The adoptive children and the new nanny

|a few days later|

Bertram and Ryan are in the living room of the apartment. Bertram is dusting off the piano and the pictures located on it while Ryan is wiping the floor when Emma rushes downstairs and asks Bertram excitedly "Bertram, is my new issue of LeopardBee here?"

"One moment." He answers and puts on a pair of noise cancelling headphones before handing the magazine to her with a sullen expression.

Emma in reply screams loudly, excited to read through her new magazine and jumps on the couch.

"What's wrong who is hurt? First aid kid or ambulance?" Jessie asks hurriedly running into the room after hearing the scream.

Ryan only points at Emma while trying to get the ringing out of his ears.

"My LeopardBee magazine came, this month is a special feature on bra stuffing. Which is better, tissues or socks?" Emma tells Jessie.

"Spoiler alert, it's neither. Quilted toilet paper, you're welcome." Jessie replies.

"I'll put that on the shopping list." Bertram says sadly as passes them to walk into the kitchen.

"So Ryan, how is helping out around the house working for you?" Jessie asks him.

"Well other than Bertram being as excited about housework as Luke is about showers it's good. Beats looking for another job getting hassled by rich kids." Ryan tells her.

"Says the kid with the millionaire foster parents." Jessie says.

"Hey, I'm earning my own money, granted I get paid a lot more than I would at a normal job but still at least I'm working for it." Ryan tells her.

"True and I respect that but still how do you get paid more for a few hours of cleaning than me and Bertram for watching the other guys full time." Jessie asks confused.

"Take it up with the parents." Ryan tells her smirking.

"Well if I'm ever short for a new pair of boots you're the first one I come to." Jessie says as they hear the apartment door open.

Everyone walks into the kitchen, which is adjacent to the entrance door to see who is there and Tony greets them "What up penthouse?"

"What up Tony?" Jessie greets back.

"Hey Jessie, I brought you a welcome to New York basket." Tony tells her.

"Oh thanks Tony. New York subway map, metro cards and pepper spray?" Jessie says as she inspects the items in the basket.

"Is this in case I'm a victim of as-salt?" Jessie jokes making Tony laugh and Ryan, who is washing some dishes grin while Emma just looks at them funnily since she didn't think it was funny.

Tony then leaves to get back to the lobby while Bertram tells them that he's tired and going to sleep and Ryan should do whatever for his remaining half hour.

"You know this was really nice from Tony." Jessie says looking over the metro cards.

"Nice and obvious. Tony is in love. It's all here in LeopardBee." Emma tells her from her seat at the counter.

"Sure fire signs a guy's crushing on you. First he surprises you with presents." Jessie reads after taking the magazine from Emma.

"Tony gave you the welcome basket." Emma says.

"Second he'll laugh at your jokes." Jessie reads.

"Tony laughed when you said victim of as-salt." Emma adds.

"Yeah, cuz it was funny." Jessie replies laughing.

"No, it wasn't. LeopardBee is never wrong, it's my roadmap." Emma replies hyped up.

"Your roadmap has a holographic picture of Taylor Lawton." Jessie tells her handing her back the magazine.

"I know, when you turn it this way his shirt comes off. Off, On, Off, On. Wanna see?" Emma tells her while playing with the picture.

"Pass. Ryan what do you think? You're a guy." Jessie asks him.

"Well the stuff from the magazine doesn't need to mean anything but Emma could be right. I mean you're funny, good looking, there is no real reason why Tony couldn't like you." Ryan tells her as he's drying the dishes he just washed.

"You think so? Well even if Tony did like me I'm not going to date him. I learned back in Texas that you never date someone you work with." Jessie tells them.

"Aww, did you get your heart broken by a rodeo clown?" Emma asks.

"Actually, yes but I was referring to last summer, when I was working at senior Cluck Chicketeria. Everything was going fine till I broke up with the assistant manager and got put on plucking duty." Jessie tells them.

"You do realize that since you're a full-time nanny you won't have much free time so pretty much everyone you'll meet will be involved with work." Ryan reminds her.

