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 Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 11:50 pm
"A b-... babysitter?!" Cass whined, and then made another whining noise to finish it off and stretched it out as long as he could without needing to breath. This was so not okay. He was fifteen now, he was perfectly capable of staying home alone. He even had alone time in the Hillworth dorms when class wasn't in session. He was 89% sure he could handle being home and not burn the house down.
"Yes." The single word from the powerful and overbearing figure of his father was enough to shut him up and make Cass, previously standing up to his full height with chest puffed out, sink down into a demoralized marshmallow.
His dad 'had things to do' which just meant he didn't want to explain. And Cass couldn't come, but for some reason Alex, his brother, could. which made it all the more infuriating. Alex was only a year older. The reason his father thought he was sooo~ much more mature just did not compute.
"She'll be here soon. Open the door. Be polite. And remember, you're grounded, so don't try anything funny," He threatened, pointing a finger at the purple-haired teen and making Cass drop down into the armchair like a trained dog at the gesture. He nodded, Dad and Alex were left, and he was waiting there, awkwardly alone and furious.
Like he wanted to spend the day with whatever old lady his dad had hired to make sure no sneaking out happened. He could be off making camp plans with Lydia!
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Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 11:05 pm
Because of the summertime, Griffin was home from Shlip and in dire need of any odd job and even the smallest trickle of cash flow. So when she'd gotten a babysitting job offer, she'd agreed immediately with no more details then the number of kids and the address. Her father had asked her about it and communed with the other parent, so she was left to her imagination with what to expect.
The senshi-turned-babysitter rode her bike to the address and disembarked, chaining it to a nearby tree and straightened her appearance. She wanted to make a nice impression as a responsible adult to the parents so they'd think about hiring her again the next time they needed a sitter. She brushed her hair out of her face (though most of it fell back where it'd been). Next, she tugged on her shirt and shorts to make sure they were straight, not wrinkled, and of a good length, as things had a tendency to ride up while on a bike.
She walked up the sidewalk to the front door, and before knocking, took in a deep breath. Pet sitting was easier than babysitting. Heck, for Griffin rock climbing up a seemingly sheer surface was easier than babysitting. But here goes nothing! She knocked on the door and waited patiently for what she thought would be a parent to open the door, with a little kid hiding sheepishly behind their legs.
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Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 11:28 pm
Cass heard the knock and let out a soft groan as he pulled his flopped over form off the chair and shuffled to the door, wondering which old lady neighbor his dad had gotten to humiliate him with this venture.
Opening the door, he stared up at Griffin, jaw dropping. She definitely wasn't some old lady from the neighborhood. He hadn't even seen her before, but she was pretty. And also... only a few years older than him.
"Oh come on!" He complained, stomping his foot. "You can't be more than two years older than me, this isn't fair!" Why why whyyyy couldn't he just stay home alone?
This was so unfunny, pretty girl or not.
"Ugh, I'm s'posed to offer you lunch," He mumbled, leaving the door open for her as he turned his sulky shuffle inside towards the kitchen.
"Food's in there, television clicker's there," He said unenthusiastically. It wasn't a fantastic neighborhood, it was just mostly old. About half of the neighbors were over 60 living in houses with dead lawns and peeling paint, but the Bresner household was... pleasant. It was obviously aging, But Cass's dad took good care of it. The lawn was at least alive and indoors was drab with sparse decor, but it was clean. The living room, kitchen and dining area was one open space with a bar separating the kitchen area and a puffy sectional sofa lining a wall across from the television.
Besides the chair Cass went back to slumping in, that was pretty much all there was. They didn't have much in the first place, and having just moved, even less was unpacked.
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Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2011 12:56 am
When a kid in his mid-teens answered the door, Griffin's eyebrows disappeared into her bangs in surprise. Even more when his jaw dropped. When he whined, she tried to hide her smile. Maybe this was why he was needing to be babysat? But for now she'd try to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he had over protective parents.
"Ha, fat chance! No offense, but you don't look 16. I don't know why a kid who could drive would need to be babysat." She crossed her arms and followed him inside. "I'm not really hungry, thanks. But, ah, I'm Griffin. Nice to meet you." She smiled, and could tell he was unhappy about this arrangement, and she kinda felt bad for him.
"So, kid, is there anything you want to do?" She'd gone into this expecting a little kid who still wanted to play with crayons, little animals, or toy cars- everything she had in her purse. If she'd brought her car she'd have offered to take them somewhere like the zoo. But wait!
