Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Thursday arrived swiftly and as she had successfully attained the role of babysitter for 'a lovely family', Natalia soon arrived at their house.
After she rang the doorbell, she pushed her shoulders back, adjusted her hair and displayed a bright smile upon her rosy lips. She did not know what would await her beyond the oaken door, nor know who Pete was, but based solely on the phonecall they had shared on the previous night, he seemed like a solemn man and she wanted to radiate a good first impression.
Suddenly, the door slammed open and a boy, no older than ten, with brown, curly hair appeared. Certainly not whom she had expected to meet first, but nevertheless she wanted to make a good impression. Natalia beamed down at him. "Hi, I'm Natalia and I'll be looking after you tonight. What's your name?"
The boy grinned back at her before responding. "Ben." He then widened his smile, before cocking his head to one side and innocently batting his eyelashes. "Natalia?"
"Yes?"
"What's the reason for living?"
The girl was left dumbfounded at the boy's question. She hadn't even entered the house and he was already asking her about the meanings of the universe - matters great philosophers struggled to provide a definitive answer to.
"Well..." she began, scouring her mind for an answer. "Great thinkers of the past, such as Freud and Kant -"
She was cut off by Ben. "I like pretending to blow stuff up... and Doctor Who. I think they're pretty good reasons to exist."
Natalia was still extremely confused and bewildered at this point. She nodded in response to Ben's matter-of-fact answer to the life-defining question and he scampered off back into the house. She didn't know if she could cope with being bombarded with questions like that for the rest of the night. It would be a long evening. That was certain. But at least it was just the one son they had.
The girl didn't want to appear rude or impolite and since she had not received invitation to enter the household, remained on the doorstep. There was an autumnal chill in the air and Natalia was unsuitably dressed - wearing only a black, denim skirt and a white crop top with a printed photo on it of the Arctic Monkeys. Her legs were bare, as were her arms and stomach, leaving her shivering outside, stood expectantly in front of an open door.
A few minutes passed when a small, blonde girl appeared at the entrance to the house with a frown painted across her features. She crossed her arms across her chest and stared upwards at Natalia. "Are you a burglar?"
Natalia was taken aback and could only furrow her eyebrows in perplexity. "Oh, n-no," she stuttered. "I'm not a burglar, don't worry. If I were, I don't think I would be stood in front of the front door in broad daylight, staring in." She laughed hesitantly.
