On the second floor of the Valentine household, in the bedroom owned by a one Victoria Valentine, slept the red-haired twenty year old in question, clad in an old lime-green tank-top and black, cotton sleeping shorts, barely long enough to reach the midpoint of her thighs. Her fiery hair, freed from the tie she used to put it up into a ponytail, was messily splayed about on her pillow around her head, though it still maintained a certain degree of smoothness to keep from looking unkempt. Finally, and perhaps most unusually to the people who knew the adult woman, who was truly adult in age only; Vicky bore a content, peaceful smile as she slept comfortably, the expression betraying not even a hint of the girl's teasing, abrasive, sometimes even vindictive personality.
Evil she was not, but spiteful? Unfair? Bratty? The girl could be each of these, and much worse, should one catch her on a bad day. Age had tempered her more unpleasant mannerisms, but while she certainly wasn't evil, nor was she a saint, not by a longshot. Vicky was nice only when she deemed it to be absolutely necessary, and rarely if she decided to be such on little more than a whim. Her parents, who she got along quite well with, were entirely unaware of how their daughter acted outside of their home, and honestly, viewed her as an adult now, causing them to assume that the sweet, pleasant daughter they knew at home was just as sweet and pleasant when she babysat all the children in the neighborhood, neither of them even batting an eye when she occasionally let 'Twerp', her not-so-affectionate nickname for the kids she babysat; slip out.
Surprisingly, she even treated her younger sister, Tootie; with a considerable amount of respect, though the usual teasing that tended to happen between an older and younger sibling was there, it wasn't spiteful to the same degree as the teasing she directed toward the children-now many of them teens, and no longer in her care-she babysat, or perhaps once babysat would be the more apt term.
In fact, the twenty year old was fast approaching early retirement, and would have already done so, were it not for her most long-standing pair of clients, and their now fourteen year old son named Timmy Turner. The buck-toothed, pink hat and t-shirt plus blue jeans-clad brunet was an odd case, as he clearly didn't need a babysitter, and shouldn't have wanted one either, considering that for one, most boys his age didn't(not without certain ulterior motives, anyway), and second, Vicky herself made it a point to make his life a living hell... Though perhaps that was stretching things a bit. She didn't necessarily torture him, but she did work him to the point of exhaustion most days, along with giving him menial tasks that she honestly figured he'd complain about more than he did. Some days, he almost seemed content with, or at least resigned to, her apparently eternal presence in his life.
On occasion, she even felt bad enough to give him the day off, sometimes because she didn't want to work him to death, sometimes because she honestly couldn't think of more tasks to give him.
And then, there were the times she caught him talking to his seemingly immortal goldfish, odd in itself because that was something lonely people did, and the fourteen year old couldn't be that lonely, he had friends! At least three of them, counting her younger sister!
Still, she used to talk to her own pets when she was young, she remembered that quite lucidly, so to some extent, she understood why Timmy did it, and almost always kept it as an off-limits subject.
Back at the here and now, Vicky slept contentedly in her bed, her covers pulled up to her chin, and her left arm tucked under her pillow, the twenty year old enjoying the pleasant breeze wafting in from her open window. In her unconscious state, she didn't know what day it was, and she didn't much care, either. Timmy wouldn't be home from school until a little after three in the afternoon, and her alarm clock currently indicated the time as one-fifteen, leaving her a good forty-five minutes to an hour before she had to get up.
A quiet, sleep-addled sigh escaped the girl as she rested without a care in the world...
Fwish!
A sound, seemingly unattached to any visible object, sliced through the air with lightning speed, zipping through the open window and into the red-head's room.
"Ack!" Vicky's pink eyes shot wide open as she yelped in surprise at a sudden pain in her right buttock, her pelvis thrusting forward to get her rear-end as far away from whatever had stabbed it as possible. "What the-?!" She flipped over in bed and threw her comforter off herself and onto the floor, scanning the area just behind where her butt had been with her eyes, now wide and alert. "Damn house must be haunted by... Butt-pinching ghosts, or..." She shook her head back and forth, then flipped back over onto her left side, twisting her waist as much as she could to get a look at her wounded posterior, before slipping her sleeping shorts down several inches, exposing a fair bit of her pale, bare bottom. "Huh..." She gingerly dragged the fingers of her right hand back and forth over her right buttock, noticing a dull, nearly faded throb where she was sure something had poked or bitten her. "Tch, that's what I get for leaving my window open; bet a bug got in and bit my ass..."
