Rugrats: All Growed up? A Tale of Angelica

Chapter 1
Miene Pickel

Chapter Description: To a teen, a zit can be the end of their world.

Angela exited the school bus that pulled up to her house with a weary sigh.

She walked wearily through her front door and headed straight for her room at the top of the stairs.

Every step felt a challenge for her as she believed the world had ended and left her alone and helpless to deal with her personal crisis.

Ever the drama queen, she sighed theatrically while attempting to open her door. With no one noticing her acting skills, she shook her head in disappointment and slammed the door behind her.

She threw her book bag at a waiting chair next to her bed and hesitated before sitting down at a large vanity mirror to asses her image.

What she saw there confirmed the sightings of her contemporaries and upon confirming it, only made her feel all the worse.

“It’s a zit,” she said with great exasperation.

“It’s a freaking zit!” she exclaimed as if hoping that it would shrink away from her visage upon the declaration of truth.

The zit apparently had other plans. It sat there prominently, a red welt surrounding a large white bump directly in the middle of her forehead.

“No wonder they called me Cyclops!” sighed a very depressed Angelica.

A zit to a teen isn’t usually a big thing. It’s just a part of growing older, but the first time one shows up can be traumatic to the sensitive ones.

Angelica was sensitive. Under her demeanor of confidence and control sat a small, very insecure little girl. It had been this way from the moment she found she could boss around her younger cousins.

“What happened?” she asked herself. The days when she ruled over Tommy, Chuckie, Dil, Lil and Phil in the living room and backyard were long gone. Heck, she’d even forgotten about them!

After remembering and relishing some of her more youthful discretions for a few moments, she impulsively called Tommy on her cell phone.

“Hi, Angelica!” an exuberant and chipper voice answered her call. Tommy always thought the best of someone, no matter who they were!

“Hi, Tommy! I was just thinking about the things I used to do to, um, with you guys and wanted to talk about it.”

The voice on the cell phone gulped slightly. Painful memories of a bossy young girl had left more than a few marks psychologically on him.

He asked, “Anything in particular?”

Angelica could feel his hesitation. It gave her a sense of power that she didn’t fully comprehend. A small girl in the back of her head, 3 or 4 years of age, chortled delightedly and rubbed her hands together in anticipation.

Before she could answer, a flood of fresh memories overwhelmed her. She remembered how her cousin stood up for her, called her family, and treated her with respect and love even after all the mean things she’d done to him over the years.

Tommy, Dil, and Chuckie had forgiven Angelica. She realized, to her shock, that the mean-spirited little girl was her past, but it wasn’t her future.

“You know what? I think it’d be better if we meet up and talk about it. Would that be okay, Tommy?” Her voice took on a gentleness that Tommy picked up immediately.

“Sure thing, Angelica!” he replied happily. “When would you like to meet?”

“Could we discuss it at your place? It’s kinda important.”

“Okay! Come right over. Supper will be ready soon and I’m certain mom will be more than happy to see you!”

“Thank you, Tommy, I’ll be right over!” she hung up with a smile and the warm feeling that her cousin loved her and would move heaven and earth just for her happiness.

Her mood had gone from a worried teen to an elated one as she nearly skipped her way over to her cousin’s house.

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When she arrived, Stu greeted her from the kitchen, where he prepared a salad. Didi caught the cue while busy making certain her pot roast was cooking properly and called out her hellos. Dil muttered something while playing an old PS-2 game.

Tommy got up from a recliner chair, gave her a warm cousin-like hug, and directed her to his room, closing the door behind them.

Angelica sat down on Dil’s bed while Tommy took up residence on his. She'd come here with the best of intentions and now felt embarrassed about what she wanted to talk about. She stared at Tommy, not knowing where to begin.

Fortunately, Tommy had been on this path in the woods before. He asked Angelica if she wanted something to drink, saw to her needs, and waited.

After a few halting moments, Angelica finally mentioned her facial blemish, to which Tommy suggested a few remedies. He himself was battling zits, too.

After a bit of small talk, Angelica remembered the time when she’d hidden his Reptar doll and tortured the babies about it. She seemed to shrink into herself as she told the tale, her voice rising and cracking. Her memory of it was so vivid that she felt as if she were 4 again and just experiencing it for the first time.

Tommy just listened and smiled as she related. After a few struggles to relate her past aggressions, Angelica opened up more, and the two reminisced happily for a while.

Dinner was served, and Angelica happily supped with her aunt, uncle, and cousins. She thanked them for their hospitality before departing for the evening.

