Babysitting A Brat

• Layla Thompson, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2016

I was babysitting my naughty 6 year old cousin and I thought things were going well until I turned around and found Madaline with pjs that have tomato sauce spilt all over the front of her. Her hair was a mess and mums $100 wine bottle in her dirty grubby hands, I panicked. All of these thoughts running around my head about what mum would have to say if Madaline had dropped it.

I got up from watching my movie to get the wine bottle out of her hands. I went to put it back into the fridge when I heard a loud SMASH. I didn’t want to go and have a look. I wish I could have gone out with my friends to the movies but instead i'm stuck here babysitting a BRAT while Aunty Kelly and Uncle Jordy go out for dinner with mum and dad. I go into the living room to find the T.V on the ground and the screen smashed into pieces. I stare down at Madaline, her eyes so white it isn’t funny. I was almost about to faint.

Madaline looked at me with a blank face. Her eyes filling up with tires, but it didn’t take long for her to wash them away. Madaline looked at me, then at the T.V and then back to me. I screamed at her to go to the spare room, instead she told me to shut my trap and started playing with her Barbie dolls. I had to face the fear of telling mum. When I told mum about the T.V I thought her head was going to explode, she flipped. Mum told me to put Madaline into bed and for me to clean up the T.V. They would be home in a few hours.

I told Madaline to go to bed, she yelled“ NO. You can’t tell me what to do. You're not my MUMMY.” So I thought I would be a nasty cousin and took the dolls off her. She got up crossed her arms the stomped her feet and told me to give back her dolls. I thought if I put the dolls on the bed in the spare room she would follow. So I did that, she followed me to the bedroom and she went to bed. I turned off the lights and shut the door, I went down to the living room and cleaned up the mess, got my laptop out and finished watching my movie. After an hour and a half. I checked if Madaline was asleep. She was! Then I decided to go to bed myself. I turned off most of the lights apart from the kitchen and toilet light.

It was 2:00 in the morning and I heard a knock on the door. I got on the computer and checked the live security footage. It was mum and dad with Aunty Kelly and Uncle Jordy. They were home. Aunty Kelly got Madaline out of bed and left.