"Oh!" She dug deep into her purse. Somewhere in there she had a couple of movies she'd planned on returning to the video store later in the day. "If you want to watch a movie, I've got these..." She pulled out a couple of DVD boxes and turned them over. "This one has cowboys, and this one..." she read the title, "Uh, I didn't watch it, but it's some kind of action movie..." Please say cowboy movie please say cowboy movie. Her number one cinematic weakness.
She scratched her head, racking her brain for ideas that a kid his age would want to do. "Or we can take a walk to a park or something! We can pack a picnic and take a frisbee." She also had one of those in her purse, go figure. Glancing around the room, it looked like there wasn't much besides the TV to keep him entertained. At least not of the things that had been unpacked yet. If she wanted to try to be a cool, hip, relatable babysitter she would have gone into a monologue about how she moved to Destiny City at a tough age and hadn't had an easy time adjusting after the move. But he probably didn't care about what kind of babysitter she was. He didn't want one in the first place.
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Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2011 1:52 am
"I- I'm fffifteen," Cass grumbled, crossing his arms and letting his head sink into his shoulders. "I just haven't hit my uh.. growth spurt yet." That was still an applicable excuse, right? He was still hoping that was the case. He wasn't sure he could go through life being five foot two with a girl's name for good measure.
But she had introduced herself, so he might as well. "Cass," He mumbled, hoping she wasn't going to ask for a full name. He was trying hard not to seem too awful. She was nice, and it wasn't her fault his dad was an oppressive monster.
"Uuuh, I'm not supposed to go anywhere, I'm g-grounded," He admitted. If he had any kind of rebellious streak he probably wouldn't have mentioned it. It wasn't like his dad would magically figure out they went somewhere, but apparently the old man managed to strike enough fear into making Cass obedient, even from afar.
He figured a movie would probably be best. He was even still in flannel pajama pants, because the prospect of escaping had become such a far away dream.
"Oh, uuuh..." He stared at the DVD covers in her hand. "Whichever one, uh, you want?" That was the polite thing to do, right? It didn't look like either were to his tastes anyway.
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Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2011 9:04 pm
Not hit his growth spurt yet? Well... Griffin would give him the benefit of the doubt. It could be he had an inch or two in him yet. When he said his name, she looked at him curiously. "Cass...? Is that short for something?" She smiled "Ha, we should watch the Western and I can call you Butch Cassidy!" Griffin was always thinking she was making clever jokes.
With an attempt at a friendly slap on the back, Griffin said, "Grounded, eh? I know what that's like. I'm a student at Shlip and my parents still try to ground me sometimes." She shook her head. In high school they could take her car keys and her bike, but they couldn't take her shoes! Well, they could, but she still had feet. "I bet 'cause you're grounded is the only reason I'm here, right?" She could tell he wasn't thrilled about the situation at all, actually, he seemed quite bummed out about it, so she tried to make him feel better about it.
She crouched down to the DVD player, but then looked up. "Between you and me, I'm used to dorm life and not being home. What do you usually do to pass the time while home?" She didn't want to enjoy herself watching a movie she'd picked while he languished away under her supervision.
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Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 3:03 am
Cass cringed at her little joke about the Western. "Cassidy is a girl's name," He said bitterly. To be honest, he hadn't really ever hated his name until he had climbed a few grades at Knightside, but now, he would never be okay with it. It was too associated with mockery too much for him to ever be okay with it again.
"S-sort of," He admitted. Another part was his dad often thought of him as still being 12, just because he hadn't changed much in the last three years. It was all the more infuriating his brother so close to him in age already had 'teenage privileges'.
"I live in dorms too!" He announced, feeling like it made him sound grown up. Something they had in common, though, his school definitely wasn't SHP. "Oh, b-but I'm home for the summer. I don't know... being grounded is... is... uh.. boring. Not a lot to do... I take care of our pet, but that's just because Alex is too busy for him..."
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Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 10:04 pm
Griffin made a face, "Hey, Butch Cassidy was an awesome cowboy, back off... Well, okay he was a bank robber... You know what, nevermind." She flipped over the DVD case to make sure it wasn't rated R. That'd probably be pretty bad if Cass told his dad that the new babysitter offered to take him to the park when he was grounded and let him watch an R rated movie. When he stammered out a response, she looked at him and spoke genuinely, "No, I'm almost sure that's why!"
