Babysitting Blues: Part One

      "What is it? Are you hurt?" she asked breathlessly. Her normally straight, glossy, black hair was now dull and clinging to her face, pieces of it sticking straight up.

      "No," he said calmly.

      "Did someone try to break in?" she questioned, craning her neck to look out his open window.

      "No," Andrew replied.

      "Then what happened?" Raven asked in exasperation.

      "Nothing. I'm just bored." Raven looked at her pet sitting on the floor, cross-legged. Her eyes flashed angrily.

      "You made me think you were hurt but you were just bored?" she demanded, glaring at him.

      "Yeah, pretty much. Man! Did you see how fast you were going? It was like WHOOSH! You were like a rocket, mom!" The young shadow Ruki smiled at her. Raven's heart melted. She was always falling for that smile. Who couldn't?

      "Well, what do you want to do?" she asked.

      Raven was a sixteen year old girl, of average height and weight. She had been on Neopets for about thirty months and that whole time she only adopted one pet. She had bought him everything he had ever wanted--toys, books, a loving white Weewoo that Andrew named Snowflake (who had brought home an adorable Breebly), all the furniture he wanted and more. She even painted him shadow! The only problem was that he was always saying he was bored or playing practical jokes (most of which were focused on Raven).

      Andrew was a ten year old Ruki, who had been carelessly abandoned by his old owner. Andrew always played pranks because he felt lonely and wanted attention, plus it was lots of fun! He had a few friends but they were always going places with their parents so he only saw them during the week at school. Now it was summer and he had done everything worth doing in the house.

      "I don't know. I want an adventure. I want to play with someone and I want to be in charge!" he exclaimed.

      "Hmmmm… I've got it!" She looked down at her pet. Andrew jumped up.

      "You do?"

      "Yep. You can go and clean the outside windows! Won't that be fun?" she squealed sarcastically.

      "Ha-ha. Very funny. Now what can I really do?"

      "I'm not joking. Get going, Andy." She shooed him down to the supply closet.

*****

      "I can't believe her," the shadow Ruki grumbled as he sprayed the window for the thousandth time. Why did they have to live in such a big house? He had been working since ten am NST and now it was past four and he wasn't even halfway done!

      "She's just getting back at me for scaring her," Andrew muttered bitterly as he wiped away the spray. The whole time he had been saying things like this to try and make himself feel better. It wasn't really working.

      Just then a young woman walked by and stopped in front of Andrew's house.

      "Hey, Andy!" she called. He turned his head. It was his owner's sister.

      "Hi Trisha," he replied casually.

      "Rae making you do hard labor again, huh?" Trisha asked.

      "Yep," Andrew said.

      "Too bad. Hey, do you think you could watch Lily tonight while me and Rae go to the Faerieland book signing?" she asked hopefully. Andrew paused in mid spray. Lily was his baby cousin, who he despised with a loathing. Lily was a baby Kacheek and looked so innocent, but she was far from it. She always took the adults' attention away from him. He never liked her. Okay, so it was a poor excuse to not like a cousin, but it was true.

      "Uh, sure, I guess," he heard himself saying.

      "Great! I just know you'll have a great time! Come over at five thirty, okay?" Trisha asked as she walked away.

      "Okay! See you then!" he called after her. Andrew sighed. What had he just gotten himself into?

*****

      "Mom! It's time to go!" the shadow Ruki yelled into the house. He was waiting for Raven to finish getting ready.

      "Coming!" Raven appeared outside the door, right next to Andrew.

      "AHHH! Mom! Don't do that! You know it freaks me out." Sometimes Raven did that to him. He had no idea how she had gone from being upstairs in her room to right next to him in less than a second.

      "Whatever. Let's go! We don't want to be late!" Raven said cheerfully.

      A few minutes later they were at Trisha's house. It was very pretty, but about half the size of Rae's mansion. Rae knocked on her door. Seconds later it opened, revealing a happy looking Trisha holding the small bundle of lavender fur that was Lily. Also, slung on her shoulder was a big baby bag.

