Fed Up

[LauraVB]

"Now you and Baby are going to stay right here in the kitchen and get to work because big sister says so, and what I say is the law.  Do you understand?"

"Yes, Wendy, but..."

Her face scrunched up, "Rebekah, those words don't really go together.  You need to learn that," she said in the tone of voice of a patient schoolteacher.

He clenched his fists, closed his eyes, and trembled. He stayed put in the kitchen as ordered.  He had no choice. "Must not upset baby," he thought to himself. 

"Wendy, please perhaps you could offer me advice..."

She shook her head.

"...it's chili night and we've tried me making it before and you guys always say it comes out bland and terrible and hate it..."

Wendy shrugged.

"...and then you ask me if I followed Dad's recipe and I say I followed it exactly but you guys say I just need to adjust the spices at the end...

She put her hands on her hips non-nonchalantly. 

"...and I say I tried but it didn't come out right and you guys ask if I tasted it and I say of course not I hate Dad's chili it's too spicy for me and I don't know why you guys wanna eat it anyway because Dad was an ass and if the chili is bad mom is gonna be in a bad mood and..."

Wendy interrupted dismissively, "Now, be a good little dish washing baby ballet chef and get to it,"  She pulled down his tutu skirt mid-sentence as suddenly as she had pulled down his pants the day before.

"Hey!" he whined, before reflecting that it didn't matter since it wasn't hiding anything anyway and he didn't want to be wearing it in the first place.

"Don't think it's safe for the kitchen, Rebekah. Might catch fire."  She deposited the skirt in the stroller with the baby.  "Little girls like you need to learn to cook.  I have schoolwork I actually do and basketball practice.  Mom works all the time and depends on a home cooked meal. You're a Ramirez, and you can get this right. You need to do your part. None of us like thinking of Dad, but you know what Mom says. He did give her two good things she loves before she got him the hell out of here, the chili recipe and the record collection." She laughed.

Rebekah groaned. He hated the stupid, dark joke. Wendy hated the dumb, ancient, whiny hippy records as much as him but at least she liked the chili.  Rebekah couldn't think of anything worthwhile his father gave him besides manhood, and he wasn't doing a very good job of holding on to that right now. 

He sighed in resignation and thought, "I told you so, Baby. I told you a ballet chef doesn't work. Even Wendy admitted it."

Wendy told him baby was going to sleep now so Mommy wouldn't be bothered.  Rebekah noticed her hand twitching in her pocket when she said it this time. He was still stuck in the kitchen since the baby would definitely cry if he left.  He hated how much he had to fear his sister now.  He couldn't believe how far their mother had let her off the leash. The earphones were diabolical.

Even more so, he couldn't believe how completely on leash he now was.  His sister had forbidden him to leave the kitchen.  She had left him in his tights, leotard, and apron to prepare dinner for his mother and sister.  Then he would have to do all the dishes.  Then he would make mac and cheese, hot dogs, or a PB&J for himself because he hated the terrible chili he was going to make even when it was made well, which he knew he was not capable of.

He went to look for a pot for the chili and saw that the sink was still piled full of dishes from breakfast that morning. He stamped his foot in frustration and looked over at the horrible doll. He looked down at the water in the sink and thought for a moment about the the warm electronic heat the doll radiated. 

He picked it up very gently so as to risk waking it as little as possible and carried it over to the sink.  He looked down at the water and then down at the ugly, bald baby doll.  The baby made the gentle sounds it makes when it sleeps.  He turned around and strapped it back in the stroller. Then he thought, "If I try and break you the speakers might be programmed to break my ears."

He cleaned the dishes.  He finally found the chili pot and stuck it on the stove.  Wendy had at least set all the ingredients along with the index card with the instructions on the table.  There were dried hot peppers already re-hydrating in a bowl of water. He grimaced at them and looked under the sink to find gloves as the index card repeatedly warned him to. The card said "nitrile gloves or vinyl gloves" but all Rebekah Rainbow could find under the sink was a box of latex gloves. They looked the same as gloves he had tried on previous attempts so he decided they were probably the same thing and didn't bother to continue looking elsewhere.

