Chapter 24, Brotherly Preparedness, Part 3, Peter's Secret
Peter unpaused the video, and continued his story, which he would now be sharing with the Rugrats parents and guardians, as well as the Rugrats.
Peter POV
I continued to stare at the sonogram pictures, trying to figure this out. Then, it hit me! While everyone thought Tommy would be getting a little sister, if I took a magnifying glass, and viewed the picture closely, I could see that Trixi, Tommy's future baby sister, wasn't going to be a sister after all. That's right, Tommy, was getting a baby brother! But with how the picture was taken, and this was true, of all of the pictures I was able to find, one needed a magnifying glass, to tell this. I couldn't believe how smart I was, to have figured out this little detail, that the doctors overlooked at the hospital. Then, I found another sonogram picture. It was a baby girl, and on the back of the picture, was written the name, Amillia Pickles. I could not believe it, another family with the same last name was also having a baby, and somewhere along the lines, there was a mix up.
I knew I had to get to the bottom of this sooner than later, so I left a note for Stu and Didi, letting them know I had to leave early, to please tell Tommy goodbye for me, and I headed off to the hospital, to see if I could get some information, and get everything straightened out. But after speaking with several doctors, I found out that Amilia Pickles had moved away, and thus, there was nothing more I could do. I would have to tell Didi about what I found out, and hoped that she believed me, but as usual, Angelica, spoiled my plan, and lost her bet to getting that ten pound bag of Reptar bars.
I then got called away on some business at the White House, to speak with the president, and deal with some United States delegates, so was away for a month. By the time I returned, Didi looked as if she could be due any day, Tommy was still feeling pretty sad that he had not found his little sister yet, and there I was, still holding this secret inside.
The first day I went to visit the Rugrats post returning from my trip, I ran into Tommy, Chuckie, Phil and Lil, trying to do something with a bunch of dirty dishes they had drug off from the kitchen table after lunch.
"Come on guys, help me wash these dishes." Demanded Tommy.
"Why?" Phil asked.
"Cuz at big brother school, they taughted me that as a big brother, I'd need to help my mommy out by doing the things she usually does. So come on guys, help me." Said Tommy.
I saw the four toddlers, climb up to the bathroom sink, in search of soap, only Phil, who was on top at this point, couldn't reach the soap, and grabbed the toothpaste instead.
"Is this it Tommy?" Phil asked, showing him the toothpaste.
"Yep, come down." Said Tommy, as Phil climbed down from the counter, and joined Tommy, Chuckie, and Lil on the floor, who had a pile of dirty dishes in front of them.
Lil grabbed the toothpaste out of Phil's hand, unscrewed the cap, and dumped the contents of the toothpaste into one of the dirty bowls.
"Eeewww, this doesn't look like any soap I ever sawed." Said Lil.
The babies started sticking their hands into the stuff.
"This stuff feels too sticky." Said Chuckie.
"Yeah, but at least it has a nice color, and, feels neat." Said Phil, smearing the toothpaste all over his fingers, and licking them off.
I finally went to clean them up, when Didi, beat me to it.
"Kids! No!" Shreaked Didi, who started to cry. This in turn, caused the toddlers to start crying.
"It's not working out you guys, every time we try to do something nice for my mommy we mess up." Said Tommy between sobs.
"Don't worry Tommy, I'm sure your baby sister will get here soon." Replied Chuckie, who now put a hand around Tommy's shoulder, forgetting he still had toothpaste covered fingers, getting a glob on Tommy's shirt.
It was then I remembered, why I came over. Not only to babysit the rugrats, but to reveal my secret. Little did I know, I was about to not have my chance.
Just then, Stu came into the room, where Didi was having a meltdown.
"Looks like the hormones are at it again." Stu thought to himself, as he approached Didi and the toddlers.
"Another mood swing?" Asked Stu.
"Uh huh?" Said Didi, who sobbed into his shoulder.
"And this morning sickness, is driving me crazy!" Yelled Didi, still crying into Stu's arms.
I knew at that point, I'd better intervene.
"I'm here to babysit the kids, and, just look at this mess! Tommy! What were you up to?" I asked, rounding up the rugrats and the pile of toothpaste covered dishes on the bathroom floor.
"Thank you for babysitting. I think a night out alone with Didi, is just what she needs, before we've got two kids, and less time for a night of freedom from parenting for a while." Said Stu, as he led the emotional soon to be mother of mood swings out of the bathroom, and they headed out the front door on their date.
I couldn't remember where Tommy's grandpa was off to that night, but they needed me to babysit, and, that's exactly what I did. First, I went up and got the dishes cleaned up properly, explaining to Tommy that while he may want to help his mommy out, the best thing for him to do, would be to give her hugs, and comfort her, when she didn't feel well. And, I also explained, that toothpaste, doesn't exactly make for very good dish washing soap. Once I cleaned up the dishes, gave all of the rugrats a bath, and got them into bed, I went back downstairs, where I found Angelica, still awake at the table, cutting up construction paper with her new Cynthia scissors.
