Six months later

Stacey's pov

There's nothing worse than having to spend your Saturday running errands. I mean, third grade isn't exactly difficult but still, a girl's got to have time to decompress and we all know Sunday doesn't count, 'cause of church taking up half the day. To top things off, we are running errands with Mike today since Shane is in D.C. on business.

Mike has been burnin' the candle at both ends lately and believe me when I say, we're the ones who are suffering for it, well us and his sense of humor. The man seriously has no chill anymore, which is why I was trying desperately to get us out of going with him today.

"Can't we just stay here, pleeeeaaassseeeee?" I whine.

Mike flatly replies, "Absolutely not. Do you really think I would leave the four of you here unsupervised?"

"Don't be ridiculous. How about just one or two of us?" I ask jokingly.

"Stacey!" Mike shouts. I see him take a deep breath. What did I tell ya? No chill. "You are seriously trying my patience, young lady."

I press on, "We'll just slow you down, anyway. Think how much you could get done without us in tow."

"And deprive myself of your sparkling personality and razor sharp wit? Not a chance. The four of you are coming with me and that's final."

"But, Mike, we..."

"End of discussion, Stacey," Mike warns.

No chill.

"Be ready to go in ten minutes."

"Aye aye, captain," I sass him, adding a mock salute.

Mike's face turns red with anger. He roughly grabs my right arm, pinning it to his side. He then delivers five sharp smacks to my upper thighs, almost bringing me to tears.

"Do not continue to test me, little girl," Mike threatens, pointing his finger in my face.

I told you so. No chill.

Our first errand: the department store

Julie's pov

Oh my gosh, I'm so bored already and this is only the first errand of the day. I don't even know why we're here but I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with me. I don't know why he wouldn't let us stay at the Center.

Mike says, "Alright, I need all of you to stay with me so we don't waste any time. Understand?"

I've already tuned Mike out, completely uninterested in whatever he's currently mandating. I'm scanning the store for anything interesting or worthy of further examination, until I hear, "Julie!"

It's Mike and he's not happy. I turn around to face him.

"Are you even listening to me? I said we need to stay together at all times."

"Yeah yeah, I got it, stay together."

Mike shoots me a look that could kill. He's clearly unhappy with my less than respectful response, but he lets it slide for the sake of time.

After we get Carrie's skirt, Lisa's socks, and some bath towels, I assume we're done here and ready to checkout. But noooooo, Mike needs to try on pants. Oh my god, we're never gonna get out of here.

We're standing outside the men's dressing room waiting for Mike as instructed, when I see a small toy section in the back of the store.

"I'll be right back," I say, as I head to the back of the store.

I hear Carrie caution, "Wait, we're supposed to stay together."

I ignore her and keep going so I can look at the toy section.

Mike's pov

I walk out of the dressing room with our final item for purchase, ready to checkout.

"Where's Julie?" I ask, already annoyed we're wasting time.

Stacey shrugs and Lisa says she doesn't know, so I ask Carrie.

"She said she'd be right back and walked that way," Carrie says timidly, pointing toward the toy section.

"The three of you wait here. Do not move. I mean it," I say sternly. I run back to the toy section and see Julie looking at some games, without a care in the world. I stop myself and take a deep breath to rein in my temper.

Meanwhile, Julie turns, sees me, and nonchalantly says, "Oh hey, Mike, are we ready to go?"

There isn't a deep enough breath in the world to quell my temper right now.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW? GET OVER HERE!" I smack her right buttcheek, HARD.

"OW! What was that for?" Julie whines.

"I told you we needed to stay together and I come out of the changing room to find you've wandered off. Do you have any idea how scared I was thinking you were missing?" I have a death grip on her arm right now. I'm so furious. I'm glad there are several witnesses around us because I'm truly afraid of what I might do to her if we were alone.

"Alright, relax. I'm sorry," Julie says, without a hint of sincerity in her apology.

"Oh, you will be when we get home. Trust me."