Babysitting the Band

3 CHAPTER

​"Mom!" Sophie shouted the second we entered the house once we got home from the concert. "Mom, Mom, Mom! Guess what! Guess what! You’ll never believe it!"

​Our mother came rushing downstairs, looking like the house was on fire. When she saw the overexcited Sophie and the less-than-amused me, she calmed down just a little bit.

​"What’s going on, girls?" she asked, pulling at her bathrobe.

​"Aria got a job!" Sophie squealed, and this only made my mother look at her as if she was insane. "And not just any job! She has a job as the babysitter of Hello Aria!"

​My mother stared at Sophie for a moment before looking over at me. "How old are these boys?"

​I shrugged, still not enthused. "I don't know; my age?"

​My mother now looked at me as if I was crazy as well. "And you’re... babysitting them?"

​"Long story short, I’m going to get a lot of money," I shrugged, waving it away as I headed toward the stairs so I could go to bed. "I’ll explain it more tomorrow. I think I’ve had enough excitement for one night."

​My mother blinked at me, but let me go. "Well, you don’t look very excited, but okay..."

​"Do you think it’s too late to call Dad and tell him?" Sophie asked my mother as I made my way up the stairs, and I already knew the answer was yes. "I want everyone to know that my sister is going to get to see Hello Aria almost every single day!"

​The thought made my head hurt.

​Since my parents were divorced, Sophie and I stayed with our father on the weekends, even though this weekend we were staying with our mother since her house was closer to where the concert was taking place. I didn't know how he'd react to finding out I was going to be babysitting four teenage boys, and I honestly didn't want to know how he'd react just yet.

​I quickly changed into pajamas and crawled into bed, almost convinced that when I woke up, this would all be a dream. But no matter how much I wished that it was, that was definitely not going to happen.

​As I walked onto campus on Monday morning, I noticed the excited glances almost every girl was shooting me. At first, I didn't understand what they were staring at me for, but it didn't take too long to realize what this was all about.

​"Zoey," I snapped when I got to her locker. Not surprisingly, Parker was already there with her. "Did you happen to tell anyone what happened on Saturday?"

​Zoey blinked at me. "No, I didn't. I kind of assumed that you wouldn't want anyone to know."

​I looked over at my male best friend now. "Parker?"

​"Why would you think I’d do something like that?"

​I guess he was right. But if neither of them had told anyone about my job, then who could have possibly done it?

​"Aria!" a new voice now giggled, and I immediately knew who the culprit was. I turned around to see my fifteen-year-old sister smiling up at me, her posse of friends right behind her. I already knew what was coming. "Can you tell everyone how your first day of work goes?"

​I immediately regretted telling her that Annabelle had called me on Sunday and we decided that today would be my first day of work. This was probably something that Sophie and her friends were going to gush about for a long time, and I knew that it was going to be really annoying. Even more than usual.

​"Sure, Sophie," I sighed, hoping that none of them would notice that my eye had twitched. "I'll tell you all about it."

​If I even lived through it.

​When the bell rang to tell us that we had to get to class, I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from sighing in relief.

​But I had sighed too soon. For the rest of the day, I had to deal with almost every girl in the school talking to me about Hello Aria, and it almost made me feel sick to my stomach. No matter how many times I told people that I didn't want to talk about it, it didn't stop them from continuing on and on about the band.

​I was so not looking forward to seeing those four once school ended. My misery was just going to continue.

​When the last bell of the day rang out, I was surprised when no one swarmed around me to ask me more questions about the band. It confused me, until I saw almost everyone running toward the entrance of the school as quickly as they could. I knew why people were ignoring me now.

​I took my time, stopping by my locker and making sure I had everything I needed before strolling over to the front of the school, where pretty much everyone was. I pushed my way through the crowd, nearly getting punched in the face four times before I finally got to the front.

​Ben was the one that first spotted me. "Aria!"

