Babysitter Mona pt 3.

“Mona! - Lisa! - breakfast is ready!”

Mona tried to ignore her mom calling her.

“Let me stay in bed for five more minutes…”

She mumbled. But unfortunately for Mona, her cousin Lisa was still staying over. As soon as Mona’s mom called, she started panicking about having overslept.

“Ohnooh! I’ve overslept - I wanted to make breakfast!”

Mona could see the disappointment on her face.

“You have to wake up to Mona!”

Lisa pulled open the curtains.

“My.. eyes”

Mona buried her face in her pillow to avoid being blinded.

Lisa hastily put on some clothes.

“Please come soon, Mona!”

She said as she left the room.

“Alright.. alright”

Mona crawled out of bed, stretched herself out, and then followed Lisa downstairs.

When Mona entered the dining room, she saw Lisa apologizing to her mom.

“Aunt, I am sorry, I wanted to make fried rice so bad!”

Mona’s mom laughed.

“No problem, please sit down and enjoy the food I made”

Mom took a plate of freshly baked croissants out of the oven.

“Wow… are these - German?”

“Almost correct, they are French!”

“Please try them with a bit of jam”

Lisa put some jam on the croissant and then took a bit.

“Mmm… delicious!”

After finishing their breakfast, Mona and Lisa discussed what they were going to do for the day. Both of them agreed they wanted to continue their investigation into the mysterious neighbor. Lisa came up with an idea that hadn’t occurred to them yet.

“What if we just - ask them?”

Mona thought about it for a second.

“You know, usually I come up with some overly complex scheme relying on gimmicky outfits and weird timing.”

“But I guess we could just ask them, it wouldn’t be that weird to get to know your new neighbor right?”

Mona paused for a second.

“He he… aside from what happened yesterday in the backyard then…”

The neighbor's doorbell

Mona and Lisa were standing in front of the neighbor's house.

“Are you sure about this Mona?”

“What if they turn me into a - a frog!”

“Relax, I’ll find you a prince to turn you back, Lisa”

“Eventually…”

Mona winked at Lisa, after which she rang the neighbor's bell.

*Ring, ring*

No answer.

“Let’s try again Lisa”

*Ring, ring*

Still no answer.

“Maybe they aren’t home today…”

When Mona was about to give up, Lisa rang the bell herself.

*Ring, ring … ring, ring**

A dog started barking.

“That must be the big scary dog, Mona!”

At that moment, they could hear the door getting opened, just far enough for someone to peek through.

They could see the loop of a bright-green gun peek through.

Lisa took a big leap away from the door.

“Don’t shoot me, don’t shoot me mister dog!”

“Dog? You must mean Rufus”

A soft, female voice said.

“He looks a bit intimidating but is actually really sweet if you get to know him”

She giggled.

“I am sorry for scaring you like this, this gun is just a toy.”

She opened the door a little further and dropped the toy gun on the ground.

“I am sorry for talking so much, what did you come here for?”

“So you are a girl?”

Lisa said.

“Do you… recognize me?”

The neighbor sounded a bit worried.

“Yes, you are a wizard right?”

“A.. a wizard? Where did you get that from?”

Mona could hear a bit of relief in her voice.

“Please don’t turn me into a frog!”

Mona laughed a bit nervously and scratched her head.

“She has a wild imagination, she is a child you see..”

Lisa now turned to Mona.

“You believed her to be a wizard too! You saw the cloak, the summoning circle on the wall, the weird lights and sounds at night, the bear familiar…”

The neighbor interrupted Lisa with some giggling.

“Your big sister is right, you truly have a big imagination.”

“She is my cousin! Not my sister. I am staying over during summer break”

“Well, well, that would make you my neighbor, nice to meet you two!”

“When you rang the bell, I thought the crazy groupies finally got up to me!”

“I’ll be willing to let you in, but only if you promise to keep your mouths shut okay? It’s really important you keep this a big secret okay?”

