Chuckerfly

"I wish my daddy would pay attention to me," Chuckie said morosely.

"Oh, he will," Angelica said, who was practicing her ballet. "And when he does it will be even better!"

"What do you mean, Angelica?" Chuckie asked, confused. He looked over to see all the grownups gathered around Dil, cooing and smiling.

"Grown ups LOVE to pay attention to new babies and yeah that can be real upsetting… but that's why you make sure you let them know you are upset. Because then they feel guilty and give you lots more stuff!"

"Really?" Chuckie asked.

"That's right!" she sang. "Don't believe me? Go cry."

"Cry?"

"You know, throw back your head, wail real loud. The more tears the better. Your daddy will notice you and realize he was ignoring you and then he'll give you presents!"

"…well, I don't need a present… but it would be nice if my dad focused on me a bit."

"Tell ya what," Angelica said, "if I help you out then I get half of what you get… present wise, not cuddles."

"Okay!" Chuckie agreed before he took several steps away from the gang, took a deep breath… and began to cry loudly.

"Chuckie!" Chas cried out, running instantly away from Dil and scooping his son up. "Oh Chuckie, what's wrong?"

Angelica instantly ran up to Chuckie and Chas. "Chuckie was doing summeringsalts Mr. Finster and you didn't notice and that made him upset."

"Chuckie… you did a summersault?" Chas lifted the boy up and Chuckie sniffed. "Aw, I'm so sorry I missed that little guy. I guess I have been focused a bit too much on Dil… we all have." He looked at all the babies who were staring at the adults, shuffling about. He then glanced at his friends who were looked rather shamefaced, realizing they'd become solely focused on Dil. "Hey, why don't I take the kids out for ice cream."

"I'll come with ya," Betty said, leaving Dil now with only an audience of two. "Let me just grab my purse."

"Wow Angelica, that was amazing!" Tommy declared. "How did you know how to get the adults to stop focusing on Dil?"

"You mean how did I learn how to get them to stop paying attention to a focus-stealing baby?" She shot him a look.

Tommy… just looked at her and smiled, clueless.

"Its not even worth getting mad at you," she complained.

"Well, thanks for helping Chuckie!" Tommy declared.

Angelica shrugged. "I'm getting ice cream out of it." She paused. "And… I guess if you dumb babies want to become big kids instead I SHOULD help you… that way we only have one dumb baby."

"Yeah, and Dil is pretty dumb already," Phil said.

Dil, for his part, glowered at the other tots. How dare they think he was… uh… uh…

Whatever they said.

~MC~MC~MC~

"…I mean you can be proud of Tommy?" the creator said to Trixie, only for her to begin hitting him.