The air park was shockingly loud. Though the noise felt like an assault on Briana’s ears at first, it soon faded to the back of her awareness as a dull roar. Or rather, an exciting roar – one that was hyping up her emotions even more than they already had been. The school quarter was wrapping up nicely. Briana still had finals to finish, but the really important part of her PHD program – her research work – was a big success. Melody was doing well too, though their academic progress had never been in doubt the way Briana’s was.
In celebration, Veronica had planned a trip to the Flying Squirrel Air Park. Mom’s initial description of the place had been bland, simply mentioning that they had a lot of trampolines. Upon seeing the place, Briana wondered if Veronica might describe New York as having a lot of streets. There were trampolines bigger than Briana’s entire bedroom all over the place! Not only that, but some of the trampolines were set up at angles on the wall, usually near a pit of foam chunks. While trampolines were the main attraction, there were swings, a bridge over a huge foam pit, and a huge number of arcade machines. To crown the experience, the built-in restaurant specialized in pizza and other foods that were reserved for treat meals.
Watching the scary video on trampoline safety had been mandatory. Briana would have preferred to skip the bad animations of people breaking their bones, personally. Once it was done, Mom had given her a pat on her padded butt and sent her out into the madness. Melody had lingered behind while Briana charged the first trampoline and gleefully leapt for its middle. She was rewarded with a huge bounce, and another, before managing a wobbly bounce off to the side to land on solid ground. She met Melody’s eyes, laughing manically. That sort of thing normally gave her sibling pause – Briana was delighted to see Melody’s eyes light up instead.
In moments they were bouncing together on a bigger trampoline, hanging on to each other’s shortall straps and giggling wildly. With its boldly painted colors and unashamed pursuit of fun, the air park was the kind of place Briana had ached to visit growing up. Now she had a padded bum and her Mom watching in her trademark black dress, while she bounced like a Tigger. Briana’s fantasies had come true – better than she’d imagined them.
“Let’s try the ones over there.” Melody pointed at an angled trampoline where kids and adults were launching themselves into a foam pit. Briana nodded, too out of breath to project her voice over the general din. Jumping into foam looked fun – but scary too. She reached for Melody’s hand and was glad to get a reassuring squeeze from her big sibling.
Melody went first too, squealing in delight as they crashed into the foam and bounce-rolled to a stop. It was a relief to see her sibling stay above the foam – some of the bigger adults would half-disappear into the foam bits. With a nervous lick of her lips, Briana bounced off a flat trampoline and onto the angled one. The tumbling path she took through the air caught her completely off guard. Even Briana wasn’t sure if her shriek was of terror or excitement. She hit the foam and was back to pure fun, rolling to a stop on the bumpy softness.
From there, the two of them roamed around the air park with abandon. Foam pits were very much on the menu, though Briana shied away from the rope swings. Melody’s teasing about being a fraidy-cat was fine – part and parcel of being the Little sister. It was with great reluctance that she followed Veronica off the trampoline floor when her Mom beckoned. Like bounding off a trampoline, Briana’s reluctance turned to anticipation when she realized they were headed for the restaurant. Suddenly, she was both famished and parched.
Mom ordered a large pepperoni and olive pizza for Briana and Melody – but choose a salad for herself. That Veronica managed to find the one semi-healthy option on the air park menu was such a mom thing that Briana had to impulsively hug her.
“Goddess, you’re sweaty.” Veronica squeezed Briana back tightly. “You have a saggy butt too. I think you need a change after we eat.” Not only had Briana not noticed having an accident, but she discovered she didn’t care if she had. Her only response to Mom’s comment about a change, was to interrupt her dancing to the kiddified pop music to nod.
“Mommy, we don’t have to leave after we eat though, do we?” Pizza was all well and good, but if it meant she was done bouncing, Briana was going to rush back out on the floor while the pizza cooked.
“Not at all. Though I don’t think you should do too much trampolining right after eating. Let’s eat, get you changed, and spend a bit of time on the arcade before we go back to the trampolines, alright?”
“Yes Momma!” Being a good girl was easy with such amenable instructions. Briana plopped down on the bench seat next to Melody, noting a surprising amount of squish underneath her.
“You having fun?” Melody asked, grinning goofily.
