Erika's Revenge

Chapter 1
Erika, Rob, & DR. Herschel.

Chapter Description: Erika and Rob get into a fight.

    “Come on Erika, you know what mom said about having Thomas over.” Rob said as the pillow collided into his chest, thrown by Erika.

“So Jenny can come over whenever but Tommy can’t!?” Erika yelled, on the verge of tears.

Rob sighed, “If mom comes in and sees him over when I’m supposed to be watching you she’s just gonna have aunt Barb come over every time she goes out.”

“Why do I even need a babysitter? I’m 14!”

“I don’t like it either but what do you want me to do?”

Erika stamped her feet, “Let Tommy stay the night!”

Rob began to raise his voice, “I can’t!”

“Why not!?” Erika was screaming.

“Cause mom could send Aunt Barb to check in on us!” He was yelling.

“SO WHAT!?” she shrieked.

“BECAUSE JENNY WANTS TO GO TO FLORIDA!!!” He screamed, Erika looked at him in shock. “Oh don’t give me that fucking look, you’d do the same!”

Erika started crying, “Oh that’s so fucking unfair!” and started walking toward the door to close it.

Rob turned and began to walk away, “You act like such a baby sometimes!” he shouted as he turned and began to trot down the stairs.

“FUCK YOU!” she slammed the door.

Rob walked through the living room and into the kitchen, on the counter was an open bag of Fritos that the two had left out when Rob had gone to the store. He sighed and picked it up before dropping it into the trash can. He looked up to the front door and could see Thomas standing on the other side of the door’s frosted glass. Rob shook his head and walked over to it, he poked his head out to see Thomas staring out at the road in front of their house. Rob tapped on his shoulder which made Thomas jump before turning around and looking at Rob apprehensively.

“Oh…. hey Rob.”

            Rob looked out to the road before stepping out, “Waiting for your mom?"

“Uh.. no, my brother.”

“Oh, uh you might wanna wait a few blocks away, in case our Aunt shows up.”

Thomas sighed, “Yeah man sure.” he rolled his eyes, then walked away.

Rob watched as Thomas walked two houses away, then turned a corner. “Fucking dick.” As Rob turned to enter the house he grabbed the mail and took it with him, throwing it on their kitchen counter before walking over to the couch and lying down. He took out his phone and opened Instagram, immediately clicking on his girlfriend’s profile and scrolling her page. He landed on a short video she took of herself lounging on a pool chair in a bikini, he stared intensely and began to sweat before putting the phone down and looking at the wall clock in the living room. 

4:10 PM

Mom said she’d be out with dad until 6, I could go over to Jenny’s but it’d take 15 minutes to head over there. That means we’d only get an hour unless mom came home early which she usually does, and if Aunt Barb comes over then me and Jenny can say goodbye to Miami this summer. Fuck.

He sighed and closed his eyes, considering the risk like doing a puzzle in his own head. Until his phone pinged. He opened it up to see a text.

{MOM:  staying in Chicago with dad tonight be home tomorrow}

{MOM: aunt Barb is sick.} 

{MOM: NO FOOLING AROUND!!!}

Rob smiled and clasped his hands together, he chuckled a bit before  picking the phone back up.

{ok}

He jumped up and ran over to the plastic hooks on the kitchen wall that held the car keys. He grabbed the keys to the Sedan and began running to the door, stopping himself short of it, almost slamming into it. 

Ah fuck I should tell Erika I’m leaving.

He began to sheepishly walk through the house, doing his little trot up the stairs before stopping at Erika’s door. He stood there awkwardly, if he told her mom wouldn’t be home until tomorrow she’d try to bring Thomas back over and if Rob stayed the night at Jenny’s then there was a solid chance that Thomas would stay the night here. If that happened there was a risk that his mom could come over tomorrow and find Thomas hanging out, he could say goodbye to Miami for sure if that happened. 

If I tell her I’m coming back with Chris for studying she won’t try anything, especially if I threaten to tell mom.

So he knocked, then waited for a response. Eventually a gritted “What?” came through the door.

“Uhhh, hey I’m gonna go grab Chris and some snacks so we can study for our English Final. I’ll be back in like an hour.” he paused, “and uh… if Thomas is here I’m gonna tell mom that you didn’t listen, ok?” Then he waited.

“You better not be going to Jenny’s.”

“I won’t dude, you can text Chris.”

A gritted “Fine.” came through and rob immediately pulled out his phone.

{Hey dude if my sister asks I came to get you for studying.}

{C: lol ok)

Rob jogged out of the house, texting Jenny to tell her he was coming over to see her as quickly as he could. He put the keys in the ignition and drove off as fast as his neighborhood would allow, which was 15MPH as Erika watched from her window upstairs.

Erika pulled out her phone and immediately texted Chris.

{are u studying with my brother tonight}

{chris: yeah why}

She put her phone down on her bed, she knew deep down that Rob was going over to Jenny’s house but couldn’t prove it. So she decided to do what she did everytime she was stressed: eat. She grabbed a box of hostess cupcakes from the cupboard and began to walk over to the couch to sit down and watch youtube videos with the smart tv. But as she walked the box of hostess cupcakes skid across the counter and knocked the mail to the floor. She set the box down and began to pick up the mail until she stumbled upon a blue brochure, it had a faint glint to it as if the paper had been encrusted with little flecks of glitter. She picked it up and read it aloud to herself:

“DR. Herschel’s Teenager retraining course.

