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Scott leaned back against a pillow on the couch, lazily swiping through posts on his phone. He glanced up at the sound of a crash from the kitchen, but at the call of “I’m okay!” from Jimmy, he ignored it. His cousins were feral, and there was no use stopping them. Not when they were bored and somehow had boundless energies even after school.
Grian however, was not making a ruckus, instead “passed out” (as reported by Joel) in his room. He hadn’t gone to school, instead fighting a terrible flu. And this was why Scott was here. Somebody had to take care of Jimmy and Joel after school (seeing as Grian couldn’t and it was still within work hours, so their parents wouldn’t be home until another three hours at least). If Scott wasn’t as nice as he was (and knew he wouldn’t get paid for it), he wouldn’t have come, instead forcing someone else to deal with the two. But alas, he was here.
He distracted himself by scrolling through posts by the “theater kids”, who were working on the set design for some random musical nobody had ever heard of. They seemed to be having fun. Scott would be there, but with so much work between school and family responsibilities — such as this — he didn’t dare commit. Lucky Martyn, who still had time for activities like acting. Yeah, he wouldn’t get a big role, considering he was pretty young, but he could still go.
Another crash from the kitchen broke his train of annoyed, disappointed thought. This time involving a yelp from Joel.
“What are you doing?” Scott stood up, looking over to them. A pot of water had spilled across the floor and a jello packet seemed to have exploded all over the counter. How they did it, Scott couldn’t be too sure, but he wasn’t surprised either.
“We wanted a snack! So we decided to fix one!” Jimmy yelled excitedly.
“You do realize jello takes hours to set, right?” Scott asked, not questioning why the two thought it a good idea to man the stove without asking (or getting help) first.
“Well…” Joel looked at the box. “He’s right, Jimmy. It takes forever. We’ll have to find something else.”
Scott shook his head. “Clean up the kitchen first. Get all that water up before it warps the floor. I’m going to check on Grian. Also, please do not use the stove.”
With a nod from the two in understanding, Scott left the scene, hoping they would get something simple, like peanut butter crackers. Or maybe some yogurt. Even candy would end better. (And he knew how the two of them got around sugar.)
He sighed, a bit worried about leaving them, but aware that since he’d come over, he hadn’t checked on the boy. Grian needed to be top priority. If these two fools died of stupidity, that would be on them.
Scott cracked open the door. Apparently it was enough to stir Grian awake. He sat up, groaning softly. “Timmy and Joel are ok, right?” he asked sleepily.
“They were about to use the stove, but they spilled the water and jello powder before they made it that far. They’re fine, as far as I can tell.”
Grian shook his head in a bit of amusement.
“Did they wake you?”
He shrugged. “I’ve been off and on for a while.” Grian flopped over to his side, closing his eyes. “Hey, uh, Scott?” he asked a bit hesitantly.
“Yes?”
“Could you read a chapter of this. It’s giving me a headache but I want to know what happens next.”
The front cover read Percy Jackson and The Sea of Monsters. Scott wasn’t too surprised. Everyone was destined to read the books around the time of middle school. At least Grian was somewhat cultured.
“Alright. Just one chapter?”
“Yeah or until I fall asleep. I don’t want to miss none of it.”
The chapter seemed to be about ten pages, long enough to get further into the plot. Plenty long to allow chaos to occur in other parts of the house.
Yet another sound of falling boxes. Of course the two were clumsy like that. But there was no crying. A few minutes later though, there was yelling.
Over the last oreo. Of course. Classic Jimmy and Joel.
“Give me a second, Grian. Sorry.”
He nodded, still keeping his eyes closed. Scott glanced at him before heading out. He looked horrible. Scott should probably watch him in case his fever got higher or he passed out.
Besides, even if this argument was resolved, five minutes later another would show. The oreo would be forgotten as one (Joel) bested the other (Jimmy) at Twister and Uno too many times. Scott sighed, just thinking about it.
“Better just call someone for backup,” Scott decided before things got too worse. He sent out a text to the group chat, knowing that at least one would be kind enough to show. Within the minute, the one he relied on most — Cleo — declined, leaving the options of people Scott really trusted as Ren (who was in the middle of acting class), Etho (who never seemed to do anything super important, but likely wouldn’t want to take care of the two), and Skizz (who, depending on the day and his mood, could be trustworthy and patient enough).
