Nanny Vanessa, Chapter Two
Chapter Two
Elliott hadn’t ever really studied downstairs. Not recently, anyway. Maybe ten years ago, when his bedroom was more for sleeping and the main floor of the house was for everything else. But as both a teenager and a young adult, he preferred the solitude of his room. Pretty typical for a guy living with his parents, especially once he got into gaming.
As he headed towards the living room, he was already regretting his suggestion for the location change. The whole point of the idea was so Vanessa wouldn’t fixate on his messy bedroom, yet she ended up making him clean up the area anyway. Now he was going to have to work in a more public room, where his babysitter would no doubt be hanging around working on her own stuff. There had to be a better word for Vanessa’s job where Elliot was involved. Nanny, maybe? That was just as bad. He also wasn’t sure of the difference between the two of them. Was one a profession, and the other a thing younger individuals did to make some spending money? It didn’t really matter. Either way, Elliott didn’t need supervision at his age.
While Elliott started looking through his Sociology notes, Vanessa busied herself with the rest of his academic materials. Skimming each syllabus, making notes along the way, and occasionally speaking up to ask what his current grades were, if he had started on his papers, etc. Since he was in college, his parents didn’t have access to all the specifics of his courses, like they did in high school. Since he was living with them, however, they at least insisted that he update them on his GPA every month or two. It put Vanessa in a unique situation of not knowing everything before showing up for the job, though she was quick to fill in those gaps for herself. Never interrupting him, as she would always wait until he paused to take a drink of water, or when he was switching from notebook to textbook.
After nearly an hour, he decided to test the waters. There was no way he was going to spend his entire Friday night studying. And, while he wasn’t the best student, Elliot knew that most people didn’t do schoolwork for hours on end. “I’m going to take a break,” he said, “I’ll be upstairs for a bit.”
“May I please take a break, Vanessa?” she corrected him. Similar to how she had spoken to him so far, Vanessa’s tone was more matter-of-fact, rather than stern or bossy. “I’m in charge this weekend, Elliott. You may think that you’re a big boy, but your parents hired me for a reason.”
He cringed internally at the demeaning phrase. How could she say something like ‘big boy’ so casually? Then again, she was probably used to watching younger charges, making some of her terminology bleed over despite how he was technically an adult. It was enough to throw him off to the point where he wasn’t sure how to reply. Because of his age, Elliott wasn’t sure what Vanessa would do if he refused to be polite about something that he absolutely didn’t need permission for. At the same time, she was pretty, and he really did want her to see him as the mature young man that he actually was.
Taking a breath, and resisting the urge to roll his eyes, he calmly echoed, “May I please take a break, Vanessa?”
She clasped her hands together with a smile. “Much better, Elliott. What kind of break? Bathroom? Stretch?”
What? No. Neither of those required going upstairs. And he absolutely wouldn’t have announced it if he just needed to use the bathroom. “I’m going to play games on my PC,” he said, “I’ll study some more later.” He was still trying to keep some control over his evening, considering this was already way more studying than he had planned to tackle today.
“Oh,” Vanessa said, “A video game break. Well, you’ve only been studying for about 45 minutes now. Why don’t we do another 45, and then you can ask me about that kind of break. Like a polite boy, of course.”
Again, Elliott wanted to push back. The more he let Vanessa dictate such things, the more complicated it would be to decide things for himself moving forward. He just found it difficult to find a good approach, since she kept speaking as if things were already decided. That, and the nonchalant patronizing was a persistent distraction and embarrassment.
Managing to avoid a frustrated sigh, as that would only make her view him in an immature light, he returned to his notebook and continued going through some of the things that would be on the exam. It crossed his mind that Vanessa probably didn’t know much about sociology. He could always half-ass his studying efforts as long as he was looking at the page, though that would also be a waste of time. If he was stuck on the sofa with his materials right in front of him, it made more sense to actually do the work. Either way, he was going to have to cram at some point.
It didn’t help that his phone was right there, with the occasional message from one of his friends telling him to hop online for a game. Either Vanessa didn’t notice the screen occasionally lighting up, or she chose not to say anything about the ‘distraction’ due to how he seemed to be focusing on his notes despite the notifications.
By the time he was pushing an hour and a half of studying, Elliott really did need a break. Even when cramming for tests, he would pause several times along the way to not burn out. The problem was, Vanessa had already brought up shorter breaks, and Elliott didn’t want to risk taking one of those if it meant she might end up resetting the clock. He also didn’t message anyone back, as doing anything with his phone could potentially lead to a similar issue.
