My Best Friend's Brother

Convention

“Good morning.” Aria greeted as she walked into the Wilkerson house.

“Aria, don’t you agree that we don’t need a babysitter?” Malcolm asked.

“Do you want an honest answer?”

“I trust you to be on your own. Babysitter’s not going to be here for another two hours.” Lois then looked at Reese and Malcolm. “Don’t do anything.”

“Honey, let’s roll.” Hal said as he walked out of their bedroom. “The meet-and-greet is at 6:30, and I don’t want to be late.”

“Hey, Hal.” Aria smiled.

“Hey, Kiddo.” Hal greeted her before heading out to the car.

Lois walked over to Dewey and snatched the fork that he was about to stick in the toaster out of his hand. She kissed him on the hand and did the same to the other three, she hurried out the door and waved. “Bye-bye.”

The boys went around the house setting up traps and Aria just stood by watching the madness. She didn’t feel like helping and just wanted to relax but then again, hanging out with them was almost never relaxing. The four of them stood in the backyard looking down at the sewage from the house. Well, the boys were, Aria stood by the back door as far away as possible.

“What’s that?” Dewey asked.

“It's a cesspool.” 

“We have a pool?” 

“It’s the sewage from the house.” Malcolm explained, “It flows into this pit and is decomposed by anaerobic bacteria.”

“Gross.” Aria scrunched her nose and looked away.

“Hurry up, it stinks.” Reese groaned in disgust, he and Malcolm covered the top with saran wrap before hiding it under a blanket and setting it up as some place to rest, Malcolm gently placed a book down with a satisfied smile. “Nice.”

~~~

“Come on, she’s going to be here any second!” Malcolm shouted to Reese as they stood in the front yard waiting for the babysitter.

“Sorry. I had to put the ‘lemonade’ in the refrigerator.” Reese snickered as he walked over to them. They all noticed a car slowly driving by and an old woman could be hardly seen, they waited for her to stop but she just kept going. “Maybe we scared her off.”

Aria glanced to her right and quickly tapped Malcolm’s shoulder to get his attention. “Ow, what?”

The boys followed her gaze and were awestruck at the beautiful girl that was now in front of them sitting on her bike. “Hi, guys. I’m Patty. I’m your babysitter.”

“Uh. . . will you excuse us for a second?” Malcolm said before the boys all ran into the house leaving Aria with Patty.

“I’m sorry about them, I’d say you get used to it but then I’d be lying.” Aria joked in hopes of no awkwardness between them.

“Am I babysitting you too?” Patty giggled.

“No, I’m really just here to make sure that they don’t cause you too much trouble.” Aria smiled. 

Some time had passed and the four kids sat in the living room playing a random board game when Patty walked up to them. “So, what do you guys want for a snack?”

“Excuse me?”

“Well, I can make you popcorn or bake us some chocolate chip cookies.” Patty suggested to them.

“But Mom says the oven doesn’t work.” Dewey stated confused. It obviously did work, but would you tell the boys that?

“You guys are just so cute!” Patty gushed before walking back to the kitchen. The phone rang and Malcolm answered.