Chapter Text
“Yes! she totally would!,” Van exclaimed, it was a rainy day at the court, Natalie was looking at her, looking how she just accepted that offer for her.
Coach Martin’s looked back at Natalie, it took him a few seconds but he choose wisely “Great, it’ll be great if you could start tomorrow night actually,” he said with his typical hoarse intimidating voice.
“Umm…,” Natalie glanced at Van, looking for a sign, the redhead nodded frenetically “Yeah, sure,” she said.
Coach Martinez gave her a little smile and handed her a piece of paper.
With an impeached handwriting was noted ‘Wilburn 1654’ she looked back at the Coach.
“Tomorrow at six p.m.?,” the grown man asked.
“Yeah, I’ll be there,” Nat put the piece of paper in her pocket and nodded.
“Great,” Coach Martinez gave her a skeptical look and walked away.
Natalie looked at Van, almost scared “What did just happen?,” she asked.
Van let out a loud laugh “This is amazing!,” she said hugging the blonde girl “You wanted a job for so long,”
Natalie knitted her eyebrows together “Well yeah, but i didn’t expect it to come from… Coach Martinez,” she said, the man was a bit weird, they’d talk about it before.
“Who cares?,” Van asked “You can finally gain some money, this is awesome,” Natalie’s lips curled a bit in a soft smile.
“Yeah… I guess it is,”.
Natalie had been waiting for this, almost all year, she hated her house, she didn’t expect to move out or something, but she did expect to grow a little more independent from her mother, she wanted to be able to bought herself some sweet treat, or just bought something she found cute in a store.
This was her chance.
She was standing outside the house, it was big and rustic, she looked at the door latch and took a deep breath, she couldn’t believe someone had trusted her to babysit somebody, specially coach, who knew her and knew how much of a burnout she was. She wanted a cigarette more than anything but she couldn’t enter that house smelling bad.
She knocked three times at the wood of the door and walked two steps away, she didn’t want to be invasive.
She waited a few seconds until a tall, brown haired woman opened the door, she was wearing a red dress and was pinning some pearl earrings.
“Hello,” the woman said “You must be Natalie,” Natalie smirked nervously.
“Hi, yeah, it’s me,” she said, she wonder if she was wearing appropriate clothing for this, she didn’t have much clothes, she figured out a pair of jeans and a tank top was fine, but autumn was coming and with it, the cold freezing wind, she regretted not having her leather jacket with her.
“Come in, it’s cold outside,” the woman said leaving a space between the door and herself so Natalie could come in, she did.
The house was warm, wood old floors, tall white walls filled with photographs of the family members and some special moments, a cozy sofa, a chimney, a carpet, it was Natalie’s dream house.
“Wow, this is a lovely place,” she said looking around.
“Well, thank you, Sweetheart,” Natalie smiled uncontrollably at the nickname, she felt in a real home “Javi is in his room, I’ll call him in a minute, but first, i left money for you to order some pizzas for everyone,” she said pointing to the corner where a little table with keys and a bit of money was resting “And Javi is kinda like a shy boy, you might… have to talk to him, you know?,” she asked nervously.
“Yeah sure, I’d love to meet him,” she said.
Coach Martinez appeared from the hallway tying his tie very gently as he looked around, searching if he was leaving something.
“Looking good Coach?,” she teased him with a smile
“Don’t make me regret this,” he said rolling his eyes and stepping aside of his wife.
“You won’t, Coach,”
“We’re supposed to be here by ten, ten thirty,” Mrs Martinez said grabbing her purse “Javi, Honey! Come here a minute!,”
A messy haired little boy came out of his room wearing a spiderman hoodie and some grey sweatpants, he seemed ready to not get out in the rest of the day, and Natalie respected it.
The boy stepped in front of his mother nervously and looked straight at Nat.
“She’s Natalie, your new babysitter,” Mrs Martinez said touching the boy’s shoulder
“Hi, pleasure to meet you,” Natalie smiled friendly trying her best to not to scare the little boy
“Hi,” the boy said shyly, she then understood what Mrs Martinez meant when she say she will need to talk to him.
“Anything you need you can call the restaurant, the number is on the fridge, and if you have any question Javi knows where everything is,” She said grabbing her purse
“Yeah… i wouldn’t try to ask Travis,” Mr Martinez laughed at his own joke as her wife looked at him slightly disappointed.
Mrs Martinez bent down to look at his son “We’ll be back in a couple hours, honey! have fun with Nat,” she said.
She kissed her son on the forehead and he tap him in the shoulder in a much cold way, they crossed the door and shut it behind them. She was officially a babysitter.
“Sooo,” she said trying her best to sound nice “Have you ever had babysitters before?,” She asked sitting in the kitchen counter.
The boy just nodded and Natalie decided it might not be a good idea to keep with that topic anymore.
