Chapter 30
The Babysitter, Part 30
PART 30
Paige
Noelle told us that she was fine.
I wasn’t surprised, of course. She had handled Alyssa so well ever since arriving, especially considering my sister’s actual age. Still, I continued to be as helpful as possible anyway. I informed Noelle that the other three girls were staying down in the basement, and that’s where we all planned to hang out for the rest of the evening. So we wouldn’t disturb ‘Miley’ down the hall.
I much preferred summer evenings. They still weren’t that cool, but it was much preferable to the awful June sun that I tended to avoid in favor of AC most of the time. The walk we told Noelle we were going on wasn’t particularly long. Just three doors down, to the real Miley’s house.
Normally I wouldn’t knock on someone’s front door around 9 PM without being invited first. This was obviously an exception. Miley was home alone, and there was no way in hell she was already in bed. That was on the earlier side for thirteen year olds anyway, and I assumed a girl like Miley would be up late if she had the place to herself. I was delighted to hear some punk rock on the other side of the door, as that meant she was home. There had always been the chance that she had ditched the house in favor of a friend’s place, to avoid dealing with a new babysitter.
Now that Annika and I were sure she was home, I rang the doorbell and waited. Half a minute later, the door was swinging open and Miley was standing there with a trace of confusion on her face. She had clearly been expecting someone else. To her credit, the girl could hide her emotions pretty well for her age. “Can I help you?” she asked.
Miley had the rebellious look. Her dark ensemble was somewhere between alternative and goth, which not many teenagers could pull off. It was edgy without trying too hard. There were girls my age who couldn’t find that balance. She was also a couple inches taller than Alyssa, which amused me when thinking about how this was the girl that Noelle was actually supposed to be in charge of for the weekend. Darker red hair, too. She looked closer to fourteen or fifteen, which I noted would be perfect if Alyssa managed to drag Noelle over here.
“Maybe,” I replied. Just because I was technically a teenager as well didn’t mean that Miley would be on my side right away. My friends and I leaned alternative, but only so much, and the age difference meant that Miley and I would only have so much in common. “Real talk, Miley. Did you somehow send your babysitter to my house?”
Bullseye.
She definitely didn’t expect the point blank question. At the same time, being called out didn’t make her look nervous or guilty in the slightest. More that it caused her to flinch a little in surprise. She recovered quickly, giving me a long look as she brushed back her hair and considered how to respond. Finally, she glanced towards Annika. “You’re not Noelle,” she said.
I couldn’t help but smirk at the pointed non-answer. Despite being her neighbor, I really didn’t know Miley that well. But I knew the type. Most teenagers that hated authority figures tended to hate the bullshit that certain adults tried to spin. Violet was the best parallel I could think of; she would constantly demand straight talk the moment she caught someone stalling and/or circling around what they actually wanted to say. I had to guess that Miley was similar in that regard. “Noelle is at my place,” I said, “She’s putting Alyssa to bed as we speak. She thinks that my sister is you. Which is fucking hilarious, by the way.” Pausing to let her process the results of what was likely her doing, I concluded with, “I think we’d both prefer to keep Noelle over there, yeah? So let’s work together.”
This time around, Miley’s poker face was flawless. She quietly weighed the information I offered her, looking at both me and Annika as she considered whether or not we were telling the truth as well. Then, just like before, she gave a non-committal, “Why should I believe you?”
Annika was about to say something, but I held up my hand. I had this. “Because Noelle would be here hours ago if I actually gave a shit about her babysitting the correct girl.” Miley could play it as cool as she wanted; I could tell that she was curious at some level. “Want to hear the story? Invite us in before your music gets someone’s attention.”
“Fine,” she said. No doubt realizing my point about how the open door was a problem, especially when her parents might have notified their immediate neighbors about Miley’s stay this weekend, she stepped aside and gestured for us to enter. “Don’t bother with your shoes. Follow me.”
Well, it was progress. To be fair, I understood her hesitation to trust me. Alyssa was my sister, after all, and it’s not like everyone knew that we butted heads. Until I could make Miley understand that I truly did appreciate the mix-up that may or may not have been orchestrated, she was going to remain guarded.
It wasn’t until we were halfway down the hall that I heard voices from the living room. Miley didn’t take us far enough to see who she had over. “Kitchen,” she simply said. After nodding to the door on her left, she continued walking forward.
