Babysitting the Band

2 CHAPTER

​"You’re still going to be able to go to the concert, right?" Sophie nearly shrieked, and it was so loud that I thought my ears were going to bleed. "You said you were going to go to the concert with me, Aria! You can’t back out on me on the day of the concert!"

​"Relax," I snapped, and I could have taken my own advice. "I’m still going to go to the concert with you. Mrs. Scott just needed someone to babysit Tommy last minute for the afternoon. I’ll be back before the concert, so stop freaking out."

​Sophie began to breathe again, and all I did was roll my eyes as I grabbed my bag and headed toward the door. I should have left ten minutes before, but Sophie had stopped me before I could. I just hoped that Mrs. Scott wouldn’t be mad at me for being late. I drove like a maniac all the way to their house, practically running to the front door so I wouldn’t be any later than I already was.

​"Sorry I’m late," I apologized to Mrs. Scott once she answered the door. "My sister had an... um, an emergency. But it’s all taken care of now."

​Mrs. Scott smiled at me, but she seemed to be in a rush. "It’s okay, dear. Tommy’s in the living room watching TV, and there’s snacks in the fridge if you’re hungry. I’ll see you in a few hours!"

​I couldn’t even say anything to her before she was out the door and practically gone. So I made my way into the living room, where Mrs. Scott said her son would be. And just like she had said, Tommy was glued to the television, a show that I hadn’t ever seen before playing. Tommy didn’t even look up when I entered the room.

​"Hi, Tommy," I greeted, sitting on the couch now as he continued to sit right in front of the television. "It’s Aria. I’m here to babysit you for a couple of hours."

​He still didn’t look away from the television, so I said nothing and waited to see what he would do. The show continued, and Tommy’s big green eyes would follow everything that was happening on the screen. I was starting to think there wasn’t even a point in me being there.

​When a commercial finally came on, the small boy turned toward me with a surprised look on his face. All I did was blink at him.

​"Aria!" Tommy cried out, jumping up from his spot on the ground and running toward me. The second he was close enough, he leaped forward and wrapped his arms around me and buried his face into my chest. "When did you get here?"

​I almost rolled my eyes at him, but laughed instead. "A few minutes ago."

​Tommy laughed and hugged me tighter, and I was able to turn the TV off without him even noticing. For the next three hours, we talked and played games like we usually always did. And when it was time for me to leave, he wouldn’t let go of me when we hugged goodbye.

​"Come back soon, Aria!" he cried over his shoulder as he continued to hold me tightly. "I can’t wait to see you again!"

​I laughed once he finally pulled away. "I’ll definitely come back soon."

​I drove as quickly as I could all the way back to my house, because I had gotten a text from Zoey telling me that both she and Parker were already at my house waiting for me. The last thing I wanted was to make Zoey and Sophie mad at me for making them wait.

​I quickly barged right through the front door to see my two best friends and sister sitting on the couch, all of them ready to go to the concert. With one look at me, both Zoey and Sophie looked like they were going to throw up.

​"What?" I couldn’t help but ask.

​"You’re not wearing that to the concert, are you?" Zoey asked me, reaching over and tugging at my grey turtleneck. "You’ll die of heat exhaustion if you do. Not to mention it's super ugly."

​"And those jeans," Sophie gagged. Their attitude made me want to just go up to my room and not come down for the concert. "They're, like, mom jeans. You look like a mom, Aria."

​I scowled at her. "I was babysitting. What do you expect?"

​"You could dress a little more like a teenage girl," Zoey shrugged, hopping off the couch now and placing her hands on my shoulders from behind. "Come on, now. I'm going to take you up to your room and we're going to find an amazing outfit for the concert. If you don't have anything, we'll just borrow something from Sophie."

​She now led me up the stairs in the direction of my room, and I didn't even try to fight against her. There was no point in doing so.

