Hello everyone, and welcome back. (And where are your manners, people? You have to bring a gift for the hostess when visiting, especially in my case.) Angelica, please don't you start with that, and do your job.

(Fine. DISCLAIMER. Ramiro doesn't own any Rugrat character, all of them, including yours truly, copyrighted by Nickelodeon. This story is done without profit intentions… so, in other words, I'm not receiving a dime for my job! I mean, why I'm doing this?) To get the spotlight you love so much. (Good point.)

This story is based on a Rugrats' episode, a parody of the famous "It's a Wonderful Life" movie, starred by Chuckie. (And now, it's my turn to be the star; I'll sign autographs later.) Your modesty is so touching, Angie. (Watch the sarcasm, Acosta.) Acosta? This is the first time you call me for my surname, Angelica! (Well, you should know by now I do that with the people I like.) That's… very nice from you, really. (Don't let it go to your head, Mister Author; I also do it with those who annoy me.)

Okay, don't get angry, and let me finish the introduction; this story, as you could read in the summary, will have a dramatic scene or two. (Yes, nothing too graphic, but you guys are warned.) Thanks, Angelica, and now, you know what to do. (That's right… On with the show!)

Angie's Wonderful Life.

A Rugrats' story by Acosta Pérez Josè Ramiro.

- The Bad Girl.

"This one, Angelica?"

"No, Harold, the redder one. Move a little more to your right… your other right, you dumb!"

Harold obeyed, and moved a little more to his right while trying to keep his balance. They both were at their kindergarten's classroom, and Angelica had told him to climb a bookshelf to get a coloring book for her. The girl, as usual, was instructing him from the floor, while the boy was risking himself to obey his boss' commands.

"Okay, kids, now it's time for your nap." Miss Weemer, the children's teacher, talked to them when returning to the classroom with some extra blankets, since earlier one of the kids had a "gastric accident" that made a mess on the ones the teacher already had. The woman gave a good look to her class, and noticed Harold's dangerous climbing.

"Harold, get down there!"

"In a moment, Miss Wee...eeee…..eeee…!" Harold, surprised by her teacher's voice, lost his grip, and started waving his now free arm trying to keep balance. Miss Weemer dropped the blankets, and ran to catch him, while Angelica moved a few steps aside for safety.

UUUUUFFFF!

BONK!

"Miss Weemer, Harold, you are okay?" Susie asked both her teacher and her friend while she and the rest of the kids dashed around them. Miss Weemer handled to catch Harold before he hit the floor, and he seemed to be fine, but she had slipped and fell over her back, getting a nasty bruise on her head.

"I think so, Susie… I'm so sorry, Miss Weemer! Did I hurt you?" Harold asked his teacher, both scared and concerned.

"Yes, a little… but don't you worry, Harold… it was my fault for leaving you kids alone." Miss Weemer said in a calming tone while rubbing her head; obviously, she was feeling more pain than she wanted to show in front of the kids. Once the dizziness lowered a little, she went to her desk and phoned the principal so she could send someone to watch the children while she went to the infirmary.

"Harold, what were you doing up there? That was very dangerous!" Susie started lecturing her friend, who was looking down to avoid eye contact.

"I just wanted to get a book Angelica asked me for."

Susie immediately glared at Angelica, who gave her a sheepish smile.

"Hey, I promised him this candy's bar if doing it, so don't give me that look, Carmichael." Angelica showed Susie the bar, trying to justify herself.

"My candy!" Angelica gulped when hearing the voice of Dulce, one of her classmates who usually brought many sweet things in her backpack. "I had been looking for it all morning!"

Angelica returned the candy to Dulce, who snatched it angrily and then walked away. The blonde turned to see Harold, who for once was glaring at her just like Susie.

"Angelica, you wanted me to eat a stolen candy?"

"And you almost made him have an accident!" Susie snapped at her. "And, because of that, Miss Weemer is hurt! Seriously, Pickles, one day you're going to do something pretty bad to someone if you don't start being more careful!"

Susie grabbed Harold's hand, and they both walked away from Angelica, who was slightly stunned at her friends' reaction. However, it didn't last too much, because almost immediately she got her trademark frown.

"Yeah, right; I only wanted a book. It's not my fault Rumkin is dumb enough to obey me."

Neither Susie nor Harold talked to Angelica the rest of the day; actually, she got almost no talking from the other kids as well, which obviously made the girl to get a pretty bad mood. However, when her mother picked her up, she brightened up a little after Charlotte told her they would go to Tommy's house; maybe playing one or two pranks on the babies would make her feel a little better.