​He suddenly grabbed onto my wrist, pulling me forward and now beside all four of them. Everyone's eyes were on me, and it made me feel terribly self-conscious. I did not like having everyone's eyes on me.

​"What are you guys doing here?" I nearly hissed up at the four boys.

​Grim's hands were in his pockets as he shrugged and grumbled, "My mom wanted us to come pick you up from school."

​Obviously, he wasn't happy with the fact that he had to have a babysitter at his age, but I didn't blame him. I almost felt embarrassed for babysitting four teenage boys; I couldn't even imagine how it would feel being on the other side of that.

​"Come on," Sawyer now said as he grabbed onto my hand and practically parted the crowd like he was Moses and they were the Red Sea. All five of us hurried by them, and I was surprised that none of them were stopping us.

​We ran a few blocks away from the school to an empty street, and I could see the boys' limo at the end of the block. Instead of getting inside immediately once we got to it, the boys just stood beside it and waited.

​"Okay," I began, waiting for one of them to say something. "Why are you four just standing outside your limo like this?”

Grim shrugged, leaning up against the limo with his arms crossed as he said, "Our driver kind of quit on us."

​My eyes widened at him. "What?"

​The uncaring look on Grim’s face did not change. "He said ungrateful brats like us didn't deserve anyone driving them around, so he locked his keys in the car and left."

​"You guys were seriously so horrible to your driver that he quit?" I asked in disbelief.

​Grim shrugged again, as if it was no big deal. "Yep."

​"You four really are a handful."

​"Well, we need to get inside somehow," Ben sighed, tapping on the passenger side window as he tried to look inside. "What should we do?"

​"Simple," Grim shrugged, suddenly picking up a fallen branch from a tree and swinging it toward the window. I let out a shout, and Ash immediately jumped in front of me and shielded me when the glass smashed. "We're in!"

​"It's not that simple, genius," I snapped, pushing my hair out of my face. "You smashed the window on the wrong side of the car!"

​Grim smiled sheepishly at us, dropping the branch to the ground. "Oops."

​"This is great," I sighed, running my hand through my hair. "The keys are in the driver's seat, there's no way to unlock the car from the passenger's side, and I am not letting you break the other window!"

​Grim rolled his eyes at me now. "You are so boring."

​And I thought babysitting the Tyler twins was the hardest job I had ever taken. Boy, was I wrong. I was sure I'd never have a job that was as difficult as babysitting four teenage boys who were way too famous for their own good.

​"Here, a simple resolution," Sawyer now shrugged, suddenly ducking down and pushing himself through the window. I made a face, wondering if this was really going to work, but something else then caught my eye that made me want to just push him in and run.

​"Hey, you guys!" I shouted, grabbing onto Ben's shoulder and pulling him away from the limousine. "There's a cop coming! Sawyer, get out of the window!"

​But it was too late. The cop had already stopped his car and had gotten out, and Sawyer was still hanging out of the window. This might have been their limo, but the whole situation sure looked really bad.

​"Uh, excuse me," the cop started as he made his way toward us, and I knew this wasn't going to end well. "Is there any particular reason why the five of you are breaking into a limousine?"

​"You see," I started, laughing nervously as I took a step toward the officer, "um... This limo is actually theirs."

​He didn't look like he believed me at all. "Uh-huh. Sure."

​"It's true," Grim defended now. "We're Hello Aria."

​"That's nice to know." The cop shrugged, still looking like he was about to handcuff all five of us right then and there without a second thought. "That still isn't an excuse to break into a car."

​Ash blinked at the cop now. "Do you know who we are?"

​"Does it matter?"

​"Yeah! We're Hello Aria!"

​"So?"

​This was obviously getting us nowhere. "Um," I started now, glaring at the four boys so they'd stop talking. "Do you, by any chance, have any teenage daughters?"

​The cop looked unamused. "No, I don't."

​I nodded now. "Do you ever come into contact with any teenagers?"

​"Beside the five of you, no."

