Angela sighed. She didn’t play with toys. Once in a while, she might color in a coloring book along with a girl who she was babysitting, and she enjoyed playing games and even watching cartoons once in a while, but there were limits for her. Spending time and money to collect a bunch of dolls and then sitting on the floor dressing them was one of them.
“What are you doing?” Angela asked her, even though she already knew what the response was going to be.
Claire looked a little bit uncomfortable. Angela wondered if Claire was afraid of her.
“I’m playing with my Barbies. Do you want to join me?” she asked, her voice sounding sweet and innocent.
Angela looked around the room for signs of mischief, but was disappointed to discover that there was no mess, no broken lamps, no glitter everywhere. Claire was being a good little girl. What a letdown, Angela thought.
“Thanks, but no thanks,” Angela told Claire. “Barbies are for babies.”
Claire’s face looked hurt right away, and Angela thought that all of her emotions had to be kept pretty close to the surface.
“No, they aren’t,” Claire defended herself. “My daddy says that big girls play with them too. Come on, they’re fun.”
“I told you no. I’m the grownup here and you have to listen to me and I’m telling you that I don’t want to play with your dolls like some kind of baby.” Angela rolled her eyes.
“I’m not a baby,” Claire insisted. She stood up, getting close to Angela. Claire was almost as tall as she was.
Something inside Angela snapped. She couldn’t help it. It bothered her that some of the girls could sit on their floors being carefree and not having to worry about anything. It bothered her that even within a community for people who were deviant from society in the way that she was, Angela wasn’t entirely the norm, as she was pretty sure that most of the girls in the community enjoyed younger age play than she did. It made all of her insecurities rush back to her, even though she had tried her best to let them go during her sexy times with her daddy earlier, and then paint them over with makeup and straighten them out of her hair before leaving the house.
“Yes, you are!” Angela almost yelled. “Look at this room. It has stuffed animals everywhere. There’s a rocking chair in the corner. I don’t know how you survive in the outside world. You work, don’t you? What do you do at work? Do you sleep in here all by yourself? Do you have to wear pull-ups to bed to keep from wetting it?” she ranted.
Angela looked at Claire’s innocent little face again and noticed that she was crying. Part of her felt suddenly guilty for her outburst, and like she needed to apologize right away. The other part felt even more annoyed at Claire for not being able to control herself in front of a total stranger.
Just then, she heard her daddy’s voice behind her. “We’re back, girls,” Charlie said. He then seemed to survey the room and asked, “What’s going on here?”
Angela decided that the best thing to do was to try to make it seem like nothing had happened. She had assumed that Charlie and Jensen were going to be gone much longer than this, and had intended to calm Claire down before they returned.
“Nothing! Claire just dropped one of her Barbies and I was helping her,” she lied, smiling to make things seem more believable, or so she hoped.
Jensen seemed concerned about Claire. It made sense to Angela that he would, of course, because she was standing there crying.
“Is what Angela said true, Claire?” Jensen asked.
Charlie gave Angela a stern look, as if he was trying to figure out exactly what was going on. Angela had a sinking feeling that he had a pretty good idea that she wasn’t telling the truth.
Claire tried to push past Jensen, but he wouldn’t move.
“Claire, I asked you a question.” Jensen repeated to his little girl again, gently grabbing her by the shoulders.
“Just leave me alone, Jensen. She was fine. I just want to be left alone now,” Claire blurted out as she pushed him aside and ran out of the room and down the hallway.
Angela would have felt vindicated by the fact that Claire was covering for her if she hadn’t done it in the middle of an emotional outburst, making it clear that something had happened that made her really upset. Angela began to worry that Charlie would think that she had ordered Claire to lie for her.
“Claire!” Jensen called out, his face tense with worry.
“I want to be alone… as an adult!” Claire shouted without turning around. She went into the master bedroom and slammed the door.
Angela was left alone with Jensen and Charlie in Claire’s little room, studying the mess of Barbie clothes on the floor.
Charlie looked to Jensen. “I’ll take Angela home and have a talk with her and we’ll see if we can’t figure out what happened,” he suggested.
Angela just looked at the floor, feeling sheepish and uncomfortable. She couldn’t even try to pull off her usual attempt at teenager nonchalance in the face of a situation she didn’t want to deal with. She considered apologizing to Jensen, but she didn’t want to get into something more complicated here, in front of people she hardly knew.
Well, that was as bad as it could have been, she thought to herself, shrugging her shoulders with a deep sigh as Charlie led her downstairs to get her coat and shoes.
Chapter Six
Charlie’s heart was beating angrily in his chest as he led Angela to the car after saying goodnight to his friend. He got into the driver’s side and shut the door without saying a word to his wife.
In the car, he turned on the heat and started to drive, the silence between the two of them awkward and heavy. Charlie wasn’t ignoring Angela because he wanted to punish her with his silence, though; he was simply too upset with Angela’s behavior, and he didn’t trust himself not to blow up at her. He knew that he needed to be calm to properly address the situation, so he took deep breaths as they drove.
