This idea came to me in the shower tonight so I had to do it! I don't know if anyone else has done it before, but I'm really excited to do this!
DISCLAIMER: Ok, I don't own Next to Normal. Or Starbucks. Or Wal Mart. So read the story LOL
Natalie was brushing her hair. It was five thirty. In half an hour, Henry would be coming over and they'd hang out. She couldn't wait. He had been sick for a few days and she missed him at school. But now it was Saturday night and Henry was completely cold-free! And Natalie's dad was at his high school reunion.
Just then the phone rang. Nat expected it to be Henry so she ran to get it.
"Hey," she said, very enthusiastically.
Whoever was on the other was not expecting that. "Um, hello," a woman's voice said. "Is this Natalie Goodman?"
"Yeah. Who's this?"
"It's Mrs. Edwards, from across the street." It took Natalie a few minutes to put the name to the blonde haired, thirty something year old she never said hi to.
"Oh, yeah, hi," she said. "Do you need something?"
"I know this is so last minute, but my babysitter's mom was in a car accident and she had to rush to the hospital. My husband and I really cannot miss this event tonight and we were sort of hoping you'd be around to watch the kids."
"You mean, like, babysit?" Natalie asked wearily. She and children were not a good match.
"Yes," Mrs. Edwards said. "I'm sure you have plans, being a senior and all." Natalie had no idea that her neighbors knew what grade she was in.
"Well, my boyfriend and I were going to hang out tonight, so..."
"Oh, right of course," Mrs. Edwards said quickly. "What was I thinking? You must be so busy. And our rate probably isn't high enough for a girl your age."
Pay. They were going to pay her. Natalie hadn't thought about that. "What's you rate?" she asked.
"Seven dollars an hour."
"And how long will you be gone?"
"From six to midnight actually. Maybe later."
That was six hours. She'd get paid forty two bucks. That was extra cash that she could use.
"You know what, Mrs. Edwards?" she said. "I will babysit for you. I'll be over in a second."
She called Henry to cancel their date.
"Babysitting?" he asked. "Since when are you the nurturing care-giver type?"
"Oh shut up," she said. "My neighbors needed some help. And I'm getting paid a decent price. Let's hang out tomorrow though."
"Can I pick you up at around one?"
"Yeah that's cool. I have to go though, like, now."
"Okay. Cool. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Yeah, bye."
"I love you," Henry said. Just by hearing his voice when he said that, Natalie could tell he was smiling.
She smiled too. "Yeah, I know," she said, blushing. "And I love you."
"Good. Text me if your bored."
"I promise I will. Now I have to go."
"Alright, I love you."
"You said that already."'
"I know."
"Okay, seriously," Natalie said. "I'm hanging up."
"Okay, okay," he said, starting to laugh. "Bye."
She ran across the street after leaving a note for her dad on the counter. She rang the Edwards' doorbell. Mrs. Edward's answered in a very slimming black dress.
"Hi, Natalie," she said with a smile. "Come on in."
"Hi," Natalie said back. She followed Mrs. Edwards into the kitchen as she babbled like a mother does.
"I want to thank you again for cancelling whatever plans you had with your boyfriend to do this for us. We seriously could not miss this work thing. I'm sure something similar will happen to you when your my age. Anyway, Kelly's upstairs right now getting in her pajamas. She always likes to be in her jammies before she has dinner. Kelly's six by the way. Then we have Sarah, she's three. She's the same way. The twins, Michael and Aidan, they're asleep right now. They probably will stay that way the whole night but just in case I left some bottles in the fridge. Also on the fridge, there's the numbers of their grandparents, their aunts and uncles, the restaurant, as well as Kyle's and my cell phones.
"As for ground rules," she continued. "they should have dinner within the hour, then it's bathtime. Both Kelly and Sarah should be in bed no later than eight. Obviously you can watch t.v. and use the phone if you need to. The fridge is also open if you need it. Oh, and please don't let anyone in the house. I'd like this to be a real low energy night for the kids. So you got all that?"
