Highest Rank #61 in Fanfiction! Juliette McGill finds the perfect position as a nanny for a young boy with special needs. Only when she arrives at the family's home in British Columbia, she discovers that the boy is not quite what she expected and t...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
My luggage miraculously appeared around dinner time, not as "immediately" as Theodore had promised, but I was glad to finally have my own things back in my possession. A portly gentleman had brought it in, deposited it in the kitchen doorway and left without so much as a hello.
I rushed over and grabbed the carry-on bag. Fishing out the contract, I found the same wording that had been in the one Theodore showed me earlier. "What the hell?" I mumbled. I was really losing my mind. I must have been uber-stressed when I signed these papers. It was just before finals, after all, but I wasn't normally so careless. Even so, I couldn't complain about the money, that's for sure. I had a lot of student debt to pay down and with my living expenses completely covered, I could use almost all of my pay for the next to year for student debt and to put into savings for when I would begin working as a special education teacher, which would undoubtedly pay much less than this gig. It was a poor college student's (well graduate's) dream.
In addition, working with Harry would still give me insight into raising a special needs child especially since it seemed like I was basically going to be a surrogate parent for the kid.
Before I started dinner, I called my parents. After the quick text message I'd sent in the morning, I was really eager to hear their voices.
"Hey mom," I sang cheerfully when she answered.
"Hi sweetie," she said and then called to my dad to get on the other line. They always insisted on talking to us like that, both of them on the line at the same time, even when Helena and I lived in an apartment just a few miles from home. They did the same with my older sister Katherina and her husband Charlie. I was sure they'd do the same for my brother Oliver when he moved out; he was going to be starting his senior year in high school this coming fall.
"How is it?" Dad asked when he picked up the other line.
"Umm, well it's strange, to be honest. I guess I goofed up a little." I felt so stupid for making such a big mistake.
"Why? What happened?"
"Well, apparently I misunderstood the contract. The boy is seventeen, not seven. He is intellectually disabled so he's mentally at the level of a seven-year-old."
"Oh dear, that makes a big difference, doesn't it?" Mom asked.
"It does and it doesn't, I guess. He's still a special needs kid so I'll use the same skills as I would for a younger person. I just know there will be differences, too."
"What's the family like?" Dad questioned.
I was feeling sheepish enough without going into Theodore's brusque personality and unwillingness to answer simple questions. Besides I didn't want my parents to worry about the things that didn't seem quite right. It was hard enough for them to let me move 2500 miles away from home. I simply answered, "Nice, I think I'll like it here."
