A/N: My Sister My Sitter here. Read & Review!
Lisa and Meg were in Lisa's bedroom, reading The Babysitter Twins. Meg really enjoyed reading the one on the way to Itchy and Scratchy Land.
"Thanks for letting me read these books, Lisa, they're so cool!" Meg beamed.
"I can't believe you never read or heard of them before," Lisa told her with a smile. "It's hard to get enough of them! I just love everything about the world of babysitting," she hugged the book as she bookmarked the one she was currently reading. "The responsibility, the obligation, the pressure..."
"I never really got to babysit, Mom and Dad say I'm too young," Meg shrugged. "I'm sure you'd make an excellent babysitter though, Lisa."
"You could be one too, Maggie just loves you," Lisa smiled to her pen pal. "Hey, what if we became babysitters?"
"You mean, like the Babysitter Twins?" Meg asked.
"Yeah, only without solving mysteries!"
"I dunno, Lisa," Meg shrugged as she looked back into her book about the president's baby. "I'm 10 and you're only eight... No offense, but I think eight-years-old might be too young to babysit..."
"At least I'm more responsible than Bart." Lisa shrugged.
"Yeah, that's true..."
"I think I should do it," Lisa closed her book as she stood on her bed. "I'll become a babysitter!"
Meg hummed, then shrugged. "Oh, well, what could go wrong? I'm in."
"Great, we'll tell Reverend Lovejoy so on Sunday, he'll tell everyone about us and we'll become full-ledged babysitters!" Lisa cheered, holding Meg's hands.
"Done and done!" Meg gave an agreeable nod.
After church, Reverend Lovejoy did in fact inform the service Lisa and Meg's babysitting service. The girls sat by the telephone, anxiously waiting for someone to call them and have them look after someone for them.
Lisa sighed. "Why hasn't anyone called?"
"I guess we're just not good enough..." Meg sighed, staring at the floor in disappointment.
Marge came in to see the girls. "Megan, I told you to never think negatively... Don't think of it as a bad thing, but maybe people don't want eight or 10-year-old babysitters. Parents need to be sure their sitter can handle anything that might happen. That's why they hire teenagers."
"Well when I'm a teenager, I'm gonna make sure I'm partying every night of my young life!" Meg proclaimed. "Besides, Lisa is very mature for her age, she even taught me some things that I don't even know myself!"
"People do often mistake me for nine." Lisa gave a nod in agreement.
The doorbell rang.
"Here, I'll get it." Meg offered as she went to the front door. "Mr. Flanders?" she recognized her pen pal's next door neighbor anywhere.
"Tell him to shut up, Megan!" Homer called from the distance.
"Um, how can I help you, Mr. Flanders?" Meg asked the neighbor instead of doing what the man of the house suggested.
"Oh, little Megan, I got a Fozzie of a bear of a problem," Ned told her while adjusting his glasses. "Maude and her mother were visiting Tyre and Sidon, the twin cities of the Holy Land. They must've kneeled in the wrong place and prayed to the wrong God because, well, they're being held prisoner by militants of some sort."
"Gosh..." Meg put her hand to her face a little in worry.
"Well, anyhoo-dilly-doodle, the embassy says it's just a routine hostage-taking, but I have to drive to Capital City, fill out some forms to get them out," Ned explained his business. "Could you possibly get Mr. and Mrs. Simpson to watch the kids tonight?"
"Hang on, I'll ask." Meg told him with a sigh, then found Homer. "Uhh... That was Mr. Flanders..."
"Whatever it is, I can't do it," Homer said quickly. "I uhh... Have a late night shift..."
Meg looked dubious of his excuse, then had an idea. "Hey, wait a minute..." she whispered with a smile, then went back to the neighbor man. "Mr. Flanders, what if Lisa and I babysit your kids for you?"
"Oh, I don't know, Megan..." Ned scratched his chin a little in thought. "You're both a little young and the boys can be a bit of a handful. Todd's been pinchin' everyone lately."
"Oh, please," Meg nearly begged. "Lisa's the most responsible girl I know and Mr. and Mrs. Simpson will be right next door! Who knows? Maybe I'll get a baby brother or sister sometime and I'll need experience with babysitting to help look after them!"
Ned seemed to like her attitude, he decided to run it by the man of the house. "Well, whatya say, Homer? Could the girls look after my kids?"
"Well, I'll have to ask her..." Homer said, rather bored and slammed the door on his face, walking off.
Meg ran off to find Lisa still by the phone. "Lisa, I got us a job!"
"You did?" Lisa asked excitedly.
"Well, kinda... So far it sounds good, Mr. Flanders asked us to babysit his kids."
"You did that for me?"
"No, I did that for us," Meg insisted with a smile. "Plus there's two of them, so we can take turns looking after the tykes!"
Lisa smiled and hugged her friend. "Oh, Meg... You're so sweet and considerate! Why doesn't your family like you?"