“Promise!”

Lisa yelled.

“Promise too, I guess”

Mona said.

Inside the neighbor's house

The three of them entered a regular looking livingroom. The furniture looked quite expensive though, for this neighborhood. It’s something you’d expect in a high-rise penthouse, not an old house in a run-down neighborhood like this. On the wall hung a couple of posters, one of them was the summoning circle one Mona saw yesterday.

“Please sit down, can I bring you something to drink?”

The two of them nodded, and the girl brought them some drinks. Now they were in the well-lit-living room, Mona finally could get a good look at the neighbor. She was quite tall and had pink hair put in a bun. She wore black glasses and an oversized hoodie. Overall, she looked really stunning, like a model.

“So that must be the summoning circle you girls were talking about?”

Mona nodded.

“Let me grab something”

The girl grabbed a stack of CDs from the cupboard. She browsed a bit through them.

“The poster your looking at was the back-cover for our Magicology album”

The cd featured a couple of pretty girls wearing wizard outfits, one of them looked a lot like the neighbor.

“You don’t recognize it? This was maybe a bit before your time”

“You see.. my name is Nana Ito, I used to be part of a music group called Sweet Symphony”

“Sweet Symphony… sounds familiar…”

Mona mumbled.

“I think one of my older sisters used to listen to them”

“You are a wizard idol? That’s so cool!”

Nana giggled.

“The wizard outfits were just for one album, we had a lot of different outfits back then.”

She showed some of the other cd’s.

“Look you are a maid like big cousin Mona!”

Nana looked at Mona.

“So, you must be Mona then?”

“Yeah… I go to a school for maids… it was the only one that accepted someone with my grades…”

The former idol laughed.

“You sure are funny Mona”

“And what is your name?”

“My name is Lisa!”

“Lisa? That’s a hilarious joke!”

Looked like she didn’t believe Lisa was truly called that.

“No, that is truly her name… our moms a weird like that…”

The three of them couldn’t stop laughing.

“I am sorry if you heard me last night… I assume you don’t know what happened to Sweet Symphony”

The two cousins shook their heads.

“Well…”

The neighbor looked a bit sad, her tone suddenly was a lot more serious.

“I used to be a really good singer, people would come to our concerts in droves”

“But I let all my fans down…”

“One day, we had to go up on stage and suddenly, I wasn’t able to sing anymore..”

“I had to leave the stage in embarrassment - they had to cancel the concert”

“We thought it was just a fluke, but no, from that point on, I wasn’t able to hit any notes ever again…”

“I had to leave the group - and they soon disbanded”

A tear ran down her cheek.

“Dear, dear”

Mona said.

“Now I get why you were wearing the hood... you didn’t want to get recognized right?”

She nodded.

“Fans kept finding out my location, that’s why I moved here recently… in this neighborhood”

“It must be quite different from all the glamour you're used to…”

“That is why we got Rufus, to protect the house from intruders like you”

Nana glimpsed.

“Well, I am sorry to inform you but you have a hole in your security, we were able to distract him quite easily with some leftover bones…”

“It’s an exclusive Russian breed my Babushka bought… they are all show - but in reality rather lazy”

“Now that I think of it, she mentioned some neighbor girls grabbing a ball from the backyard yesterday. She offered you something to eat, but you seemed rather scared…”

Mona looked at Lisa, who had been silent for a bit.

“Are you okay Lisa?”

“This story is.. so sad. At least you got a cool dog now!”

Nana laughed.

“Nothing last forever dear, I hope I can build a new life here, without getting ambushed by crazy fans every minute”

“Only by crazy neighbor girls…”

“Well, I have to go, I promised to help Babushka do some groceries after she is done at the nail salon. Would like you to come back for dinner tonight? Babuska will cook you some traditional Russian dishes. They are really delicious.”

“Yes, Idol-sama!”

Lisa yelled.

“Please just call me Nana, you have to keep it a secret okay?”

