Brain looked down at the take out menu again, going over the address. He was driving along a series of very nice looking, three story mansions, all with green lawns and at least two car garages. He snorted, thinking of the brat he was going to be baby-sitting. He imagined a snooty, spoilt blonde kid, with a large nose and buck teeth. He laughed at the image and saw a white, three story mansion, which didn't look any different from the others except for the recognizable BMW in the drive way beyond the large gate. He pulled up the gate, a little self-conscious about his own car, and looked around not entirely sure what to do. Brian heard Mrs. Taylor's voice and jumped. He saw that it was coming from the speaker on the side of the gate.

"Can I help you?" Her voice came through, slightly cracked. He blinked, "Uh... its me!" He yelled loudly.

"Brian! Come on in, the doors unlocked." The gate swung open and Brian drove up the curved driveway and parked. He killed the engine and stepped out of the light blue Gremlin, with various bumper stickers over the back windows that the previous owner had placed there.

He walked up to the door, which was slightly ajar. He pushed it open and took two steps inside before stopping. The 'house' was huge. A large staircase was centered a good 20 or 25 feet from the entrance. What looked like a living-room was through an archway to the left, and to the right was another archway which looked like it led to a large kitchen. Brian walked in a little ways more and looked up. A chandelier was hanging from the tall ceiling. The third floor was also visible from this angle. Someone cleared their throat. He looked to see a blonde man with broad features, glasses, and an expensive looking designer suit.

"Mr Kinney, I'm Craig Taylor. We spoke on the phone this morning." Craig put his hand out and Brian shook it. The man looked Brian over critically before resting on his face once more. "I hear you have an extensive amount of experience, Mr. Kinney..."

"Brian." Brian interupted him.

"Brian... So I expect you'll have no trouble tonight?" Craig asked.

"No sir, everything will be fine." Brian threw the man a nice, fake smile.

"Good." Craig adjusted himself, obviously not very comfortable in Brian's presents. "My wife should be down shortly, but you know women..."

'Not really.' Brian thought.

"How about I introduce you to Justin?" Craig offered, "Justin!" The man bellowed and Brian jumped at his tone. Craig looked back at Brian, "He'll be down in a minute... So, Brian, do you have a girlfriend?" He looked Brian dead in the eye.

"Excuse me?" Brain asked, taken aback by the sudden question.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" He asked again, as if he were talking to a child, "Don't get me wrong, Mr Kinney - eh, Brian." He corrected himself, "I've simply never heard of a male babysitter before, unless he were a flamer. I'm just making sure I have the right kind of company around my son, you understand. So, do you?" He repeated his question.

Brian's eye twitched. He tired to calm himself down.... 'This is why you got fired from your last job Brian! Just go with it, its not lying if they make you lie.' "Uh... yes, her name is Lindsey... Heres a picture." For once Brian was glad that Lindsey had dragged him into a photo-booth. He pulled out a wallet sized picture of himself and her, holding each-other, mocking the traditional boyfriend girlfriend cliche.

He handed it to Craig, and sighed. "Charming." He said simply before handing it back to Brian.

"What is it dad?" A small voice was heard from behind the man. Brian looked to see the cutest fucking kid he had ever seen, not that he had seen too many, but still.

"Justin, this is Brian, He'll be watching you tonight... so you BETTER behave..." Mr. Taylor let the sentence linger, and Brian was instantly reminded of his own father. Justin nodded vigorously, and looked at Brian. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Brian." Justin smiled, meekly, and Brian was shocked. He expected a snooty little brat but Justin seemed nothing like that. If anything he looked a little shy.

"Oh hello Brian!" a chipper voice was heard from the top of the stairs, he looked up to see Jennifer Taylor, who looked stunning in a designer evening dress. Craig, however didn't seem to notice as he said, "Its about time, Jenn, we're going to be late."

"Okay, okay." Jennifer said, coming down the stairs and kneeled next to Justin. She looked him in the eye, "You be GOOD now, okay?"

"I will mom!" Justin chirped, and she kissed him on the cheek. She walked over to Brian. "Okay, i've got a casserole started in the oven, the timer will go off when its finished. Justin's got a little bit of homework to finish before bed, and..."

"Jenn!" Craig called impatiently, already halfway out the door.

She ignored him, "He needs to be in bed by nine, no later..."

