The Babysitter

Chapter 31
The Babysitter, Part 31

PART 31

Paige

While manipulating Noelle and toying with Alyssa had taken a bit of effort here and there, the only stressful part had been launching into our time sensitive plan. Even then, there were enough of us to spread out what needed to be done.

However, the latest information Miley gave me and Annika changed everything. I was literally running back to my house, while working just as hard mentally to think through what needed to be done in the very near future. Noelle’s phone was almost certainly with her, as I hadn’t been able to find it recently when I had looked through her things. And getting the device itself was barely half the battle. We’d also have to not only swap out Miley’s mother’s number with Shannon’s–our best voice actress, who had pulled off parental roles before over the phone–but also deal with the text history.

Violet had the technological know-how to pull that off, thankfully, although she had never done it under pressure before. Normally our group’s little schemes involved hours of planning and days of execution. Not that we ever did anything dramatic; it was just for stuff like skipping school or securing verbal ‘permission’ via Shannon’s talents at mimicking a guardian’s voice. Speaking of which . . . I paused at the front door to catch my breath, and used the moment to send Annika an important text. Maybe she would have thought of that part herself, but it wouldn’t hurt to double check. 

Once I had fixed my hair and taken a minute to lower my heart rate from the short sprint, I went inside. It hurt to waste precious time just standing around, and yet it was worth the sacrifice. Noelle trusted me at the moment, and I needed to keep that going. That meant that appearances were important, as I had established that I was the more put together sister. 

My idea to swipe Noelle’s phone lacked the usual finesse I aimed for, and it felt impulsive to go for it without thinking through all the details, but I had to continue working under the assumption that Miley’s parents might call any second. Besides, this whole thing started impulsively, when I leaned into Noelle’s mistake. I was perfectly capable of improvising and thinking on the fly, as my teammates could attest about my gaming skills. 

After making a quick trip to the kitchen and grabbing what I needed, I headed upstairs and straight to Alyssa’s room. It took a lot not to laugh at the scene before me. Seeing my step-sister working at her desk was normally nothing out of the ordinary. After all, she was annoyingly preppy and academic. Only now, she was wearing one of the tank tops Dakota had brought over, and she definitely wasn’t wearing a bra. Honestly, that would have been enough to undermine her maturity, although what really made it for me was the fact that Noelle was standing nearby and supervising her as she worked. 

“Hey, sorry to interrupt,” I said. Giving my attention mostly to Noelle, as I could only look at Alyssa’s tween image for so long while keeping a straight face, I opened my hand to show the two pills I had brought up with me, along with a small water glass in the opposite hand, “Just wanted to make sure Miley here took her vitamins before bed. Unless you already gave them to her?”

“I haven’t,” Noelle replied, “Does she normally take them at night?”

Okay, good. The first big risk was that she would question whether or not that was on Miley’s babysitting list. However, I was banking on the fact that nutritional supplements were something that could easily be forgotten amidst the more important information she had been given. “Usually with dinner,” I lied. Over the years, I had learned that being unnecessarily specific made certain things more believable. On a case by case basis, of course, as being cleverly vague was also a viable strategy. “Totally my fault. I’d normally remind her, but my friends and I were all excited for pizza.”

Naturally, Alyssa tried to chime in. “Umm, no. What are-”

“Quiet, Miley. Unless I address you directly, your rules still apply. Do you want a spanking and another 1000 lines? Yes, or no?”

The look on Alyssa’s face was priceless. It was clear how badly she wanted to keep talking. And yet, after a couple seconds, she merely muttered a quiet, “. . . No.”

“Okay. Then be a well behaved girl. I’m having a conversation with your sister right now. Keep writing, and I don’t want to hear another sound from you. Unless you’d like to be spanked in front of Paige. Again.”

That shut her up. Fuck, I was so tempted to somehow bait Alyssa into a reaction that would lead to just that. Also, was she writing lines?! Oh, my God. I hadn’t really noticed the repetitive nature of the writing on the page in front of my petite sister until Noelle drew attention to it. That was so much better than Alyssa doing more of Miley’s homework. Unfortunately, my proximity to the desk wasn’t quite enough to let me see what exactly it was she was writing. I’d have to ask Noelle later, or take a look for myself if the lines were to stay on the desk after Alyssa was put to bed. 

