An unmentionable story...

Mary Poppins!

So, today's 5 Word Wednesday challenge was a bit different. I was given a 5 word phrase, then two lists of random words, and then another phrase (along with the suggestion to bookend the story with the phrases.) Here's what I was given:

Mary Poppins and that umbrella…

Comet

Cupid

Donner

Blitzen

printer

orange

turtle

scarf

curly

dustpan

...more than she could fathom

Weird enough? I love a good challenge, so here we go!

Mary Poppins and that umbrella were going to be her undoing.

Raegan beat her head against the coffee table. Emmie loved this movie. Proven by the fact that this was the third time this week they'd watched it. Even now Emmie sat cross legged on the floor, mesmerized, stuffed turtle in hand and her string cheese and juice forgotten. At least she’d calmed down. She’d tangled in the printer cord on her dad’s desk earlier, sending a picture frame shattering to the ground. Poor girl hadn’t stopped crying until long after the pieces were swept into the dustpan. 

The movie played on and Raegan caught herself quoting it. So much for getting any calculus done. She loved these kids, but dear stars, one more rendition of Jolly Holiday and Raegan was half tempted to quit and fight a part time job flipping burgers somewhere.

Footsteps thundered on the stairs. Hayden clamored into the living room, his pants forgotten, as usual, and his curly hair tousled from sleep. Raegen smiled. “Hey bud. Did you pee?”

His green eyes widened. “Yes.”

And yet his legs were crossed and he’d had all that water before his nap. “Nice try buddy. Go pee.”

He scowled and opened his mouth, presumably to protest, but Raegan cut him off. “We can sing your song while you go.” 

That did it. Hayden tore to the downstairs bathroom. By the time she caught up to him he had shed his underwear and wore only his orange Transformers t-shirt. He beamed up at her, wiggling his little man parts. Good gosh, you’d think at this point she’d be used to it.

"Which one to start?" he asked her.

She smiled. “On Dasher, on Dancer, on Comet.”

Hayden picked up. "And Cupid! And Donner and piston!"

"Not piston, silly boy. Blitzen."

"Piston!" Hayden collapsed into a fit of giggles, luckily after he had stopped peeing and not before. She’d cleaned up so much of his errant pee this past year that she was completely immune to body fluids. Really, how hard was it to aim that sucker? Raegan caught him in her arms before he fled and made him wash his hands. As soon as she dried them he shot past her.

"Come back," she said, her voice calm from months of practice. “You need to put your clothes back on.”

Silence.

"Hayden?"

Raegan scanned the living room. Emmie remained in the living room, her eyes not straying from the screen. A thud sounded from upstairs. Raegan growled under her breath and climbed the stairs. She still needed to finish her homework, plus try and get that extra credit worksheet done. She needed all the extra points she could get in that class. She scooped up a couple toys on her way upstairs. This job was more than she had bargained for. Emmie on her own would be fine but Hayden was a handful. Terrible twos indeed. How come no one talked about the horribleness of three year olds?

She stopped on the stair landing and listened. Another thud echoed down the hall. From Blake’s room. Crap. Raegan jogged down the hall and eased the door open, almost terrified of the room. Partly because of what Hayden might be doing, and partly because walking into the room of the boy you had a crazy crush on while he wasn’t there was just disturbing. She pushed the ‘stalker’ accusation out of her mind as soon as she saw Hayden, hands deep in the basket of laundry on Blake’s floor.

“Hayden, what are you doing?”

He flung a scarf over his shoulder and plunged into the basket again. “I wanna wear Blake’s shirt!”

“Hayden,” she dodged a sock as he tossed it.  "You don’t  need to be in his laundry.” Already half the floor was littered with clothes.

Hayden continued flinging “He said I could wear it!”

Raegan lunged for him just as he sidestepped her and tossed something her way. She caught it without thinking then looked at her hand. A pair of boxer briefs hung from her fingers. How perfect. All she needed was to get her calculus finished and here she was this afternoon elbow deep in boy parts and underwear. She glanced from the briefs, ignoring the flush surging to her face, to find Hayden stripped out of his shirt.

“Hayden!”

He tore out the door and continued down the hall where his room was. Raegen stormed after him just as his door slammed shut. "Argh!" she balled up the underwear in her hands. “I swear, one more naked boy and I am done!”

“Guess I’ll have to stay dressed then.”

She spun, a gasp caught in her throat. Blake stood on the landing, backpack tossed over his shoulder. The lopsided grin on his face told her he thought the situation was hilarious. Raegan wondered if the floor would be gracious enough to open up and swallow her whole.

Blake took a step toward her and set his backpack on the floor. "Rough day?"

Rough day? It had been awful, but now he stood just inches from her and instead of her rough day all she could think about was yanking him by his t-shirt and kissing him. Then running like mad out of the house. 

She pulled on the fabric in her hands. "It's not as bad as it could be," she said, glancing back toward Hayden's room. "He hasn't set anything on fire yet."

Blake smiled. "He usually doesn't do that until after you leave."

Raegan chuckled, her fingers gliding over the fabric in her hands. Oh gosh. The fabric of his underwear. She jumped and put her hands behind her back.

"You ok?" Blake asked, his gaze following where her hands had just gone.

Her face was surely as red as a tomato. Raegan swallowed and shook her head. "Yep." She stuffed the briefs up her shirt and tucked them in the waistband of her jeans. Kissing Blake Carson or confessing her undying love to him was totally within the scope of reason. But casually handing him back his underwear was more than she could fathom.