• Published 25th May 2016
  • 10,990 Views, 467 Comments

Little Stars - Holy



Being a single parent is hard. It's even harder when your kids are three dazzling little girls.

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Bad Words

"Am not!" Sonata rattles off from her position in the cart in front of you.

"Are too," Aria says with a roll of her eyes beside you. You've lost track of where this even started. It happens so much these days you don't even pay attention anymore.

"Am not!"

"Are too."

"Am not!"

"Are too."

"Girls!" you say quietly, but sternly to them. They both stop and solidify their attention on you now instead. "If you're on your best behavior for the rest of this trip, I'll let each of you get a new toy before we leave. How's that?"

Sonata's face brightens up at the prospect, and she lets out a little "yay!" from her seat in the cart.

"As long as she doesn't mess things up like she always does. Again," Aria scoffs at Sonata.

Sonata looks over and opens her mouth at Aria, her face stern and ready for battle, but you put a finger on her lips to stop her. "Remember now, best behavior."

Sonata nods at you and the smile returns to her face. "Yes, Daddy."

"Aria, how about you go ahead and pick yours out? We're almost done, so just meet us in this aisle when you find what you want, okay?"

Aria's face brightens up and she smiles at you. "Awesome!" she says, right before turning around and bolting for the toy aisle.

Another long day, another wonderful outing with your three beautiful daughters. Thankfully, one of them isn't quite as prone to causing problems.

"At least I have one little girl that's starting to grow up," you say, wrapping an arm around Adagio to your side, and bringing her in close to you for a little hug.

She gives you a little smile, then pulls her hand out of her sweater pocket to adjust her glasses. "Thanks, Dad."

"Do you know what's gotten into her today? She's been arguing with her sister ever since I got home."

"One of the neighborhood girls called her stupid when we were playing outside. They almost fought. I think that's why she's so grumpy today," Adagio says, walking a little closer to you as you get deeper into the frozen food aisle.

"Huh. Why didn't they fight?" you say, surprised. A week where Aria doesn't come home with a few cuts, bruises, and an angry neighborhood mom is a rare experience these days.

"I dragged her home before she could do anything. She always gets mad when she can't hit anyone after stuff like that."

"Well it always makes my life easier," you say, putting your hand in Adagio's curly hair and giving her a thankful pat. "Thank you for doing that. It makes me happy to see you looking out for your sisters."

Adagio gives you a bright grin at your compliment. You can't help but smile back. "So, do you know what you want?"

Adagio looks up to you hopefully. "Well, there was this new book that I really wanted to read."

"What about you, Sonata?"

"A coloring book! With ponies!" she yells in an excited tone.

You turn back towards Adagio. "Can you grab those real quick? We're about to check out. As soon as Aria gets back we can leave."

Adagio nods to you. "Yes, sir," she says before leaving you and Sonata alone.

You smile as you grab the last bag of frozen vegatables you need and take the opportunity to play with Sonata. You push your finger gently into her belly, eliciting a determined expression from her. She grabs your hand and fights for dear life with it, while you make silly noises and faces at her. Her laugh all the while makes all the worries of work and life wash away. Little moments like this remind you why you had three kids in the first place.

"Dad! I found what I wanted!" you hear Aria say from behind you.

"Alright, now we just need to--" the smile drops from your face when you see what she's dragging across the tiles.

"Aria, no."

"What?" she says, her face turning pouty already, "but you said I could get any toy I wanted!"

"Aria, that's not a toy, that's a guitar," you say, nodding to the cheap acoustic that she found very far from the toy aisle. Even the poorest quality ones here were sixty dollars. That's not something you need to tack on to your budget right now.

"So what? Adagio and Sonata always get what they want. Why do you always have love them so much more than me?" Aria says, her pouty face growing stronger by the second. Her little indignant pout is cute, but you have to stay strong on this one.

"Aria, you know that's not true. Now put that back and pick something else so we can go home."

Aria drops the guitar on the ground and crosses her arms, looking away from you in anger. "Fucking asshole..." she says under her breath.

She definitely thought she was being sly with that one, but you heard it loud and clear. "Excuse me, young lady?"

Aria goes straight as a board and fear seizes her face. "N-nothing!" she says, doing her best not to look at you.

"Ooooooh, Aria's in trouble," Sonata says, putting her hand over her mouth.

You walk over and kneel down beside Aria, putting on your best stern face. "Where did you learn those words?"

"Nowhere! I didn't say anything!" Aria says, nervously looking at the aisle to the left. As lenient as you could be sometimes, you didn't mess around when it came to discipline. Aria knows exactly what messing up like that meant.

"Stop lying to me, Aria." You sigh and get back up to your feet. "We'll deal with this when we get home. Now put that back where you found it and come straight to the check out lane."

