Tommy
Grandpa brought Chuckie, Kimi, Phil, Lil, Angelica, Dil and, of course, me to the park.
He sits on a free bench next to a fountain, and we, Angelica and the babies, sit around him because he said he was going to read us a story.
It's a Viking story. Specifically, the Viking Harald Bluetooth, king of Norway born in Denmark.
At the beginning of the 10th century, the Vikings ruled northern Europe, and Harald Bluetooth managed to unite the tribes of Denmark and Norway into a single nation.
How interesting! And how brave this Harald Bluetooth guy is! When I grow up I want to be like him!
But when Grandpa reaches the second page of the story, he falls asleep.
Damn! I wanted to know more about the Vikings! They seem like an amazing town to me!
At that moment, I hear two voices that are already familiar to me.
"Hi guys," the twins Helena and Leonor greet us in unison.
When have them arrived? I didn't even realize it because I was totally engrossed in the interesting story that Grandpa was reading to us.
"When have you arrived?" Angelica asks them, perplexed. Look, she thought the same thing as me, although I hate to admit it.
"A moment ago," Leonor answers.
"And where is the time machine?" Kimi asks, excited.
"Behind those bushes" Helena points in the direction of a group of bushes on the opposite side of where we are.
"Do you still want to use the time machine, Kimi?" I ask her.
"Yes," she answers. "We could use it to go to the Viking Age".
"Do you know how to program the time machine to take us to that time, Kimi?" Angelica asks her with an air of superiority.
But Kimi is not upset by what Angelica has told her.
"Don't you want to use the time machine again, Angelica?" Kimi asks her.
"Well no," Angelica answers, and I think she means it.
"Where did it send you?" Kimi continues asking her.
"To a very old circus and to the sidereal space".
"Wow! What fun!" Kimi exclaims with more enthusiasm than before.
"What's fun?" suddenly asks another voice that already sounds familiar to me. I turn around and sure enough, it's Severus. It seems that he also just arrived recently. He comes alone, as always, and with clothes that don't seem the most appropriate for a baby. It's like he's wearing grown-ups' clothes. But I don't judge him, I know he has reasons for dressing like that, it's just that it makes me a little sad to see him dressed like that.
"The time machine," Kimi answers, also turning towards him.
"How much longer are you going to continue with that?" Chuckie protests, but no one answers him. I make a reassuring gesture because the fact that the time machine has reappeared is nothing to get upset about.
"The truth is that it's fun" says Leonor full of emotion.
"But until now, you have only come and go from your house to here and from this park to your house, right?" Phil asks the twins Helena and Leonor.
"Yes" they respond in unison.
"And do you have any idea why it always sends you both here, while it sent the rest of us to different times?" I ask them now, full of curiosity.
"No idea," Leonor responds, shrugging her shoulders.
"I don't know either," says Helena. "I just know that it works to get us here and then get us home. It works the same for you, right, Severus?" she asks the new boy, turning to him.
"Yes," he answers, blushing slightly as he looks at Helena.
"But I would like to explore the different eras" Kimi insists.
"That thing has to come with some program or instruction manual that explains how to travel to certain times," Angelica correctly senses.
"But the instructions will be in the store," Phil tells her, and I think his theory is pretty accurate too.
"So, the next time any of us go to the Toy Palace, we have to find those instructions," Lil suggests.
The rest of us nod, and I add "For now, we can have a fun time playing Vikings, what do you guys think?"
Angelica and the other babies are delighted with the idea.
"Hey, you," I hear Angelica says to someone, "Why are you dressed like that? It looks like you took the clothes out of the trash bin".
I think I know who she's referring to, Severus. I turn around and indeed it is, because he has lowered his head and blushed.
I, furious, blurt out to my cousin "Angelica!" to stop her messing with poor Severus' physical appearance, since if he dresses like that it will be because he has nothing better to wear.
But Angelica doesn't mess around. I'll have to warn Severus about Angelica so he doesn't take her seriously. She's very bad, but deep down, she's good. And I know this seems like a contradiction, but it's not.
More than once she has saved us from people much worse than her. Like when she saved us from that kid, Josh, I think his name was, or when she saved us from that Coco when we were in Paris.
Severus, still blushing, tells my cousin "It's just – It's just the only thing I had to wear –" And I feel sorry for him. How can his parents dress him like that?
Without further ado, we start playing Vikings.
"I will be the Viking queen and you babies will be my Viking warriors," says Angelica, putting on airs of grandeur. I roll my eyes and think how not, how can she not be the Viking queen. With how little she likes being the queen. Obviously, this is ironic.
"What are you up to, Angelica?" I ask her suspiciously.
"I intend to become the Viking queen of the entire park, just as Harald Bluetooth became the king of Norway and Denmark".
Angelica urges us all to get on our Viking ship, which is one of the sandboxes in the park, where the castle she likes to climb on is located.
The idea seems fun to me so I get on the Viking ship immediately and my friends do the same.
"How bossy is that Angelica, right?" Leonor asks Lil in a whisper.
"You can't imagine how much," Phil's sister answers, with some regret. "Although I admire her a lot," she adds, suddenly becoming happier. "She's not afraid of anything and is a born leader".
"Look, just like you" Helena says to Leonor.
"Me? That I'm like Angelica? Me?!" Leonor answers her sister with surprise and as if slightly offended.
"Yes, you are also bossy and a born leader," Helena adds with a smile.
"You're going to find out!" Leonor says to her sister Helena between laughs; Helena laughs too, and in the end we all end up laughing because of the twins' contagious laughter.