For the time being, I had a job to do that was more pressing than getting Noelle to spank my sister. “Here you go, Miley,” I said. Stepping forward with a slight smirk once Noelle was behind me, I placed the pills and water glass down on the edge of the desk. Lingering for an extra second or two would have allowed me to read one of Alyssa’s lines, but I didn’t want to appear overly eager about the task she was working on. I was the mature older sister. Teasing my same aged sister was one thing; however, making fun of twelve year old Miley would look bad. 

Then, as I turned around, I pretended to trip as soon as I made sure Noelle was still standing where she had been before. Gasping as I stumbled forward, I crashed right into the brunette. “Fuck!” I exclaimed. Hoping that she would be distracted by my whole body plus gravity hitting her, I reached around and deftly plucked the phone from her back pocket. In a flash, I slipped the slim smartphone into my own back pocket while sorting myself out and getting my feet back under me. “Sorry. Miley’s chair,” I said, trying my very best to force a blush, “You okay?”

Professional as ever, considering how the average girl would probably be either annoyed or flustered about something like that, Noelle calmly said, “I’m fine. At least we didn’t fall.”

“Yeah, thanks for the catch,” I chuckled, as I took a step back, “Sorry again. I swear, I’m not normally such a klutz.” It was beyond tempting to claim that Alyssa tripped me. I probably could have gotten away with it. The only reason I refrained was because keeping things simple felt like the best approach. If I could pull this off, I’d have the whole weekend to figure out another way to get Alyssa over Noelle’s knee. For now, I needed to make sure Noelle would be staying here without Miley’s parents ruining everything. 

“Don’t worry about it,” Noelle replied. Slightly adjusting her top, she asked, “Anything else I should know about Miley’s evening routine? She and I decided that an earlier bedtime would be better for her tonight.”

Uh huh. I’m sure that was a mutual decision. “Just make sure she doesn’t climb out the window after you put her to bed,” I chuckled. Partly a reference to the real Miley, as I could totally see that girl doing that, and potentially a preventative measure in regards to Alyssa. Maybe my dear sister would be desperate enough to escape like that. I was sure Noelle had already considered that possibility. Still, mentioning it would further paint Alyssa as the troublesome girl. 

“She won’t be going anywhere,” Noelle said, “Anyway, thank you for her vitamins. I can take things from here.”

“Of course,” I nodded, “I’ll be downstairs if you need me.”

As badly as I wanted to shoot Alyssa a wink before leaving, there was nothing I could do when all I could see of my youthful looking sister was her damp, red hair. I went straight for the door, more concerned with the fact that Noelle’s phone was just barely peeking out of my back pocket. She didn’t seem to notice, as I made it around the corner without being called out. 

I picked up the pace when I reached the stairs. Pulling out the phone, I made a beeline for the basement and passed it off to Violet while blurting out the highlights of the last ten or fifteen minutes. Violet already had her laptop out, and was working on some of the other elements of the evening’s plan. She was quick to switch gears, and reminded me that she couldn’t do what I was asking with a single click. Hacking into Noelle’s phone would take a little while, which meant we all had to hope for the best. It would be simple enough to return the device to the kitchen table and let Noelle assume she had left it downstairs. The main concern was what would happen if she reached for her phone right now as a way to kill time while Alyssa wrote lines upstairs. 

While Violet got to work, I started brainstorming with Dakota and Shannon. We came up with plenty of places to put the phone if Noelle came down early to look for it. The problem was, we couldn’t bring it upstairs early. Violet needed to finish her side of things, as that was the only way we could pull off the impending phone call. I wasn’t about to cross my fingers and hope that Noelle wouldn’t mention my existence while talking with Miley’s real parents. 

When I checked my own phone, I was happy to see that Annika was killing it. She had convinced Miley to forward a couple voicemails to me, which I immediately passed along to Shannon. It would have made more sense for them to go to our resident voice actress to begin with, although Annika was probably dealing with the time pressure like I was–working quickly, at the expense of being as clever or efficient as usual. 

Just a little longer. Either this would all come together, or totally fall apart despite our best efforts.