Gap Year - Chapter 14 (Patreon)

"See?" Danielle giggled. "Isn't this fun?"

Vivien blushed, putting the dolls she was holding down quickly, as if they'd suddenly caught on fire "I-I was just playing with you!" she insisted, crossing her arms. "Like I would with anyone I was babysitting!"

But Dani had seen Vivi playing with Tessa, and she'd seen her just now, and they were definitely two very different things. She'd completely lost herself for a moment, giggling as she made up a conversation between the mommy doll and the baby doll. And Danielle had spent enough time here, in the daycare, to know that the way the other girl was playing was more like the way the other kids here did it than what somebody their age would do.

"There's no need to be grumpy," Danielle teased. "It's good to have fun!"

"I don't have fun like this," Vivi huffed. "I'm actually a big girl, unlike you!"

"Vivien!" Dani barely suppressed a smirk, watching her babysitter jump as Miss Katie scolded her. She couldn't blame the girl for not hearing her... It was always noisy in the playroom, and she was sure it had to be extra overwhelming on your first day, when you weren't used to it. She couldn't recall if she'd been the same way or not; she'd been here so long now, it was hard to remember her first day.

Vivi's false bravado was nowhere to be seen as she turned around to face the daycare worker, while she sat there on the floor, in front of a dollhouse, like any other kid here. "Y-Yes, ma'am?" she squeaked.

Miss Katie put her hands on her hips, staring down at her. "I hope I didn't just hear you being mean to your friend," she told Vivien. "Just because she's still in diapers doesn't mean she's any less of a big girl than you. Everyone grows and learns at different paces. I'm sure there are plenty of things she's better at than you."

Vivi couldn't help herself. "Yeah, right," she scoffed. "She's always been a big baby, and she always will be..."

"All right, young lady," Miss Katie snapped, pulling Vivien to her feet, grabbing her by the hand. "I think a little time in the corner will do you some good."

"No!" Vivien stomped her foot, sounding frantic as she tried to pull away from Miss Katie's grip. Danielle knew from experience that, as gentle as it was, it was still very strong, very difficult to get away from if the worker wanted you to go somewhere. "You can't put me in time-out! I'm not a baby!"

Being sentenced with corner time was pretty embarrassing in the best of times... Dani DID remember her first time having that happen here, how she'd spent the whole time thinking about all the times she'd been babysitting and had to do that with one of her charges. It was a little strange her memory of that was so much easier to access than her first day here... But, when she thought about it, she realized why. She hadn't expected her first day to be the start of anything, had thought it was a silly, one-off thing... The first time she'd been sent to the corner, she'd already spent a while here, and been on the verge of deciding to spend another semester here rather than starting college. She'd been put in time-out because she was grumpy, knowing that she wanted to keep coming to daycare, yet feeling like she ought to be a responsible adult again.

In a way, it must be even worse for Vivien; she'd put Danielle in the corner plenty of times, in their short time together, so she had some even more fresh memories of being on the other side of this power dynamic. Dani almost regretted it, almost toddled after Miss Katie to try to get her to go easy on Vivi, wanting her to have a good time so she'd want to come back... The way she'd been playing, however, Dani was pretty certain that had already happened. Whether she recognized it - or allowed herself to recognize it - or not, she'd been having a blast, and Danielle knew how those memories would stick with her...

And a little time in the corner would do her some good. She glanced over at the naughty corner, seeing Vivien stomping her feet some more, pouting, while Miss Katie patiently stood by, letting her throw her little tantrum and tire herself out, her own experience far outweighing Vivi's. When Vivien finally slowed down, Dani couldn't help wondering if it was because she was running out of energy, or if it had dawned on her how childish what she was doing had been.

She grinned, seeing the girl be set down on the naughty stool, nose turned to the corner. She really wished she had her phone with her to take a picture, but she had a feeling she was going to remember this forever anyway. And Vivi likely would, too.

When she saw Miss Katie heading back in her direction, she quickly went back to focusing on the dolls, pretending she hadn't been watching from afar, enjoying Vivien's defeat. "Hey, Dani," she smiled, kneeling down. "Are you okay, sweetie?"

Danielle hesitated, tempted to make something up, to get Vivi in more trouble... If she pushed her too far already, though, she ran the risk of scaring her off, keeping her from wanting to come back. She was confident that a few minutes in time-out wouldn't do it - and she knew that was generally all the longer they lasted here - but going any further than that might make things more difficult.

"Uh-huh," she nodded. "I wasn't that mad, Miss Katie."

