Thanks for the review acosta perez jose ramiro. I hope you and the other readers enjoy this new chapter.

…

December, date unknown

When I woke up it was still snowing out, not to mention my stomach was still rumbling. Doidle was apparently hungry too because I felt him gnawing my hand. I quickly pulled it away and scolded him.

"Hey! Stop trying to eat me!"

Doidle whimpered and walked a couple of feet away. Man's best friend my ass!

As I rubbed my hand I saw a light flickering out of the corner of my eye. I looked towards another corner of the cave and saw a floating bald guy with wings sprouting from his back. He had a crown on his head and was holding a candle. It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen—aside from that second Vicky last night.

"Who the heck are you?" I demanded.

"I'm the Ghost of Christmas Past and—"

"Are you kidding me? Are you and Jorgen so out of ideas that you've resorted to ripping off Charles Darwin?"

"Charles Dickens," he corrected. "Geez, no wonder you repeated the third grade."

"Hey, how do you know that? Did Jorgen tell you!?"

The strange bald guy started to sweat.

"Um, let's just move on with the journey! Vicky, prepare yourself for a journey of your past."

I let out a groan. As much as I didn't want to go along it wasn't like I had anything else to do. Plus maybe the storm would let up by the time we got back.

"Alright, I'll go. But if I don't get something to eat I'm going to wring your neck!"

The baldo grimaced and his candle turned into a wand. He waved his arm and everything started to get fuzzy. In almost no time at all we were out of the cave and back in my house. A large Christmas tree was set up by the stairs and was loaded with presents underneath it. A younger version of me and Tootie were unwrapping gifts while my parents watched from the couch. My old dog stood by my side with his tail wagging.

"Here we are on Christmas day! If my math is correct you should be about ten years old."

"Oh joy," I commented sarcastically.

"Yeah, you say that now, but look at you when you were younger. You actually seemed happy."

I watched my younger self rip the wrapping off a small box. She took off the lid and let out a gasp. Inside was none other than my favorite gaming console from when I was a kid. I'd completely forgotten how I'd got it.

"Wow, thanks mom and dad!" my younger self exclaimed.

"Wow, I can't believe they actually got me that," I muttered. There was nothing sarcastic about that statement—I was genuinely surprised.

"Looks like things weren't always rough for you as a kid," the guy spoke. "People often get so upset about what's not done for them that they forget what has been done."

"Yeah, well, they still let Vic walk all over me as a kid. They knew how awful he was and they still let him babysit me!"

"Hm, did you ever think that maybe they had no other alternative?"

That was a possibility that I hadn't considered before, but I wasn't about to let my folks off the hook that easily.

"I guess it's possible," I admitted, "but how hard can finding a babysitter be? People in Dimmsdale do it all the time!"

"And who do they normally go through?"

"Uh…well…me. But now that Lauren and her cronies are back—"

"Yeah, yeah, but for the longest time you were the only babysitter in Dimmsdale. Don't you think it's possible that maybe that used to be the case with Vic?"

At that point I didn't know what to say. Now that I think about it there were several times where me and other kids in the neighborhood would all be cramped up in my house, under Vic's 'care'.

"Okay, but what about the fact that they used to go on vacations and leave me alone with him?"

"You might be a babysitter, but you know nothing about raising kids. Parents need a break once in a while. Don't you ever want a break from your clients?"

"Hell no, cuz then I'd lose money!"

The guy groaned and slapped his hand against his face. I was hopeful that it was a sign that he was giving up, but I turned out to be wrong.

"Okay, but what if you didn't get paid? What if you had to look after them twenty four hours a day, seven days a week with no kind of compensation?"

"GOOD GOD!" I exclaimed. "That sounds like a living nightmare!"

"Mm hm, and imagine that on top of that you also have to go to work and pay the bills and cook and—"

The thought of all that nearly gave me a heart attack! Money's the only thing that makes babysitting tolerable (that and the free labor); there's no way I'd be able to do that! I guess maybe, just maybe I was a little tiny bit hard on my folks.

"From the petrified look on your face I'm guessing I got my point across," he said. "So are you ready to go back home?"

I thought about it for a moment. Even if I completely get over my anger with my parents there's still the fact that they hate my guts. Not only did they ground me, but they completely threw me under the bus on the Dr. Bill show during the summer and also when Vic left they'd had a celebration set up for MY departure! I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they were celebrating right this minute.

"No."

He let out a loud growl.

"Are you serious? I just went through all this and you still don't want to go home?"

"Okay, maybe I do want to go home, but there's a problem: my parents aren't afraid of me anymore!"

"And?"

"And? AND? Fear was the only thing that was keeping them from kicking me out! There's no way they'll let me go back now! Why would they?"

"Because they love you?"

That was so funny that I almost forgot to laugh. No, not really.

"They don't love me. They think I'm a monster!"

The guy let out a sigh and waved his wand. In an instant we were back in the cave, where Doidle had fallen fast asleep in one of the corners.

"Boy, you are really messed up," the guy commented.

"Well you can thank my folks for that! By the way, where's my pizza?"

He sighed again and waved his wand. A box of fresh smelling pizza appeared in my hands. I REALLY need to get me a wand!

"I'm going to have a chat with Jorgen. I'll be back tomorrow to check up on you."

He waved his wand again and in a flash he disappeared. I sure hope these field trips end soon, as well as that damn blizzard. At least I finally got something to eat.

A/N: Thoughts? I'm not entirely sure how accurate my statement is about Vicky being the only babysitter in Dimmsdale prior to the B.R.A.T.S' formation/introduction. I know that during a few episodes she seemed to be looking after most of the kids from the neighborhood, but maybe she stole clients from her competitors? Other than the B.R.A.T.S I don't really recall seeing any other babysitter on the show, so who knows? Feel free to leave a review.