Barking Up the Wrong Tree
As Nicole sat on the couch after school one day, she overheard her father grumbling in the kitchen. “What are you whining about now?” she asked hoping he would say nothing and she could slid from hearing the “you kids do nothing” speech.
“I’m just upset. You kids do nothing around this house. Everyday I come home and clean up the mess that you and your brothers leave for me.” Her father screamed, getting a little louder with each word like he did every other day. Nicole could have recited the speech word for word. She did not, because if she did that she would get in trouble for talking back. “You could at least get up and empty the dishwasher.” He said, with little authority.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever dad.” Nicole said back. She was watching her favorite soap, General Hospital, and was not about to miss it for the dishwasher.
“No, do it now Nicole Madeline.” Her father snapped.
“The dishes aren’t going anywhere dad. Sonny and Carly are finally getting married and you’re making me miss it so I can empty the dishwasher. The dishes will be there when the show is over, believe me.” She snapped back with the familiar teenage attitude that she used much too often.
“I’m sick of your attitude…” her father said but Nicole tuned it out. The show was back on and she didn’t feel like listening to him complain about how many dishes everyone else in the family uses.
“Okay dad,” she said hoping her would stop talking
“Sure you will. Like you did every other day of the week.” He replied back in a tone he hoped she would not be able to hear.
“You do know that I can hear you. You’re not that far away from me.”
“I don’t know what is worse about you Nicole, your laziness or your attitude. Get up and do this dishwasher now.”
“I will dad, just give me a minute. Carly and Sonny are getting married, I cannot miss this part.” She said with emphasis on cannot
“Carly and Sonny have been getting married for about a week now. You won’t miss anything in the two seconds it takes you to empty the dishwasher.” He said, finishing his sentence just as Carly said she could not marry Sonny.
“You made me miss it.” Nicole screeched just as the announcer on the television said, “stay tuned for scenes from the next General Hospital.
“I can’t wait till I get to see mom again” Cole said “But I am not looking forward to try to fit back in”
When Meghan hears me enter she runs crying "Tim's teasing me and I'm hungry." I ask the kids, "Why didn't you feed her?" Tim responds, "she didn't say she was hungry." Pat runs up from the basement and reminds me I have to take him to guitar practice now or he'll be late.
I look at my mom and shrugged my shoulders, “I don’t know, I think she was talking to her friend about a party or something.”
“You’re mother insisted I stay with you kids so nothing could happen to you two but don’t worry I won’t bother you ” Mark said smiling.
“Dad, how could anybody murder a sweet woman like Grandma Katherine,” Ashley said, after hugging her grand and grandparents, she started upstairs.
“I’m sorry mam but as I said before we have it under control trust me.”
“Maybe we could just leave him outside a little longer” but just when I was about to push him back, my grip loosened on his arm and he reached for the door. “NO” I tried to grab his arm again, but instead I knocked over the popcorn out of his hands and the popcorn went flying everywhere into the wall to the floor. My dad glared at me, “Alea”! I looked at the popcorn that was scattered across the floor and I felt really shameful of myself. “Sorry, ” I said in a low tone. I heard Trent laughing his butt off while he was locked outside the glass door where I could clearly see him pointing at me. “Now that’s another reason why we don't mess around” my mom yelled while dad was looking at the popcorn on the floor sadly. “Go ask one of the managers to clean it up”, my dad sighed and went to one of the managers just like what my mom said while I went
Lucinda looked up and said, “Toast would be fine.” Her mom had already finished the bacon so breakfast was just about ready. Lucinda’s dad had not yet come downstairs from getting ready for work. Dr. Steve Sagal was an obstetrician (a baby doctor) and had a busy day ahead of him. He was in a terrible hurry to leave for work.
“I want to have you two all fed, so when Dad gets home, I’ll be able to concentrate on what he has to say about what is to come”, Mom said with fear in her voice.
“Lucille come on we have to go or we will be late,” I yelled up to my sister. We were going to my two best friends Abby and Macy’s birthday party.
“I’m sorry, my love, but this is not for young eyes,” Gretchen said. “You may be the King but I’m more of a mother to you than anyone. Now go.”
"Enough Lydia! You need to get out of this house! Ever since..." she paused, "Ever since Elliot died you haven't left this place. You won't even step off that porch. You can't be like this when that baby comes. She or he is gonna need a mother who isn't afraid to live her life. You need to learn to live and be happy without
“Nothing happened, I was just thinking about our money and what we are going to do about the rent, I just don’t know what to do anymore.” he said as he started to shed a tear. My brother, sister, and I just looked at dad in such surprise since we had never seen him cry before. Then we heard the dog barking and a strange knock at the back door and wondered who could it be at 9:00 in the night. We all walked through the kitchen wearily and crowded at the back door when someone knocked on the door again. Dad wiped the tear from his eyes and opened the door. “Hello Mr. Stanson; you must be very cold in this rain, would you like
“Mom whats going on?” I asked. She didn't respond. I could tell that she, as well, didn't know exactly what was going on. “Dad?” He didn't even glance at me. I gave up on trying to ask what was going on, so I decided to just watch the news to find out myself. I watched intently, at first I
I could tell from my mother's stern voice that she wasn’t going to budge on this one. I turned around, hunched my shoulders, dropped my head, and walked down the hall to clean my room, pouting the entire way. I turned into the room and saw a huge mess. “This is going to take forever!” I thought as I looked around at the toys, puzzles, books, and clothes strewn about all over. There was no way I could clean all this up and still have time to go play with my friends. “Jeez, Mom doesn’t understand anything. If she would just let me go play, then I would come back and clean it up later,” I thought to myself. “She is no fun at all. When I’m a mom I will never make my kids clean their room,” I vowed to myself. I started cleaning, putting toys in the toy box, books on the shelf, shoes and dress-up clothes in the closet.