"Jennifer!" He called again. "He says he's done this before, we have to go!" Craig walked over and grabbed her arm, and started to pull her out the door.

"OH! He cant have Tylenol! He's allergic!" She yelled before finally being pulled out of the house.

Brian heard the large door close, and blinked. He looked back at the young blonde now sitting on the stairs, grinning at him.

Brian was suddenly having second thoughts about this. The shy, adorable boy introducing himself not five minutes ago was gone... this boy looked evil.

He scolded himself, 'he's eight Kinney, he's not evil.' "So," Brian began, sticking his hands in his pockets, "I'm Brian."

The boy's expression didn't change. The grin remained, if not getting a little wider. "I know," Justin said, "I Heard."

"Your mom said you have homework? You want any help with that?" Brian asked, feeling a little timid around the boy.

Justin threw him a huge smile and nodded. "I'll go get it, you can wait in the living room!" Justin jumped up and ran up the stairs. Brian shook his head and headed towards the archway the led to the living room. He sat in a large, black leather recliner and looked around the spacious room. Pretty soon Justin came running back into the room with a few books and what looked like a pencil bag. He jumped on the couch near the chair Brian was sitting on and shoved a notebook into Brian's hands. He was a little startled, but opened the book anyway. What he saw confused him.

"What is this?" Brian asked, looking at the foreign characters.

"Greek." Justin replied, unfazed, as he flipped through a textbook.

"What grade are you in?" He asked, slowly running his eyes over the penciled in, slightly sloppy handwriting of who he assumed was Justin's.

"Forth. I'm supposed to be in third, but they skipped me."

"They teach you greek in forth grade?" He asked, disbelievingly.

"No," he replied slowly as if Brian was stupid, "I have a language tutor. He taught me French and Spanish last year, so its Greek and German this year."

"You're trilingual?" Brian asked, impressed.

"Isn't everyone?" He asked seriously.

"No... Justin you're eight... no normal eight year old know three languages..."

"Can we have pizza?" Justin asked randomly, interrupting Brian, obviously not listening.

"Didn't you hear your mom? There's a casserole in the oven, no pizza." Brain said, and continued tying to make sense the of mass of characters scribbled on the paper. Justin frowned. He scooted closer to Brian, "She doesn't have to know... I mean I highly doubt you like tuna casserole..."

"I might." Brian defended, Justin raised one eyebrow, calling his bluff. "Okay, so I don't... still, I need this job, and I'm not fucking this up..." He stopped himself, and looked at Justin, who was now giggling.

"You said FUCK!" he accused, still giggling.

"Shhh!" Brian looked over his shoulder, almost expecting Mr. and Mrs. Taylor there, ready to fire him. 'Shit.'

"Don't say that!" He commanded Justin, who jumped off of the couch, looked Brian dead in the eye and said... "Fuck."

Brian narrowed his eyes. "Stop."

"I will if we can have pizza!" Justin bargained and Brian rolled his eyes. "Not happening, I don't care what you do."

Justin looked angry... then disappointed. He couldn't help but think the defeated look Justin was now sporting was an act, but didn't dwell on it. "Fine, you win." the blonde whispered before sitting on the couch, head bowed. He suddenly looked up at Brain, and smiled. "I have to pee!" He jumped off the back of the couch and ran up the stairs before Brian could reply.

"That is one weird kid..."

He shook his head, it was going to be a long night.

~~~~~

Justin ran upstairs, only to run back down when Brian wasn't looking. He snuck into the kitchen and looked around for his mothers egg timer. He found it above the stove, he reached for it and smelt his the tuna casserole in the oven and shuddered. He looked at the little LED screen and smiled. It read 12:36...

35...

34...

33...

He pressed stop on the timer, and reset it for 50 minutes. He grinned and placed it back above the stove before going back into the living room. He sat on the couch next to Brian and stared at him...

Brian more and more uncomfortable as the boy stared at him.

"What?" He asked, finally not being able to take it anymore.

"How much are my parents paying you?" Justin asked innocently.

Brian looked a little confused at the question, "$25 an hour."

Justin whistled, "Wow, they must be getting really desperate..."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Brian asked.

"Nothing," Justin assured, "do you really have a girlfriend?" He asked, now with more amusement in his voice.

Brian gave Justin an odd look before answering, "Yes, I really have a girlfriend..." He lied.

"Uh huh. You know what?" Justin asked.

"What?"

"You're a really bad liar." Justin whispered, then giggled.

Brian was shocked, the little shit looked at him dead in the eyes, and it made him considerably uncomfortable. The kid seemed to look right through him, as if he was cellophane. As if all the walls he had worked so hard to maintain suddenly didn't matter.

He handed Justin his book, "Just do your homework, okay?"

"Sure" Justin said, with an odd gleam in his eye as he picked up a pencil and started writing.