"If everything works out I won't have to work here much longer and am gonna be an actress, so I'll have enough time to date then." Jessie replies.

"Anyways Jessie I'm gonna need your help. I'm going to reorganize my closet and am gonna need your help shopping."

"You just need someone to carry your stuff why don't you ask Ryan?" Jessie tells her.

"Ryan in a fancy clothing store? No offense Ryan but you wouldn't really fit in." Emma replies.

"Hey as long as it keeps me from being your shopping mule anything works for me." Ryan says relieved that he won't get dragged around stores.

"It's settled then. Jessie come on we're going shopping." Emma exclaims and walks off, dragging Jessie along.


|A few hours later|

Emma and Jessie are coming back from shopping and Emma stops them as they reach the entrance of their building.

"OMG Tony is in the lobby." Emma says excitedly.

"FYI that's his job." Jessie replies and tries to go in.

"Wait, there is a chart in here which shows how much he likes you." Emma tells her.

"Another way to tell is if he gives you his toy from his extra value meal." Jessie jokes.

"It says here, if he touches you from shoulder to elbow you're in the friend zone. Elbow to wrist is the transitional zone and wrist to Fingertips is the romance Zone." Emma says excitedly.

"As long as he doesn't touch my end-zone." Jessie jokes as she walks into the lobby with Emma.

"Yo Jessie, check out the addition to my uniform, I got appulets." Tony tells her excitedly.

"He's upgrading his wardrobe. LeopardBees sure fire sign number four that he's crushing on you." Emma says pulling her to the side.

"So what do you have there?" Tony asks them, looking at the five bags Jessie is carrying.

"We are organizing Emma's closet. Again." Jessie tells him.

"We got shoe boxes, sweater boxes, hat boxes and a box for my socks." Emma says hyped up.

"Yeah and the party continues, cause tomorrow is hanger day." Jessie says sarcastically.

"Jessie, let me help you." Tony says taking her bags and putting them in the elevator for them.

"Thank you." Jessie says before Emma pulls her to the side telling her "Did you see that? He went right for your hands. He skipped two zones, he's a zone skipper."

"Emma relax, it's not like he's asking me out or anything." Jessie replies and enters the elevator with Emma.

"Hey Jessie, wanna have lunch in the park tomorrow?" Tony asks her as they walk past him.

"She'd love to, right Jessie?" Emma pushes her.

"I'd love to but I can't skip hanger day." Jessie excuses herself.

"You're excused." Emma tells her.
"Great, see you tomorrow." Tony says as the elevator doors close.


Once they reach the apartment Emma runs ahead to her room, giddy that she was right about Tony.

Ryan who was sitting on the couch, reading a book he is going to need for a class once he starts at his new school sees that Jessie's struggling with the many bags puts down his book and helps her with the bags.

"So how was schopping with Mrs. LeopardBee is my roadmap?" Ryan asks her smirking.

"Actually, not as bad as I expected. She put me in a weird position in the lobby just now though." Jessie tells him while they carry the bags upstairs making their way to Emma's room.

"Really, what happened?" Ryan asks curiously.

"Well Tony asked me out to lunch tomorrow and I tried to decline but instead Emma agreed on my behalf." Jessie explains.

"OK, I'll have to keep in mind to stay clear of her, if I ever bring a girl over." Ryan says thoughtfully.

"I think that's a wise decision." Jessie agrees.

"So, what are you going to do about the date with Tony?" Ryan asks.

"I don't know the only thing I can think of is being as unattractive as possible and try to pass through as one of the guys." Jessie tells him.

"Sounds like a bad idea. I'd just tell him what you think." Ryan suggests.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Jessie replies sarcastically.

"Hey I'm just trying to help, forcing yourself to behave unattractive is most likely going to make things more awkward than actually telling him what you feel." Ryan says.

"And what makes you the relationship expert? Granted with your looks I'm sure you had a ton of girlfriends but any of them sticked around?" Jessie asks defensively.

