Rub-Awoo-Dub
"Skylar only gets three more cookies today, and that's not til after dinner. And you'll be sure to put her to bed by eight," Rita rattled off. Sammy could smell the anxiety oozing from her pores. Rita was the spitting image of her twin sister Ruth, also known as Night Sky, Alpha Female of Argo--but she lacked her sister's self-assured, commanding aura.Sammy glanced back over his shoulder, at the four-year old singing along with Elmo on TV. Skylar was the cutest little werewolf Sammy had ever seen. Her big hazel eyes sucked in his attention. Her cornrow hair was bunched in a poofball on each side of her head. She ran around in pink tutus, which her mother kept several on hand and switched them out wherever Skylar got them too dirty. And her petite white fangs glistened as she sang, impressively on-key for someone her age. She probably had her keen werewolf ears to thank for that.Of course, Rita was challenged enough as a single mother, let alone a single mother to a werewolf child. The Rougaroo of New Orleans were spread out farther and were far less formal in their pack structure than Argo, a pack headquartered just outside of Cedar City, Montana and with most of its members living in that town. Argo was one big extended family of fourteen werewolves and assorted human family members, all of whom made regular appearances at Ruth and her husband Nicholas's House. Sammy had been living with them in the House as their foster child for almost two years. Rita, on the other hand, had only her parents to count on, and a brother with a family of his own. Thus Ruth had insisted that she and Skylar come up to Montana for a couple of weeks to visit.Coming out into Argo's ranch had done the little girl a world of wonders. Rita had to be very careful with her, since by lycanthropic standards she was a very early bloomer. Most born werewolf children started showing the first signs of transformation around 6 or 7. They'd get hairier, their noses would blur into their lips in a rudimentary muzzle, their claws would emerge... little traits which would become fully pronounced by the time puberty enabled them to produce the hormone that triggered the change in larger amounts. Skylar had first accessed her wolfside at the age of 4. She looked more like one of those old movie werewolves than a real one, flat-faced and flat-footed, but she was unmistakably a werewolf. And since she couldn't control when she changed or even will herself back to humanside when it happened, it meant--sadly--she couldn't get out much. Sammy turned his gaze back to Rita and opened his mouth to agree to Rita's to-do list, but Ruth already had a hand on her sister's shoulder. "He'll be fine," she said in a tone of voice that suggested it was more of an order for him than a reassurance for her. "This isn't his first time babysitting, he's watched Jenny a few times now.""Not for a whole six hours though," Sammy blurted out. He then winced at his own honesty even before Ruth shot him a wide-eyed "shut up" look over Rita's shoulder.Rita stared at him, and then turned around to her sister. "Are you sure I can trust my baby with a couple teenagers? I know Elizabeth couldn't help being called in to work, but I'd rather wait til she can do it. She's a nurse, after all.""I'll be turnin' eighteen in four months," Sammy volunteered, then winced again. Lately it seemed like his mouth was taking on a life of its own.Ruth locked eyes with her sister. "Sammy is a very responsible young man. And so is Liam when the situation calls for it. Now come on, Sister. You deserve a night out. Don't make me pull rank on you."Rita scoffed. "You're not my alpha."Ruth smirked. "Yeah, but you've never been able to stop me from getting my way, have you?"Sammy watched the door closed, and listened to the sound of their diminishing footsteps. The car doors opened. The car doors shut. The car hummed to life. The tires crunched over gravel. And when the sounds died down and it was absolutely certain Rita wasn't going to turn the car around and come back, Sammy finally locked the door, ran into the kitchen to prepare a couple cups of chocolate almond milk. Born werewolves could handle chocolate just fine, but lactose intolerance was a common issue, and not a welcome one in a group with enhanced senses of smell.Sammy returned to the living room with a glass in each hand, but there was no Skylar. He felt a chill run down his spine, but then noticed the curtains over the back window wafting with a draft. The breeze carried the sounds of little-girl giggling."Oh no."He set down the glasses and rushed outside, but it was too late. His feet only carried him as far as the back porch before