He got angrier and angrier at the situation as he worked.  The recipe was mostly beef, chili pepper paste, and lard.  He also had to chop onion and garlic and gather half a dozen different little spice bottles from the overcrowded cabinet.  He had to remember to do ten different fiddly little things at once and it was driving him crazy.  He was distracted by the baby even though it was in sleep mode because he had been shocked so many times by the sudden cry already that it was just instinct.  He liked it better when he could just pay attention to one thing or the other, having to worry about the baby constantly split his attention.

He was already exhausted before he started cooking. Waddling around the kitchen and was becoming even more tiring the longer he went on. He browned the meat in the lard and then added the chili paste from the blender.  He added the water and brought the concoction to a simmer.

The bulk of the actual work was done, but now he had to sit and mind the stove for two miserable hours  while it simmered.  It was boring, and he knew the result was gonna be awful.  For one horrifying moment he even considered waking Baby for company before remembering that Baby was much, much, much better left sleeping whenever humanly possible.

An hour in as he was leaning his diapered butt against the counter resting his back Wendy came in the kitchen to get a drink.  She pointed to the now empty pitcher from the blender in the sink, "If you have time to lean, you have time to clean, Rebekah Rainbow. Snap to it."

"Yes, Wendy. I'm sorry, Wendy." He could take it no longer.  He came up with a plan for revenge and didn't care what the consequences might be.

[LauraVB]

He had enough of his sister pushing him around and mocking him.  He had enough of his Mom letting her get away with it.  He'd had enough of them and their stupid spicy food.  He pointed to the garbage and recycling cans.  "I'm supposed to take these out too, should I do that too Wendy? It's supposed to be my chore right?"

"I should make you, Rebekah.  Let every one see what a little girl you are now, that big mean bully."

"Okay Wendy, go ahead. I don't care if anyone sees me.  You tell Mom why you exposed me to the whole neighborhood dressed like this when she told you to keep it at home." He reached for the bag and pulled it out of the can, "So are you going to let me out of the kitchen or what?"

She narrowed her eyes at him, "Okay, Rebekah.  Sure, that is a chore for the man of the house.  It's not appropriate for the little sister busy, and stuck, in the kitchen."  She pointed to the doll to emphasize 'stuck'.

"Of course Wendy," he replied. 
 
As soon as the door shut he pulled a chair from the table and positioned it directly in front of the stove. He groaned at how full his bladder was and cursed Wendy and his mother.  As quickly as he could, he stood on the chair and positioned himself carefully to maintain his balance.  Then, he reached down to hold his apron away from the pot. He reached down again and pulled out metal tongs from where they stood upright in a jar with other kitchen utensils.  He stood on his tippy toes, and he reached up to the high cabinet above the stove and grabbed toward the back with the tongs. 

From the very back of the cabinet, Rebekah Rainbow pulled out a dusty bottle of super hot sauce that both his mother and sister had refused to ever try. It had a health warning taped to the bottle by the maker that Rebekah decided was likely there purely for novelty.  It had a label with the image of a multicolored flaming skull on it almost like something from the covers of one of his Mom's records.  The ingredients listed were "Distilled vinegar, Trinidad Moruga Scorpion peppers, salt, high fructose corn syrup, pure capsaicin crystals, and natural pineapple flavoring."

Rebekah only poured in around half the bottle, deciding that even a novelty health warning should be given at least a little respect.  He was sick of Wendy putting hot pepper in his food and sick of his Mom laughing at him over it like it was a joke.  He was going to let them see how it feels and then he wasn't going to cooperate for a single second more until he got the cursed speakers out of his ears.

When Wendy returned he had just barely gotten the chair back into place and she looked at him suspiciously. "Just tidying up, big sis.  Thanks for helping me with the trash," he said with as much false sweetness as he could muster.

