Chapter 25

“So Joe convinced Mom to let you go to school dressed like this?” Kevin asked on the bus a few minutes later when Barbie sat next to him. He was clearly delighted by the outcome, even if he didn’t know why things had gone down as they had. It was certainly not a typical morning for any of them.

“I’ve got to say I’m impressed. I did offer to have your back, but you said you had things under control. Is this what you meant?” Kevin laughed as he indicated his sister’s appearance.

“I thought mom was going to flip out, okay?” Barbie said, uncomfortable at the way Kevin just started talking to her while being grateful he’d brought it up, so she didn’t have to.

“So, are you ready to tell me what’s REALLY going on?”

“I can’t tell you what’s going on. I can’t trust you won’t go running to Joe or Mom and Dad and tell them,” Barbie pouted. She felt she was getting good at it finally, even though she didn’t WANT to be good at it.

“So Joe doesn’t know what’s going on either?” Kevin asked skeptically.

“Like I said, I can’t tell you. I don’t think you’d swear yourself to secrecy, and even if you did, you wouldn’t keep your word,” Barbie accused her brother bluntly.

“I would too!” Kevin insisted. If there was one thing Kevin prided himself on, it was maintaining confidences, at least as long as it suited him.

“Sure, that’s exactly what someone who would not keep their word would say,” Barbie allowed herself a smile. She’d heard him say the same thing to Ariel once.

“Look,” Kevin offered a pinky promise.

Barbie looked at his pinky before dismissing it with a wave of her hand. “Means nothing to you! I want to trust you, Kevin, but I need assurances, not fake promises!”

“What kind of assurances?” Kevin asked. He felt elated that his sister hadn’t shut him down cold. It meant that the negotiation phase had begun, and maybe he could save himself additional digging. One thing was for sure, though. His sister WAS hiding some huge secret!

“Okay, first - whatever I tell you - you have to SWEAR that you will not tell anyone! Not Joe, Not Ariel, not a stranger and absolutely not mom or dad,” Barbie listed one finger at a time.

“Not even you?” he joked.

“Be serious, or we aren’t doing this”

“Okay, okay, I swear,” Kevin assured his sister.

“Fine then. Do you remember today when you panty checked me, and I did it without bitching?”

“Yeah, that was weird.”

“Well, don’t get used to it. I just didn’t want to argue. If I tell you my secret and you KEEP your word and don’t tell anyone, I’ll keep doing it whenever you tell me,” Barbie agreed without argument.

“Really?” he asked suspiciously, knowing Barbie wouldn’t agree to something like that unless she thought he was on the verge of finding out anyway.

“What else?” he asked, expecting there to be more. This couldn’t be all there was to this.

“Well, that is up to you,” she was reluctant to tell him what Joe wanted her to offer him. Her hesitation made it appear like she was thinking about her answer. The pause was driving Kevin wild with curiosity. He HAD to know his sister’s secret now.

“You’re in no position to stonewall me, sis,” Kevin assured his sister, misunderstanding what she’d said. “If you think I’m going to offer concessions for the chance at possibly finding out something I know I can work out for myself, you need to rethink your approach.”

“No! I meant I won’t do everything you tell me, and once we agree on the terms I won’t let you change the rules,” she said. Kevin had a reputation for making up board games for the family to play and changing the rules when he was losing. It was why no one would play any board games with him now.

“Yeah, okay?” He agreed, hiding the surprise from his face and voice. Barbie was offering HIM concessions for telling him her secret? What the fuck?!

“I’ll remove my shirt anytime I come in to clean your room. I’ll just wear panties. You can basically check me the entire time. How is that?” she asked nervously. It was clear to Kevin that his sister was uncomfortable but willing to bargain with him. He liked that – a lot.

“And all I have to do is keep your secret? It must be some secret. Let’s hear it before I agree,” he was ready to agree already, but she was playing hard to get, and he knew ALL about that game.

“It doesn’t work like that, Kevin. If I tell you and you disagreed, you can just throw me under the bus. So in exchange for your guaranteed silence, I will keep doing what I promised as long as you don’t tell anyone. That’s how I’ll ensure your loyalty. If I stop, you can tell everyone,” Barbie suggested.

“Hmm, and what about when you are off restriction?” Barbie rolled her eyes. This was more difficult than she’d imagined. Barbie didn’t think she’d get off restriction anytime soon, but Kevin didn’t know that.

She assured him she’d keep cleaning his room even when she was off restriction. Kevin wasn’t sure just how long he could play that card, but he was very intrigued. He wasn’t obsessed with his sister’s tits, but he would definitely enjoy watching them bounce around his room – especially as she started developing in the next few years.

Once they agreed, she told him what she’d told Ariel the night before. “You are very observant, Kevin. I thought I was clever. I wanted to change and be more daring. I decided to change my name to Barbie and act a little more mature, okay?”

“That’s the big secret? I think that one is out,” Kevin laughed.