Natalie took a moment to digest the words. Four kids. Two toddlers and twin newborns. Fabulous. She'd have to cook for them, clean them, and put them to bed. She swallowed hard. "I'm sure I can handle it," she said.
"Good!" Mrs. Edward's chirped. Just then Mr. (Kyle) Edwards came down the stairs with two little girls in footsie pajamas. They look a lot like the Mrs.
"The boys are sound asleep," he announced. "And the girls are pretty hungry. And honey, we need to go."
"Right, right. Well have fun. Be safe!" She kissed her kids goodbye and then she and her husband left. Natalie was alone with kids.
"So I'm Natalie," she said after she couldn't take them staring at her for much longer. "I'm in charge tonight. So what do you want for dinner?"
"Where's Anna?" little Sarah asked. Anna must have been their old babysitter.
"She's at the hospital."
"Is she gonna die?" Kelly asked, sitting at the kitchen table.
"No, she's not in the hospital, her mom is," Natalie explained.
"So is her mom gonna die?"
"I don't think so."
"I want chicken fingers," Sarah shouted.
"Ssh," Natalie said, surprising herself by picking the kid up and placing her in a chair next to her sister. "Don't wake up the babies."
"Well, I want hamburgers," Kelly said.
"Okay, I'll just make both then." She went to the freezer and got out the frozen stuff. Following the directions carefully, she started to cook, every once in a while looking back to see the girls just sitting there watching her.
"You cook slow," Kelly said, getting up and tugging on Natalie's sweater.
"Uh, sorry," she said.
Sarah also got up and starting tugging on Natalie's shirt. "Will you make french fries too?" she asked.
"Uh, no."
"Please?"
"No."
"PLEASE?" the girl screamed.
"Ssh, the babies!" she reminded. But it was too late. The baby moniter on the counter started crying. "Shit," she muttered.
"You said a bad word!" Kelly screamed.
"Sorry. Alright, I'll make the fries. Just eat this first." She pulled the food onto two plates, not exactly sure if they were cooked all the way, and left the girls alone to eat. She actually wasn't sure if that was a good idea either.
Upstairs in the nursery, both boys were sobbing their heads out. What am I supposed to do? Natalie thought. She picked up one baby and rocked back and forth a little too violently. The crying didn't stop. She tried the same thing on the other kid, just a little gentler. Still nothing. "The bottles!" she said out loud, running downstairs to get them.
In the kitchen, both girls had already finished. "Where are the fries?" Sarah asked.
"They're coming," Natalie said. "Why don't you watch TV while I feed your brothers." She followed the girls into the family room and turned on the TV. The first station was a news one. "This is fine," she decided, throwing the remote on the couch next to them. "Change it if you want."
"Mommy never lets us have the remote," Kelly said.
"Well, I'm not Mommy. Unless you want to watch the news, change it yourself." She then hurried back upstairs with the bottles. But the two kids were already sound asleep. "What the heck? Babies are so weird." She ran back downstairs and put the bottles away.
Kelly and Sarah had turned on some movie station and were now watching Titanic. "Does anyone die in this one?" Kelly asked as Natalie sat next to them. She really wondered why this girl had such a fascination with death.
"Uh, yes," Natalie said.
"Do you know any dead people?"
"Um, can you really know dead people?"
"Do you know anyone that died?"
"Yeah...my brother," Natalie found herself saying. She was pretty shocked that she admitted such a thing to two randoms little girls. But she didn't exactly mind saying it. Her brother had done so much to their family, it felt kind of good to talk about him a little bit. Natalie didn't know why.
"How did he die?" Sarah asked.
"Um, he was a baby."
"Does that mean Mike and Aidan are gonna die?"
"Of course not," Natalie said. "Not all babies die."
The girls were satisfied with that and Natalie sat beside them as the movie went on. By the time she checked the clock it was 8:15. The girls should be in bad.
"Oh, crap," Natalie said, standing up and being sure to censor her vocabulary. "You guys, it's bathtime."
"Yayy!" the girls said together. The three of them ran up into the bathroom. Natalie stood around for a second, totally unsure what to do. Kelly finally pointed at the tub. Natalie laughed at herself a bit and started the flow of warm water. As the tub filled up, once again, they just stood around.