As she walked home, a clear picture of her bratty childlike self formed in her mind. The red-striped long-sleeved shirt, purple jumper dress, blue stockings, and sneakers were hideous to her now, but they’d been practically the only thing that she wore back then.

“Ugh! And those Pippi braids in my hair!” she said aloud with disgust, remembering the purple hair bows that had held them.

She went straight home, still feeling a bit nauseated as the memories of her past childish fashion sense emerged again and again.

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After a shower with her face scrubbed and Tommy’s supplied zit cream applied to the crater on her forehead, Angelica went to bed. She tossed and turned for a few moments while remembering all the embarrassing things that happened but fell asleep eventually.

As her brain processed all the information of the day, Angelica dreamed. She saw her present self admiring the clear and blemish-free image of herself reflected in the mirror.

Preening selfishly and confident in her looks, she bragged to no one in particular about how stunning she looked now that she had no zits on her face. Tommy walked up and looked at Angelica with a shocked expression on his face.

“Tommy, what’s the matter?”

“I’m sorry, Angelica, but that zit cream I gave you wasn’t zit cream!”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Well, Dad’s been working on a cream to make people younger…”

Angelica, initially confused, now wondered if her cousin was playing a prank on her.

“People don’t get younger, Tommy! We grow up and get old and eventually…”

“Yes, Angelica, we do, but if you look in the mirror again…”

He seemed taller than she felt he should be. Wanting to prove him wrong, she turned to the mirror and saw a bratty child of 10.

“It’s not me! That’s not me!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, waking herself up from her nightmare. Not quite awake, she stumbled to her bathroom and turned on the light.

The brightness temporarily blinded her as she struggled to see her reflection. As her eyes adjusted, they saw…

“Oh, it was just a dream! Thank goodness!” said a relieved Angelica. She admired the crater on her forehead and puzzled over whether it had shrunk for a few moments before going back to bed and falling asleep.

Her dream resumed from where she’d left off. Angelica smiled to herself, for she knew now that she was dreaming. She enjoyed it now that she had proven it illusory.

Turning to the dream Tommy, who still wore his expression of worried incredulity, she asked, “Okay, I’m getting younger. How young am I going to get, Tommy?”

“I don’t know, the cream’s experimental. Let’s hope you don’t disappear!”

Her theatrical side came online allowing her to assume the role of a rapidly de-aging girl. Looking to her dream mirror for clues, she realized she had to step up on a children’s stool to see herself. 5-year-old Angelica smiled back with a missing tooth at her.

“Oh noes! Whatevers shall I do?” she mock-swooned while stepping out of her too-large pajamas. The top came off next, leaving a naked little Angelica standing in the middle of her bedroom clothing.

“Don’t wook, Tommy! I’s nakey!” she said, thinking children of this age talked and acted this way.

“There’s not much to see, Angelica. It looks like you’ve stopped at age 3. Let’s get some clothing on you,” said the dream Tommy as he scooped up the little girl.

He put her down and went into her closet, which someone had emptied of all her teen outfits and now had several copies of her old favorite.

Although the dream Angelica was 3, her mind still kept its teen mentality.

“Oh, Gawd, NO! Not that outfit! Please, Tommy, don’t make me wear that!”

"Well, okay, Angelica, but the only outfit left is this one,” he said as he put a purple play shirt on her bed along with some cotton socks, a bib, a rattle, and a baby bonnet.

Angelica looked at the assorted clothing and asked, “Where’s the underwear and pants? Are there shorts, maybe?”

“That’s over here," he said, walking up to a well-stocked changing table. “Do you want to be diapered now or after you put on the rest of your clothes?”

“Diapers? I, um,” stammered the naked little girl. She walked over to the bed and picked up the bonnet. After trying it on, she decided that this baby outfit would be a lot better than that old monstrosity!

“Let’s do this!” she said enthusiastically.

Tommy picked her up and lovingly applied ointment, powder, and a fresh, thick diaper with colorful drawings of building blocks on its landing strip. He put on the rest of Angelica’s clothing and finished dressing her with her socks.

“There you go, Angellyka!” said Tommy in a childish voice. When Angelica turned around, she found Tommy had become a two-year-old wearing a blue shirt and a thick diaper. She gave him a big hug.

“You wanna play Reptar with me?”

The two played with their Reptar doll for a long time in her dream.

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She awoke the next morning smiling at the fun dream she just had. Bits of it faded as she recalled it, but the main thing she remembered was that she played nicely with her cousin and they had a fun time.

(End Chapter One)