all over a stolen fruit cup

wow, oh wow. we have now been witnesses as to why in the world fantasia belongs in a group home. up until this point we've seen a few minor displays of 'crazy' from her but she has been generally easy. i take that back now with all of my heart and soul.

so during the ernest-gone-wild time frame, fantasia was being fantastic. getting her homework done, her chores, and being very quiet even while ernest sat next to her at the kitchen table. she had seen the grill go flying and didn't bat an eye.

while ben and i decided to actually take some time to ourselves on our day off and enjoy an exciting shopping experience at target, fantasia enjoyed a shopping experience of her own. it started when carmella caught her trying to sneak some food down to her room. a fruit cup to be exact. she asked fantasia who gave her permission to have it and she tried to distract carmella from her stealing by yelling,
"FINE! I CAN HAVE WHATEVER I WANT! I'M GOING SHOPPING!" and began to pull canned food and bags of ramen noodles out of the cupboard and load her arms up with them. carmella prompted her to be compliant and obey house rules but that she could do what she wanted and there would be consequences for her actions. then fantasia put the food back and went into the living room and hid behind the couch. which would have worked except her foot was sticking out. gotcha! she then began to throw the BIGGEST tantrum i have ever seen. ben and i had arrived home about 5 minutes before and had gone straight upstairs without saying a word. suddenly i hear her yell up the stairs to me. i ignore her, because the kids are not supposed to talk to us on our day off or while we're upstairs. angel, our other staff begins to talk with her to calm her down but she becomes more escalated & i can hear that the waterworks are about to be turned on.
so i come down the stairs and she starts to rant and rave about how she had earned a "treasure chest" item (which is something you get if you've had a really good day, it's $1-$3 item they can choose from) 4 days before and she has been waiting patiently and she wanted her treasure chest item NOW. i calmly explained to her that she had made the decision to wait, there had been stuff in there but she didn't want any of it. i told her that the item would be there for her in the morning. well then she started pounding on the wood floor screaming,
"I WANT MY TREASURE CHEST! I WANT MY TREASURE CHEST! I HAVE BEEN GOOD ALL DAY! I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR 4 DAYS! I WANT MY TREASURE CHEST!"
i again restated what i had said before, that i understood she had been waiting and that it would be available to her tomorrow morning. at which point she decides to bolt out the front door without any shoes on. it's pitch dark outside and there are no street lights here like there are in utah. it's like one street light per street, no matter how nice the neighborhood is.

so angel, ben & carmella all go outside. angel takes off running after her, while maintaining a good distance on purpose and carmella gets behind the wheel of the company van. fantasia soon tires on a main road and sits down, right in an area where she could be hit. angel asks her nicely to come over to the side so she won't get hurt. instead, fantasia stands up in the middle of the road and just screams her guts out. a man pulls over, asks if everything's okay and when he's told the situation, moves on. fantasia gets in the van after she is told that the goal for the friday activity was to go to the fair.

the three of them come home. i know this because i hear the loudest, most ear-drum breaking scream erupt from downstairs. the girl has been blessed with a great set of lungs. i actually checked the windows to see if they had cracked. then i hear CRASH! BOOM! CRASH! and this continues for some time. fantasia was ripping the entire living room apart, the only thing left untouched was a picture of jesus that is up on the mantle of our living room. at least fantasia had enough sense to not touch jesus.

as soon as she's done with that, she begins a huge bawl session, complete with the hup-hup's and throwing herself on the floor. did i do this at 10 years old? i'd like to think not but i will have to ask my mom for verification. maybe i am giving myself too much credit.

finally she calms down and goes to bed. all with the motivation to go to the fair the next night. i came down to look at the damage and luckily the owners are smart enough to not put too much cashola into decorating this home. don't get me wrong, it's nice, just the furniture items are semi indestructable. now i know the reason.