Scott went back to Grian’s room as he waited for a reply, getting back into the story. There was more noise from the other room (after all, they had settled on playing Uno), but Scott tried to ignore it.
A few minutes later the two burst into the room. “See! He’s taken Grian hostage!” Joel proclaimed at the top of his lungs.
“Shhh!”
Joel scowled at Scott. “And he doesn’t want anybody to know!”
“Give us back our Grian!” Jimmy hollered.
“Let him rest,” Scott said. “Go find something else to play. He’s sick.”
“Then why do you get to be in his room?” Jimmy asked, talking almost as if he owned the place.
“I would have left earlier but he asked me to read to him. Goodness’ sakes you two, just shoo. Let him rest. He’s better off without you two making noise.”
Joel furrowed his brows and glared at Scott.
As he did this, Scott’s phone pinged in a notification.
“Thank goodness. Backup.”
Skizz said he could handle it. Hopefully he could get the two to go outside without going on the road (Scott would have sent the two outside, but he could see the two getting run over by a car easily). And the best news was that Skizz lived only five minutes away, meaning it wouldn’t be a thirty minute wait for backup. Just a few minutes more of this mayhem.
“Hey, guys, I asked somebody else to stop by for company.”
“Com-pany?” Jimmy asked.
“Yeah. Skizzle’s coming over.”
“Skizz?” he asked excitedly.
Thank goodness this wasn’t a bad idea. (Granted, Skizz had done a lot of summer activities involving kids, so Jimmy and Joel were pretty familiar with him.)
“Yeah. Get everything cleaned up for him and maybe set out some games you guys can play,” Scott encouraged.
Joel, knowing his job now, took the lead, as he would never give Jimmy the opportunity to pick the game (he’d never risk playing Go Fish or Hungry Hungry Hippos). And the two were out of the room, leaving Scott with somewhat of a success.
He was incredibly grateful for friends who were willing to stop by.
~ ~ ~
“Thank goodness, Skizz. Thank you,” Scott said, as if he were about to die.
Was this a bad idea… accepting a call for help?
“What’s the problem here, Scott?”
When he pointed over to Joel and Jimmy, everything made sense. The two were making noise, running around the house, shooting nerf bullets at each other. Even if they weren’t about to hurt themselves, the noise couldn’t be great for Grian.
“Oh.”
“Mhm. I don’t know what to do with them, and Grian’s actually doing really terribly so it’s better that I stay with him and he gets to rest.”
“Yeah. And you can’t be in two rooms at once.”
“Sadly no,” Scott said with a sigh. “So if you don’t mind, I’m going to head back to check on Grian. We were in the middle of a chapter, so I may be a bit.”
“Okay. Sure thing.”
When Scott left the room, Skizz got to plotting around a better plan. Of course, getting the two outside would be the first course of action, but maybe getting them away from home would be better. Take a little trip around town. Granted, he’d have to get car seats…
“You guys have any car seats anywhere? I was thinking we could go on a little trip.”
Joel was the first to perk up at the word. “Maybe. I think they’re all in the car though.”
“Yeah. No cars here until mama and daddy get home,” Jimmy added.
Well, maybe going outside would be a good enough solution?
Or! Wait! Cleo’s place was like, a block away from here. They could take the car seats of her brother’s and successfully go around town from there. Granted, she had to be home if that were possible. But desperate situations called for elaborate solutions.
So he made a quick call, after five minutes, getting the okay from Cleo that they could stop by so long as the two didn’t come in and risk spreading germs.
“Pst, you two,” Skizz said, getting down to their level where they were now sitting playing Go Fish. Joel seemed very unhappy about it.
“Yes?” Joel asked.
“We’re going to Cleo’s to get car seats and then I’m going to get you a surprise.”
“A surprise?! What?!” Jimmy stood up, his cards scattering to the floor.
“Yep. But you’ve got to promise me one thing.”
Joel smiled, like he wasn’t about to keep said promise. “What?”
“We’ve got to drive over to Cleo’s without seats first. She’s like, a block away. We’ll be one hundred percent safe, but I’m not going to walk all the way there and back just to follow some dumb safety law. But you can’t tell a soul, okay?”
“Ok.” Joel said, no longer looking as devious, more excited to break a rule himself.
“Joel, you tell Scott we’re going to be out for an hour or so. But please be quiet.”
