The air was hot and humid outside as I sat inside, staring into the colourful screen of the television. I had no idea how long I had been watching the television screen, but I did know that I was still in my pyjamas and that, judging by the light outside, it was late afternoon. I had been playing video games the entire day and my brain felt like mush, to be honest. The sound of the front door opening stirred me from my daze on the couch. "I'm home!" Came my mother's voice, but I did not look away from the screen nor move from my slouched position on the couch. There was the sound of my mother's shoes on the floors, stopping in the living room doorway. "Claire, sweetie, you're going to go blind like that." I did not reply but flicked the remote and changed the channel while reaching my hand into a bowl beside me and stuffing a large amount of m&m’s into my mouth. "And you're going to rot your teeth," My mother tsked as she came into the room, taking the bowl away from me and switching off the television. I blinked and gave out a loud groan of protest. "Claire," My mother said, looking down at me with a disapproving look. "How long have you been sitting in front of the couch? Surely not since I left for work this morning?" I lifted my face to look at her. Apparently, from the obvious brain-dead look on my face, she assumed so. She narrowed her eyes. "Claire!" "Augh, Muuum. There's nothing to dooo!" I whined, sliding myself down on the couch. It was the middle of the summer holidays and none of my friends were in town. They had all left me for summer camps and fun family holidays at faraway beach resorts. The deserters, I thought resentfully. "Why don't you go outside? Go to the shops - get some fresh air?" She suggested. I frowned and gave a pout. "Well," She said, picking up a blanket from off the floor and a few candy wrappers that I had scavenged from the kitchen this morning and devoured without hesitation. She tutted and frowned disapprovingly at these while I just lay on the couch, my face blank. After she had gone from the living room, her voice came drifting from the kitchen. "I'm going out tonight," She said. "The Johnson's are having a small party and I want you to babysit the Carleton's kids." My face fell and, with a surprising amount of energy, got up off the couch to make my way over to the kitchen. I stopped in the doorway to ask, "I’m sorry, what? Why??" "Because," Said my mother, her face setting into that steely, no-negotiations look she had. "I said you would, so you will." "But why me?" I whined. "Why do I have to babysit the kids? Can't your other friends’ children do it?" "No, because Chelsea's away on a trip, Emma has a night course, Miranda is too young and Marlene's kids are in a detention center in Calawicks." I frowned. "Miranda's not too young, she can do - " "Claire, she's twelve years old," My mother cut in. "You're babysitting the kids tonight and that's that." I huffed and seethed in the doorway, speechless, while my mother continued to bustle about in the kitchen, getting food and drinks ready for tonight. Then, noticing that I was not going to argue further with her, she said, "Now why don't you get changed and go to the shops to buy some ice-cream for dessert tonight. I'm sure the kids will like that." * * *
Still grumbling about having to babysit a bunch of kids tonight, I walked out of the cool air-conditioned house into the hot, sweltering heat of the outdoors. This was precisely why I chose to lounge on the couch for the day. Dying of heat-stroke when I took even a step outside was not exactly refreshing. I wiped the sweat from my brow as I trudged down the street to the corner shop.
Luckily, our local grocery store was not too far away from our street and I was there before I could collapse from the oppressive heat. I took a deep breath as I walked through the sliding doors of the store, relishing the rush of cool air coming from the many fridges and cooling vents. I walked over to the dairy products and frozen foods aisle then stopped. I back-tracked and hid at the end of the previous aisle while I watched the boy in the blue shirt carry a large pineapple and frozen yogurt in his hands. I smirked to myself and while his back was turned to look into one of the fridges, I walked over to the fridges farther down and opened one up, peering at him through the frosty glass. With my finger, I began to write ‘I can see you’. Then I flicked open my phone and called Matt. “Hello?” Came Matt’s voice from two places. I grinned behind the glass and said in a low, raspy, voice, “Look to your right.” He did and then stopped. “Claire, that’s creepy.” I snickered. “Yeah, I know.” He shook his head and hung up. I flicked my phone shut and went over to him. “So what the hell? I thought you were at camp?” I said, pointing and accusing finger at him. He shuffled nervously and answered with, “Yeah... well, it turns out that I’m not.” I raised my eyebrow and he smiled innocently. “Apparently the weather in Deersprings is not so good. You know, heavy showers and stuff...” I narrowed my eyes at him. “Well, you could have called me. I spent the entire day practically immobilized by boredom and stuffing my face with candy,” I paused and lay my palm against my stomach, grimacing. “I think I’m kinda sick now too.” He snorted. “Serves you right. You’re a sugar freak, you know.” “Well, I’ve got to live up to the name somehow...” I trailed off, remembering what I came here to do with a grimace. “And now I’ve got to babysit a bunch of brats tonight.” I sighed in enormous irritation. “Well, I’m pretty much free tonight. Maybe I’ll come over to help later?” He smiled. I beamed at him. “Really? Oh man, that’d be great, Matt. Thanks.” Suddenly it felt like things wouldn’t be so bad after all.
