The Babysitter✔️

bonus #5

hello everyone!! coming back to the story you all love so much after a few years with a bonus from the perspective of the reason Jace and Lexi met, drumroll please! you guessed it! it's Hallie! hope y'all enjoy...

Maybe if I wasn't in the process of changing JP's diaper while Connor tugged at the bottom of my shirt crying about something Maggie had done, I would've appreciated the irony of me babysitting Jace and Lexi's children more while they were out at dinner for their fifteenth anniversary. After all, the whole reason Jace and Lexi met was because my mom needed someone to babysit me while she went on a work trip. But alas, the past two hours of screaming, crying, and perfect storms, in the words of Taylor Swift, were enough to convince me that I did not want kids.... ever. Maybe I'd change my mind when I was older, but as a twenty year old this was most definitely not something I wanted to be dealing with anytime soon.

"Cal! Can you do something about this?" I called out, gesturing down at Connor who was viciously tugging on my shirt in tears. His crying was triggering JP, who I just calmed down from classic 'I want my mommy and daddy' fit that most two year old kids had when they were upset.

My brother, always the helpful one, was sitting on the couch reading some lifestyle magazine of Lexi's while simultaneously watching some college football rerun.

"And for the love of god, get your feet off of the coffee table or Lexi will kill you." 

Of course, in typical Cal fashion, he ignored me and simply flipped the page of the magazine that I knew he had no interest at all in reading. I finished changing JP's diaper and hoisted him up in the crook of my arm while bending down to Connor.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" I asked him. He was eight years old now and already looked like the mirror image of young Jace.

"Maggie called me stupid," he cried, burying his face in my shoulder and throwing his arms around my neck.

It took all of my balance not to fall over, now supporting his weight while holding baby JP.

Maggie and Connor had been fighting basically since the day Connor was born, which I understood very well. It was similar to how Cal and I had been for a while despite the fact that we had such a large age difference.

"Oh well I'm sure she didn't mean it, let me go talk to her, sweetie," with JP still in my arms, I walked up the stairs to Maggie's room and knocked softly before walking in.

"Maggie-"

"I didn't call him stupid!" She huffed, throwing her hands up, "I just said don't be stupid, and then he ran out of here crying!"

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Ugh, kids. "Well, Connor is very upset, so could you apologize to him anyway?"

"Sorry you got your feelings hurt!" Down the steps, startling JP who began crying again, getting snot all over my shirt. I should've expected this. 

And with that, knowing that was probably the best we were going to get, I headed downstairs, the crying JP still in my arms. Once I reached the ground floor, I placed JP into Cal's lap over the magazine, and Cal was forced to grab hold of him.

Immediately JP's crying stopped as he used his little hands to grab Cal's face. For some reason, JP absolutely loved Cal which was totally unfair because I'd been the one taking care of him all night while Cal just fooled around and did nothing.

"See Hal? This is how you calm a crying baby," He said with a smirk.

I sighed and rolled my eyes at him, walking over to the still teary Connor and sitting down in front of him. "I am sorry about what Maggie said."