"Dad, please! I'm really sorry, I swear I didn't mean it!" she blurts out, the fear of god successfully struck in her.

You look at her sternly. "Aria..."

Aria looks down, knowing she's been beaten. "Yes, sir..."

And so begins the walk of shame, Aria's march back to the music aisle with the low-quality guitar in tow.

You sigh as Aria walks away. "What am I going to do with that girl..."

She's been acting out ever since... Well ever since two years ago. You could never connect with her quite as well as you used to, and her attitude seems to get worse by the day.

"Send her to fat camp, Daddy!" Sonata exclaims, the look on her face like she just gave you the secret answer to everything.

You look down at her, puzzled. "But she's perfectly fit, Sonata, why would she need to go there?"

"Cause of her bad attitude, Daddy!"

You laugh at her and rub her head. In her six-year-old slur, "fat" and "bad" sounds exactly the same. You might have your faster way of talking to blame as well.

"No, Sonata. That's for an entirely different problem, but thank you for the suggestion."

"Oh..." she says, confused.

"Let's go meet your sister over at the check out line. We can go home after that."

Adagio found you just as you're rolling up to the check out line, two books in tow. One of them is some romance novel you've never heard of, and the other is a My Little Pony coloring book. Sonata is definitely going to love that one. Aria silently joins your trio, trying not to look stressed to give her current predicament away to Adagio, but you can tell the suspense is already killing her.

After a long trip of silence in the car ride home--which is an amazing feat in and of itself--the girls help you unpack the groceries and get dinner ready. Once you have it ready and have all the girls sitting down eating, the drama that had to be building up in the car finally comes to a head after a few rounds of generic family dinner table conversation.

"What's wrong with you anyway, Aria?" Adagio asks after swallowing a mouthful.

Aria hasn't even touched her food since she sat down, and is way too busy brooding to even think about it.

"What are you even talking about?" Aria says in a low, angry voice.

"You've been sulking ever since we left the store. You're not still mad at Indigo after today are you?"

"Just leave me alone."

Sonata pipes up from her position across the table. "Aria said a bad word to Daddy and now she's in big trouble."

"Oh," Adagio says, going back to her meal.

Aria stiffens up and glares daggers over at Sonata, her fists clenching beside her as she grinds her teeth. "Shut up, Sonata! Nobody asked, you stupid baby!"

Sonata looks over at her sister with a pout, then opens her mouth to say something. Time to nip this one in the bud.

"Girls," you say calmly, putting your fork down. "Aria, don't call your sister names like that."

Aria looks over at you, betrayed that you took her side. "But, Dad, she--"

You look over to Sonata and cut Aria off. "And Sonata, don't be a tattle tale. If Aria wanted everyone to know what she did, she would've told her sister. I'm sure she's embarrassed enough about it."

Aria turns to Sonata, sticking her tongue out at her. Sonata sees this, makes a little gasp and does the same in retaliation. Once the girls are done eating, Adagio is the first one to speak up.

"Can I go read my new book now?" Adagio asks.

"Sure thing, sweetie. Just make sure to brush your teeth before bed, alright?"

She smiles at you and roles her eyes. "I know, Dad. I'm not eight anymore."

"Just making sure, honey. Goodnight."

Adagio gives a tiny little "mmhmm" as she puts her plate in the sink and walks upstairs, her new book in tow.

"Oh! Daddy! Can I go color?" Sonata asks.

"Of course, Sonata. Just stay out of the kitchen for a few more minutes, okay?"

"Yay! Okay!" she says, hoping out of her seat and grabbing her coloring book off of the counter and runs off to the kitchen.

Aria perks up, trying to look innocent."Can I--"

"No, Aria. You know what happens when we say bad words."

Aria's head drops down into a pout. "I know..."

You get up out of your seat and head into the kitchen, Aria begrudgingly following. Once you arrive, you hoist Aria up onto the countertop. You can already see her tough girl act breaking apart as the looming punishment draws near. You reach up to the top shelf in one of the cabinets, pulling out a little hot sauce bottle you pulled the label off of. You marked a big black x on the ripped white label, just to make it look scarier. You know in reality it's just some regular extra spicy hot sauce, but it's something little girls aren't going to be used to.

Once you set it on the counter, you see Aria is closing her eyes tightly, trying to fight back tears. You open the bottle and put a drop onto your finger. You sigh, wishing you didn't have to do stuff like this all the time.

"Open up, Aria."

Aria shakes her head violently, a stark "uh-uh" coming out of her.

"Would you rather be grounded until school starts?"

Aria looks away and gives a sigh of defeat. "No..."

"Then open up. This will only take a second."

Aria looks up to you, her big, puppy dog eyes filling with tears. You have long since grown immune to the effects of that pout, as cute as it is.

