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Hope you enjoy!

Picture Day (A McRoll in the REAL World Story)

"I think I'm going to wait to put my shirt on till after breakfast, just in case I spill something on it," DJ said, putting the short-sleeved blue and red polo shirt he'd selected for school picture day back on the hanger in his room.

"That makes sense," Steve said. "Let's hope your sister thinks so, too."

"Did she decide what she's going to wear yet?"

Steve winced. "She had it narrowed down to four choices when she went to bed last night. She said she would figure it out in her dreams."

DJ grinned. "That sounds like Angie."

Steve grinned back and nodded. "So what's for breakfast? Oatmeal? Scrambled eggs? Yogurt parfait?"

"Can I have oatmeal and fruit kebabs?"

"If you make the kebabs, sure," Steve said with a wink. "Come on, let's see how Mommy's getting on with Angie."

They headed across the hall to Angie's room where the six-year-old stood studying three outfits hung up on her closet doors.

"Progress?" Steve asked.

"We've eliminated the princess dress just in case they play scooter hockey in gym class today," Catherine said, winking at him. Both knew the school pictures would be set up in the gym all day.

"The sparkly top is fun," DJ said, standing by his sister. "With the sun on it."

Angie nodded. "But I like my camo dress and my rainbow stripey shirt, too."

Steve knelt down, brushing a kiss to the side of her head and placing his hand on her shoulder. "You're going to look beautiful in whatever you wear, baby girl."

She looked at him. "But I want to look awesome, Daddy."

"Then wear the camo," he said with a wink.

She turned back to her choices, head tilted to one side thoughtfully. Catching a glimpse of DJ out of the corner of her eye, she looked at him and furrowed her brow.

"Those are your pajamas, DJ! Are you wearing your pjs for school picture day?"

He chuckled. "No, but I didn't want to spill anything on the shirt I ironed last night so I'm going to wait till after breakfast."

"Ohh, that's a good idea," she said.

"It is," Catherine agreed. "And that will give you a little longer to decide, baby girl. Let's all head down to eat, but then you really need to make a decision, okay?"

"Okay!" Angie agreed.

"Do you want to help me make the fruit kebabs?" DJ asked.

"Yes yes yes!" Angie said immediately, never one to turn down fruit.

Once downstairs, the two kids helped get breakfast for Cammie and Pumpkin before moving to help with their own food.

"Let's do mango, pineapple, mango, melon," suggested DJ as they stood at the island to make their fruit kebabs.

"Like a pattern!" Angie agreed. "Mango, pineapple, mango, melon, mango, pineapple, mango, melon."

Catherine smiled, passing Steve a cup of coffee as he prepared the kids' oatmeal. "Double mango because it's the best?" she asked.

"Yeah!" they replied.

DJ's idea to wait to change turned out to be a very good idea as both kids had fruit juice on their pajama tops from their kebabs and Angie managed to get oatmeal on hers as well.

"Have you decided what you're going to wear yet, Angie?" Steve asked, taking his and Catherine's bowls to the sink as DJ did the same with his and Angie's.

"Can I bring them all and decide before we do pictures?" she asked.

"No way," Catherine said. "Sorry, baby girl, we're not putting Ms. Lane through that."

"And they'd get wrinkled in your backpack," DJ said.

Angie nodded, acknowledging he was right. "I think I'm gonna wear my camo dress," she said finally. "It's the awesomest."

"Good choice," Steve said.

Catherine's phone dinged with an incoming text. She smiled when she saw the picture on the screen. " 'First day doing my own bangs,' " she read and showed it to Steve who smiled.

"Very cute," he said.

"Who is it, Mommy?" Angie asked.

"Grace got a haircut yesterday with bangs," Catherine said. She showed the kids the picture their cousin had sent. "She was a little worried she wouldn't be able to style them as well on her own."

"She looks so pretty!" Angie said.

"Yeah," DJ agreed.

"I'll tell her we all think so," Catherine said. "You two head up and get changed. Daddy and I will get your lunches together. We don't have a lot of time before we have to go, okay?"

"Okay, Mommy," they both chorused, heading for the stairs.

"Thank goodness she finally made an outfit choice," Catherine said after texting a reply to Grace. "I was afraid we were going to have to pick for her and she wasn't going to be happy with it, or we'd be late leaving. Or both."

"I don't remember her being so picky last year," Steve said, getting out both kids' lunchboxes.

"That's because she and DJ and Grandma picked out special picture day outfits last year."

