Interlude: The babysitters [Vol.1 end]

Fien's POV

My babysitter aspiration had finally become reality. I did not get to do it alone, but I loved spending time with Elodie, and Eline was pretty fun to be around too.

We were playing hide and seek with Emma. Apparently Emma loved playing hide and seek. I had hidden myself under Lisa's bed and had hit the jackpot.

There were some yuri manga hidden under here. While Emma was looking for us, I started reading. I soon found out that these were very different to the ones I was used to. These were very intense, and the girls did a lot of naughty stuff beyond kissing, that I had not even thought possible. Even though I should not do this, I could not stop looking at it. It made me feel hot and weird. I looked around and listened if anyone was approaching. It seemed Emma was looking in Claire's room, so I took another look. I felt myself blush. Is this what happens after kisses between girls? I became so engrossed in the manga, that the next thing I remembered was being dragged from under the bed by Elodie.

“What do you think you are doing? We are here to babysit you know, not to read manga. You can do that after Emma has gone to bed!”

I got caught, I felt so embarrassed. “I I'm sorry!” I said staggeringly. I quickly tried to put everything back.

“Not so fast!” Eline then said, and she took the manga from my hand, and started to leaf through the book. My face started to really burn at that point. Eline showed the manga to Elodie who turned crimson on the spot.

She took me by the ear and dragged me out of the room “This is why mom did not trust you, and wanted me to come with you. You are way too young to be reading those kinds of books!”

I was screaming and flailing around. She released me back into the living.

“Please don't tell Claire or her mom?” I begged.

“What did Fien do?” Emma suddenly asked. Anxiety struck me. Elodie and Eline started laughing. I must've made a really weird face right now.

“If you can save yourself from that question without lying, we won't tell.” Eline said. Her eyes were getting bigger. It is clear she expected me to dig a hole for myself in front of Emma.

“I did a bad thing and looked through your grandmother's stuff in her room.”

Emma looked at me in a very serious way. She was so cute. A 3 year old trying to be strict is so darn cute. I had to refrain myself from hugging and cuddling her. Then she said in a strict tone that she probably picked up in kindergarten from one of the kindergarten teachers. “If you do something bad, you should admit to it, and apologize to the person you hurt.”

“Well you heard her.” Elodie said with a smirk. “We won't tell. Apparently you will. You reap what you sow.”

My embarrassment was overloading. “Nooooooooooooooo!” I ran around the room to unleash some of that anxiety that was building up.

Emma clearly thought I was having fun, and she joined me in running across the room.

We played around a little more and ordered something to eat from the brasserie for everyone.

Lisa brought up the food and when she entered the apartment. Elodie said “Lisa, do you have a moment, Fien has something to say to you.”

She looked inquisitive at me. So I gathered my strength, getting ready to be scolded. I really hated when people were disappointed in me. “I am sorry. While we were playing hide and seek, I found manga under your bed and looked at them.”

Lisa flashed completely red in an instant. I could see she was quite embarrassed. Then she recuperated a bit, and said in a teasing voice: “Sorry, I should have put those away in a better place, but it seems you are not too traumatized by it.”

I felt super embarrassed. Elodie and Eline could not hold their laughter. Emma did not seem to understand what the joke was about and then asked “Is there something wrong with grandma's manga? I look at manga all the time in Claire's room!”

Elodie and Eline started laughing again. Claire's mom then said, clearly completely embarrassed. “Always ask if you can read a manga dear. Not all manga are for children. It is a bit like the TV. Sometimes there are things like scary stuff.”

Emma nodded understandingly, and promised to always ask. She had clearly been scared by tv shows before.

Lisa did her best to leave us to eat as soon as she could. She clearly did not want to get trapped in Emma's questions again.

Luckily she seemed to just laugh the situation off. I was happy she wasn't angry. It would have been so bad if she sent me home, or called aunt Sandra.

After dinner we got Emma ready for bed, and Eline read her a story while Elodie and I tried to represent the story by making shapes with our hands in shadows using a sheet and a flashlight.

It was probably a bit too exciting for Emma, because it seemed to me she was getting more and more excited from all of this, but luckily, after the story she seemed satisfied and ready for bed.

We gave her a goodnight kiss and went back to the living room.

It was already 8pm, and in half an hour Ronna's show would start. I was so excited that people I knew would be on television.

Just when it was about to start, Lisa and Frank joined us. The show lasted only half an hour, so they came to eat their dinner here while watching the show, leaving the brasserie to Mari and Tory.

The show started out really boring with some political stuff, but as soon as Claire and Anna came on screen I was getting really excited. I meant there they were. I talked to them this afternoon, and now they were on television. Claire especially seemed really popular. Well I could agree she was really special. I could tell that it wasn't for nothing that she was the director of the FBY. I was sure she must have studied hard and passed some serious tests to get there.

Then at one point Claire gave a speech. Everyone in the room except Frank was crying at her words. Frank did not seem to understand what was going on, but seeing our reactions he mumbled “Must be a chick thing.”

After the show, we talked for a bit, but Frank and Lisa had to go back to work. The three of us started to do our homework.

An hour later or so Claire arrived back home. I ran toward her and hugged her, and told her how awesome she was. She was a bit lost in thoughts, but I could see she was happy because she had a smile on her face.

We all talked for a little while. But Claire responded very little, it was clear that her thoughts were elsewhere. She must've been very tired.

Now that she was back, we could leave. It was already getting late, so Elodie had sent a message to aunt Sandra to come pick us up.

I had such a good time tonight and Claire was so cool on TV! One day I want to be the FBY director too. I will need to pay more attention to Claire so that I can become just like her!

Author's notes

Hi everyone,

I wanted to take a moment to thank you all for reading up to this point! I hope you have all been enjoying my crazy story up to now.

We will be diving into Vol. 2 in a few hours, so there will be no breaks, but there will be a new cover for vol. 2.

You can expect me to keep updating on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

See you soon

xxx (always three kisses in Belgium for celebratory greetings)

Yati