by Sandy Hall
“Will you make brownies with us?” Keegan asked.
Their rapid-fire dessert questioning didn’t surprise Teo. They were passionate about baked goods.
“We could make brownies,” the Potential Babysitter said.
“Yay!” all three girls cheered.
“See?” Rory said. “I told you she’d be nice.”
“So what will you let us do?” Keegan asked.
Teo knew that question was like the kiss of death. As the oldest of the three girls, Keegan tended to be the ringleader. She was the kind of kid who, if you turned your back to her long enough, would rally the rest of the kids and start a mutiny. He knew this for a fact, as she had already done it once when she was in kindergarten and twice in first grade. Teo’s mom spent a lot of time in parent-teacher conferences about Keegan.
Teo checked his phone again.
“What do you mean?” the Potential Babysitter asked.
“Like, can we go to the pool, and the sprayground, and mini golfing?” Keegan clarified.
“I guess?” the Potential Babysitter answered.
“The mini golf at the boardwalk?” Piper asked. “Not the dumb one on the highway.”
“Yeah, that one’s for babies,” Rory added.
Teo had no idea how they came up with those kinds of rules, but they were forever evolving. Last time he checked, they loved the mini golf course on the highway because it was fairy-tale-themed.
“We’ll have to ask your mom about that,” the Potential Babysitter said. Teo knew his mom would like that the girl was deferring to her in these matters.
All three girls started talking at once. This would be a make-or-break moment for this poor girl.
“Mom never lets us go to the boardwalk.”
“Maybe you could tell her to take us.”
“Or maybe Teo could take us.”
Teo slid down a few steps and peeked through the slats of the handrail. He couldn’t see the face of the girl they were interviewing, but he really wanted to interject that he would not be taking anyone to the boardwalk.
“I want to play the crane machine.”
“I want to play Skee-Ball.”
“I want to mini golf.”
“I want to go on the log flume!”
The storm of wants and requests kept raging. Teo felt legitimately sorry for the Potential Babysitter at this point. He was surprised that his mother hadn’t stepped in to help. She must have wanted to see how the older girl would handle all three kids when they got whipped into a simultaneous frenzy.
“Do you guys like Slip ’N Slides?” the Potential Babysitter asked over the din.
The three girls all grew quiet. “What’s that?” Rory asked.
“It’s kind of like a log flume for your body.” Teo thought that was an excellent description of a Slip ’N Slide.
“Really?” Keegan asked.
Teo leaned over again to watch the proceedings.
The Potential Babysitter nodded.
“Do you have one of those?” Piper asked.
“Yup. In my garage.”
“What else?”
“Um. Well. Okay.” She rubbed her palms on her shorts. “We could set up the sprinkler and one of those little wading pools and make a fountain. We could turn the lawn sprinklers on, and it would be like having our very own sprayground.”
Teo smiled. He used to do stuff like that all the time at the Connellys’.
And that was when he realized his sisters were interviewing Jane Connelly. The girls were all going wild about the setup that Jane had described, and Teo tried to back up the stairs, instead knocking his elbow hard and hissing in pain.
“Teo?” Keegan asked, walking over to the steps.
“Crap,” he said under his breath.
He played it cool and walked down the stairs the rest of the way like a normal person.
“Hey, guys,” he said. He turned to Jane and nodded at her casually.
“Hey,” Jane said.
“You remember Jane, right, honey?” his mom asked. She was sitting at the dining room table, observing the interview.
He opened his mouth to say something snarky like How could I forget Jane? Then he thought better of it. Instead, he shot his mom a look as he passed that he hoped she would interpret as You could have warned me.
Thankfully, his phone vibrated at that moment. Finally. Wait until Ravi heard what was going on.
“Um, gotta take this,” he said to the room at large, not focusing on anyone, as he wandered into the kitchen and leaned against the counter.
He tapped out a message to Ravi, telling him to come over for dinner, and continued to listen to his sisters interview Jane. He felt trapped and regretted that he hadn’t stayed in his room.
The girls peppered her with questions.
“We can go to the library and on picnics. We can take walks and ride bikes,” Jane said.
The thing about Jane Connelly wasn’t so much that Teo didn’t like her. He was neutral about her. She was always nice enough to him. He had spent a lot of time with her while his mom was taking night-school classes.
But Ravi hated her. He claimed she was his archnemesis. Teo didn’t see it, but he also wasn’t interested in fighting with his best friend about a girl who didn’t really matter.
It would suck to have Jane around all the time. Ravi would be so pissed off. He practically lived at Teo’s house in the summer because his parents refused to put on the air-conditioning unless it was over a hundred degrees outside, and Ravi couldn’t handle that.
Maybe Teo’s mom wouldn’t hire Jane. There was still hope.
But hope died moments later when he heard his mom offer the job to Jane, who accepted it on the spot.
Of course.
Teo took a deep breath, preparing to tell Ravi the news. His fight-or-flight response kicked in, which was really more like an all-flight, all-the-time response. Conflict was not his forte. He would rather go back to studying chemistry than tell Ravi this news. Maybe they would never be at his house at the same time, and Ravi would never have to know the truth.