The red-head rolled her eyes in annoyance and pulled her shorts back up to her waist, then shut her window with a low slam and a huff, before throwing her legs over the side of the bed and pushing herself to her feet.
"Mngh..." Vicky groaned out as she stretched her arms up over her head and stood on the tips of her toes, then strode across her room to her dresser, and finally began fishing through it for a change of clothes. "Guess I might as well take a shower and start the day..." She remarked to herself over a yawn, adding a towel to the stack of clothes in her hand, comprised of a green t-shirt, a black bra and panties, and a pair of black jeans, plus similarly colored socks.
With a fresh change of clothes gathered up, the twenty year old left her room and crossed the hallway, stepping into the bathroom and shutting the door behind her. Upon setting her clothes down neatly on the lid of the toilet, she reached into the tub and turned the knob nearly as far as it would go, a combination of hot water and steam pouring out of the nozzle and onto her hand as she tested the temperature of the water.
"Ah..." Another content sigh escaped the girl as the hot water hit her skin, warming her forearm and relaxing away the mild tension in her stiff, sleep-addled muscles. As a cloud of steam began to overtake the interior of the bathroom, coating the mirror, sink and toilet in a fine layer of condensation, Vicky stripped off her pajamas, starting with her green tank-top, and quickly following it with her black shorts, which slid down her legs and pooled at her feet once she slipped them off her waist.
Her clothes stripped off and discarded, the red-head hopped into the tub, and beneath the hot water jetting out of the shower nozzle. One of the benefits of sleeping in as late as she did was that she never had to worry about whether she'd have hot water or not, her parents tended to get up early in the morning for their showers, and Tootie usually followed with her own an hour or two after that, leaving more than enough time for the house's hot water to replenish for her afternoon shower.
"Hm... Today's Friday... What was special about today?" Vicky absently mused to herself as she reached for her bottle of body wash on the shelf built into the wall of the tub. "Wait, was it-" The girl began, only to fall silent as she squeezed the bottle in her hand, which produced little more than a few small bubbles, accompanied by a wheezing gasp of air. "Rrgh... Crap, out already?" She remarked in annoyance, tossing the spent bottle of body wash out of the shower, where it clattered to the floor of the bathroom somewhere out of sight. Glancing back at the shelf, Vicky scanned the myriad bottles of soaps, shampoos, and conditioners lining it, her eyes eventually settling on two bottles of body wash that sat next to each other.
The first, a pale, lavender colored bottle, she recognized as her mother's, the label indicating it to be scented by the very flower whose name matched the color of the bottle. The second bottle, meanwhile; gave away the identity of its owner through appearance alone, what with its hot pink cap, the transparent, wavy design of its bottle, and the goopy, bright red liquid contained within, filled with little bubbles of air interspersed throughout the slime-like liquid. "Jeez, Tootie, are you fourteen, or five?" The twenty year old shook her head and grinned, before taking either of the bottles in each hand. "Eeny, meeny, miney..." She grimaced at the bright red liquid in the bottle in her right hand, but shrugged nonetheless, and returned the plain, lavender-colored bottle to the shelf. "Tootie's it is..."
In one swift motion, Vicky flipped the bright pink cap up and inverted the bottle, then gave it a light squeeze, the reddish ooze contained within leaking out with a loud squelching sound that would've made the girl frown in disgust, were it not for the overpowering scent of apples that assaulted her nostrils. "Ugh... Apple Blossom. Of course." She deadpanned, looking at the small pool of slime in her hand with visible contempt.
Against her better judgment, Vicky rubbed the liquid between her hands, then set to work lathering her body with it, followed by her hair, since Tootie's body wash(according to the label) doubled as shampoo as well.
Doing her best to ignore the nearly cloyingly sweet scent of her little sister's body wash, the pink-eyed girl quickly rinsed the red, now sudsy goop out of her hair and off her skin, taking an extra moment to let her hand wander over to her right buttock again. From what she could tell through touch alone, whatever had bitten her hadn't left a mark, and the soreness, which had only felt like a mild bruise at most, was already completely gone. "Weird..." Again, she shrugged, figuring that maybe whatever had bitten her hadn't left as much of a mark as the sharp pain she'd felt in her butt had suggested.