"Ahh, so it's all Elizabeth's fault," he teased.

She chuckled. "Sure, let's go with that."

Several minutes later they heard one set of feet coming down the stairs and DJ appeared in the kitchen doorway a moment later.

"There's my handsome boy," Catherine said. She sighed. "Last picture day in elementary school for you."

He smiled and put his backpack on his chair at the table. "I still have to comb my hair. Angie's in the bathroom upstairs."

"Go ahead and use ours," Steve said, zipping Angie's lunchbox. "You can use my comb."

"Okay," DJ said, heading back upstairs.

When he returned a few minutes later, he was still alone.

"Is Angie dressed?" Catherine asked. "I still need to do her hair."

DJ shrugged. "She's still in the bathroom."

Catherine's brow furrowed and she exchanged a quick look with Steve. "I'm gonna go check on her." She hurried up the stairs and knocked on the bathroom door. "Angie, honey, are you okay? You're not feeling sick, are you?"

"No, I'm getting ready," Angie said from inside the bathroom.

"Okay, we need to leave in a few minutes. Can I come in and do your hair?"

"I did it already," came the proud reply.

The door opened and Catherine's jaw dropped. Angie stood before her in her knee-length camo dress and green leggings, beaming. The curls along her hairline stuck out at random angles and behind her lay a pair of scissors on the bathroom counter and locks of hair in the sink and on the floor.

"What do you think, Mommy?" she asked.

Catherine wiped a hand across her mouth, schooling her expression. She sighed, propping a hand on her hip. "I think you're gonna be wearing a headband for your school picture this year, baby girl."

"I wanted to have bangs like Grace," Angie explained as Catherine tried to get all the stray locks along Angie's forehead to go under the headband.

"I figured that out, honey. But fifteen minutes before we need to leave for school on picture day is not the best time to try out bangs for the first time … by yourself. Luckily this dress came with a matching headband."

"I don't like headbands, Mommy," Angie protested.

"I know you don't, but it's going to keep your hair from looking totally wild in your picture."

"How's it looking?" Steve asked, stepping into the doorway.

"Almost intentional," Catherine replied, standing up.

"Headbands are itchy," Angie said, scratching at her head and dislodging several curls.

Catherine sighed, trying to reposition the headband. "Just for the picture, baby girl. Please?"

It was Angie's turn to sigh. "Okay, Mommy."

"And hey," she angled her head to catch the six-year-old's eyes. "There's a timeout in your future where we'll be talking about using scissors so close to your face. Got it?"

Angie's shoulders slumped but she nodded.

Catherine kissed her forehead. "My silly, beautiful baby girl. You always do things your own way, don't you?"

Angie nodded, smiling.

"That's our Angie," Steve said, stepping in to kiss her as well. "Come on, your brother's waiting."

They followed her down the stairs, and Catherine sighed as Angie rubbed her head, again dislodging the headband.

"Just a picture," Steve said, squeezing her shoulder.

"Just a picture," she agreed, though her gaze drifted to the two oval photo frames on the wall which had spaces for all of the kids' school pictures.

"And this one will have a very memorable story."

When they picked the kids up that afternoon, neither were terribly surprised that Angie didn't have the headband on. Her self-styled bangs stuck out in all directions after a day of fingers combing through them, recess fun, and what appeared to be a bit of blue paint from art class.

"What happened to your headband, Angie?" Steve asked, fighting a smile.

She shrugged, running a hand through her shorn locks.

"Did you at least have it on for your picture?" Catherine asked.

Angie pressed her lips together, avoiding her mother's eyes.

"I think that's a no," DJ said, wincing.

Catherine sighed, chuckling in resignation. "Well, Grandma called her stylist friend Brenda and she can fit you in this afternoon to try and straighten out that cut a bit."

Angie immediately brightened. "Brenda! She's so nice. She lets us pick the music when we get our haircut."

"So we'll do that while DJ and Daddy are at practice." Catherine smiled at DJ. "Last practice before Pitch, Hit & Run next week."

He grinned. "Yeah!"

Steve pulled the truck out of the pick-up line and Catherine sat back in her seat, sighing again.

"Well, the pictures will definitely be Angie," he said.

"They will be," she acknowledged, unable to hide her own amusement at the situation.

"And … there's always picture re-take day."

Hope you enjoyed! Any fun picture day stories out there, REAL McRollers? I unintentionally wore the same outfit in second and third grade, and three years later, so did my brother :-)

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