“So much! I had an accident without noticing at all. Did you have one?”
“No, hush!” Melody blushed and glanced around. Briana rolled her eyes. Not only was it far too loud for anyone to have heard a close conversation, but everyone present was either having the time of their lives or busy taking care of the kids and Littles who were.
“Just asking, sheesh.” Briana giggled. “I bet you feel super Little though. Any regrets about wearing a pullup instead of a diaper?”
“Dude!” Melody grabbed for Briana, who shrieked and playfully fought her sibling off. As usual, she came out the worse in the engagement, getting a noogie from Melody before her big sib released her.
“Fine, I’ll stop talking about it.” Briana batted at her hair in a vain attempt to smooth it down. “I wish more people were here. Gary and Rosa and Dad and stuff.”
“It’s a busy time for everybody.” Melody’s tone was reasonable, but the crinkle above her nose showed how much they agreed with Briana. “I wish Rosa was here for sure.”
“She can take us another time.” Briana was ready to plan a new adventure at the air park, only to be derailed by Mom’s return with a huge pizza. She had a slice in her hand before the pizza hit the table, hooting around the burning sauce and cheese that assaulted her mouth.
“Briana Rasmussen, be careful!” Veronica shook her head. “Don’t expect any sympathy from me about that burn, you know better than to grab food before it’s even set down.”
“But Melody’s eating it!” Briana accused around her half-cooled bite.
“Your sibling eats five star spicy Korean chicken once a week – and still should have waited.” Veronica put on a mock frown, before grinning at the Littles. “Dig in, but go slowly. You won’t taste it if you burn your tongue.”
The second bite was manageable, what with all the waving around Briana had done of her slice. Subsequence slices were cooled off enough by the time she finished the first one that she managed to pack away a full three of them before her petite frame was fully stuffed. Getting her raspberry slushie down was a genuine challenge that resulted in a huge burp. Luckily, the burp got a laugh from Melody and no admonishment from Veronica. It really was a no-holds-barred Little day, for which Briana was over the moon with love for her mom.
“Mom, when’s the wedding again?” Briana sat back in her chair, having defeated her pizza and slushie at the cost of having lost her ability to move.
“Saturday, June twenty third of next year, same as the last ten times you asked. It’s the only solid detail so far.” Veronica was only a quarter of the way through her salad, and unlikely to finish it at her dainty pace.
“I’m the flower girl, right? Isn’t that solid?!” As always, an anxious note crept into Briana’s voice when she asked the question.
“Dude, you’ve asked that a million times too.” Melody rolled their eyes. “At this point, even if you tragically get paralyzed, I’ll upload your brain into a robot so you can still be flower girl.”
“Why would I get paralyzed?!” Brianna stared at Melody in horror. “Am I going to get hit by a bus or something?”
“I hope not, that’s too anime. You’d end up in a fantasy world or something if a bus took you out.”
“Stop wishing bad luck stuff. The only fantasy world I need is Cloudland, and I can always get back from there.”
“Nothing bad is going to happen. Mom and Dad are going to get married and you’re going to throw flower petals everywhere and everyone’s going to have a great time.”
“There better not be any bad things!” Briana looked anxiously up at Mom. “Isn’t this a super big deal? You’re the first Rasmussen to get married in how long?”
“I’m surprised that’s something you’re interested in, considering how much you’ve been ducking Kiara’s attempts to show you that side of the family.” Mom’s tone sounded disappointed – which stung way more than her actual angry tones.
“Oooh, Mom’s got you there.” Melody smirked. “What happened to being all excited about Magna Grandma and big houses and all the fancy lady stuff the family does?”
“But it’s so boooring,” Briana whined. “I thought Kiara was going to be a super cool aunt at first but she’s a boring lady who’s all about dumb stuff.”
“Briana.” The warning in Veronica’s voice made Briana’s ears twitch. “That’s not a nice way to talk about your aunt.”
“You didn’t answer my question though. Nobody will say how big the wedding is going to be!”
“That’s because it hasn’t been completely decided yet.” Veronica closed the plastic clamshell on her half eaten salad and set it aside. “We’re going to meet with Kiara, your father, and Rosa after we’re done here to decide on the size of the guest list and a few other things.”
