Consequences

Several days ago Lucky ran past my bedroom door with a small cosmetic bag tucked under her arm.
I said, "No nail polish upstairs."
She said after a brief pause,"It's not, it's, um, make-up." Right.
I said, "Okay, but no nail polish or you'll lose the privilege."
She said, "Okay."

A little while later I went to the girls' room to tell them to quiet down.
Sniff, sniff.
That smells like nail polish.
I said, "Hand it all over."

On Friday she was pestering me for the return of her cell phone to take it back to her mom's house, promising to delete her dad's number because she is not allowed to call him.
I said, "Here's the deal. You are not allowed to have a cell phone here but you keep sneaking it back into the house. I'm going to give it to you to take back to your mom's house but I never want to see it again. If you bring it back here you'll lose it for good."
She said, "Okay."

Last night Ana asked me why Squeaker was texting her from a cell with our area code. Turns out Squeaker had taken the prepaid phone that the kids use...the one I had been looking for all weekend to give to Peaches or Shorty while they were gone.
I went to her room and asked for it and on the second request she said, "It's {Lucky's}."
I said, "Give me the one that you stole from my room." She got the phone.
Then I said to Lucky, "Do you have your phone here?" She produced it from under the covers and I took that one too.
I said, "Good night. Lights out." and left.

I little while later I went back to their room to tell them to be quiet.
Sniff, sniff.
That smells like nail polish.
I said, "Who's putting on nail polish?"
Squeaker said, "Both of us."
I said, "Hand over all of it." She came up with two bottles.
Me: "Hand over all of it." She jerked open a drawer and gave me one more bottle.
Me: "Hand over all of it." She jerked open the same drawer and gave me four more bottles. I took the nail polish remover too and found two more bottles today. Squeaker likes to use her socks, quilt, and the rug to mop up nail polish spills so it is strictly forbidden upstairs.
I reminded them that they had now lost the privileges of using nail polish at all and said, "Good night. Lights out."

I thought I was pretty clear. Did they think I was kidding or that I couldn't figure it out? Or maybe they just don't care. I have no idea.

Anyway, this afternoon I noticed that Squeaker had scribbled on the sodoku puzzle she was working on last night "F--- ya!" and "Monica is a skanky hoe"(sic).
Yeah, that'll show me.