Ty was stewing. Mark and June, seemingly randomly, assign chores but they consistently seem to target Ty. His anger built while he was scrubbing spaghetti sauce out of the pan. It'd be so nice if they would just do it themselves, its not like they dont have free time of their own and its not like teenagers don't already have a ton of homework and projects for school. Adults buy the house, why should the kids have to maintain it? Lawn, windows, sweeping, clean the gutters, water the flower, mop, weed and a million other one off chores that teenagers had no say in taking on but get stuck with. Ty could more easily accept the dishes or cleaning the bathroom as a whole house responsibility, but not when Mark had him mow, weed and clean the gutters today while Dustin was taken to a party with friends. Mark and June were definitely the focus of Ty's rage, if he wasn't exhausted and hurt, he would have probably focused more world-wide but as it was, in that moment, he only really wanted justice in that household.
With Ty's rage and thought process on overdrive he didn't notice his new ability being activated.
June came into the kitchen and saw Ty cleaning the dishes. "Oh Ty!", June said in shock.
Ty was startled by her presence and pulled out of his furious concentration.
In awe June continued, "You are doing the dishes? That is so kind and thoughtful of you! I really appreciate you doing that for me!"
Ty didn't understand what was going on but June's gratitude seemed sincere it was something he never received from either June or Mark. "You're welcome, I.. You.. am I doing them OK?", Ty was usually the recipient of criticism, not praise, and after June had settled down for the evening and had a few drinks, praise was usually in the form of backhanded compliments.
June walked over, picked up one of the plates in the drying rack, and set it back down. She looked at Ty and smiled, "Its wonderful Ty," She grabbed his face and kissed his forehead, "you're so wonderful." Then she hugged him tightly and went back to her tv show.
Ty finished the dishes and went back up to his room thoroughly confused and exhausted. Relaxing on his bed Ty was slowly starting to drift off to sleep when Mark came up and knocked on the door. "Ty, can I talk to you for a moment?"
"Sure thing dad, what's up?"
"Well," Mark started as he sat on the bed next to Ty. "I saw what you did while I took your brother to his party. You're showing a lot of maturity and I, I'm really proud of you. I wanted to tell you during dinner but thought thanking you personally would be better. You really did a fantastic job mowing the yard and I can see you weeded and did the gutters for me too. Mom told me you did the dishes for her." Mark made a goofy smirk and squinted his eyes. "Do I have to worry? Are you trying to oust me as man of the house?"
Ty giggled and said, "Maybe I am."
Mark laughed, "Really Ty, you did a wonderful job today. Thank you for all your help." With that he got up and left.
Ty laid there on his bed thinking about what could have changed so drastically, doing chores was never something he OR Dustin got thanks for. Slowly it dawned on him that between starting the dishes and June walking in on him something had changed. With the appreciation of his parents, Ty happily fell asleep and slept well.