A sticky, wet blob traced a slow path down her cheek as Morgan opened her eyes. She carefully wiped the slime away, swiping her hand over her forehead a few times to make sure nothing was about to fall into her eyes. Brandon giggled. He shook slime from his hands again. Globs of green goo flew in every direction. Morgan squeezed her eyes shut, feeling more slime hit her face and arms. 
          “Okay, that’s enough slime for today,” Morgan said. A bit of slime landed in her mouth, and she spluttered, running over to the sink to spit it out. Brandon laughed as he watched her struggle. She could already imagine the grin on his face once she turned around and she gripped the edge of the sink tighter. 
          “What are we going to do now?” Brandon asked as Morgan grabbed a glass of water to rinse out her mouth. She swished it around as she considered his question. 
          “Can you go pick out a movie for us to watch?” She could still taste a hint of the orange essential oil Brandon had added for flair. The smell of it filled the air, although that might be because the kitchen looked like the beginning of a Jackson Pollock painting. Or the beginning of a pointillism piece if you squinted hard enough. 
          Brandon crossed his arms, getting more slime on his shirt. “Do we have to watch a movie? We’re not going to have time to finish it before Dad gets home.” 
          Morgan sighed. “Well, I need to clean up the kitchen a little. You could build with Legos if you wanted? Or if you want to get a board game set up, we could do that. Didn’t you want to play Monopoly the last time I came over?” She grabbed a towel and wet it in the sink. As she wrung it dry, she looked up to consider other things they could do. Small pieces of green slime dotted the ceiling too.
          “I don’t want to play a board game. And I’m in the middle of a big Legos project. Dad and I are making a coliseum, like the one in Rome,” Brandon whined.
          Morgan sighed. “Well, what do you want to do then? Wash your hands while you think about it, please.”
          Brandon nodded and waddled over to the sink as Morgan began to wipe up the spilled pieces of slime from the table. She swept the small balls into her hand and threw them away while Brandon scrubbed at his hands. 
          “I wanna play a game,” Brandon said suddenly as Morgan began to scrub the walls.
          “What kind of game? We could play something on the Wii if you want?” 
          Brandon shook his head. “No, not a video game. I’ll go get the stuff for it.” He turned off the water and once again shook his hands out to dry them before grabbing a paper towel. Morgan squeezed her eyes shut as she felt drops of water hit her face. Brandon took off towards his room. Morgan counted slowly in her head and glanced at the clock on the wall. She still had an hour before Brandon’s dad would be home, only an hour. If she was smart, it would fly by. She just had to figure out something to keep him distracted. 
           The house was quiet for a few minutes as Morgan worked. She picked at the slime with her fingers when the cloth refused to work, and it came away with surprising ease. Fortunately, the green didn’t stain the walls, although she had no idea how she was going to clean the ceiling. She stared up at it, tilting her head this way and that, trying to come up with some kind of plan when Brandon came skipping back into the kitchen, his arms full. 
          Morgan turned around to see what he had. She could see a foam sword and wand, a wizard hat, a bag of Legos, a few Monopoly bills, another hat, a car, Brandon’s math workbook, one of his mother’s fake plants, and a toy camera all nestled in his arms. She whistled as she stepped forward to help him. 
          “Wow, you really went all out gathering supplies. What game is this again?” she asked as she grabbed the Legos, plant, and hats from his arms. Brandon dumped the rest of the items on the table. He almost knocked over their container of slime again. It wobbled for a second, but somehow remained upright. 
          Brandon grabbed the sword and turned to face Morgan. “It’s called ‘Make-Believe.’ Your job is to stop me from taking over the world before Dad gets home.”
          “Wait, but how will I win? What counts as stopping you?” Morgan asked, grabbing Brandon before he could run off again. 
          “You have to get rid of all of my weapons,” he replied, waving his sword in the air. “Good luck!” He ran into the living room, cackling as he went. 
          Morgan stood there for a moment. “All of his weapons? I’m never winning this game,” she muttered and grabbed the wand from the table. “If I win, Brandon, you have to help me finish cleaning up the kitchen. Even if your dad gets home before we finish cleaning.”
          “Never!” Brandon yelled, springing out from around the corner, his sword raised to strike.
