A Babysitting Nightmare!

      My wings shook and my teeth chattered. I tried to hide the nervous and uneasy look on my face. I was so scared to start my very first day of babysitting! Even though I did take various courses, this was going to be the REAL THING.

      I gulped as my head swarmed with different things that could go wrong today while babysitting.

      “How will I deal with this huge job all by myself? What if the child turns out to be absolutely mean and brat-like? What if something horrible occurs, like if the child gets hurt badly, and I can’t solve it right away?” My head filled with all kinds of scary and unsettling possibilities as I felt unsteady and nauseous. This was my very first time babysitting, and I was pretty sure it was going to be horrible!

      All of a sudden, the door swung open, as I found myself looking at a red-faced, flustered Aisha with Red Lipstick on her teeth, and wearing non-matching earrings on her long extended ears.

      “Oh my! You must be Scarlet, Kayla’s new babysitter. Come in, come in!” she exclaimed as she held out the door. “I’m Mrs. Jones, Kayla’s mother, nice to meet you! Kayla’s very anxious and excited to meet her new baby-sitter, you know!”

      As I stepped through the door, Mrs. Jones started to give me a short tour of her neohome, and about the needs and things for Kayla. I nodded weakly, scared about taking on this job for the very first time.

      I found myself, being slowly overwhelmed at the many things Mrs. Jones was saying. “How am I going to remember all of the information she’s throwing at me?” I asked myself, feeling more and more anxious by the minute.

      Then she glanced at her watch, jumped and exclaimed, “Oh my! I’m going to be late for my job at the Faerie Employment Agency! I won’t be able to be there if anything goes wrong, so just follow through and do your best. Good luck babysitting, Kayla! I'm counting on you.”

      And with that, Mrs. Jones slammed the door and left to go to Faerieland. I gulped, already scared about handling this too big of a job for just a mere Draik.

      Then, I heard a voice peep out, “Babysitter? Is that you?” I opened my eyes and found myself staring at an adorable, cherubic, baby Usul’s face with bright blue eyes. “Hi. I’m Kayla, and this is my petpet, Tom the Kadoatie!”

      Kayla held up the small blue petpet, and giggled loudly, “Say hi to the babysitter, Tom!”

      I couldn’t help but laugh as Kayla made Tom wave his little paw up and down at me.

      “Well, hi there, Tom! My name is Scarlet, and I’m going to be babysitting the both of you today,” I said, as my fears and anxiety washed away.

      Look how adorable Kayla and Tom are! They’re so well behaved, you’ll do just fine, Scarlet. I can‘t even believe that I thought those impossible nightmares were going to occur, I said to myself, finally relaxing. What can possibly go wrong now?

      “Scarlet! I’m kind of hungry now. Mommy forgot to give us breakfast, since she was in a hurry to go to that meeting. Did you see her earrings?” giggled Kayla as she covered her mouth. “They didn’t even match!”

      I laughed as I recalled back when I saw Mrs. Jones, flustered and in a hurry. “Yup, she even had some Red Lipstick on her teeth!”

      I took out two bowls to fill it up with milk. One for Kayla, and the other one for Tom. “Do you want Hasee Puff Cereal, or Neocrunch Cereal for breakfast?” I called to Kayla, as I slowly poured the milk into the bowls.

      “Neocrunch Cereal, please!” the baby Usul sang as she bounced up and down on her seat. She petted Tom that was relaxing on the table, stretched out and ready for a nap.

      I placed the two bowls in front of them and sat down in a chair. I said to myself with a relaxing sigh, Ahhh... Babysitting will be a breeze. Nothing will go wrong now.

      Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a black thing scurrying across the kitchen floor.

      Immediately, I flew up and looked around with a bird’s eye view to see what it was. Nothing. Hmm... I was so sure that something moved on the floor, I thought to myself, as I prepared to close my eyes and relax again.

      “MEOOOWWW!!!!” screamed the kadoatie. “MEOOWWW!”

      I jumped up, on my feet now, panicked and scared.

      “AHHHHHH!!!!! IT’S A SPYDER!!! SCARLETT! AHHHHH!” yelled Kayla, as she covered her face up with her paws and screamed like crazy.

      “MEOOOW!” Tom flew off the table, raced to the floor, and ran across the kitchen, chasing the black Spyder. To Tom, scurrying after the Spyder was a game. To us, it was a living nightmare.

      I gasped, frozen, and scared. What was I going to do? I was also, like Kayla, scared of any kind of creepy crawly petpets! Especially Spyders!

      “MEEOOOW!” screeched Tom, as he pounced around, lunging and leaping from counter to counter, floor to door, chair to table, chasing the little bugger!

      The Spyder jumped into the bowl of milk, making a huge geyser of milk! Tom followed, determined to catch it, and pounced right into the bowl of the milk Kayla was eating cereal out of!

      “CRASH!” went the bowl as it flew down the table, smashing into little pieces.

      There was a moment of shocked silence that came after the bowl breaking. The Spyder must’ve escaped from Tom’s claws, and gone out of the place!

      Then, came the crying, “WAHHHH! SCARLETTTTT!” went Kayla, as she held up her injured paw.

      “Oh no!” I exclaimed as I rushed to her side. I quickly realized that the small marks on her paw were from the Spyder, which bit her! Some pieces of the broken bowl also must’ve flown to Kayla, causing her to have a few scrapes. I held my head, scared at what had started as a pleasant dream, turned quickly into a nightmare. What am I going to do? Everything is going horrible now! I thought to myself, scared and shocked at what had just happened.

     C’mon, Carmen, you can do it. Solve it like a real baby-sitter would do. Make yourself proud, and reverse this nightmare! Though it’s your very first time babysitting, don’t make it your last. Let’s go and solve this problem! I thought to myself, now determined to not let my fears overcome and invade my head.

      “Kayla, don’t worry! It’s going to be fine! Help is coming!” I yelled as I flew up to the medicine cabinet to fetch the Spyder Juice Elixir to heal the bite.

      I rushed to Kayla’s side, opened up the first-aid kit and looked over her wounds.

      “Let’s first wash these injuries and get them clean. Okay? It won’t hurt, trust me,” I said to Kayla as I carried her up to the sink and ran the warm water down her paw.

      I mopped up the milk mess, and cleaned up the shards of glass with a broom.

      “Okay, Kayla, you’re doing fine now. I’m just going put some good ol‘ Spyder Juice Elixir to make it feel better,” I said to her calmly, as her eyes widened with shock.

      “Don’t worry! I’m right here to help you! Your mommy relied on me to make things better!” I reassured her as I cradled the baby Usul in my arms.

      After I stopped Kayla from crying, I sent a quick neomail to Mrs. Jones about what happened today to her.

      After receiving the neomail, Mrs. Jones came to the house, a bit flustered still. She went up to me and said, “Scarlet, I’m very proud of what you did today. This morning, I saw that you were afraid of taking this job. But, look! You handled things perfectly, and Kayla even said that you helped her wounds. Thank you very much, Scarlet. I’m looking forward for your service later on. Do you think you can take it?”

      I smiled as I thought back to today morning, scared about taking on my very first job!

     But look at yourself now! I said with my voice filled with pride. I, Scarlet, just handled things perfectly, and conquered my fears!

     I thought about Mrs. Jones’ words, as I felt myself fill with confidence and satisfaction, completely capable of taking on another round of babysitting.

     I replied with self-belief and pride in myself, “Yes, Mrs. Jones. I think I’m ready for next time. You can count on me.”

The End