She wasn't, but he seemed pretty meek for a boy his age, why not try to chance his view on the situation? She shrugged and then turned when he mentioned living in dorms. "What school do you go to?"
Wait.
...Wait.
Pet?
Griffin tried to hide how excited she might be when she asked, "Oh what kind of pet do you have?" It would be such a bummer if it wound up being a fish or a snake. Although she would prefer the former to the latter any day.
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Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 8:00 pm
"Hillworth," Cass muttered in an annoyed growl but then she asked. Oh she asked. He was hoping she would, at least, that was what was evidenced by the devious grin on his face.
"We call him Busby, he's reeeeeal cute," He said coyly and scuttled off down the hallway to his room.
He was gone for a few minutes, carefully handling the poor thing, and just a little nervous because Alex had told him he wasn't allowed to handle him so much and he would pound on him if he found out.
That wasn't going to deter him from such an amazing opportunity, though. "This is him!" He said, returning with something gently cupped between his two hands, pulling one hand off as he lifted it up to her face and revealing a really ticked off Emperor scorpion. Cass had already been stung for his indelicate way of getting him out of his habitat and now her was waving it in Griffin's face.
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Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2011 12:25 pm
Hillworth? Wasn't that for bad kids? Cass didn't seem like he belonged. Not because was short, or anything! No, he just seemed more timid than anything. Though, if she'd known what he'd had in mind while getting Busby, she probably could have understood it better.
"Busby?" She was smiling and excited and waited for Cass to return. When he reappeared with hands cupped, Griffin expected something like a hamster or a gerbil. Some cute, demure little mammal for cuddling and petting. But when he drew back the curtain, so to speak, she fell back and screamed.
She didn't start crying, but her eyes were definitely watering. She could now play the babysitter card like a baby and threaten to tell his dad, or not. She stood up, and with her extra 4 inches on Cass, sort of towered over him. Griffin did her best to loom and look scary. "You think that's funny? Well it was, but I hope it was worth it, because your dad is getting a full report when he comes back." Ok, so she was threatening him a little bit. With her hands on her hips she shook her head. "But if you put.... Busby... away right now and shape up, maybe I can leave that part out, okay? 'Cause if I was your dad, I'd probably extend your grounding for that."
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 8:08 am
Cass was laughing. He was laughing his a** off. It was amazing. He had expected a jump, maybe some uneasiness, but she screamed and it was glorious, even if it was agitating and stressing the poor arachnid in his hands further.
Ugh, now she was getting all authoritative on him. He still wasn't pleased with the fact someone only three years older than him was babysitting. He was getting his learner's permit in October! He's a full blown teenager, dammit.
"I'm grounded until school starts again, then I'm back to Hillworth," He snorted, wanting to challenge her authority sooo badly. But he also didn't want to deal with whatever his dad could dish out further on the punishment end, and he found the man a little more than frightening when he was pissed off.
"Whatever," He muttered and finally scuttled back to dump the poor thing back in his habitat. Oh well. He'd still made her scream.
"If you're that jumpy, you might want to stay in the living room, then," he said as he strolled down the hallway, only slightly taunting. "My brother collects bugs."
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Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 1:09 am
Griffin was still rather huffy about the whole thing and pouting the whole time. At least he hadn't dropped the bug. She'd have felt bad if she had to squish it out of fear. Bitterly, she thought to herself 'serves you right' of his extended grounding. But she was just being a baby. She brushed herself off as he went to return Busby to his home and flopped down in a chair in a manner quite similar to what Cass had done earlier.
She wished she could get back at him, but anything she did could probably constitute as child abuse. Which would be bad. And mean she would get no money for her troubles of babysitting Cass. "I'll have you know that I'm not scared of bugs, I just don't like being startled is all. And I hate bugs. Why don't you stay in here too, so I can keep a better eye on you." Now, Griffin didn't trust Cass as far as she could throw him. Which might have been kinda far, but regardless, she wasn't happy.
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Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 2:34 am
Cass rolled his eyes, clearly not believing Griffin's shpiel about not being afraid. What a chicken.
He made exaggerated faces as she spoke, mocking her words and then flopping down on the sofa hard enough to make that section recline back. He just kept his arms stiffly folded and glared at the ceiling like he meant to do that.
He might've looked angry and defeated but he was still plotting. Oh, so much plotting. There had to be other ways to get under her skin. Make her run away screaming. Maybe if she left early he could get in a visit to one of his friends or grab a burger. Not that he ever managed that, but it was an interesting night.
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