Is your teen or preteen lazy? Do they sit about your house listlessly? Do they have attitude issues? Do they try to reinforce a shortsighted independence from you? Do they act five, ten, maybe even fifteen years younger than they should when something doesn’t go their way? Or is it maybe something else? Well, here at DR. Herschel’s Teenager Retraining course we have the solution! With our patented system we can make your children truly obedient and in the long term, much more productive members of society. Our program has been considered controversial by many, but we’ve had a 95% success rate among young adults and preteens. 

“What’s our Program?” You ask? It’s quite simple!

We use a combination of hypnotism, medicine, incentivization, and care to reset your child’s mental -and in some cases physical development- to the age at which you desire ranging from Ten years of age to that of infancy. This allows for parents to retrain their children along a set path in an accelerated pace to restructure them as happy and productive members of society! In a 4 year span, those mentally reset to age four were able to redevelop the cognitive, mental, and emotional ability of a fifteen year old! 

Take for instance Madeline: Madeline was expelled from three different schools, arrested two times for driving without a license, and awaiting trial for Possession Of A Narcotic Substance. However Madeline’s mother sought out DR. Herschel’s, and we were able to convince the courts to give us a shot first. After retraining Madeline to having the mental and physical abilities of a two year old she is in the process of retraining herself and currently has the mental ability of a ten year old at the physical age of Twenty Two, but this time Madeline has the well behaved demeanor of a nun! But don't take it from us! Take it from some satisfied parents: 

Josh Marcenson: At first I thought my little Hannah wasn’t gonna get into Yale, but now that we’ve partnered with DR. Herschel’s my little girl has made it back to Seventh Grade in five years and is all straight A’s!

Gloria Aberdeen: Ohhh I just missed my little eric! Now my baby boy is back and cuter than ever!

Jonathan & Cynthia Edelmann: Our daughter has restarted highschool and is an honor student, just like some of her other siblings. We’d consider using DR. Herschel’s for another child, and we’ve also used it to put her older brother Jr back in diapers so he can learn to be more respectful of us

Well then! With all those testimonies you can see why so many parents are using DR. Herschel’s to set their kids right! With a 20 year history, Dr. Herschel’s is a name you can trust! 

So call us at: 290-888-8880

Or email at: dr-herschels-inquiries@drherschels.com”

Erika stared at the pamphlet and the pictures contained besides the text: fully grown adults in snap onesies and diapers, teenagers sitting crisscrossed on a carpet with four year olds, an eighteen year old doing simple fractions, all with empty vacant smiles. “Back in diapers?” She immediately shuddered at the thought of being reduced to an infant in her current body. “That’s so fucking gross.” she thought and walked over and threw it in the trash. She went to grab her cupcakes but the thought of those people having to be changed and bathed by their parents made her stomach weak, so she just went and flopped onto the couch. 

She pulled up her phone and began scrolling instagram: she scrolled past photos of her friends getting ice cream, singing along to spotify, having a ball. And she was now stuck inside, away from all of it. Her mom treated her and Rob like they were both still in elementary school, she had always been strict and infantilizing. When Rob was 8 he had a spree where he couldn’t stop wetting the bed and as a response his mother made him wear diapers until he learned to stop. So she was stuck. Stuck scrolling the feeds of her friends spending their lives outside and with each other, unable to visit her unless her mom was present. 

Then instagram refreshed. 

At the top was a short clip from Jenny’s instagram, with her hand on Rob’s knee.

Erika was fuming, Rob lied to her so he could go spend time with his girlfriend but she couldn’t spend time with Tommy. It was bullshit! Rob always thought he was above her since he started making the rules, and what was worse: she couldn’t tell their mom or else Rob would tell her that Tommy had been over earlier, then they were both screwed! Her summer vacation gone!  

She threw her phone at the wall in anger, upon realizing what she had done she ran over to inspect the wall, just to make sure that she didn’t dent it in a way that her mom would notice. Then she picked up her phone to examine it, working over every single detail and curve to make sure she hadn’t broken it. She turned it on to see that the phone had defaulted to the camera feature on instagram during the ruckus. As she examined to make sure that the camera’s interior didn’t get damaged she noticed what the camera was framing as she held it: the trash can.

This gave her an idea.

If Rob was going to use his age as leverage to get one up on Erika, than she would use hers. Compared to her Rob was the one who misbehaved more often according to his mom, and on more than one occasion their mother had wished that he could go back to when he was little. She could be seen occasionally looking at photos of Rob that were taken when he was a baby: getting changed, being fed, taking baths, running around naked. It wouldn’t be a hard sell, especially if her mom had a reason to sign Rob up for it.

So she opened her phone and screenshotted the video to show their mom, Tommy getting banned and Aunt Barb being a fixture would be a small price to pay for sending Rob back to diapers. She went upstairs and checked her dresser drawer, inside was $40 she had saved up from her allowance. She put it in her pocket and looked up how far the nearest walgreens was on her bike, and then set off.

Rob would learn for what he did, how he played her. And who knows, maybe she could take over as Rob’s babysitter from now on.