"Angelica! What are you doing?" I asked, when I saw the mess of papers on the floor.
"I'm having fun with my new Cynthia scissors, and look, I found this!" Said Angelica, picking up the sonogram pictures off of the table.
"Angelica! You put those down right now!" I demanded.
"Really? Why should I?" Angelica asked angrily.
"Because, those are your aunt Didi's first baby pictures of the new baby. You would not want to destroy them, would you?" I asked.
"All the more reason to destroy them. If they disappear, maybe that dumb baby won't be born, making one less dumb baby to come into this world." Snapped Angelica.
But before I could say anything else, it was too late. Angelica was vigorously chopping up the sonogram pictures, and before I could get them away from her, she threw the pieces, into the trash.
"I'm sorry Angelica, but afraid you just lost the bet." I said.
"Why?" Angelica asked.
"Because chopping up the first pictures of your new baby cousin was wrong, and you know it." I replied.
"I'm sorry." Said Angelica.
"It's too late Angelica, you lost the bet. Now go brush your teeth and get into bed." I demanded, as I saw Angelica off to bed, and cleaned up her mess in the kitchen.
I would have had her clean up the mess, but it was growing late, and I needed something to keep me from crying and looking like an idiot. Now, it was hopeless. Thanks to Angelica ruining my plan, there was no way, I could reveal my secret to Stu and Didi now, as they would never believe me.
As the days continued to pass, it was all I could do, to not blab, but keeping a secret was hard. I could only hope the baby would be born sometime soon, so its gender would be revealed, clearing me of this secret I was having to hold on to. Meanwhile, Tommy, kept spending more time with his parents, making everyone quite concerned. I told them to not worry about it, that it was probably only a phase, with the new baby around the corner. Didi, proceeded to look it up in one of her Lipchitz books, to find a similar explanation to mine. It was then, I got my brilliant idea.
"I've got an idea. How would you and Stu like a night of freedom from parenthood, in your very own home?" I asked Didi, as she was cleaning the kitchen for the hundredth time that day, as it seemed since she became pregnant, nothing was clean enough for her.
"What do you mean Peter?" Didi asked.
"Well, I could take Tommy and his friends with me to the Confederacy tonight, and have them come over, for a big sleepover." I suggested.
"That's a wonderful idea." Said Didi with a smile.
"Besides, it would allow for us to get the finishing touches put on to the nursery while Tommy isn't in there, asleep." Said Stu, who had walked into the kitchen at this point.
"And don't worry, I'll make sure to bring Tommy and his friends, back in time for the baby shower tomorrow." I said with a smile.
"It's settled then." Said Didi.
End of Peter POV
At this point, Peter paused the video, and looked over at Didi.
"So, how do you feel, now knowing I knew your new baby was going to be a boy, before anybody else?" Peter asked.
"Oh Peter, I can't be mad at you. If anything, I should be mad at my niece for cutting up those pictures in the first place." Said Didi.
"Well, Dil's been here for over a year now, so it's no use crying over spilled milk, but if I should know about something like that again in the future, I won't hesitate to come to you sooner. I was just, worried nobody would believe me." Peter said, putting an arm around Didi's shoulder.
"Oh Peter, you have always been honest with us, I could never doubt you." Said Didi with a smile.
"I'm glad to know this." Said Peter.
A little while later, the adults left the living room, to go find Angelica, and scold her for cutting up the pictures, as while nobody was mad at Peter, Didi was sad that she didn't have any sonogram pictures of Dil, while she had all of Tommy's, somewhere tucked away in a drawer in her bedroom.
"So what happens nextest?" Tommy asked.
"You don't remember your first slumber party at the Confederacy?" Peter asked.
Tommy shook his head.
"Well, looks like we're not done yet, make yourselves comfortable, as our story of Brotherly Preparedness, continues." Said Peter, as he picked the remote back up off of the coffee table, and unpaused the video, to continue his story.
Author's Note: And this, ends chapter 24. How does that slumber party go? We'll find out, in chapter 25. And with how noisy my neighbors were being, making it difficult for me to type up this chapter, due to lack of concentration, and the fact that I'm leaving in about three hours to go celebrate my brother's birthday, we only have four more chapters to go on this story, time will tell, if I get the rest of them released over the next few days, with school and all around the corner, but if nothing else, I'll be coming home right after school on Thursday of this week, putting me more or less, back on a regular schedule this week, so, here's hoping, I can have this story completed, by the start of next weekend, if not by the end of it.