From the Merriam-Webster Dictionary; Mexican standoff - a situation in which no one can emerge as a clear winner.
‘I’m in big trouble. I did something bad. You’ve got to help me. Can you come over right now?’
Miranda spoke so quickly that Lizzie could hardly understand her. She tried to get Miranda to calm down but it was no use, she was in a panic. She told Miranda that she would be there shortly.
Lizzie hung up the phone and before leaving she took a look at herself in the mirror. There is always the possibility of meeting a boy or two on the way over so she had to look good. Her long blond hair was in a ponytail and she added a colorful bright red scrunchy to brighten it up.
She was satisfied with her pink tank top and her denim shorts so she put on a pair of white leather sandals and was out the door.
When she arrived at Miranda's house she had barely pushed the doorbell when the door flew open. Miranda stood there in a highly agitated state. ‘Come in, come in’ she burst out ‘you gotta help me before my folks get home.’ Lizzie entered and as she did she noticed what Miranda was wearing. When she had the house to herself Miranda liked to lounge around in her underwear and today was no different. She was wearing a black spandex sports bra and a skimpy pair of black panties.
‘What’s the problem?’ asked Lizzie ‘what did you do this time?’ Miranda began to babble at high speed and Lizzie couldn’t follow it at all; something about babysitting and a cousin and getting pissed off. ‘Slow down’ she said ‘and tell me again.’
‘I have a cousin visiting, she’s nine years old, and she’s a terror. She was on some stupid TV show for two years and now she thinks she’s something special. Her family is related to my dad’s family somehow back in Mexico. They dropped by for a visit and I was volunteered to watch her while our parents went out.’
‘Where is she now?’ asked Lizzie as she looked around. ‘Did you lose her?’ she said trying to be funny.
‘She’s in my bedroom. I left her there. That’s the “scene of the crime”. She got on my nerves right from the start with her “I’m better than you” attitude but when I caught her going through my stuff I blew up. I did something stupid and now I need your advice.’
‘Let’s go to your room’ Lizzie suggested in a calming voice ‘and you can introduce us and maybe we can work something out between you two.’
They entered Miranda’s room and it was quite obvious to Lizzie that no one was there. ‘Where is she?’ she asked. Miranda sat on the bed and motioned for Lizzie to sit beside her.
‘When I came in my closet was open and she was going through my dresser drawers. She started to tell me how cheap my clothes were and how out of fashion and how awful they were. I tried to be nice but then she did that.’
Miranda pointed to a pile on the floor. It was socks, nylons and tights. ‘She dumped the whole drawer on the floor and then said that they were all better off in the garbage. It was too much, I blew.’
‘What did you do?’ asked Lizzie.
Miranda pointed at the closet and said ‘Take a look.’ Lizzie opened the door and couldn’t quite believe what she saw.
In the closet was a skinny girl; Miranda’s cousin. She was pretty with long dark hair. She was wearing a shiny satin party dress with a frilly bottom. It had a black top with small white polka dots. The skirt was white with black polka dots. She had black nylons on and shiny leather shoes. She was sitting on the floor.
Her hands were bound behind her with a pair of pantyhose. Another pair was knotted around her ankles. What appeared to be a white sweat sock was stuffed into her mouth and a pair of black tights were tightly wrapped around her head to hold it in. She looked up pathetically at Lizzie with her big dark eyes. Lizzie looked back at Miranda.
Miranda shrugged and said ‘She deserved it. She pushed me too far. I grabbed the pantyhose and before I knew it I had wrestled her to the floor and was tying her up. She put up a good fight for a skinny kid. Her mouth never stopped until I stopped it. The silence was so nice.’
‘Then she started thrashing around and kicking whatever she could reach so I stuck her in the closet. It took about ten minutes but she finally got tired of kicking the door. What do I do now?’
Lizzie sat down beside Miranda and the two of them studied the captive girl. She tried to look like a helpless innocent victim who didn’t deserve to be treated this way. It didn’t work on Lizzie. She had seen her brother Matt do the same thing whenever he was in trouble. It was a good act but neither of the teenagers was going to fall for it.
Lizzie also knew that Miranda was totally in the wrong on this one. ‘We don’t have much to negotiate with’ said Lizzie ‘but we can try.’ She went to the closet and took the girl by the ankles. She pulled her out to the middle of the room. She removed the gag. The girl immediately started cursing in Spanish. From the look on Miranda’s face it must have been surprisingly profane for such a young girl.
Lizzie hand gagged her and looked her in the eye. ‘We need to talk about this situation’ she warned the girl ‘and that’s not helping. Are you going to calm down?’ The girl nodded and Lizzie removed her hand.
‘What we have here is a Mexican standoff’ said Lizzie. ‘Miranda is up to her ass in trouble, there is no denying it. You are stuck in a closet and may be there for who knows how much longer. The best we can do to resolve this is offer to let you free now in return for you not saying anything about this to anyone. Is it a deal?’
She didn’t even consider it for a second. She looked up at Lizzie and with a sneer said ‘She deserves everything she’s going to get.’ Then she looked at Miranda and started her string of derogatory Spanish expletives again.
Lizzie hand gagged her again, quite roughly this time, and asked Miranda ‘Please pass me that sock.’ Miranda picked it up and said ‘please let me do the honors.’ As Lizzie moved her hand the girl screamed at them.
‘You can’t do this to me. Someday I’m going to be a big star. Everyone will know the name Selena Gomez. I’m going to be more famous than Hilary Duff…’ Her outburst was cut short as Miranda stuffed the sock in.
‘More famous than Hilary’ said Lizzie as she pulled the on the gag extra tight ‘that will be the day’. They both laughed as they pulled her back into the closet and closed the door. Selena kicked the door twice before Miranda opened it again. She rolled Selena face down and hog tied her with another pair of pantyhose.
Slamming the door she asked Lizzie ‘What do we do now?’
‘There’s no denying that we are screwed. How about we order a pizza and wait for your folks to come home.’