Princesses, Inc. by Mari Mancusi

Author:Mari Mancusi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

17

“AHOY, YE LOUSY LANDLUBBERS, IT’S time for all hands on deck!” Madison cried, dancing around the living room, waving her plastic sword in the air. She was a little out of breath from doing her show, but she hid it nicely.

“The deck, in this case, being your beds,” I clarified from my position on the couch, in case either of the boys wasn’t fluent in piratespeak. As backup pirate princess tonight I had put on one of the less . . . large princess dresses we’d picked up at the thrift store. It wasn’t as impressive as my ball gown, but I had to admit, it was nice to sometimes babysit with full lung capacity.

Madison lunged at the boys. They shrieked and ducked out of her grasp, running for the other side of the room and hiding behind the kitchen table.

“Aw,” cried the older one. “But we want to find more treasure first!”

“Yeah!” cried his little brother. “More tweh-shore!”

Madison shook her head sternly. “There will be time for treasure another day. A good pirate knows when to batten down the hatches and get a good night’s sleep. To live to fight another day.” She gave them a knowing wink. “But if you’re good, you may find a little something special under your pillows—to light the treasure map of your dreams.”

The boys exchanged curious looks, then raced upstairs, practically tripping over each other to get there first. I glanced over at Madison questioningly. She grinned. “Glow sticks,” she said. “Their parents left them for us in case we needed to resort to bribery. Which, clearly, we do.”

The cries of excitement coming from upstairs soon confirmed her words. “You make a good pirate,” I told her.

“You make a pretty decent princess yourself,” she shot back with a smile. “Now let’s get these scallywags to bed so we can pop the popcorn their parents left us and watch movies. All this adventure has left me starving.”

“I’ll eat the popcorn,” I said with a sigh. “But no movie for me. I am dreadfully behind in my homework.”

I rose from the couch, and together we headed upstairs, where the boys were brushing their teeth, now eager to get under the covers to play with their new glow toys. I just hoped the excitement of the “treasure” wouldn’t keep them awake until their parents got home.

Once we had tucked them in and said good night—with a stern warning from Dread Pirate Madison not to get out of bed except for an emergency—we headed downstairs to start the popcorn. The boys’ parents had promised to be home by nine, meaning we had about an hour to kill.

Or, you know, prevent me from flunking out of school.

Large bag of popcorn in hand, Madison settled down in front of the TV, flicking through the Netflix options. She finally settled on Pirates of the Caribbean. (To get some inspiration, she said, though she already had her pirate act down to a science. I think she just wanted to stare at Orlando Bloom.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.