Author's Note: I sincerely apologize for slacking off on this story. I had originally intended on getting this chapter up yesterday, but I didn't feel well, and some other stuff has come up in my life, that I've been heavily contemplating about, pushing Fan Fiction writing, more or less, to the back burner. But now that I've got some time, let's get on, with the next chapter! And yes, the chapter known as Taking a Break, has been deleted, replaced with the real chapter 20 on Fan Fiction's website.
Chapter 20, Preparing for Tommy's First Birthday, and, The Clicker!
It was the next day, after everyone had gotten a good night's sleep. Upon waking up the next morning, Peter took Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, Kimi, Dil, Zack, Jesse, and Angelica, all downstairs for some breakfast. Everyone ate bowls of Reptar cerial, in silence, while Angelica managed to sneak some cookies out of the cookie jar, and started chomping on them loudly.
"So, did everybody sleep well? Seems you guys were exhausted last night, as once I got you all ready for bed, you all fell asleep immediately, not making a peep!" Peter asked.
But nobody answered. Everybody remained silent, and the only sounds that were heard, was the crunching of cerial in everyone's mouths. A few minutes later, after Angelica was finished, she got up from the kitchen table, and skipped off to the living room.
"So, now that Angelica is gone, does anybody have anything they'd like to say?" Peter asked, as he figured they were all giving Angelica the silent treatment.
"Yeah, Angelica's a big meany, and I don't care if we ever speak to her again." Said Phil.
"I agree with my brother, one-hundred percent. Whatever that means." Added Lil.
"I never trusted Angelica since the day I met her, and she made us all watch her Cynthia fashion show. I was glad Kimi and I snuck off to help Tommy and Chuckie rescue his screwdriver in time, as had we not, Tommy might have died of his second breakout of The Gray Plague." Said Zack.
"Yeah, I bet Angelica has always been mean to you guys, and that time you guys saved her, well, she was only faking it." Said Jesse.
"Yeah, Angelica has been mean to us, even before I turndid one-years-old." Replied Tommy.
"I seem to recall her helping us get the dog food at your birthday party." Said Chuckie.
"Maybe she did Chuckie, but you're forgetting one incident. Don't you remember what happened the day before?" Tommy asked.
Everyone shook their heads no.
"Well I do, and I believe we're up to that part in the video, so come on!" Said Tommy, his bowl now empty of Reptar cerial, as he hopped down from his chair at the kitchen table, heading off to the living room, with everyone following behind him.
Upon getting to the living room, Angelica was off in a corner, having one of her private conversations with Cynthia. Peter snuck past Tommy, turned on the TV, turned back on the VCR, and handed the clicker to Tommy.
"Ok Tommy, hit the play button, and tell us your story." Said Peter, as he took a seat on the couch, and the other rugrats, sat down on the floor. Tommy, pressed the play button, and began his story.
Tommy POV
It all started the day before my birthday. Chuckie, Phil, Lil, and Angelica, all had come over to play. But Angelica, was more excited about watching the premier of Miss Carrol's Happy House.
"Guess what babies." Said Angelica.
"What?" We all asked.
"Miss Carrol is coming on for the first time today, and aunt Didi and uncle Stu said I could watch it. So you know what that means?" Angelica asked.
We all nodded.
"It means, leave me alone so I can watch my show." Angelica snapped, as she headed off towards the TV.
The rest of us, remained in the playpen, as I overheard our mommies and daddies in the kitchen.
Mommy was making a birthday cake.
End of Tommy POV
"I don't understand why you want to make a carrot cake Didi." Said Betty.
"Because, according to Lipchitz, it's rated number one as the healthiest cake in Weekly Health Journal." Replied Didi, as she continued to mix up the cake batter.
Stu was on the phone, making arrangements the following day for the puppet show.
"So what kind of puppet show do you have in mind?" Asked the lady on the other end of the phone.
"Well, I don't know. What do you have available?" Stu asked.
"How about Little Red Riding Hood?" Asked the lady.
"Let me ask my wife if she approves." Said Stu, as he covered the mouth piece of the phone, and asked Didi about it.
Didi agreed, and Stu got the puppet show booked.
"My wife says that would be fine." Said Stu into the phone.
As the lady was going through her little chart on the computer, she started to get frustrated.
"Stupid computer programs." Grumbled the lady under her breath.
"Something wrong?" Stu asked.
"It's these new computer programs, I have to check off everything as we book your appointment. No worries though, I'll let you know, we have an opening at eleven." Said the lady.
"Eleven should be just fine." Said Stu.
"Ok, so let's confirm. You are interested in Little Red Riding Hood, and your order consists of stage, puppets, and puppeteers, appointment is at eleven a.m. on August 11, at 1258 North Highland Street in Yucaipa, California." Said the lady, as she looked over the checklist in front of her on her computer screen.
"That's correct." Stu replied.
"Great, we'll see you tomorrow then." Replied the lady.
"Thank you mam." Replied Stu, as he hung up the phone, and marked it down on the birthday checklist he and Didi were keeping on the refridgerator.
