Offline/Cover her

From All The Fallen Stories
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You decide to risk waking her and save her from even worse embarrassment if other kids wake up first. Carefully crouching over her and gently pinching the hem of her nightie, you slide it down her slender frame. You almost manage to restore all of her modesty when it catches, bunched up under the small of her back. Holding your breath, you give a slight tug to release it so you can pull it past her butt, then look up to her face to check if you were successful. Her wide eyes stare up at you as her sleepy mind tries to piece together what is happening. You hold a finger to your lips to keep her quiet when she looks like she might cry. You quickly tug her nightie the rest of the way, no longer needing to worry about waking her.

"You forgot panties," you mouth, barely a whisper. Her face changes several times over a few seconds, no doubt sifting through several sensors to explain why she woke up with you holding her dress above her waist. Thankfully it all seems to register eventually, her face settling on a blush as she turns away, trying to hide in her pillow.

You leave her there, finish putting on your clothes, and open the cabin door, but stop when something attaches itself to you. "Thanks," your cousin mumbles, muffled by the fact that she's speaking into your side.

"Don't mention it." You really hope she doesn't. She seems to have come to the right conclusion about what you were doing, but you fear how the story might sound in retelling. You venture out into the camp with her still clinging to you.

Most of the camp still appears to be asleep, only the birds and Uncle Dave making any noise. Uncle Dave being up means there's coffee brewing, so you make your way over to him and he silently offers you a cup which you accept.

"Yulia, you're up early. Want some cocoa, darling?"

So that's her name! May's sister, isn't she? Yulia nods to accept the offer of cocoa and snuggles into your arm after you sit on a log.

"Glad to see you two are getting close so quickly. Here you are Jay." Your uncle hands you a tin mug of coffee with a sugar and powdered creamer just the way he made it for you last time you were out here discovering the camp with him. He then turns back to make Yulia's drink. "You like your big cousin little Yulee?"

Yulia buries her face in your arm, already starting to blush. "Well, he saved me." She had to mention it. Of course she did. Maybe he didn't hear since she was muffled.

"Saved you, huh?" The man's got sharp ears. "From what, a bear?"

Yulia tries to disappear into you but her uncle is still waiting for an answer. "He... G-grandma says that girls shouldn't wear p-panties to bed 'cuz girl parts are s'posed to breath. But it was hot, and... and I didn't zip up my bag... but... Jay helped me." She looks even redder explaining herself than when you caught her, though maybe that's just because the lighting is better now.

"Ah, I see! Flashing the cabin, eh? Well you can sleep naked for all I care. It's only family here after all. I'm sure not going to tell your mom, but she might end up hearing about it if you happen to wear your birthday suit." He places the cocoa in front of her with a wink and a supportive nod, making her nod back. "Thanks for looking after the youngins this week," he directs at you in a more hushed tone. "I'm sure you got roped into it somehow instead of volunteering like the lady folk have said, but I appreciate it nonetheless. Someone has to wrastle the munchkins!"

While Uncle Dave continues to make small talk with you, reminiscing about your first trip here, the rest of the camp slowly wakes up. Your dad is the next to sit with you and joins the conversation with his own memories of finding the camp. Then your mom and a couple other aunts come out to ask about breakfast plans, so Uncle Dave begins orchestrating the morning's events. Naturally you get enlisted to help and Yulia does her best to follow along with everything you do. When everything is about ready, you and your shadow are sent to wake the rest of the kids and bring them to breakfast.

Asha and Beth join you right away since they're most of the way decent, but many others need a moment to sort themselves out after abandoning their pajamas at different points in the night. The three girls all sit around you to eat and you eventually figure out Beth's full name is Bethany. Everyone's name gets shortened or changed in your family, and you're no exception. Your sister joins you before long, followed by May, then Brayden, and eventually Nicole.

It seems everyone wants to sit as close to you as they can given you're the ring leader of this circus, which means Nicole finds herself at the farthest end of the table since she was one of the last ones out. With your only viable conversation partner so far away, you are forced to listen to the little girls chatter about nothing, sharing likes and dislikes and asking who else they know and thinking up all kinds of things they might do today. At least they are all talkative enough you don't have to really participate. You offer a few words here and there to imply you're listening, but you wouldn't be able to get much more in if you actually try. Eventually, you're able to tune them out completely by grunting and nodding on autopilot so they don't even know you aren't paying attention.

Breakfast passes quickly in this manner and you finish eating long before the talkative girls around you. Getting up to clear your dishes, you see your only clean escape would be to get involved with the cleanup efforts. However, you can't even wash your own plate before Aunt Clara shoos you away to go look after the little ones. It seems your role as babysitter is officially locked in now, all the parents trying to shirk their primary responsibility of parenting. Surely the kids would be fine without you, so it seems your role is less about looking after them so much as keeping them out of the parents' hair.

This is likely the last chance you'll have to fight this. Going along with it could afford you some more independence if they truly delegate all supervision to you and let you out of other chores in exchange, but all that freedom from work will be wasted if you have to spend the whole week pestered by kids. On the other hand, offering to do chores once is bound to lead to more chores, not to mention a week surrounded by adults. In either case, you hope you can drag Nicole along so you at least have someone your age to talk to.


Insist on helping your Aunts and Uncles

Play with your cousins