"He's my bunny so we should name him what I named him!"
April couldn't believe it. Just because Becky decided that Mr B should be called Furgus, everyone wanted to name him that. Mister B might have started out as Liz's bunny but ended up being hers so she should get to decide what he was called. Liz and Mom and Dad said 'be fair' because Becky had fallen in love with him. What that meant, of course, was that her opinion didn't count so she should just kindly stop talking, young lady.
Funny. She'd thought that being a big kid in elementary school would mean that people would listen to her. Dad meant well but the older she got and the less inclined she was to sit still and let Mom touch her and put on all that frilly junk she hated, the colder he was to her. Mike was always running around, Liz always acted like it was some big, horrible thing to have a baby sister and she never quite knew what Becky was thinking but was pretty sure it was bad. She did know what Mom was thinking. Mom was thinking that she didn't believe her when she said things. For instance, she didn't believe her when she'd said that Liz called her an accident. Then again, Mom either couldn't seem to remember (or didn't wanna) that rabbits gotta chew stuff 'cause their teeth never stop growing so it wasn't like Mom actually saw stuff that'd help people. She just seemed to see all the things that made her angry.
Well, part of that could have been that her own mom was going up to Heaven. It was kind of hard for April to really think of Mommy as ever having been a kid like her 'cause she acted like she was born old, angry and yelling at people about how they take her for granted but she and Uncle Phil and Grandpa Jim talked about her doing regular stuff kids did so she must have been one. Anyways, Grandma Marian went away and a couple of months later, Grandpa Jim moved in with them.
April loved Grandpa Jim 'cause he always had time for her and didn't lose interest like Dad or patience like Mom or ignore her like Mike or treat her like an robber like Liz. When she talked about how awful mean'ol Jeremy was, he listened and he cared. Well, Dad did care but he didn't seem to want to do anything. Mom didn't listen at all. "Be nice to Jermy Wormy Jeremy Jones", she said. Nice! To someone who threw Grandpa Jim's harmonica outta the bus? To someone who wanted to hurt her? There she was, riding her bike and Jeremy wanted to pulverize her for what? 'Cause his dad wasn't around 'cause he played a harmonica? Sure, she didn't want him to get hurt and end up in the hospital either but it just didn't make sense that he'd do that.
Funny thing, though. When Jeremy's mom said what his dad did, Mommy left to get a coffee and the nurse came in and said to Mrs Jones "Way to be useless, lady. You fill your kid's head with a bunch of hot air about how bad it is you got dumped for a harmonica and the little thug wanted to get back at him by beating the tar out of a kid. You must feel real proud, dummy." Mrs Jones said that was none of her business and the nurse she wished it was but CPS doesn't have enough money to chase down every bitter idiot who regrets having children or they'd have gotten the lunatic the dentist married long ago.
That was as confusing as having to deal with Deanna's mother. April couldn't quite figure her out but it looked to her like the fat lady ran around yelling "You can't be happy! I'm fat and mean and loud and have to win all the time! You can't have a simple wedding! You can't wear a pretty wedding dress! You can't have Lawrence be best man! I'm loud and fat and angry and have to win all the time and I'm only happy when other people are upset!"
Funny how she and Mom were so much alike about that last part. Then again, her life was loaded with coincidences.