Little Miss Maisy; Deleted Scenes

Editing Process Product, No. 1

17. Dental Trips . . .

. . . A product of what I thought was just editing an old chapter

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"Wait, four-year-olds need to go to the dentist?" Miles' face scrunched up as he tried to comprehend Beau's words. He had been thinking out loud as he filled in his virtual planner, seemingly baffling his brother.

Beau paused, just to stare at Miles and his stupidity. His laptop rested upon his lap, the calendar waiting to be completed. "What made you think they didn't?"

"Well, I haven't been to the dentist since I was fourteen," Miles shrugged, focusing his attention back on the far-from-solved Rubik's cube. It's been a rainbow-checker board for ages, destined to remain unsolved.

"You what?" Now this piqued Eric's interest, who hadn't been paying much attention until those words left Miles' mouth. Even he went to the dentist annually.

As most know, dentist visits are supposed to happen at least once every six months. Which, because the rest of the Rose family keeps up with basic hygiene, they assumed Miles did too.

"Are you being serious?" Beau shut his laptop, tossing it onto the empty cushion beside him. As the third parent of the family for many years, this shocked him.

"Yeah." Miles scoffed like they were being the ridiculous ones. In his mind, dentists are completely unnecessary. That and his irrational fear of them contributed to his absence. "What's the point of going?"

Beau's head looked like it was about to explode. His eyes widened, never realizing he had seemingly failed at one part of his childhood. "Uh—To keep your teeth and gums healthy?"

Miles still stayed slumped down on the couch, occasionally shifting the cube around in a lazy attempt to solve it. "But I brush my teeth!"

"Dude," Eric piped back in again, nearly repulsed at this newfound information. "Even Maisy is going to the dentist. Your teeth are probably all rotted."

"Not true," Miles sat back up, placing the Rubik's cube down on the coffee table just so he could use his hands to be more animated.

"I don't need to go to someplace that's gonna stab and probe at my mouth for an hour when I could just brush my teeth like a normal person!"

"Normal people go to the dentist!" Eric raised his voice a little in the heat of their squabble, catching Maisy's attention from the other room.

At this point, she knows the difference between actual fights—And one of their stupid little brotherly spats.

So she simply let out a sigh directed to Teddy when she heard them arguing. Those boys, always arguing about something.

Without saying a word as she entered the room, she climbed onto the couch beside Beau. Further from her two knucklehead brothers.

"Do you floss?" Trying to prove his point, Eric vaguely gestured toward Miles' face.

"No?" Miles still didn't understand why they were so intrigued about his teeth and the lack of dentist visits. To him, it was completely normal.

"I'm scheduling you an appointment with Maisy," Beau said, tone ringing with finality. Almost a warning to shut up.

Miles stared at him in shock for a second, stunned by what he just said. "What?"

"You heard me." Beau ruffled Maisy's hair to acknowledge her presence before picking his laptop back up.

"That's not fair!" Miles seemed to revert to his fourteen-year-old self in an instant, continuing to ramble on. "Beau, I'm an adult—"