"Pssssst, Eliza," Alexander whispered, poking Eliza in the face.
Eliza scrunched her face up and sleepily swatted his hand away.
"Elizaaaa, guess what day it is?"
"It's Saturday!" Philip exclaimed, sliding into the room on his fluffy socks.
"What he said," Eliza mumbled, turning onto her side, away from Alexander.
Philip flopped onto their bed and wriggled in between his parents. "Just like the good old days," he sighed with content.
"And by that you mean...?"
"The days when it was just me, you and Mommy," Philip replied cheekily.
Alexander ruffled Philip's hair. "You love your siblings."
"Most of the time," Philip grumbled.
"PARENTS!" The rest of the Hamilton children shrieked as they walked down to the bedroom also. Angelica, Alexnader Jr. and James all snuggled into the bed, practically pushing Alex and Eliza off of it.
"It's too sqashy!" Philip complained.
"I'm perfectly comfortable," Alexander Jr, who was half laying on top of Philip, replied.
"Because you're using me as a pillow!"
"Dad, what are we doing today? I'm bored," Angelica asked.
"I was just getting to that. Eliza, do you know what day it is?"
By this point, Eliza had given up completely on sleeping. "I do not know what day it is."
Alexander scoffed. "It's our first kiss anniversary. How could you forget?"
"EW! Kissing!" Philip yelled.
"That was nearly twenty years ago and we have never celebrated it. How do you even remember it?" Eliza asked in complete confusion.
"You're telling me you don't remember our first kiss?"
"Stop talking about kissing. It's gross!" Angelica covered her ears and started shouting "LA LA LA LA" over there conversation.
"Oh, I do. It's not very forgettable."
"Because it was the best date you had ever been on?"
"You could say that," Eliza replied with a smirk. "Or you could say it was... unique."
"Well, today we are recreating it... with our kids!"
"Don't tell me we are going to a fancy restaurant," Philip whined. "They never have chicken nuggets! Then what am I supposed to eat!" Chicken Nugget cried at that and hid under the bed. "Oh, not you, Chicken Nugget."
"Now look what you've done!" Angelica said to Philip. "Our dog thinks that you're gonna eat him!"
"How does Chicken Nugget even understand English?" Alexander asked.
Philip and Angelica exchanged looks. "You can't tell the public because they will take him away and experiment on him but..." Philip began.
"We've been teaching him English and he understands it and speaks it. Look. Speak, Chicken Nugget," Angelica ordered. A small yip echoed out from underneath the bed.
"See! Didn't you hear the hi!" Philip exclaimed.
"I told you it wasn't a good idea to let them watch Dog with a Blog," Eliza whispered to Alexander.
"Too late now," Alexander replied.
"That's great, honey... Anyways, we are not going to a fancy restaurant. If I remember correctly we are going to the arcade."
~At the arcade~
Small kids ran every which way from one game to the next. Their grubby hands grasping small cups filled to the brim with quarters to waste on game after game.
Alexander took a deep breath in. "Ah, smells like winning," he commented.
"We'll see about that. If your track record proves consistent, you won't be winning."
"Don't remind me of my past, Eliza. I will win you a stuffed animal this time," Alexander said, grabbing her hand and forging ahead into the crowd.
"Dad, we need money," Angelica complained.
Alexander dug a ten-dollar bill out of his pocket and handed it to his children. "Go win some games like the victorious Hamilton children you are."
"Cheapo," Angelica muttered, looking down at the measly ten-dollar bill, as the Hamilton children trooped off to convert their money to coins.
"Don't we need to do that?" Eliza asked, pointing to her children.
"I'm always prepared," Alexander said, pulling a handful of coins out of his pocket. Philip appeared from behind them.
"Dad, you're just going to attempt to do what you couldn't do before in order to establish some sort of self-worth and prove to yourself that you have improved over time because you are scared that you will never live up to the person that you once were and in that process you will lose all your money, not like a gentleman at the casino, but a pathetic loser at the arcade."