"Actually I only had one real girlfriend, sure I had a few flings but only one serious girlfriend and she dumped me when my brother got us both arrested and me send to juvie." Ryan tells her saddened at the memory.

"I'm sorry I shouldn't have said that." Jessie apologizes after seeing his sullen expression as he puts down the bags in front of Emma's room.

"It's OK you didn't know, no one did." Ryan replies and struts into his room, closing the door behind him and falls onto his bed sighing after taking off his dirtied and sweaty wife-beater.

Jessie brings the bags into Emma's room and tells her "I'll be right back, I just need to check on Ryan and the others real quick."

"OK." Emma replies cheerfully and starts pulling the boxes out of the bags.

Jessie walks over to Ryan's room and opens the door, sticking her head in and asks

"Hey, is everything OK? Do you want to talk about what you just told me?" Jessie asks then freezes as she sees that Ryan is lying on his bed sweaty and shirtless.

"Oh, sorry I should have knocked." Jessie stutters, feeling nervous while enjoying the sight of him shirtless.

"It's OK and no thanks I don't want to talk about it now maybe once it's not so fresh. I think I'm gonna see if I can get to know my new siblings a bit more I've only really spend some time with Ravi and that's mostly cuz I like his Lizard." Ryan tells her chuckling at the last part and gets up, putting on a T-shirt.

"I think that's a wonderful idea, one thing though don't talk about Zuri's friends not being real, she's either going to murder you or cry for hours either way I'll have a mess to clean up." Jessie tells him.

"Got it. Thanks and sorry if I was a little abrupt before." Ryan tells her as he walks out of his room, going over to Luke's room.

"It's OK, if anyone knows the horrors of dating it's me." Jessie tells him.

"So I've been told." Ryan replies smirking a little.

"Who blabbed? Zuri?" Jessie asks annoyed.

"Actually, it was a comment Bertram made. I think that's the only thing I know because of him. Seriously his orders for cleaning were 'do something with that floor, it's a bit dirty but soo far away.'" Ryan tells her, doing a Bertram expression.

"Sounds about right." Jessie agrees.

"Alright, I'm gonna see if Luke wants to play some videogames together." Ryan tells her.

"Be careful where you sit, Luke's room looks like it hasn't been cleaned since, well it's never been cleaned." Jessie warns him.

"Thanks, good luck with your wardrobe organizing." Ryan tells her before going into Luke's room and plays some videogames with his new little brother.


|The next day|

"Jessie you're gonna be late for your date with Tony!" Emma shouts from the living room, putting a toy tiara on Zuri while Ryan is sweeping the balcony.

"So how do I look?" Jessie asks posing dressed in a long sweater, jogging pants and rainboots as she makes her way down the stairs.

"Like Cinderella, before the bibidi-babidi-boo." Zuri says.

"Perfect these clothes will make Tony think of me as one of the guys and then he won't ask me for another date." Jessie tells them.

"Doesn't look that bad to me." Ryan says coming in from the balcony.

"Look Jessie, no matter how badly you dress or how your hair looks…" Emma says

"My hair always looks like this." Jessie replies.

"Ups." Zuri says while Emma looks awkwardly for a minute before getting back on topic.

"Well Tony is still gonna try to kiss you. And then you'll start dating…" Emma tells her drifting off in her own dreamworld.

"And knowing my history we'll have a hideous breakup and I'll have to walk up 30 flights of stairs, so I don't have to pass the lobby." Jessie tells them sitting down on the couch.

"So, you don't like Tony at all? Have you seen his new apelets?" Zuri asks her.

"Yes Zuri, and they are lovely but I'm not getting involved with him." Jessie tells her.

"Why not?" Zuri questions her disappointed.

"Because getting involved with someone you work with only makes things harder and Tony is not my type anyway he's way to cheerful and oblivious, I'm sure some women like that, I just don't at least not in a boyfriend." Jessie explains to her before getting up to get on the elevator.

"It's not too late you can still take my advice." Ryan tells her.

"Thanks, but I'll stick to my plan, After I'm done he won't want to get with this." Jessie tells him posing again.