"I don't know... I think it's because I wasn't born a boy." Meg shrugged, but smiled anyway. "So, you got any plans tonight?"
"Just babysitting, how 'bout you?" Lisa giggled at their little inside joke.
Later that night, before Ned left he told the girls the boys' bedtime, what they could do before bed, and there was some food in the fridge for them. This was so exciting for them. After Ned drove off, Meg decided they should play a board game and luckily, it looked like there was one right in front of them. It must have been Rod and Todd's favorite.
"Let's play a game, boys," Meg said to them as she opened the box and took the board out, but noticed something that made any board game a board game wasn't there. "Uh, boys, where are the dice?"
"Daddy says dice are wicked." Rod explained, though still had a smile on his face like it was normal.
"We just move one space at a time," Todd added. "It's less fun that way."
"You're telling me..." Meg murmured, slightly rolling her eyes.
"Uhh, let's just get playing." Lisa said nervously to avoid hurting Rod and Todd's feelings.
However, a moth came from the box which startled Rod and Todd for some reason.
"I know they're strange and Bart likes to make fun of them, but don't, please, they're sensitive..." Lisa told Meg.
"I know, it's just I haven't seen anyone like that at home, almost everyone is a sadist." Meg shrugged.
"Oh, come now, boys, a moth is no more harmful than a lady bug." Lisa soothed them.
"Ladybug!?" Rod and Todd cried, then continued to run and scream and ended up in their bedroom.
Meg decided to shoo the bug out. "These boys are gonna be high on the food chain by middle school."
"You're telling me." Lisa scoffed, even she made fun of the Flanders boys, but wasn't very open about it.
Meg opened the window, letting the moth fly out and shut the window. "Well, I guess we have to let them go to bed now."
"Might as well... I didn't expect to do much with babysitting kids like Rod and Todd Flanders."
Meg and Lisa went upstairs. They got the boys in their pajamas and it was time for them to pray before bed. The girls leaned in the door frame as Rod and Todd prayed about blessing God and the things, but mostly Meg and Lisa for sending away the 'scary moth'.
"And please make Megan and Lisa tell us a bedtime story about robots named Rod and Todd." Rod finished their prayer.
"Amen." the boys said together.
Lisa and Meg walked in to send the boys to bed.
"Once there was a robot named Rod." Meg said as she had the shorter boy in bed.
"Did he have a brother?" Rod asked with a sweet smile.
"Oh, yes," Meg nodded, encouraging his excitement. "He had a brother named Todd who was two space years older than Rod!"
"I don't like this story." Rod whimpered then, which made Meg have an annoyed look on her face.
"How about a story about bunnies named Rod and Todd?" Lisa suggested.
"Yay!" the boys cheered.
After the story, the boys went to bed and Meg and Lisa retired to the couch. They were eating some fat-free, salt-free, flavorless potato chips. Meg had a hard time chewing, but she decided to eat it anyway.
"Do you think we did a good job, Lisa?"
"Oh, I'm sure of it," Lisa insisted. "Just wait 'til Mr. Flanders sees them."
Meg swallowed hard. "Yeah, maybe you're right..."
"I'm ho-diddly home!" Ned called as he unlocked the door and came to see the two young girls. "How did it go?"
"See for yourself." Meg invited him into his house with an assuring smile.
"There was a moth, but we made it okay." Lisa added as they followed him up the stairs.
Ned looked worried. He must have known about Rod and Todd's scare of the bugs that were harmless. He opened their bedroom door, but was pleased and surprised to see they were fast asleep and didn't seem to be having any trouble in their slumber.
"Imagine that," Ned was surprised by the turn of events on his squeamish sons. "Sleeping quietly after a bug attack and Todd's dry as a bone! Girls, you're a couple of wonders!"
"Thank you, Mr. Flanders." Meg smiled sheepishly with Lisa.
"I'm gonna recommend you all to everybody!" Ned told the girls.
Meg and Lisa smiled. They went back next door after that and decided to go up to their rooms.
"That felt so great, I think I'm gonna like being a babysitter!" Meg beamed.
"I know, it was so exciting!" Lisa hugged her friend. "Oh, this was just wonderful..."
"Hi, girls, how were the Flanders?" Marge walked over with a smile to the girls.
"It's great, Mrs. Simpson, Mr. Flanders said he's gonna recommend us to everybody!" Meg explained with delight.
"We got them to sleep even though there was a moth in the room!" Lisa added happily.
"That's great, I knew you two could do it," Marge smiled. "I also hope you two don't have plans tomorrow night. Chief Wiggum called, he wants you to look after little Ralph."
"What do you say, Lisa?" Meg turned to her friend. "Shall we get to it?"
"Yeah!" Lisa cheered with her, sharing a high-five.
The next night, the girls went to the Wiggum house. The Chief was getting his wife Sarah out with him for their night of fun while they would look after Ralph for them. He told them to call 911 if there was any trouble, but only if it was an emergency.
