Story: Daycare Drama

Misc Story.  Camilla is not into this going to daycare thing.  She's definitely too old.  And she's going to make sure that everyone knows how annoyed she is.  That's okay... they know how to handle her... but not before she can create some interesting drama!

Daycare Drama
by Breanna Carter

"This is stupid," I insisted as my mom drove my younger sister and me to the stupid daycare. "I'm twelve years old! You can't make me go to daycare!"

"I can and I am, so you best get over it, young lady," she replied, not taking her eyes off the road.

I folded my arms and pouted. "I hate you," I muttered.

"Well, I'm sorry to hear that, but I told you that you'd be sorry if I caught you doing something you aren't supposed to. And what'd you do? Sneak out of the house to go see that boy... How can I trust you to stay home alone all summer?"

I growled under my breath.

It was the first week of the summer after my sixth grade year and for the next nine weeks, I would be stuck with a bunch of babies getting my every move watched by a few college kids who had nothing better to do with their summer. Believe me, I was livid. And it was all for stupid reason. My mom had left my little sister and I at home alone one night and I left my sister so I could see my boyfriend. What's the big deal? It's not like she stayed home long... But apparently I broke some sort of trust. Whatever.

We pulled into a parking space. I didn't budge, just sat in the backseat, arms folded. My little sister was happy as always, excited to play with her little baby friends, so she was the first out of the car. Then my mother, who opened the backdoor, sighing heavily.

"Camilla, I'm not going to wait all day."

I gave her a look as if saying that I wasn't moving anytime soon.

"If I have to drag you in there kicking and screaming, I will. And if I'm late for work, I will not be happy."

"So? I'm not happy either... guess we'll both have to suffer."

She stared at me for a moment, my eyes filled with rage as I gazed at her. "I'm giving you to the count of three or I'm going to drag you out."

I stayed in my seat.

"One."

No movement.

"Two."

She paused, waiting to see if I was going to get up, but I put forth no effort whatsoever. Can you blame me? I was so mad and embarrassed that she wouldn't let me stay home alone while she was at work.

"Two and a half."

"Oh my god," I shrieked, throwing my hands up in the air and rolling my eyes. "I'm not getting out, so say three already."

Right as I said that, someone came out of the door.

"Hi," he said, extending his hand to my mom. "I'm Brandon."

My mom smiled as she saw him, introducing herself as well as my younger sister, Cindi, and myself.

He greeted my sister then looked towards me, noting that my arms were folded and I was wearing an aggravated expression. "Hey, Camilla... why don't you come on in. There's some other kids your age here."

"Great for them, but I'm not coming in."

"Camilla!" my mom scolded. "Don't talk like that."

I didn't bother answering.

"Come on, Camilla," Brandon coaxed. "Let your mom go to work. You have to come in anyway, so make it easier on yourself."

"I'd rather not, but thanks."

"Why not?"

"Because if Mom's going to be hard on me, I'm going to be hard on her."

By this time, my mom was exasperated and glancing at her watch every two seconds. "Camilla! Will you get out already! I'm going to be late for work."

"I don't care."

"Okay," Brandon said, sick of being nice. "You're getting out of this car right now, either by yourself or with my help. Your choice."

I leaned back against the seat.

"Have it your way," he muttered, then reached inside the car, grabbing my waist.

"Let me GO!" I yelled, holding onto the front seat.

He was a little stronger than I, though, and within seconds, had me pried away from my car. I was throwing a fit, kicking and screaming and trying to free myself from him. He just held me close against him, trying to restrain my hands and feet. He was talking to me, too, but I couldn't understand what he was saying because I was screaming too loudly.

"She's a little upset," my mom was saying after apologizing for my behavior. "She really doesn't want to go here."

As if he didn't notice already.

"A lot of kids don't... I'm sure she'll adjust."

My mom kissed my sister on the forehead and ruffled her hair. "Bye girls... be good."

Brandon still had a good hold on me but I'd stopped fighting by this time. She went back inside the car and sped off, leaving me there to rot in this hell.

I was carried inside and planted firmly on the bench in the office. Cindi was dismissed to find her friends, but Brandon wouldn't allow me to go anywhere. He stooped down to my level, down on one knee, as if proposing.

"I want you to listen to me, Camilla," he began. I turned my head to show him that I didn't care about what he had to say. He took my chin into his hands and moved my face so I was looking at him. "Listen to me good... I know you don't want to be here, and frankly, neither do I. But we have to, so I suggest you suck it up and learn to deal with it because I'm not going to put up with this attitude that you showed your mom, understand?"

I didn't answer.

"I said, do you understand?"

"Yeah, whatever."

He let go of my chin and stood up. This was the first time I took a good look at him and realized that he was kinda cute. He couldn't have been older than twenty. He was tall with blonde hair and blue eyes, a white T-shirt and khaki shorts.