* * *
The kids were being particularly annoying that night. I probably should not have given them the ice-cream. "Dana, please, no - !" Crash! “Jason, let go of Madison!” Thump! Laughter and tears. “Rachel, please stop doing that. You’ll break it,” I begged. Snap! Crack! Screaming. I closed my eyes and took a deep, calming breath. Then the doorbell rang. My eyes snapped open and I jumped at the opportunity for escape. I opened the door and felt a wave a relief wash over me at the sight of him. “Hiya,” Matt said with a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. It was a timid but friendly smile. Something I rather liked to watch when he did it. But then I realized that I was straying from the situation at hand so I shook the pushed the thought aside for the moment. “You’re late,” I snapped. He shuffled nervously. “Yeah, sorry about that. Kinda got caught up with the ‘rents. You know how it is,” He said then regarded me for a moment. “You look like you’ve been for a trip to hell and back... no offense.” I shot him a dirty look. “It’s these damn kids! They’re absolutely insane!” I exclaimed. He laughed and nudged past me through the door. I closed it behind me and we both walked in to see a very sorry sight. My living room hardly resembled a living room anymore. “Dear God, I leave them for 5 seconds...” I muttered under my breath. Matt raised two eyebrows at the situation and said, “What did you give these kids?” “Just some ice-cream,” I said innocently. “That’s not too bad, right?” He gave a low whistle and said, “Well, it sure did a number on them.” Just then Jason had managed to climb on top of a table and was about to jump off the edge of it and onto a very unsuspecting Rachel playing with my mother’s fine glass figurines. Matt and I both looked at each other before we both rushed over to them. While I managed to extract the glass figurine out from Rachel’s mouth, Matt had lunged at Jason, swooping him off the table before he could jump. We sighed in relief as we sat down on the couch, already exhausted by the kids. “Who’s up for a board game?” Matt said suddenly. Cries of agreement rose from the kids and I had to hand it to him. He was pretty good with entertaining and supervising children. Much better than I was, in any case. “So what shall we play?” Matt mused and the kids all started shrieking their opinions at once. “Whoa, whoa, whoa...!” Matt said. “One at a time.” “Uno!!” Jason bellowed. “I wanna play Uno!” The majority of the kids looked game while some looked unconcerned. “Uno it is then,” I said, getting out the Uno cards. But after about 12 rounds of Jason winning relentlessly (I suspect he was cheating somehow), Madison started to complain. “I dun wanna play anymoooorrrreee!!” She cried. Well, for God's - ! "OK, then, sweetie, what would you like to play instead?" I asked with strained patience. She sniffed and rubbed at her eyes. "A diff'rent one..." "Yes, but what different one?" I asked again. "Ah - Ah diff'rent one!" Was all she said. I was going to explode. But then Matt’s gentle tap on the arm reminded me to keep my cool. I tried again. "Yes, but - " I began but then Jason cried out: "Let's play more Uno!" The other kids cheered. "No, no, no, no, no!" Cried Madison. "Hold on, guys!" I yelled above the noise of crying and cheering. "Madison," I said, turning to her. "What game do you want to play then? Snakes and Ladders?" She shook her head and rubbed her eyes again. I sighed. "Monopoly?" Again, she shook her head. "Checkers? Jenga? Twister? Hungry-Hungry Hippos?" She shook her head vigorously at each of these. "Well, I don't think there are any more games - " I began helplessly until Dana shrieked out: "Hey! Let's play Candy Land!" She was already taking out a cardboard box from our game closet and setting it down on the floor. She and Jason then began taking out the game board, dice, and player pieces. My face fell while Matt grinned at the new game choice. Well, I guess as long as it’s something other than Uno... I thought. "I wanna be red!" Dana cried. "Caaandy Laaand?" Tom said with excitement. "Cool! I wanna be blue!" "No! I wanna be blue!" "Chocolate!?" I raised my voice over them to say, “Hey, quiet down! We’re going to have to play in teams because there’s not enough player pieces.” The children excitedly gathered around the board game, already making teams for themselves. But I knew that kids were not always good decision makers in the first place so it came as no surprise when there ended up being four against one. “Look,” I said in what I hoped was a tone of high authority. “We’ll just have to make it girl’s against boys. Ok? So we’re even.” The children seemed to accept this so then we could finally begin to play.
Halfway through the game, however, I was already wishing I was playing my PS3 instead. I longed to be able to get back to trying to defeat the level 5 boss in my game. My mind started to drift, musing on how that would be possible. I looked to Matt who I had no doubt was probably thinking the same thing I was. We usually played video games together. We were a good team. He was usually lookout and I was the one who shot the bad guys ‘cause I had a crack shot aim. “Claaaiiirree, Jason cheated agaaaiiin!” Madison whined and I sighed, focusing my attention once again on the blindingly simple game called Candy Land. “I did not! She’s just jealous ‘cause she’s a stupid little giiiirrrlll!” Jason cried, sticking out his tongue teasingly. Madison began to cry and Dana started to pout while Rachel was distracting herself with eating one of the game pieces. That was it. “Okay, guys. You know what? I think it’s bedtime,” I said, starting to get up. They all looked up at me in alarm. “What? Noooo!” The cried and complained which only convinced me further that they were having a sugar crash and becoming tired and cranky. “I mean it,” I said.
* * *
Once I had finally managed to get all the kids into bed, I came back into the living room to find Matt still sitting on the floor, bent over the board game. I smirked and slumped down beside him. “Pretty stupid game, huh?” I said, stacking all the cards together again. He shrugged. “I used to play this game when I was younger,” He said, looking up at me. “It’s simple... But pretty fun.” I grinned. “Yeah, well. The only thing I liked playing about it when I was young was that I felt like I was surrounded by the best thing in the world...” Matt raised a brow at me and I continued, “Candy.” As if it was not obvious. He laughed and picked up a card in his hand. “How’s about we delve into that world again?” I snorted. I found it rather unusual to think that he would want to play this over our preferred video games but decided it couldn’t hurt. “I’m red!” I cried out childishly. He sighed exaggeratedly as if it bothered him. But I knew it didn’t as he picked up his little gingerbread man and moved the number of spaces on the card. “My turn,” I smirked, taking the first card in my hand. I could almost taste the magical world of Candy Land on my tongue. I could feel the game start to become real. There was one thing about me which was: When I played a game, I played it hard.