"I'm sure," Miss Katie brushed a strand of hair out of Dani's face. "It wasn't very nice of her to make fun of you like that, though, especially since she's your friend. You can still be a big girl, even if you're in diapers."

Dani's cheeks darkened, thinking about how much the other woman's tone would probably change, if she knew how much of a 'big girl' Danielle was really meant to be. "Okay," she mumbled, picking up the pacifier from where it was dangling from the leash attached to her shirt, popping it into her mouth. Miss Katie chuckled, reaching over to give Dani's diaper a check.

"I think you'll be all right for now," she said. "Just remember, you can tell me if she's mean to you any more, and I'll take care of it."

Danielle nodded, watching as Miss Katie made a couple more stops, checking on kids, before returning to free Vivien from her punishment. It took Vivi a couple minutes to make her way back to the dollhouse, wandering around, probably too embarrassed to face Dani again... Only to realize there was nobody else to commiserate with, at least nobody that was anywhere close to her real age.

"Don't you say a word," she glowered, plopping back down on the floor. Dani pointed to the paci in her mouth. "Good... Keep it that way."

She was sulky, more than Dani would was expected. She was definitely glad she hadn't tried anything else, hadn't pushed for more of a punishment... She hadn't thought it would be that bad, but maybe her vision of it was skewed; she'd been here a few months when it happened to her, so she was more used to being treated like a kid. If she'd been sent to the corner her very first day, would she have been this upset by it? Or was it the fact that it had happened because of Dani, because of the person she was supposed to be babysitting, who had convinced her to come here in the first place?

She considered apologizing, however, that would have been talking about it, and Vivien had already made it clear she didn't want to do that. Instead, she held out one of the dolls she was holding, Vivien snatching it out of her hand without a word.

Danielle couldn't tell how it was going after that, but Vivien seemed agitated, and, before long, she got to her feet and declared, "We're going."

"What?" Dani frowned. "B-But it isn't..."

"Well, I'm going!" she huffed. "You can stay here if you want, but I'm not coming back here again today, so you'll just have to stay here all night!"

She was just in a bad mood, and Danielle doubted she'd risk her babysitting position by abandoning her there... She did decide to follow her out anyway, hoping to smooth things over with her. "H-Her Mommy is picking us up," she told the woman at the front desk. 

"I hope you had fun, Vivi," the woman smiled at her.

"No!" Vivien fumed. "They made me sit in the corner!"

"Oh," the worker chuckled, exchanging a knowing look with Danielle. "Well, that's what happens when you act naughty."

"I'm not naughty!" Vivi insisted, grabbing Danielle by the hand and dragging her out to her car, racing back to Dani's home, where, clearly out of revenge, she immediately sent the other girl to time-out.

That was it, Danielle thought as she stood there, listening to Vivien bustling behind her, storming down the hall. Apparently, the reason Vivien was such a brat, and probably such a bully, was that she wasn't used to anybody disciplining her, at all, and even the extremely mild version that had happened at the daycare was too much for her. After all that work, her plan had been undone by Vivi having to spend five minutes in the corner, something Dani had seen plenty of toddlers handle far better than her. There was no way she was going to be able to convince Vivien to come back now... 

The next day, the worker at the front desk asked, "Did your friend like it here? Do you think she's going to start coming with you?"

"I don't think so," Dani told her.

"That's too bad," the woman smiled gently. "You have lots of friends here already, though!"

Danielle nodded, went on her way to the playroom. It had been fun, at first, showing Vivi around, watching her reactions to figure out which of the baby toys she was most interested in playing with, seeing the years almost melt away... She really had been the perfect candidate, if Dani was going to bring one of her peers in here with her.

She spent a while that day trying to think of other old schoolmates she could try to do this with, but they had all gone away to college, or had some nice job already, and she couldn't imagine them giving it up to go to daycare with her. She did like the kids here, but there was something about the idea of having someone else her age that had really appealed to her... And, it didn't look like it was going to happen now.

At least, not until the next day. She'd just gotten her post-nap diaper change, and was settling down to play with the blocks, when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned and saw Vivien standing there, cheeks red. "Vivi!" she gasped, eyes widening before she stopped herself, not wanting to get her hopes up. "I-Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," Vivien nodded, looking a bit uncomfortable. "Y-You know that class I was having trouble with? I decided it wasn't worth the risk of tanking my GPA, so I dropped it, and now... Well, I only had a morning class, so..."

Dani grinned, scooting over so Vivi could sit next to her and still reach all the blocks, the girl hesitating, and then doing exactly that. Maybe this was going to work after all...