The Middle Child

Chapter 18

She looked ashamed. "Okay." She turned to Jared. "I'm sorry for kicking you."

"Apology not accepted!" Jared exclaimed, glaring at her. I grabbed him by the ear and yanked it. "Ow! Okay, okay I'm sorry! Yeesh." After I let go, he shot me a glare and rubbed his ear.

"For your punishment, you have to play dolls with me and Madeline," I said.

Madeline gave him an evil grin. If it were on anyone else it would have been terrifying, but since it was on a 5 year old it was freakin' adorable.

"Aw come on!" Jared whined. "I said I was sorry!"

"I know. Now come on." Me and Madeline walked to her room and Jared slowly followed us with a sulky look on his face.

"Is Seth coming?" Madeline asked, eyes beaming with happiness.

My face lit up for a moment but then went back down. "I'm sorry but he can't come. Mom and dad said no friends are allowed over here while they're out of town," I said.

"Is someone sad because their boyfriend can't come over?" Jared taunted.

"Shut it Jared." I gave him a stern look and he quickly looked away. With Jared, he usually didn't get into too much trouble because all you had to do was to give him "the look" and he would listen. I can't believe it still worked to this very day. The only people who could do "the look" was me, mom, and dad. Dylan and Clarissa couldn't do it. They tried so many times but failed.

"Jared you can play with this," Madeline said, handing him a big green lizard toy.

"What the hell is that?" Jared asked, scrunching his face while lifting it by its tail. He acted like it was a real lizard.

"Language Jared!" I said, giving him a look.

"That's Ralph, the evil lizard that destroyed the town," Madeline replied.

"I don't want to be no evil lizard," Jared said.

"For Pete's sake Jared it's just a lizard!" I said.

"Fine." He rolled his eyes.

For the rest of the afternoon, we played with dolls and stuffed animals. Madeline and Jared argued quite a bit so by the time it was close to dinner time, I was exhausted. Dealing with those two took a lot of work.

"Is anyone getting hungry?" I asked.

"Yes!" Jared blurted out. I knew he just wanted to get out of playing dolls any longer but I didn't say anything about it.

"I want food!" Madeline exclaimed, twirling around with one of her Barbies.

"Okay, let's go downstairs and see what we can eat," I said. We walked downstairs and went into the kitchen. I noticed Dylan taking out a lot of plastic red cups and snacks and drinks.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm throwing a party duh," Dylan said, rolling his eyes.

My eyes widened and mouth dropped. "Didn't you hear mom and dad? We're not supposed to throw any parties!" What the hell is he thinking? I'm not going to get in trouble because of him!

"Relax sis. It's going to be fun, besides you can use some partying. You never went to a party, have you?" He snickered like it wasn't a big deal.

"No I haven't and I don't care to."

"You'll change your mind. I think you can use some experience."

"I think you need to cancel this party ASAP!"