CHAPTER 2 - MISADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING

The next morning, Lo and Emma were busy waitressing at the Pirate Ship, which was bustling with customers for breakfast, when Lo walked over to Emma as the latter was on her way to the pick-up window. "How come Kelly's not here yet?" the rich girl asked Emma. "I thought she would've been here when we punched in for work."

"Kelly's out with David right now," Emma explained. "They're getting a surfing lesson from Fin on the hotel beach."

"I wish I could have the day off like Fin has," Lo said. "You'd think we'd be getting one anyway with this being the long weekend."

"You and me both," Emma agreed. "But you know how Bummer is. Since he made us start working seven days a week back in June, he's never directly given us a day off. The only ones of us who've had days off since then were Fin and Reef, when your dad gave them the day off as a reward for winning the Tandem Surfing Contest, and then Fin again when Rosie gave her today off yesterday."

"No wonder we feel run down sometimes," Lo commented. "If Bummer thought he could get away with it, he'd make us work even if we were sick. Good thing they have rules against that."

As Lo was talking, Bummer arrived at the Pirate Ship, followed moments later by Kelly, who had finished her surfing lesson with Fin earlier and was now in her pirate captain outfit. "Lo, you're off-duty from the DR as of now," Bummer addressed her. "One of the child sitters called in sick this morning and there's no one else available. You're the only one on duty here who's had previous experience with kids, so you're pulling kid-sitting duty today."

"What?" said a shocked Lo, who did not like to babysit kids based on her previous experiences dealing with the Marvin boys, Todd and Mark. "You're not serious, are you?"

"No, I'm only kidding," Bummer said sarcastically. "Yeah, I'm serious. Either you babysit today, or I call your father about you trying to skip out on work!"

"But I don't even like babysitting!" Lo protested as Bummer turned and left the restaurant. "The last few times I babysat, I've only had one good experience with doing it. Who am I supposed to be watching anyway?"

"If you're worried it's those Marvin brats, don't be, it's not them," Kelly spoke up. "I passed by those two girls Erica and Brianna on my way here. They're waiting out in the lobby, so they must be the ones you've got."

"Whew, what a relief," said Lo, who had once sat Erica and Brianna without the Marvin boys and had an easier time dealing just with the two sisters, who were not as bad as Todd and Mark and were better behaved when not under the Marvins' bad influence. "But what about the customer rush here?" she then asked. "Won't you and Emma get swamped dealing with them?"

"Don't worry about it," Kelly reassured Lo. "Me and Emma can handle things until Zack gets here later. Anyway, think of it like it's a paid day off for you," she added, giving Lo a pat on the back before sending her on her way.

Meanwhile, Reef, Broseph, Johnny, Ripper and Lance were hanging out at the staff house, playing video games on the living room widescreen TV while waiting to go on duty with their respective jobs. Reef and Johnny were taking their turn at playing Pong on the ancient, 1970s-era game console, which the seniors remembered had been in the staff house since before they came to Surfer's Paradise as groms the year before.

"Ha-haaa, game and set!" Reef crowed as he used his onscreen paddle to knock the ball past Johnny's paddle and take another win. "That's 15 to 8 and three games in a row for me, dude!"

"Which you only won because my paddle controller sucks," Johnny griped.

"Yeah, right," Reef said dismissively about the game controls. "Make all the excuses you want, but I'm still the staff house Pong champion."

"Johnny's got a point though, mate," Ripper said. "We were playin' Pong on this game deck last year and the seniors who were here then talked about playin' it the year before. I think Bummer must've bought it on the cheap over at the second-hand store in town 'cause he didn't want to fork out the cash to get a better game deck for the summer staff here. I'm surprised this deck's even still working after about thirty years."

"Well, good game deck or no, it don't change anything," Reef bragged. "I'd still be the ace of video games here in the staff house, just like I am on the waves." When they heard Reef's boast, the rest of the guys broke out in laughter.

"What?" Reef wondered. "What's so funny?"

