Sharing Responsibility

[justagirl4fun]

Charlotte frowned as the girls walked away, then struggled to her feet, grabbed her walker, and made her way clumsily to the kitchen. She got a little shy as she approached the table; sometimes kids at school would laugh or say mean things about the way she walked and she wasn't quite sure how these girls would react. Marissa was pouring drinks for the girls when Charlotte tugged on her shirt. "Mama, up," she requested softly, needing help getting into her booster seat which was next to Heidi's chair.

[Ishigreensa]

"It was okay," Heidi said.

Amy completely ignored the question.

"What happened to Charowette?" she asked still a little hard to say some works correctly, not because of any real reason other than immaturity.

[justagirl4fun]

"It's okay, Amy. If you're curious about Charlotte we'd much rather you ask us questions instead of talking behind her back, so you didn't do anything wrong," Marissa assured the younger girl. "When she was born she had some bleeding inside her head, and it hurt the part of her brain that controls how her muscles move so she needs help doing some things. But your daddy is right, she can still play with you and have fun, and I'm sure she would love to be friends with both of you. Right, Charlotte?"

Charlotte looked from Heidi to Amy and nodded before taking a bite of carrot.

[Ishigreensa]

Amy smiled and nodded.

"I don't care what her trouble is, talking mean about her without her knowing it is must mean," Amy nodded knowingly with very big head nods.

[justagirl4fun]

By now Charlotte was thoroughly confused with all this talk of doing bad things and tattling. She wasn't really sure how any of that related to the discussion about her condition and just stared at her plate as she continued eating her snack. She was starting to wonder if having the two girls living there was really going to be as much fun as she'd first thought.

[Ishigreensa]

Mike put his hand on his daughter's head, and he smiled.

"Why don't you just eat your snack, honey?

[justagirl4fun]

Charlotte nodded. "Yeah."

"Sure honey, if that's what you want," Marissa said with a laugh. "You don't have to, you can play with the other girls if you want."

[Ishigreensa]

Heidi smiled at Marissa.

[justagirl4fun]

"Okay then. You can help."

"I have Merida, Elsa, Anna, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Snow White, Tiana, Rapunzel, Cinderella, an' Sleeping Beauty," Charlotte rattled off before finishing her juice. "But no boys. Only girls." She tried to unbuckle the harness on her booster seat but, as usual, it proved nearly impossible with only one good hand. She sighed as Marissa came over and helped, then lifted her out of the chair and set her down. "Come on. Let's play," she ordered Amy before taking off for the living room.

[Ishigreensa]

Amy looked at her father who smiled.

"Are you done eating?" he asked her.

[justagirl4fun]

Charlotte sank to the floor in front of the castle and handed Jasmine to Amy. "You can be her, an' whoever else you want 'cept Merida. I'm always Merida, 'cause mommy says I'm brave jus' like her."

[Ishigreensa]

"I know you're brave," Amy said.

[justagirl4fun]

Charlotte nodded in agreement and spread the dolls out between them. "You can pick first," she offered as she clutched Merida.

[Ishigreensa]

"That seems sensible to me," Mike said.

[justagirl4fun]

"I think I'm set with dinner. Why don't you just unpack your things and the girls'? I'll show you your rooms." Marissa led Mike down the hallway of the one-story house. "This will be your room, and that one is the girls'. I already cleared out two drawers for them, and there is room to hang some things in the closet."

Charlotte picked Belle and shrugged. "I dunno. They jus' talk an' do stuff in the castle. See, there's beds, an' tables an' chairs. Oh, an' there's extra dresses too if you wanna change them," she said as she opened a small box to reveal a dozen little plastic snap-on dresses.

[Ishigreensa]

"Oh!

[justagirl4fun]

Charlotte sat and waited, confused. What could Amy need pennies for? she wondered.

"So, Heidi, do you like to cook?" Marissa asked. "Do you want to help me with dinner?"

[Ishigreensa]

"Yeah, I like to cook," Heidi said perking up.

[justagirl4fun]

(I already said it's a one-story house. There is no upstairs. Marissa didn't want to worry about getting Charlotte up and down a lot of stairs.)

Charlotte wondered what Amy had in mind as she waited for the girl to return.

"Oh...well, the only thing that needs to be cut is the chicken. You don't even have to cut it, really, you just have to pull it off the bones and shred it," Marissa said as she gave Heidi a platter with some chicken thighs she'd already baked. "Can you do that while I made the sauce?"

[Ishigreensa]

(Sorry, I was thinking of the wrong house when I responded.

[justagirl4fun]

"Okay. If they're havin' a party, they hafta wear their prettiest dresses!" Charlotte said and started digging through the box.

[Ishigreensa]

Mike watched interested.

[justagirl4fun]

Once Heidi was done with the chicken Marissa tossed that in the pot as well and turned the heat down to simmer. "Okay, now you can scrub these for me. They need to be nice and clean, because we're not peeling them," Marissa instructed as she set a bag of red-skinned potatoes by the sink along with a scrub brush.

Charlotte gave Any a confused state. "That isn't princes. That's just monies."

[Ishigreensa]

Amy smiled at Charlotte.

[justagirl4fun]

"Okay..." Charlotte said with a shrug. She never had a problem playing without princes but if Amy insisted on doing it this way she wasn't going to argue.