How Not to Babysit
Laura's POV
"So, Thor, Sam, and I will be attending a royal event on Asgard this evening," Jane explains to Anne and I as we pull in the driveway to her house. "I left some of Sarah's favorite toys in the living room, but she is welcome to play with her other toys as well. I promised Sarah she could stay up an extra half-hour tonight, but try to start winding things down at eight, and make sure she brushes her teeth before bed. I'll pay you and Anne twenty dollars each, plus some extra money to buy a pizza for dinner. Oh, and if Sarah starts missing us, you can always sing the happy tune to Mr. Fluffy, her teddy bear. That always calms her down. And if she says she isn't sleepy—"
"Worry not, Lady Jane! Sarah is in good hands," Thor says, smiling at us. I'm still glad that Thor is surprisingly nice to me. You'd think he'd hate me, being the daughter of Loki and all, but I guess he's learned to look past that, or he just really wants to get along with some of his family members. Sam, on the other hand, is looking annoyed, like he can't wait to get away from us.
"Now, let us make haste to the royal ceremony!" Thor bellows, grinning at Sam. Sam gets a smug look on his face, and I can't help but wonder why. Sam had his eighteenth birthday party like, two months ago. They wouldn't just be celebrating that now on Asgard, would they?
"HEIMDALL, OPEN THE BIFROST!" Thor yells. Immediately, a rainbow light appears and zaps the three of them away, leaving a strange Asgardian symbol burning in the grass. Looking around, I see other scorch marks nearby, some looking recent, others faded or getting covered by grass. I can't help but wonder what Thor's neighbors think about all his yelling and yard eyesores.
Just then, Sarah comes out of the house yelling "SUPER ELSA! SUPER ELSA! YAAAAAY!" and runs up to me and hugs my legs.
"It's nice to see you too, Sarah," I reply, bending over to hug the six-year-old back. I can't help but wonder when she nicknamed me Super Elsa, and if she's going to keep calling me that.
Sarah then notices Anne and tries to hide behind my leg. "It's ok," I coax her. "This is Anne. She's my friend."
"Hello," Anne says shyly.
Sarah's eyes grow huge. "Anna? ANNA! IT'S ANNA AND SUPER-ELSA! YAY!" she yells, running in a circle around us, then into the house.
I laugh. "Come on, 'Anna', we'd better keep Sarah out of trouble." The two of us follow Sarah into the house, where we find her putting her Frozen DVD into the DVD player. Anne and I join Sarah on the couch and prepare for an hour of singing cartoons.
The evening ends up passing quickly in a blur of board games, pizza, and toys. I feel a bit childish at times for playing such immature games, but it's fun overall. Then Sarah yawns, and I realize it's eight-fifteen. "Looks like it's your bedtime," I say.
"No," Sarah pouts, but stubborn face soon breaks out into another yawn.
"Come on, silly goose, time for bed," I tease, heading to the stairs, and making sure Sarah follows me. Unfortunately, she doesn't.
"Laura, shouldn't we put the games away first?" Anne asks. Looking back, I stifle a groan as I realize that there are still board games all over the floor. Sarah kept impatiently jumping from board game to board game, saying she'd put them away later, but here they are still. I don't think Thor and Jane would be happy to come home and see their living room covered in board games, but I don't know where they go, so I come up with a plan.
"Ok, Sarah, tell you what, you can stay up a little longer, but only if you agree to play… The Racing Game."
"The Racing Game? What's that?" Sarah asks, looking eager and awake now.
"Why, it is only the greatest racing game ever!" I reply. It's where the three of us race to put away these board games!"
"That's not fun, that's a chore!" Sarah whines.
Fighting a sigh, I add, "Well, the winner also gets the awesome prizes of… um…." I mumble, out of ideas.
"Ice cream and a bedtime story," Anne supplies.
"Yes, those will be the prizes," I agree. "So, what do you say?"
Sarah doesn't say anything. She starts slowly walking over to the pile of games… then suddenly grabs one and starts running away!
"Very sneaky!" I call after her, picking up a game as well and hurrying to keep up with her. I'm going to let her win of course, but I'll at least pretend it's an actual race.
I follow Sarah as she goes two rooms over and opens a closet door to reveal more games. Sarah puts the game she is holding back on the shelf and sprints away to get more. "Nanananana, you can't catch me!" Sarah teases as she sprints past.
"I bet I can!" I tease back, sprinting back to the living room as well. I'm almost back to the pile of games, when I hear a CRUNCH! sound. Looking down, I realize that I have stepped on and broken some sort of DVD.
"What was that?" Sarah asks, running over, just as I flip the DVD over to reveal that the two broken halves say "Frozen".
Shit! "I'm really sorry Sarah," I say, watching as Sarah's eyes grow larger and larger. Then she starts crying.
"WAAAAAAAH!" Sarah yells.
"It'll be ok, I'll tell Jane what happened, and she can get you a new DVD, ok?" I coax, raising my voice a bit so Sarah can hear me over her crying and a rumble of thunder outside.
"I DON'T WANT A NEW DVD! I WANT THIS ONE, BUT YOU BROKE IT!"
Suddenly, there is a bright light, and my body feels like it's burning all over! Then the light subsides, and with it, the pain. It takes my dazed mind a moment to realize I've just been struck by lightning!
I hear Anne screaming my name, and Sarah just screaming, when another lightning bolt strikes! I vaguely recall hearing lightning never strikes the same place twice, but apparently this lightning didn't get the memo, because it strikes the DVD player right next to me that we lazily left on, causing it to turn off… along with all the lights in the house… and the house across the street.
Turning back to the situation at hand, I notice that Anne's face is turning green! My dazed, lightning stricken brain struggles to figure out why. I mean, the storm should be moving away soon, and Sarah will be all cried out in a few minutes.
Then it hits me. Lightning never strikes the same place twice… unless Thor is aiming it at a target… or Sam… or Sarah! Sarah must have inherited Thor's lightning powers, and they emerged for the first time now, in the middle of a temper tantrum, with only us inexperienced babysitters around to help!
You know when I said babysitting was easy? Yeah… I take that back.