"You saying you're the ace of video games, dude," Lance said in between laughs. "The only thing you're an ace at is bragging 'bout how you're tops at everything you do, 'specially when you're around Fin."

"C'mon, I do not brag!" a defensive Reef said. "I just state the facts!"

The guys' laughter then got even louder, to Reef's chagrin. "You sure do brag all right, bra!" Broseph joined in. "Any chance you get to rub it in to Fin 'bout how dudes are better than wahines at surfing or anything else, you'll take it. Sometimes you're the same way with the rest of us 'bout surfing, 'bout other sports, 'bout video games..."

"What I think Broseph's trying to get at," Ripper told Reef, "is that you like to talk a big game to cover up for the fact that you don't got the goods to back up your big talk."

"Really?" Reef said. "So you think I'm not the best video game player here, huh?"

"If the game cartridge fits, mate..." Ripper said, also calling Reef on his boasts.

"Okay, then let's put it to the test," Reef said, picking up the gauntlet Ripper figuratively threw down. "Let's have a video game tournament here tonight after work, so we can see who the best video gamer there is - which we know'll be me!"

"Count me in then, dude," Lance said. "Wouldn't mind being the one to make Reef eat his words."

"Right on, that makes three in the tourney," Ripper said. "Johnny, you wanna throw in too?"

"Thanks, but count me out," Johnny said. "I promised Emma I'd join her for a surf sesh after work tonight at the Office, so your tournament's a no-go for me." Right away, Reef started clucking like a chicken at Johnny, who glared at the cocky surfer in response. "Okay, what's that for?" the front desk concierge asked, folding his arms across his chest.

"After the plastering I gave you at Pong a moment ago, I ain't surprised you'd rather not take part," Reef said glibly. "That's okay, Johnny. Better to bow out now and admit I'm the better man at video games than risk taking another mopping on the floor like you just did." All Reef's comment did was earn him another dirty look from Johnny.

"Okay then, how 'bout you, Broseph?" Ripper then said.

"Sorry, guy," Broseph replied, also declining to take part in the tournament. "I like playing video games too, but you guys know how I feel about competitions. Besides, I'm joining Johnny and Emma at the Office too. Tell you what, though," he added. "I'll bring down the game deck from our room upstairs and hook it up to the set here. You guys can play that STOKE surfing simulator game we had set up in the lobby earlier this month 'cause I just got a motion detector add-on for the game deck and a couple of board simulators to hook up to it for a two-player game."

"Nice!" Ripper said. "With the two-player setup, we can make this tourney a four-man single-elimination showdown. The higher scoring player in his game wins and moves on to face the winner of the other game for bragging rights."

"Sounds good to me," Reef said. "And that gives me the edge 'cause I co-created the STOKE, so it doesn't matter who I face, I'll still come out on top at the end."

"We'll see about that, mate," Ripper said. "We still gotta get a fourth player to join us. With Johnny and Broseph both out, maybe I should give Fin a call and see if she wants in."

"You can try, but I think Fin's supposed to join me, Emma and Broseph at the Office later on too," Johnny said.

"Gee, that's too bad," a grinning Reef mused. "Sure would've loved a chance to best Fin in yet another competition between us."

"Right, then I'll give Ty a call and see if he'll join in," Ripper said, taking out his iPhone.

Just then, Bummer entered the staff house living room to confront his employees. "Okay, what're you goldbricks doing still loafing around?" he barked at the guys. "You're supposed to report for work in three minutes, so get your lazy butts in gear and get cracking or you're all looking at strikes for being late!"

After Bummer left, the guys got up to head off to their respective jobs when Lance grumbled, "Man, since when did Bummer start channeling Napoleon?"

"I'll see you dudes tonight," Reef said to Ripper and Lance, "and be prepared to be dazzled by greatness when we get our A-games on in the tournament!"

As Reef strutted off to his surfing instructor job at the hotel beach, Johnny took Ripper aside and told him, "Yo Ripper, kick Reef's butt for me in the tournament tonight."

"With relish, mate," a grinning Ripper agreed, trading a fist bump with Johnny.