After being dismissed, I decided to roam the place. It seemed to be big enough to have it's own zipcode. There had to have been about ninety kids, aging from five to twelve. From the office, I walked into a big room with shelves along the walls that held different kids toys, and legos and stuff, and then along the other wall were computers. There was another room next to it with a tv, and then next to it was the lunch room. And of course, outside there was a big field and a playground. My mom spent good money to send me there, I can tell you that much. Kinda sucks that she spent so much money for some place that I didn't want to go.

I was doing okay for a while. I just played on the computers for about an hour, which was against the rules, but I didn't care much. Nobody said much to me about it, so I just stayed on until this little kid came up and tapped me on the shoulder.

"I'm signed up to play for right now," she said in a bratty tone.

I turned to face an eight year old with her hands on her hips, cocking this attitude. "And?"

"That means you have to get off."

I shrugged and turned back around. "Too bad, cause I'm not getting off."

"You have to," she demanded.

"Oh? Do I?"

"Yes, you do."

"What are you going to do? Taddle on me?"

Instead of taddling, though, she turned the computer screen off right in the middle of my game.

"HEY!" I shrieked, standing up and letting my chair fall over. "What'd you do that for?"

"I told you, it's my time on the computer, not yours." From there, she proceeded to shove me away and try to sit in the chair. I'd be damned if I was going to let that little kid have my spot! Using all of my twelve year old strength, I pushed her HARD, right into the table. She slid to the ground, bawling.

"What is going on!?" I heard a voice ask only to see one of the teachers storming over to us. No, it wasn't Brandon, it was one of the lady teachers (unfortuantely).

"S-she p-pushed-d meee!!" the girl wailed.

"Did you push her?"

I rolled my eyes. "No, she fell," I answered sarcastically.

"Do you need ice, honey?" the lady asked, helping the bratty little eight year old off of the floor.

The girl nodded.

"Go sit on the wall," she told me.

I folded my arms. "No."

She stopped dead in her tracks. "I said, go sit on the wall."

I just stood there, arms still folded.

"I don't have time to deal with this, Young Lady."

"Nor do I."

With that statement she grabbed me by the upper arm and attempted to haul me away from the computers to the wall. I kicked and screamed and shifted my weight towards the floor so she couldn't drag me away. "LET GO OF ME!!"

From causing such a commotion, the entire room was staring in my direction, but it didn't phase me any. I was screaming so loudly, I barely heard the teacher when she asked someone to "go get Mr. Brandon." The only way I noticed that he was there was feeling his strong hands grabbing me under my arms and lifting my kicking body up.

"CAMILLA!" he yelled, so loudly that it startled me and I became motionless. "What's going on?"

"Nothing!" I spat, and began kicking again. He grabbed my ankles and restrained my legs against his body, carrying me to the office. He sat down on the bench with me on his lap telling me that he wasn't going to let go until I calmed down and talked to him rationally.

After about five minutes of sitting there, I was exhausted from the fight, and decided to go ahead and let him lecture me for hours about how what I'd done was bad.

"Are you ready to sit here and talk to me?" he asked.

"I guess," I muttered.

He sat me down on the bench next to him and looked me in the eyes. "Now tell me what a twelve year old girl like you is doing throwing a tantrum like a two year old?"

I shrugged.

"Not a good enough answer."

I turned away.

"Answer me, Camilla. What was going on in there?"

"That stupid little kid pushed me off of the computer, so I pushed her back and she cried like a little baby so she got her way."

"So why didn't you try explaining that to Miss Allison instead of acting like a two year old?"

"Because apparently you can't get anyone's attention unless you're crying. I've seen it happen all morning."

"Trust me, Cam.. you can get our attention without doing what you just did. Now, we have two options. We can either discuss this with Megan and you can apologize to Miss Allison, or I can skip that and go ahead and call your mother right now and tell her what you've been up to."

I shrugged.

He didn't give me much of a choice, though, because he practically dragged me out to where Megan, the bratty eight year old, was and had us both apologize to each other, and then shoved me towards Allison and made me apologize to her. THEN, as if that wasn't enough, he told me to sit on the wall like I'd been told to, and he'd let me know when I could get up. I didn't put up a fight this time, not because I was scared, but because I was just sick of fighting. I'd get him back soon enough. I was the most sneaky person at the daycare, and not even Brandon's looks couldn't get him out of being pranked.

*****

As the morning progressed, I didn't do much of anything. Actually, sitting on the wall wasn't so bad, because I got to watch everyone play their computer games and laugh at them when they died. I must've only been there about ten minutes, because Brandon finally let me up with a muttered promise that I would do better next time. I managed to stay out of trouble for about thirty minutes before I got bored with being a good kid and decided to stir up some drama.

