✅2️⃣ Testing the Babysitter

First: Taste Test

This is the first chapter of my Camp NaNoWriMo story for July. This month, I will be posting a chapter every day as long as I have one written (which I hope will be every day). If you'd like to see the story even faster (like watching me writing live), please consider supporting me ('kittyangel') on Patreon. Your donations make it possible for me to keep working on these kinds of stories.

Thank you.

Claudia's room looked almost the same as the last time Adam had been here, although he would be the first to admit he'd been too preoccupied to take in the details back then. There was a desk in the corner partly filled with school books, some of the piles now starting to gather dust, but mostly taken up by her computer. There was a large television, with an almost complete selection of the current generation of game consoles, as well as a few older systems that brought back nostalgic memories.

The biggest change was in the centre of the desk, right in front of a mesh-back chair that seemed to be waiting for him. Claudia sat on the bed, legs stretched out in front of her, and the smile as she waited to see his response would have charmed any guy. She was wearing a shapeless black T-shirt with 'ИIN' emblazoned across the front in silver; it was hard to tell whether her fashion choices today were intentionally ironic or not. Her hair and makeup was perfect, but he couldn't use that to judge whether tody was important to her. In their high school days – so many weeks ago that it seemed like a different life – he'd never seen her look anything but immaculate. It was probably one of the reasons she'd managed to build a reputation as the rebel princess, the untouchable girl who was too cool to be interested in anyone you knew. Adam looked at her eyes, and his train of thought quickly derailed. He could so easily get lost there, wondering what she might be thinking. But instead he followed her gaze back to the centre of the desk.

The object of her attention sat on a metal tray with wooden handles. It looked like something his Aunt Alma might have used to serve tea, but built to a smaller scale. On the tray was a small pot that might also have been part of an antiquated tea service, but it was resting on top of a contrivance somewhere between a tripod and a trivet, with three candles of varying sizes set beneath it. At least one of them was scented, as a faint scent of lavender filled the room, but Adam was sure he could still identify the distinctive scent coming from the contents of the pot.

"Is that..." he asked, pointing at it as if his meaning could be unclear. The last time he'd been in this house for any length of time had been an unforgettable experience, and that was significantly due to not knowing about the secret ingredients that Mrs Cartwright had added to her baking.

"St. Jeremy's Root," Claudia nodded with a wicked grin. "I told mum about what had been going on, showed her some of the pictures. None of you, of course. Lori got a very stern lecture, and then Mum was straight off to see this old lady, Miss Leavens. Complaining that she didn't warn her about the side effects, asking for her money back."

"I don't think that's a side effect," Adam mused. "I mean, it did exactly what she said it was going to do, when you think about it. The explanation your mum gave me was entirely accurate, it just clearly wasn't what she expected."

"Yeah, that's what I thought too, and Miss Leavens agrees. Mum couldn't really do anything, of course, just stormed off home to destroy the stuff. At least... I hope she hasn't kept any after that."

"Yeah. Using that on your kids when you know the problems it can cause..."

"But I followed her. Maybe I shouldn't, but you have to admit..."

"Yeah," Adam nodded, and thought back to a babysitting job that had quickly turned into a nightmare. It wasn't that Claudia's little sister was some kind of demon, and it hadn't entirely been a problem with Mrs Cartwright's unorthodox methods of keeping her offspring under control. Between the two, there had been some terrible possibilities. But even then, he couldn't deny that there had been good moments as well. Quite apart from the stressful situation where he and Claudia had got to know each other, getting closer than they could ever have done if things had gone smoothly. "So, you want to give it a try?"

"I can, if you really want. But I was thinking you might be the first to taste my brew."

"I'm your lab rat?"

"Something like that. I'm sure I can make it worth your while. But it's still your choice. I've thought of a few plans, and I'm happy to tell you what I've got in mind before we–"

"You don't need to tell me. If you say what you want, I might gets scared. I couldn't go through with it, maybe. I don't have your nerves of steel. But I know I can trust you, I know you wouldn't hurt me. So you don't need to tell me, and then my nerves won't stop me."

"Is it okay if I–" she tried again, but Adam didn't want his uncertainty to throw away this wonderful possibility.

"Look, if you want to do it, then do it. I've been thinking about this for weeks. All the things you could have done to me, and all the things I could have done. If you're okay with it, you can make all the decisions. I'm sure I'll enjoy whatever you have in mind. Just don't give me the chance to have second thoughts, okay? Don't let me back out because I'm scared of what might happen. This is all new for me, right? I won't know if I like it until I try it. So let's try it, and afterwards I'll say if there's anything I don't want to try again. If I could give you one command, it would be to do whatever you think you'll enjoy. And we'll find out together if that works for me as well. Okay?"

"Thanks, slave," she chuckled, and hopped to her feet. A moment later, her lips met Adam's cheekbone, and her hand was in the small of his back. His heart almost stopped, and any doubts he might have had disintegrated right away. "Now, the tea should be ready. You need some time to think about this? I know it's a big thing to ask. And I've had the time to think about it before I invited you over. I'm happy to have some myself, either as an insurance policy or if there's things you want to... I wouldn't push you unless I was willing to offer the same. So I'm happy to take–"

There was nothing else to say now, because Adam had pisces up the little pot, using the end of his sleeve to hold the handle in case it was hot, and poured out a cup of the mixture inside. It looked something like green tea, if a little more yellow, and there was a fine red-brown powder floating in the cup. He hesitated then, cup in hand, and thought about all the things that could go wrong.

But when Claudia started to sound uncertain, Adam knew that he could easily have stepped back, and she wouldn't have pushed him again. He didn't want that to happen, because missing an opportunity to try something new with Claudia would have been worse than any of the other images in his mind. He swallowed the drink in one, and smiled when she stopped asking if he was sure.