Chapter 5

The family had reserved 2 rooms in the hotel - one for the parents and one for the kids.

“Why does our room have one super king size bed and one cot?” asked Arnold

“Ah well all the rooms have super kings” explained Mindy.

“But we didn’t think it be appropriate for brother and sister to sleep in the same bed, so we had them bring up a cot for you Arnold”

“Why should I get the cot?” Arnold demanded “If anything I’m taller I should get the bigger bed”

“Sorry, no I didn’t mean you specifically. I meant I had them bring up the cot for you guys. The plural you. I figured you could work out yourself who sleeps where.”

Arnold didn’t like the sound of that. Since Lexi tended to always get the better end of the stick on most things of life. But he didn’t have time to think about that now. He had to retrieve his phone and wallet and take Lexi’s clothes to get dry cleaned if he wanted to be let out of the extremely tight leotard he’d been wearing for over an hour.

Tired, sweaty and hungry, he lugged her suitcase to the dry cleaners. They were not located that far from the hotel. Maybe a 10 minute walk at most. But after having just ran over 2 miles in the heat, it still annoyed the hell out of Arnold.

“Hey there little ballerina” the middle aged Chinese lady greeted Arnold with a grin noting his outfit.

“I’m not ... never mind, how much would it be to clean everything in here”

He asked as he heaved the suitcase onto her counter.

“It’s $3 per pound for a wash and fold so for this much stuff, about $100”

“Shoot,” he complained. He did have some money saved up, from his part time job. He didn’t have an allowance like Lexi. Apparently he was too old to need one. Of course back when he was Lexi’s age he didn’t get one either. Because apparently that was before his father’s most recent promotion. Funny how there was always an excuse for his parents to treat Lexi better.

So was annoyed to have to spend so much at once. He considered trying to do the laundry himself but he just didn’t have the energy.

“Fine” he grunted as he got out his card.

“Ok, we’ll wash this stuff for you and you can pick it up tomorrow” the clerk told him

“Tomorrow?” he stammered. What were the chances his parents would let him change out of his spandex before Lexi’s clothes were clean?

“I really need them today”

“We’re closing,” she explained. “Unless you want to pay triple for a rush job”

“Tripple?” he gasped.

“Overtime,” the lady explained.

Three hundred dollars. He only made nine dollars an hour at the cafe. So this prank he tried to pull on Lexi would essentially cost him 33 hours. He worked 6 hours a week between university classes, so it would take him over 5 weeks of work to recoup the money. He had been saving up for a car. There was no way he could pay that much money on Lexi’s laundry. It would make no sense.

“OK,” he said with a sigh, “I guess tomo...”

“What?” the lady asked.

Arnold scratched his itchy legs. So, so itchy. So painful. He had to be let out. Now. He needed this done today and damn the cost.

“Charge me three hundred dollars” he said in a voice filled with pain. “Text me when it’s done”

Unfortunately for Arnold, he still hadn’t received a text from the dry cleaners by the time their parents called them to get dinner.

“Can’t I please, please change my clothing now, before we go to the restaurant?” begged Arnold.

“Why would we let you do that?” asked his mother.

“Well I already gave all of Lexi’s clothes to the dry cleaner. And this outfit is really itchy, and I could get a rash, and Lexi’s been teasing me about this outfit non stop”

“O, has Lexi been teasing you?” asked Mindy with a smile as she winked at her grinning daughter.

“Um, yes?” replied Arnold. “Well you better hope the cry cleaners are done with Lexi’s clothes soon then” Mindy responded casually.

The restaurant was walking distance to the hotel. As they walked they talked about all they planned to do on the trip. Although Arnold was silent for much of the conversation, since he was too focused on the pain of his outfit to talk about much else.

At the restaurant, Lexi ordered shrimp, George got a steak, Mindy got the chicken and Arnold settled on the spaghetti bolognese. He was really craving the carbs after his long jog earlier.

Arnold’s food was ready first

“Ooo that spaghetti looks so good” Lexi said with a smile when they bought it out.

“Thanks” said Arnold with a smile as he picked up his fork.

“Come on, you have to let me try it” said Lexi, grabbing his hand with the fork.

“Eeh, no I’m really hungry” he said, shaking her hand off. As he put his form in the pasta, his mother glared at him “Arnold” she said sharply. “That was really not nice to your sister.”

“Well it wasn’t nice of her to grab my fork” he replied before putting his fork into his spaghetti once more.

As he brought his fork to his mouth his father knocked it out of his hand

“Arnold!” he yelled. “When your mother tells you, you weren’t being nice to Lexi, you should not argue with your mother. You should apologize to Lexi. That is the correct response.”

