C H A P T E R  9

I was full of nerves the next morning. What if someone from their family recognized me? Most people knew my name, not my face but after this case turned huge scandal, thanks to Nancy Green, I'd need plastic surgery to disguise me and live a normal life. I dressed as if I was heading to the office. Black blazer, blue blouse, black pencil skirt, killer heels and my Celine purse. Mr. and Mrs. Park would know how serious I am about the position if I looked as professional as possible. I took a deep breath and left my apartment ready to conquer the world of bratty, spoiled, children.

                                                                                 ***

"Here?" I asked the cab driver.

 "Yes, now get out. I have other customers." He replied rudely. I quickly got out of the cab before he'd make me pay extra. I looked at the house in front of me and grimaced. I don't know what I was expecting, but certainly not this. I try not to judge books by their covers, but really if the outside of their house mirrored the inside, I'd much rather live in my new apartment. It wasn't horrible, but for a family of four, I'd expect a little more. From the outside, it seemed like it was a two story, small cramped house. It was entirely made up of ugly, deep brown-red bricks with a few missing so pieces of wood plastered on the house replaced it. It had a front door that was the ugliest shade of green and the lawn was all dug up as if the family had a pack of dogs that took pleasure in destroying front yards. There was no garage but there was a car parked in front, at least if it was even still considered a car. At one point in the car's life it must have been a beauty, but right now, in the 21st century, I wouldn't even buy it for a dollar. It was silver and all scratched up. I guarantee you it was older than Mr. Park. To be honest, I wasn't really sure how they'd be able to afford a nanny. All their money should be put into fixing up this place. I walked up to the front door and knocked, making a mental note to bring hand sanitizer every time I'd have to touch this place.

 "Oh!" A woman I could only assume was Valerie Park, eyed me oddly for only a split second before she greeted me warmly. "Hello, you must be Ms. Summers!" It pained me every time someone greeted me with the last name Summers, it was only a reminder of the lies I was telling and the life I was temporarily trying to escape.

 "Yes, but please call me Gwen!" I rushed in. At least I was upfront and honest about that.

 "Gwen, beautiful name. I'm Valerie," She stuck out her hand, I shook it firmly. "Come on in and meet the rest of the family. She moved to the side and help open the door for me as I made my way inside. I wasn't even surprised by the inside of the house. It was poorly furnished with only the basics and a few decorations here and there. I was still observing their house when a man walked up to me from the kitchen.

"Ms. Summers! Great to meet you please come into the living room." Mr. Park said.

 "Gwen, please. You must be Mr. Park." I smiled and followed him into the living room, Valerie went into the kitchen to return with a tray with three cups of tea.

 "Call me Adam." He said as he sat down on their at least 9 year old couch. Valerie laid the ray on the glass table and joined him. I sat on a chair opposite to them.

 "Okay, so we'd just like to get to know a little bit about you. So what do you do for a living?" Adam asked. Shoot! I wasn't prepared for this. Okay, think Gwen!

 "I'm a journalist!" I blurted. My eyes widened worried they'd see through this lie. What if they asked to see my certificate from university? What if they asked for a reference?

 "I knew it!" Valerie shouted. Oh no! She's figured me out. I'm done, back to New York City to face the humiliation.

 "I knew it," she repeated, "When I first saw you, your face looked so familiar but I couldn't quite place my finger on it. Now I realize... you're a broadcasting journalist! That's why you look so familiar." She said proudly, as if she had just solved a Nancy Drew mystery before Nancy Drew had. I breathed a sigh of relief.

 "Exactly! I'm on very often, reporting local news. You know, the usual," I say.

 "Wow that's incredible! Any good stories lately?" Adam asks genuinely curious.

 "Oh you know, the usual," I wave my hand, desperate to end this conversation on my fake job. "So what are the kids names?" I ask, hoping to draw their attention away from me.

"Ah yes, the kids." Adam widens his eyes as if he's completely forgotten. "Valerie and I have two children. They're twins; one's named Aaron, the other Violet. They're 8 so of course at that age they've got a lot of energy but they're wonderful, you'll grow to adore them." I mentally laugh. I will never adore kids. They're annoying, attention seeking, and crybabies. If they don't get the latest Barbie doll or Transformer toy, you'll never have peace until you buy it for them. I hear stomps and yells coming up the stairs. "No! I said no!" a voice yells. "I'm telling on you!" another one yells. "Not if I tell on you first!" the first one yells back. I'm assuming the twins have come to grace us with their loud presences.

 "Here they come now," Valerie yells over them. "Kids, quiet down we've got a guest." The kids calmly walk over. "Poop, another nanny," Aaron says to Violet. Valerie smiles weakly at me. "They think they're too grown up for a nanny," she laughs, "Don't worry as long as they're sitting downstairs in front of the TV, they're no problem."

 "Mom! Violet won't let me watch!" Aaron stomps his foot.

 "It's my turn!" Violet stops her foot.

 "Is not!"

 "Is too!"

 "Enough! Both of you go to your room. When you've both calmed down you can return back downstairs and do rock, paper, scissors to decide who gets to watch TV. Your mother and I have to go to work so Charlie's going to come look after you for a few hours." Adam tells his children sternly. The kids go down the hall into their shared bedroom. I can still hear fighting from the inside but the parents try to ignore it

 "Rock, paper scissors solves everything between them," Valerie tells me. "Anyway, Adam and I need to go to work in a few minutes, but it was lovely to meet you,"

 "So I've got the job?" I ask hopefully.

 "Of course you have! No one else wanted to accept except for you!" Valerie exclaimed.

 "Why not?" I asked worriedly.

 Valerie laughs, "Don't worry, it's only because the previous nannies couldn't handle all the hours with the kids so they quit or refused the job after finding out how many hours they'd have to work."

 "That's fine, I'm looking to earn extra money so I would like to work longer days." I tell her not 100% honest. A full day with these two kids/monsters? But the parents seemed desperate.

 "I used to be a part time worker and part time stay at home mom but then we really needed to money so I started working full time and now that it's the summer and the kids don't have school they're home the entire day. That's why the hours are so abnormal." She said.

 "What's your occupation?" I asked curiously.

 "I work in a bakery full time now after only working part time and Adam works as an elementary school teacher during the year and he teaches summer school during the summer and later in the afternoon he teaches a special needs class." She smiled. I wondered where all their money was going to if they already had steady jobs but that was none of my business. I was too busy thinking how long this horrific babysitting job was going to last. I was already thinking about whether there's a chance I would get away with murdering the twins.