At the Pickles' house, the babies were having fun at the backyard. Chuckie was particularly happy because of his new tricycle, and was sharing him with all his friends, allowing them to climb on the back of the vehicle so he could give they rides around the yard; of course, he was using protective gear, but removed his helmet to give it to his passengers for their rides. After a while, they got tired (especially the redheaded, obviously), and went inside the house to eat something. Didi had some milk and cookies for them, and, after setting the babies' table, they pretty much ate by themselves.

"Ups, I forgot to get in my tricycle. I'll better do it now." Chuckie told his friends, leaving the table after grabbing a cookie. The babies kept eating peacefully (or as peacefully as a group of five babies can be) until Angelica arrived.

"Hey, babies, what are you doing?"

"Eating our cookies, Angelica; do you want some?" Tommy offered; Angelica got her usual evil grin, and then a fake alarmed look.

"Oh, don't tell me you ate from those cookies!" Angelica covered her mouth in alarm, surprising the babies.

"What's wrong with them?" Phil asked.

"Well, I heard that there are some bad cookies around, and, if you eat them, you lose all your hair and teeth, later your skin becomes green and ugly, and then you feel so bad you can't play for days!"

"Are you serious, Angelica?" Kimi asked her, half- scared, half-suspicious.

"Of course I am! Jake, one kid at my school, ate some of those cookies yesterday, and today he couldn't go to school because his mommy doesn't want anyone to confuse him with a toad." Angelica explained, making all the babies (including Dil, who more or less understood she was saying something bad about the food) to drop their cookies.

"And how do you know if these cookies are bad ones, Angelica?" Lil asked, scared.

"There's only one way… I have to risk myself for you, babies, and eat them all." Angelica said in a dramatic tone, and then started eating all the cookies in a hurry.

"Wow! How brave she is!" Tommy exclaimed in amazement.

"And how hungry too!" Phil added. A minute later, all the cookies were gone, as well as most of the milk, since Angelica had to drink something to slip down all the food.

"Good news, babies; these cookies are good ones. You can eat now without risks; you don't need to thank me." Angelica said in a proud tone while slowly walking away. The babies then noticed there was nothing left for them, and Tommy arched an eyebrow.

"Angelica, are you sure you ate the cookies to help us, or it was another of your lies?" Tommy asked his cousin.

"Mmm… well, I ate all the cookies, and you now have none; what do you think, dumb babies?" Angelica laughed at the babies and walked out of the living room.

"Meanie! Meanie!" Dil yelled at his cousin.

"You're right, Dil! Angelica is very mean!" Kimi folded her arms as she and her friends got big frowns.

Angelica went to the backyard, noticing Chuckie cleaning his tricycle; he thought it was a little dirty, so decided to clean it before getting it inside the house. The girl rubbed her hands while grinning at him, thinking about a good prank to play on the boy.

"Hello, Finster! It's your new toy?"

"Uh, hello, Angelica; yes, it's my new tricycle. I'm cleaning it because we all played with it all day, and I don't want your aunt's house to get dirty." Chuckie told her. Angelica gave the tricycle a good look, and then turned to see Chuckie.

"And, how fast can this thing go?"

"I don't know. I don't like to ride it fast." Chuckie replied, making Angelica to sigh and place a hand on his shoulder.

"Finster, you are the biggest baby here, and you'll soon be old enough to go school like me. You just can't be scared of everything any more, or the kids at school will be very mean with you." Angelica informed him while sitting on the tricycle's seat. "You have to learn to be brave, and the first step is riding as fast as you can."

"And how I do that?"

"Grab your tricycle and come with me… and don't make any noise. I'm doing you a favor here." Angelica told the kid as she stood up. Chuckie knew it wasn't nice when disagreeing with Angelica, so obeyed and followed the girl. They entered the kitchen, where Didi, Betty and Charlotte were chatting, and, silently, walked out, heading to the exit door, so fast and quietly that even the babies at the living room didn't notice them. Angelica was tall enough to reach the doorknob, so it was easy for them to get out of the house.

"I don't think this is such a good idea, Angelica." Chuckie said to her, scared. "We aren't allowed to go to the street alone."

"Relax, Finster, this is going to be fun." Angelica told him while placing the tricycle at the sidewalk, and making Chuckie to ride it.

"Now, I'm going to push you, and you are going to keep your feet up. If you stop before reaching the end of the block, I'll be very angry with you, okay?" Angelica got a stern look, so Chuckie just gulped and nodded while putting on his helmet. Angelica placed behind him, and aimed at a large trashcan located at the end of the block, since her true intention was to make Chuckie crash and get dirty.

"Now, get ready… set… go!"

