Smiley and Sunshine

1.

Present day - Hayes, age 13:

Tap.

"Hayes."

Tap. Tap.

"Hayes I swear."

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Suddenly the pencil was no longer in Hayes' hand but chucked across the room, curtesy of Glen. Hayes watched it bounce against the wall before landing somewhere behind the couch where it was now destined to collect dust for eternity.

She rounded on Glen, "What the heck!"

She had been minding her business, fully engaged in taking notes from her biology textbook and now her concentration had been broken.

"Shut up," Glen hissed back. "No need to yell, don't wake the Bear."

"You stole my pencil!"

"Well don't tap your pencil! I couldn't concentrate!" Ignoring his own warning, Glen and Hayes' voices continued to rise in frustration.

"Don't tap your pencil, blah blah blah." Hayes mimicked Glen. "You could have just told me to stop."

"I did!"

"No you didn't!"

"Yes I did! Oh my God, you're so annoying!"

"Well you're an idiot!" Hayes reached across the table, snagged the book he was previously trying to read, and dropped it onto the floor beside her. Of course she wasn't that cruel of a sister and had doggy-eared the page he was on before closing it.

Before Glen could open his mouth to retaliate, one of the bedroom doors slammed open. Hayes flinched back into her chair, instantly regretting yelling at Glen. She looked over at Glen and could see the flash of  momentary panic reflecting in his eyes.

They had awoken the Bear.

"How many times do I have to tell you to be quiet!" The Bear yelled at them, breathing heavily. "You little ungrateful shits. I feed you and provide you a home to live in and you can't keep fucking quiet! God, didn't your deadbeat mother teach you any manners?" He ran out of steam after a moment, taking in puffs of air to normalize his breathing.

Then the weirdest thing happened. The Bear started chuckling and a tiny smirk appeared on his face. He couldn't help but enjoy the feeling of power when seeing the panic on their faces. "Oh don't get your panties in a twist. I'm just messing with y'all. Did you have dinner yet?"

"No, sir." Glen responded for both of them as Hayes also shook her head no. It had been raining all day so they had come home straight after school and got started on their homework. They didn't want to risk losing power due to the storm and not have any light to work with.  They lived in an old temperamental townhouse that was easily angered by storms. And believe it or not, before that little episode, they had been quite productive with their work and the time had flew by. Glen and Hayes did not mess around with their school work, a message Glen reminded Hayes of on a weekly basis.

Hayes stole a quick glance at the clock hanging on the wall in the kitchen and let out a tiny sigh of relief. It was already 6pm which means they didn't wake him up because he had to leave for work in a few moments. He just wanted to play the drama queen role. Good, they wouldn't face anymore consequences of having been too loud. The Bear's favorite punishment to enforce was loss of phone privileges. And because it seemed that Glen and Hayes couldn't control the volume of their voices, that was a privilege they lost more often than not, including currently. On a positive note though, the kids didn't grow attached to their phones and therefore paid attention enough to tell the difference between their head and their ass, as the Bear would chuckle.