Lexi snickered.

“Um, sorry Lexi,” Arnold said quietly.

“So does that mean you’re sharing your food with me?” she asked.

“Um,” Arnold looked at the disapproving eyes of his parents “um, I guess so”

“Great!” said Lexi as she took his entire plate from him and started eating “wow, yum, this tastes amazing!”

“Um, will I also get a chance to eat some of my food?” asked Arnold in a pained voice.

“Maybe later,” said Lexi with a happy shrug. “If I get any leftovers”

“Um, but when I said you could share, I meant like a bit. I didn’t mean to you could take the whole thing”

“Well then you should have been more clear about that” Lexi responded.

“Yes Arnold,” said his mother. “You really need to do a better job of being clear about what you mean”

“I thought I was clear ... like I said I was hungry ... and I ... I... “Arnold stammered.

“So?” asked his father. “Lexi was hungry too. You wouldn’t deny your beautiful, wonderful sister the chance to eat would you?”

“I ... but I...”

Just then Lexi’s food came.

“Um Lexi, want to eat your own food now?”

“Oh ya” said Lexi as she took some of her shrimp onto the spaghetti plate “yum!” she exclaimed.

“Um I meant, you could use your own plate” Arnold suggested timidly.

“Na” said Lexi with a smile.

“Well then can I take your plate?” asked Arnold.

“Also na” Lexi replied, with a laugh.

Mindy and George just smiled at their two children, happy that they seemed to work the whole thing out.

After about 30 seconds of hungrily watching Lexi eat while his parents did nothing, Arnold tried speaking up again.

“You know...” he said timidly

“Pass the salt,” said Lexi.

“Sure” he said as he gave her the salt. “You know...” he continued “ ... I don’t think it was very nice of Lexi to refuse to let me eat any of her food.”

“You’re not entitled to other people’s food,” said George angrily.

“But how come when I said Lexi couldn’t have my food you said I was being bad”

“It wasn’t that you told her no that’s the problem” Mindy explained. “It was how you did it. You rudely shook her hand away, instead of politely declining”

“But she wasn’t polite when she said I couldn’t have any of her shrimp,” Arnold stammered.

“I thought Lexi sounded very polite,” countered George. This was a lie of course. Lexi was not polite at all. But George just loved seeing his daughter’s happy smile and his son’s look of confusion and shame, he couldn’t resist.

“Thanks daddy” Lexi said with a cute smile.

Soon Mindy and George’s food came as well. Everyone kept talking about how great the food was while Arnold’s stomach rumbled.

“This chicken is to die for,” Mindy said with a smile.

“Nothing could be better than this steak” George replied.

“Really?” asked Lexi “lemme taste”

“Here you go honey” said George as he cut Lexi a generous portion of his steak “wow this is really good” Lexi replied.

“Here tell me if it’s better than this chicken” offered Mindy as she put some on Lexi’s plate.

Lexi took a bite: “wow, I don’t know Mom, they are both really really good”

“Um dad?” asked Arnold hesitantly “Yes son?”

“Um ... might I please have a piece of your steak too? If it’s not too much trouble”

“Wow so polite” said Mindy with a snicker.

“Sorry son” said George “I already gave so much of it away to Lexi, I kind of want to eat the rest myself”

“Oh, ok” said Arnold in a downcast voice.

“Mom” Arnold said, after a respectable pause.

“Yes son?” Mindy asked with a glint in her eye.

“Um, Would you perchance have any interest in sharing any of your food, pretty please?” Arnold asked.

“Sorry” answered Mindy “I too already gave too much of it to Lexi”.

Lexi laughed out loud at her brother’s timid submissive demeanor.

“You must be so hungry” Lexi taunted her brother.

“Um, yes, I ... I really am” he replied.

“Want some of this?” she said as she took some shrimp and pasta on her fork.

“Yes please, if it pleases you” Why won’t mom and dad stop this taunting he wondered.

Lexi gave another chuckle. “Open wide,” she said with a grin.

Arnold didn’t really want to be fork fed by his sister like a baby, but he was so hungry he didn’t even care that much. With a resigned sigh he opened his mouth. Lexi lifted the fork, started moving it towards her brother ... and turned it around and brought it to her own mouth “mmm mmm mmm” she said with a smile “too bad you can’t have any” she said.

Her parents tried to hide their chuckles at Arnold’s expense, but they didn’t do such a good job.

“Come on Mom, now you’re laughing at me too” Arnold practically cried.

“Sorry son,” Mindy replied with a suppressed grin. “But you got to admit it, it is kind of funny” Arnold just glared at his mother which made her give another light chuckle.