Shutting the water off, Vicky pulled back the shower curtain and stepped out onto the small rug in front of the tub, then grabbed her towel and dried herself off, starting with her hair, then the rest of her body. With that out of the way, she quickly tossed her towel into the hamper and got dressed, and finally gave her hair a quick brush before tying her excess locks up into the ponytail that had become a trademark part of her appearance.
"Alright, should be about one-fifty now..." The red-head mused aloud as she bent down to gather up her sleeping attire, then tossed the clothes into the hamper to join her towel. Despite being an adult, she still lived under her parents' roof, and her mother, Nicki; generally didn't mind doing her laundry for her. "Wonder if mom and dad are even still here... Is today a holiday?" She quietly wondered to herself as she left the bathroom and returned to her room, grabbing her phone and wallet before heading back out into the hall and closing the door behind her.
As she descended the stairs into her house's living room, it occurred to the twenty year old that, since she had just picked up her phone, she could finally get a definitive answer to the question that had been nagging her since she got up: Just what was so special about today? Granted, she'd also been wondering about just what had bitten her rear-end while she slept, but somehow, she doubted she'd get an answer to that one.
"Let's see... It's Friday, February... Fourteenth?" Vicky looked up from her phone with a mostly indifferent expression as she finally realized what day it was.
"Happy Valentine's Day, Sis!" Tootie, moving at a speed most Olympic sprinters only dreamed of; roughly collided with her older sister, causing the surprised red-head to stumble back a step as her hundred and ten pound sister crashed into her and wrapped her arms around her. The raven-haired girl affectionately nuzzled her cheek against her older sister's collarbone, only to take pause and loudly sniff the air, then Vicky's shirt, before finally pulling away a few inches and quirking an eyebrow up at the older Valentine. "You been using my body wash?"
"What gave it away, the fact that I smell like an apple orchard?" The red-head questioned in a sarcastic tone, shooting her sister a flat, unimpressed look. "Honestly, Toots, who on Earth besides you likes the smell of that stuff?"
"My boyfriend, actually." The girl responded matter-of-factly as she unwound her arms from around her older sister and took a couple steps back, her hands repositioning themselves on her hips. Unsurprisingly, she was dressed in one of her favorite outfits: a white, short-sleeve button-up shirt under a black, sleeveless vest, and a plaid skirt, colored multiple shades of gray, that ended just above her knees. A pair of black, thigh-high stockings completed the look, though her shoes were absent, at the moment. Finally, perched on her nose were her purple, horn-rimmed glasses, delicately complementing her violet eyes.
"Boyfriend. Right..." Vicky spoke in a mocking tone. "And does this boy know he's your boyfriend? I'm just curious, considering the last one-"
"Oh hush!" Tootie interrupted, her cheeks bearing a slight dusting of pink. "That whole thing with Timmy was just a dumb crush, a crush I'm over, thank you very much. We're just friends now, and unlike him, Chester actually likes me back." The bespectacled girl punctuated the end of her sentence by sticking her tongue out at her sister in a petulant manner.
"Uh-Huh. I'm sure Blondie thinks you're great... Until you kidnap him in the middle of the night and tie him to your bed for a day or two..." Vicky remarked nonchalantly as she looked at her nails, but made sure to cast a knowing grin at her sister upon finishing.
"Th-That was one time! And it was the only way I could get Timmy to stick around for more than a minute back then! All he ever did when we were younger was run away from me... Stupid crud about cooties and girls being gross..." Tootie pouted as she reminisced on less than pleasant memories. "Anyway, you know mom won't let us have any boys sleep over, since she thinks the second she allows it, we'll get knocked up or something..."
"Pfft, speak for yourself." The older of the two sisters scoffed as she made her way over to the couch and maneuvered around it, then plopped down onto it with a muffled thump and stretched out, much like she did on the couch at Timmy's house. "Mom's never said anything to me about having boys over."
"Probably because your last boyfriend lasted all of five minutes." Tootie quipped with an evil grin as she leaned against the back of the couch and stared down at her older sister, now sporting a somewhat annoyed-looking pout of her own. "Not to mention the fact that it's been four years since then, and I certainly don't recall any boyfriends between then and now..."
"...Shouldn't you be in school or something? Last I checked, Dimmsdale High ain't closed for Valentine's day." Vicky attempted to not-so-subtly change the subject as she scooped the remote into her hand and turned on the TV.