"Sure, well good luck then I guess." Ryan tells her as the elevator door closes.


|In the park- a few minutes later|

Tony and Jessie are sitting on a bench in front of the playground as Tony gets out 4 containers of food and tells her the Italian names of what he brought.

"Are those foods or are you trying to cast a spell?" Jessie questions making Tony laugh out loud.

"You're one funny girl." He tells her and pulls out a baguette.

Jessie reacts quickly and rips off a part of the bread rudely before squatting down on the back support of the bench telling him "give me that!"

"Woah, I've never seen a girl eat like that, except my aunt Sofia, she could unhinge her jaw like an anaconda." Tony tells her.

"Well just think of me as one of the guys." Jessie replies.

"You're the prettiest guy I ever saw, except for Zack Afron, I'd have to go with that to jump ball." Tony says.


|A while later – in the lobby|

"OK that rain came out of nowhere." Jessie says having just jogged into the lobby with Tony who is carrying an umbrella from a hotdog cart.

"Heh, good thing I found this umbrella." Tony tells her putting it down against a wall.

"Found? It was attached to a hotdog cart." Jessie exclaims.

"Boy was he mad." Tony laughs.

"Who knew sauerkraut could be used as a weapon." Jessie says fishing a few strands of kraut out of her hair.

"You know Jessie, I really had a great time today." Tony says going towards her and leaning forward.

Inwardly Jessie is thinking that Tony is going to kiss her and shrieks out "No!" and uses pepper spray on him by reflex.

"Ahh, mace in the face! Why did you do that?" Tony yells while rubbing his eyes painfully.

"Because I wanted to keep things from being awkward between us." Jessie tells him.

"The only thing that could make it more awkward is if I lost a limb." Tony yells.

"come on all day long you've been trying to get with this." Jessie says making an erotic gesture.

"What are you talking about?" Tony shouts with his eyes still closed and stinging from the pepper spray.

"First you bring a romantic picknick." Jessie says.

"They were leftovers from my ma's poker game." Tony explains.

"Then you said I was one of the 2 prettiest guy's I've ever seen." Jessie continues.

"That's not exactly a compliment." Tony counters.

"Then you tried to kiss me." Jessie says.

"I was reaching for my Jacket." Tony yells putting his hand out for her to give him his Jacket back.

"Oh, then this is awkward." Jessie mumbles and hands him the Jacket.

"Wait, if you don't want to kiss me then why did you invite me out to the park?" Jessie questions.

"cause you're new in town and you don't have any friends and now I know why." Tony explains.


And with that Jessie hurries into the elevator and gets up to the apartment.

Once she enters Emma comes rushing into the living room.

"So how did your date with Tony go? I smell romance." She asks curiously.

"That's Sauerkraut, there is no romance between us and there never will be." Jessie tells her.

"I can't believe LeopardBee was wrong, I'll never read it again." Emma says throwing away the magazine she was carrying around.

"That's what you've learned?" Jessie asks dumbfounded and slowly follows after her, heading to her own room.

On the way there she passes by Ryan's room who is reading while lying on his bed, his only other furniture other than a nightstand in his room.

Looking up to see who's at his opened door he sees Jessie walk by his room looking disappointed.

He drops the book and jumps off his bed yelling after her "Hey wait up."

Jessie stops and waits for Ryan to come out of his room "What is it?" Jessie asks him once he stopped before her.

"I just wanted to ask how it went with Tony and why do you have Sauerkraut in your hair?" Ryan replies.

"It went horrible, he actually just wanted to be a good friend and I freak out and maced him and the Kraut is from an angry vendor." Jessie informs him.

"mace him? How'd that happen?" Ryan asks intrigued.

"I thought he was going to kiss me and I just reacted." Jessie explains sadly.

"Well at least he knows that you don't want to go out with him?" Ryan asks trying to find a silver lining.

"I guess but it got awkward between us now anyways." Jessie says.

"Well you can't change the past. Now I'd suggest you take a shower and afterwards we can all watch a movie together, what do you think?" Ryan suggest, picking out a few more strands of Kraut from her hair.

