Jenny (Babysitter's Club 5)

I can, of course, just look at the camera anytime I want from the app and press a button that would allow me to see them in real-time, but unless I do that they will only pick up motion, which means I didn’t have hours and hours to go through.

I turned the volume up high so that I didn’t miss anything. I watched as Lauren paced around the room, biting her nails and looking agitated. Now that I was looking at her, she looked kind of off, like there was deadness behind her eyes.

She mumbled something to herself, but it was too soft for me to hear. Then she picked up her phone and dialed a number. After a while, she took the phone from her ear and tried again. After the third time, she yelled and threw the phone across the room, and it landed on one of the kids’ stuff toys.

My heart was already racing, already preparing for what I know was to come. As I watched her pick up the phone again and dial it was as if someone else had walked into the room, “Sharon, hi, I need a huge favor. Jenny, you know, the babysitter? She gave me her new number, but I seem to have misplaced it. You wouldn’t happen to have it, would you?”

From the smile on her face and the way she ran around looking for pen and paper, I figure she’d hit pay dirt on her first try. Then the mask fell back into place as she dialed the new number. She walked over to the changing table and grabbed the knife, and although I already knew the outcome, that my girls were safe, my gut still lurched at the sight.

“Jenny, don’t hang up. You little bitch, you think I don’t know that you’re after my husband. He’s a man, he might not know the signs, but I do, I see the way you look at him like he’s yours. Well, you know what, fine, you can have him. I hope you’re satisfied with what you’ve done. Me and my girls will get out of your way. I’m going to kill them and then kill myself.”

She started screaming into the phone, and the twins woke up screaming as well. Minutes later, I saw Jenny rush into the room, and I wondered at her bravery. “Lauren, Mrs. Masters, you’re wrong. Derrick doesn’t care about me; it’s you he loves, you and his girls. You were right that night when you called me a bitch.”

“I’m in love with him, I have been since I was eight years old, but he never loved me. He doesn’t even remember me.”

“Lies, all lies, I know what you two have been up to behind my back.” Lauren’s eyes looked wild as they moved around the room with the knife held out in front of her.

Jenny didn’t take her focus off her; you couldn’t tell whether she was afraid or not as she stood there so calm, so poised. I was wondering why the hell she thought it wise, to tell the truth in a situation like this, why not lie and say it was all in Lauren’s head, but I realized that the kid had more guts than me. She faces shit head-on.

All this time, I’ve been thinking that she’s odd and insignificant with her disinterested looks and two-syllable answers. I watched as she maneuvered herself until she was standing between Lauren and the kids, her eyes still on Lauren’s as if she was purposely ignoring the knife.

“No, that’s your mind playing tricks on you. You know better; you know him don’t you? You know him better than anyone in this world. I’m nothing I’ll go away. I’ll take early acceptance and go away to school in the spring. You won’t ever have to see me again.”

“But he’ll still be thinking about you.”

“I promise you; he wouldn’t, he never has, not once since I was ten years old has he said a word to me until that day of the interview.”

“When I realized that he didn’t even remember me, I was crushed, but you know what, I was proud of him, proud of the man he’d become because where some men would’ve looked, he couldn’t get out of the room fast enough. Because he knew that you would be upset.”

“Do you remember that day? He’d gone up to the nursery and never came down until you were on your way back. That’s how much your husband loves and respects you.”

Now came the part where I’d tuned in; as Lauren made a move to get around Jenny to go to the kids, Jenny held her arms out and moved forward, making Lauren take a step back and away from the crib. In essence putting herself in danger to save my girls. Why?