“Yes, I promise I won’t burn down the house,” Jim laughed. “Of course…well, you know me…I miss you too…I love you.”
He hung up the phone and sighed. This senior guidance counselor, Gina Keller, either needed a doctor or a lecture, because it seemed every week she had one excuse or another to skip out on some sort of work obligation. Her latest ailment, a sudden onset urinary tract infection, had Pam staying late to work College Night at the high school.
So that left Jim to pick up Alexander from Chess Club, Natalie from jazz dance, and Cecelia should be home in -
Bang!
“Don’t slam the door!” He yelled out in greeting from upstairs.
“Don’t pop a vessel,” was the response he got back and he wondered whether washing a child’s mouth out with soap would be considered child abuse. Cece was a sweet kid, much better behaved than a lot of her classmates, but she still had the mouth of a 12-year-old sometimes.
In the midst of wondering when his baby girl had become a teenager, Jim heard her yell “Mom” in a half-gasp, half-shriek that set off his Dad Panic button and he rushed for the stairs.
“What’s wrong, Cee?” he asked, hurrying down.
She was standing in the hallway, shaking her head at him. “Where’s Mom?” she demanded.
Jim moved toward her. “She has to work late. Cece, what’s the matter?”
She glared. “I need Mom. Can I call her?”
He didn’t know what was going on, but he was getting worried. “Cecelia, what’s wrong?”
“Can I call Mom?” she demanded again, and Jim shook his head.
“Tell me, Cee,” he said, “are you sick?”
She sighed loudly and pushed past him, running up the stairs, Jim hot on her heels.
“Leave me alone,” she yelled, barging into her parents’ room and heading to the bathroom.
He went after her. “What are you -” he watched as she opened the cabinet under the sink and started rifling through it, a move that didn‘t thrill him considering some of the things that were kept in there. “Hey,” he said sternly, “Privacy.”
“Go away!” she screamed and he could hear the tears in her voice. He kneeled down next to her and put his hand on her back.
“Cece…”
She pushed him off and kept going through the cabinet, pushing aside items, picking them up and putting them back down - shaving cream, cotton balls, hair dryer, soap, tampons - she threw down the last item with a bit of extra force and a frustrated grunt.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh… Now he got it.
Clearly, this was not something Cece was in the mood to talk to Dad about. And frankly he wasn't entirely sure he would know how to have the particular discussion.
“Hey,” he said quietly, rubbing circles beneath her shoulder blades in a way that had calmed her when she was a baby and still soothed her when she was sick or upset. “I need to go to the store to get some things for dinner. Come with me.”
She glared. “I don’t want to go to the stupid store.”
“Come on,” he insisted, “I don’t want to go alone. It’ll be faster with two. You can pick out dessert for tonight. Anything you want.”
Cece rolled her eyes. She picked up the bag of cotton balls and threw it down again. “I’m not a kid, Dad.”
Yeah, he was being reminded of that almost every day.
“Come on,” he pressed. “I’ll buy you that fancy hair stuff you like.”
Bribery was not Jim’s preferred method of parenting, but in a pinch it was certainly effective. And since Cece was clearly not in the mood to open up to her father and he was pretty sure she’d drop dead of embarrassment if he came home from going to the store alone and dropped a package of Kotex in her hands, he had to get her out the door somehow.
“Fine,” she sighed begrudgingly.
Hey, it worked.
When they reached the Price Chopper, he reached into his wallet and handed her two twenties.
“This will go faster if we divide and conquer,” he told the fidgeting, sullen-faced girl. “You go get your hair stuff and pick out a dessert. I’m going to get things for salad, and how about grilled cheese and tomato soup tonight?”
Grilled cheese and tomato soup was Cece’s favorite, and the suggestion earned him a tiny smile.
“Okay,” she agreed.
Jim nodded. “Just go through the checkout and we’ll meet at the exit in 20 minutes,” he instructed.
“Okay,” she said again, and turned to walk toward the bakery section. He turned the opposite way, moving toward the dairy aisle, but turned to peek back and spotted Cece doubling back and jogging to Aisle 6, marked, among other things, Feminine Hygiene Products.
Jim sighed loudly and pressed his fingertips to his temples. Fine night it was for Pam to have to work late.
He was going to kick this Gina Keller’s ass.
Author's Chapter Notes:
We all have one of these stories, don't we, girls?
Chapter End Notes:
So in writing Jim as the parent of a teenage girl, I'm trying to make him sensitive, because I think he's a sensitive guy, but not overly in touch with his feminine side. Like I really could not see him having some 7th Heaven moment congratulating Cece on her "womanhood," but he also wasn't going to be skeeved out by it. I hope the portrayal seems true to character (and that Cece is coming across believably as she ages). Thanks so much for your thoughts.
