Brie finished with a sigh of relief, and dropped the cloth beside the soggy diaper. Turning she grabbed one of the clean diapers, and quickly had it taped around Jinny’s waist.

“You’re too big of a baby for just one diaper. Maybe you need two.” Brie stretched the second diaper over the first, pressing the tapes into place with a crinkle.

After a few seconds of silence, Jinny made the first move. With an exaggerated carelessness, she bounced over to the kitchen to retrieve the blocks.

Brie watched, confused, as Jinny dumped the blocks in the middle of the living room and began stacking them up. Brie couldn’t accept that Jinny was really going to make her clean up the mess.

Jinny glanced up at Brie and smiled, then went right back to stacking the blocks.

“Giving up already?” Jinny asked; still focusing on her toys.

Brie didn’t reply; instead, she turned quickly, and disappeared into the kitchen. Grabbing a dishrag, she soaked up the puddle. After several trips to the sink and back; she eventually got the floor cleaned to satisfaction. Finished, she looked over and found that Jinny had been watching her.

Jinny smiled and nodded.

Brie took the dishrag, and the cloth she had used to clean Jinny, and dumped them both in the laundry hamper in the bathroom. She dumped the wet diaper in the kitchen trash, but left the towel on the floor; suspecting that Jinny would need another diaper change before the bedtime. Suddenly, Brie had the horrible suspicion that Jinny might have a stinky diaper. She forced the thought from her head; there was no way Jinny would actually do that; would she? Brie stopped and worriedly looked at the teen.

Jinny didn’t look up. Coincidentally, she was thinking of the same exact possibility. In her gut, she knew that she would have to go again before the end of the day. Night was fast approaching, and she needed to find a way to beat Brie; to win the bet. That just wasn’t the way she wanted to do it, not yet anyway. She looked around, searching for something; a tool to help her. What would a child want to do? What would they do that would ultimately antagonize Brie?

Brie was finished cleaning the recent mess, and wandered down the hall to her room. In a minute, she came back out, two Barbie’s in her hands, and several accessories.

Jinny knew what she wanted to do next.

“I want that!” Jinny demanded, timing herself to call Brie just before she could take a seat on the couch.

Brie looked up, worried that Jinny wanted to play with, and possibly destroy her favorite dolls. Instead, Jinny was pointing toward the front of the house. Brie’s eyes followed Jinny’s finger to a large pumpkin that sat on a table under the window.

“’Da pumpkin?” Brie asked, not quite sure what Jinny meant.

“Mmm hmm.” Jinny nodded. She had spotted the pumpkin when she arrived. It was large, but plain; she planned to change that very soon.

“Why do you want a pumpkin?”

“To carve a face!” Jinny got up and crinkled her way over to the window. “This one’s got not face.”

“I don’t know about ‘dat…” Brie said hesitantly. “I don’t want to clean ano’ver mess up.”

Jinny ignored this entirely. Bear-hugging the pumpkin, she hauled it over to the kitchen table, where she set it down with a loud thud.

“Let’s carve a face,” Jinny said excitedly; then added in a more mature tone, “c’mon Brie, it’ll be fun.”