      "What's going on, Trish?" Raven asked curiously.

      "I was hoping to catch you before you left. You usually aren't on time, sis," Trisha said jokingly, even though it was true. "I wanted to ask if I could leave Lily at your house instead. Would that be okay?" she asked pleadingly.

      "Yeah. Andy can just take her back to the house. Maybe you guys can stop at the park too," Raven added.

      Trisha handed the bag and baby over to Andy. Andy grimaced, holding her at arms length.

      "Oh! And before I forget, here's a list of what to do with her, what toys she's allowed to play with, what foods she can and can't eat, that sort of thing." She handed Andy the list. He had to rearrange how he was holding Lily, so now she was sitting on his shoulders, holding onto his antennae (more like yanking).

      "Make sure you follow everything on that list to the T," Trisha warned. "My little Lilykins has a very sensitive body and I don't want anything to ruin it!" She gave Lily a quick peck on the cheek and then she and Rae walked off to the Uni Express.

      "We'll be back in a couple of hours!" Raven yelled back.

      "Okay mom!" Andy replied, starting for his house. So far things were going okay. She wasn't acting too horribly, yet.

*****

      Andy unlocked his front door and stepped into his dark entryway.

      "It dawk!" Lily whimpered. Andy felt her start to shake.

      "It's okay, Lily!" he said soothingly. Andy quickly walked over to the light switch and the house was immediately illuminated. Lily stopped shaking and let out a small sigh of relief.

      "You don't like the dark, do you, Lily?" Andy asked.

      "Uh-uh," Lily answered.

      Andrew took her off of his shoulders. Or rather he tried. She wouldn't let go of his antenna! And it was starting to hurt.

      "Lily, don't you want to come down?" Andrew asked.

      "No!" she exclaimed, holding on tighter.

      "Ow!" His head was becoming very sore where she was pulling. How do I get her off of me? he wondered. Then he remembered. The list! Maybe it said something about how to get Lily to cooperate.

      Andrew looked at the list. It said-

      1. Under no circumstances is Lily to be outside after dark.

      2. Lily is to be in bed, ASLEEP, by eight o'clock.

      3. She is to only play with her plushies and toys that are in the bag.

      4. Lily is NEVER allowed to eat ANY sweets of ANY KIND.

      5. She is to be washed up after she eats dinner.

      6. You must read Lily her favorite book before she goes to bed; Baby Ixi Book, which I have placed in the bag.

      7. She is only to eat her Forest Fruit Baby Food for dinner along with her Baby Elephante Milk Bottle.

      8. If she gets hungry later after dinner you may give her a SMALL BOWL of Extra Creamy Soup.

      None of this helped him with how to get her off of him! Then he got a new idea.

      "Hey, Lily, do you want your yummy Forest Fruit dinner?"

      "NO!" she screamed.

      "Why not?" he wailed.

      "It's yucky-ucky!"

      "Then what do you want?" Lily thought for a minute.

      "Me want a iceybug sundy!" she cried happily.

      "Oh no! Your mommy trusts me not to give you anything sweet. That Iceberg Sundae is the worst thing you could eat anyways," Andrew said sternly.

      Then the worst thing happened. Lily started crying. Not like normal babies; neopets all the way in Kreludor could have heard her! It was so loud! One of the windows in the room got a crack in it. Andrew started to panic. What now?!

      "I-won-top-untwil-I-get-me-sundy!" Lily said between gasps, screams and cries.

      "No! I can't give it to you, Lily. I told you that!" She pulled on his antenna harder and cried louder (if that's possible).

      Andrew looked around the room frantically. He had no idea of what to do. What would Rae do? he asked himself.

      "She wouldn't have this problem!" he yelled. Lily's face was turning red and even more purple at the same time. Andrew knew that if he didn't do anything fast something bad was going to happen. But what could he do?

To be continued...