The Bad Boy's Nanny

Ch. 3 - Expired Milk

The next two days are about as equally as stressful as the first. The only plus is that Elliott is almost never home. I'm learning that each of the kids have little quirks about them that make it very difficult to control them. Ethan has his hiding thing. Crystal refuses to play any games that involve dice. Rose always leaves the faucet on. Jonas is obsessed with Cheerios.

"Where are my Cheerios?" Jonas asks as he walks downstairs in the morning and looks through the cabinets.

I glance over him and drop the handful of Cheerios I was holding for Beth. "Uh, I can go to the store and-"

"Oh my gosh," he whispers quietly to himself. "We don't have any Cheerios? I'm going to die."

"I said I can go to the store," I say and fix Beth's bib. "Do you mind having the pancakes I made for breakfast?"

He starts laughing intensely and changes his voice to mimic me, "do you mind having the pancakes I made for breakfast?" Becoming serious, he yells, "no!"

"Come on," I plead, "it's just one breakfast. They taste good."

"I don't care how they taste, Ivy," he spits. "I have eaten Cheerios for breakfast my entire life."

I raise an eyebrow. "That seems a little unlikely. I'm sure you had one breakfast that wasn't-"

"My entire life!" he repeats much louder, causing Beth to start crying. "Yeah, you go ahead and cry, you Cheerios stealer!"

"Jonas," I scold and try to comfort Beth. "I'll go to the store now, but you have to watch the kids. Addison went out to brunch with some of her friends from school, so you're in charge."

"That's not a good idea," he says. "I'm not really the best person to put in charge. I panic very easily. Oh! And I faint at the sight of blood."

"Elliott's still upstairs sleeping, so if anything horrible happens-- nothing will happen-- then he'll be here."

Jonas looks at me like I've lost my mind. "You think having Elliott here does me any good? If I were to fall and crack my head open, Elliott would just hand me a bandaid.. if that! If this house were on fire, Elliott would take his autographed photo of Jessica Alba and bolt, leaving us all to die in the flames! If an earthquake were to happen, Elliot would throw me into the crack and-"

"You're just being dramatic, Jonas. I'll be gone for no more than twenty minutes at the store. I think you can handle twenty minutes."

"Nope," he says firmly. "I can't even handle five minutes. One time, my mom and Addison went to water our neighbor's flowers and I was left in charge and I accidentally fed Beth a turkey leg and she almost died."

I bite my tongue and nod. "Okay, well, I believe you're mature enough to handle it this time." I pick the keys off the ledge and head for the garage. "I'll be back in twenty minutes."

"Don't do this, Ivy," he cries, falling to the floor and clutching onto my left leg. "Don't leave me to die!"

I shake my leg, but the kid won't give it up. "Jonas, let go!"

As I am trying to break my leg free, Elliott walks into the kitchen. He glances at me and then down to Jonas with a smirk.

"Ah!" Jonas screams. "The beast has awaken! Now you definitely have to stay!"

"Could you help me?" I ask Elliott hopefully, kicking my leg back and forth.

"Shoot, I totally would," he says with fake kindness. "It's just.. I left all the shits I give about this on my non-existent nightstand." Sending me a wink, Elliott grabs his own set of keys and heads out the backdoor.