After getting off the phone, the lady looked over her checklist one more time, before emailing it to her boss, only to see that while the stage and puppets got checked off, puppeteers, did not get checked off. She tried to go back in and edit the Pickles order, but a computer glitch, prevented her from correcting the mistake.
"If I explain things to my boss that the computer program glitched up on me, maybe we can manually book the puppeteers." The lady thought to herself, as she finalized the order, and emailed it off to her boss for approval and scheduling with the other clients.
Tommy POV
We were all getting bored, so I decided to speak up.
"Hey guys, let's go on an adventure!" I said, as I took my scudriver out from my diapie, and led everybody out of the playpen, where we headed over to where Angelica was watching TV.
I noticed this really neat thing with buttons on it next to Angelica, as we overheard the TV.
"Good morning children and welcome to the premier, of Miss Carrol's Happy House, where we're going to have a lot of fun today!" Said Miss Carrol on the TV.
A crowd of children cheered.
"Before we get started today, let me remind you that if you would like a chance to audition to be on Miss Carrol's house, and become my Happy Helper, all you need to do is send a postcard with your name, address, age and phone number to the address shown on your screen. We only accept children ages six and under for this program. And now, let me introduce to you, our very first group of kids, to audition for the position of our new happy helper, which will change once a month." Said Miss Carrol, as she pointed to a group of three small children.
"Look guys, the clicker!" I said excitedly, as I passed it around to Chuckie, Phil and Lil.
"Wow, how does it work Tommy?" Chuckie asked.
"It's easy, we just press these buttons!" I said, as I pressed some buttons on the clicker.
"Wow! The pictures change on the TV!" Said Phil.
"I wanna try!" Added Lil.
We all noticed that the lady with the children weren't on the TV anymore, and there was some man on the screen, blabbing about stuff we didn't understand.
"Oh no you don't." Snapped Angelica, as she approached me, and grabbed on one end of the clicker.
"But Angelica I was having fun." I said.
"You interrupted Miss Carrol, and now, you dumb babies are going to pay for this!" Snapped Angelica, as she and I continued to fight over the clicker.
"Guys, get away from Angelica." I shouted, as we all ran around, throwing stuff at one another, me, managing to not let go of the clicker.
But I knew it was too good to last. Angelica snatched it out of my hand, screaming at the top of her lungs, and threw it, at the winblow, causing it to get broked.
End of Tommy POV
The grown ups overheard the crash from the kitchen, and came into the living room, to see what was going on.
"Angelica Pickles! What's going on in here?" Didi asked.
"It wasn't me, it was those dumb babies. They interrupted me watching Miss Carrol." Replied Angelica, about ready to cry.
Drew wasn't happy with her, and sent Angelica to sit in a corner for time out, while everyone saw to cleaning up the mess, and Chaz and Howard, went and helped Stu repair the broken window in the living room, as with Tommy's birthday party the next day, they couldn't afford to have the window broken.
Once everything was cleaned up, the grown ups, headed back into the kitchen, where Didi showed them the outfit she had picked out for Tommy to wear on his special day.
"Isn't this cute? I thought Tommy would look adorable in this outfit on his special day." Said Didi, as she held up a red short sleeve shirt, and a pair of blue shorts with suspenders.
"Ah, great choice Didi!" Said Betty, as she took another sip of her coffee sitting in front of her.
"I wish I could make it tomorrow. I have one last court hearing to go to with regards to the restraining order that Melinda's family put me on nearly a year ago." Said Chaz.
"Ah don't worry Chaz, Howie and I would be happy to bring little Chuckster along with Phil and Lil to the party tomorrow." Said Betty.
"You're not alone Chaz, Charlotte has work tomorrow, so I'll be bringing Angelica by myself to the party." Said Drew, as he got up from the table, to go check on Angelica, and see about leaving.
"We look forward to seeing you there." Didi replied with a smile.
"Well I'd better gather up Angelica and see to heading for home." Said Drew, as he headed off towards the living room, to find Tommy, Chuckie, Phil and Lil taking their nap in the playpen, and Angelica, sitting in her time out corner, now coloring with some paper and crayons.
"Come on angel, time to go." Said Drew, as he scooped up Angelica and headed for the front door.
"Daddy, I want to audition to be on Miss Carrol's Happy House." Yelled Angelica.
"Well, ok, we'll see what we can do princess, but you know you might not get in." Said Drew, as he and Angelica walked outside of Tommy's house.
"I know, I know, but I really wanna do this! Please, pretty please?" Angelica pleaded.
"Alright, I'll talk to your mother and we'll see to sending in a postcard to Miss Carrol." Said Drew, as they got into the car and headed for the Toy Palace, to pick up Tommy's birthday present.
Meanwhile, Betty, Howard, and Chaz, all came into the living room, where they gathered up their sleeping kids, and headed for home.
