SF Chapter 127: Points
A few days had passed, and Daniel was at his sister's house, reviewing the script for Paranormal Activity.
"Isn't it a bit… normal?" Claire asked, since not much seemed to happen most of the time.
"I wanted to make a horror based on anticipation. You get scared by waiting for something to happen," Dani explained.
"It's like the same psychological terror you used on us, Sis, when Haley and I were kids - when you said you were going to punish us, but never said when," he pointed out.
Claire completely ignored him. "We can reuse some of the pranks we did in past Halloweens. In one scene, an object moves just a little… and then we keep escalating it."
Daniel nodded. "You can tell the director."
"You hired a director?!"
"Of course, sis. No one in the family knows how to direct a movie," Dani said. "I want to be at least this professional."
"And we're using your house, you and Phil as the main actors. We're spending almost nothing! That goes against the whole purpose of the make-a-wish tradition!"
Claire just shook her head.
"Dani, I loved this laptop, thank you," Alex said, walking in with her new PowerBook G4 17-inch that she had just received.
She gave her uncle a hug and went to sit on the couch.
"Did you have to buy one so expensive?" Claire asked. The laptop had cost more than three thousand dollars.
"Relax, sis," he dismissed. "Besides, I now own 0.4% of Apple. So it's my company too."
Claire didn't think much about what her brother had said, not realizing that it meant millions invested in a single stock.
Then Phil came down the stairs, holding a camcorder in his hand.
"I just found another function," he said with a happy grin. "I also put one next to our bed."
Before Claire could complain, Dani quickly stepped in. "It's all for the movie, sis. We need more camcorders to make filming easier."
He tried to justify why he and Phil had come back with three more cameras.
[Daniel commentary]
Dani looked thoughtful. "Since Phil has to work, the movie will probably take a few weeks to film."
"So we'll probably have it ready by Christmas."
"My idea is to invite our friends and family and watch it in the screening room at my house," he finished.
[Commentary ends]
A little while later, Haley came down the stairs and walked into the living room. She was still wearing cleaning gloves.
Haley made a tired face. "I just finished cleaning the bathroom," she made a disgusted face.
"Good," her mother nodded. "Add five more points to the chart."
"Come on, Hay-hay, you can do it," Dani encouraged her. "Maybe you'll get a pink car, like Regina's in Mean Girls."
Haley gave a delighted little jump, her expression changing completely.
But Dani stopped her from hugging him. "Stay away! You just cleaned the bathroom, ugh." He made a face.
She just rolled her eyes and ran to the kitchen, where the point chart was hanging.
"Whoa, sis, you're really going all out against Haley," Dani mocked.
[Claire commentary]
"I realized it would be impractical to stop my daughter from getting a car. She wouldn't stop complaining," Claire remarked.
"So I created this point system. As long as Haley shows responsibility - whether by doing chores around the house or getting good grades - she earns points."
"And she'll only get the car once she reaches the score we've set."
[Commentary ends]
"Hey," Daniel had an idea. "You could create something that gives Haley the maximum points right away - if she saves her V-card until she's eighteen."
"Oh, I like that idea," Phil chimed in. "Maybe we can set the age to 25." He made a rare move that actually made the deal worse.
"I CAN HEAR YOU TWO!" Haley screamed from the kitchen and quickly appeared.
"What?" Dani looked at her without a hint of guilt. "Do you prefer to keep cleaning the house or wait two years?"
She stopped and thought about it. She even muttered, "I hear it hurts the first few times..."
"Okay, Daniel, I am not putting my daughter's virginity on a rewards chart," Claire admonished.
"Well, you can put two years without the chance of you becoming a grandma, sis - 'grandchild prevention bonus,'" Dani just phrased it another way.
Claire opened and closed her mouth. Looked at her daughter, and became thoughtful.
"Mom!" Haley snapped. "I wouldn't be that irresponsible!"
Then Dani got a call. "Oh, someone's calling me," he said as he went to answer it, not caring about the chaos he had just created.
-------‐-----------‐-----------‐-----------‐-----------‐---------
On the other end of the line, Samantha Borgens was lying on her bed - she had gone back home for the weekend.
"Why did it take you so long to watch it, Sammy?" Dani complained over the phone. "I thought we were, like, incredible friends."
"Oh, you are such a drama queen, Dani," she mocked. "And I saw a picture of you at your premiere - with so many beautiful actresses around you."
"You know how awesome I am," he replied pompously, making her snort.
"So, what do you think?" Dani asked, sounding like a kid who had just finished a project and was waiting for praise.
"It was embarrassing," she complained, feigning annoyance. "I was with my friends - I even told them I knew you before we watched the movie."
"You have friends? I thought you were a loner, Sam," he joked.
"Shut up, you idiot."
"Yes, I have friends. And now they all think I'm friends with a degenerate bastard who wrote three minutes of drawing dicks," she added, but ended up laughing.
"You can judge the content, but not the result," he defended himself. "I doubt ninety percent of your friends weren't laughing their asses off."
"Guilty," she admitted. "Honestly, I feel kind of envious of you. It's so absurdly vulgar that the movie actually works."
"Besides," Sam said, giving a more in-depth analysis. "I think there's more than just simple comedy. You tapped into some teenage insecurity, male anxiety, and vulgarity as a defense mechanism."
"Eww, Sam, don't try to turn my masterpiece into something with deep meaning."
"Oh yeah," Dani remembered, "I did an interview with Conan O'Brien - it'll air tomorrow!"
--------------
If you enjoy it, please leave a Review and Power Stones
You can also support me on patreon and read up to 25 chapters ahead, plus 32 chapters of Modern Family: Francis Jacob Pritchett
[email protected]/Japa_Madri