          “Freeze!” Morgan shouted, pointing the wand at him. She grabbed the wizard hat too and backed out of the kitchen, wand still pointed at Brandon, who remained willingly frozen. She waited for him to say something to break the spell, but he watched her as she walked into the living room until she finally broke his line of sight. Surprisingly, he didn’t charge after her. 
          She looked around the room. There wasn’t much that could help her. There were a few throw pillows on the couch she could use to stun him. Maybe if she threw the blanket over his head, Brandon would count that as being captured and give up his weapons. But he always seemed to have a trick up his sleeve. With her luck, he had probably circled back around to the kitchen to grab the slime to use a minion or something. 
          The quiet of the house was unnerving. Brandon was never sneaky, even when he was pretending to be a ninja. He believed that the intimidation factor was more important than stealth. He usually gave Morgan enough of a warning to prepare herself for whatever he was planning. 
          “Brandon?” Morgan called, sitting on the couch. She wanted her back to something so he couldn’t sneak up on her. She gripped the wand and the hat tighter in her hand, as if Brandon would be able to pull it away if she loosened her grip even slightly.
          Silence greeted her. Unnerved, she rose back to her feet, carefully creeping back towards the doorway as Brandon leapt up at her from his army crawl. He had the bag of Legos in his hand, and he tossed them at her face. Morgan raised her arms to block the blow, cowering back, as Brandon screamed, “Sneak attack! Put your hands up, dastardly wizard.” 
          Morgan lowered her hands to see Brandon standing among the fallen bricks, one hand supporting his finger gun. He had grabbed the police hat from the table. She half expected him to pull out a pair of handcuffs too, but he must have lost them since he didn’t move closer. While he was gone, he had abandoned his sword too since it wasn’t hanging from one of his belt loops. She stared at him for a second, debating what to do. Other than his hands, he seemed defenseless.
           She reached into the wizard hat and pretended to pull out something. “Smoke bomb,” she said, throwing her hand down. Brandon covered his eyes and curled into a ball. Morgan carefully stepped over the Legos, stuffing the wand into her back pocket. She walked past Brandon and grabbed the blanket from the couch. Behind her, Brandon began to cough. 
          She turned back around, blanket in hand, ready to throw it at him. Before she had the chance, Brandon acted like he was fixing goggles over his head and grabbed the wand from her pocket. He pointed it towards her and began to chant, “Double bubble, boils and bubbles, you’re my minion now! Drop the blanket,” he commanded. Morgan dropped the blanket, glancing over at the clock as she did so. It had only been five minutes. This was never going to end. 
          Brandon nodded, smiling to himself. “Now, my minion, how shall we take over the world?” He took off his police hat and tossed it onto the living room table.
          Morgan shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m just a minion.” She fiddled with the hat in her hand as Brandon began to pace back and forth, somehow managing to avoid stepping on any Legos. 
          “We must have some kind of trophy to show that I am the overlord of the world,” Brandon muttered as Morgan pretended to pull a jar out of the hat. She opened it while he continued to think, looking for something in the living room to cement his victory. 
          “Mind control prevention cream,” Morgan said. She rubbed the cream on her forehead. Brandon whirled back around with a gasp. 
          “No!” 
          Morgan pointed her own finger gun at Brandon, “Freeze ray.” Brandon waved the wand, like he was deflecting something and pointed the wand at her again.
          “Fireball,” he said. Morgan ducked, pulling the hat on. “Teleportation!” he yelled, pointing his wand at the sky. He lowered his wand after a second and looked around, almost surprised that the spell hadn’t worked.
            “Right. Okay, let’s go. Ow, ow, ow,” he whispered as he stepped on the Legos and made his way back to the kitchen. Once she couldn’t hear the shuffling of his feet, Morgan stood. She looked back at the clock, and felt an idea begin to form. In the kitchen, she heard a clatter as Brandon grabbed something new, and dashed over to grab it. She stuck it into her hat as she heard him cast his teleportation spell again. She froze. He would throw a tantrum if he caught her moving while his spell was active, which she had learned the hard way one of her first times babysitting him. 