he froze in terror. Last night had brought ample rain. Rain which they had needed, to be sure. Needed for the grasslands that the pack's cattle grazed upon. Not so necessary for a four-year-old who liked to play in the mud. It was in her fur. In her hair. Her tutu flopped around her waist, sagged down by the weight of its filth. Skylar giggled innocently as she launched herself into yet another wallow of mud, sending thick, goopy splashes right up to the edge of the porch."Oh, he- heck no," Sammy groaned. He took off his hoodie and T-shirt and threw them onto a table inside. He knew he was in for a battle."Skylar? You had your fun now, let's go inside and get you a clea-" And she was gone, leaving a trail of muddy foot- and handprints around the corner."Liam!" he called inside. "Can you get a bath going?""You know I prefer showers, man," came a voice from the second floor window."Yes, you're very funny, haha."He didn't need superior werewolf senses of smell or hearing to track her. The sound of her laughter was enough. He didn't find anything laughable about the situation, really. Sammy had barely been watching the kid for five minutes and already she was filthy.Skylar was on her knees, flinging mud into the air like confetti when she saw him. She froze. He tensed. Both knew what was coming. The question was who would make the first move. A chill breeze whistled around them. Skylar's hackles were too weighted down to rise. Sammy, though humanside, felt his arm- and chest- hairs stand to attention.Skylar flinched. Sammy pounced. She tried to get away, but slipped in the mud. He lauded over her and scooped her up--or tried too. A squirming child was one thing, but a slippery, muddy child went flying out of his arms, leaving him with a cold brown streak across his chest. Skylar screamed, not in terror, but in gleeful defiance. Sammy had no choice but to launch himself after her. Thankfully, his legs were longer than her entire body, so he caught up with her in seconds, scooped her up, and turned to run back for the house."Noooo!" she squealed. Sammy burst through the back door and ran up the stairs as fast as he could, grappling with the squirrely pup. It seemed to take forever to make it to the master bathroom, where Liam had indeed filled the tub with hot water and had mixed in some bubble bath for his cousin. He even had, in keeping with his perverse sense of humor, lit a couple of Ruth's scented candles by the sink.Not that it would make much difference. Sammy used Skylar's squirming to his advantage to unpeel the clothing from her struggling form and then all but dropped her into the water, which splashed mud and suds all over the walls and onto the floor.She instantly started splashing, flinging more water and earth everywhere. Sammy glanced back and winced at the brown splotches on the towels. Drying her off was gonna be tricky. The candles had been snuffed out in the deluge, too."Oh man, oh shit," Liam's voice rounded the corner. "Dude, you got muddy tracks all over the floor! My mom's gonna kill us!"Liam's panic was justified. Just because the House was home and headquarters to a large werewolf pack, Ruth often said, was no excuse for slovenliness. Or perhaps her dedication to cleanliness was in spite of the fact that they were werewolves. No one was allowed to be wolfside in the common areas except for special occasions, and even in those rare cases no one was allowed to sit on the furniture. You couldn't blame fur on the couch on the cat if your coat wasn't even the same color."Then clean them up!" Leo snapped back over his shoulder, as he kept Skylar in the tub with one hand and tried to get a washcloth sudsed up with a bar of soap with the other hand. "She's your cousin!""Okay, okay!" Liam shouted from the first floor, clearly already on his way to the cleaning supplies in the kitchen. "But only because you got the harder job!"Sammy couldn't come up with a good comeback with Skylar still trying to break free. She nearly slipped past him and he had to place his hands on her shoulders and push her back down into the tub. "Geez, kid, even real dogs don't put up this much fight," he lamented."I wasn't done!" she shouted. "Why couldn't I have played in the mud longer?""Because-" Sammy started, but he didn't really have an answer. The damage had been done. He could have bathed her later, and Rita would have been none the wiser. He had just panicked. But, well... they were past the point of no return now."Well?" she demanded, refusing to let it go with a bulldog's tenacity."Look, Skylar, why can't we just have an evening of nice indoor fun?" he pleaded. Maybe bargaining would work. "We could have a tea party." "Werewolves