“NO!NO, HER TAKED MY COLOR!”Peter launched himself at Tori, who immediately socked him in the nose.
He grabbed Peter and held them apart.“Tori!”
She stared at him, eyes wide.“What?”
“You can’t hit.”He didn’t understand their trouble.
“He hit me first.”
“I did not.You taked my color.”
She shook her head.“I didn’t.This one is mine.”
JP appeared in the doorway to Tori’s bedroom, panting and leaning hard against the jam.“It doesn’t sound like everything is all right at all.What is going on here?”
“Love!Are you okay?”
“Her taked my color!”
“I DID NOT!”
Ian stared at Tori.“No screaming.”
“You don’t listen!”
JP blinked a couple times, then hauled himself back to standing.“Okay.Clearly these two need to be separated, right?I could take Peter to his room?”
“Please.I need to figure this out and no one is calming down.”He handed Peter over to his other father.
“Come on, Petey, show me your room.”He thought he heard a grunt as JP started walking down the hall, but he chose to ignore it in favor of figuring out what the heck was wrong with Tori.
“Daddy.”Tori stared at him.“I said ask nice.”
“I know, but I don’t understand.”He sat down on Tori’s bed.“Can you tell me?”
She sighed and slapped her hands on her thighs.“Daddy.I no take Petey’s color.Thismine.”
“How do you know?”Because the crayons were all exactly the same.
She pointed to her box of crayons, which did have a single red crayon removed.“See?I share, but he has to ask nice.”
“Okay but that still doesn’t make it okay to hit.”
“Him hitted me first.”She glared at him.
“That’s not what I saw, honey.And even if he did, it’s still not okay to hit.”
She rolled her eyes.“I am mad!It is mine color!”
“Since when did you have your own colors?I thought the two of you shared everything?”And they never fought like this, either.
“Dad gave me a box and hims a box.I got two color books.Petey got two color books.”
Where the heck had JP gotten coloring books and crayons?
“Dad did?”
“Uh-huh.”She went to the floor and grabbed two coloring books and a box of crayons, both with her name on them.