She figured out that maybe if she was honest instead of telling him how good she was at her job he’ll feel more comfortable with her “Well… it’s my first time babysitting, so we’re both new at this,” the little boy smirked “So we’re starting together, do you want to show me your room?,” she asked
“Yeah, Sure,” he said, then he walked into a hallway and entered the third door at the left.
It was big, at least bigger than hers, the walls were covered in drawings, he had a record player and a few toys in his desk, Natalie would’ve killed to sleep in a place like that when she was younger.
“Oh, you like to draw?,” she asked approaching to one of the walls, a drawing of a spaceship incredibly detailed was hanging
“Yeah,”
“What’s your favorite thing to draw?,”
He seemed to think about it “i think superheroes,” he answered
Natalie turned around to see him “You like spiderman, don’t you?,” she asked in a weird laugh.
“Yeah,” he laughed too
“It’s my favorite one, me and my best friend were obsessed with it when we were younger,” She remembered the hours Van and her used to spend in the redhead’s trailer reading all the comics that Van inherited from her cousin.
“Really?,” he asked
“Yeah, we spent hours reading it, i never learned how to draw tho, i would’ve love to know how to make my own comics,” She said looking back at the drawing wall.
And a silly little voice came from behind her, exactly what she wanted to hear “Well… maybe i can teach you how,” Natalie smirked, glad to know the kid wasn’t afraid of her.
“Really?,” she turned around to see him.
“Yeah, wanna go to the kitchen? the light is better there,” he proposed, Natalie breaths out a sigh that she didn’t knew she was holding.
“Yeah, of course, let’s go,”
Javi grab a notebook and some pencils from his desk and guide her back to the kitchen.
Natalie wasn’t exactly a natural at this.
“Okay what do i do now?,” she asked
“Now i draw a line, so i can measure how long i want the face to be,” he said
“And how long does it have to be?,”
“I don’t know, you just feel it,” he said, Natalie placed the pencil on the paper and started to draw the line
“I definitely don’t feel it,” she said looking at what she had drowned, it looked awful.
Javi moved a little to be able to look at her paper and let out the loudest laugh she ever heard.
“It’s okay, we can fix it later,” he said in between laughs.
“Hey, don’t laugh,” she added in between laughs too.
Then another voice popped out “Javi! Have you seen my?,” a tall boy in his pijamas was walking out the hallway, he seemed to stop talking in the moment he saw the situation, he must be Travis “Who are you?,” he asked pointing at Natalie with his deep brown eyes.
“My babysitter,” Javi said
“What?,” Travis asked
“Hi, I’m Natalie,” she said, she didn’t put the happy voice she had for Javi, something didn’t quite make sense with him.
“Your babysitter?,” he asked “But i’m home,”
“The last time you watched me i had a candy bar for dinner,” Javi said, he had another voice for Travis too.
Travis looked back at Natalie and then at Javi, but his looked seemed to slip to the girl, he rolled his eyes “You’re ten anyway, who needs a babysitter with ten years old,” he said before walking back to the hallway.
Javi looked back at Natalie “I’m sorry, he’s always grumpy, i don’t know what’s wrong with him,”
“S’fine,” Natalie said “What’s not fine is this thing, please help me fix it,” she said pointing her ‘spiderman’.
Javi laughed a little and grabbed an eraser from the table.
They spend almost every hour left trying to draw silly things, they had a little pause for pizza, Javi put some on a plate and took it to Travis room while Natalie served water for both of them and after that they put on a movie.
She knew her first night was a success when Javi fell asleep on the couch and she woke him up carefully to go to his room.
Once he was sleeping, the door opened loudly, Mr and Mrs Martinez walked out in a dry silence.
“Oh Natalie!,” Mrs Martinez said “How was Javi? did he talk?,” The woman seemed worried about that specifically.
Natalie let out a breathless laugh “Oh he did amazing, we draw a lot,” she said approaching to the kitchen table, the woman was speechless “Oh, i’m gonna take this home, he helped me draw it,” she said, the paper showed a poorly drawn Spiderman who seemed like it was sniffing at the middle of his adventures.
“Yeah, sure,” the woman said, she looked stunned “did he actually talked to you?,”
“Yeah, he did,” Natalie said shrugging with a smirk, it seemed like she did an amazing work.
Mrs Martinez looked over her shoulder to his husband “Well, that’s new,” Coach said.
The couple paid Natalie her first ever salary and she smiled like a little kid since years.
She made it into her trailer, it was cold, specially her room, her window broke weeks ago and she wasn’t sure how to fix it, but cold winds were entering her room and it felt awful.
Natalie took the drawing she made out of her pocket and place it in her wall next to a ‘Bikini Kill’ poster. It meant something, she could feel how that kid was comfortable with her, so much that he shared his hobby with her. It meant that maybe she wasn’t that bad of a burnout, maybe she could be good.
She lighted a cigarette in her window and then went to sleep covered in a few blankets that were enough for now.