How We Got Here

Adventure

Puck knew he was in for a fun evening when his youngest daughter stomped into the family apartment announcing that she was going to live in her bedroom until she died. The little girl's blond ponytails bounced until she had marched out of the entryway without another word. A minute later, he heard her slam her door down the hallway. He sighed.

Sabrina was still at work and would be until late, which meant it was his turn with the kids that day. Alison was at a friend's house and he had thought Emma had gone with her, but that was evidently not the case. He had been hoping to get some work done. Mustardseed had given him the number of someone who claimed to know about some shenanigans in Queens which looked suspiciously like Oz's new and improved crop of Scarlet Hand fanatics, and Puck had wanted to get more information out of him, but that would have to wait. 

After closing his beat-up laptop, Puck went to his daughter's bedroom only to find her lying face down on her bed, head buried in a pillow. He lightly tugged on one of her pigtails like he was ringing a doorbell. She lifted her head slightly, revealing an expression similar to what he imagined a Victorian child's ghost looked like.

 "What's with the boo-hoo face, my little chimpanzee?" he asked her. She stuffed her face back into it's feathery prison and ignored him.

"What, you're not gonna tell me?" he asked after the long pause.

"I'm dying, can't you tell?" her muffled voice said with a groan that did indeed sound terminal.

"Calling it quits at twelve years old, huh? All right, you had a good run. I'll tell your story!" he said, already retreating down the hallway.

"Do I have to grow up?" he heard her ask pitifully. He went back and sat on the bed next to her. She had dislodged her face from her bedding.

"Is this, like, the regular 'I don't wanna grow up' talk, or the girl 'I don't wanna grow up' talk? 'Cause I'm missing some qualifications for that one," he pointed out.

His daughter's face grew red as she shoved it into the pillow again. "Ugh, dad, no! This is not a code Mom."

Okay, sorry. I was just making sure. Is this because Alison's flying lessons aren't going too well? I promise it won't be that bad for you; your sister's just a freak of nature with no sense of direction."

"No, this isn't an Everafter thing. It's a normal human person thing."

"Okay," Puck said, sitting cross-legged on the bed and facing her. "Everafter here, ready to hear about normal human person things." He gave a stiff salute. It got him what he was looking for, a reluctant smile.

"It's about what some girls were talking about at Brooke's house," she said.

"Is that why you walked home early? And alone? You know we asked you guys to try not to do that anymore."

"Because of the red hand guys?" Emma asked guiltily.

"Because of the red hand guys."

"Sorry. It was only a couple subway stops away. I won't do it again."

Puck nodded, satisfied. He hated the disciplinarian part of parenting. Much less fun than the water balloon fighting, Christmas present buying parts. Even parent teacher conferences were more fun; they, at least, involved donuts and arguing, two of his favorite things.

"I'm excited about the wings stuff and the detective stuff, honestly. Even if we could, I wouldn't keep myself from growing up because I want to get to all that. But while I was at Brooke's, I started talking about how you and I like to watch old Roadrunner cartoons"--

"Because they have a healthy dose of violence and mayhem," Puck offered.

"Yes, exactly!" Emma said. "And when I said how much I liked them, Brooke looked at me weird and she didn't know I was 'still into that kiddie stuff.'" She used air quotes. Puck scowled, offended while his daughter continued. "And then, later, she brought up her sister, who's in college, and all the other girls started talking about what they were going to major in. And they all seemed to know exactly what they're going to do! I don't even know what all the majors are, let alone what mine's going to be!" She was talking fast now and almost in tears.

"Soooo, you're saying you're afraid of the future," Puck said. It was a tactic he had learned worked wonders when trying to comfort someone. Just summarize what they were telling you and repeat it back to them. He had figured it out in the days when he was hopeless at communicating, especially when tears were involved. It had never failed him. It had a way of coaxing more words out of someone while also making them feel like they weren't being ignored.

"Maybe," Emma said. "I mean, everyone at school's talking about who they're dating and what high school classes are going to be like. But I still don't want to give up the bedtime stories you tell me about Ferryport Landing or the sweaters with the kittens on them or the McDonalds Happy Meal toys. I like all that stuff. If growing up means I'm suddenly gonna like beige clothing and have to do nothing but apply for mortgages all day, then I don't want it." She hugged the pillow to her chest.

Puck scooted up to the headboard of the bed so he could put his arm around his daughter. 

"I know what it's like to want to stay a kid, Emma," he began. "Being a kid is fun. No one expects much from you. No one thinks you're weird if you skip a couple showers or sleep with a unicorn or try to drink all the slushy flavors directly from the gas station machine at the same time. Okay, you might get some weird looks for that last one. But the point is, your world is a lot smaller."

"Was it hard enlarging your world after so long?" she asked him earnestly.

"At first it was. It took me a lot of tries to figure out emails worked, that's for sure. I mean, why is "Reply All," even an option? And it's still not perfect. I still don't like reading. If it's a story that hasn't been made into a movie already, then maybe it's a story that needs to die. And I'm convinced I still don't know how to read a non-digital clock."

Now she was holding her belly to keep in the laughter. That was his girl, never able to resist the temptation of fun.

"And if I had never grown up, I never would've gotten you." He poked her in the bellybutton, making her giggle. "Or your sister. Or your mom. It was hard but it was worth it, sort of like an adventure. The greatest adventure I've ever been on."

She shrugged. "I guess when you put it like that it doesn't sound so bad."

"Plus, you don't have to let it all go. Just because you grow up on the inside doesn't mean you have to do it on the outside all the time. I learned to admit my mistakes but I didn't stop playing pranks. I learned that the White House isn't just the house of some guy whose last name is White, but I still eat raw cookie dough by the pound."

"Yeah, we're lucky Everafters don't get sick or else we'd all have gotten salmonella a million times over," she said. Then she looked at her hands nervously.

"So you'll keep telling me bedtime stories?"

"For as long as you want me to," he answered, pulling her close. 

"And we'll keep watching the Roadrunner beat the snot out of Wil. E.?"

"Of course. He's my hero. But right now, we've got to do the grown-up thing and go pick up your sister. Come on." Puck stood up and stretched.

"Okay," she said, getting up as well. Then, running down the hall, she cried, "Last one to the door's a Pumpkinhead!" 

"Oh, you fight dirty!" He groaned, sprinting after her.

They tripped over each other to get to the door, unable to stop laughing.