​"We have to redo your hair and makeup too, especially since we're going to be backstage with the boys!" Zoey continued now. "Parker, entertain Sophie, will you?"

​"Will do," I heard him call out right before Zoey shut my bedroom door behind us.

​She went shuffling through my closet as I sat on my bed. I looked at myself in the mirror, and then down at the clothes that I was wearing. Did I really look like a mom? This wasn't much different from what I usually wore. Did I always look this bad, or were they just freaking out because we were going to meet four famous guys?

​"Aha!" Zoey called out suddenly, turning around with a certain article of clothing in her hands. "What is this? I've never seen you wear anything like this before."

​I blanched at the small dress that looked like it belonged to a child. "That's Sophie's. My mom must have mixed it up with my clothes when it went through the wash."

​"Well, you're wearing it," she informed me, and I nearly fell off of my bed. Was she being serious? "I'm sure Sophie has shoes that match with it, too."

​I looked at the clock to see that I pretty much had no time to argue with her. If I didn't get changed right then, there would be no time to do my hair or makeup. We'd be late to the concert if I argued with her.

​So I grabbed the dress, grumbling profanity under my breath as I walked into the bathroom to change into it. It seemed like it took forever to get it on, and as I stared at myself in the mirror once I was finally able to pull it over myself, I couldn't believe what I was doing. This wasn't my style.

​It was short and low cut, not to mention silver and too sparkly for my liking. I liked the belt that went around my waist, but only because it kept everything in place. It made the entire thing feel snug.

​"It's perfect!" Zoey giggled once I stepped out of the bathroom, and she was holding up sparkly silver heels that matched the dress like it was made for them. "It shows off your curves perfectly!"

​I was so not comfortable wearing this, but there was no way I could get out of it. And when I say that, I mean literally. It was so tight that I didn't think I'd be able to get out of it.

​"There's no way I'm wearing these," I told her once she set the heels down by my feet. "I'll fall down the stairs and die!"

​Zoey rolled her eyes as she forced me down in a chair in front of my mirror. "Don't be ridiculous. It's not that hard to walk in heels!"

​Or so she says. She'd been walking in heels ever since she was able to walk, and it was the same with Sophie. They had always been into these types of girly things while I never had been. There had been a time where I had worn girlier clothing, but nothing like this.

​It took Zoey twenty minutes to curl my hair and do my makeup, and she had to squish my feet into the heels to get them to fit. She strapped them up for me, because I refused to, and I couldn't believe I actually let myself get into this situation. She even forced me to wear red lipstick! Was I going to a concert or on a date?

​"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" Sophie rushed once we were finally all finished. "If we don't go now, we're going to be late!"

​It took me way too long to get down the stairs, so eventually Parker had to carry me to hurry things up. It was completely embarrassing, and I could only hope that the short dress wouldn't ride up while his arms were around my waist.

​"I really hope Parker doesn't have to carry you like that all night," Zoey told me once Parker put me down and I crawled into the back of his car with Sophie.

​"He wouldn't have to if you didn't force me into these stupid shoes," I snapped, trying my hardest to adjust my feet so they were somewhat comfortable being bound by these horrible shoes. "I'd rather go barefoot than wear these things."

​Zoey whistled. "Not a good idea at a concert."

​This was going to be the death of me.

​When we finally got there, the line to get inside was so long I could have sworn it went around the whole building twice. It made me wonder who else had backstage passes. I hoped that there wasn't that many, because I'd be super annoyed if it was crowded back there as well.

​"Wow," Sophie giggled as we got to the back of the line. "I didn't know Hello Aria was this popular."

​I stared at her flatly. "Really?"

​"Some of these people are probably here to see Shameless Thinking, too," Parker informed us, and I blinked up at him as he mentioned the unfamiliar name. Seeing my confusion, he elaborated. "Shameless Thinking is the band that's opening for Hello Aria tonight. They're nearly as popular as Hello Aria; I'm surprised you've never heard of them."

