The Next Door Neighbour

Chapter 7//Vegans

Brayden's POV

     THERE WERE PLENTY OF OTHER WAYS BRAYDEN WOULD'VE RATHER SPENT HIS WEDNESDAY NIGHT. He could've gone bowling, he could've read a book, he could've done a puzzle. But no, instead, he was being forced to watch Frozen. Again. Because what does everybody under the age of eight love? Apparently, talking snowmen and unnecessary musical numbers. And what do people over the age of eight want to do during said musical numbers? Probably, die. But Brayden couldn't die, because he was babysitting, and that'd be problematic of him. Also, he wouldn't get paid. So, rather than dying, he just sat, unmoving, sinking into the cracked leather of Mrs. Cho's couch, and watching Natalie and Elizabeth Cho sit, also unmoving, enthralled with Anna of Arendelle being annoying on the screen...again.

     The Cho's were his neighbours directly across the street. Natalie was five, Elizabeth was eight. The girls were well behaved (thank god) and mostly just played or watched TV. They were probably the easiest kids to babysit on the whole street.

     But Natalie and Elizabeth were not the only girls Brayden was spending the evening with. Of course, Super Babysitter Shailene Avery was also there. Mrs. Cho had hired one babysitter, him, and Mr. Cho had hired another, Shailene. (Great communication skills, guys.) Mrs. Cho had apologised for the slip-up, but he'd pulled out the don't worry's, and the it's no trouble's, and she'd seemed to relax. The only possible downfall was that he was probably going to get paid less. And he had to spend even more time with Rapunzel herself, which wasn't really a big deal, aside from the fact that it was her idea to watch Disney princess movies all night long. And she totally outshone him in babysitting (seeing as she actually interacted with the kids) which made him look like a bad babysitter, as opposed to just a mediocre one. But Natalie and Elizabeth — and every other kid he'd ever babysat — just seemed to like Shailene more. Hell, even his mom liked her more than him. Maybe it was her hair?

     Maybe if I had long blond princess hair, they'd like me more, he thought.

     Natalie and Elizabeth really weren't that blatant in terms of favouritism towards Shailene, though. Brayden had once had a kid actually groan at the sight of him (and it wasn't Sam).

     "Mommy, I wanted Shay!"

     "Sorry, honey, she was busy. Don't worry, you'll have lots of fun with Brendan."

     "It's Brayden."

     "Right. Brayden."

     But hey, at least it was the sing-along version of Frozen, so if he was willing to swallow his pride for two minutes and get right into it, he could do so without the total embarrassment of not knowing the words.

     "Why are we watching this?" he whispered to Shailene. "Oh wait, I know why we're watching this. Someone is a child that just—"

     "Shhh," she quieted him with a finger to her lips, "this is the best part."

     "The best part" was apparently just Kristoff — who looked scarily like Sam, but with a much larger nose — singing to Sven. Brayden mentally added this to Shailene's heaping pile of Best Parts, also titled, Why is Frozen so Weird, Especially Kristoff?

     The timer on the oven dinged, signalling that the Pillsbury cookies Shailene had popped in the oven some time before were ready. Rapunzel began to stand up, but he told her to stay.