          Brandon walked back into the room with bulging pockets. He held the fake plant in his hand which he threw at her once he was back in the center of the room. Morgan nearly dropped the hat as she fumbled to catch the plant. 
          “Ha! You’re caught in my plant trap, so you’re all tied up now,” Brandon said, circling his finger like he wanted her to spin. “Since it works, I’m going to use it to capture the President of the United States and then I’ll take over the rest of the world!” With a grin, he posed with his hands on his hips, lost in his fantasy. He still didn’t bother to try to steal the hat from her. Morgan carefully set the plant down on the mantle behind her, eyes fixated on Brandon, who was ignoring her. 
          She then pretended to tickle the imaginary vines around her, wiggling until she stepped away from where she had been “trapped.” She sprang towards the pillows and flung one behind her. To her surprise, it hit Brandon in the chest. He gasped and fell to the ground.
          “How did you escape?” he asked.
          “Ticklish vines,” Morgan replied, advancing towards him.
          Brandon nodded, reaching into his pocket. “Sneak attack!” He pulled out a clenched fist and blew a handful of flour into Morgan’s face. She stumbled backward as Brandon rose to his feet. Spluttering slightly, she dusted the flour off her cheeks. By some miracle, none of it had landed in her eyes. While she was distracted, he drew a plastic dagger. Ever the opportunist, he slashed at her. Morgan backed away, and his attacks guided towards the hallway and the bedrooms. 
          Even though she had a plan, Morgan waited. She knew Brandon needed to use up all his tricks before she tried to do anything. After a minute of failing to land a blow, he ran into his bedroom. He returned only a second later with two of his stuffed animals. 
          “Unleash the hounds,” he said. With a grunt, he threw them at her. Morgan grabbed them from the air and tossed them behind her. She took a defensive stance, fists raised. Brandon paused, thinking for a moment before nodding. From his pockets, he pulled out a stack of 500-dollar monopoly bills. 
“Alright, plan E,” he paused, “I think. I’ll give you all the money in the world, starting with two million dollars if you give up now.” Brandon waved the stacks on bills to taunt her. Morgan shook her head. 
“I get enough money from babysitting you. I don’t need all the money in the world.”
Brandon sighed and dropped the bills on the ground. “Well, I tried.” He somehow pulled his math workbook out of his pocket and pulled out the wand again. “Chaos magician, begin!” He pointed the wand back towards her. “Bottomless hole!”
           Morgan sank down to her knees. She only needed a few more minutes. She could tell Brandon was beginning to burn himself out trying to capture her. 
           “Dragon wings,” Morgan declared, reaching into her wizard’s hat once again. Her fingers brushed against the edge of the clock, almost pulling it out as she fixed the fake wings to her back. She stood back up to face her charge again. 
           Brandon stomped his foot. “You may have your bag of tricks, but you don’t have chaos on your side. Dizzy spell!” 
           Morgan spun around in circles a few times while Brandon thought. With a grin, he pointed the wand at her one final time. “Black hole,” he said, drawing each word out. 
           Morgan gave him a grin of her own. She stumbled backwards, pretending to be sucked into something. Then she pulled the clock out her hat and acted like she was winding a clock hand. “Time reversal!”
           “No,” Brandon yelled, once again drawing out of the word as he began to walk backwards. Morgan watched as he reenacted the past few minutes backwards and followed him back to the living room. She grabbed the fake plant from the mantle and tossed it at Brandon. “Plant trap.” She grabbed the wand from his hand as his body seized up, like he was bound by something. With a lazy wave, she declared “Plants, you shall never be ticklish again.”
           Brandon began to wiggle as Morgan picked up the blanket yet again. Without waiting for him to try to weasel his way out, she tossed it over his head. “Hand over all your weapons, or you shall never be freed from this prison of darkness.”
           He waited a few seconds before sighing. “You win. I can’t think of a way out.”
           Morgan fist pumped and pulled the blanket off. “Alright, that was fun. Now go clean the hallway and put your stuff away again. Your dad will be here in 30 minutes, and we’ve made an absolute mess. I’ll race you to see who can put their stuff away first.”
           Brandon grinned. “Easy win. I’ll put everything away faster than you can blink.”
           Morgan rolled her eyes as Brandon took off, flour and toy cars falling out of his pockets.