Helen's in Trouble

Getting back on track here, Ginny was at the hospital, having the twins. Ambrose dragged his weary bones out of bed to be there with her.

That left Helen home alone - sorta, and Rina, who decided it would be fun to lounge around on the new bed, dreaming of ..... food!!!! What else???




Distracted by the chaos of the twins' birth, both Ginny and Brosie had totally forgotten about it being Helen's first day at school. Nor had they organised a decent breakfast for her.
It's not that they're bad parents, they were just too busy with other stuff ... that's all.

So, starving hungry, Helen grabbed a slice of stale birthday cake from the fridge, and started to tuck in. Completely oblivious to the school bus parked outside. When she finally polished off the last few crumbs, the bus had already gone, so she had to hop on her bike and cycle there.



In order to get into the good books of her teachers, she agreed to deliver some permission slips to the town hall. So she was fairly late getting home. And she was feeling a little tired and wanted nothing more than to go to bed. She'd just walked into her bedroom when she heard the door close softly behind her.

"Young lady?" Ambrose said sternly.

"I'm tired dad," she replied wearily, "can I go back to bed?"



"Not until you explain yourself."

"Excuse me?"

"Why were you late for school? On your first day too?"

"I .... I was hungry. So I stopped back to have some leftover cake."

Thoroughly exhausted, stresssed and hungry himself, Ambrose let his temper get the better of him and he exploded.

"What were you thinking young lady???? Cake???? For breakfast????"



"It was the only thing I could see... and I was hungry." she pleaded.

"You know, we did leave you some pocket money to get yourself breakfast at school!"

"I ... forgot."



By then, Ambrose had calmed down somewhat, since his eldest daughter's terrified face melted his anger away. He patted her on the arm.

"I'm sorry," he said, sighing heavily, "I'm just stressed out here. And I do so want to be a good dad, you know? Give a good impression. Your being late for your first day of school didn't show that."

Helen smiled weakly, and they hugged.

"This doesn't mean you'll get off lightly here," Ambrose said with a grin, "I expect you to do your fair share of the chores around the house!!"

"Oh, I will!"

"Attagirl!"

"Now, can I go to bed? I'm so tired."

"What about homework?"

"Um, can't I leave it until later?"

"Not if you planning on poor grades."

"But I'm so tired!"

"Tell you what, sleep on it, and when you're fully refreshed, we'll organise some 'homework time' together. How does that sound?"

"Thanks dad."