Chuckie Loses His Glasses
"Chuckie?" Chas said, holding onto his son's hand as they walked over to the newly arrived Drew and Angelica. Chuckie had a small blue bag in his hand, the kind one might put a present in. "Do you have something to say to Angelica?"
The 2 year old babbled something, his head ducked down in embarrassment.
"He said he's sorry for eating your crayons, Angelica," Chas said to the little girl. "And because he is sorry we got you a gift." Chuckie, not needing any prompting, held out the bag and Angelica accepted it.
She thought about snatching it and greedily tearing through it but remembering that he daddy was standing right next to her and might not like it if she was rude she instead carefully opened it, eyes widening as she saw what was inside. "WOW!" she said, pulling out the biggest box of crayons she'd ever seen. "I didn't even know they made these many colors!"
"What do we say?" Drew promoted.
"Uh… thank you Mr. Finster, Chuckie. Apology accepted."
Chas nodded and picked Chuckie up, leading him back to the playpen while Drew knelt down and placed a hand on Angelica's shoulder. "I'm very proud of how you handled this, sweetheart."
Angelica beamed. When she'd discovered Chuckie eating her crayons she'd thought about throwing a massive tantrum and then getting revenge against him. But then she'd actually thought about all the times she'd done similar things in the past… and how she always got in trouble. She would cry and whine and for a little bit the adults would comfort her but then she'd ruin it by trying to be mean to the babies and they'd take their side again. So this time she'd decided to NOT lash out and instead run and get Aunt Didi and Uncle Stu when she'd seen Chuckie chewing on her best yellow crayon. Her aunt and uncle had quickly scolded Chuckie for grabbing the crayons and put him on a time out. And then they'd apologized to her and let her help Aunt Didi make a cake and she got to lick the spoon all by herself! Tommy didn't get that!
And now Mr. Finster gave her new crayons… and her daddy was proud of her.
Maybe… maybe there was something to being the mature one. She always said she was older than the babies but acting even more like an adult and not scheming to make them sad… it had perks! Gifts and attention and her daddy being happy!
She smiled as she hugged her dad… though she did stick her tongue out at Chuckie's retreating form when no one was looking.
Angelica might act more mature but she wasn't a saint!