Three Word/Phrase Plot Challenge

[Amberlin]

Three words or phrases. Infinite possibilities!

I challenge you to take the following three words/phrases and turn them into a short story or scene:

(a babysitter, a horoscope, and a broken pencil)

The story can be about anything you want, as long as those three elements are incorporated into it.

Please note that this idea is in no way mine. A friend of mine told me about this exercise from her writing class, and it has helped me through a few bad bouts of writer's block from time to time. I thought I might share this exercise with you all in hopes that it might help you as much as it has helped me (as well as to see some of the nifty ideas you all come up with).

Good luck!

 

[Kitsune]

A babysitter was staring up at the night sky, analyzing all of the stars that decorated it, twinkling brightly. Her job of babysitting was practically over; the kids were tucked in and fast asleep. Now, she could look through the Ross's telescope like she's been wanting to do. Sticking out her tongue in concentration, her gaze landed on a certain star. It was the Aquarius star. The sight of it reminded her of a horoscope that she read earlier. Something or another about finding your 'one true love'. The memory made the babysitter roll her eyes. True love, yeah, right, she thought with a mental scoff. Turning her attention back to the night sky, she started to sketch the star, when, suddenly, her pencil broke. Throwing her head back and groaning, she said, "You've got to be kidding me!"

 

[Arcadia]

After the house fire, the babysitter, who was using the money she earned to help pay the bills, which were not ended by her freelancing as a private investigator, decided to have a look to see what the cause was. The house was a charred mess, walls and floors lay in tatters, the house a husk of its former self. Now never to be called a home again. The police had cleared out after their own preliminary investigations, claiming it was a gas cooker that was on and left it at that. But she thought different. She'd seen something like this before, which she called The Case behind Locked Doors, in which a murderer she had convicted had locked the doors of a house, before setting it alight and leaving its inhabitants dying until morning. She stepped into the former living room, one single item sticking out inside the blackened, darkened and darkening husk of the place. A pristine white sheet of paper. She picked it up. It read "Aries: Today, things will be interesting, and something you never expected to happen, will." and at the bottom, written in what seemed like...like..blood, was three single words. TURN.THE.PAGE. She did. The blood message continued. "Miss Private Investigator. I get you want to go down in the history books as a woman who solved a case the country wanted solved. But you cannot stop me. You will not stop me. You're an Aries, correct? Then let me say, things will get awfully interesting. I am in this house, armed with skills of assassination and weapons beyond comprehension. Let the games begin." Then, all of a sudden, a sound came from upstairs. Someone had stepped on a pencil. Breaking it. The games had begun.
@Vay