"Hm... If what I'm learning in psychology class is true, you just deflected there, Sis... And I had a dentist appointment today, didn't you notice the lack of extra mouth-metal?" Tootie responded confidently as she vaulted over the back of the couch and landed behind Vicky's legs with a thump, then turned to face her older sister and grinned, showing off her pearly-white teeth, now free from their metal corrective bindings.
Vicky glanced at her younger sister out of the corner of her eye, but soon turned her attention back to the TV. "Wow... Bet Blondie's gonna be real excited when he sees you, huh?"
"Yep! Me and him are gonna hang out later today at his place, we're..." Tootie trailed off as she heard low snickering coming from her older sister, and soon found herself blushing cherry red as she realized what her own words and Vicky's knowing stare were implying. "I-I didn't m-mean that, Vicky! I j-just meant-! Y-You are such a perv!" The girl exclaimed, lightly slapping her sister on the back of her upper thigh.
"Am I, Toots? Are you really gonna sit there and tell me you haven't had a single naughty thought about what the two of you might do once you got rid of your braces?" Vicky's knowing grin soon widened into a full-blown evil smile, the red-head enjoying every second of her sister's flustered reaction.
"Yes! I-I like Chester, and he likes me, but we're not- We haven't done... Anything like that... I'm still trying to take things... Y'know, a little slow; don't wanna creep him out or anything, since he knows how I used to be from Timmy..." The violet-eyed girl rubbed her right shoulder self-consciously, her expression unsure, and clearly more than a little nervous. "B-Besides, at least I've got plans for Valentine's day! Or in your case, Singles Awareness Day!" The girl shot back defensively, knowing that bringing up her older sister's love life(or lack thereof) irked Vicky to no end.
And much to the red-head's chagrin, she found herself growing more annoyed at her sister's comment than she probably should have. "I'm gonna spend the day keeping an eye on your ex-crush, what of it? His parents are so dense, I basically get paid to sit around and watch TV while the Twerp waits on me hand and foot. Doesn't sound like a bad deal to me." She shrugged, trying to appear as indifferent as possible to Tootie's teasing. "And for the record, Singles Awareness Day is tomorrow."
"Pfft, whatever. Timmy only does all that crap for you because you'll be mean to him if he doesn't... Or meaner than usual, from what he's told me." The bespectacled girl scoffed as she shook her head, though her relatively neutral expression was soon marred by a frown. "Y'know, you could try being nice to Timmy for a change..."
"And why would I do that? I've given him days off from chores now and then. That is, and should be; the extent of my niceness. Timmy may not be a bad kid, but I don't see any reason to give him special treatment any more than I did the other kids I used to babysit." Vicky, unable to find anything she deemed 'good' to watch on TV, set the remote down on the coffee table and propped her head up in her hand as she leaned her elbow on the arm of the couch and blinked her eyes closed. "Just a few more minutes and I can get going. At least the Twerp won't tease me for not having a boyfriend... If he knows what's good for him..."
"How about because it wouldn't kill you to at least try? ...And since when do you call Timmy, Timmy? I thought he was 'the Twerp', as far as you were concerned?" Tootie shot her older sister a bemused expression, her head titled ever so slightly.
The red-head opened her eyes at this, and now sported a mildly confused frown. "Uh... Did I say Timmy? ...Well I meant the Twerp, my brain just probably switched names at the last second because you call him Timmy." She crossed her arms defiantly, refusing to completely acknowledge her little slip up.
"Heehee! Maybe deep down, some part of you wants to be nice to Timmy, but you're too stubborn to let it!" The raven-haired girl giggled, giving her sister's left leg a few teasing pokes with her index finger.
"And maybe you just love to pull crap out of thin air and imagine a little slip of the tongue as more than just that..." Vicky muttered under her breath as she swung her legs off the couch and rose to her feet. "I gotta get going before you drive me right up a wall; have fun with Blondie..." She slowly trailed off as she made her way over to the door and slipped her sneakers on, then turned to face the couch and her sister again. "But not too much fun, I mean it." The twenty year old remarked sternly with her hands on her hips, ever the protective older sister that she was. "If I end up an aunt before you're twenty, I'm neutering that little hornball of a boyfriend."
