Babysitting a Lamoureux ||Lamoureux Mansion||

Within the walls of the Lamoureux Mansion all seems quite and dull. Everyone is away. Alex is not living there anymore. Danielle is in school and the man of the house - Pierre - had decided to leave his son - Raymond - here at the house. Of course he would not be alone. Pierre had hired a baby-sitter - yes an actual baby-sitter- to watch on Raymond. He didn't feel that the maids would do Raymond any good. The Eight year old was in his room...

Raymond bounced on his bed as he thought. He knew he should use this time to be the free spirited boy he wanted to be. His father wanted him to be mature so when his father is away or when he is around others or his sisters, he acts like the boy he wanted to be.

Ray frowned and stopped bouncing. What would his baby-sitter be like? He really hoped it wouldn't be some strict lady then his plan would be in complete ruins. He huffed and scooped up the teddy bear he had been hiding under his bed. If his father knew about this then he'll sure be in a lot of trouble.

He began bouncing around again, waiting for that baby-sitter to walk in or something. He knew the maids would let her or him inside.

Karma nibbled on her bottom lip anxiously as the maids - french maids, figures - rushed her into the house. They gave her a once over, obviously disapproving of her simple worn t-shirt and baggy cacki cut offs. She was practically shooed out of the way when they noticed she was barefoot. It wasn't her fault she hadn't stopped to go shoe shopping yet! It wasn't! She'd just had... other things to do. Besides, socks were as good as shoes any day.

She stopped outside of the room where her ward, or whatever the maids had called him - the stiffs - and knocked softly. "May I come in?" She called.

Seriously, if the Blacks didn't owe some long-off debt to the Lamoureuxes, she wouldn't even be here.

Raymond's features went impassive as he quickly bounced off his bed and landed on the floor with a thump on his feet. He quickly hid the teddy bear thinking it was one of the maids. Lord knows what they'll tell his father if they'd seen the teddy bear.

He stood up straight and wandered over to the door. He hesitated for a moment before opening it for barely an inch. "Who are you?" he asked gazing over at the girl with calculating eyes. He had to act this way just in case they tell his father.

Ray mildly noted what the girl was dressed in and a moment of confusion swept his face. "What are you doing here?" he asked again.

Karma cocked her head to the side slightly. Funny. She hadn't seen an eight year old since... well... she was an eight year old. Not that she was counting Dille. She didn't really count anyway. She was more of a mini-Juli than an eight year old anyway.

"I'm Karma." She said, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "And, appearantly, I'm also the babysitter." She looked around curiously. "Do you have a little brother or sister I'm supposed to be babysitting? You look too old to need one."

Raymond mentally snarled. So this is the babysitter he thought before frowning. "You don't look like one of the people my father would hire" he said frowning. But it was true. All the babysitters he had where all strict trying to teach him how to be mature. How to be a man even though he wasn't ready.

Raymond shook his head before rolling his eyes. "No I am the youngest" he said before shrugging "Apparently Papa thought I am still too immature to be left home alone" he added before taking a look into his room.

A look of panic crossed his face as he saw that he didn't hide the blasted teddy bear completely. He coughed and tried to close the door "Excuse me" he said before shutting it and scrambling to his bed. He didn't even bother to check if he locked it. He held the teddy bear in his arms for a bit before pushing it into the bottom of his bed out of sight.

Karma frowned. "What? Am I not pretty enough or something?" She asked, pouting slightly. She sat cross-legged on the floor of the hallway as he continued speaking, listening carefully.

"Oh. Well perhaps he did hire the wrong person then." She mused. "I don't think I know what exactly maturity is. All I was gonna do is go to the playground, maybe take you to get some ice cream, go to the arcade, there's a faire in town, did you know? We were gonna go to that! I was gonna try and win you a biiiiig stuffed animal!" The excitement in her voice died down, and she pouted. "But if you're so mature, then I guess we can go read or something. What a drag. I had the whole day planned out too." She barely noticed that she was talking to a half-closed door now, resting her elbow on her knee and her chin on her fist, she gazed at the carpeted floor of the hallway, her other hand idly tracing patterns in the rug.

