Babysitting Blues: Part Two

      She was eating an Iceberg Sundae.

      He hadn't known what to do and if he hadn't done something quickly she would have passed out sooner or later.

      "Anny, I wanna pway a game! Pwease?" Lily made her bottom lip shoot out and her eyes got huge and sparkly. Andy tried to look away but couldn't. He mentally cursed Rae for also making him a softy for the baby face.

      "What kind of game?" he asked cautiously.

      "I wanna pway hide and peek!" she said happily.

      "Don't you mean hide and seek?"

      "That's wha I sad, hide and peek!"

      "Okay. How about you hide and I… peek," Andy finished lamely.

      "Yay!" Lily cheered. Andy turned around and started counting out loud.

      "One. Two. Three. Four." Lily bolted out of the kitchen and down the hall.

      *****

      "Twenty. Twenty-one. Twenty-two. Twenty-three." Lily could hear Andy counting in the room right next her. She was in his room looking for a good place to hide. Then she saw his open window.

      "Puwfect!" she whispered. Lily toddled over to the open window and after some struggling to get onto the ledge she did. Slowly she stood up and looked down. Right below her was a snake bush that would make a great slide. Taking a minute to swing her arms back and forth she jumped and slid down the bush.

      Once she was on the ground Lily looked around. She spotted a very big pastel snowflake tree. It would hide her perfectly. Lily waddled over to the tree slowly, only falling down twice. She heard Andy through the open window.

      "Ninety. Ninety-one. Ninety-two." She waddled faster. He was almost ready to start looking!

      Finally she reached the tree. It was much bigger up close.

      "Oh wewl," Lily said. She started climbing.

      "Ready or not, here I come!" Andy shouted.

      "Huwy!" she said to herself. This was much harder than it looked!

      *****

      "Come out, come out wherever you are," Andy said as he looked in the bathroom. The curtain hung around the bathtub.

      "I wonder where Lily is," the shadow Ruki said quietly. He yanked the curtain back. Empty!

      "Where is she?" he asked himself. As he walked down the hallway he saw his bedroom door was open.

      "Hmmm. I wonder if she could be in there," Andrew made his way silently to his room.

      "GOTCHA!" he yelled, hoping that would scare Lily. It didn't. So he looked everywhere a baby could possibly hide and she was nowhere in his room. Then he felt a cool breeze.

      "Must have left the window op- Lily!" Andy yelled. He had been walking over to the window to shut it when he saw Lily hanging from a high branch on the pastel snowflake tree! She was crying. It looked like she could fall at any minute!

      Andrew jumped out of his window and sprinted over to the tree. He stopped right below Lily.

     "Lily! It's okay! You can let go! I'll catch you!" he called up.

      "NO!" she screamed. "I WANT MY MOMMY!" Lily started to cry again.

      "Oh, no," Andrew whispered. "Come on Lily! I promise I'll catch you!"

      "NO! MOMMY HELP M-" then she stopped. A smile started to come across her face, but it was to small for Andy to see.

      "Anny, I come down if I can have an icey cweam sundy, an chocat koga pudding, an a chocat min slusie. Oh! An a aishi cinnanim woll too!" Lily looked down at Andy.

      "NO WAY! Lily, you're coming down here whether you like it or not!" Andrew started climbing up the tree.

      "NO! GO WAY ANNY! I wan my canie!"

      "You're not-getting-any-candy!" the Ruki grunted as he laboriously made his way up the tall tree.

      Lily started to swing back and forth on the branch.

      "I drop it you twi to get me, Anny," the baby Kacheek warned.

      "No you won't, Lily."

      "Yep. I wiwl." She let her left paw hang by her side. Now only her right paw was keeping her from falling over ten feet to the ground.

      Andy started to panic. Now what?

      *****

      Hundreds of miles away in Faerieland were the two owners, oblivious to the danger their two pets were in. They were waiting in the huge line. And was it ever HUGE! There were over ten thousand people there!

      "Did all of Neopia come to this or what?" muttered Rae.

