The Babysitter, Part 53

Miley’s face was back to a more neutral expression by the time Noelle looked up. No trace of the smug taunting that was there a second ago.

“What’s up, Alyssa?” Noelle asked.

Again, such a jarring experience finally hearing my name from the babysitter, yet without her knowing that the two red haired girls before her weren’t at all what she believed us to be.

Miley opened the can of cola in her hands, briefly disrupting the otherwise quiet of the kitchen with the sound. “Just curious. What happens if Miley’s parents have a delayed flight, or extend their vacation, or whatever? Will you stay, or do you have other rebellious girls to reform? Or will Miley be totally trustworthy by the end of the weekend?” She quietly giggled at the last suggestion. Such a brat. Though she wasn’t wrong; it was unlikely that even a specialized babysitter like Noelle could course-correct a difficult girl in a matter of days.

“Depends,” Noelle shrugged, “I’m around. I don’t like to overbook my summer. And, speaking candidly, I wouldn’t mind getting paid the same rate to supervise a girl I’m already used to.” Like back at the park, it was clear that the brunette didn’t mind talking about money. She had yet to give an actual figure, of course, though it sounded like this kind of work paid pretty well.

“Huh.” The real Miley took a sip of her drink. Then, turning to look through the pantry for a snack, she asked over her shoulder, “So, how long do you think you’d stay before handing her off to someone else?”

Noelle glanced towards me for a moment, as if gauging my current cooperation against the accidents she hadn’t been warned about. “Again, it depends. For long term jobs, I prefer to use my own place, provided that’s alright with the family. For this, Miley’s parents will potentially have to evaluate their budget, as hiring me for the weekend is different from a more extended job. Why do you ask?”

Why was Miley asking?

The look she gave me a minute ago suggested that something was coming that I wouldn’t like. Noelle wasn’t going to be asked to stay beyond Monday morning, was she?! I had recently resigned myself to my fate, all because I had come to the conclusion that I really only had to make it through one more full day. Saturday was halfway over at this point, and doing stuff like Miley’s homework was a good way to run out the clock without Paige making things more difficult for me.

Our parents were gone for the next two months. Just 24 hours ago, that had felt like a good thing. Even for a girl like myself, who generally stayed out of trouble, I enjoyed the thought of having more freedom throughout my last summer before college. No curfew, no having to be quiet after 9:30 PM, etc. Not that I planned on being as loud or persistently social as Paige was; it would just be nice to leave the house lights on and not be so careful about volume levels after our parents went to bed.

The flip side, now that I was thinking about it in my current predicament, is that their absence would parallel whatever Miley was talking about. If her own parents were going to be gone longer for whatever reason, the fact that Paige and I were the only two girls here told a pretty convincing tale.

There was no way Paige and Miley had planned this from the beginning; I knew that much just based on my step-sister’s reaction to Noelle’s arrival. At the same time, I doubted the younger girl was just here as a way to further taunt me about the mix-up. I just didn’t understand how Miley’s parents were going to be kept in the dark about all this. Surely Noelle would mention my sister and/or the pull-ups. Neither of those things aligned with who the college girl was actually here to babysit.

I wanted to feel confident in those assumptions; I really did. It was just difficult to maintain my resolve when Miley was acting so smug.

“No reason,” Miley shrugged, “Well, one reason. I was thinking about starting my own babysitting business this summer. The longer you stick around, the more time I have to ask you for pointers!”

Uh huh. There was no way a girl like her would want to deal with that kind of responsibility.

Noelle wasn’t as dismissive as I was, not that I voiced any of my judgmental thoughts. “I’m happy to answer any questions you have,” she said, “Just not right now. Miley needs to focus on her work.”

“Right. Sorry!” she said, “Maybe later?”

“Sure,” Noelle nodded.

And that was that. Miley grabbed a bag of chips and a box of crackers, and headed out of the kitchen, surely up to Paige’s bedroom to continue gaming with the others.

Still, snack duty seemed too simple. As I got back to work on the History assignment before me, I continued to use the busy work as a means to think about other things. Like how Miley could have potentially been sent down to acquire seemingly innocent information, like Noelle’s availability. If Paige could somehow orchestrate an extension of my babysitter’s stay . . .

I frowned, staring down at the textbook before me and hoping the look on my face could be interpreted as concentration. If Noelle was even looking at me. As long as I sat still and behaved, she seemed content using our time together to work on her own stuff. This was only tolerable because the end was in sight; if Paige shifted the goal post by even a day, my survival tactic wouldn’t be nearly as appealing.

The good news was, the simplicity of Miley’s summer work allowed my thoughts to roam just like before the girl stepped into the kitchen. Little by little, I chipped away at the History assignment; all the while, I weighed the pros and cons of what I could. By the time I was done, I had landed on a Plan A, B, and C. None of them were particularly promising, though it felt good to at least have some personal direction amidst the ongoing supervision of the babysitter who refused to believe who I really was.

I just had to figure out how to execute my ideas while Noelle was always nearby, and primed to punish me for ‘lying’ or stepping out of line.

“May I go up to Paige’s room?” I asked, after passing the completed work to Noelle. She didn’t seem to have an answer key on her; my guess was that she was just doing a spot check each time, to ensure I wasn’t writing down nonsensical answers. Plus she was probably more familiar with these subjects from babysitting girls whose schoolwork overlapped across different jobs.

She flipped through the pages, making me wait for a minute before responding to my overly polite request. It felt so ridiculous to ask for permission to go somewhere in my own house. “No changing out of your pull-ups,” she warned me.

I could feel myself slightly flushing. Did she really have to say ‘your’ in regards to the mortifying underwear? Also, I had temporarily forgotten about the padding due to my homework focus; the renewed awareness caused a small wave of embarrassment. “No changing,” I awkwardly echoed.

While I would prefer to be back in panties, as even the plain pairs Paige and company had filled my underwear drawer with were a major improvement compared to what I currently had on, there was no sense in defying Noelle when she still had authority over me. I just couldn’t have the brunette following me upstairs, as my entire plan hinged on getting a moment alone with Paige.

Plan A was simple: I was going to try and talk to my sister.

Girl to girl, sister to sister, young adult to young adult.

Of course, Plan A didn’t necessarily mean Best Plan. It just felt like something I should do before trying anything riskier. My sister could be a fucking brat, but she was still my sister. Well, step-sister, but whatever. We had lived together for years at this point, and were more or less family. Hopefully I could make her see that this whole misunderstanding had gone way too far. Maybe, just maybe, she would listen to reason.

I wasn’t that naive, nor was I holding my breath for a conversation with her to actually do anything. It was just worth an attempt.

Heading upstairs, grimacing a bit at the feeling of the doubled pull-ups between my thighs as I took each step, I realized upon making it to the second floor that I would need to face the other three girls as well in order to get Paige’s attention. This time, they wouldn’t be pulling punches, as Noelle wasn’t with me.

Taking a deep breath, I pushed open the cracked door and stepped into my sister’s room.