Chapter 3:

 

But I’ll Be There to Make You Smile…

 

 

I knocked on Nick’s front door warily.  He had never, ever called ME for help, especially not with his brother and sisters.  I don’t know what he called me for—I like kids all right I guess, but they’re not like my favorite people to hang out with.  I like being an only child.

 

The door was yanked open and I found myself face-to-face with a mini-Nick.  “Yo, Nick!  You here?” I called.

 

“Yeah, Nick’s here,” the little blond kid said, smirking.  “But he’s NOT allowed to have friends over when he’s watching us, so bye!”  I put my hand out to stop the door from closing all the way, and ignored him walking toward where I thought Nick’s voice was coming from.

 

The bathroom.  Great.  “Nick?  Ya decent?”

 

“Alex, get IN here now!  Oh, I’m screwed . . .I am SO screwed!”  It was then that I heard the crying and backed off slightly.  Kids are one thing—kids CRYING, now that is totally not my area!

 

The mini-Nick barged in the bathroom ahead of me, and pointed, giggling.  “Angel!  You look SO funny!”

 

My mouth dropped open as I saw the wad of Silly Putty that was smack in the middle of the top of Nick’s sister’s head.  From Nick’s face, I figured it was stuck pretty good too.  I had to hide my snicker; Angel probably wouldn’t like it.

 

Luckily for Nick, I had been the champ at sticking things on myself that didn’t belong there. . .especially gum, oh I loved gum.  “What have you tried so far?” I asked, trying to think of what my mom used to get my gum out.

 

“What do you mean?  Just water so far.”  He looked as bad as Angel did, and them both crying would just NOT work.  I knew this was gonna have to be all me.

 

“Hey, Angel?  Why don’t you come in the kitchen with me for a sec, okay?”  There.  That sounded nice. 

 

Apparently, not nice enough, though.  Angel’s face crumpled again and she started wailing about how she needed a hair cut RIGHT NOW!

 

Finally, Nick just picked her up and took her to the kitchen, while I started raiding the Carter’s refrigerator.  With all these kids in the house, there’s gotta be peanut butter, I thought, desperately searching for it.  “Ah ha!” I triumphantly held up the jar and danced around.

 

“Yes!” I declared, dancing over to where Angel sat.  She was smiling now—that was cool.

 

“Alex, you got this?” Nick asked, as something crashed above us.

 

“Yeah, yeah.  Go see what your clone did.  Me and Angel are gonna hang out,” I told him, trying to figure out how to get the brown gunk out of the stupid jar and onto Angel’s head.

 

“What are you gonna do with that?” she asked, eyes wide.

 

“THIS,” I said, using my best excited voice from acting class, “is for your head!  It’s magic peanut butter, see?” I said, deciding it was best just to use what God gave me and sunk both hands into the jar to grab some.

 

“I don’t want it on my head!  You’re gonna wreck my hair!”  Oh, crap, she was starting the fire-engine wail up again.  I thought quick, smearing my caked hands over my own hair and grinned.  Angel just stared.  I think she was speechless.

 

“See?” I encouraged.  “It’s fun!  Let’s put some on top of your Silly Putty, huh?  It’d be awesome.  Like a sundae!”

 

“Can I do my own?”  She wiggled her fingers and I offered the jar.  Hey, anything to make it less painful. 

 

Of course it wasn’t until her head (and mine) were covered that I figured out my “magic” peanut butter was infested with nuts!  Just my luck!  I looked around for another kind, but Angel said that was all they had.  Great. 

 

The Carter’s kitchen floor had little, nasty chunks of nuts all over.  I had peanut butter on my head.  Two other little girls walked in the kitchen just as I was starting to panic.  Great, now they’re multiplying. 

 

The older blond one looked at me strangely and then turned her attention to Angel.  “Where’s Nick?” she asked.  As if someone cued him, Nick walked in looking out of breath.

 

“Les,” he said, motioning to the smaller, brown-haired girl.  “Aaron got in your room again.  I told him to stay out, but he won’t listen.  So you should go tell him to leave your stuff alone.”

 

I barely heard the conversation.  Instead, I picked up their phone and called Brian’s house, praying he’d be there.  Their phone was sticky as hell by the time Bri picked up.

 

“Yo, what’s up?” he asked.  “What’re you doin’ at Nicky’s?”

 

“I think his little clone stuck Silly Putty to Angel’s hair.  They don’t have the right kind of peanut butter, and I’m all freakin’ covered in it.”  I eyed Angel who was putting up a loud fight now that Nick had confiscated our “magic” jar.

 

Brian was laughing like a hyena.  “Rok!  Shut the hell up!  It ain’t funny!  Get your ass over here now or I’ll beat the crap out of you!”

 

“Nick!” Angel exclaimed in the background, “Alex is saying bad words!”

 

“Hey, Jay, would you mind watching the language?” Nick asked mildly.  “That’s not really allowed here,” he sounded embarrassed. 

 

My mouth dropped open.  So this is big brother Nickolas.  “Uh, yeah sure.” I managed.

 

“Brian!” I hissed.  “Nicky just got on my ass for cussing!  Come on, man!  Stop laughing and help me out!”

 

Finally, between gasps, Rok told me to give the phone to Nick and just get out of there.  He said he’d come over and help.  I was relieved to say the least.  Brian had been to Nick’s house of no cussing before; he knew the ropes better than I did.

 

I didn’t really know where I could go, though.  I lived pretty far from all the guys and I’d gotten dropped off at Nicky’s right before my mom headed to work. 

 

“Alex,” Nick called.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Go upstairs and shower before my parents get here and see you looking like that,” he advised.  He had already recruited his other three siblings to clean up my mess.

 

Snickering quietly, I headed up the stairs just happy that Howie didn’t see me looking retarded with peanut butter all over my head.  As it was, I was never gonna hear the end of it from Nicky.

 

I heard the door open downstairs and I ducked quickly in their bathroom.  Flipping the light switch, I found myself in front of the mirror.  I couldn’t help but bust a gut when I saw how stupid I looked.  I couldn’t help it.  And, it felt really good to finally laugh at myself.