Fire Girl [COMPLETED]

Part 4

 Part 4

I reached home from school tired as usual. My parents were busy in the living room talking with my uncle and aunt.

"Hey uncle Brad, Hey aunt May" I said.

They both smiled and said 'hi' to me. I noticed that they had brought their two year old daughter Tina along. She sat at a corner of the rug playing with some Lego toys.

"Tina, say 'hi' to Stacey, baby" her mother instructed.

Tina looked at me and waved. "Hi, Stacey" she said obediently in her babyish voice.

"Hi, Tina" I waved back smiling thinking what a darling little angel she is.

"Stacey, by the way, do you mind looking after Tina for a while?" asked my dad.

"Sure dad, why not" I replied.

Like what could absolutely go wrong in babysitting a little angel like Tina, right?

"Thank goodness." He let out a sigh of relief. "We have got a little appointment with some friends tonight and we need someone to look after her while we are gone."

"Her baby food, milk and pacifier are all in this little pouch honey" added my aunt handing me a pink baby pouch.

"Okay, I could certainly babysit her. I am free this eve" I shrugged. Something at the back of my mind asked me if this was a good decision I was making.

"Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's go" said my jolly-go uncle getting up.

The others followed suit.

"Here you go dear, order some pizza for yourself", said my mother stuffing some change into my hands.

She put on her coat and left through the door followed by my dad and uncle.

My aunt cuddled little Tina and said something to her probably something like,

'Please don't make Stacey become crazy while we are away dear.'

She then came to the door.

"Thank you so much, Stacey." She said. "We wouldn't have bothered you, but our last baby sitter simply refused to babysit Tina again. She stated Tina to be too notorious" she shrugged and left through the door.

Notorious? Tina? No way, she's an angel.

I closed the door and headed back to our living room. Tina was still playing with her Lego set. After making a quick call for pizza, I turned to Tina.

"Be a good girl, Tina. I'll be back after a quick shower okay?" I asked her.

"Okay" she smiled nodding her head which was adorned with pretty pink ribbons.

Aww!... such a cute child. Who the heck called you notorious?

I went upstairs to my room. After a quick shower, I changed into track pants and a baggy t shirt.

'It seems too quiet downstairs' I said to myself as I towel dried my wet hair. 'Maybe little Tina fell asleep.'

I got out of my room. As I went down the stair case, I almost fainted. The whole house was upside down.

"Tina!" I called. The little girl was nowhere to be seen. I carefully stepped over my mother's vase collection which now lay in a million pieces on the floor. There were little Lego blocks scattered everywhere. The glass of the showcase that contained my dad's trophy collection was cracked. Books from the wooden book shelf were drawn and thrown here and there.

Was there a hooligan attack in my house? Or did little Tina really cause this entire ruckus while I was in the shower?

I went into the kitchen adjoining our living room. The drawers were all drawn. There were few spoons lying on the floor. An empty microwave was on and running.

Omg!

My head started spinning at all this chaos. Then, I spotted her.

Tina, you little brat!

She stood on her little toes on the kitchen table trying to pull out a cookie jar from the cupboard.

"Tina!" I screamed making sure I jumped to the kitchen table to catch her lest she falls.

I grabbed her, made her sit on the table and took the cookie jar away from her.

"Bad girl" I said frowning at her.

She made a funny face at me.

"Tina hungry" she said with a pouty face.

I took out a cookie from the cookie jar and gave it to her.

Somehow, at this time, my house cat which usually sleeps at a corner and wakes up only to eat, decided to step into the kitchen.

"kitty!" exclaimed Tina with such excitement that she threw off the cookie she so badly wanted.

Our lazy cat sat down, licking one of its paws. It shot a glance at me and Tina and continued its licking.

"kitty!" exclaimed Tina again. This time she leapt off the kitchen table and landed on the floor with a thud.

What the ..? Ouch! That must have hurt!

She half crawled and half walked to the cat and hugged it.

Oh no!

This was an utter shock to the cat and it shrieked and meowed and tried hard to get out of Tina's grasp.

"Tina! Put the cat down now!" I half screamed. My brows creased and I could feel my temper rising.

Oh ho! Not good.

The cat must have yanked itself out of Tina's grasp. It ran away from her and on the process, knocked down all the ceramic plates off the shelves.

Tina started wailing like anything and the cat simply wouldn't stop running in circles around the kitchen. Then, there was the doorbell and wait! Was that smoke? I could see smoke coming from the microwave.

Tina's wailing obstructed my thinking and it really made my temper flare.

"Stop this at once!" I screamed from the top of my lungs.

I could feel my body heating up and fire was back, on my hands again.

Tina had shut up. I guessed she saw the fire blazing on my hands. The cat jumped out through the kitchen window with a meow.

I tried of calm myself by taking deep breaths. Tina was staring at me wide eyed. I stepped to the kitchen sink careful not to touch anything and careful to stay away from Tina. I turned on the water tap and put my hands in. A cloud of steam filled the kitchen.

I am a freak.

I felt myself cry. I washed a bit of my face too. My temper went down. I reached for the microwave and switched it off. I turned towards Tina and looked at her still watching me with wide eyes.

The doorbell rang again. I went up to the front door and opened it. A pizza delivery guy stood there with my pizza.

"Single cheese pizza with extra cheese. That's $14.99 ma'am" he said.

I handed him the money and took the pizza.

"You have a glowing fiery red hair" he said wide eyed as he looked at me.

"Keep the change" I said as I shut the door at his face.

I made Tina to sit down on the couch while I cleaned the mess she had made. Surprisingly, she was quiet and sat still. I must have terrified her.

When my hands catch fire, I feel a rapid loss of the energy inside me. Every ounce of the energy in my body is put into forming the flames on my hands.

Exhausted like never before, I sat on the couch opposite to the one Tina was sitting. The pizza lay on the table in between. I handed a slice to Tina and she took it.

It was too early for my bedtime, but somehow I felt exhausted. I stretched myself on the couch and closed my eyes. I felt a soft hand in mine. I opened my sleepy eyes to see Tina.

"Go away, Tina" I said. "I am freak"

She only inched closer to me and lay down beside me. Her face now closer to mine.

"Fire Girl" I heard her mumble.