"Yeah thanks I think that's a good idea." Jessie agrees and goes into her room with a slightly elevated mood.

While Jessie is taking a shower, Ryan told his siblings to go to the media room so they can all watch a movie together. Once finished with her shower Jessie puts on a pair of pajamas and meets the others in the media room and they decide to watch a horror movie.


Half way into the movie almost everyone is cowering slightly, scared by the movie, Ravi has taken cover behind a chair and is shivering and Zuri is sitting on Jessie's lap while Luke is hiding at the back of the room.

"This is really scary." Emma says.

"I told you." Ravi whiles.

"Guys it's just a movie." Jessie tells them trying to calm them down but also shrieks back at the next scene and grabs to the seat right of her telling Ryan sacredly "hold my hand." While hurriedly clutching at his hand while Emma and Ravi do the same.

Ryan who wasn't that bothered by the movie looks at his now with Jessie intertwined hand and starts to feel something he thought he got rid of after his girlfriend dumped him as he got thrown in juvie.

'Oh man great I get a crush on the one girl who's against office romance.' Ryan thinks while looking at the scared Jessie. 'She is gorgeous though, I'd probably have fallen for her at some point anyways.'

At the entrance to the kitchen a dark clothed figure groans and goes towards them with its hand out stretched making everyone jump in their seat.

"Wait, it's just Luke trying to prank us." Ravi says.

"I'm right here." Luke tells them rushing over to the others.

The figure groans again and everyone gets ready to run when they see that Ryan already got up and knocked the clothed figure out.

"Let's see who it is." Ryan says as he pulls back the hood on the person.

"Ah I knew it, it was just Bertram." Ryan tells everyone before getting back to his seat making his siblings looks at him shocked.

"What? I've got some anger issues. Our parents already have me seeing a psychiatrist." Ryan explains feeling everyone's stare on him, making everyone nod their heads fearfully.

"Well let's enjoy the rest of the movie." Jessie says breaking the silence and sits down with the rest of the kids following.

"Thanks." Ryan whispers having seen that his siblings got scared of him.

"Don't mention it." Jessie replies before taking his hand again.

After the movie was over the kids all went to bed while Zuri was still clinging to Jessie.

"I better bring Zuri to bed and tuck her in." Jessie tells Ryan, lifting Zuri in her arms so she can carry her upstairs.

"Alright, I better wake him up now." Ryan says looking at the still downed butler and starts to shake him awake.

"Wha..?" Bertram moans as he wakes up.

"Sorry man, I thought you were a burglar." Ryan tells him while helping the butler to his feet.

"I better not try to scare anyone while you're around." Bertram says rushing out of his room.

"Well better get to bed too it's getting late." Ryan says to himself and goes to his room before he decides that he has to do something before he goes to sleep.

He picks up his phone and calls his new parents.

"Ryan? What's up isn't it like 11 o'clock over there?" Morgan asks.

"Yeah, sorry to call so late, I don't know what time zone you guys are in right now, anyway I wanted to ask you something." Ryan says.

"What is it Son? Is there a problem with your enrollment?" Morgan asks concerned.

"No, it's more personal advice. I know this might be a little weird, but I wanted to ask if it's OK with you guys that I might ask Jessie out someday." Ryan explains.

"Well neither me or your mom have a problem with it but if you decide to try going out you better not rush things she's a really great nanny for your siblings and they love her and I know from experience that if a relationship is rushed there is almost no chance of not making things difficult after a breakup." Morgan advises him after a short pause during which he talked to his wife.

"Yeah, I thought about that as well, but chances are she won't agree to go on a date anyways since she's not too excited about office romance. Thanks for being so cool about it, well I better get some sleep, good night." Ryan tells them.

"Night son." Morgan replies before hanging up the phone.

"Well that is one hurdle out of the way now it's up to Jessie I guess." Ryan murmurs to himself before he closes his eyes trying to sleep, while thinking of what to do next and how he could ask her out.