Tommy POV
I awoke from my nappy to see my friends had all lefted me, but it was ok, as I knew they'd be back to play again really soon. I just played with my toys and watched mommy and daddy get everything ready for my birthday party. I couldn't believe it was happening.
That night, mommy gave me some chicken, carrots and cherries for dinner. I had fun sharing my food with Spike. So I would drop it on the floor, in hopes that Spike would catch it. But sometimes, my food didn't go on the floor, it landed next to me in my high chair.
"Uh oh." I said, dropping the food. But the chicken didn't hit the floor.
"Tommy! That chicken didn't go on the floor. Eat it!" Said my mommy.
"Uh oh." I continued to say, as I kept putting chicken in my chair.
"Eat your uh oh's." Said my mommy.
I kept giggling and having fun with this game, until I finally gave in, and ate my uh oh's.
After I was finished, mommy tried to nurse me, but I wasn't having it. This made my mommy cry, and swear that she would never nurse again. I guess that's why Dilly always has, and still does, drink from a bottle. Anyway, mommy gave me my bottle, and gave me a bath, where I played with my rubber ducky and frog squirt toys. After the bath, she dressed me in a red short sleeve shirt, put a clean diapie on me, and tucked me into my crib.
"Night night my soon to be one-years-old Tommy." Said my mommy, as she kissed the top of my forehead, turndid off the lights, left the room, and closed the door.
I fell asleep, as I ended another day of adventures, and looked forward to seeing more adventures happening, the following day.
End of Tommy POV
After Didi got Tommy to bed, she too headed to her room, where she found Stu already in bed. She changed into her pajamas and joined Stu in bed.
"Isn't it great that our little man is going to be a whole year old tomorrow? And I'm almost done with the Hoveramma prototype, which I know Tommy is going to enjoy very much!" Said Stu.
"Oh, it sure is." Said Didi with a smile.
"And, you don't miss Spensor anymore?" Stu asked.
"Stu, I think now that we have a healthy little boy, who's about to celebrate his first birthday tomorrow, I think it would be best, that we completely put Spensor behind us." Said Didi, as she got out of bed, and went over to her dresser, where she took the birth and death certificate of Spensor down from the top of the dresser, and opened a bottom drawer, where she buried the pieces of paper, under a bunch of junk, closed the drawer, and returned to bed.
By this time, Stu had fallen asleep, and not even two minutes later, Didi, was asleep too.
The video picture then faded to black, and at this point, a green picture appeared, with a black oval on top, and on top of the black oval, read Bonus Toon in yellow letters.
"What's this?" Tommy asked, as he paused the video.
"Looks like we're up to that bonus section." Said Peter.
Just then, Angelica came out of her hiding place, crying.
"What's wrong Angelica?" Peter asked.
"Oh guys, I remember how I was so mean with that clicker, and everything else I've done. I'm sorry for all of the times I lied to you and broke your toys. I'm sorry for telling the world you didn't exist, and I promise, to never do it again." Said
Angelica through her sobs.
Of course, nobody believed her, and it was then, when Tommy spoke up.
"We appreciate your apology Angelica, but I'm sorry, maybe I'm your cousin, but I can't trust you no more." Replied Tommy.
"You… Can't?" Said Angelica, more tears streaming down her face.
Tommy nodded.
"Why not?" Angelica asked.
Just then, Peter lay a hand on Angelica's shoulder.
"Angelica, what you did, telling everyone on the Internet that Tommy, Chuckie, Phil and Lil didn't exist, was not only the worst lie you could have told, but it was the straw that broke the cammel's back. In other words, the babies don't trust you anymore, and it's going to take a long time, if ever, to gain their trust back." Explained Peter.
"But what can I do?" Angelica asked.
"I don't know Angelica, but I'm sure we'll think of something." Said Peter, as Angelica wiggled her way out of Peter's arm, and ran off to another room, to have a good cry.
"Say Peter, I have a question." Said Zack.
"What is it?" Peter asked.
"How did you meet Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, and Angelica anyway?" Zack asked.
"Well Zack, I'm glad you asked that question, as it's finally time, for me to tell you of that story." Said Peter, as he took the clicker from Tommy's hand, sat back down on the couch, and saw to unpausing the video, to begin the bonus section, and the telling, of his story.
And, we shall hear his story, in the next chapter.
Author's Notes: And so, in that chapter, you saw how the puppet show got messed up at Tommy's birthday party, why the stage and puppets were booked, but no puppeteers, you saw the events that would later lead to Angelica's Miss Carrol's Happy House audition and appearance, little did anybody know at that time that on that particular show, would be Miss Carrol's last appearance to ever be on TV, and we learn the real reasons as to why Chaz and Charlotte were not at Tommy's birthday party the following day. And, the story with the baby food, was once again, taken from real life events that occurred just the other day in fact. The only difference is, my nephew Zack was eating sausage instead of chicken, and, I'll admit, every single time my mom told him to eat his uh oh's, I cracked up laughing, nearly choking on the chicken pot pie I was eating at the time. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed that chapter, and, I'll be back shortly, with the next chapter!