✏️ Under One Roof

15. One Challenge

This bonus chapter is dedicated to Peter, with thanks for all your support on Patreon.

Tegan woke and stretched, wondering what new horrors today might have in store for her. Maybe there wouldn't be anything bad; maybe it would just be a nice day to enjoy herself. She let herself entertain the fantasy for a couple of seconds before the memories of last night came crashing back. She had wet herself; and not while she was asleep, either. She couldn't remember the last time something like that had happened, and she knew that she needed to figure out what Ness had done to cause it.

Her brothers had always picked on her. Whether it was physical bruises or spreading rumours about her, they had always found some way to make her life miserable. But they had never managed to come up with anything like this. She was sure they would have done it if they could, but she didn't even know how it could be possible. Making someone wet their pants must involve some kind of advanced science; it wasn't something you could just go out and buy from World of Japes. But then, Ness was more the intellectual bully; the huge variety of books in his room told her that. And although athletic, he wasn't exactly muscular. So she knew that if she could find a way to beat him in the intellectual game, she wouldn't need to fear physical retribution.

For now, the first thing she needed to do was empty the washing machine. She jumped out of bed, checked for a lack of pee on her pyjamas, and then hurried downstairs. She could hear the machine spinning as she came closer; it would give a brief spin every ten minutes until it was emptied, which was supposed to keep clothes from creasing if they were left in once they were washed.

She lifted her clothes from yesterday out, and folded them on the counter. That was no problem, because the dads already knew that she'd been washing them. She had an excuse, even if it was kind of lame. But the reason she'd been in such a hurry down was the towels. She didn't want to explain why so many bath towels had needed washing at the same time, and she couldn't think of any excuse that worked for that one. Her only hope would be returning the towels; the one she'd used to the cupboard, and the one from behind the door to right where it had been before. If she was lucky, nobody might notice that they had been used at all. It relied a lot on luck, but it was the only thing she could think of.

She would need to be more careful next time, to minimise the risk of her dad finding out about this problem. If there even was a next time... She realised that she'd started thinking "when" rather than "if", but in reality she was sure that she would be able to work out what Ness had done. She would find his weakness, and then he would be too scared of her to try something like this again.

Somehow, she managed to get her clothes put away in her own room and the towels back to where they should have been before anyone else was awake. Then she could get some breakfast, and pretend that nothing else had happened.

"Morning, sunshine."

Her free hand turned into a fist reflexively when she heard Ness's voice behind her. She was trying to enjoy her breakfast in peace, but of course he was the first one to show up. She wondered what he would have to say after his prank last night; she didn't think that a guy would ever have the subtlety to remain quiet. He needed to boast, or he wouldn't feel like he had won. She'd been through this so many times with her brothers that it was second nature to predict their thoughts and responses now.

"Come to gloat, have you?"

"I guess that means you still tried to pull some kind of stunt last night?" he asked. "I'm kind of glad that you didn't feel the need to disturb me. But I really hoped, after our conversation yesterday, that we would be capable of leading separate lives. This kind of... I don't even know what this interaction is supposed to be, but I want to make it clear that I don't appreciate it. This would be so much easier for both of us if you would just stop it."