Paid to Catch

Prologue

Okay, so maybe pranking my parents' guests WAS a bad idea, but I never thought that I'd ever regret it. I mean, I've done it millions of times before. But this time it was different.

You see, it was our family Christmas party, and well, as you can imagine, family members were there. It was held in my mother's birthplace, Iloilo City-- celebrated in our mansion. My annoying cousins, mostly. So I thought: Hey, there's a lot of 'em, no biggie if I prank one or two. That was mistake number one. I DID prank two of my cousins. One was my cousin Theodore. His mom's french, and they own a famous cake store in Paris. I pranked him while he was showing our uncles and aunts how he tempers chocolate. The second one was my cousin Ann. Her dad is my dad's twin, and she's such a bookworm. I pranked her by moving her bookmark waayyy past the page she was reading.

And after awhile, I pranked half of them. I got so excited that I named myself "The Prince of Pranks." And no, it's a cool name. It's not lame. Okay, maybe it is, but I ran out of ideas!

As I was saying, I got so excited-- overly, I suppose, that I started pranking every single adult I saw. Yeah, I'm a little devil. My fun ended when my mom got caught in one of my net traps. She wasn't furious. Dad wasn't furious. They were already used to it. But I still got grounded. Wanna know why? Because of my stupid Aunt Helen! Argh, I hate that old lady! The second she saw mom in the net she instantly glared at me.

"Get your mother down!" She said. "Right now, young man!"

"I'm sorry." I  fake-pouted. I really hoped she'd fall for it, but as the cranky old lady she was, she became even more pissed off. '

Tsk.' I thought when she started a fit of nagging at me. I felt like strangling when she started telling my mom, "Maria! Do you even know how to raise your own child?!"

I balled my fists. Nobody was allowed to say mean things to my mom, especially Aunt Helen. What did she know about raising a child? The old hag was single! Her yelling got our other family members' attention. They watched Aunt Helen scold my mom, and my mom just kept quiet as my cousin Trace and I helped her get out of the net.

I heard murmurs in the crowd.

Murmurs about my mom.

'Shut up' I yelled in my head. And before I knew it, I started cussing at my aunt.

I got grounded, just like I said. I wasn't banned from technology or talking to my friends (not that I have any) or anything normal parents did to punish their kids. No, mine was worse. Maybe even the WORST punishment of all time.

... My parents hired a babysitter.