​This wasn't working. How were we supposed to get out of this if the cop didn't even know who the boys were? These idiots were going to get us arrested!

​"Okay," I breathed now, needing to get out of this mess. "Um, can I talk to you for a moment?"

​The officer nodded, turning away from the limo and the four boys and back toward his car. I followed right after him, shooting the boys a look that told them to stay back and not to interfere in what I was going to say.

​"Um, yeah, here's the thing," I started once we got beside the officer's car. "These four boys, as stupid as they might be, are actually a really popular band called Hello Aria and they kind of got locked out of their limo."

​"Uh-huh," the cop nodded, and I knew he didn't believe me. "If they're so dang popular, why haven't I ever heard of them?"

​Maybe because you were a middle-aged man who didn't have any children and, when I looked down to see he didn't have a wedding ring on, it was obvious that he wasn't married either. There was no reason this man would know anything about Hello Aria.

​"They're mostly popular among teenagers," I replied now, knowing there was no way I could have gotten away with saying what I had been thinking.

​"Flash him," someone suddenly hissed from beside us, and I turned in shock to see that it was Grim. "Pull down your shirt! Pull up your shirt! Flirt! Do something!"

​I was going to kill him!

​"And just who are you, ma'am?" the cop asked me now, and I didn't know if he was completely ignoring what Grim was saying or if he had just not heard him. "If they're such a popular band, who are you?"

​"Oh," I blinked now, not knowing what to say for a moment. "I'm their babysitter."

​The cop gave me a look. "Their... babysitter."

​I blinked again. "Uh, yeah."

​I then realized how ridiculously stupid I had sounded. These four boys were either the same age or older than me, and here I was saying that I was their babysitter, as if they were little kids or something. This was so not going to end well.

​I turned toward the four boys to see that Sawyer was still hanging out of the window, and it made me want to walk right over there and smack him. What the hell was he even still doing in there?

​"Here, here!" Sawyer called out suddenly, now wiggling his way out of the window. I just stood there, not believing this was actually happening to me. "This is proof that we're famous! Just look at this!"

​He nearly threw the magazine he had pulled out of the limo at the cop, and it made me give him a look that told him to watch how he acted around someone who could throw us in a jail cell.

​The officer went through the magazine only to see countless pictures of all four of the boys with the band name posted all over as well. I wanted to laugh in the cop's face for doubting us, but I knew that wouldn't have been the smartest thing to do.

​"I guess I'll let you five go this time," the cop warned now, rolling the magazine up before handing it to me. "But I better not see you causing any other type of trouble, you got that?"

​"Yes, sir," I nodded, taking a step back away from the cop. "I promise you, we won't cause any more trouble."

​Before I could say anything else, Grim took off down the street and the other three members of the band followed right after him. I was only able to stare at them for a moment before apologizing to the cop and taking off right after them.

​I was able to catch up to them within seconds. I didn't know where they were running off to, but that didn't matter right then. What mattered was that they nearly got us arrested for breaking into their own car.

​"Flash him?" I shouted, ramming into Grim's side as we continued to run as quickly as we could. "Pull down my shirt? Flirt? Are you kidding me? You would be the reason we'd get arrested, not because you tried to break into your own limo!"

​Grim shielded his face in case I decided to hit that. "Hey, you're a babysitter! You specialize in stuff like this!"

​"I specialize in children, not... teenage children!" I shouted. "The children I’ve babysat never tried to break into their own car before!"

​Ash shrugged, and we all finally stopped running. "Ah, come on. It's not that big of a deal. We didn't get arrested, did we?"

​"We could have," I snapped, crossing my arms over my chest and glaring at the four of them. "If you didn't find that magazine in the limo, we'd probably be on our way to jail right now. And you can't just expect that you can get out of everything just because you're a celebrity."

​Ben shrugged as he leaned against a tree. "But we have gotten out of everything because we're celebrities."