I gave Annika a nod, and we both turned into the room we were directed to. My guess was that Miley was going to tell her friends to stay put while she chatted with us. Even though I brought way more to the table than she did, considering how easy it would be to come clean and point Noelle her way, I would play by Miley’s rules for the time being. Patience was key when it came to forging alliances. While we didn’t have a common enemy, I had a much better card to play to pique the girl’s interest.
Miley stepped into the kitchen a minute later, looking cool and confident as ever. “So, you have a story for me?” she asked.
“Mm hmm,” I replied, leaning against the counter in my own calm way. No matter how much attitude the dark clad redhead had, it would never make up for the fact that I was five years older than her. And, unlike little Alyssa, I was quite good at standing up for myself as well. “I’ll trade you. Noelle spanked my sister, by the way. Literally dragged her by the ear and pulled her down onto her lap. And that’s only part of the story.”
A flicker of emotion on Miley’s face told me that I had her attention. “Tell me the rest.” She was still being careful not to actually admit anything. Understandable, all things considered.
“Your turn,” I said. Not wanting to come off too strong, as tedious as it was to do things this way, I offered an option that didn’t involve incriminating herself. “Details about your weekend, and anything about Noelle. I don’t care if you play dumb about your little trick. Give me something to work with.”
Miley thought about it for a moment. After glancing between me and Annika, she finally said, “My parents are getting back Monday morning. Noelle was given permission to do just about anything to keep me in line. Spanking, slapping, pinching, hair yanking, ear tugging, physically restraining me, the works. My parents signed a shit-ton of legal forms that would keep her from getting in trouble for any of it.”
That much aligned with what Noelle had told Alyssa when she had my squirming sister over her lap. All kinds of discipline that would be viewed as outdated and/or extreme these days, because nothing else had worked on Miley so far. “What about communication?” I asked, “Do you know?” A girl like her probably had the means and the motivation to sneak onto her parents’ accounts.
“Calling, I’m assuming,” she shrugged, “You know, to freely talk about the borderline child abuse without a long paper trail. But all the forms and stuff were over email. Okay, your turn.”
It was a start. Maybe it was my efforts to let her dance around any real confession, or something else entirely, but Miley was answering a little more directly now that we were getting into it. As long as she kept playing ball, I was more than willing to share what Alyssa suffered on her account.
Unfortunately, the mostly bare ass spanking would be pretty tough to top. Still, I tried to hit all the highlights: Alyssa answering the door in just her leotard, how my friends and I had stripped her room of its maturity as well as taken anything that had her identity readily apparent, and the fact that Alyssa had spent a good portion of the afternoon doing Miley’s homework. I omitted the part about the board games, as that was more my personal ‘fuck you’ to my step-sister on top of the rest. Since I figured it would entice the real Miley to help me out moving forward, however, I did share the part about how Noelle truly believed that she was at the correct house. To the point that the harsh babysitter immediately dismissed Alyssa’s driver’s license when it was shown as proof of who she was, rather than realizing she had it wrong.
In turn, Miley gave us what she could. After a couple other details that continued to confirm what I had heard from Noelle herself here and there, Miley gave us a vital piece of information–her parents hadn’t been waiting around for Noelle to show up, as they had to leave earlier to beat traffic and make their flight. Instead, they had told Miley that Noelle would be there around 5:30 and that they would be getting a report once a day about how things were going. While I could already imagine Miley scoffing and rolling her eyes at such a statement, considering how little she seemed to be worried about getting in trouble, that was suddenly a pressing problem for me. I had been able to convince Noelle that ‘Miley’ had a sister, but her parents would immediately question and subsequently correct something like that if I was mentioned in said report.
“Shit,” Annika muttered.
“Yeah, shit,” I nodded, “Miley, I meant what I said. We both want Alyssa to be the one with the babysitter. We both benefit. You get to do whatever the hell you want this weekend without being hassled, and I get to see my stuck-up sister being distrusted and disciplined left and right. Now, come on. How is your mom getting the report?”
“Like I said, emails were only for paperwork,” she said right away, finally getting on the same page as us. We were all screwed if Noelle said the wrong thing to Miley’s parents.
“A call or text, then,” Annika said.
“Annika, stay. Get Miley’s number, and whatever else she can tell us. I’m going back to the house.”
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