Angelica gave Chuckie a good push, and, since the sidewalk was going hill down, the vehicle got a good speed. Angelica grinned when seeing he was about to crash… not noticing when a car rolled out of one house's garage until it was just a few inches away from Chuckie!

"What the… CHUCKIE, STOP THE TRICYCLE!"

CRACK!

WAAAHH!

AAAAH!

Everyone at the block ran out of their homes when hearing the commotion, caused mainly by the scream from the driving woman, while Angelica ran next to Chuckie, who was crying in pain and fear while grabbing his right leg in a semi-fetal position, next to his damaged tricycle. Luckily, the woman could see him right on time to not drive over him, but couldn't avoid a collision.

Didi, Charlotte, and Betty, noticing Angelica and Chuckie weren't at the house, ran out when hearing the scandal, and got extremely concerned and shocked expressions when looking at the boy; Betty carried him back into the house while Charlotte called the hospital by cell phone to inform they would bring an injured kid, and Didi, yanking Angelica by her arm, ran behind Betty to call Chuckie's parents.

Didi ordered Angelica to sit next to her while the woman phoned the Finsters, and the girl, still shocked, obeyed without saying a word. Once Didi informed Kira and Chaz about everything, she and the other women decided to take all the children with them in Didi's car (none wanted to stay alone at home taking care of them while worrying about Chuckie) while Betty and Charlotte would transport Chuckie on the blonde's car, with Betty comforting the kid. Didi put Dil on his safety seat next to her, and the other kids on the back seat, and, once Charlotte's car left the house, followed her.

"Angelica, what happened?" Tommy asked her cousin, confused, just like the other babies.

Angelica didn't say a thing, but got teary eyes.

"Angelica, did something bad happen to Chuckie?" Kimi asked her, scared. Angelica looked at her, and sobbed.

"He got hurt… and it's my fault."

The babies gasped in surprise, and immediately, Lil leaned to cry on Phil's shoulder, who scowled at Angelica; Kimi scowled her as well while getting teary eyes, and Tommy looked at her cousin with a mixture of anger and disappointment.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Later that night, Angelica was finally at her bed, feeling extremely tired, sad, and, on top of everything, angry with her self; her parents, obviously, gave her a major lecture for not obeying the rules and walking out of her uncles' house, plus grounding her for two weeks with the usual no dessert, cartoons, or new toys, and, unlike other times, they really meant it. They promised Chaz and Kira to pay the hospital's bill and Chuckie's medical expenses; luckily, he only got a fractured leg.

However, as much as Angelica hated to be disciplined by her parents, what hurt the most, besides the memory of Chuckie's getting hurt in front of her, was the way everyone looked at her in the hospital. Her parents, the babies, her uncles, the other adults… they all gave her a look that was a lot like Tommy's, both sad and disappointed. And, even worse, she knew she deserved it.

"Why they didn't stop looking at me that way, Cynthia?" Angelica, sitting on her bed, talked to her doll, "Don't they know I already feel bad for hurting Finster? And besides, it wasn't my whole fault; he should have stopped faster, and that lady at the car should have seen him first."

Angelica then heard her parents' footsteps, and buried under the blankets, pretending to be asleep. Charlotte and Drew opened the door slightly, and sighed sadly.

"Do you think we are doing a good job raising her, Drew?" Charlotte talked to her husband while looking down.

"I don't know, Charlotte… but, every time she does something wrong, I feel as the world's worst father." Drew admitted, "If something worse had happened to poor Chuckie… I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

"I know what you mean; luckily, Chaz and Kira aren't as angry as they should, but to be honest, I would feel better if they snap at us for not being able to educate Angelica properly." Charlotte confessed as well, "I might be a great business woman, but it seems I'm a lousy mother."

The adults looked at Angelica one last time, and closed the door. Angelica, once she was sure they were gone, sat on her bed, and thought about what their parents said.

"They are sad because of me… and Dad said Chuckie could be hurt even worse…"

"Seriously, Pickles, one day you're going to do something pretty bad to someone if you don't start being more careful!"

"Susie is right, Cynthia… I almost made Harold to get hurt today, just like Chuckie, and it was only because I wanted to have some fun with a silly book and a dumb prank. And I'm always very mean with the babies, and with my classmates, and I also hurt Miss Weemer today." Angelica said to her doll, sobbing, "I'm a very bad girl, Cynthia! I am hurting all the people who care about me!"

Then, Angelica made a decision. The girl stood up, and dressed up with her regular clothing, and then started placing several toys and clothing in her backpack.

"We're leaving, Cynthia. Everybody will be happier without me around!"