Raymond sat at the foot of his bed listening to what the girl had said. They were going to play games? he thought in disbelief. He shook his head and crossed his legs from under him. "No" he said raising his tone a bit for her to hear "You look pretty... very pretty" he complimented before eying the door. "You can come in you know"

Raymond looked down at the floor on which he sat on, thinking. "Where we really gonna do that?" he asked a slight pain in his voice at the thought of having lost the chance to do all those things. He looked towards the door a pitiful expression on his face. "Please tell me we'll still do that" he said.

Karma grinned. "Why, thank you." She said, rising to her feet. She walked into the boys room, her eyes sweeping in all the details. She'd never really been into someone else's bedroom before. No one younger than her, that is, and Gorny didn't count, either, since it'd been her room first.

She sunk back into her position on the floor, looking up at the boy. "Well, of course we can still go!" She frowned. "Then again, we should probably tell your dad that we're going to, like, the library or museum or something boring like that. That way, I can come back again later!" She nodded, before taking in his outfit. "But we are going absolutely nowhere with you dressed like that. They'd think I'd gone and kidnapped royalty or something! Don't you have any regular clothes? Tshirts? Jeans?"

Raymond frowned when she surveyed his room, it was practically... dull. He took a moment and looked around definitely dull he mused in his mind before a slight grin made his way onto his face. "That is sneaky" he mused before nodding his head. "But that would be for the best"

Raymond frowned and looked down at his clothes. He was wearing a crisp white long sleeved shirt, black formal plants and his socks. He looked confused before looking up, pouting. "Hey!" he exclaimed "What's wrong with my clothes?" he asked crossing his arms, childishly.

Karma shook her head. "Nothing's wrong with it, silly, it's just too nice for the faire. You wouldn't want to spill your ice cream on it on accident, would you? Nor would you want to accidentally, you know, get dirt on it. Faires are always best the more comfortable you are. You need street clothes. You look like you're going on the red carpet." She nodded. "It's a very fancy way to dress, and you know, you look nice, but its still overdone here."

Raymond huffed before pushing himself up on his feet, accidentally tugging at the blanket he had unconsciously wrapped around the teddy bear. He wandered over to his closet and stepped in. Yes he stepped inside his closet. After a few moments, he walked back out dressed in a checkered shirt and blue jeans and some brown shoes. "Is this good enough?" he asked unsurely. While father had gone Alex had bought him a large extensive line of clothing ranging from formal to casual. He huffed waiting for her input.

Karma laughed, nodding at the boys new outfit. It was cute, in its own way.

She got to her feet, yawning and stretching. "So. Now comes the hard part." She nodded. "Fooling the maids." she nodded her head in the direction of the hallway, lowering her voice considerably. "They already don't like me, so what I'm going to do is go out after you. All you have to do is stomp out saying things about how faires are stupid and you needed to go to the library and blah-blah-blah, and we'll be gone, lickety split!"

Raymond shuffled as his expression turned thoughtful for a while. "We could always.." he said trailing off. Would she tell? he thought before mentally shaking that thought away. She didn't look like someone that would tell on him.

Ray wandered off to where his bookshelf was and stood on his tiptoes taking out a book. Suddenly the bookshelf seemed to turn around silently revealing a path. The wonders the Lamoureux mansion had. He gestured Karma to the passage. "It leads outside if we walk straight." he said simply, his features expressionless.

Karma glanced up, cocking her head to the side as he opened the secret passage. "Well. That's something you don't see everyday." She glanced around his room before stepping into the passage, holding out her hand to Ray's. "Come on, then, small one. We're going."

Raymond smiled slightly and took her hand albeit a bit nervously. "These passages were built into the mansion long ago" he whispered as he casually closed the secret passageway. He clapped his hands and suddenly lit torches appeared at the sides. "It is a way for the people inside to escape if they are being attacked" he said as he walked forward, leaving Karma behind. Ray shrugged and stopped after a few steps and looked over at Karma "Coming?"