Taking this job was a no-brainer for Adam Exley. He's recently finished high school and has nothing better to do until he gets his exam results. Mrs Cartwright is offering an exceptionally large amount of money for one day; and there could be other...
Adam ran his fingers through his hair and checked how he looked in the mirror. He looked presentable to his own eyes, but he didn't know how anyone else would see him. Probably a mass of nerves, though he made a good attempt at not showing it. He looked himself up and down. Smart-casual was the only word that came to mind. Dark grey trousers and a loose polo shirt. He hoped he looked respectable, and maybe kind of dashing. Not that he cared what anyone else thought. If a girl was only interested in him because of his abs or the width of his shoulders, he didn't think he'd want her anyway. He wanted someone who he could have a conversation with and actually learn something. Someone with interesting things to say.
He shook his head to unsummon the demons of self-doubt,''' and looked his reflection up and down again. It was probably more stylish than him, and more confident. His reflection never had to worry about exams, or not having anyone to go to the graduation dance with. All in all, he figured, his reflection must have a pretty good life. He looked at himself once more for good measure, and checked his trousers were properly zipped up. Of course they were.
"Ninety-ninth time's the charm," he muttered under his breath, and finally managed to set a foot outside his own room. His shoes were shiny, only recently polished, and his coat didn't have a single mark. If he was ever going to look dashing, even if it was just one day out of his entire life, then this was it.
Of course, it wasn't like he was going on a date today. There was no reason to dress up. The only person expecting him was Mrs Cartwright, who had already agreed to give him a considerable sum of money for his appearance, and therefore would hopefully not be judging him based on his businesslike presentation. Still, he had his own reasons for wanting to look perfect tonight. He had only recently finished high school, and he was determined that the long break before he saw his results wouldn't be an uneventful handful of weeks. For the first time in his life, Adam had looked at the shape of his future and decided how he wanted it to change.
He took a deep breath, and quickened his pace. There were other people on the street, but nobody stopped to say hi. They all had errands of their own, their own private business. Nobody cared to ask where one young man was going. He might as well be invisible, but that suited Adam just fine. He thought that he had a good guess at what might happen today, and how to turn it to his advantage. His predictions were way off the mark, but that wasn't his fault in any way, and so early in the day he had no idea of the humiliation that lay ahead. His stride was still filled with a confidence he couldn't really feel, and he was sure that his unique ability to think outside the box would lead to some kind of good outcome. If only he could keep on looking smart, and find some hidden reserve of charm and charisma, and if he was incredibly lucky...
He might have continued to sabotage his own chances by looking for any little thing that he might do wrong, but it didn't take that long to reach the Cartwright house. It was a slightly larger place than his own home, and one room had a little turret that poked up above the roof like something out of a fairytale. He imagined that might be Claudia's room, the girl who was too cool to hang out with the popular kids and make her own way in the world. Before the end of school, he'd heard that a couple of guys had shown some interest in taking her to the graduation dance. The school's big tradition, and their last chance to show how popular and successful they were before heading off to college. It was a day with great symbolic importance to many of his peers, but Claudia had turned them all down. She hadn't been interested in the teenage dirtbags who worshipped the ground she walked on, or even a popular football player. She had better things to do, she said. She didn't want to be bothered by boys.
Adam didn't think he was any different. He liked to think he was a young man now, no longer a boy, and certainly he was old enough to qualify if the numbers on a calendar were enough to judge maturity. But he had no delusions that he was going to march in and sweep the cool loner off her feet. No, Claudia wouldn't even be there tonight. But if he could discover some common ground, and manufacture an excuse for conversation, then he would be one step closer to learning what lay behind her enigmatic smile. And he thought that some time today, he might actually have the chance to test some of the deductions he'd made about her.
He walked around the block one more time. Just to clear his head, so that he wasn't thinking about a girl who wasn't even in the house. Another deep breath, and another. He had made such careful plans, and he was determined that they wouldn't come to nothing. Another deep breath, and his lungs felt like they were a little beyond their usual capacity. So he stopped breathing in, and raised a hand to knock on the door.
"Oh, hello!" Mrs Wainwright greeted him, with a half-scowl that didn't seem to fit her cheerful tone. But Adam knew she'd been through a lot of trouble already, and he supposed she was justified in her frustration. "It's Adam, isn't it? It's nice to meet a young man with a good old-fashioned name instead of the Zanders and Jasons who seem to be taking over the neighbourhood."
"Yes, Mrs Cartwright," Adam nodded, and glanced down at his perfectly-shined shoes. "And thank you for giving me a chance to prove myself."
"Yes." A single syllable, but somehow she drew it out until it could have been a whole sentence in its own right. "Lorelei's watching cartoons right now. Her big sister unfortunately can't be here today to a volleyball game. I'm proud of her of course, but I do find it awfully inconsiderate of the school to schedule competitions after you have already completed your examinations like this. Still, while she can't help I am forced to rely on the services of young gentlemen like yourself. And so many of the sitters I have previously employed have stopped answering my calls. I do hope that you will prove a little more reliable."
"I will do my best, Mrs Cartwright," Adam nodded in what he hoped was an enthusiastic and reassuring manner. She answered with a tight lipped smile that might have meant she was impressed, or that she would believe in his dedication when she saw it. But she turned and led him into the house.
Author's note: As a little experiment, I've pasted this chapter into an AI image generator. This is what it came up with; I guess it isn't too bad, although this isn't how I imagined Adam looking.
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