      "Well, duh! Fyora herself is going to be here for a book signing! Who wouldn't want her to sign one of their books?" Trisha whispered. She had a point. But Raven had an uneasy feeling about what was going on back at home that Trisha was obviously unaware of.

      "I just hope we can get this over with fast so we can get back home. I'm not comfortable at the thought of Andy watching Lily after dark," Raven said nervously, fixing her hair. That was her habit when she was scared or nervous, messing with her hair. Trisha caught on.

      "Sis, they'll be fine. You know that! And Lily is so easy to take care of! Why I bet right now they're having the best time!"

      "I guess you're right, Trish." The teen sighed.

      *****

      "Please come down, Lily!" Andrew cried. He was back on the ground, below Lily and she had agreed to hang by both paws now that he was on the ground.

      "Not untwl you give me cany!" she said.

      Andrew sighed heavily. He was going to be in so much trouble!

      "Fine Lily! I'll give you the candy!"

      "Awl of it?" Lily asked suspiciously.

      "Yes! I'll give you the Ice Cream Sundae, the Chocolate Kougra Pudding and the Chocolate Mint Slushie!" he said sadly. His mom was going to kill him!

      "You fogot de aishi cinnanim woll!" she called down.

      "That too and I'll even read you your story twelve times! Now please come down!"

      "Otay!" Lily released her paws and plummeted into Andy's arms.

      "Anny, yowr the bestest cousin evew!" she said, snuggling her head into his shoulder. Lily wrapped her arms around his neck.

      "Uh huh," he mumbled. He ran back to the front door and opened it.

      Or at least, he tried to. It was locked.

      Andrew shook the doorknob viciously. This was just great! He yelled in frustration.

      "Anny, waw wong?" Lily asked curiously.

      "The door's locked!" he snapped.

      "Waw abouw youw winow?"

      Andrew's eyes widened. Of course! His window! How could he have forgotten?

      "Lily, you're a genius!" The little Kacheek hid her face from him, but he saw that she had an enormous smile. She giggled happily.

      Andy ran over to his window, but what he saw did not make him happy. His window was shut tight. Maybe it's not locked, he thought hopefully. But we have Satellite Security! Andy remembered bitterly.

      Even so he reached out his hand to try and see if by some slim chance of luck it would open for him.

      *****

      "Next!" a sharp voice called.

      "That's us!" Trisha squealed. Raven just nodded. She knew something was wrong back at her house, but she didn't know what.

      Trisha grabbed Rae by the arm and dragged her into the room. Sitting at a magnificent table were five faeries. One was the Library Faerie, one was a strict looking Fire Faerie that they didn't know, another was the Healing Springs Faerie, another was the beloved Soup Faerie, and the last (and certainly not least) faerie, who was sitting right in the middle of them was-

      "Queen Fyora!" Trish cried. She ran up to the table, not caring about the dirty looks being thrown her way by some of the other people in the room.

      Raven slowly made her way up to the table, nodding respectfully to the faeries as she went.

      "We have been waiting to see you for so long, your majesty!" the older teen exclaimed. Her short, auburn hair was swinging wildly in her ponytail as she looked at all the faeries.

      They were also looking back at her. Some curiously and others disapprovingly. Trisha was wearing dark jeans and a Fyora Rules! T-shirt. She only had on a little bit of make-up, but still looked beautiful.

      Then as Raven approached they turned to look at her. She wore no make-up (except eye liner), a black knee-length skirt, black combat boots and a Twisted Roses T-shirt. Her hair was down in no real style. The faeries seemed to like Trisha more than her. Raven seemed like she would fit in well with some darkness faeries, more than in this type of regal setting.

      "So, my dears, what is it you wish from me?" Fyora asked with a royal air.

      "We were wondering if you would sign our books, m'lady," Raven asked quietly. "All of you, actually."

      The faeries shared a look. Then they all smiled. They knew that they had been wrong to judge this teen just by what she wore.

      "We would be honored to sign your books, girls," the Soup Faerie replied happily.

      Raven and Trisha smiled broadly at each other.

      *****

      Andy's paw was trembling slightly as he reached for the window. He grabbed hold of the bottom and pulled up…

To be continued...