Her little sister Rebekah looked almost adorable in that moment, Wendy thought.  He was obviously up to something she was sure.  Even so, with Rebekah all tuckered out and helpless looking in his work stained apron and now crooked hat you could almost forget he couldn't be trusted even for a few moments.  She was glad that the BabyGuard was there to keep him in line.

She smelled the chili to see if he had done something horrible to it, but she could see he clearly hadn't decided to solve his bathroom problem that way by the way he stood.  Instead it actually smelled surprisingly good for one of his attempts.  She decided she could stop being paranoid, and released him to the living room to "Play Mommy." Mercifully, she left the baby on sleep mode and he simply rocked the baby in the swing, occasionally checking the diaper.  Rebekah noticed that the diaper was wet even though the baby was asleep.  The baby's eyes opened as he changed it but it went right back to sleep when he put it  back in the swing. He thought, "Okay Baby, sometimes you wet in your sleep.  I wonder if you do it on a schedule. If that's the case, then I might wake up tomorrow just before dawn with you screaming like something out of a horror movie at me again if I don't get these things out of my ears. If not," he desperately hoped it would not come to this, "I guess I could try and wake up just before you?" 

He became so lost in thought that he barely even noticed when his mother came in. She dropped her bag with a thud.  "A ballet chef? That's a great idea, Rebekah!"

"No, mom! It's stupid! I hate all of this! I'm not a stupid ballet chef! Even Wendy said the tutu is a fire hazard in the kitchen!"

She laughed and teased, "No, obviously, of course. It'll be a ballet about a chef opening a restaurant. But what do you call the restaurant?" She looked to the empty stroller and saw the tutu.  "You can put it back on now and show me?"

Silently he stood and stepped into the tutu as instructed.

"How was everything today?" his mother asked.

"Let Wendy tell you. She's in charge," he said moodily. 

"Come on in to the kitchen, Rebekah.  I'm guessing based on the state of that apron you're wearing this is another one of your efforts?  Thanks for helping out.  It really means a lot that you are trying to cooperate."

He felt vaguely guilty about his impending revenge before he reminded himself about the speakers in his ears and all of his humiliations that day and the day before.  Even though she had been looking at him a bit guiltily the whole time, she seemed taken aback by whatever face it was he made as he waddled over.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Like you don't know!?"

"Know w..." She started to speak, but at that moment Wendy came back from the basement with a laundry basket containing a still very stained formerly incredibly pretty pastel blue and pink dress and petticoat. 

"What the hell happened here today?" Elena demanded.

"Sorry Mom there was a little accident.  It was, uhh, it was my fault.  I'll pay the cleaning fee out of my allowance, okay?"

"Is that soda?  Did you follow the instructions?"

"Yeah, Mom. I did what it said for dark soda stains but umm, there was a lot of it."

"Did you try the instructions for dark vomit soda?" Rebekah couldn't help peevishly asking.

"Ugh, we'll worry about the dress later, nobody else mention vomit.  Let's eat!"

"Come on, baby ballet chef!" Wendy commanded. 

[LauraVB]

Rebekah followed them to the table and sat down grumpily.  He crossed his arms and waited. His lower back ached from flouncing and waddling all day. He was more convinced than ever both his mother and Wendy deserved a taste of their own medicine. 

"How about some iced tea please, Rebekah?" his mother asked.

He became an additional amount convinced that his mother and sister deserved a taste of their own medicine. "Fine," He stood up, moodily, and went to the fridge before returning with the pitcher.  He poured glasses for the two of them and then waddled back to his seat and sat down.  "Well go ahead, tell me how you like it. I hope it's not too bland!"

"Doesn't smell like it!" Elena said before trying a bite of a hunk of the beef covered in streaming chili sauce with the heat turned up a thousand times from the spice level indicated on the recipe card.  Wendy dug in greedily as well.  Rebekah waited and for a few moments there was no reaction.  They each took another bite each.  Rebekah became concerned he was too timid in the face of a novelty emergency warning.