"Because everyone has to do it. If you make a mistake, you have to pay for it. Do you understand?"

"But, Dad, I'm really sorry! I promise I'll never do anything bad ever again!"

"Aria," you say sternly.

Aria reluctantly sticks out her tongue slightly, and you dab it with the drop of hot sauce.

"Look, Daddy said a bad word today at work too, so even I have to go through it," you say, putting a dab of hot sauce on your own tongue.

The sudden spicy taste brings back a few bad memories from a CHS bake sale and a certain pink friend of yours' idea of cupcaking toppings, but mostly you just want to try it and see if it's too much for your daughter or not.

Aria lets out a little whine and grips the counter tightly as her face turns slightly red at the heat. You can feel that the hot sauce really isn't that strong. It must just be the sentiment that it's supposed to be punishment.

She grimaces as the effects continue. You figure she's had enough, so you pour her a glass of milk and hand it over. As soon as she opens her eyes to see it, she snatches it out of your hand and gulps it down so fast that you're afraid she might actually choke.

Once she's done, she sticks her tongue out and huffs like she just ran a marathon. You pick her up off the counter, and turn towards the stairs to take her up to her room. She's way too tired to fight you now. You think she's a little old to be carried like this, and usually, you figure she might agree with you most of the time, but without Adagio or Sonata watching, she's just fine with it.

She settles into your shoulder, obviously worn out from her day and her little ordeal back there. The usual punishment of having to go to bed early don't seem like quite as much of a punishment for her now.

"Daddy?" she says.

"Yes, honey?"

She waits for a second, a worried look crossing her face. "You're not still mad at me, are you?"

You give a little smile as you start up the stairs, even though she can't see it. "Just as long as you learn to stop using bad words like that, everything is fine. And I'm not mad at you, sweetie. I love you, even if you do act out sometimes. Just don't do that again, okay?"

"Yes, sir."

You take your hand away from Aria's back once you reach her door. You open up the dark room and move to her bed, pulling back the covers and stick her in. You know she's way too old for this, but you can't help it sometimes.

"Daddy?" she says one last time as you tuck her in.

"Yes, Aria?"

"I love you too."

You smile at her, then lean down to plant a kiss on her forehead. "Night, honey," you say, leaving her to it.

The evening ritual continues as usual. Sonata never wants to go to bed, but as soon as you set her on her sheets, she drops like a rock. You spend the last couple of hours in the night surfing the internet or watching tv; biding time until you have to get up again tomorrow. Thankfully you have the next couple of days off, so you don't have to scour a town for a babysitter the girls haven't run off yet. With the way Aria and Sonata are, those are getting very few and far between these days.

You could lament about the incredible ability to strike fear into any babysitter that crossed their paths later. For tonight, you just want to get a good night's rest before you spend a full day with your girls.

With the house finally dead quiet, you head up to your room and go through your own little nightly ritual before getting into bed. As you do every night, just as you settle into the massive king size bed, you sigh.

This bed is way too big for just you. When you bought it, that never seemed like it was going to be a problem. Things don't always go according to plan, though. You run your hands through the cold, empty sheets across from you, feeling more alone than ever. All you can look at is the dark outline of the picture frame on your nightstand. You didn't need any light to know what's on it. A happy family of five. Hard to believe the woman in that picture tried to take over the world. And even harder to believe is that you ended up with her after you hated her so much in high school.

But things change. You reach over and pull the picture down on its face, hiding it away from sight. You don't want to look at it anymore. All it's going to do is keep you up thinking of what could have been. It's too late for that anyway.

You roll over in bed, hoping to at least fall asleep quickly, but once you do you notice that your door isn't closed anymore.

"Daddy?" you hear in the dark. You narrow your eyes, expecting Sonata, but the silhouette in front of you is just a little bit taller.

"Aria?" you ask, leaning up in bed.

She walks over to you, not wanting to look directly at you, but still wanting to be close. She clears her throat, trying to shake out whatever is making her choke up. "D-Dad? I..."

"What is it, honey?"

"I... I had a bad dream. Can I...?" she says cautiously. She's defintely way too old for this. Not like you could ever say no, though.

"Sure, sweetie. Just don't hog up the entire bed, okay?" you say jokingly.

Aria crawls over you and under the sheets, making sure to stick as close to you as humanly possible. You wrap an arm around her and close your eyes, feeling slightly better about tonight.

After a few moments of silence, Aria speaks up. "Promise you won't tell Adagio or Sonata?"

"Of course not. Just go to sleep and don't worry about it, okay?"

"Thanks, Dad," Aria says quietly, snuggling into your side. You just smile and hold her tighter against you.

You smile even wider at the thought of being with them all day tomorrow. As little fun as breaking up fights is, it's always better than work.