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Old January 9th, 12, 01:59 AM   #4
Jakerz
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Connor looks up at his babysitter as she comes into the kitchen, a little nervous to meet her eyes. In a way he’s already decided he isn’t gonna like her before she even speaks. How could he? It’s not ONLY because of past experience with bad or mean babysitters, or even just shyness and fear. In the back of Connor’s head, he can only think that if she wasn’t there then there’d be no babysitter, and his mommy and daddy couldn’t have left him alone, and then they would have HAD to take him with them. And sure, she LOOKED nice, but that didn’t mean that she WAS nice…

As Alice begins to talk, Connor is almost a little confused. When she speaks it doesn’t sound like the other mean old babysitters. Something in her voice reminds him once again of a teacher or something - not a babysitter. Of course, being so young, Connor has only had preschool through second grade teachers, most of whom were young, warm, motherly women. They usually were the only adults besides Connor’s parents that he absolutely trusted. This babysitter - “Alice”, not “Miss Alice”, Connor was allowed to call her “Alice” – reminded him of them. When she spoke it was almost soothing. And instead of “boy” or “young man” she calls him “Connor.” Somehow that was the most important thing of all…

Connor shakes Alice’s hand when asked, though he still doesn’t speak – not even being able to say something like “Nice t’meetcha” which he had always learned was what polite boys do when they meet people for the first time. Although on the outside Connor is still shyly looking up at Alice with no visible change in demeanor, she has already made an impression on him. His trust is hard to win, but inside he’s softening. He finds it hard to speak still, she’s still a stranger (around new people he sometimes felt almost paralyzed, like he wanted to speak but just can’t, he can only stare up at them with his bright green eyes), but did she really just say she wanted to find out what HE wanted to do? Not what SHE wanted to do? Because none of the other babysitters ever cared what HE wanted to do. Or what HE wanted to eat. Or where HE wanted to go, or what HE wanted to watch on TV. It’s almost like she was interested in him…nah, but that couldn’t be. She was just there to be the boss, she didn’t care about him….they never did.

As Alice goes out of the room to do…some grown-up thing or something, Connor guesses, he looks back into his Cheerios. He had nodded when she asked if he could be good for her. But the boy didn’t know what to think. She was nothing like the other babysitters…maybe it was a test or something? Yeah like she was going to pretend to be all nice, and then tell him to be good, then watch real closely to see the first thing he did wrong or somethin'. Or maybe she was gonna search his room and look for embarrassing stuff like the plastic on his mattress in case of bedwetting so she could call him a baby like she was probably gonna do anyways after hearing what his mom had told her about his potty troubles. (It certainly wasn’t helping Connor’s mindset that he’s been upset all morning and wasn’t quite ready to take a positive viewpoint.) Or could she have been telling the truth? Alice did look tired…And there was something about her that was different. Maybe it was that she DIDN'T sound like she just wanted to be the boss and nothing else. He takes a couple bites of his breakfast…for some reason just a little bit of his appetite has come back.

Before too long Alice is back in the room. Connor thinks about the room she’s talking about. Then he realizes what she means. HE was never allowed up there (The stairs to get up to the attic were hard to climb and easy for small boys to fall off of, his mommy had said.) but he doesn’t know if he’s really ever seen his parents mention it besides then. He shrugs his shoulders honestly at Alice’s question – he really doesn’t know. Was the bed important? Well they never SAID anything about an important bed....well THEIR bed was important. He wasn't allowed in there since he wet the bed sometimes...but some other bed? He couldn't think of when they ever mentioned one. “Prob’ly not…” he says softly, his voice even surprising him, after being quiet for so long. His voice is as expected – it matches his face. Soft and kind of delicate. He continues to look up watching Alice to see what she would say now.
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