The one silver lining of seeing things he couldn’t respond to with the frequency he normally would was the fact that he was able to keep decent tabs on the time. When it had been just shy of fifty minutes since the last time he brought up taking a break, as he didn’t want it to look like he was counting down the minutes–even if that was exactly what he was doing at the end–he reluctantly asked rather than stating what he wanted. “May I please take a video game break?” He half expected her to say ‘no.’ Cordial as Vanessa had been so far, he remembered some of the babysitters he had growing up who would string him along for the sake of making their own lives easier.
Thankfully, Vanessa wasn’t one of them. “You may, Elliott. I’ll be right down here if you need me. Does pesto and a salad sound good for dinner?”
He was ready to get up and head upstairs, and was glad that Vanessa wasn’t going to be so overbearing that she planned on following him and always being in the same room he was. But it was Friday night, plus some part of his subconscious was remembering what evenings with a sitter were like when growing up. “You could just order a pizza,” he pointed out, “Probably easier. My parents left you with some spending money, right?” That’s what they used to do.
“That’s not very healthy,” she replied, “Don’t worry; I love cooking. Why don’t you go play for a little bit? I’ll come get you when it’s time to study again.”
Elliott didn’t need to be told twice. There wasn’t a good argument for why pizza was preferable, when a mature girl like Vanessa was the one making the nutritional decisions instead of one of Elliot’s peers. Plus he really was tired of studying, as well as having his babysitter sitting right there. Both his bedroom and his PC were calling.
The first thing he did when he sat down at his desk upstairs was check all of his messages. As expected, he had already missed a number of games that would have been fun, most of which were no longer possible due to some people taking breaks that poorly aligned with the end of his studying, while others had merely switched genres. He could always jump into his MOBA when those that were already playing finished a match, except he was a little nervous that Vanessa would call into his room and be overheard on his mic. It would be so fucking embarrassing if anyone learned that his parents had hired someone to watch him this weekend.
He ultimately decided on a solo game. By the time he had launched it and settled in after setting his status to ‘offline’ and messaging everyone that he was out for the night, Elliott only ended up playing for 10-15 minutes before Vanessa came upstairs.
“Elliott?” she greeted, lightly knocking on his door, “Break’s over!”
“What?” he asked. That had to be a joke. He at least paused the game to glance her way, but made no move to get up.
Vanessa tapped her watch. “It’s been thirty minutes. Time to get back to studying.”
It was just dawning on him that they never talked about the specifics regarding what she considered a break. Elliott assumed he was going to be able to hang out in his room for a while; apparently Vanessa had a completely different idea of how long he should be playing games compared to working. “I just started, Vanessa,” he said. Trying to compromise, he offered, “I’ll study a bit more after dinner.” That would probably buy him at least another thirty minutes, though even 45 minutes of gaming wasn’t much of a session.
“I gave you a half hour, Elliott,” she said, “Last time I checked, your parents hired me so you wouldn’t waste your whole weekend playing video games. Come on. Be a big boy and show me that you can be responsible with your time.”
“I’m not a BOY.” Finally pushing back on the patronizing way she was speaking to him, Elliott fully turned his desk chair to face her. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t mind the term ‘boy.’ Although he was technically an adult, insisting he was a man while still in college didn’t quite fit. It was really the full phrase Vanessa was getting to him.
“Oh,” Vanessa giggled, “Are you a girl? I guess the name Elliott works both ways!”
Her amusement and completely inaccurate interpretation of his response only frustrated him more. “No!” he snapped, “I’m a guy who’s too old to be treated like a child. Look, I’ll study more tonight. Like I said, after dinner.”
“I can see why you need a babysitter,” she said, sounding way more calm in comparison, “Throwing a tantrum when you don’t get your way? You’re acting just like all the other boys I watch, Elliott. Do you want me to treat you like a disrespectful little boy? Or a big boy who can act his age?”
That wasn’t a fair question in the slightest. “Vanessa-”
“Which one, Elliott? Are you a little boy, or a big boy? Or am I going to have to call your parents and tell them you’re already causing problems?”
He flushed, hating that such a simple threat worked nearly as well as it did when he was younger. If Vanessa did call, it would be beyond embarrassing. Considering his age, behaving maturely should be a given. She was just framing it in such a demeaning way.
She crossed her arms. “Well?”
“Fine, I’ll study,” he muttered.
“That’s not what I asked,” she said, “Are you a big boy who is going to act his age? If you are, I want to hear you say it.”