~~~~~

30 minutes passed, and Brian was racking his brian. He was sure he forgot something... he just couldn't figure out what it was. He looked over at Justin, notebook still in his lap, writing furiously. The boy stopped and looked up at the clock on the VCR atop the large TV. He grinned wickedly and looked at Brian.

"I'm hungry." Justin said simply, and Brian's eyes widened to the size of saucers. "Shit!" He called, and jumped out of the recliner. He ran to the kitchen, Justin following him at a leisurely pace. He got to the kitchen which was now filled with smoke. He swung his arms out furiously, trying to clear it, and coughing uncontrollably. He got to the oven and turned it off. He grabbed the handle and swung the door open, resulting in more smoke pouring into the kitchen.

Justin walked in cautious of the smoke. He tried not to smile as Brian grabbed the pan with a couple of oven-mitts, and practically dropped the burnt confection onto the table. He watched as Brian tuned on his heal and grab the egg timer. 'Mrs. Taylor said 20 minutes when she left... the fucking thing has 25 minutes left...' He turned back to Justin, his eyes blazing. "What the FUCK is the deal with this?" He screamed, not caring that he was cursing.

"What do you mean?" Justin asked, with the most innocent expression on his face.

"You know very god-damn well what I mean!" He yelled, raising his voice. "You added minutes to the timer, so the fucking thing would burn!"

Justin's eyes got wide, and Brian wasn't able to read his expression until a sob escaped Justin's throat. Brian freaked. "Don't cry!"

Another sob escaped the boy, followed by a sniffle. Tears came soon after and the boy had his face in his hands.

Brian rushed over to the blonde and kneeled down to his level. "Look, don't cry... I'm..." His voice hitched, and he sighed, "I'm sorry I yelled, okay? Just stop crying, I hate it when people cry..."

Justin still held his head in his hands, "Look... we can get pizza, okay?! Just stop crying!"

"Really?" The boy asked meekly from behind his hands.

"Sure... Just don't tell your mother okay?"

"Okay..." Justin choked out, removing his hands and wiping his tears.

"Good." Brian said, glad the blonde boy had stopped crying, "why don't you go call it in, and i'll find a way to get rid of all this crap."

Justin nodded and ran out of the kitchen. Brian looked back at the mess, and sighed. Although he was sorry for making the kid cry, he still couldn't shake the feeling that he had tampered with the timer.

~~~~~

Justin ran into the living room, he wiped his eyes and tried not to laugh, 'god, I'm so good, I should be an actor!' He thought, grabbing the phone off of the cradle and dialed the local pizza place. He had the number memorized, this not being the first time he had done this to one of his many unsuspecting babysitters. He cleared his throat when a voice answered, and was about to order his favorite... but decided to have a little more fun with this guy.

"Yeah," Justin answered the adolescent voice on the other end with the deepest voice he could muster, "I need 20 large supreme pizza's..."

Justin paused, "Yup, big party... an hour? No problem...! Brian Kinney, yeah...Thanks!" He rattled off the address before hanging up. Brian walked into the room, a small piece of burnt tuna stuck to his shirt, but he didn't seem to notice. "How long?" He asked.

"An hour."

"An hour? That long?" Brian asked, confused.

"They're usually pretty busy..."

"Alright, how much?"

Justin grinned, "A large is like... ten bucks I think!" He said enthusiastically. "Alright," Brian replied, "go finish your homework in your room, I'll call you when pizza's here."

"'Kay!" Justin grabbed his books and ran upstairs, Brian jumped at his bedroom door slamming and sighed. He was already exhausted and it was only 6:45.