​Annabelle was right when she had called these four brats. They had no idea what it was like to be in the real world, where you actually had to work for what you wanted and you weren't just handed everything.

​"Okay," I sighed now, not about to get into a fight with them because I knew that wouldn't be the best idea. "I think we started off on the wrong foot. You made your limo driver quit and you broke a window; I did absolutely nothing wrong, but let's just put that behind us. The last thing we need is to give each other a hard time."

​Sawyer was the one to shrug now. "I guess you're right."

​He then took a step toward me, holding out his hand in front of him. For a moment, I was so surprised that I didn't know what I was supposed to do, but I quickly grabbed and shook his hand after I realized what he wanted.

​"You probably already know this," he started now with a smile, "but my name is Sawyer Maddox. I'm the guitarist of the group, and I'm also the oldest—"

​"By a couple of weeks," Grim interrupted, and I assumed that that meant he was the second oldest.

​"This here is Grim Worthington," Sawyer introduced now, jabbing his thumb in the direction of the sour blonde. "He might have his panties in a bunch right now, but he's really a fun guy. He plays the drums and his mom's our manager. He's the second oldest and his real name is Gregory—"

​"Hey!" Grim nearly shouted, his eyebrows furrowing at his friend in anger. "Don't tell her that!"

​I rolled my eyes. "It doesn't matter. Your mom called you that in front of me the other night anyway."

​"We call him Grim because he's, well, grim," Sawyer explained to me now, and then cut a look at Grim. "But you probably figured that out already."

​Grim merely muttered something under his breath, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back against a tree like Ben had. Sawyer was telling me how he was such a fun guy, but I just didn't see it. He seemed like a spoiled brat to me.

​"And then this is Ash Ryder, the one that nearly ran you over with his car," Sawyer continued on now, and this caused Ash to grin at me sheepishly. "He's the lead singer, and he also plays the guitar. He's the third oldest out of all of us and he's a total chick magnet, even more than the rest of us."

​"What can I say?" Ash shrugged as he smirked. "Girls love me."

​Sawyer rolled his eyes at his friend, and I couldn't help but do so as well. I sure hoped that wasn't going to be a problem. It was obvious that girls were going to fawn over them all the time, but I just hoped the boys weren't going to make a big deal out of it.

​"And this guy here is Ben Harding," Sawyer grinned, wrapping his arm around the last boy's neck as he introduced him. "He's the youngest out of all of us. Not by much, but we like to tease him sometimes by calling him Baby Ben. He plays the bass."

​"Oh," was all I could really say. "Well... it's nice to... uh, meet all of you."

​"Well?" Grim asked now, still as sour as usual. "What about you?"

​I blinked at him. "What?"

​"Sawyer just told you all about us," Grim started, his arms still crossed. "So what about you? Tell us about yourself."

​He wanted me to tell them about myself? There really wasn't anything I could think of to say, especially when I was being compared to four celebrities that everyone was in love with.

​"Um, my name is Aria Slater," I began, and I felt way more self-conscious than I should have. "You guys know that I babysit; I've babysat pretty much every kid in town. I have a younger sister named Sophie, my parents are divorced, my favorite color's pink—"

​"Do you have a boyfriend?"

​I stared at Grim for a moment, as if he had spoken in a foreign language. "What?"

​"Do you have a boyfriend?" he asked slower this time, as if I was stupid or something. "You were at the concert the other night with another guy. Is he your boyfriend?"

​The question caught me off guard for a moment, since it wasn't something I expected any of them to ask me. Why would Grim even care about that anyways?

​"No, that guy wasn't my boyfriend," I answered, still in shock just a little bit. "He's my best friend, Parker. And no, I don't have a boyfriend."

​Grim snorted. "Not very surprising."

​Sawyer quickly changed the subject, just in case I decided to send a snarky reply back to Grim. I wasn't going to, since I wasn't about to sink down to his level, but I really wanted to do so. I had a feeling I was going to have trouble with him.