"Hey AnneMarie," I said to a friend of Megan.

She looked at me, cocking this little attitude that kinda pissed me off.

"Megan called you fat."

She dropped her mouth as if she were the thinnest person on eart. "I don't believe you!" she whined.

I shrugged. "Suit yourself, but I know if someone called me fat, I sure as hell wouldn't be hanging around them."

She shivered a little hearing me say a "bad word."

"Well, she's just stupid!" AnneMarie said, like that was a bad insult.

I pretended to be engrossed in the house I was building with my Legos so she'd leave me alone. Finally, after about ten minutes of pestering me, she disappeared and I approached Megan. Actually, I sat close to a girl next to Megan that I was sort of friends with and said, "Man, you wouldn't believe what these girls are saying about each other."

"Who?"

"AnneMarie... she said..." I glanced at Megan and then whispered to my friend, "that Megan kissed another girl!"

The girl gasped, then looked at Megan, wide-eyed, then back at me. "Did she really?!?"

I shrugged.

"Did I what?" Megan butted in, that same bitchy attitude.

"Who said we were talking about you?"

Megan rolled her eyes. "I'm not stupid."

"Not according to your so-called friend," I replied.

"Whatever."

"Okay, but if someone told me that they'd heard from my best friend that I liked kissing girls, I'd approach them about it.." then I covered my mouth as if I didn't mean to say that.

"She said WHAT?!?" Megan shouted, standing up and banging her fist against the table. "Oooh! I'll show her!"

Yay! Drama!

Megan went up to AnneMarie and started yelling, snapping her fingers in different directions. She was talking so fast I couldn't understand what she was saying. AnneMarie just shot right back at her, yelling other things. It sort of reminded me of a time I was watching Fairly Oddparents where the girls were talking to each other saying "blah blah blah... blah... blah blah!" and it was supposed to be a language or something. This is what it seemed like to me.

In fact, they were so engrossed in fighting with each other, neither of them even thought to bring me into the picture! That is, until the stupid teacher broke up their argument and demanded an explanation. That was when I decided it was time to go watch tv and slipped out unnoticed.

Brandon just happened to be in the tv room when I got in there.

"Great," I muttered to myself, sitting down to watch the Spongebob movie as if I hadn't seen it 5000 times already.

I hadn't been in there five minutes before AnneMarie busted in bawling her eyes out. Then Megan came in and the argument arose before my very eyes... in the room that was supposed to be quiet. Oh, such amusement.

"Girls... carry the argument outside," Brandon ordered.

"She called me fat!"

"She called me a girl-kisser!"

"No I did not!"

"Yes you did!"

"No I didn't!"

"Yes you DID! Camilla told me! She heard you!"

Brandon looked at me and my smirk faded. "GIRLS!" he shouted, causing everyone in the room to jump. "Enough. Camilla, come here. I better have a good explaination for this."

"I'm not in this."

"Your name was brought up, so you're in it. Over here." When I didn't move, he added, "NOW!"

I crawled over to where he was. "Now, what did you tell these girls?"

"Nothing."

"Uh huh! You told me that Megan called me fat!"

"Nu huh! She told ME that you called me stupid and a girl-kisser!"

"I did not! I only said you were stupid because you called me fat!"

"I didn't call you fat!"

All three pairs of eyes were adverted towards me. "Erm... I just remembered that I forgot something in the lost in found!" I shrieked and attempted to leave.

Brandon caught me by the arm. "Sort this out, Young Lady."

"Why?"

He glared at me. "Okay, fine, have it your way. Girls, it's obvious that someone was just trying to get you girls to fight. Megan, she didn't call you stupid, and AnneMarie, she didn't call you fat. Now, if you two can't get along, then separate. Otherwise, I don't want to hear anymore fights, do you understand?"

"Yes," the both answered politely and dismissed themselves from the room.

By this time everyone was watching me instead of Spongebob.

"You are coming with me."

I kept my fingers crossed that he'd call my mom and have me kicked out of the daycare. Pleaseee let me be kicked out! I begged.

After finding someone to watch over the room, he took me to the office. "Why do you take it upon yourself to get into other people's business?" he asked when we arrived.

"The same reason you're taking it upon yourself to get into my business."

"I wouldn't call this 'getting into your business.' I'd call this trying to keep two friends from fighting with each other over something as trivial as you spreading rumors about them. But, I know a quick remedy to spreading rumors," he said, grabbing three sheets of paper and stapling them together. I watched as he wrote my name at the top and then the sentence "I will not spread rumors about anyone at anytime while I'm at daycare."

"I expect three pages full of lines... front and back. You can sit right there at that desk and do them."

I scowled and plopped down, snatching the papers from him. "This is stupid," I muttered to myself.