~~~~~

Jennifer Taylor was worried. Her husband and herself were currently talking to another couple in the country club, she however, wasn't listening. She was thinking about her son, and Brian. He seemed like a nice kid and she felt a little bad about not warning him about Justin's... well, dislike for babysitters. Okay, so dislike was a little mild, he hated them. Justin was smart, cunning and a very good little actor. It got to the point that their babysitting service just stopped sending people over, nobody wanted to deal with 'The Little Terror' or 'The Monster of the Neighborhood' they even started calling him 'Child of the Corn.'

She sighed, tempted to call but stopped herself. 'If Brian is having trouble, he'll call...' Though she wasn't sure if it was her own voice convincing herself... or her husband's.

~~~~~

About an hour had passed and Brian hadn't heard from Justin since he sent him up to his room. He sighed, he could really use a beer. He wondered if maybe the Taylor's had some (probably something even stronger) but thought against it, figuring it would be a quick way to loose his job. The doorbell rang and Brian jumped up, ready for some food, even if it was greasy, nasty pizza. He walked over to the large double door and opened them.

His jaw dropped when he saw the teenage delivery boy on the other side, two stacks of pizza piled at his feet, and a confused expression on his face. "You Brian Kinney?" He asked, looking at Brian.

"Yes." Brian said, equally confused.

"Not much of a party," The kid mumbled, "Oh well! That'll be two-hundred and three dollars, even."

"Excuse me? For a pizza?!" Brian asked, he heard small footsteps make their way down the stairs.

"For 20 large supreme pizzas, yes." The kid answered back.

Brian felt his face heat up. He turned towards the staircase where Justin was standing... "You little...!" He yelled, and could have sworn felt a vain pop... Justin snorted, and laughed, before hi-tailing it back up the stairs. He was about to go after him when the pizza guy cleared his throat. Sometime during this he had place the pizzas inside the house and was looking expectedly at Brian.

"I'm not leaving until I get paid..."

"Listen, it was a mistake..." Brian began, but the kid interrupted him.

"No, you listen, I don't care. You have to pay!"

Brian groaned and pulled out his wallet. He pulled out two-hundred and five dollars and shoved it in the kids hands. "Keep the change."

"Gee, two bucks, thanks mister." The kid rolled his eyes and turned on his heal, heading back to his car. Brian closed the door, and wasted no time before speeding up the stairs towards the little brat's bedroom.

He got to the door he saw Justin go into and banged on the surface. "Open the door!"

"No!" Justin yelled, "I feel threatened!"

"You little lair! Open the door!" He yelled again.

"I don't have to do anything that makes me feel uncomfortable! You make me uncomfortable Brian!" Justin recited, as if he were in an after school special.

"You are so full of shit you little... little... you little shit!" He yelled louder and heard Justin laugh from the other side.

"Somebody ought to spank you, you brat!" Brian yelled again, his frustration growing.

"Thats sexual harassment!" Justin sing-songed from inside the room.

"Spanking is NOT sexual harassment!"

The door opened and Justin stood their, a devious smirk planted on his face. "It is if you enjoy it." He shot back. "Would you enjoy spanking me, Mr Kinney?" He asked almost in a whisper. Brian's jaw dropped. He was shocked at the audacity of this kid. Justin laughed again, and slammed the door in his face.

Brian stood, not sure what to do. Lindsey's voice came back to haunt him. She was right, he had no idea what he had gotten himself into.

"I cant do this." He whispered, and the door opened a crack. He looked down and saw Justin's head peek out, "That mean you're quitting?" He asked, his voice chipper. Brian so much wanted to yell "Yes!" But he stopped himself. He looked at the blonde boy smirk, and realized exactly what this was. It seemed to hit him like a ton of bricks. The boy must have done this to other babysitters as well. That would explain why his parents are willing to pay him $25 an hour, and that 'desperate' remake Justin had made earlier.

He saw the hope in the boys eyes... he didn't want a babysitter because, because he would rather be home with his parents.

That made sense... his parents wanted him to work five nights a week, sitting THEIR son for the majority of the week so they can go... well, go do whatever they are doing.

Brian felt as if the tables had turned, now it was Justin's turn to feel like cellophane.... it was Brian's turn to look through HIM. He sighed.

"No." Brian answered him finally, and Justin looked surprised.

"Come down and eat, you little shit, you're too skinny." He instantly reminded himself of Debbie, but brushed it away.

Brian looked at his watch as Justin brushed passed him and headed downstairs. It was eight o'clock. He sighed for what seemed to be the hundredth time. It was going to be a very, very long night.