The Bad Boy's Nanny

Ch. 2 - Pocket Full of Sunshine

After about an hour of bickering between siblings, I decide to order a pizza. They all seemed pretty content with this. Well, except Ethan, who I will just make chicken noodle soup for.

"The Krusty Krab pizza is the pizza for you and me!" Jonas sings while helping me set the dinner table with plates and napkins.

"Jonas," I say politely, "do you think you could sing something else? You've been repeating that same line for the past fifteen minutes."

He squints his eyes. "Fine."

I sigh contently when he switches up the tune. The pizza-boy arrives just as I finish up Ethan's soup. Opening the door, I smile at the familiar face. "Hey, Martin."

"Ivy? What are you doing here?" he asks in confusion.

The question confuses me at first, but then I remember that I'm at Elliott Kennedy's house. To any old high school friend of mine, this would be a shock. "I'm nannying for the family while the mom is on a trip."

He nods. "Oh! Okay, that makes much more sense than what I was thinking."

"No, no," I assure. "Nothing like that."

"Yeah," he laughs awkwardly. "I was like.. Ivy? With Elliott Kennedy? It just-"

"Hey, Martin!" Jonas says excitedly and rips the boxes of pizza from the man. "Bye, Martin!"

Smiling, I hand Martin the money for the pizza. "Well, I should go make sure he doesn't eat both pizzas. Bye, Martin."

"Later."

I close the front door and head into the kitchen. Jonas stands over an opened box, mesmerized by the pizza.

"Can you go get your siblings for dinner?" I ask and heat up the soup for Ethan.

He nods and stands a little bit outside of the kitchen before screaming, "dinner!"

"There goes my hearing," I mutter to myself and get out a bowl for the soup.

The sound of feet pattering against the floor gets louder as the three kids come rushing in.

Ethan gives Jonas a high-five before going to his seat at the table. "Soup me!"

"Soup him," Jonas says in a deep voice.

"Souping him," I say in a similar voice, trying to be hip. I hand Ethan his soup and a rubber spoon.

Jonas just shakes his head. "That didn't work as well for you as it did for us."

The twins walk into the kitchen arguing over a doll.

"Apparently," Jonas explains, "Crystal always gets to play with this doll and Rosie doesn't think it's fair. Crystal claims it was a birthday present, but since their twins who really knows whose present is for whom. Rosie claims the doll looks more like her, which doesn't make any sense since they're identical twins."

"We look nothing alike!" the twins yell at the same time.

Addison walks into the kitchen and shakes Crystal's arm. "Hey, no fighting." She turns to me. "I just put Beth to sleep, so you won't have to worry about that tonight. Do you need help with anything else?"

"Uh, I don't think so," I say hesitantly. "Thank you."

She smiles and sits down at the table. I open the pizza boxes and allow the kids to take what they want. Jonas takes five slices and then precedes to explain that he is trying to stay fit before soccer tryouts. The twins split one slice, which is a little worrisome, but Addison said it's normal.