completefamily

Chapter One
A Family Complete

    Mark and Patricia were married in the spring as the apple blossoms began to bloom. The ceremony was small and simple and took place in the church across from the school. After the wedding, Mark and Patricia took two weeks off to get some much needed time together. Mr. Parker stood in as parent while they were away, and for some odd reason not one single one of the children got into any sort of trouble. They had all taken part in a pre wedding meeting, vowing not to ruin their parents time away by having to deal with a misbehaved child when they returned.

     While they were away, Mr. Parker had four of the rooms at the end of the bottom floor remodeled, so that Mark and Patricia could have a place of their own. It contained an existing bedroom and a bathroom. A new doorway joined the bedroom with another bedroom that would now be their living room, and the final room was quickly renovated into a small kitchen with room enough to hold a small table for two. Patricia had purchased Lace curtains and hung them at the four different windows of the new apartment, and she had furnished it with new things as well as all of the things that she held dear.

     The summer was filled with many wonderful events as Mark and Patricia planned as many activities as they could with their children. Together, Mark and Patricia took one of the empty rooms at the end of the hall and made it into a family room where she, Mark and the kids could gather as a family and play games, watch movies or just visit with each other. Things seemed as if they were finally on track.

     The love between Ricky and Wendy blossomed, as did his love for his new mother. He also enjoyed spending time with Mark, and he enjoyed the fishing trips to the river just a few miles away. He liked the idea of having a mans� day away with Mark, David, Nathan, Matt, Sam and Jacob. The only real good thing about returning to the school, was seeing Wendy. Ricky also enjoyed being Sam�s big brother. He helped him with his baths, his reading, and kept him occupied. Often times he would take Sam to the playground as Wendy took Sarah and Nadia, so they could visit while the little ones played with each other. One day when the thought struck him, he realized that he had finally settled into his new situation better than he thought he ever would. He had survived the entire summer without getting into any trouble.

     The school year had now started, and so far he had managed to stay focused, and stay out of mischief. Ricky felt as though he could finally put his troubled days behind him and move on. He hoped his wild side was gone forever.

     Having already spent large amounts of time with Patricia, Wendy enjoyed having her as a mother, and the way Patricia had treated them before the marriage, hadn�t change after the wedding. She was kind, gentle and soft spoken, unless you were in some way disobedient or disrespectful, you had nothing to worry about.

     Wendy worked really hard to please her new mother and make her father happy as well. Wendy finally felt as though her family were complete. She knew deep down, Barrington Hall would always be a part of who she was. For her, the summer had also gone well. Her spirit was light, and she couldn�t have been happier. She too, had survived the entire summer without incident of any kind. She had even managed to control herself when it came to Ricky. She knew this pleased both of her parents. The school year started out great, except for one teacher she didn�t much care for. She was caught passing notes in class twice, and was required to spend her free time sitting quietly at her desk until the break was over. Mark let the first incident slide, but when it happened again, She was scolded by Patricia and sent to her room to wait for her father. When Mark arrived, he gave her a chance to explain what happened and then reminded her why it was important to follow the rules. Her punishment was confinement to her room after school for the remainder of that week. Wendy didn�t mind, for it was far better than taking a trip across her father�s knee.

     Over the course of the summer, Matthew and Jacob tried to stay out of trouble, but even with all of their efforts, they couldn�t keep themselves out of mischief. Patricia saved their little hides, from a good tanning earlier in the summer when the two boys picked the cherries off of a nearby neighbors tree, and threw them at the side of his barn. Instead of a spanking, and at her request, Mark stood and watched as the boys washed the side of the mans barn, and the boys vowed never to do such a thing again. Though they promised their new mother that they would behave, Jacob, and Matthew broke their word several times. They opened the gate to one farmers cows and they all had to be rounded up. They snuck a snake into the kitchen and put it into one of the big pots. It almost gave the cook a heart attack. Mark questioned them, and when they lied, he told them they were seen running from the back kitchen door, in fits of laughter, and over his knee they went. They were assigned kitchen duty for a week, and had to apologize to the cook. Though it wasn�t the end of their mischief, at the end of the summer, they both took a strapping after they cut the wires on all of one farmers bales of hay, then they had to help the farmer put the hay up for the winter.

     Patricia expressed her disappointment in the boys� behavior, and although they thought what they were doing, was funny, they both felt bad when Patricia told them she was truly disappointed. The day before school started, Mark sat the boys down and had a heart to heart with them. They both agreed to behave, but before the conversation was over, Mark took each one of them across his knee. Over their shorts, he gave them both a few swats as a reminder to behave. Both of the boys settled into school, and were incident free, for the first week anyway.

