Contentious Adeline and the Rooftop Escape

Some little girls you meet are sweet. Some are friendly and others are shy. Some little girls are happy, helpful, encouraging and generous. But Adeline Plott was unfortunately not. She was known to be contentious. In other words, she argued a lot, and she was never satisfied.
"WHY is my DOLL on the FLOOR?"
"WHO forgot to pack my GOGGLES?"
"WHY can't I go first?"
"WHERE are the BLUE candles? Everybody KNOWS I like BLUE!"
"Is anybody LISTENING to me?"

…

“I wanted a blue balloon, Grandma. The Pretty Palace princess has BLUE balloons,” she said, “But nobody listens.”

“I see.”

The Pretty Palace (Perfect Ideas for Tiny Palaces, Castles, & Houses) was Adeline’s favorite magazine. She got a new one every month. It told her what colors were pretty, and what everything should look like in a girl’s world. She took it everywhere with her, and as soon as a new edition came in the mail, she threw the old one away. Adeline looked at Pretty Palace as much as her parents looked at their smartphones. Like, all the time.

One day her Grandpa announced, “I am going to build you kids a playhouse!”

She and her brothers were thrilled. Adeline imagined it would look like a beautiful palace. She would have her own bedroom and her own kitchen, and she would decorate it and place flowers in every window. Her parents had been promising to build them a playhouse for years … but they were always too busy working hard to make more and more money.

“Tada!” Grandpa presented the playhouse to Adeline and her brothers Benji and Bobby when it was completed.

“A tree house!” Benji exclaimed as he ran through their grandparents’ yard.

“A fort!” cried Bobby, close behind.

“A tiny palace on stilts!” Adeline shouted, racing to get there first.

They climbed up the rungs and into the house. The floor was sturdy and strong, the windows were made of real glass, and they opened and closed. A trap door led to a rope in the floor, and a tiny window led to a lookout on the roof.

Cool! Benji smiled, admiring the windows and doors.

“Perfect!” Bobby said, sniffing the new wood and ropes.

Plain! Adeline tilted her nose at the bare interior, and she sighed. A little too plain for a palace.

The boys climbed the ladder and opened the trap door, dropped down the rope swing and peered through the telescope. But Adeline threw open her Pretty Palace magazineto determine a color for the walls and curtains.

That afternoon, she ordered her brothers to carry her toy kitchen and table to the playhouse. “But FIRST, here is the PAINT,” she said. “I mixed it with water so it will dry before supper. And DON’T be late.”

…

Minutes later, their father found Adeline crying in the treehouse.

“Addie?” he asked, stepping inside.

“Dad? What are you doing up here?” she asked. “I thought you were working.”

“You dropped your bag. Tell me what is going on.”

So Adeline told her father about the castle and the magazine and the color change and the boys on the roof and everything she was feeling. Then, since he was listening, she told him about school and her friends and how much she enjoyed making things. They sat there for two hours talking. The boys went back to the real house, but Adeline and her father talked until the moonlight shone through the window pane and made the whole room glow a beautiful blue …