Then he saw them both begin to sweat.  Rebekah smiled.  Wendy pounded the table and glared at him.  Elena ran to the fridge and grabbed a beer and tossed a carton of milk to Wendy. Rebekah laughed out loud. The milk was always what she tried for him whenever his food was too spicy.  It never worked.  It didn't seem to work any better for Wendy. She started to chug multiple glasses of iced tea.  Elena went to the sink and started filling her own glass with water instead.

They sat there for several minutes breathing heavily and Rebekah was pretty sure they were both crying.  "Good!" he thought, "Now you know how I feel!"

Eventually Elena recovered enough to speak, "Is that pineapple?" she asked Rebekah.  She took another bite of the chili.

"What?" he gasped.

Wendy said, "I think so, just a little bit." She smiled at Rebekah with red, bloodshot eyes, "Now we're getting somewhere!"

"It's great, Rebekah! Your own little touch, pineapple. You can add it to the recipe every time you make it! You finally got the spices right, too.  You wore gloves when you cut the peppers, right? Not the latex? You told him, Wendy, right?"

"No, Mom. I didn't have to tell him. It's right there on the card."

Rebekah nodded along in a daze, not actually listening.

"Oh! I've got it!" Elena said as she chewed through a succulent hunk of beef, "Becky-Bow's Ballet Bistro!"

"SHUT UP, MOM! SHUT UP!  I hate you! How could you let her put these things in my ears!? They're ringing you know! Why is all this a joke to you? I'm sorry! Okay! I told you I didn't know she was sick, okay! I'm sorry! I don't wanna go deaf though so I don't care what else you do to me you have to get them out!"

Elena dropped the bowl she had been slurping the bottom of and it clanged on the floor, "Things in your ears!? What the hell are you talking about!?" She turned to Wendy with a glare.

Meanwhile, Rebekah Rainbow reached to his eye to wipe away a tear of misery.  He did this with a finger that had, counter to his expectations, not adequately been protected by the latex barrier between hand and dried hot pepper or between hand and cap of quickly and recklessly dumped bottle containing pure capsaicin crystals.  He brushed his finger against his mascara enhanced fluttering eyelashes with just one single gentle touch much like a bee harvesting pollen from a flower blossom, but it was quite enough.

Rebekah Rainbow screamed in pain from the hot pepper in his eyes and wet his pants like a little baby. "I don't wanna be a ballet chef anymore!" he screamed as his mother frantically dragged him to the bathroom so she could look in his ears.

[Sissy Poopsie]

Wow what a cliff hanger. I can hardly wait to see what will happen now. Will big sis talk her way out of it with mom?

Will mom keep him in pull ups or nappies since he has started wetting himself?  Since he is now spilling things on his pretty dresses a bib might be needed when he is eating or drinking.

Please don't keep us in suspense to long to see what comes next.

[SissyBraelyn]

I have liked your story so far it’s good to see Rebeka getting his just desserts but his sister is going overboard and she will get caught since she isn’t being careful about it or responsible since she locked him outside in the hot sun forcing him to walk like a girl
I bet Wendy regrets omitting to tell mom about the tiny speakers in his ears or even doing it since that was very dangerous especially having it last a few months it would have done serious long term damage to his ears that could not heal, it would have only taken a week for with them in for him to fear the crying of the baby and want to look after it and for it to end up being a security blanket for him, maybe he could tell mom how long she was planning to keep them in his ears maybe she would put them in Wendy’s ears to make her understand what it was like to put up with the speakers in her ears than maybe she would understand how cruel they were to him

[krystalasbaby2017]

Nice place to leave it for the next installment.  I hope wendy gets a piece of her own medicine but that is high unlikely to happen

[Baby Mac]

Such creative stuff i hope it gets darker.