“No, the secret is I am playing a little bit of a game with Joe, but he isn’t aware I am playing it. I am trying to see how bratty I can act. I am naturally very polite, and it’s a hard habit to break. The more Joe tries to boss me around, the brattier I act.”

“How do you win a game like that?” Kevin asked.

“I dunno, so far, I’ve earned a seat next to you because he didn’t want to sit with me, dressed like a total slut, and earned an indefinite restriction. How am I doing so far?” She laughed.

Kevin chuckled too. “Touché,” he said.

“So all I have to do is not tell anyone your secret? Why did you tell me? I NEVER would have guessed that.”

“Look, you almost guessed last night. You went to Joe, and I got nervous that you two would figure it out. If you’d started snooping around Pinkerbell as well, you would have figured it out for sure, and all of this would have been for nothing.”

“I was going to ask her today at school,” he admitted.

“There are three ways that you can get a message across Sebastian Inlet. Telephone, television and tell-Ariel,” she quoted her older brother. “If you started talking to her, she would have initiated rumors just trying to figure it out for herself, and the game would be over real quick. Obviously, catastrophic game over if you’d talked to mom and dad. Now that you know the big secret, do you want the game to be over, Kevin?” she asked.

He didn’t, and he saw her point. “Okay, and all you will do for me is let me panty check you and clean my room topless?” he asked.

“Isn’t that more than enough?” Barbie asked in surprise. She had thought Joe was incredibly generous with the offer she’d passed along as if it were really her own. She didn’t want to strut around topless in front of Kevin, but she would do it if Joe told her she had to do it.

“I think it’s your first offer. It’s not your BEST offer,” Kevin sounded like an insurance salesman, or at least what she imagined a salesman would sound like. “I also think there is more to this game that you aren’t telling me.”

“I can’t tell you more because I don’t know if you’ll keep it to yourself, Kevin. Do you blame me? you are talking about basically blackmailing me into letting me keep playing,” she said.

“Hey, now, that’s a dirty word. I am talking about you making it worth my while to HELP you with your game,” he said.

“I don’t want help. I want you to stop asking questions and putting your nose where it doesn’t belong so I can play my little game in peace,” she insisted.

“You want to know what I think?” he asked.

“That it was a mistake to ask you to keep your mouth shut?” she guessed dryly.

Kevin offered her a lemony smirk in response. “I think if you were just trying to be a brat to Joe, no matter how much he pushed you, then you would have pulled that soap out of your mouth and shoved it up his ass,” he theorized.

“Joe is much stronger than me. He would never have let me do that,” Barbie laughed at the idea of her stuffing a bar of soap anywhere Joe didn’t want it.

“I was speaking metaphorically,” Kevin corrected. “I meant that if all this was really only about you giving him as much shit as he gives you, then you would have never let him stuff a bar of soap in your mouth. But you chewed it all through breakfast,” he reminded her.

Barbie realized that he was right, and Kevin could tell from her body language he was on the right track. She was instantly regretting, not asking that Joe be the one to talk to Kevin. She had once again underestimated her little brother’s analytical intelligence.

“Okay, you got me, alright, Kevin? But I am telling you that I will never forgive you if you let the cat out of the bag. I am serious!”

Kevin was very aware of that fact and knew she could make his life pretty bad if she put her mind to it.

“Joe and I made a bet. I didn’t think mom and dad wouldn’t let him lay out the rules. Anything he gets them to agree to, I will do,” Barbie said as if she was admitting the world really was flat. “The restriction lasts as long as he can get them to agree to keep it going. That’s the deal,” she made a cute duck face when she admitted that was all that was really going on.

As preposterous as it sounded, it fit more perfectly than Anything else Kevin had been told.

“ANYTHING?” Kevin asked enthusiastically.

“Shhhh,” Barbie told him to keep his voice down. “Anything that our PARENTS would agree to, not YOU! So yes, now when I cuss at the table, I’ll get soap in my mouth,” she confirmed.

“Did you like that?” he asked.

“What are you? Crazy? No, of course not! But a bet is a bet, Kevin, just like a deal is a deal. Are you going to keep your end of it?” she asked. “You can’t even tell Joe. If he knew you knew, the bet would be over, and I would stop being on restriction. That’s how it’s supposed to work,” she lied.

“Like Jenga? You pull the wrong block, and the tower collapses. If anyone guesses the game, the game ends. Brilliant! Oh yeah, no problem. We can reach a deal,” he smiled wickedly.

“Reach?” she asked, worried about what he meant.

“Yeah. I am going to dictate ten things for you to write down,” Kevin used some alliteration on the word dictate to make it sound like “Dick-Tate.” He noted his sister rolled her eyes, but she didn’t acknowledge his naughty joke. “I will then let you cross two things off the list. Your secret will be safe with me as long as you keep doing the other eight. Like an incentive for me and a guarantee for you. That sounds more than fair, don’t you think?”

“What sort of things?” Barbie asked cautiously. She found it hard to believe Kevin could dream up ten things he thought she might do in order to keep her secret safe.