Lisa pretended to zip her mouth and throw away the key.

“I will not mention your being an idol outside these four walls!”

“Alright, see you two at six then!”

Dinnertime

*Ring, ring*

The two cousins rang the neighbor's bell.

The big elderly lady opened the door.

“Gello - gurrlls”

“You must be Babushka?”

“Gyes, пожалуйста, зайди внутрь”

They couldn’t understand a word of it, but it was clear the lady signed to them to get inside.

Nana sat on the living room bench, she was playing with her phone.

“Hey girls, welcome!”

“Babushka is still busy preparing the dinner, why don’t we go upstairs for a bit - I have a whole room full of old idol stuff”

“That sounds so cool, were is the stair?”

Lisa seemed totally excited.

“Well - if you insist on it”

When they arrived upstairs, there was an entire room full of outfits and paraphernalia. The wall hung full of framed pictures and posters. Nanna started browsing through a big rack full of different outfits. All of the looked handmade - of really high quality. Various idol-like dresses and other anime-based outfits.

“Look here”

It was the witch outfit from the album.

“Do you like to try this on?”

Nana looked at Lisa.

“Absolutely! I want to be a witch!”

She glimpsed.

“Alright, I’ll help you put it on”

The outfit was obviously way too big, but Lisa seemed pleased with it anyway. She couldn’t stop posing before the mirror.

“Can I become an idol too when I get bigger?”

Nana laughed.

“You can, but it takes a lot of effort”

Mona dramatically grabbed her heart.

“Just yesterday you wanted to be a maid - I feel - betrayed…”

“It’s hard to compete with a former idol as a neighbor, right Mona?”

They all had a laugh.

“Diner Tjime!”

Babushka shouted from downstairs.

The four of them enjoyed a delicious Russian potato stew, after which Mona and Lisa went home again.

“Thank you a lot for diner, Mona’s neighbors!”

“I liked it too - I don’t think I’ve ever tried Russian cousin before”

They waved the neighbors goodbye and went back home.

The next morning

When Mona woke up, a rich aroma had penetrated Mona’s bedroom.

*Sniff, sniff*

“The smells really well…”

Mona mumbled, still half asleep.

“I am hungry - I need food”

Without much hassle, Mona went downstairs, to find Lisa cooking another pan of delicious-smelling fried rice.

“You are up early, Mona”

Her sister said to her.

“Lisa staying over has done wonders”

Mom chuckled.

“Just like I predicted..”

She winked at Saya.

“Enough chitchat - I just came here because I felt hungry”

After eating another Lisa’s delicious fried rice, the doorbell rang.

“It’s your mother dear…”

“Do I have to go home already… I want to stay with big cousin Mona a little longer!”

Lisa’s mom chuckled.

“Impossible, remember we're going on a trip to the beach with your dad tomorrow!”

“Oh yeah…”

Lisa suddenly remembered.

“I want to go to the beach so bad - build sandcastles with you and dad!”

“I’ve been forgotten... so easily”

Mona mumbled.

“No Mona, I had a great time here. We went on a big adventure - we found out that Mona’s neighbor is a wizard! She was wearing a cloak and there was a big dog and she was casting spells at night and she has a dog that looks like a bear and she has a grandma that cooked for us and…”

Her mom laughed.

“You sure have a big imagination…”

She looked at Mona.

“Thank you for taking good care of here - she can be a hand full”

“I know, I know, but we still had a lot of fun.”

“She also cooked delicious fried rice for us”

Mona rubbed her belly.

“I couldn’t stop eating… my stomach hurts…”

She looked at Lisa again.

“Before you leave Lisa, you still have to tell me your wish?”

“Ohh - Ohh”

Lisa seemed to have forgotten about it.

“I wish - that I can spend every summer with my big cousin Mona!”

Mona and Lisa’s mom laughed.

“Well, let’s start with next summer and we see from there okay?”

“Deal!”