Twas the Play Before Christmas by Kris T. Bethke

Author:Kris T. Bethke [Bethke, Kris T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: JMS Books LLC
Published: 2018-11-19T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

A couple of long weeks had culminated in my children being overtired. The rehearsals were taking their toll, and end-of-quarter tests had them busy at night.

Quinn, especially, didn’t handle it well. When he got too tired, he got a little mean. “You only read because you can’t sing,” he said to her.

And my daughter, in the one quality she got solely from me, wasn’t going to take it. Nina shot her brother a death glare. “You only sing because you’re too stupid to read.”

“You’re just jealous. You can’t hit a single note.”

“Can too!”

“Cannot!”

“Guys,” I cut in, hoping to head this off before it got any worse.

“You couldn’t even try out for the show because they would’ve laughed you off stage!”

Nina’s eyes filled with tears, but I knew they were from anger and not hurt. “The show is stupid anyway, but if I had tried out, I would be the star! Unlike you.”

Quinn’s face went red as his eyebrows drew down. He opened his mouth to return fire, but I was done.

“Enough.” I didn’t have to raise my voice. Both kids snapped their mouths shut and stared at their plates. They knew they were in trouble. I took a slow, measured breath. “Quinn.”

“Sorry, Nina. I was outta line.”

“Yes, you were,” she retorted haughtily.

Christ. “Nina.”

“I’m sorry, too,” she said, chastised. She sounded like she mostly meant it, so I figured apologies were done.

“Thank you. Now put your plates in the dishwasher and head up to your rooms. I don’t care if you read, or watch TV, or stare at the walls. Just do it separately and quietly.”

“But Da-ad!” both children whined in unison.

Nina added, “We’re going to do the tree tonight.”

“You promised!” Quinn accused.

“That was before you both decided picking on each other was the way to spend dinner. Go on, both of you. If you can keep a civil tongue in your heads, we’ll do it tomorrow.”

I could see that they both wanted to argue. Nina’s eyes were fixed on me, and her mouth was pursed like she was working something out. Quinn kept opening his mouth, then shutting it again. I stared them down. I wasn’t going to change my mind and they knew it.

Finally, they got up and headed to the sink, being extra polite to each other as they scraped their plates into the disposal drain, then putting them in the dishwasher. Without a word, they headed upstairs. I breathed out a sigh and stood.

It took only twenty minutes for me to clean up the kitchen. Normally, I would’ve had one of the kids do it, but I knew they needed downtime. Fortunately, it was Friday night. They could both sleep in tomorrow and hopefully I’d have my smiling, kind children back.

After I finished, I went upstairs to check on them, pretty sure I already knew what I would see. And I was right. Quinn’s TV was on, but he was sprawled on top of his mattress, out cold. At least he’d changed into sleep pants and a T-shirt.

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