don't have tea parties!" Skylar exclaimed."That's not true. Liam's other cousin Madison loves tea parties.""Then Madison is lame!"Sammy rolled his eyes. "Okay, well, how about we get you nice and clean, put on a fresh tutu, have a nice hot dinner, and then whatcha wanna do?""I wanna play in the mud!" she screamed.So if bargaining didn't work, then maybe Sammy needed to try brute force authority. He grabbed the washcloth again and reached for her arm. "Look, kid. I'm in charge tonight, and I say-"Skylar bit his hand. She actually bit him. She leaned over and sank her teeth into his flesh. Sammy yelped, and jerked his hand back, but her jaws had a firm grip."LIAM!" Sammy screamed at the top of his lungs, but the noise was enough to startle her and let him go. His blood had dripped down the little girl's chin, and some of it had made it into the bathwater. He reeled himself back and gripped his hand.And Sammy had a bright idea. An awful, bright idea. He dug his other hand's fingers into the wound, slowing down the healing and also increasing the pain. Blood dripped, making his fingers sticky. The pain made it easy to summon tears.He was sobbing by the time Liam's sock-padded footsteps rounded the corner to the bathroom door. And Skylar was bawling loudly, perhaps in shame from what she had just done."What happened?" Liam demanded."Skylar bit me!" Sammy wailed even louder, holding up his hand for Liam to "see." "It hurts so bad, Liam. I'm gonna have to tell her mom about this!"Skylar's crying stopped mid-wail. She stared at him, her brown eyes bugging out like a chihuahua's. "No, no please don't tell Mommy!" she begged. She sank lower into the dirty water. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it was an accident!"Sammy sucked in a shaking breath and wiped his tears on an unmuddied patch of his forearm. He could feel Liam's smirk behind him but pointedly ignored it. "Well... I'll make a deal with you," he said. "You let me finish this bath, you stay inside the rest of the night, and I won't tell."She nodded her head all too keenly. If bargaining didn't work, and browbeating didn't work, then maybe blackmail would. Skylar might come out of this with a traumatic memory, but at least she'd be clean.Liam clapped his hands. "I'll just go get those pizzas my mom prepped in the oven, then."Sammy stood up, washed his hands, and drained the bathwater out of the tub. Skylar stayed perfectly still within. By the time he had refilled the tub with fresh, clean bathwater, his hand had healed without so much as a scar. It took less than fifteen minutes to get Skylar properly bathed, dried, and dressed in her pajamas and of course, a fresh tutu.He took her by the hand and walked with her down to the kitchen, stopping along the way to grab a coloring book and crayons. "Thank you, Skylar," he said. "Now, Liam's gonna watch you while I go get myself cleaned up real quick, okay?""Okay!" she said, climbing onto one of the stools. She flashed him a toothy smile as if the bite had never occurred."Heh." Liam piped up. "Get bit, talk shi-" "Shhh!" Sammy leapt forward and placed his hand over Liam's mouth."I know the word shit." Skylar said, not looking up from her coloring book.Sammy just slumped and retreated upstairs for his own shower. The timer on the oven beeped just as he finished putting on clean sweats, so he dashed back downstairs. Two pizzas didn't last very long between three juvenile werewolves. Sammy and Liam tag-teamed entertainment duties for the next few hours, until it was Skylar's bed time. They got her in bed promptly at eight and actually asleep by nine. Sammy collapsed onto the couch, completely spent. No late-night forest run for him tonight, that was for sure.It was just past ten when the familiar hum of Ruth's Prius returned. Sammy snorted and wiped some drool off his cheek. Had he fallen asleep? Gravel crunched, brakes engaged, doors opened and shut. Ruth and Rita strolled in, laughing at some private twin-sister joke. Ruth carried herself as impeccably as ever, but Rita looked actually relaxed for the first time that Sammy had ever seen."Everything go all right, boys?" Ruth asked."Oh yeah!" Liam answered, flashing a thumbs up. "Great night."Sammy just nodded in affirmation."Well, I thank you both so much," Rita said, coming over to hug Sammy and then give her nephew a kiss on the forehead. "I'm gonna go check on my baby and then go to bed myself. Goodnight, everyone!""Night, Sis," Ruth said, though she followed her up the stairs.Sammy eased back into the couch and heaved a sigh of relief. It was finally over. Mission accomplished."SAMSON PHOENIX WHAT IN GOD'S NAME DID YOU DO TO MY BATHROOM?"
JZLobo