Charlie and Jensen had come back to Jensen and Claire’s house early, since their event had ended up being cancelled because of the bad weather. As he had come up the stairs, he had heard his little girl taunting and teasing Claire about her little behavior and he had been outraged by what he was hearing. He had heard reports from others that Angela had been mean to younger girls, like the other day with Morgan, but he had never heard it for himself, and it made him furious to hear such cruel ideas coming from his little girl’s mouth.
What had made things worse, though, was the fact that once he and Jensen had confronted the two girls, Angela had lied to his face. He wondered how often Angela said things that weren’t true. Charlie had always assumed that his little girl was honest with him. And then there was the fact that Claire had insisted that nothing had happened so vehemently while being clearly upset.
* * *
When they arrived home, Charlie brought Angela into the house and took her coat for her.
“Sit down,” he instructed, pointing to the sofa. “I want the truth and I want all of it,” he demanded.
Angela took a deep breath, looking like she might burst into tears herself. “Well, Claire made me feel weird,” she started.
Charlie felt the impulse to butt in and ask what exactly that meant, but he did his best to hold his tongue and not interrupt her. It was important to him not to talk over Angela, because while he wanted her to know that he was in control, he also didn’t want her to think that her words and thoughts weren’t important to him.
“Like, she was so shy, and she was just so much younger than me and my friends. Like, when she hid behind her daddy, you know? She couldn’t even say hi to us like a normal person.”
“I don’t like the idea that some people in our community are normal and others aren’t,” Charlie said very calmly. “There isn’t a right and a wrong way to express their feelings and there isn’t a right and a wrong way to do age play.”
Angela nodded, tears starting to escape her eyes and roll down her face, leaving marks in her previously perfect makeup.
> “Go on, I want to hear the rest,” Charlie said, his words somewhere between being encouraging and demanding.
“Well,” Angela started, “she didn’t seem to want to do something with me, like when I babysat for Wendy we just played games together and it was fun, but Claire just wanted to do her own thing, I guess. Maybe she just didn’t like me, I don’t know. So I watched the rest of the cos play show by myself and then I went up to see if she was okay.”
Charlie’s brow furrowed. It seemed strange that Angela would be hung up on the idea that Claire didn’t like her, but it didn’t seem manufactured to him. Her face and her big, teary eyes told him that this was truth.
“Anyway, she was playing with Barbies in her room, like you saw. She has…” Angela sniffled. “She has her own room for her to be a little girl in, I guess. And I dunno, she’s just so little and babyish…”
Charlie did interrupt her this time. “That’s not nice, and you know it,” he scolded.
“I just don’t get it. I didn’t know that there were other people that wanted to act younger until I got on the Internet and I met the other girls ‘my age,’ the other middles! But then we came here and I feel like it’s normal to be like Claire! I feel like little girls are supposed to be so little. They’re supposed to be like babies!
“Maybe I’m just doing it wrong!” Angela continued. “But I don’t wanna do those things! I don’t want to play with dolls and have a rocking horse and wear baby onesies to bed or something. I thought if I came here I could just be me and no one would think I was weird, but I’m not the same as everyone else here, either!” Angela wailed, starting to sob.
Charlie walked over to his little girl and pulled her into his lap. He gently rubbed her back, soothing her as she cried.
“Angela, this isn’t about what’s right and what’s wrong. There are so many different couples in Little Haven! And they’re all different. You have lots of friends who like to be teen girls like you. And sometimes, when you want to be a little bit littler—because I know you do—that’s alright, too. I wouldn’t even say that there are more girls who play like Claire do!”
Charlie sighed. He should have known that there were a lot of complicated emotions behind Angela’s behavior. He almost felt bad for assuming that she had only been being mean-spirited. Angela was a complicated girl. She came from a comfortable family life, with a pair of sweet parents who had loved her and her sister and taken good care of them growing up. Angela’s mother even knew, in vague terms, about her relationship with Charlie and why they had moved to Minnesota and she didn’t judge her daughter for it.
Angela had always been pretty, had always been good at athletic activities, and had even done competitive dancing in high school, and while there was no sign that she had ever been bullied or mistreated, Charlie could tell that she hadn’t had many friends and hadn’t felt like she was liked or normal. He knew that his wife’s long-kept secret that she wanted to be treated like a little girl and spanked hard on her bare bottom had made her feel different from others before they had moved here, but he had hoped that over the past couple of years she had gained confidence and accepted herself.
“Angela,” Charlie started again, “everyone feels insecure sometimes. I bet you that every little girl in this town cries to her daddy because she isn’t sure that she’s doing things right, or she thinks that no one here likes her, or she’s scared of being judged. You just have to let that all go. The only thing that’s going to make people dislike you is if you’re mean to them.”
Angela started to cry harder. “I didn’t mean to be mean!” she insisted. “It just happened.”
Charlie held her tight and gently stroked her hair until she calmed down.
“I understand why you acted this way now, Angie,” he told her, “but that doesn’t make it okay. You’re going to get a serious punishment for this behavior. I think you need it. I think you need to let go of all your feelings about this subject, and I think you need to realize just how much you upset and embarrass other girls when you take your insecurities out on them.”