​"The reason why she probably never heard of them is because they only have three members, and two of them are girls," Zoey explained now, and it was obviously that she couldn't have cared less about this band. "Sure, the one guy in the band is hot, but the boys of Hello Aria are so much better looking. Not to mention their music is better, too."

​I didn't know if she was saying that just because the boys were hot or because she genuinely did like Hello Aria's music over this Shameless Thinking band. But honestly, that didn't matter much, because we were now being let inside. I ignored the pain in my feet as I walked beside my sister and two best friends.

​We were able to get pretty decent seats for being so far back in the line, and I seemed to be the only person in the entire crowd that was not excited for this concert.

​The concert started almost immediately with the band Shameless Thinking opening just like Parker had said, and their music wasn't that bad at all. Zoey was right when she said that there were three people in the band; only one of them being a boy. He was the guitar player, while a blonde girl played the drums. The singer, who was also the bass player, stuck out from the two of them with her punk rock style.

​They only played a few songs before leaving the stage, and I knew what was coming next. And I wasn't the only one, because pretty much everyone jumped up from their seats and started screaming for the band that was coming up on the stage now.

​"This is so exciting!" Sophie squeaked from beside me. I said nothing in response, not wanting to ruin her happy mood. I was glad that she was happy, and having my feet squashed was worth it, because I'd never seen my sister smile like this before.

​"Hello, everybody," a silky, sultry voice rang throughout the speakers, and it caught me off guard. Hello Aria was now on stage, and this caused all the girls to scream even louder and almost break my eardrums. "Thanks for coming out to see us tonight."

​Zoey and Sophie were screaming now too, and I had to crane my neck around to see who was talking. It was the lead singer, whose name I believed was Ash, and I couldn't help but notice how cocky he looked up there. No one else seemed to notice, or even care.

​I couldn't believe I was going to have to stand through this for hours, and I had to continuously remind myself that I was there for Sophie, not me. My feet hurt and I had to pull this embarrassing dress down every couple of minutes so I wouldn't look like a complete slut. But then again, nearly every girl there was wearing something even shorter.

​Ash began to sing, and I couldn't deny that he had a good voice. I didn't want to admit it, but it was probably one of the best voices I had ever heard in my entire life.

​Their music wasn't horrible. That wasn't my problem. The problem was that my name was everywhere I turned and it was driving me completely insane.

​That Ash guy was charming; at least he sure thought he was. It seemed like all four of them thought they were God's gift to Earth, and that was something else I didn't like about them. They all just seemed so arrogant.

​I had to sit through almost three hours of their music, and I couldn't have been happier when it was finally over. But then I remembered that we had backstage passes, which meant we were going to spend even more time there.

​Sophie grabbed onto my arm and yanked me, wanting to be backstage immediately. My feet screamed in the tiny shoes as she dragged me after her.

​"Ow, Sophie, my feet!" I cried out, but this didn't stop her from continuing to drag me through the crowds to get backstage. "Sophie, let go of me!"

​But she didn't, and Zoey and Parker didn't try to stop her. I seemed to be the only person that didn't want to go backstage, but that wasn't very surprising.

​We flashed our backstage passes to the security guards, and they let us through without much thought to it. They didn't even seem to notice how absolutely miserable I obviously was.

​"Where's Hello Aria?" Sophie nearly cried once we got backstage, looking around in every direction eagerly. I could have sworn her neck was going to snap. 'I’m back here for them, not for the stupid crew! Where are they?'

​'Calm down, Sophie,' I sighed, looking around as well so she wouldn’t snap at me to do so. 'I’m sure they’re somewhere around here. Just be patient.'

​'I can’t be patient!' she cried, suddenly grabbing onto Parker and yanking him away from Zoey and me. 'Come on, Parker! We’ll look for them over here while Zoey and Aria look for them over there!'

​Like hell I was going to go around looking for them in these damn shoes.