After Lo changed from her Pirate Ship serving wench outfit back into her yellow sundress in the staff locker room, she went out to the lobby and found Erica and Brianna, the two eight-year-old fraternal twins she would be looking after that day under Bummer's orders. "Hey Erica, hey Brianna," Lo greeted the two girls. "How're you doing?"

"We're bored!" Erica and Brianna both piped up in a semi-whiny tone.

"Not a problem," Lo said cheerfully. "There's lots to do around the hotel, so we'll figure out something."

"I'm also hungry," Erica, the slightly chubby twin, said. "I wanna go eat lunch."

"Okay, we'll do that, Erica," Lo agreed. "We'll grab lunch for you over at the Pirate Ship in a few minutes, as long as it's not anything from your mom's 'Do Not Eat' list."

"And I wanna go shopping in town later," Brianna, the slimmer twin who looked like a smaller, younger version of Lo with shorter hair, then said. "There's a sale on for a dress I wanna get at one of the stores I like."

"Now Brianna, remember what your mom said about saving your allowance?" Lo reminded her.

"But it's a sale, though," Brianna repeated. "The dress I want is 50% off!"

Lo, who was a sucker for clothing sales, then figured it would not do much harm to let Brianna get the on-sale dress she wanted. "Okay, I'll let you get the dress you want as long as it doesn't cost too much," she told her young charge. "Just one dress though, no accessories or anything else."

"Who cares about shopping?" Erica cut in. "I wanna go play at the beach later."

"And I said I wanna go shopping!" Brianna fired back.

"The beach!" Erica said.

"Shopping!" Brianna replied.

"The beach!"

"Shopping!"

Lo facepalmed herself in frustration as Erica and Brianna argued back and forth over what to do after lunch. As she was about to jump in and put a stop to the two sisters' arguing though, Lo, to her relief, spotted Fin coming into the main lobby from the beach, fresh off her surfing lesson with Kelly and David. "Boy, am I glad to see you," the rich girl said as she ran up to Fin.

"Yeah, I can see why too," Fin quipped as she saw Erica and Brianna continue to argue close by. "Looks like you got your hands full there, Princess. Want to call in the UN to mediate this one?"

"I need your help, Fin," Lo said, ignoring her friend's witty comment. "Bummer stuck me with babysitting duty again and I'm short on ideas for keeping those two occupied. I need some suggestions or I'm afraid they're going to get bored, seek out the Marvin boys and get into all kinds of mischief with them, and I don't want that! Fin, give me some ideas."

"Sorry Lo, but you know I suck at dealing with kids as much as you do," Fin said with a shrug of her shoulders. "Besides, I just got in from a private surfing lesson and I want to head back to the Roach Motel and change from my rash guard into my bikini so I can go relax by the pool and maybe do a little swimming there." As the blonde tomboy began to walk away, she added, "You'll have to deal with that little civil war of yours on your own."

Just then, an idea struck Lo, who was inspired by Fin's last comment. "Fin, you're a genius!" she said as she ran over and grabbed her friend's arm.

"Uhh, okay," a puzzled Fin said. "How so?"

"You just gave me an idea for dealing with the kids," Lo explained. "But for this, I'll need your help for sure. Since you're still dressed for the water anyway, let me go change into my bikini and I'll get the girls into their swimsuits. Trust me on this one," she finished before taking Erica and Brianna with her to their guest room to get changed. "You're gonna enjoy my idea once you hear it."

"I'll believe it once I hear it," Fin commented to herself once Lo and the kids were out of earshot.

In the meantime, Fin's iPhone, which she had left in her bag back at the staff house as she did not want to be disturbed at that point on her day off, went off once again and went unanswered due to its owner waiting in the hotel lobby for Lo, Erica and Brianna to return. As it finished ringing, the call display read:

JUL 31 10:45 AM
1 Missed call - Mom

Coming up, Lo, Fin and the kids engage in some fun on the beach and around the hotel - and end up pulling Kelly and David into their hijinks. Plus, Fin gets a phone call from home that turns her world upside-down.