes into the backyard to kick the soccer ball around. Just as he closes the screen door; the front door opens.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Tony demanded his army green eyes are narrowed.
Johnny fumbles to shut turn the T.V. off. The remote slips from his hand and slams into the ground. "I…you said you'd be home at eight" Johnny looks so confused. Why didn't Kyle tell him they'd be home early?
"We solved the case early. Why are you watching T.V. when you know you aren't allowed to on school days?" Tony asked his arms are over his chest.
"It's educational" the eleven year old lied. He's not even a teenager and yet he acts like he's fifteen years old.
"Is it?" Ziva intervened. Her dark brown eyes are clouded with anger. She mentally counts to ten.
"Yeah" he lied again. Lying seems to be something that Johnny has been frequently doing. In addition to that he also has a dirty mouth.
"Don't you dare lie to me" Ziva threatened, noticing the cans of Coke perched on the table.
"Sorry" Johnny doesn't sound at all sorry.
"Did you have all of these?" she motions to the beverages on the table. Johnny gulps, he isn't allowed to have a lot of Soda all at once.
"My tummy hurts" Johnny complained, putting on the little boy act. Ziva rolls her eyes clearly seeing through this.
"If you don't answer my question, your bottom with hurt too" Ziva promised. Johnny blinks and sighs, this can't be fair.
"I couldn't help it. Soda's are my weakness, it's like my kryptonite" Johnny said sadly, he actually sounds remorseful.
"You aren't Superman, Johnny. You broke a rule and this weekend, no T.V. or video-games"
"But, that means I gotta wait a whole week. Before I can watch T.V. no fair"
"It also isn't fair that you try to take advantage of your mom and my strenuous work hours. Where's your brother?"
"I dunno, outside" Johnny said quietly.
Tony nods as he opens the screen door. "Kyle, come inside. We need to talk" the thirteen year old looks over worriedly.
"I didn't do nothin" Kyle called back.
"I never said you did, just come inside" the teenager starts up the porch steps and heads inside wondering if Tony and Ziva found out about what happened at school. He just hopes Luke kept his mouth shut. Johnny gets spanked an awful lot these days; its cos of his sour mouth and dirty attitude.
"Boys, your mom and I talked about this at work. We're thinking about getting you two a babysitter" their eyes become wide with shock.
"You can't. I'm thirteen years old" Kyle blurted angrily, shaking his head. "I'm gonna be fourteen soon. The guys at school would really let me have it about this."
"How are we supposed to trust you two with the rules? Whenever we aren't home" Tony asked glaring down at his boy.
"I don't know, but you can't get a babysitter. Cos we're not babies" Kyle answered, squinting at his father. He looks so cute; Ziva wonders what he looked like as a little boy.
"How about a young adult sitter, Lucas has one" Ziva said trying to change up the words, just to make it sound like it'd be a lot older.
"Luke is ten. I'm three years older than him" Kyle said throwing his arms into the air, looking crazy as hell.
"Kyle, I know this doesn't feel fair, but what do you want us to do?" Ziva asked incredulously. She shakes her head.
"Not to get a babysitter" Johnny said pleadingly.
"Guys, try to see this our way. When we come home, we don't want the house ruined and you two all jacked up on junk food. That isn't very healthy?" Ziva reprimanded her tone obviously upset by all of this sneaking around.
"We won't, we'll be good" Johnny whined, he sounds like a seven year old.
"One more chance guys, if you mess this up. We're getting a babysitter" Tony warned giving them each a hard, warning look.
"Sometimes could you come home early?" Johnny asked weakly. Kyle understands that, he wishes his parents could come home sooner as well.
"It depends on the case. With your mom and my job, we all have to make certain sacrifices. One of which is the difficult hours of work"
"We promise we'll try not to eat a lot of junk food" Kyle promised and he actually sounds like he means it.
"Those are my boys" Tony clapped their backs. Ziva rolled her eyes, and begins to start dinner, Johnny who likes to help Ziva cook; follows her into the kitchen to help her out.
Thalia chews on her lip. Her little cousin can't keep a secret if it saved her life. Even with Birthday presents. Ally always tells what's in the present she got for someone. She can't help, but blab about everything; it's her one weakness. Well besides being a pest and annoying brat.
"You hafta keep your mouth shut" Thalia warned her handing Ally a large pillow case of candy. That's what she bribed her to keep her mouth shut.
"But why?" Ally asked again. It sounds like she wants more than candy.
"Cause, Gibbs will tell Tim and Abby who'll tell Tony and Ziva. Just telling one person is really bad" Thalia explained for what feel likes the millionth time.
"Why?" Ally asked more like whined. This doesn't seem very fair. Although maybe using this against Johnny could be helpful.
"You don't want Johnny to get spanked cos of you, right?" Thalia gives Ally the Gibbs stare in result Ally rolls her eyes.
Ally shrugged. She doesn't like Johnny, but he can be nice sometimes. "I guess not."
"That's right" Thalia squeezed her shoulder. Julie looks over at each of them curiously, wondering what's going on between the two of them.
"Are you two up to anything?" Julie asked giving them each a knowing look. Ally gulps while Thalia stands up a little taller.
"No mommy" "No Auntie" they chorused.
"You better not be or else I'll spank your behinds" Julie said trying to sound serious, but both of her girls can tell that's an empty threat. Thalia rolled her eyes. She knows full well that her Aunt wouldn't ground them, much less spank them.
Behind his newspaper, Gibbs smiles at this. He knows Julie isn't completely ready to spank the girls yet. That is why the job is left with him, for now. Over the weeks Julie has become a lot more hands on and parental.
"How was school?" Julie asked raising an eyebrow. She wonders if her little demons got into any trouble.
"Luke got hurt" Ally confessed receiving a harsh look from her cousin. Gibbs takes note of this and puts down the newspaper.
"Oh, he did. How?" Julie asked sounding very concerned. Both adults wonder how a ten year old could get hurt on his first day of school.
"He fellded down da stairs. I sawed it" Ally lied, Thalia looks over and nods confirming this lie. Gibbs studies each of their faces trying to determine the truth; whether or not it is truth.
"Gibbs could you help me with a project" Thalia asked looking doubtful about this. It was Julie's idea to even ask him.
"Course I can, what's it all about?" Gibbs answered a small grin or smirk appearing onto his face.
"Its, what I wanna be when I grow up…and I wanna be an NCIS Agent" Thalia replied quietly; she looks nervous about his reaction. Gibbs grins proudly.
"What about me?" Ally whined over dramatically. Julie grins Ally is the type of kid who needs constant attention or else she'll cause trouble.
"Ally, sweetie you can cook dinner" Julie offered, hoping that Ally won't throw a tantrum. She's tried time-outs before and it never worked with her.
"Can I use the stove and oven?" Ally asked with a mischievous grin and glint in her beautiful green eyes.
Julie taps her chin; methodically. "No, but you can decide on what and how we cook it" this seems to please Ally enough. She struts into the kitchen grinning from ear to ear. She already has plans on what's going to be for dinner.