As in, the exact phrase that had started all of this. He was too busy feeling awkward about her insistence to realize that it was a babysitting trick. Undermining his original argument would make it more difficult for him to be ‘disrespectful’ moving forward. Blushing more deeply, he reluctantly said, “I’m . . . a big boy. I’ll act my age.”
“There we go! That’s much better, Elliott,” she smiled, “Do you think it’s more responsible to spend your night studying, or playing video games?”
It wasn’t much of a discussion after that. He ended up following her back downstairs and opening his Statistics binder to begin reviewing his notes from the last few weeks.
Elliott’s next ‘break’ was for dinner, which meant he wouldn’t have any more gaming time before the next round of studying. On top of that, Vanessa continued to be overbearing, clearly unable to separate her usual babysitting habits from what she really needed to be adjusting for someone like him. Telling him to wash his hands before the meal, correcting the way he was holding his fork and knife, and reminding him to thank her for cooking afterwards. He would have done most of that himself, only it ended up looking like he was only doing so because she was going over such etiquette along the way.
His next surprise was at 9:30 PM, when he was just wrapping up another long stretch of studying. Vanessa stood up and took his phone from the coffee table. “Ready for bed?” she asked.
Of course not. He hadn’t gone to bed before 11 PM in years. “It’s way too early for that,” he protested, “And that’s my phone.”
“I know it’s your phone, silly. But we’re working on screen limits this weekend, and it’s not healthy for your eyes to be using anything backlit before bed. Now, it’s lights out at 10 PM sharp. Once you brush your teeth and go potty, you can spend the rest of the time reading or doing a little more studying. It’s completely up to you.”
“I’m not going to bed at ten, Vanessa,” he insisted. In the back of his mind, he knew that arguing with her was pointless when she had all the cards as before, but he still had to try. It was just such an absurd suggestion.
“Let’s make it 9:45,” she said, “Now, be a big boy and get ready for bed. You better be on your way upstairs by the time I count to three, or you’re going to be in trouble. One . . . Two . . . ”
It was embarrassingly effective, just like the prospect of the phone call had been. Grimacing slightly at the fact that he was letting himself be bossed around in such a manner rather than calling her bluff and seeing what would happen on ‘Three,’ Elliott got up and headed towards the stairs, letting Vanessa keep his phone for the time being.
To make matters worse, she followed him to the bathroom up there. She stood there and supervised him the entire time as he flossed and brushed his teeth, reminding him to do the former and timing him for the latter. While she at least gave him some privacy to use the toilet, Vanessa insisted on keeping the door cracked ever so slightly as he did so. She stepped right back in when he was finished, telling him to wash his hands. Finally, she insisted on another round of deodorant, as both he and his room still smelled like boy, and maybe that would help.
When all was said and done, it was basically 9:45 PM, which was Elliott’s new bedtime due to how he had lost fifteen minutes for being difficult. Vanessa went so far as to pull the comforter back before stepping aside and gesturing for him to lie down. “Aren’t you going to thank me for helping you get ready for bed?” she asked.
He still found it hard to believe that she wasn’t amused by the fact that she had been put in charge of someone like him. Every single time she asked a question like that, it was as if she actually viewed him the same as any other boy she would be babysitting. And every time he gave her attitude, it ended poorly for him. Glancing away, he begrudgingly said, “Thank you, Vanessa.”
“You’re very welcome, Elliott,” she said, “Now, get some sleep. Tomorrow is a big day; you need to be well rested for it.”
Elliott felt completely ridiculous as he crawled into bed. Not just because of how early it was, but because Vanessa was standing right there waiting for him to do so. “Lie down,” she casually insisted, “All the way. You’re not going to try and stay up after I leave, right?”
That was the general idea. He replied, “Umm, no.”
“Good,” she nodded. Once he was settled underneath the covers, she walked over to his desk and bent over to reach something behind it. While Elliott was distracted staring at how the dress hugged her ass in such a position, Vanessa found what she was looking for. Pulling out the power cord, unplugged from both his PC and the outlet, she said, “I’m going to hold onto this and your phone until tomorrow.” Before he could argue, she pointed out, “It’s not like you need them before then, right?”
Since he was supposed to be going to bed, there was nothing he could think of to counter that, save for the usual sentiment of how he didn’t appreciate how overbearing she was being.
When met with nothing but his awkward silence, she gave him another warm smile and said, “You were a really good boy tonight, Elliott. I bet you’ll be even more well behaved tomorrow.” She walked to his bedroom door, glancing over her shoulder for a parting, “Good night!”
Then she flicked the switch and turned out the lights.