15 year old Lance Finley made his way down the neighborhood sidewalk from school like he did everyday. He was going to babysit the Sweets' family, like he did everyday, not that they needed babysitting as the parents were there, and Lance didn't charge them because he just wanted to play with the kids.
He happily made his way up to the door. Before he could knock, the door opened and the father of the family stood with a smile across his face. "Well come on in."
Lance returned the smile. Henry Sweets was a kind man, a business man and he could get quite firm with other people, but when it came to his children and Lance, he was never stern.
"Honey is Lance home yet?" The voice of his wife came through the house. Lance tensed his shoulders at the choice of words, as Kathy Sweets entered the foyer.
"Yes, dear. Lance, tell your mother about your day." Henry laughed, patting Lance on the back as he returned to his spot on the couch, typing away at his laptop.
She was clearly on the phone, and she gave him a sweet smile as she was just as kind as her husband. "Lance, I know its last minute, do you think you could pick up Emily? The boys wanted to walk home."
"No problem Mrs-Kathy." Lance corrected himself.
Lance rose from the table, not bothering to pick up his bag, and made his way across the street to the school. He had gone to the school, it was preschool and primary school. The primary school children could walk home, but the preschool kids had to be picked up. As he reached the doors, the children were being let out, the preschoolers stood by their teachers waiting to spot their parent.
A little girl with brown curly hair to match Lance's and honey brown eyes, came out with her white shirt and the pink over shirt as the fall brought a little wind chill. Her backpack hung high on her shoulders, and when she searched the crowd you could almost see her expression drop until she and Lance eyed each other at the same time. Her face pulled up, and she tugged on her teacher's pant leg pointing to Lance.
She ran down the steps and right into Lance's arms, he picked her up and waved to the teacher before turning towards their way home. He listened to her talk and talk about the day, how some little boy had nearly gotten her clothes all messy, she was still talking once they reached the door. Lance had put the little girl's backpack on and he bent down placing his hands on her shoulders.
"Em, breathe." He laughed and she did what she was told. Then he opened the door and the sound of footsteps got louder and they became faster when you could hear voices.
"LANCE!" The two boys screamed nearly toppling over the fifteen year old.
Lance picked the elder boy up first. His brown hair was cut into a Mohawk, and his eyes were darker than his younger sister's. "How's the block going, Big J?"
"Really good, you know Garret's dad, he's the gym teacher, he helped me at recess." The seven year old said, as Lance put him down.
"Show me." Lance said, taking the football off of the stand by the door, he took in his hands and made his way to the end of the foyer hall. James stood by the door in a crouched down position.
"I'll count you down. 3, 2, 1. Hike!" Emily cheered and Lance ran slowly down the hallway and James clutched his elbows into his sides, and twisted bringing Lance to the ground.
"Are you okay?" James asked as Lance coughed, the boy had quite the grip.
"Yeah. But you might not want to use so much force around kids your own age, okay buddy. Save it for the big leagues." Lance patted his head and the younger boy, came up to Lance, pulling something out of his backpack.
"Look Lance, I caught a dragon fly by the water table outside." The six year old held the cage with a dragon flying around in it triumphantly.
"Wow, Mase. That's huge." Lance said looking through the plastic. Mason smiled with pride as Lance picked him up careful of the cage.
"Hey maybe when we go to field, you and I can look for frogs." Lance said and the boy's face lit up.
"I've got to go find my catching net and my boots." Mason ran up the stairs.
"Lance." Emily said and he bent down to look at the little girl.
"Yeah." He said with a smile.
"Can I show you something to?" She asked her eyes full of hope.
"Sure, what do you want to show me?" Lance asked.
"It's in my backpack." She said with a smile across her face.
Lance reached behind him, and pulled the backpack off of his back he handed it to her and she opened it. Lance looked inside but she closed it shut.
"Everybody has to see it." She corrected, and then she gathered the family into the living room, Henry closed his laptop as Kathy leaned over the armrest. James sat next to his father, and Lance sat next to him with Mason on his lap. Emily stood in front of the couch with a smile.
She pulled a small piece of poster paper out of her backpack and it was colorfully decorated, and the handwriting had clearly been one of the teacher's.
"This is me. My name is Emily, I am 4 and I like to dance." Emily said pointing to a picture of her that Lance had remembered Kathy taking at her birthday party.
"This is my mommy and my daddy. Their names are Kathy and Henry. They like to talk on the phone alot." Emily said and Kathy put on a fake offended look but dropped it as Emily continued.
"This is my big brother Mason, he's 6 and he likes bugs but I don't." Emily said and Lance saw Kathy squirm a little in her seat, he knew of how she didn't quite enjoy her son's hobby.
"This is my other big brother James, he's7 and he likes football." James threw his fist in the air and Henry laughed at him, pulling his arm down so his daughter could continue.
"This is my very big brother Lance, he's 15 and likes to play the piano." Emily said and Lance smiled warmly, waiting for Kathy or Henry to correct the little girl, but instead they let her continue.
"This is my family." Emily said proudly, and the five on the couch clapped happily. Lance rose from the couch and gave Emily a hug.
"Come on, I'll help you hang it in your room." Lance said picking her up.