“What about Grandma?” Melody picked up an impressive fifth slice of pizza and munched on it. “I’m surprised she doesn’t have an opinion.”
“Your grandmother has a great many opinions, which she has conveyed to Jane, Kiara, and I. She’s visiting friends in Boston this week, but I’m sure she’ll be in on plenty of these meetings.”
“Ugh, meetings.” Briana picked up another slice of pizza and gnawed on it, though she couldn’t manage to get more than a couple of bites down. “Don’t Kiara-up the wedding with meetings, Mom.”
“Briana, that is enough. Come on now, lets get you changed.”
To Briana’s surprise, Veronica took a big bite out of her abandoned slice of pizza before taking the Little girl’s hand and leading her to the family restroom. She was still trying to decide what Mom’s sudden abandonment of her usual prim attitude meant while she dropped her shortalls and climbed onto the changing table. An interruption in the well-worn process made Briana look over at her mom curiously. Veronica had Briana’s ankles in one hand, but wasn’t wiping her rear.
“I see I have your attention. You’re getting a couple of swats for being so rude about your aunt.”
“Mom!” Briana protested. “That’s not fair, it was just a couple of comments.”
“It’s been a string of comments increasing in frequency over time,” Veronica said calmly. “If you don’t want to learn how to be an influential person from Kiara, you need to tell her that. The comments are one thing, but it’s not nice of you to agree to things and then blow people off – especially family.”
“It sounded fun until I saw what I had to do.” Briana grumped, tensing her rear. “Please don’t spank me, I’ll be good.”
“How many times have you said that, and how many times have you been good afterward without a spanking?” Veronica arched a single eyebrow. Briana’s only response was a big pouty lip. Not that she had any hope of her pout working on Mom, but she had no defense against that question either.
The first smack burned on Briana’s damp cheek, she bit her lip to stifle a yelp. The second was the same as the first, on her other cheek. Despite Veronica’s words about “a couple of swats”, Mom’s hand came down more than twice. Even so, Briana’s rear was only warm at the end of the half-dozen spanks she got – proof that Mom was going easy on her. Guilt made a lump of the pizza in Briana’s stomach for making Mom spank her on a celebratory event.
Though it was hard, Briana made herself a vow to apologize to Kiara for her bad behavior. She didn’t have her stuffed lioness to witness the promise, but as the Princess of Cloudland, she knew better than to break an oath. In the meantime, she concentrated on being a good girl for Veronica, holding her feet in the air and giggling when her Mom spread the lotion across her rear.
“I think that’s the fastest you’ve gone from pouty to giggling after a spanking.” Veronica said as she sprinkled powder on Briana’s crotch.
“I’m going to apologize to auntie Kiara. I’m sorry Mommy, I didn’t mean to be a bad girl on our fun day out.”
Veronica’s warm smile melted Briana’s heart – the hug she got from her Mom after her diaper tapes were secured filled her from head to toe with the resulting warm fuzzies. “You’re a very good girl, Briana. I love you dearly, do you know that?”
“I love you too, mama.” Briana sighed happily and nuzzled her mom’s velvet corset. “Thanks for taking me and my sib out to play.”
“We’re not done yet.” Veronica smiled as she worked Briana’s shortalls back up her legs. “You’ve got a half hour to kill with an unlimited card in the arcade and then it’s back to trampolines until we need to leave.”
Briana won so many badly stitched, hilariously derpy stuffed animals from the crane machines that Mom had to buy a big mesh bag to hold them all. Despite her love for all things plush, even Briana had to agree that it was too many stuffies to bring home. She selected the two that were most interested in joining the Round Table of Cloudland – a mouse with askew eyes and a nondescript puffball with a big grin – and designated the rest to go to kids in need.
Of course, Melody had to butt in and tease Briana about her generosity being a philanthropy thing. While she was fending off accusations of wanting to be a New England aristocrat, the grain of an idea turned round in her head until it became a pearl. She’d always assumed that Littles didn’t need help getting stuffies and other things – but until Veronica had adopted her, she hadn’t been able to pay her own rent. Luxury spending on toys and other Little things wouldn’t have been on her radar even if she’d known she was Little. For the first time, it seemed like there might be a reason to sit in meetings about finances and grants and other horrible Big things.