Joel ran off, not being very quiet in the slightest. But better than he would have been.
In a couple minutes, the crew was headed off to Cleo’s place, staying at a fairly slow pace. In all honesty, Skizz wouldn’t really put anyone’s life in danger — let alone someone he wasn’t family with — and he wouldn’t have done such a thing if she lived further out. But seeing as all things worked out, they were able to make it to her place in one piece, figure out how to put car seats in in less than twenty minutes, and were off out of the neighborhood a lot quicker than Skizz expected.
“So what’s the surprise?” Jimmy asked.
“Can’t know what it is, stupid,” Joel answered.
“Don’t call your brother stupid.”
“Well, he is.”
It was practically futile to argue with Joel on this, so Skizz decided to let the two work out their issues as they would.
“But really! I want to know what it is!”
“That would spoil the surprise, Jimmy.” Skizz said, keeping his eyes trained on the road ahead. It was difficult holding concentration and conversation, knowing that in some way, someone else’s life was potentially at risk. “It’d actually be good if you closed your eyes now. Because we’ll be there soon and I don’t want you to see what it is until we get there.”
“Okay, fine,” Jimmy said. “Close your eyes, Joel!”
“Close yours, Timmy.”
“You’re going to cheat, aren’t you?”
“No ‘m not! Close your eyes, like he said!”
“If your eyes were closed, you wouldn’t know mine was open!”
Skizz turned back to the two just for a second. “Calm it down you two. It doesn’t really matter too much anyway. But I may not let you have a surprise if you’re being brats about it.”
Suddenly, the two stiffened up and shut up completely.
And after a moment, Jimmy said in a really small voice, “Sorry. I still want something.”
And Joel, in a much more begrudging tone also passed on the same sentiment.
“Well, I’m glad you both are in better moods. Because we’re here now.” He pulled up to a Sonic, thanking all things existent that this place sold drinks cheaper in the afternoon, making this trip a no-brainer. Scott wouldn’t be happy about the excess sugar in their systems, but it’d be fine, surely. They could just use it up with a nerf war outside this time.
“Slushies!” Jimmy exclaimed with pure joy in his face, no longer having reason to yell at Joel.
Joel tried to look disinterested — too cool for even dessert — but it was obvious where his heart lied. “Thank you,” he mumbled out, looking longingly at the lime flavor (one he said matched the green in his hair).
“What do you want, Jimmy?” Skizz asked.
It took a lot of deciding, as he said he wanted the best choice. It took a while before he landed on a cherry with nerds in it — a hard decision made harder by Joel’s impatience in complaining that he was taking absolutely forever.
(It wasn’t nearly that long, honestly. Far less longer than it took the drinks themselves to be brought out — seriously, how long could a place take?)
But in the meantime the three decided what to do next. “I saw you guys have a lot of games to play.”
“No! Movie!” Jimmy said quickly. “With popcorn!”
“He’s right, Skizz. A movie does sound better.”
“Okay then. What movies do you have?”
Joel, without wasting a second, made his suggestion. “Shrek.”
“NO!!!” Jimmy howled at the top of his lungs, as if they always watched that.
“Fine then. Toy Story.”
Somehow that suggestion made him even angrier.
“How about— how about—” Joel seemed to run out of ideas quickly and Jimmy seemed to just want to veto all his suggestions.
“We could watch… Big Hero Six,” Jimmy said slowly, but very decisively.
“It’s not bad, I suppose,” Joel considered.
As the two exchanged dialogue on if it was a worthy movie, their drinks came out and finally Skizz was able to relish a silence that replaced such constant mayhem.
It would only last a fleeting moment, but it was worth the little he spent on drinks. And the silence he bought allowed for an easy drive back. (It also bought whatever sleep Grian got, which was always a good thing.)
Surprisingly, even as they got back home, the two stayed pretty quiet, immersed in the movie of choice (which did end up being Big Hero Six). Popcorn got all over the couch and Jimmy had dumped out all his superhero legos to multitask as he watched the movie, but Skizz couldn’t care less (and also figured Scott didn’t either).
What mattered was everyone was alive, in one piece, Scott hadn’t died of insanity and Grian hadn’t died of lack of sleep and sickness.
(All in all a successful day, and made more successful by the fact that Scott split the paycheck of babysitting.)