But the thought of Ravi coming upon Jane in the kitchen one morning after a sleepover, and the yelling that would ensue, was enough to force Teo to suck it up and tell him.
Ravi’s answer was immediate.
The next five words came in separate texts.
Teo let out a long breath. This wasn’t going to end well.
Chapter 3
Margo had one thought on her mind all day, all week, even all month if she was being honest with herself. There was one thing that was keeping her up at night, making her feel guilty, and taking up a lot of brainpower. She kept telling herself that ripping off the Band-Aid would feel so much better than dealing with the pit in her stomach and her clammy palms every time she thought of this one particular thing: finally coming out to her parents.
They were nice people. They wouldn’t disown her for being bisexual. At least that was what she told herself over and over again on her way home from work every day.
She thought about different ways to come out. Maybe write them a heartfelt note or perhaps hire a skywriter.
She grinned, thinking about that one as some butthead nearly sideswiped her car. Jane wouldn’t be pleased if Margo hurt her precious 1998 Buick LeSabre. It seemed like every driver on the road was out to get her, always honking at her and giving her the finger. Like she was trying to get into a car accident.
Margo was happy every day she made it home alive, and today was no different. She pulled up in front of the house and sighed with relief.
As she walked through the front door, she accidentally let it slam behind her, alerting the lady of the manor to her presence.
“Margo, is that you?” her mom called from the kitchen.
“No, Mom. It’s a burglar.”
“A burglar wouldn’t call me Mom.”
“I know, Mom. It’s a joke.”
“Oh,” her mom said, sticking her head around the
corner. “Dinner will be ready in fifteen minutes. Let your sister know. I don’t want her to be shocked when she’s forced to come downstairs for dinner.”
Margo would have laughed, but she felt for Janie. Sometimes it seemed as if her mom and her sister couldn’t agree on anything, not even something as simple as dinnertime.
Margo trudged up the stairs and dropped her stuff off in her bedroom before peeking through the slight opening of Jane’s bedroom door.
“Hey,” Margo said, opening the door a little further.
“Hello,” Jane said, her voice dull.
“Mom wanted you to know that dinner will be ready soon.”
“Cool.”
Margo glanced around the room. “Why do you have a poster of a blue phone booth?”
“It’s not a phone booth. It’s a police box,” Jane said.
“What’s up?” Margo asked, leaning on Jane’s desk. There was an odd feeling in the room. Jane was curled up on her bed, staring into the corner of her room.
“It’s kind of a long story,” Jane muttered.
“We have at least a few minutes before Mom forces us to eat dinner.”
Jane smiled at that. Their mother loved staying on schedule.
“She’s going to kill me,” Jane finally said.
“I’m probably going to need further information to decide whether you’re exaggerating.”
“Mom got me an unpaid internship at the university, and I went out and got myself a babysitting job instead.”
Margo tsked. “Yeah, Mom’s gonna be pissed.”
“Thanks for your support,” Jane said, flipping over facedown on her bed.
Margo took a seat on the bed and patted her sister’s back awkwardly. “You know what I mean.”
“I do.”
“So why’d you do it?”
Jane rolled over and sat up. “Probably because the idea of driving to and from work with Mom every day basically sounded like hell.”
Margo nodded. “She really does like to get on your butt about things.”
“Can’t you ever say ‘ass’?”
“She really does like to get on your ass,” Margo repeated.
“Thank you. It sounds better that way. Like you’re actually on my side.”
“I am on your side.”
Jane frowned. “I don’t think anyone is really on my side.”
“So where’s the job?” Margo asked, rather than arguing with Jane’s statement. She knew it would only end with Jane going off on a tangent about how the rest of the family were geniuses and Jane was a poor little imbecile. She’d heard it all before.
Jane shook her head. “That’s kind of the worst part. At the Buchanans’.”
“Shouldn’t that be good news?”
“I don’t know. When I asked the Magic 8 about it, it seemed hesitant.”
“How can the Magic 8 seem hesitant?”
Jane handed the toy over to Margo. “It kept telling me to ask again later.”
Margo closed her eyes and held the ball, concentrating on the question or else she knew Jane wouldn’t accept the ball’s answer. “Will Mom flip out on Jane?”
Margo looked at the answer and read it out loud. “‘Ask again later.’”
“Maybe it’s broken,” Jane said.
Their mother called them for dinner then, interrupting Margo’s answer.
“What were you two doing upstairs?” their mom asked when they came into the kitchen to fill their plates.
“Girl talk,” Margo said with a grin toward Jane as they took a seat at the table.
“Where’s Dad?” Jane asked.
“In the basement. He’s worse than you two.” She stood up from the table and called through the basement door for her husband to come eat before the pork got cold.
Once everyone was seated, Jane took a deep breath. “I got a job,” she said.
“Yes, Jane,” her mom said. “At the university.”
“Um, no, a different one. Connie—you know Connie around the corner—needed a babysitter for the girls this summer. She’s taking a ton of classes and, well, I got the job. I’d really like to help Connie out.”