"Go play some games, Philip," Alexander said, worriedly.
"Okay!" Philip chirped and skipped off.
"Did you break the child?" Eliza asked in a hushed whisper.
"No, did you?"
"Kidz bop broke me!" Philip yelled, heartbroken, from the distance.
"We need to get him a new hobby. Stat."
"Agree," Alexander said as they walked to the corner of the arcade. They arrived at an old claw machine, a twenty-year-old claw machine to be exact. "My age-old enemy," Alexander said, approaching the claw machine and slamming his hand down on it.
"No way..." Eliza said.
"What is it?"
"The stuffed animal I wanted, it's still here!" A dusty elephant sat at the back of the machine, looking sad and neglected. "Alex, look how sad it looks!"
Alexander sighed and inserted a coin. "I will free this elephant from this cage if it's the last thing I do."
~Meanwhile~
"Look at this!" Philip said, pointing to a machine titled Love Tester. "Give me a coin, Angie."
Angelica rolled her eyes but handed one over anyways. From a distance, it looked like one of those test your strength games, but upon further inspection, one would realize it didn't have a hammer and the words were rather... peculiar, the bottom-most one being blah and the top being uncontrollable.
Philip slipped a coin in and placed his hand on the machine, waiting while it "read" his palm. The lights lit up all the to hot stuff, right below uncontrollable. "Hot stuff? Dang. I was so close to winning," Philip pouted. "Let's leave. I bet it's rigged."
"I don't think you're supposed to win this game, Philip. I bet I can get better than you." Angelica placed her hand on it and watched as the lights moved to passionate, just below Philip's. Philip snickered and she huffed, "Whatever, let's go."
But before they could leave, Alexander Jr. whined, "I wanna do it too!"
"Okay," Angelica said, inserting a coin for him. The lights slowly moved and stopped halfway at wild.
"Wild?" Philip read. "What does that even mean?"
Angelica shrugged. "I don't know. Let's go have a Dancey Dance Revolution battle. Me versus Philip. Alexander Jr. versus James. Winner versus winner."
"Deal," Philip said.
"Dweal!" Alexander Jr. repeated.
"DWEAL!" James repeated his repetition.
~After spending all their money on Dancey Dance Revolution~
"Dad," Angelica whined, leaning against the claw machine. "Can we go now?"
"Not until I win this elephant." Alexander kept his eyes trained on the machine as he lined up his next attempt.
"Alexander, we've been here four hours. Maybe it's time we go home?" Eliza placed a gentle hand on his arm.
But he didn't answer her. The claw had the elephant in its grasp and was ever so slowly carrying the tottering plushie towards the collection box. The elephant fell and landed directly next to the box.
Alexander screamed in rage and hit the machine.
"Sir." An employee hesitantly approached them. "Please don't hit the machines."
Alexander glared at him. "I've been trying to get this elephant for four hours and each and every time I fail. So I will be doing something and you are going to pretend that you never saw it. Kapeesh?"
The employee stood in absolute fear. "Kapeesh?" Alexander repeated in a crazed manner.
He nodded swiftly. "Good." Alexander used his small stature to his advantage and crawled up into the machine. He grabbed the elephant and a couple more plushies for good measure.
"My lady," he said, bowing and handing Eliza the elephant.
"My God." Eliza accepted the toy and barely was able to contain her laughter at what had just happened. She kissed his cheek and said, "And it only took you twenty years."
~The next day~
"Okay class, I would like everyone to share their parents' profession. Suzie, you can go first."
"My mom's a doctor!"
"Wow! Jacob?"
"My dad's a policeman!"
"Very cool! Alexander Jr."
"My dad's a criminal!"
"..."
"Yes, Mr. Hamilton, we had to call you about something Alexander Jr. said in class today... No, no he's not in trouble. It actually has to do with you..."