✅1️⃣ Trusting the Babysitter

Chapter 12 - Breaking Rules

"What do you want to do now, Claudia?" Adam put on a simplistic grin like he was talking to a child or an idiot, and he could see from her glare that she wanted to slap it right off his face. He concentrated, and made an effort to change his expression before he continued: "No, seriously. She's out of the way now, we can do whatever you want."

"I... uhh..."

"Right, right. You can't ask for anything. But you can answer questions, can't you? You can let me know like a big girl if there's something you want to do."

She was still glaring at him, still clearly upset, and he glanced at the room around them rather than allow the awkwardness to be prolonged. He didn't want to invade her privacy, and it was the first time he'd been in a girl's room for any significant time, but he hoped there would be some clues there to remind him what he should be offering.

"I want to..." he started, and then cut himself off as he realised that wasn't allowed. He had orders. But he didn't want to upset the baby any more than he had to, so he needed to think creatively.

He went over to the closet in the corner and opened it. There were a lot of clothes hanging there in no apparent order, and more piled up on shelves and along the bottom. It surprised him; Claudia had always struck him as being too cool and aloof to care about fashion. She gave the impression of wearing the same outfit whenever he saw her in school, or disinterestedly watching sports after school, or sprawled out on a park bench listening to music at the weekends. But it seemed she owned dozens of pairs of distressed jeans with different amounts of scuffing, and a dozen pairs of different shoes in a style that he mentally grouped together as skater wear. He hadn't realised how much variety there was within that little niche, and it seemed Claudia owned all of it.

She was fuming as he went through her clothes, but he kept on going. He was just doing what needed to be done.

"I'm just looking for toys," he said. "Don't be a sour baby. Your big sister said I need to find some toys for you to play with. I don't have time to help you look for clothes until I've done that, even if your sister doesn't want you getting them yourself."

He could see Claudia from the corner of his eye, still with bare legs. She looked down at herself when he said that, and he could practically see the inner struggle as she tried to work out how it was possibly to defy her orders. She couldn't get anything she wanted herself, she had to wait for the babysitter to give her anything she needed. That was what Lorelei had said. It wasn't quite clear if that just meant toys, or everything else too. But Adam had guessed that as the reason she wasn't getting herself something to cover herself as soon as they entered the room. And he had been right; he couldn't ask what clothes she wanted until he'd done the thing about searching for toys, but there was nothing to stop him searching in a way that involved moving clothes out of his way to search behind them, dropping a pair of clean jeans in front of her.

When he gave her something, it seemed she was quite capable of putting it on. Even if he wasn't supposed to be giving her anything yet. He didn't hear her say anything, but he optimistically imagined that she might have thanked him for his help. Then he thought about something else.

"We need to find toys," he said. "That's what she ordered. There's no sense me searching blindly. Can you be a big girl and show me where there's some toys?"

"Well they're not going to be in my room, are they?" she couldn't hold back the sarcasm now, and he really didn't blame her. "You might want to try the playroom. I'm sure Mum showed you where to find everything."

"Yeah, but I don't want to run into Lorelei again. And I don't want to waste any more time than necessary. I think those orders are making it harder for you, but I think there's a way around them. Show me the closest toys."

Claudia nodded, and turned around to reach underneath a small chest of drawers in the corner. Not the first place Adam would have thought to look for toys, but there was no denying that it was closer than searching blindly. And he'd been ordered to look for toys, but he felt that this was a valid way of doing it. Then he looked down as Claudia sat on the floor, opening the top of a toybox that might once have been a lunchbox, the image on the front long-since rendered illegible. He was silent for a second, but he had done what he was ordered, and that was all that mattered.

"I think someone's been a naughty girl," he said. "Those aren't the kind of toys I was thinking of, and you're too little to know about that. I should certainly tell your mummy all about that, and you'd be in so much trouble. But nobody's told me to do that, so I think we'd better just move on. I really hope a little girl like you doesn't know what all those things are for. But now I've got my orders, and I need to play with you. So I think–"

Claudia slammed the little box closed and pushed it under her bed as hard as she could. He could tell she would be cursing now, but her lips didn't move. She'd been ordered not to tell him he was wrong, and not to disagree with anything he suggested doing. He'd have to guess what she wanted from her body language, which in this case was as clear as it needed to be.

He turned away and searched Claudia's desk very briefly. When he found what he was looking for he turned back and pressed it into her hands, desperately hoping that Lorelei wouldn't come back to see how he had interpreted her instruction. If she wanted her sister to be the baby, this must be the opposite of what she had in mind.

"I'm sorry, little one. I don't want to upset you, but I have to make you play. Neither of us has a choice here. So how about you turn that frown around and make it a big smile. Let's enjoy this order the best we can. It's time for good girls to play a game, and enjoy it. Now, quick as you can, get yourself ready to play."

Claudia's options were clear, and there was no reason to stop and think. She wanted to do exactly what he told her, so she did.

Author's note: I wasn't sure about including this bit, and I hope it doesn't bore people. But it seems to fit the characters and I thought I should let them have a little fun. I'd appreciate it if people with more experience of this type of 'play' could point out if there's anything unrealistic enough to break immersion. And before I post the next chapter, I think it would be interesting to see who can guess what he's offered her.