Finally we get on the Viking ship and our adventure begins. How cool! I'm really looking forward to playing Vikings, after hearing what Grandpa told us!
Shortly after, a voice calls us that is not completely unknown to me either.
"Hey, you guys!"
We turn around and it's Timmy McNulty with his brothers.
"Hi, Timmy," I greet him without much enthusiasm but no particularly upset either.
"Hi, Angelica. Hi, babies," he greets us with a certain air of superiority, and that does bother me.
"Get away from there, Timmy McNulty! You are not welcome on my Viking ship!" Angelica snaps.
"Wow, so you're playing Vikings," says Timmy McNulty. "Well, we also want to play Vikings, don't we, guys?" He turns to his brothers, who nod their heads.
"Well, you'll have to find somewhere else to play because this Viking ship is already occupied," Angelica tells him again in an almost authoritarian and superior tone.
"Who is that boy?" Severus asks me in a whisper, approaching me.
"It's Timmy McNulty," I also answer in a whisper, and also approaching him. "A boy I don't particularly like but not particularly bad either".
"We're not going anywhere," insists Timmy McNulty, still stepping on our boat. "And you say this Viking ship is yours? Well, that would have to be seen. What do you think of a Viking battle and whoever wins gets the ship?"
"No way!" Angelica shouts, furious, seeing how cocky that child is getting. The truth is that Timmy McNulty is a bit repellent. "We arrived first and stayed with it, period".
"None of that!" Timmy McNulty now shouts at my cousin, furious. "Guys, prepare for combat," he tells his brothers.
"But we don't have weapons to fight with," one of his brothers tells him.
Timmy McNulty thinks for a moment, then looks at the ground and sees several branches on it. Timmy takes one and then urges his brothers to each take one.
Angelica, who is also furious, gives us instructions from the top of the castle, which is where she is up.
"You, my Viking Warriors, what are you waiting for to defend this ship! Grab weapons too!"
We obey her because it's preferable to be an ally of Angelica than of Timmy McNulty because Timmy and his brothers don't like us at all, they are always competing with us and I still remember when Timmy said that girls were bad and that they couldn't play with us boys.
Having each taken a branch, we begin to fight against Timmy McNulty and his brothers. The good thing is that we outnumber them. They are five and we are ten. Angelica comes down from the castle to help us fight because Timmy McNulty is older than us and it's harder for us the babies to fight him.
Angelica picks up a Branch she finds on the ground outside of the Viking ship and puts herself on guard, confronting Timmy McNulty and threatening him "I'm warning you, Timmy McNulty, don't provoke us too much because when we get really angry we are scary".
"Oh, how scary," Timmy mocks and that bothers me and makes me like him a little worse.
One of Timmy's brothers points his sword at me in a threatening manner, but I don't shy away and point my sword at him anyway. Our swords clash again and again, trying to disarm the opponent.
Phil and Lil have bows and arrows, and they shoot the arrows at them with the intention of scaring away the McNulty brothers, but one of their brothers also has a bow and several arrows, although since Phil and Lil outnumber him, he soon loses his balance, falls to the ground and begins to cry.
Severus fights at my side, and between the two of us it's much easier to get rid of Timmy's brother, who hasn't stopped bothering me since the battle started.
Angelica climbs back to the highest part of the castle with a bunch of branches and throws them from above towards Timmy McNulty, who is the one who wants to fight the most. He protects himself with my ball, which he uses as a shield, and Angelica snaps at him "Hey, kid! That ball is ours!"
Kimi fights with an ax and scares one of Timmy's brothers. And Chuckie I see is bent over on the ground, shaking with fear.
"Come on, Chuckie!" I encourage him. "These children won't be able to beat us!"
"Finster! But what are you doing lying there on the ground?! Get back to the fight! Already!" Angelica orders him from the top of the castle.
Timmy's brothers are easy to beat, but the tough nut to crack is Timmy himself, who is the one who really wants to compete and fight. I know his brothers have said yes to him because they are afraid of him, but they don't have the competitive spirit that Timmy has.
Timmy approaches Dil, directing his sword towards him and I'm afraid that he will hurt my brother, but my brother is not afraid of Timmy and hits him all over the nose with the rattle. Timmy immediately pulls away after screaming, and puts his hands to his nose, which clearly hurts.
Leonor and Helena fights against Timmy's other two siblings, who flee in terror when a few branches from the tree next to us fall on their heads. The truth is that the way in which those branches have fallen from the tree is strange. It didn't seem to be the natural way branches normally fall. But hey, if they are helping us, welcome.
Severus continues fighting at my side, and between the two of us we manage to corner Timmy, but he doesn't get scared. He doesn't get scared until, suddenly, some branches of the tree from where the other branches had previously fallen spank him on the ass. At that moment, Timmy screams really scared and runs away crying to where his mother is. His brothers follow him and it seems that the fight is finally over.
Yes, it seems so. Ugh, thanks goodness, because I was already tired of fighting. I came to this park to have a good time with my friends, not to fight. But the truth is that I was very shocked to see how the branches of the tree seemed to come to life and spank Timmy. How could that have happened? Because as far as I know, spanking isn't something trees do.
I look at my friends, and they are all the same, perplexed by the spanking the tree just gave Timmy.
"How did that happen?" Kimi asks, excited.
"I don't know," I tell her. "But I would like to know".
Chuckie looks at the tree in fear, while Phil, Lil and Dil look at it with excitement as well. Angelica also looks at it stunned, and Helena and Leonor too. Severus seems a little nervous, but tries to hide it by lowering his head.
James Birdsong: I'm so happy to see you here again! And I'm so glad you also liked the last chapter. Thank you so much for your support! :)