4- The Babysitter II

Editing completed…

Chapter 4

PLACING HER BAG ON THE FLOOR, she practically collapsed on her chair. Joaquin sat behind her, looking at her tired form.

"How about you go a full day without staring at me?" she implored drowsily, not even bothering to glance at him. She was tired, and she had neck pain, most probably from where and how she slept. She quietly rubbed her neck, as if trying to reduce the pain there.

"Why did you help me yesterday?" He queried.

"Hm? Oh! It is nothing serious or important. I just see you around my brother frequently, so I assumed you both were friends" She replied lazily as she slouched deeper into her chair.

"You don't look so good," Quin asked, his voice laced with concern.

"Didn't sleep well or comfortably" She whispered her response, but he heard her regardless. He hummed a response as he leaned back with folded arms. Soon, it was Lani's turn to stare at him. Not like she was observing his features or his late autumn dress-up, but she had something to ask him.

Her brother.

He hadn't contacted her after the last message he had sent. So she was really worried about him.

"You want to say something? Then just say it, I don't bite" He said, giving her a cocky smile. But that just irked her, and every reason to ask him just flew off her head and out the window. She Abruptly turned around to face the board, but that just annoyed him as he kicked the back of her chair.

Before she could reply or tell him to stop it, the teacher came in, but sadly he didn't stop disturbing her either by tugging her shirt or pulling her hair. He pulled it to the point it loosened, and it fell down her back, but some landed on his table. It took a lot of self-control not to turn around and slam a book on his head to tighten the loose screw in his brain.

The shirt she was wearing was a male shirt, and it was also awfully familiar. Not like it concerned him about whose or what shirt she was wearing, he just wanted to know, and besides it was probably for her brother like she claimed to have.

'Hmm? She did say her brother was my friend' he thought to himself as he got bored with disturbing her but still didn't let go of the part of hair he was holding.

The bell rang for school over and for some known reason, Kehlani was fed up. Turning her attention to the perpetrator of her anger, she glared at him.

"What exactly is your problem today, huh?" she yelled angrily immediately after the teacher left the class.

"I have no idea what you are talking about?" he shrugged his shoulders begrudgingly

"I know you know what I am talking about, I couldn't concentrate in class because of you" She snapped hard at him. With the glare she gave him, if looks could kill, Joaquin Salazar would very much be six feet under right now.

"I seriously have no idea what you are talking about?" He repeated her statement, leaning his face onto his palm, and giving her a flirtatious look.

"You know, you are insufferable" She apprehended, "You are like a kid… those preschool kids that go around tormenting girls they like" Just after those words slipped out there was a given silence between them. Then moments later, Lani had a wide grin on her face.

"Mr Quin, do you like me?" she teased without shame, leaning closer to his face.

"I don't and besides you are not my type" He responded looking away from her face.

"Hmph!" Clearly offended. He could have just stopped at 'I don't' rather than putting the rest. Pouting to herself, she swung her school bag on her shoulders.

"Anyway, schools' over, so see ya and—" She was about to ask him about the whereabouts of her brother, but she decided against it. "Never mind… bye"

'She wanted to say something to me, so why does she not'. Joaquin thought to himself.

Anyway, it was too much of a bother to think about someone he just met yesterday. But the real question is why she had occupied his mind since yesterday.

This morning, he woke up in his empty house, actually happy and eager to come to school. But when he did, she wasn't here on time.

How did he know what time she usually arrived? That is because every class has an attendance booklet for the students. And just that morning Joaquin took his time to check it, just to see what time for the last month till the present did she frequently come to school. School started lessons from 8:30 am-3:30 pm. Kehlani often arrives at school within the range of 7:30 and 8:00. If she was ever late, it would be between 8:15. She never came later than 8:15, but today she came at 8:25 and looked dead tired, like she was forced to stay awake for a full week or something.

A message came through his phone, distracting him from his train of thought.

'Dude, where the hell are you?!' It read from Santiago. Sighing to himself, he finally stood up, taking his bag as he proceeded to leave the classroom. Getting to the school's car park, he saw Santiago there per usual, while Xavier sat on the hood of his vehicle reading a book.

The three boys were a team squad in the clan. That means if anyone had a mission or assignment among them, they were all going, no matter how small or big it was.

Well, it's four plus Carlos Lector. But he hated school, so he was always at Joaquin's house. Clan house? Carlos had no particular location.

He had some of his clothes at Joaquin's house, some in Xavier's house, and multiple people's houses, so Carlos didn't have a place to stay he just moved around people's houses.

"Since when did you like classes that you would want to spend more than ten minutes there?" Santi queried with suspicion evident in his eyes. Not ready to leave the school premises as they had no assignment to do today. Joaquin sat with Xavier on the hood of his car.

"Remember, I told you about the girl that helped me during Mr. Manuel's class yesterday, huh?" He reminded as he took the translucent nylon bag to take the snacks one of the other boys bought.

"Creepy Mr. Manuel!" Xavier muttered from the side. The two boys agreed with their friends' statement.

"Yes Creepy Mr. Manuel, well we were talking after class, a little tease here and there and that's why I was late" His answer baffled both boys as they stared at him looking completely puzzled.

"Joaquin was teasing with a girl?!" The baffled boys shrieked in surprise.

"Why are you acting like this is the first time I have spoken to or about a girl?" Quin looked at his buds, wanting to get mad at their reaction.

"Well, you only fuck girls and don't even remember some of their names"

"Like you are any different" Joaquin countered back. Just as a playful argument was about to start, someone's phone rang.

Xavier.

Looking at the name of the contact, he inwardly sighed in irritation.

"What's up? You got a mission?" Santiago asked.

"Nah, it's my Mother" He replied with zero enthusiasm. He let it ring for a long time, before picked up the call and went silent. It was her that called, so he didn't see the need to call out first.

"Xavier, honey, when are you coming home? I need someone to watch the kids" She said finally. It sounded like she was busy doing something because there was lots of shuffling and noise in the background.

"Why didn't you call a babysitter like you did yesterday?"

"Could you believe the worthless and incompetent girl didn't come back and stole the payment money" She called out at the top of her voice. She most likely dropped whatever she was doing just to insult the babysitter of the previous day.

But that made Xavier livid.

"Ha?! Worthless? Incompetent?!" Xavier screamed out in frustration as he remembered what she told him about being used to not eating for a few days.

And how she slept in the cold living room just because she had no idea if she was allowed to touch anything or not. Xavier forgot about his friends and even forgot that he was in an open area.

"How can you call her worthless? You didn't tell her when you and father were coming back!! She stayed overnight with nothing to eat and barely anything to cover herself with as you and Father were too foolish and dumb to turn off the electricity before leaving the house, and you dare call her worthless?" Xavier was going to lay it down on his mother.

"You left with no information, no permission or nothing!! What if she gave Ricardo corn or nuts? Or Eduardo Soy? Huh? What the hell are you going to do? Sue her? Tell her to pay for damages she had no idea of?" Xavier had no idea that his mother was already crying because of his words, and his father had already taken the phone from his weeping wife.

"You useless excuse of a son!!" His father screamed into the phone as he transferred his anger to his son. "How dare you make your mother cry, because of an incompetent babysitter. We are your parent, and you would treat us as such!!" he commanded.

"OH!? Old man, you are there also? Good! Good!! That's perfect!! Parent you say? If so, tell me, do you know what your three sons are allergic to? Do you know what the twins like or dislike? Do you know their hobbies? One golden question, where is their school? Huh? Tell me goddammit, since you are such a wonderful parent, perfect even. So do tell me? What the hell is the name of your kid's school?"

SILENCE

*EDITED*