Fabulous

Babysitting

"Want to hear something I heard today?" Angela asked Ann as they headed for the parking lot the next day, after the final bell of the Hill High School had rung.

"Let me think..." Ann said, feigning pensiveness. Then she smiled. "Sure."

Angela said, "Two boys in Iceland were chatting. The weather was so cold that when one of them spoke, his words froze into ice blocks. The other had to melt the ice blocks in a frying pan on fire in order to find out what his buddy had said."

"That's absurd." Ann laughed.

"Hi guys," Ann and Angela heard a deep manly voice behind them say. They turned.

It was the volleyball coach, Mr. Bradley. He said, "Can you babysit my children tomorrow after school?"

The twins nodded. Ann told the coach, "Our parents will be out and they'll be home late so we can."

Mr. Bradley said, "That's great! Daniel and Mandy adore you two."

"Daniel and Mandy are just so adorable and funny," Angela said as she put her hands in her pants' back pockets.

"Yeah," Mr. Bradley said. "Later then?"

"Later!" The twins said at the same time. 

With her hands on her hips, Ann waited with Angela for Daniel to unlock the door. Daniel, who was six years old, tried several times to unlock the door but could not.

"Let me try," Mandy said in her tiny but sweet voice. She was a smart five-year-old.

"I'm the man of the house when Daddy isn't in. I repeat, I am the man of the house, so if I can't unlock the door, what can a little girl like you do? Simply nothing," Daniel leered, giving the key to Mandy. Mandy drove the key into the lock and effortlessly unlocked the door.

"He's going to say his usual, I take back my words," Angela whispered to Ann. The twins knew that Daniel always said that whenever his little sister outsmarted him.

"I take back my words," Daniel said. Ann and Angela laughed out loud.

"Well done, Mandy," Ann said as Mandy smiled broadly.

Angela passed her hand through Daniel's honey brown hair as they followed the others  into the house. Inside, Daniel and Mandy rushed upstairs to change while the twins went to the kitchen.

"I've got a great idea!" Angela exclaimed.

"What?" Ann asked as she pulled Chips Ahoy! cookies from the shelf and went to get milk from the fridge.

"Let's save money specifically to get a Labrador."

"A Labrador? No way! I won't do that," Ann said, pouring milk into glasses. "If you had said a cocker spaniel, I might've reconsidered."

"Alright. Bad idea."

Then, Daniel and Mandy raced into the kitchen. Few minutes later, they all sat at the table with chocolate chip cookies and milk.

About an hour later, the twins had settled at the hall with Daniel and Mandy. When the young Bradleys finished telling the Whitney twins about their day at school, Ann asked Daniel, "What is an automobile?"

"A mobile phone?" Daniel replied. Mandy laughed.

"Why're you laughing, Mandy? It's not like you know what it is. I am the man of the house and if I don't know what it is, what can a little girl like you know? Simply nothing," Daniel said.

"An automobile is a motor car," Mandy said.

"That's correct," Angela affirmed. Then she murmured to Ann, "He's going to say his usual, I take back my words." 

Just then, Daniel said, "I take back my words." The twins laughed.

Few hours later when Daniel and Mandy had finished their homework, had dinner, bathed and had gone to bed, Ann and Angela cleaned the kitchen. Immediately they finished, someone rang the door bell. Ann went to answer the door. It was Mr. Bradley. Babysitting was over.

When Ann and Angela were leaving, Mr. Bradley thanked them and gave them their bills.