A Nanny's Full Benefits

"This is your Captain speaking! Please be informed that our ship just started traveling to the breathtaking Las Islas de Bridgerton. The ship will be expected to arrive in forty minutes. So, sit back and enjoy."

The only thing I did when I realize that is draw a few long curve lines on my forehead when it is now hard for me to get back to the port unless you are willing to swim in the freezing temp of the ocean.

But I'm not gonna do that. It was purported that a few fishermen died while swimming in the ocean because they were eaten by those hungry and furious sharks.

Leaving no choice, I wander around on the cruise ship to wait for another forty minutes to get back to the mainland. Good thing most of the stores give free food and drinks to all applicants for the nanny position.

I don't have an appointment for the position but my resume proves it, so fooling the store owner was as easy as counting from one to three.

"Give me back my toy, please!" exclaims the kid to a boy, my age.

"This is my baby bear. And I don't like someone touching them. You're a bad kid. I will inform my mom and have you arrested."

"But you're the bad guy, stealing someone's toy! Give it back!" the younger kid snatched the teddy bear from the older one by force.

Before the older guy could do something harmful to the kid, I rushed into them and punched him in the head. Hard enough that I almost broke my hand after hitting his hard and thick head.

The guy let go of the teddy bear before he stumbled to the floor a few times. To my surprise, ten men in a suit pointed the tip of their guns straight at my head while the others helped the kid in utter worry and fear.

"She broke my head!" screams the guy. "That woman broke my head. I'm afraid the bees and cockroaches will go into my brain and eat my cerebrum, cerebellum, and brain stem. Mom!"

"What?" I utter to myself when my brain realizes that the guy certainly had his brain checked with the doctors. And his continuous trembling arms and drooling prove it.

"What happened here?" furiously asks the middle-aged woman who appeared at the scene.

The guy immediately rushed to the woman and wrapped his arms around her like a five-year-old kid. He even displayed his "Im-the-victim" kind of face to her. Is he for real? As big as him would react that way?

And who are these people anyway?

"Apology, my lady. It's my fault that I didn't notice her coming." says one of the men who pointed their guns at me. "What are you gonna do with her? This is the woman who punched the Young Master on the head."

"Five million dollars!" exclaims the woman before she slid closer to my spot along with the guy that I punch.

"Excuse me?" I ask her while trying to toughen my core when these men remain their guns pointing at me.

"That's the cost for punching someone with Autism. Can you afford it?" she throws the question back. "How dare you punch my son, huh?"

"She's here to apply as a nanny, mom." says the guy with Autism. No wonder his hands are trembling that way.

When I looked him in the eye, he quickly hides behind his mom even if the fact that he was way taller than her. Of course, what do I expect from someone with Autism? He is a deranged man.

But how did he knows about the job?

"So, that's how you are gonna pay the five million dollars then?" his mom asked. "Tell the captain that I already hired the nanny for my son. And that we have to get back to the mainland now," she ordered. "And get everything about this woman. Complete name, address, contact number, family background, educational attainment, and debts."

"Noted, my lady." one of the men said back.

I didn't get the chance to defend my side of the story to the woman when the ten men forcibly dragged me out of the place and locked me in a closed chamber.

My entire family hasn't moved on from the five million scams, yet another case befell me. I should have just gone back to school after the interview.

Onboarding the cruise ship, I only intend to unwind after the epic failure. But who could have thought I encountered these people after trying to stop something bad that was bound to happen?

Twenty minutes later, one of the crews on the cruise ship unlocked the door and told me, "You're free to go, Ms. Clarkson. The ship just docked back at the port."

Without asking further questions, I disembarked from the ship and was about to hail a cab heading to the restaurant I am working as a part-time server when ten black cars surrounded me.

The woman and the guy with Autism hopped out in one of the cars. What surprised me the most is when my mom and dad also hopped out of the other car.

"You're nothing but such headaches to the family, Chloie!" exclaims mom in a furious tone before she slaps me on the face. "How are you gonna pay them, huh? Five million dollars. What were you thinking?"

She wanted to slap me again but dad managed to grasp her shoulder and dragged her away from me. And the rest of them were simply staring at me with my eyes pouring.

"There's a better way about how she can pay for the five million dollars." the mom of the guy with autism proposes. "Instead of working six part-time jobs in a day, I want her to work as a nanny for my son, Charles."

My parents enlarge the balls of their eyes upon hearing the news coming from another person. Mom and dad are not aware that I have been doing six part-time jobs for the past six months to pay for all our debts.

I was supposed to keep it behind their backs because my conscience could not bear the fact that I was the reason our family suffered this much.

"What?" could not help my curiosity but ask. "So, you mean... You were the family who posted on the job website looking for a nanny?"

"Isn't that the reason you brought your resume and application letter on the cruise ship?" she retorted. "My son even claims that you took our free food and drinks which are intended only for the applicants. And as far as I'm concerned, you onboard the ship without a ticket."

The only reason that I onboard the boat was simply to unwind, and have my helpless heart and brain gets cooled for a few minutes so I can stand firm again.

But none of them would believe that.

"My family will clear all your debts and forget the five million dollars we asked, give her a full scholarship program so she would not get stuck for being a second-year college student, but in return, she'll serve my son until she graduates. Can she do that?"

The woman's unexpected proposal shocked me and my family to the point that our mouths remained wide open. The benefits posted on the job website were already mind-blowing yet she added something that completely blows my mind - paying my family's debt.

Let alone that she already knows everything about me even if we just met half an hour ago. That means her family is not a scam. Those cars and bodyguards around them prove my instinct wrong.

"Based on my quick research, your family was scammed a year ago which resulted in all of you being buried in debt. And if we're asking this family again worth five million dollars, there's no way your lives combined are enough to pay for it," she added.

"And she punched me in the head," says Charles with a slight smile on his face. "Good thing the bees, flies, and cockroaches did not get into my brain. So, I begged mom to forgive her and work as my nanny."

It creeps me up every time Charles rolled his big rounded eyes at three-hundred-sixty degrees. If those symptoms showed earlier back on the cruise ship, I wouldn't have punched him on the head.

"Charles doesn't want to be the bad guy," he added. "And it was the first time when someone punch me in the head. It hurts so much. I even see a few stars twinkling in my head at that time. It's cool."

"Fine." I agreed. "But, why am I having these weird feelings that there's a catch on working with your family? Am I allowed to know that? No. I deserved to know whatever that is if you want me to be his nanny."

I know as an applicant and someone who was buried in debt, I am not in a position to demand something like that from my employer. However, my instinct is telling me there's something more to the story than just being a nanny to an eighteen-year-old boy with autism.