Angela nodded slightly, “Yes, daddy,” she whispered.
“For now, though, it’s time for my little girl to go to bed. You’ve had a big day.”
Charlie helped Angela to her feet and led her up the stairs. He waited at the doorway while she washed all the makeup off her face and moisturized it, then took her hair down and brushed her teeth. He led her to the bedroom, then he undressed her and slipped a nightie over her head. He then pulled back the covers on the bed and helped Angela in. He got up on the bed and sat down next to her, continuing to gently stroke her hair and back.
“No matter what you do to act up and be a naughty little girl, I still love you so much. You’re my little princess and you are my whole world,” he whispered to her. “I’m going to punish you harshly tomorrow, but only because I adore you and I want you to be your best self. I know you understand, and I know you know that you need it, don’t you?” he asked.
Angela nodded, seeming suddenly very tired out, even though it was nowhere near her bedtime. “I love you, too, daddy,” she said.
“Get some sleep, my love,” he said, kissing her on the cheek and turning the light out as he left the room.
Charlie then went downstairs to make a couple of phone calls before it got too late. There were people he needed to connect with before tomorrow.
Chapter Seven
Angela woke up the next morning to find Charlie standing next to her, already dressed. She rubbed her eyes, remembering that it was Saturday. Then she remembered everything that had happened the night before and Charlie’s promise of big trouble the next day and her heart sank.
“Good morning, little girl,” Charlie said to Angela. “I thought long and hard about this, and I decided that the best way for me to teach you how much you humiliate other girls when you’re mean to them the way you were mean to Claire last night is to give you a punishment that emulates that humiliation.”
Charlie smiled a sort of wry smile. “So, for this weekend, you’re going to be treated as a very little girl, in addition to the other punishments that you have coming. I’m hoping that this brings the message home. Being treated like a very young girl is the punishment that I referred to before, the special one that was reserved particularly for this situation.”
Angela groaned and sank back down in bed, hiding her face under the covers. Surely Charlie wasn’t being serious, was he?
“So, come on, get up! I’m going to give you a bath before I dress you,” he demanded.
“Daddy, I’m too old for baths! I can take my own shower,” Angela tried to complain.
“Not today you can’t. Today you’re my little girl, and little girls have to be helped in the bath. Let’s go,” he said matter-of-factly, taking Angela by the hand and practically pulling her out of bed. He marched her down the hallway to the bathroom, where he knelt by the tub and started to run the tap.
“I have to make sure the water isn’t too hot for my little one,” he explained as he checked the temperature.
“Don’t make it cold!” Angela whined, worrying that the water wouldn’t compare to her usual hot morning shower.
“Don’t worry, daddy will take care of you,” he cooed.
Angela looked at the floor, feeling overcome with shame and embarrassment.
Once Charlie seemed content that the water was the right temperature for Angela, he turned back to her. “It’s time to get undressed. Put your arms up.”
Being undressed by Charlie was fairly normal to Angela, so she wasn’t so embarrassed as she lifted her arms for him to pull her flimsy nightie over her head. He then rolled her panties down her legs and ordered her to step out, then left her in the bathroom while he walked into the hallway to throw them in the hamper.
Angela wasn’t sure what was going to happen next, as the tub still needed to fill quite a bit, but Charlie had a plan. He turned the sink on and got Angela’s toothbrush from the holder. He
wet it, then opened the cabinet door to pull out a small tube of ‘Little Bear’-themed toothpaste.
“Where did this come from?” Angela whined. “I don’t want baby toothpaste!”
Charlie gave her a swift smack on her bare bottom. “Hush,” he said. “No more complaining. I went to the store outside the community before you woke up and picked up some things that I’m going to need to discipline you today. There are still a few things missing, but we’ll go to the store here in town together and get those later,” he explained.
Charlie squeezed toothpaste onto the toothbrush and handed it to Angela.
“Go ahead and brush. But make sure you do a good job, because daddy’s gonna check,” he told her.
Angela groaned, but stuck the toothbrush in her mouth. She made a face; the toothpaste tasted like bubblegum, and had a strong, artificially sweet taste.
Charlie snickered at her reaction, which only made Angela pout more.
She began to brush her teeth, feeling a bit self-conscious to have Charlie watching her. When she was finished, she spit out the rest of the toothpaste in the sink and went to rinse her toothbrush, but Charlie stopped her.
“Let me check and see if you did a good job,” he told her. “Open wide!”
With her cheeks flushing red, Angela forced her mouth open. Charlie peeked inside and declared that she had, indeed, done a good job. He let Angela rinse her mouth, but rinsed her toothbrush himself and put it back in the holder.
“Now,” he said, “it’s time for your bath.”
Angela sighed deeply as Charlie helped her into the tub. To her surprise, the water was exactly the right temperature, and the soothing warmth of it relaxed her muscles. She couldn’t remember the last time she had taken a bath, and she had forgotten how nice it could feel.
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