"Yeah, well, it's stupid that you'd cause such a scene, too."

"Two stupids don't make a smart," I popped off, almost causing myself to laugh.

He shook his head and sat behind the teachers desk, clicking away on the computer. I just sat there.

"The longer you take, the more sheets of paper I'm going to add."

"I don't care. It's not like I want to be at this damn daycare anyway."

He peered over the top of the computer. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

"You know, Camilla, you're really pushing my buttons."

"And I'll keep doing it."

"Oh, keep on and you'll regret it."

I raised my eyebrows as if taking him up on this challenge.

I must have sat there staring at the floor for about ten minutes before I got so bored I could hardly stand it. I mean, I'd thought it was boring watching Spongebob... but man! This was terrible.

"Ugh, spare me," I said.

He just handed me another sheet of paper and stapled it. "You now have four sheets. I suggest you begin writing."

I racked my mind for what would piss him off the most... enough for him to call my mom. "If I were dying of thirst and the only way to get water would be to write these stupid lines, I'd just die," I said, and not sure if that'd be enough, I shoved the paper and pencil off the desk and folded my arms.

"Fine, suit yourself," he said, grabbing my upper arm and hauling me out of the office, through the room with the computers, and back to the kitchen/office area that I hadn't even known existed. Wow! What kind of stuff I could have done if only I'd known!

He closed the door and locked it, taking me to the office room thingy. There was a desk against the wall, an armless chair behind it.

"Usually, I warn the kids by showing them this before I use it," he said, opening the desk drawer. "But since you seem to be a know-it-all..." he said, then broke off, revealing a paddle.

WHOA!! I hadn't been expecting that!

"Wait... isn't this illegal?"

"Nope... your mom knows that we use paddles here, and she even signed a form agreeing that I could use it on you."

"Well, I say no."

"Too bad," he answered, taking the paddle out and holding it in his right hand, tapping his left with it.

I winced and jumped each time it made a noise.

"Yeah, I think this should do the job."

I shook my head.

"Oh? Not so big and bad now, are we?"

I didn't reply.

"Okay, Camilla... bend over the desk."

I gulped, not moving an inch.

"Okay then... I'm going to give you ten swats as of right now... if I have to count to three, I will add ten more... and I will keep adding ten more until you get over the desk. If I get up to fifty, I'm going to put you over the desk myself and give you another dose after lunch."

I shivered and decided to do as told. Shaking, I walked towards the desk, heart pounding wildly. "Please don't do this," I whispered, deciding my only way out of this was to plea.

"I've given you plenty of chances, Camilla. You've left me with no choice. Bend over, please."

Reluctantly, I placed my palms on the desk, then plopped my head down on it. Maybe it wouldn't hurt, I tried to reassure myself. It was worthless, though. I'd checked him out enough to know that he had muscles. I mean, come on, any guy who could carry around a kicking, screaming, twelve year old HAD to have muscles.

He didn't give me much of a warning or anything, just swung as hard as he could (or at least that's what it felt like!). I yelped to no end and began crying instantly.

"Ahhh, I've found the punishment that'll break you," he said, swinging again and landing with a loud SWAT!!! on my burning backside.

"Oooowwwwww.... I'mmm sorrry!!"

"Of course you are," he replied delivering another stinging smack to my poor backside. "And you'll be even more sorry when I'm finished, right?" he asked, not intending for me to answer as he twacked my bottom again.

By this time, my pride was lost and I was bawling like a baby, pleading to no end but for some reason keeping my palms flat on the desk for fear of more swats. This hurt soooo badly! Nothing like I'd imagined... nothing like I'd wanted! The only reason I'd caused all that drama was so I wouldn't be bored and maybe I'd get kicked out of daycare... but seemed like Brandon was determined to teach me a lesson instead.

He gave me a few more swats, then landed the last one harder than the rest put together and there I was... a broken, sobbing mass. The tears were falling so quickly that I was afraid I'd make a puddle on the desk. I don't think I've ever cried so much. My bottom was throbbing like crazy. I couldn't even move.

He let me stay like that for a few minutes before finally picking me up and giving me a hug. "I don't like having to do this, Camilla, but believe me, I won't hesitate to do it again, do you understand?"

"Yes," I blubbered through muffled sobs.

"Good." He put the paddle back in the desk and helped me back through the computer room where everyone stared at me bawling like a baby, then brought me to the other office. "Now, pick up that pencil and paper and begin writing lines. I don't think your poor bottom would like two trips to the office in one day."

I sniffled and picked the paper up off the floor, along with the pencil, rubbing my backside in the process. I winced as I sat down, then began writing, stopping every so often to sniffle. By the time I finished with the first page, I was already plotting a prank to pull against Brandon...