​'I’m guessing you’re not going to look,' Zoey laughed when she saw I was rooted to my spot.

​'I’d much rather go home,' I shrugged, crossing my arms over my chest.

​'Oh, come on,' Zoey smiled now. 'You should be great at finding people! You’re pretty much a legend at hide and seek. You can find anyone! And all because of your babysitting powers.'

​I rolled my eyes at her. 'You make me sound like a superhero.'

​'You might as well be! You’re the best babysitter and you know it!'

​'I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation,' a new voice now said, and we turned to see an older brunette woman make her way toward us. 'Did she say that you were the best babysitter around?'

​I shot a glare at Zoey before saying, 'I don’t really think that I’m the—'

​'She’s definitely the best babysitter around,' Zoey grinned, cutting me off and nearly pushing me out of the way so she could face the woman. 'Pretty much everyone knows who she is, and man, all the kids love her. We can’t even walk around town without a couple of them running over to say hi to her. If you’ve got a kid you need to be watched, she’s the girl to go to.'

​'Oh, I do have kids I need you to watch,' the woman now smiled at me, and I wasn’t so sure about all of this in the slightest. 'I have four.'

​'Oh!' Zoey laughed, and I couldn’t help but give her a look. 'The most she’s ever babysat in one night is six, and they were all under the age of eight! Those kids were said to be a babysitter’s nightmare, but she was able to put them all to bed in less than ten minutes! No other babysitter has ever been able to do that before!'

​Why was she telling this woman all of this? Yes, it was true, but it wasn’t like I was at the concert to get a job. Zoey probably thought that this woman had some kind of connection to Hello Aria, since she was backstage and everything, but she could have just been like us. She could have just been lucky (or unlucky, in my case) enough to be backstage at a Hello Aria concert.

​The woman continued to smile at me. 'Impressive.'

​I shrugged. 'I try.'

​'Well, would you be up for the challenge of babysitting my four brats?' the woman now asked, and it caught me off guard that she had called them that. I didn’t think a mother should ever refer to her kids as brats, no matter how awful they could be. 'I guarantee you that it’s a job that you’ve never had before.'

​That didn’t make me want to take the job very much. I didn’t really trust this woman, especially when I met her at a concert.

​'Um,' was all I could say. I glanced over at Zoey, who now chose to be silent. I was just glad she wasn’t going to force me into anything by answering for me.

​'Mom!' a new voice now called out, stopping me from having to make a decision and answer her. The three of us turned toward the source of the sound, and my jaw nearly dropped when I saw that the person shouting was none other than Grim Worthington, the drummer from Hello Aria.

​'Not right now, Gregory,' his mother sighed, and Zoey and I looked at each other in confusion at what she had called him. 'Your mother’s trying to do something right now."

​"You'll probably want to hear this, Mom," Grim nearly snapped now, and I now saw five other people emerge from behind him. "The guys and I found some girl trying to sneak into our dressing room!"

​My eyes met Parker's, who was with the three other members of Hello Aria. The one I recognized as the bass player, Ben Harding, was holding onto my sister's shoulder, and she looked like she was loving every second of it.

​"Sophie!" I hissed, and I gave Parker a look that told him I was going to deal with him later for letting Sophie try to sneak into their dressing rooms. "Get over here right now!"

​Though she didn't look like she wanted to, Sophie begrudgingly stepped away from the boys and made her way over to me, Parker following right after her. Zoey looked like she was going to faint, but I felt nothing at all as I stared right at the four members of the most popular band in the world.

​"You know her?" the older woman now asked me.

​"Yeah," I sighed, shooting Sophie a look when I saw she was looking at me. "She's my younger sister."

​"Hey, look," the guy I recognized as the lead singer, Ash Ryder, grinned. His head c****d to the side as he looked down at me. "It's the girl I almost hit with my car. You're actually really hot when your hair isn't in your face."

