The Unknown

KP duty

Julie's pov

"That's it! I officially hate kids," I say, scraping a combination of Fruity Pebbles and mashed potatoes off a plate into the trash. Stacey and I are on our eighth day out of sixteen of kp duty and I'm so over it already.

"Yeah, children are disgusting," my cousin agrees, sweeping up her umpteenth dustpan of food scraps off the floor. "Hey, do you think Mabel would let us skip the dinner clean-up tonight?" she asks.

"Probably, but you know Mike would kill us if he found out," I say, recalling his warning last week when he first doled out this punishment. "Why, is somethin' goin' on tonight?" I'm curious as to what prompted my cousin's suggestion to get out of dinner service.

"I heard Dan and Ray are goin' with some people to see the 7pm showing of Halloween at the Cinemark in the mall." Stacey gives me a sly grin, "And according to Jenny, Dan told her she should tell us to come."

Stacey knows I like Dan. He's the reason the two of us are elbow deep in dirty dishwater right now. We were in Shane's car on our way home from Dan's pool party when we got the red light ticket. I smile thinking back to our make-out session that night.

"Earth to, cuz," Stacey literally snaps me out of my daydream. "So, do you wanna go?"

"Yeah, of course I wanna go but how are we gonna get there? Even if we can get out of kp duty, we don't have a ride and we sure as Hell can't ask Mike or Shane to take us or hitch a ride with Jenny for that matter, if Rick is taking her." Rick is Jenny's, Mindy's, and Cathie's guardian and he and Mike are good friends so if we got a ride with Jenny and Rick, Mike would inevitably find out.

"I don't think Rick is taking Jenny but I'll find out." Stacey's thrilled by the prospect that our night may contain more excitement than cleaning tables and scrubbing floors. "So, if she's gettin' a ride with someone else are you definitely in?"

"Only if it's okay with Mabel. I don't want to screw her over," I say. Mabel's been really sweet to Stacey and I and she works really hard at this shitty job.

"Of course, I don't want to piss Mabel off either." Stacey likes her too.

After texting Jenny and finding out we have a ride to the movie, Stacey and I move on to step two of our plan.

Stacey and I plead our case to Mabel. In actuality, we didn't need to beg. Mabel was more than willing to give us a night off, claiming that out of all the kids she's worked with, Stacey and I are the most helpful. Hearing that made me kind of sad 'cause Stacey and I are pretty useless when it comes to cleaning.

After dinner

Mike's pov

"Hey, Mabel, where are the girls? I want to talk to them." I'm going to surprise the girls with a night out at the movies. Mabel has had nothing but glowing reports on both Stacey's and Julie's work ethic and attitude in the kitchen for the past week. Truth be told, I'm really proud of how the cousins have accepted this punishment and gone the extra mile to do a great job for Mabel.

"Oh, you just missed them, sugar. Jeff took them on a supply run to the warehouse. After loading the truck and making distributions, I'd be surprised if they're back before 10pm." Knowing how strict Mike is, Mabel covers for our absence.

"Oh, that's too bad. I was going to ask you to give them the night off so they could join Lisa, Carrie, Shane and I for ice cream and a movie."

"Sorry, baby," Mabel says, getting back to work wiping the counters clean.

I can't say I'm not disappointed the cousins won't be joining us tonight.

At the movies

Stacey's pov