Angelica The Magnificent
"Okay sweetie, ready?" Drew asked Angelica. He and the guys were taking a break building the new storage shed and Drew was helping her with the magic kit.
"Ready!" she placed the ball in the cup. She twisted the lid just like her father had shown her and then removed it, grinning as she saw the ball had disappeared. "Wow!"
"Great job!"
Angelica's smile fell though. "It's not really magic though, is it?"
"It's a kind of magic known as 'slight of hand'," Drew explained.
"Slight of hand?"
"Right. You distract someone and make it seem like you did something impossible. Watch… your grandpa lou taught me this one." He took out a quarter and showed her how to make it look like he'd pulled it from her ear.
"So it's like a lie?"
"Kind of," Drew admitted. "But a harmless one that doesn't harm anyone. Because that is VERY important. Don't ever lie if it might hurt someone."
"Right."
"Now… go show Uncle Stu the coin trick." He stage whispered, "he still doesn't know how its done."
Meanwhile in the playpen Tommy glanced nervously at Chuckie. "Uh… Chuckie?" The red head merely rolled the star ball to Phil. "I'm really sorry about yesterday, Chuckie."
"What happened yesterday?" Lil asked.
Tommy sighed. "I got upset because my mommy took Henry-"
"You didn't listen to me," Chuckie grumbled. "I told you your mommy didn't take all your toys… she didn't even take Herman away. She took him to wash'em! Because he was dirty and smelly and I didn't even like being in the same crib as him!" Tommy, with ever single complaint about Henry, cringed, lips pressed together and tears gathering in his eyes. "And then you decided just because you didn't get your way you were going to be a bad baby!"
"What did you do, Tommy?" Phil asked. "Did you track mud into the house?"
"Or hide the clicker because you like seeing your daddy run around?" Lil asked.
"No," Tommy admitted. "I ripped up a book and tried to knock a lamp over."
"Oooooooh," the twins said.
Chuckie nodded. "And I told you not to do it but you still did it! And when it turned out you did it for nothing you didn't even say sorry to me! You wanted me to be bad and help you get out of time out because all you care about is Herman!"
"That's not true!" Tommy exclaimed. "It's Henry-"
"I don't care!" Chuckie said, crossing his arms. "You made me cry… I thought you were my friend."
"I am your friend Chuckie!" Tommy whimpered.
"Well… sometimes you don't act like it. You tease me and call me a baby when I'm scared and make me do things I don't want to do…"
"I'm… I'm sorry Chuckie," Tommy said. "Can… we just play?"
"…yeah."
And while the babies did go back to playing their game… Tommy didn't feel like anything was fixed at all.