“That’s nice of you,” her dad said, smiling genuinely, obviously oblivious to his wife’s unhappy glare.
“I got Jane an internship at the university this summer, Steven. It’s going to look great on her college applications.”
“The pay is really good,” Jane continued. “I don’t have much savings, and the job Mom found is unpaid.”
“You know, Linda, maybe Jane finding a job on her own is a good thing,” he said pointedly.
“Maybe she needs to be more concerned about her future and less concerned about making money,” her mother said.
“Or maybe she needs to do what she enjoys.” Her father’s eyebrows went into his hairline—that was how hard he was trying to make this point.
Jane sank back into her chair, looking relieved. Her mother leveled her gaze at her.
“Do you really want this? It’s going to be hard, much harder than filing. Being a babysitter isn’t as easy as it looks. Especially for kids as energetic as those Buchanan girls.”
Jane sat up straight. “I want to. I swear. I went over there yesterday, and they interviewed me. It seemed like a lot of fun.”
“Fun?”
“Yes, fun. Even if it is hard work, it seemed like it could also be a lot of fun. And the girls seemed so excited.”
“All right.”
“All right, I can do it?”
“Yes,” her mom said. “It’s good that Connie will have some reliable help this summer. From what she tells me, Teo is in a funk. Being rude and always out with that boy.”
“What boy?”
“That Ravi. The one who used to always tease you so much in middle school.”
“Thanks for the reminder, Mom.”
“Maybe he liked you,” her dad said.
Before Margo had a chance to tear into him about how sexist and awful it was that boys could tease girls under the auspices of “liking them,” her father stood and started clearing the table, and her mother followed. Margo’s rant would have to wait for another day. Along with any chance for her to come out.
Even if her parents had stayed at the table, there was no way she could have come out to them after that display. It would have been foolish to even try to talk to them when they both had Jane on the brain.
Or at least that was what Margo told herself so she would stop feeling like such a coward.
She would come out when the time was right, on her own terms.
“I need to get back downstairs,” their dad said. “I’m working on a huge submarine model, and I’m at the trickiest part.”
Margo rolled her eyes but helped with clearing the table.
Only Jane sat there through the cleanup, looking stunned.
Margo took the seat across from her once everything had been put away and the dishwasher was humming.
“It sucks that Mom acted like that,” Margo said when their mother had slipped out the back door to take the trash to the garbage cans.
“Thanks,” Jane said. “But it actually went way better than I’d expected. She didn’t even mention me quitting. I thought for sure that would be her fix for everything.”
“What would you have done?”
Jane looked thoughtful. “I would have really pushed the whole ‘helping a neighbor’ angle. She would have eaten that up. I think luck was on my side, though, since mom had talked to Connie recently.”
“True,” Margo said.
“I wonder what’s up with Teo. I thought he was always some kind of perfect son.”
“Yeah, perfect Teo, always doing what his mom needs him to do, never complaining.”
“He practically ruined our childhoods by being so perfect. And now he’s off with Ravi Singh, making trouble every night.”
“Wait, has Teo really gone all bad-boy?” Margo asked.
“No. I don’t think so, at least. I
t’s probably more along the lines of Mom totally misconstruing something Connie said and turning the fact that he’s not home much or whatever into a much bigger deal than it is.”
Margo squinted. “Yeah, I just really can’t imagine what kind of trouble those two would even get into.”
“I bet they mug old ladies.”
“And knock over mailboxes with baseball bats.”
“Take candy from babies,” Jane said.
“Hot-wire cars,” Margo added.
“Drink wine coolers and stay out past ten.”
“Yeah, they’re totally badass.”
Jane pumped her fist in the air. “Yes! I love it when you curse.”
Margo giggled at her sister’s enthusiasm for swearing.
Margo almost told Jane her secret right there in the dining room. It had been a long time since she’d felt this close to her sister. Sometime in her teens Margo had lost touch with Jane, and then when she left for college, she never seemed to have the time. But maybe this summer would be a good chance for them to become friends again.
It couldn’t hurt to have one.
Unfortunately, their mother came back in from the yard, and their dad starting yelling from the basement, and the moment was lost. But Margo promised herself that she would find another one and not let it pass her by.
Chapter 4
On her first day of work, Jane slipped out the front door with a yelled good-bye toward the back of the house.
“But what about breakfast?” her mom called from the kitchen.
“I’m not hungry.” Jane slammed the door good and hard to punctuate that sentence.
She ate a granola bar that she found at the bottom of her backpack and washed it down with water from the bathroom sink. It might not be the most balanced breakfast, but it got her out of the house nice and fast.
She marched down the street and around the corner, proud that she was actually going to be twenty minutes early. If only school were this close to her house, she might be early for that sometimes, too.
Connie had told Jane to let herself in the back door when she arrived, because it was sometimes hard to hear the doorbell from inside the house, and Connie wanted Jane to get comfortable streaming in and out anyway. Connie had had a key made for her and everything.
