Page 2 of Northern Stars

“He did it!”

“She did it!”

We said it in unison as we pointed toward one another, blaming each other for the mess in front of us. Of course, it was Aiden’s fault, but he was a big fat liar. I was surprised his pants weren’t on fire by how many lies he told.

“I swear, Mama! It was him! He was trying to take more cookies, but I told him not to take more cookies, but still, he tried to take more, cookies, and and—”

“She called me a fat head, Penny, and said I have a face like a gorilla butt!” Aiden said, pushing out his bottom lip and letting his eyes glass over.Oh my gosh! He’s so dramatic!

“He called me a fat mouth and said I had chipmunk cheeks!” I shot back. “I don’t have chipmunk cheeks!”

“Do too!” Aiden mocked.

“Do not!”

“Do too!”

“Do not, not, not!”

“Do too, too, too, tooooooooo!” he sang.

For a boy who was the same age as me, he sure acted like a baby.

Mama didn’t look like she cared for our excuses or bickering. She lowered her eyebrows and combed her hands over her afro puff before nodding once. “Get down now, the both of you. You know the drill.”

Aiden and I both groaned. “But!” we screeched at the same time. I hated that we did things so much at the same time because the last thing I ever wanted was to be the same as someone like him. I hated our same moments. They made me so mad. Our different moments were the best because if I was different than him that meant I wasn’t a fat head gorilla butt.

Mama brushed her hand against her forehead. “No buts. Come on, get down. Then to the living room. Hug-a-thon now.” Mama waved her hand toward us both.

We climbed off the countertop and stomped our feet to the living room.

Mama saw a woman talk about a hug-a-thon thing she made her kids do on a talk show. Whenever her kids would get into a fight, she made them hug each other and apologize for whatever they did wrong. The kids had to hug until both apologized, no matter what.

I wished Mama didn’t watch TV. It gave her bad ideas.

I hated hug-a-thons, and I always ended up having to do them with Aiden because he was a freaking jerk and always got me in trouble. If anything, Aiden should’ve been hugging himself. I wanted no part of this. I wasn’t eating the cookies!

Still, we were forced to hug one another, and we grumbled the whole time.

When Aiden’s mom, Laurie, came over, she noticed us hugging and smiled.

“Another fight?” Laurie questioned.

“You know it,” Mama replied. “Just a regular Tom and Jerry over here.”

“No apologies yet?”

“Not one.”

Laurie glanced down at her watch. “Well, hurry up with it, Aiden, or you won’t be able to make it to your acting class tonight.”

“But Mom!” Aiden whined.

“No buts. Get on with it,” his mom ordered. I liked Laurie, even though her son was a butthead. She always gave me candy when I went to her house and would ask me how my baking lessons were going with Mama.

“I’m sorry for calling you a name, Hailee,” Aiden said. He didn’t mean it, but he said it. He even seemed to mean it, too, which meant those stupid acting classes must’ve been working. That was why he almost cried about the cookie jar! Some stupid teacher taught him that trick!

Still, I smirked because he apologized first. Then I felt Mama poke me in the arm.

---