"So, um, I guess you guys no how to take a bath," Natalie said finally, heading out of the room.
"You can't leave us!" Kelly said.
"Oh, right. That's totally irresponsible." She turned back in and helped the now stripped down girls into the tub. It was totally awkward, even though she was a girl too. The girls splashed around in the tub but calmed down enough to let Natalie shampoo their hair. Finally, she just let them play in the water and she sat down on the toilet seat to relax. Her phone beeped.
Henry: hey hon i miss u whats up?
Natalie: hi. im ok. giving 2 little girls a bath.
Henry: sweeet
Natalie: perv
She couldn't help but laugh at her totally cute boyfriend.
"We want out," Sarah said.
"Oh, right," Natalie said, helping them out and still laughing.
"What's on your phone?" Kelly asked as she was helped into her pajamas again.
"Oh, just a text message."
"From who?"
"My boyfriend."
"You have a boyfriend? I have a boyfriend."
"You so don't," Natalie said, kind of enjoying the girls as she helped them into bed. Easy enough, they both shared a room.
"I do!" Kelly protested. "His name's Logan."
"Oh, cool. Well, my boyfriend's name is Henry. He's really cute."
"Not cuter than Logan."
"I bet he is," she teased. "You want to see a picture?"
"Yeah!" Natalie flipped through her pictures on her phone until she found a really good one. Kelly smiled as she looked. "He is cute," she admitted.
"Yeah," Natalie said, tucking the girl in. "Now both of you go to bed."
"Okay!" they said together. She shut the lights and shut the door before going downstairs. She plopped onto the couch and caught the ending of Titanic and texted Henry.
Natalie: girls asleep.
Henry: nice so what r u doing
Natalie: just chillin. u?
Henry: which house do ur neighbors live in?
Natalie: uh the blue one y?
Henry: open their back door
Natalie hopped up and did as he said. There stood Henry. "You are such a creep," she said, but she hugged him anyway. Hugging led to kissing which led to them staggering backwards into the family room and onto the couch.
"Henry!" a voice shouted. They looked up. Running towards them was Kelly. She jumped into Henry's lap. "Hi, Natalie's boyfriend."
"Um, hi," Henry said, giving a little smile.
"I said to go to sleep," Natalie said, a little upset.
"And Mommy said no boys in the house. We're even." Man, that girl was good.
"Fine, you can stay up."
"Yayyy!" Kelly ran in circles around the couch before plopping onto it in between Henry and Natalie. Henry gave Natalie a look, not an upset one, one that kind of said "this girls quite a character." Natalie leaned on Henry, kind of squishing Kelly in the process, but she didn't seem to mind.
The movie after Titanic was Clueless. They sat and watch, not talking. Natalie didn't mind, neither did Henry. Kelly eventually drifted to sleep. So did Natalie, followed by Henry.
"Natalie!" a voice shouted. All three people woke up. Mrs. Edwards was standing in front of the television. "What's going on?"
Natalie quickly lifted up Kelly and stood up. So did Henry. "Oh, sorry," she said. "Um, Sarah and the twins are asleep. Kelly came down here. We were all sleeping. I'll run her up to her room."
"No thank you." Mrs. Edwards pulled the child from Natalie's arms. "I thought we agreed on no visitors."
"Oh, um, nice to meet you, Natalie's neighbor," Henry said, smiling. "I'm Henry, Natalie's boyfriend. I can assure you there was absolutely no monkey business going on.
"Natalie, you broke my rules. How can I ever trust you again?"
"I had such a nice night, Mommy," Kelly said with a drowsy smile. "I want Natalie to babysit again." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "And Henry's really nice. He's even cuter than Logan."
Mrs. Edwards looked at the two teenagers. Henry flashed his signature smile. Natalie played with her hair. Mrs. Edwards sighed and pulled some cash from her purse, handing it to Natalie. "It seems that the girls enjoyed you," she said. "I guess this means that you'll be willing to babysit again...with your friend it also seems..."
Natalie smiled. "Sure," she said, and with Henry and her newly earned forty-something bucks, she headed back home.