New Teacher on the Block

"That's 'neat'."(Adventures in Menace-sitting part 2)

It was Tuesday after school session is finished, and after her work routine was too. 

Miss Kwan was feeling half exhausted, as she laid down on her bed with her tired eyes wide open, as if she's unsure to fall asleep or not. She was just lying down there. Unsure on what to do next. It all felt a wee bit empty to her, as she wasn't feeling like the mostly 'normal' of the bunch of other teens when she was younger. She might've been worried that she wasn't aware that her life isn't feeling complete to her either.

And that temporary feeling of emptiness was gone when she heard knocking on her door. She then found the keys to unlock the door and unlocked it.

And those two standing in front of her was none other than Dennis' parents, Dennis Sr. and Sandra Menace.

*(Sr. means senior)

"Miss Kwan, I heard my son asked you to be his babysitter", said Dennis Sr. "So we decided that it was probably a good idea to let you look after him and his friends."

"Darling, how about Bea?" Sandra said, with slight concern showing in her expression.

"Don't worry Sandra sweetheart, she's safely asleep in her cot. What could possibly go wrong?" 

Dennis' dad was pretty much used to the thought of having babysitters be around his son and daughter, heck even his son's friends! Even though the last time they did hire a babysitter, it was a total disaster as Bea was pretty much causing so much anarchic trouble to the point where she quitted halfway.

"About that babysitting thing, I do have some experience with it ever since my high school years. Why not I deal with that?" Miss Kwan responded eagerly. "It might be challenging from what I've experienced but I'll give it a go."

"Thanks Miss Kwan, that's really kind of you." said Dennis' dad(Dennis Sr.). "Now me and my wife can finally have a brief downtime while we would be okay regardless if you mess up or not."

"Right, darling?"

"Yeah, yeah. Thanks Miss Kwan for being such a responsible teacher. We got to go home now."

Miss Kwan did swore a duty to not disappoint that much. And suddenly felt a slight motivation that gave her a truthfully positive feeling.

So she headed off and left her flat while being still dressed in her Surprise Vitamin Wizard Boy Coscaroon anime t-shirt that surprisingly still fit on her even after 10 years and acid wash flared jeans that she bought in a Beanotown subculture department store called Blazing Articlez. And wore her white ballet flats while still wearing the black frilled socks with red polka dots she wore ever since she started her teacher work session in Bash Street School today. 

At Beanotown Park, near Beanotown Woods

As she arrived Dennis' den, she was pretty much taken by how surprisingly nostalgic this metal structure that Dennis and his friends' hangout can be as it reminded her of the time she read a comic that took place in Malaysia in the 1980s where a group of kids who are best friends to each other have a main hangout that is essentially a metal and wood structure that they built themselves. It gave her a sense of nostalgic wonder and awe as she uttered "cool" out of how it reminded her of a childhood imagination made by her about that cool hangout she always dreamed of more as a kid. The feeling, that is absolutely of having a dream hangout where there are no such thing as anyone forcing you to do anything that you don't want and cherishing in the moment where you and your friends can have some freedom away from the stress that all of you have to be shouldered with in life, especially the pesky parents being too overly worried about you causing your own life problems if you got older... which is ironically a true case since as what Miss Kwan knew, is caused by her slight lack of self motivation and how she wasn't capable of thinking positive for a longer time. Enough despairing, she thought. I've gone through worse in my adulthood and I need to let myself have some time to unwind. 

And with that thought in mind, she went to the entrance of the 'den' that Dennis and his friends always hang out in and told Dennis, who happens to be one of the first people who arrived here besides Pieface and J.J. on how his parents allowed her to be his and his friends' babysitter. 

"Yes! What are we waiting for? Let's have a blam time!"

"I'm not sure on what you're going to do. Maybe skateboard, or just some other things that either involves noise making or not." Miss Kwan replied, unsure on what Dennis is thinking about doing today.

"How about we do some blamtastic pranks instead?"

"Sure, but you better be careful."

"I would be careful!" Dennis replied while he pouted.

Miss Kwan smiled. The thought of actually befriending someone like Dennis and friends and being a babysitter to them made her feel young at heart again. Which reminded her on the fact that what J.J. said about her being friendly to children was right. Maybe she was right for acknowledging that. Maybe Dennis and his friends' antics reminded her of the childhood she wished that she can have, combined with the one that she had minus being forced to submit to boring elders telling you what to do that will make you a boring person. She was still young after all, but only grew up a little too fast. And that's for the fact that every elder family member of hers gave her the life experience she needed and to learn from, even if they are just flawed human beings that ended up a bit too overly eager to let her just grow up to be like one of those so called 'normal society' people. Maybe they were also struggling with the challenges on balancing discipline with freedom giving all because they actually love her, even if they probably tried. And that her learning to balance discipline and freedom providing is the best idea according to her past experiences as a babysitter . 

"C'mon Miss, let's go!" Dennis called her name as he lets her join in his latest prank scheme.

It was the moment that she knew that she would be away from the same daily routine caused boredom she's having.