"Yeah, yeah, I'll be sure to behave, Mom..." Tootie picked up the remote as she finished, waving her hand dismissively at the red-head. "Just..." The girl broke eye contact with the TV and turned to face her sister, her expression serious and sympathetic to fall in line with what she was about to say. "Please try not to give Timmy a hard time today, alright? Knowing that dumb floozy Trixie-" Tootie's tone of voice dripped with venom as she spoke the popular girl's name. "-She probably shot Timmy down again, so he might... Y'know... Be kind of down, today..."
"Ugh..." Vicky groaned dramatically, pinching the bridge of her nose in annoyance. "Fine, I'll do my best to be gentle and delicate with your second boyfriend... But I'm doing this for you because you asked me, not for him because I feel bad... Which I don't." She declared rather adamantly as she crossed her arms, her pink-eyed gaze directed at the upper right corner of the room to avoid making eye contact with her sister.
"Are you... Good?" Tootie asked somewhat hesitantly, the corners of her mouth tugged up into a quizzical, lopsided grin. "You're... Acting a bit strange today, Vicky..."
"Hm?" The red-head quirked an eyebrow up at her sister and frowned curiously. "Strange how? Aside from being a little annoyed that my little sis is teasing me about not having a boyfriend for Valentine's day, I'm fine... I mean, I got woken up early thanks to something in my bed biting my ass..."
"Pff-Heehee! Is a bite on the ass what you usually use for an alarm clock? It'd explain quite a bit, actually, considering the way you used to treat Chester and AJ, and still treat Timmy! Hehehe!" The raven-haired girl fell into a fit of giggles, and tried in vain to hide them by bringing her hand up in front of her mouth.
Yeah, yeah... Laugh it up, Toots. I'll remember this moment next time there's a huge spider in your room..." Vicky shook her head, but grinned nonetheless as she grabbed her keys off the key hook, knowing her sister's teasing was all in good fun. "Alright, I'm heading out, see you tonight, tell mom and dad I should be back around dinnertime if you're back before I am."
"'Kay, try not to get bitten by anything else!" Tootie let out another light giggle as she finished and waved bye, then turned her attention back to the TV.
"Ha-Ha." Vicky deadpanned as she opened the front door and stepped out into the mildly brisk February afternoon, then shut the door behind her. "What's that supposed to mean? 'Don't get bitten by anything else'? Like what? The Twerp?" Again, Vicky shook her head as she descended the front steps of her house's porch, quickly strode over to her car, and got in. "Hah..." She sighed, catching sight of the disappointed look on her face as she looked into her rear view mirror. "Damn her for being right. I should be out with some guy today, not babysitting Timmy..." The twenty year old shifted her car into reverse and backed out of her house's driveway, then shifted into drive to begin the short, two-block trip over to the Turners' house; her thoughts wandering and eventually locking onto a certain brunet, seemingly of their own accord; as she drove. "What is his deal, anyway? He argues with me and acts like I'm such an awful person, then doesn't say a word about me to his parents. His parents say he's old enough to not need a babysitter anymore, and he convinces them he does. And the stupid kid..." Vicky scowled, mostly at herself; as she recalled several occasions where her life would have promptly ended, were it not for a certain buck-toothed boy. "If I'm so bad, why save me? Why look at me with those big, dumb blue eyes and look so innocent? Why give me a cute little smile when I give him the day off? ...Rrgh! Why be so damn frustrating?!" The girl exclaimed as she slammed her foot down on the brakes, only to realize her car was already pulled into the Turners' driveway. "Frickin'..." She released a heavy sigh, attempting to calm herself down, though she could feel her heart rapidly beating in her chest. "...Kid pisses me off sometimes."
After pausing for a quick moment to massage her temples and take a few deep breaths, Vicky hopped out of her car, feeling considerably more calm. "Ugh..." The red-head groaned as she stood up straight, then leaned against her car as she gently settled her right hand in the middle of her chest. "Better not be getting sick..." She mused aloud, noticing an unfamiliar feeling in her stomach. It wasn't quite nausea though, as when she got sick enough to throw up, she usually didn't get an odd, fluttery sensation in her stomach.
Before long, the bizarre feeling passed, and Vicky pushed herself off her car to stand up straight once more. "That... Was weird..." She frowned at the strangeness of the oddly brief bout of what she assumed was nausea as she made her way over to the Turners' front door. "Maybe whatever bit me gave me some kind of bug or something... Hmph, that'd be just my luck..."