Chapter 4: The Photographer

Later that night...

"Hurry up, Boss, we don't have all night! We don't want to miss our appointment." Caitlin paced around the clubhouse table. She was wearing a black dress with jewelry that matched her eyes.

"Peh, do I really have to wear this?" Boss called from the bedroom.

"Yes! Now come out and let me see you."

Boss came out through the doorway. He wore a black jacket with a blue bowtie. "Are you sure? I look..."

"You look slopped up." Caitlin brushed the lint off of his jacket and straigtened his tie. "Take off your helmet."

"I have to?"

"YES. It doesn't match."

"Match, smatch..."

"And smatch isn't a word as far as I know. Now take it off."

Boss took off his yellow helmet and set it down on the table. He looked rather pissed off.

Bossy watched his parents from his high chair at the table. He wore black flannel pajamas with a little white nightcap. Caitlin crossed over to him and adjusted the cap. "I don't think anyone will notice he's wearing pjs..."

Through a little camera above the door, the Numbers were watching this and actually laughing so hard their sides were splitting.

"Everyone who sees these pictures will be laughing at me, CC..."

"Oh, shut up, Boss." Caitlin picked Bossy up out of his high chair and turned toward the door. "Get the car keys, and let's go! We don't want to be late."

A few minutes later, the small family came to the photo studio in the mall. The photographer read a Vogue magazine as they approached. Boss turned around to keep from laughing.

The photographer caught sight of the family. "Welcome to the photo studio! I am your photographer, Vance."

"Vance? What kind of hellish name is that?" Boss whispered into Caitlin's ear.

Vance the photographer looked at the schedule. "The Taysho-Ken family?"

"TAISHO-KUN. Ty-sho-koon. Get that in your head very quickly," Boss growled.

"Quit scaring the public, Boss... Yes, that's us." Caitlin sighed as she glared at Boss.

"Yes, ma'am! Now come this way, follow me!" Vance flexibly rotated his paw on his wrist and beckoned the family to follow him into the studio.

"This guy gives me the creeps," Boss whispered into his wife's ear.

Caitlin laughed silently and thought the same thing. Once they got into the studio, Vance pulled down a white background.

"Now, this will be the best background for the colors of your clothes," Vance said as he stood back from it. "Now position yourselves on the ground leaning against the other's shoulder and with your child in between you... That's good. Now, smile!"

"Bossy, smile!" Caitlin whispered.

Bossy looked up at the photographer like he was a mental patient that had just been released.

Vance held up a squeaky ball. "Smile for me, little boy!"

Bossy smiled unbearably cute and giggled. He reached out toward the ball. Caitlin frowned. "Um, sir... Don't make him smile with things that he can't have, he begins..."

Vance squeaked the squeaky ball. Bossy clapped and began crawling toward it. Caitlin caught him in her arms and whispered, "No, Bossy, you can't have the ball..."

Bossy got all teary in his eyes.

"No, Bossy, don't start..."

"WAAAH!" Bossy kicked the air and began crying.

Caitlin froze and just turned pale. Boss jumped up off of the ground and grabbed the photographer by his throat. "Oh, you damn photographer! What now?! You made my son begin crying, now give him the damn ball!"

"But the ball is for..."

Boss got the death glare in his eyes.

Twenty minutes later, the Taisho-Kun family walked out of the mall. Boss still looked pissed off, Caitlin had an exhausted look on her face, and Bossy had an overjoyed look on his face with the squeaky ball stuffed in his cheek pouch.

"Bossy, get that freakin' ball out of your cheek, no telling where that ball has been with that guy," Boss muttered.

"Aww, Boss, just shut up. It makes him happy." Caitlin glared down at the sidewalk.