​This was the guy that nearly killed me? And how could he say that so calmly? I seriously could have died that day!

​"That's the girl you nearly killed?" the guitarist, Sawyer Maddox, asked the other boy now. "Wow, I thought you were crazy when you said you thought she was hot. You weren't lying."

​I couldn't help but make a face at all four of them. "Nice to meet you, too."

​"Did you have fun out there?" Ash smirked at me now.

​All I could do at first was stare at him flatly. "Yes, all my dreams came true," I told him sarcastically.

​"But anyway," the older woman continued now. "My name is Annabelle Worthington. I'm Gregory's mother, though you may know him as Grim. I'm also the manager of Hello Aria."

​For some reason, I did not like where this was going. Annabelle had said she had four brats that she needed to be taken care of, and I was pretty sure I had just figured out who those four brats were.

​"Could you please babysit these four boys?"

​All I could do was stare at her for a moment, not believing what I was being asked. She was really asking me if I'd babysit four teenage boys? At least one of them had to be older than me! Why did they need babysitting?

​"A babysitter?" Grim nearly shouted, looking just as shocked as the rest of the three boys. "Mom, we don't need a babysitter! We're teenagers! We're men!"

​Annabelle looked back at her son, a flat look on her face. "Sure, you're men. Men that trash their hotel rooms and act like complete and utter children about ninety-nine percent of the time."

​Grim took a step back, as if he knew what his mother was saying was exactly true. I still couldn't find my voice, and both Zoey and Sophie looked like they were going to faint. But I knew what my answer was going to be.

​"Sorry, but no," I denied, trying my best to force a smile. The last thing I wanted was to spend time with four boys that were supposedly complete brats. I might have been able to take care of little kids pretty well, but teenage boys were completely different.

​"Please," Annabelle nearly begged now, and I thought she was going to get down on her hands and knees. "Please, I'm begging you! These boys need down on her hands and knees. 'Please, I’m begging you! These boys need someone to discipline and watch them, and they rarely ever listen to me! They’re just like children, I promise you! They need a babysitter like you! I’m even willing to pay you five thousand dollars a week!'

​I was the one that nearly fainted this time. 'Five thousand dollars... a week?'

​Annabelle nodded eagerly. 'Even more, if you want!'

​I shook my head, still in shock. She was actually willing to pay me that much money to spend time with these boys... I might have not been able to stand them, but that was so much money that I didn't think I could pass up on the offer. I would make over a quarter of a million dollars in a year.

​'Okay,' I nodded now, knowing I was going to regret this later. 'I’ll do it. I’ll babysit them.'

​The four boys of Hello Aria looked absolutely disgusted, and all I could do was shrug. I wasn’t exactly happy about this predicament either, but at least I got a hell of a lot of money out of it.

​'Wonderful,' Annabelle smiled, digging through her pants pocket before pulling out a card. She then pulled out a piece of paper and a pen.

​She handed me all three items. 'Write your number on this, please.'

​I did as I was told, writing my cell phone number onto the piece of paper before handing it and the pen back to her. I then looked down at the card to see that it was a business card with her name and number on it.

​'I’ll call you as soon as you’re needed,' Annabelle informed me now.

​I nodded at her. 'Okay.'

​She turned toward the boys to walk away, and all I could do was stare down at the card. I could not believe what had just happened.

​'Oh, and I almost forgot,' Annabelle laughed and turned back toward me. 'What’s your name?'

​I looked to her, and then at the four boys who looked very unhappy with the fact that I even existed. I didn’t smile. 'Aria,' I answered. 'My name is Aria.'

​The four boys of Hello Aria and their manager looked at me with wide eyes, and I said nothing at all. Was it that much of a surprise that that was my name? Plenty of girls out in the world had it. It wasn't just me.

​'Okay, Aria,' Annabelle smiled, handing out her hand for me to shake. 'We’ll be seeing you soon.'

​And we shook on it.