"You must be Ralph." Meg said to the boy with a smile.
"Who told you!?" Ralph cried like a deep dark secret had been exposed.
"Ralph, we're in the same class..." Lisa reminded him.
"Never mind that, let's go play." Meg shrugged it off.
"Yeah!" Ralph cheered, he laughed and ran off.
"Get back here!" Lisa called playfully, chasing him with Meg.
Soon, Lisa and Meg chased Ralph down. They all laughed as they fell in the floor together. Meg's glasses and hat were messed up, but she had fun. Later that night, the girls had to get him into his pajamas, but due to him being a boy, they stepped out of his bedroom and shut the door behind them to allow him to get changed. But Lisa and Meg's instructions came out weird as Ralph walked out with his pajamas on upside down.
Meg shook her head and face palmed, then the phone went off. "That must be Chief and Mrs. Wiggum."
"You get the phone, I'll get Ralph to bed." Lisa compromised.
"Okay," Meg nodded, then went to the ringing phone and answered it. "Wiggum residence, babysitter Meg speaking."
"Oh, good, it's you..." Bart's voice was heard.
"Bart?" Meg raised an eyebrow. "What're you doing on the phone?"
"I just thought I'd come check on ya," Bart explained. "What's it like getting paid for watching TV and eating food?"
"There's a lot more to that, but luckily it's not a baby, so no messy diapers or spit up... As much..."
"I bet you'd make an interesting mother, Megan..."
Meg rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah... Very funny. Dad says no one would marry me, not even the last man on Earth, 'cuz then he'd just shoot himself."
"Ah, Meg, don't be so negative... I bet there are some guys who like ya..." Bart seemed nervous in his words.
Meg looked curious. "Bart... What're you saying?"
Bart could be heard gulping on the other end. "Uhh... N-Never mind... Listen, tell Lees good night for me if I'm in bed before you guys come home. I gotta go, Mom wants me to play with Maggie! Bye!" he quickly hung up.
Meg blinked as she heard the dial tone, then hung up the phone. "That was weird..."
"Someone didn't call to ask if you liked scary movies, did they?" Lisa asked, assuming a typical horror movie cliché involving a telephone and mysterious unknown call.
Meg snorted. "No, it was your brother," she looked back to her then. "He was asking about our babysitting techniques. He wanted to tell me something, but... I don't know what."
"Hmm... That's odd... He didn't say anything like you stink or something?"
"No... He said I'd make an interesting mother though..."
"Hmm," Lisa had a smirk then. "Sounds to me like Bart is having a crush..."
"Oh, come on, a crush on me?" Meg rolled her eyes. "No one's ever had a crush on me cuz I'm so gross!"
"Meg, what are Mom and Dad always telling you when you're a guest in our home?"
Meg heaved a sigh. "They don't want me to be negative but be happy during my stay with you all."
"Right... I'd look into it a little," Lisa shrugged as she walked off with her. "I haven't seen him act this way around anyone really before..."
"Hmm..."
Meg had to wonder now. Did Bart like her or was he just fooling around with her poor mind? She had to wonder now. But she had to focus on babysitting now and before the girls knew it, even Dr. Hibbert called them and out of all the clients they had, he had paid them the most handsomely.
About another week later, Meg and Lisa split the money together and one night, Homer and Marge came downstairs in very formal clothing. Meg found it odd to see Homer dressed in a suit in such high class.
"Mrs. Simpson, you look so lovely." Meg smiled at the woman's icy gown.
"Why thank you, Megan." Marge smiled fondly to the girl like she were another daughter of hers.
"Yeah, Mom, you smell like vanilla flowers!" Lisa added.
"Dad, you look totally classy," Bart smiled. "You could be Abe Lincoln's father's boss! So, when's Grampa coming here to babysit?"
Meg looked at him, then to the Simpson parents. "You didn't tell him?"
"Tell me what?" Bart asked then.
Marge looked nervous, she didn't tell him. She must have forgotten to because she told Meg and Lisa earlier that morning. "Grampa's not coming..." she finally said.
"Oh, no, not Patty and Selma!" Bart cried.
"No, not them either, they can't meet Megan since she's allergic to smoke." Marge said then.
"I wish I had that excuse." Bart whispered to Meg then.
"Actually, Bart, Megan and Lisa are going to be in charge tonight." Marge finally revealed.
"WHAT!?" Bart shrieked.
Meg sighed as this led up to a slight argument. Bart didn't seem to mind with Meg in charge, but he seemed extremely hesitant to let Lisa be in charge of him. Homer and Marge just told him to deal with it like a man and do everything his little sister says.
"Make sure he brushes his teeth, girls." Marge said before shutting the door and going off with Homer to a romantic evening together.
Bart turned to the girls and deeply scowled at them. He wasn't going to forgive them for this. Not one bit.
