in which i make a child cry

Fourth weekend down!  this weekend was alright, they do kind of blend together a bit after the first few, but this one sticks out just because of The Incident.

I was standing at the booth during the Afternoon Post-Joust rush, when a kid and his mother came into the booth.  Well, the kid came in, but the mother was on the phone just outside.  The kid was asking about the wings and how much they cost, calling to his mom who ignored him.  They were already annoying me because the kid kept making me take down wings, and then moving on to another wing before I could try any on him.  Finally, he decided he was going to take down a big set on his own, and spilled coke on the set below it.  (P.S. the set he was looking at was $45, the set he spilled on was $40.)  He said "Oh!  Crap..." and then moved on.    I took the spilled on set off and started dabbing it, and finally when the mom was off the phone I told the son that I saw him spill the coke and he'd have to pay for the wings he ruined.  The mom didn't really say anything, but just stared dumbly at me, while the kid immediately starts denying he did anything, then saying it was an accident, and then blaming the faire itself (or me?  i don't know) for not putting lids on the cups.  I told him it wasn't anything to do with me that the cups didn't come with lids, and he denied again, saying maybe some little kid had done it (yeah, a little kid HAD done it...HIM!)  and then some babbling about how he had to eat a nice dinner that night.  The mom mumbled that she didn't have $40 to pay for it, at which point Asher comes in to help by asking why he was trying on a pair of $45 wings if they didn't have $40 to pay for the ones they had ruined.  I told them that I understood it was an accident, but it puts us in a bad position because they had ruined product that we now couldn't sell, and we had to make up for it somehow.  Oh, by the way, the kid is crying at this point.   I'm getting irritated because the kid keeps alternately denying that he did it and saying it was an accident, and then comes up and starts rubbing the stain even more, saying IT'LL COME OUT, NO ONE CAN EVEN SEE IT (lies.  it was a huge stain)  finally, the mom says, in the bitchiest tone of voice ever, "Well, what are you gonna do to us if we don't pay you?"
I made an 'are you SERIOUS?' face at her, and said, 'well we're not gonna DO anything, but you're basically screwing us over by not taking responsibility.' and she just WALKED AWAY, ladies and gentlemen, walked away.

Anyway, as it turns out, we were able to get the stain out, THANKFULLY, so we weren't actually screwed.  the thing that irritated me was that the kid lied right to my face about doing it, when I SAW him, and Asher was there as witness, as well as many other people who were using the tent for shade.  Instead of taking responsibility for what he did, he came up with a million excuses, blamed ME for the faire cups not having lids, and then the mom just stood there like a lump as her son lied and dodged and excused, etc.  And didn't have the common decency to take responsibility for her son's mistake, and then her disrespect of us and what we do by just walking away without offering to pay for it or anything.  I felt like yelling after them 'YOU PEOPLE ARE BAD AND YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD."  I was just lucky that the wings weren't ruined.  Patrick said it wasn't a big deal, and at first told me not to impose that they pay for it, but when I told him the whole story, that the kid lied about it and then what the mom said, he got pissed and just said they were lucky that he wasn't in the booth.   The real answer of "what are you gonna do to us..?" is that we could get security to come have them pay or kick them out, or at least threaten to do so.

SO ANNOYING.  but whatever.  P.S. lest you think I'm some heartless bitch imposing impossible values on a little kid, the kid was 12 or 13, old enough to start taking responsibility for the shit he does, even if it is an accident.  Oh well, they're not my problem anymore.  Enjoy the rest of your mediocre life, Excuses McDStudent!