“Angie, um…..you know what? Me and Momma B need a few minutes to talk about something. How about you take some of these other gifts that are your’s and bring them upstairs to your room okay?” Tina suggested.

“But I want to get my phone ready mom” Angelica whined.

“Honey……please do what I have asked”

Angelica didn’t like the idea at all, but instead of challenging her mom, she placed the phone and box on the floor and gathered her other gifts.

“How long do you need to talk for?” Angie asked with her arms full of gifts, hoping the answer would be to her liking.

“A few minutes, that’s all” Tina said.

“Be careful walking up the stairs with all those in your hands. Maybe you should leave some at the bottom and make two trips” Bette said showing her concern.

“I’ll be okay Mom”

Angie left the living room, leaving Bette and Tina alone to talk. Tina turned and faced Bette as they continued to sit on the floor by the tree.

*****************

“Bette we both agreed on her punishment, and we also did inform her ahead of time that one of her gifts would not be used for a week”

“I know T, it just seems so tacky right now. I mean…think about it, ’here Angie, here’s your gift, but sorry you can’t use it’…don’t you think that is a bit over the top?” Bette asked.

“Don’t you think your daughter making out at a dance and disobeying chaperones in charge worthy of a punishment?”

“I do, and she won’t be going with her friends this week or having them over. That is a HUGE punishment during school break”

Bette looked at Tina and could see that she wasn’t making any progress changing her mind.

“We agreed Bette” was all Tina could say at this point. She was getting rather upset at Bette’s shying away from the punishment that had been previously decided upon.

“I didn’t say that we hadn’t Tina. I mean….come on, it’s the holidays. Maybe we didn’t think this out completely when we had come to this decision…..don’t you feel even a slight bit uncomfortable with telling her she cannot have the phone for a week?”

Tina didn’t want to be looked upon as being cold and callous, but she also didn’t want to minimize what Angelica had done.

“This has not been just about what happened at the dance. It has been about her attitude. It is just like Kit said, she has been able to run right over us and we have done nothing. I know we have to talk to her about all this “otherness” but I can’t keep letting all that dictate how she should be handled either Bette”

Bette couldn’t seem to bring herself back to that place where she was in full agreement before. There certainly was something about sitting there as a family opening gifts on Christmas Day that brought out peace and harmony to the day. It was something that neither of them could have imagined how difficult things would feel when the day actually arrived and they had to take the gift away.

“I’m not comfortable with it, not at all. But if you think that she shouldn’t get the phone now then fine, I’ll support that”

Bette felt that neither one of them was going to see the other’s point of view and therefore she wasn’t about to continue on this road. What neither of them realized, is that Angelica had already started to make her way back into the living room and heard what Bette had said. Bette and Tina turned when they heard a noise in the kitchen, finding Angelica standing in one place, stunned by what she heard about her phone. She couldn’t bring herself to do anything but start crying and turn to run upstairs.

“Angie………come here” Bette said as she started to stand up and walk towards the kitchen. She stopped when she heard Angelica’s footsteps running up the stairs. She turned back towards the living room where Tina had just stood up as well.

“Don’t…….okay?” Tina said as she raised one finger to Bette before walking past her and up the stairs. She wasn’t prepared to listen to Bette tell her how wrong she was.

Bette stood in the kitchen, completely pissed off that her daughter would be crying on Christmas Day. She picked the oven mitt up from the counter and threw it back down hard on the counter before making her way upstairs.

*******************
ALICE’S PLACE

“MMmmmm…..I don’t think I want to get out of bed ever” Alice said smiling with her back to Dana.

Dana slid her hands up and down Alice’s abdomen as she spooned her.

“Me either….I am so comfy”

“Last night was fun wasn’t it?” Alice asked as she placed her hand over the back of Dana’s.

“It was great. I never laughed so hard in a long time”

Dana nuzzled in closer to Alice, her nose near Alice’s hair, smelling her signature shampoo she always used.

“How funny was Angelica wearing that bra? I thought Bette was going to have a stroke right there!” Alice laughed as she recalled Bette’s discomfort with that moment, and the whole idea of Angelica growing up in general.

“Oh my god, I thought for sure she was going to lose it. Bette isn’t handling things so well is she?” Dana asked as she propped herself up on her arm so she could lean over a bit and see Alice.

Alice turned over on her back so she could make eye contact with Dana.

“She doesn’t…not at all. She is super super strict when it comes to girls and boys and stuff like that. I remember when she and I had dated. We had talked hypothetically about kids and what kind of parenting style we might have. You don’t even want me to repeat just how different it was between her having a boy and a girl. She may be a woman who believes in equality, but when it came to defining discipline, what would be allowed and not allowed, it varied dramatically between the sexes”

“No kidding? I know she seems pretty strict when it comes to Angie, but I just figured that she was just one of those parents who might be strict across the board” Dana shared as she lay on her side resting her hand on Alice’s abdomen.

“Oh no….not at all. The thing that is weird is I remember her telling me about her father being real intense. He was beyond strict, he border lined abusive. I know she was always saying how she would never ever raise a hand to her child no matter what. That she would want punishments to be fair. I use to tease her and tell her that in order to be able to “punish” your kid, you have to let them out of the cage you’re going to be keeping them in”

Alice and Dana both laughed as soon as she offered that little tidbit.

**************
ANGIE’S ROOM

Angelica was in her room, laying on her bed sobbing when Tina had come into the room.

“I knocked…..you mustn’t have heard me” Tina said as she walked over to the bed.

Angelica didn’t lift her head at all. Instead she pushed it deeper into the plush bedspread as her tears continued to dampen the material. Tina sat down on the edge of the bed just as Bette came into the room.

“Angie….Momma B and I both told you that part of your punishment was that you could not use one of the gifts we had gotten you for Christmas, for one week”

The only thing that could be heard were soft sobs as Angelica continued to cry and refuse to show her face. Bette hated to see her daughter cry. If there was ever a pushover when it came to tears, it was Bette. She stood by the bedroom door, leaning against the doorframe and scanning the Christmas gifts that Angie had brought up to her room.

“Ange……please look at me” Tina requested as she started to rub Angie’s back.

“DON’T!” Angie yelled, keeping her face buried in the bedspread.

“Angelica do not raise your voice at me like that. This attitude is the very reason you lost privileges and you were punished. Now I’m willing to discuss this with you, but you need to look at me to do so” Tina said, obviously getting a bit more annoyed by Angelica resuming her disrespectful attitude.