Teen For Hire

Meeting Mother Dearest

His mother just rolled her eyes. "Again, I really don't mind or anything. But maybe it would be a good idea if you just told me how's your life is going once in a while, no?"

"Well, yeah. I guess." It's not as though he didn't want to tell her anything, but there just never felt like a time where he could sit down and just talk about all the boring details of his school life. Heck, why would he even want to talk about it?
"Anyways. Mom, this is Eddie. You can call him Edgar if you want to see him squirm, but yeah."

She looked at his friend, who still had the hints of red in his cheeks, with an amused smile. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, Mrs. Alexander. I-"

"Geez, that's such a mouthful. Call me Mrs. Callie."

"Alright... Mrs. Callie." He cleared his throat again. "Sorry for coming over so early in the morning, I-"

"No need to apologize to what is clearly my kid's fault." She looked at her wristwatch. "It's not even that early."

Eddie murmured under his breath. "It kinda is, it's freaking 9." Then he spoke louder, "We're just practicing a play though. I-"

"A play?" His mother asked and Eddie gave up on speaking after getting interrupted for the third time. "Sorry kid, but you talk too slow," she said kindly when she noticed his expression.

Eddie shook his head, "Oh no, it's fine. It's just that usually I-"

"Anyways, Reece, you're entering a play?" She cut him off again. "Didn't think you were one for theatre."

Reece raised an eyebrow. "Yes, you did. You were the one that brought me up watching Broadways and musical stuff."

"Well yes, but I thought it only made dramatic- which you are- and I didn't think it would actually influence you to try out for theatre yourself." Then she grinned. "It'll be fun seeing your dad's reaction though."

"If you tell him then he'll ship me off to a bootcamp in a second," he said jokingly, though he did feel like that might just happen.

The two boys took a cup of lemonade each and sat on the stools, enjoying the quiet morning with the refreshing drink while ignoring the fact that maybe Mrs. Callie had put in salt instead of sugar. Considering that she didn't even help herself to a second serving, it was easy to assume that everybody should just silently acknowledge it.

Before anyone could speak up about the salty lemonade, Mrs. Callie turned to Eddie with an excited glint in her eyes. "So, what has my son been up to so far?"

Reece groaned, "Mom, everything's fine!"

"Has he blown up anything yet?" she asked. "Or maybe somehow orchestrated an impossible prank? It's not that impossible, believe me - everything he knows, he got it from me."

"Okay, that is so not true. Everything you know, I've got it but I have more than that."

But Eddie just looked even more confused now, looking back and forth between the two of them as if it will make things clearer. "Um... I don't think so?" He wasn't exactly sure how to respond to this, would she be happier if Eddie said bad stuff about her son? "Is there a reason why he'd be a serial bomber?"

Mrs. Callie frowned suspiciously at him. "So you mean to tell me that nothing weird has happened ever since Reece moved to your school?"

He shook his head. Then he thought about it again, "Well, there was that crazy girl that came yesterday to call him out but I-"

"Oh, does he mean Halley?" her eyes widened with excitement. "I haven't seen her in a long time. She never comes by the house."

Reece scoffed, "She doesn't even like you, Mom."

"I know, it's refreshing." She pointed a finger to her son. "I'm guessing that you're not doing the whole... 'MacGyver' thingy at Waterford?"

"Mom, I was never a super agent. I just did it to earn some extra cash. And no, I haven't done it at Waterford. Yet."

"Can you guys stop being so vague about this and tell me what exactly is going on?" Eddie all but bursted out. Getting caught in between some inside joke was not exactly the best feeling.

But maybe it could go on a bit longer. "You don't have to know." Reece said dismissively. "Hey, what time is it?"

"Around 9.30, why?"

"I have to go to Malcolm's by 11, for practice."

"You sure?" Eddie pulled out his phone and said, "But he updated his story on Instagram 5 minutes ago and apparently, is on a one day trip to Six Flags."

"Seriously?" Reece took a look at his own phone and saw two unread messages. From none other than the blonde director himself. "Okay, he ditched me for Six Flags."

"Who wouldn't?" Eddie chuckled. "I think he's free though."

"Well, I'm not. I wanna go to the movies."

Mrs. Callie fake coughed, giving a pointed look to Reece. "I was not informed of this plan."

Reece didn't look like he considered this part either as his lips suddenly curled into a cheerful smile, obviously trying to win his mother's heart with it. "Can I please go to the movies tomorrow?"

"With whom? I need to make sure at least someone is responsible enough to make sure you won't bring the whole cinema down."

Reece glanced expectantly at Eddie and his friend sighed. "I guess I'll be going with him."

His mother pursed her lips. "Not enough."

Eddie was yet again, offended. "Thank you for your honesty," he murmured. 

"Maybe we'll invite Mara or Allen with us. Is Claire a fan of movies?" Reece tried hard to seem enthusiastic about this.

"Not unless it's horror."

"Invite a girl and I'll agree." Mrs. Callie began to put away all the glasses back on the silver tray. "God knows that she'll be the only sensible one there." Then she stood up clumsily, almost knocking down every single glass on the tray but she acted as though it didn't happen, and winked at Reece knowingly. "Good luck, kid. Don't get into too much trouble."