     Sarah and Nadia both loved having Patricia as their mother. They loved the bubble bath she shared with them, and they enjoyed the made up bedtime stories she would tell. They liked the fact that their father seemed happier than he had been before, and the good mood their new mother put him in. There was only one incident in which Patricia had to spank them. The two girls snuck out of the school, went down the long trail that led to the swimming pond. It was not a place they were to go alone, but they did. When she couldn�t find the girls anywhere, the pond was the first place she looked. When the girls saw Patricia coming down the trail, they both stood frozen in the water. The scolding was terrible as Patricia waded in after them and pulled them from the water. Their wet bottoms were smacked over and over as Patricia cried and scolded them. Sarah and Nadia cried all the way up the trail and every time Patricia got close enough, she would swat their little wet bottoms again. Each time their mother�s stinging hand touched their water soaked shorts, the girls screeched. Patricia took the girls to their room, striped them of their soaked clothes, dried them off with a towel, and then turned each of them across her knee for one scorcher of a spanking, and then she put them both down for a nap. The girls never went to the pond alone again.

     Except for the fishing trips with their dad, Nathan and David worked away from the school for most of the summer. They managed to stay out of trouble, and to the pleasure of their father, both boys did a lot of maturing. They were hard working, and helped out around the school as much as possible. Mark made sure he told both of the boys how proud of them he was.

     Lynda and Jessica established a friendship over the summer. One that both Patricia and Mark thought would be the last of the children to get together, but it turned out that they had more in common than they knew. They both liked old movies, and they shared an interest in the same kinds of books. The two of them became inseparable. Patricia could never figure out just what they were always laughing about, but the girls little secret was the infatuation with a couple of the boys at the school. Mark was happy to see Jessica finally have such a good friend.

     Lizzie and Lynda made their peace with each other, and though they had little disagreements, they no longer had knock-down-drag-out fights. Over the summer, and after a warning, Lizzie got one spanking from Patricia for talking back, and when she didn�t learn her lesson the first time, her second spanking for disrespect and disobedience, came from Mark. She had refused to obey Patricia, but in her anger and frustration, Lizzie didn�t know Mark had heard her. When she heard his voice scold her, she quickly apologized, but Mark felt it wasn�t sincere, and that it was for his benefit only, so he reprimanded her, Lizzie lost her civil tongue. Shocked, Mark clutched her by the arm, and escorted her to her room. Lizzie found out that there was a huge difference between her mothers hand and her fathers.

     Alex�s tried not to worry too much about Mark. They had sort of worked things out, and as promised, Alex did her best to behave. When she stepped out of line the first time after Mark became her father, she begged and pleaded with her mother, not to tell, but Patricia wouldn�t keep it from him and she told Alex so. Alex cried when Mark came in to her room to talk to her, but when it was all over, and he left without spanking her, Alex felt relieved. She knew, however, that the time would eventually come, when she would find herself on the receiving end of a spanking from him. She dreaded that day, still, today was not to be the day, and for that, she was thankful. As the summer came to an end and school started, Alex felt relieved again that she had made it such a long time without receiving a spanking from her father. Though she had always been nervous in his presence, time had gone by, and she began to relax.

     All in all, the first few months of their marriage had gone better than they expected. Mark had some concerns about Alex, and he tried to spend time with her so she would feel better.

Patricia had some concerns about Matthew and Jacob. They had been rather quiet these last few days, and with the Thanksgiving holiday fast approaching, she wondered what they were up to. Mark noticed it as well and had been watching them.

     Mark and Patricia both had concerns about Ricky as well. Since school had started, they had noticed a slight change in him. He was less social than during the summer, and his attitude seemed a little misplaced. Patricia had had to speak with him about his behavior in school a couple of times. He had been sent to the principals office twice in one week for disrespect, and had been threatened with a paddling from Mr. Parker if he were to be sent to him again. Patricia had spoken to Ricky about his visit to Mr. Parker, and he promised it wouldn�t happen again. When it did happen again, Mark spoke with him about it. Ricky promised Mark that he would do better. Mark restricted Ricky to his room after school for the remainder of the week. Though he made great effort, Ricky knew trouble always seemed to find him. He knew he would be back in Mr. Parkers office again.

     There were several birthdays over the past few months. David, Nathan and Jessica all celebrated their 15th birthdays. Lynda turned 14. Jacob and Matthew turned 12 and 11. Alex celebrated her 12th birthday in July, and Missy�s 13th birthday was in August. Sarah turned 8, and Nadia was pleased to be 6 because she and Sam were best friends and now they were the same age, however, Sam would be turning 7 after the first of the year. Ricky had celebrated his 14th Birthday back in June and Wendy turned 13 in October. In another year, everyone except Sam, Sarah and Nadia, would be teenagers.