Princess Drawing Days [Alex!]

[Gwynie Bryant]

Gwynie dumped her vast art supplies on the kitchen table and beamed happily up at the teenage boy in front of her. Lexy might be one of her favorite babysitters for a number of reasons. One: he was closer to her own age, but waaaay past that Irritatingly Immature stage that boys seemed to inexplicably pass through. And he was cute. Two: he had been her babysitter for a really long time—over two years. And three: he could draw really well. Which automatically translated to Gwynie making him draw and color vast amounts of Disney princesses with her. Because Disney princesses didn’t have to be just for girls. They could be for boys too! And Lexy was wise enough to realize that, which Gwynie respected.

“So. I bought some new coloring books yesterday too.” Gwynie said, flopping said books on the table. They were non-princess specific coloring books, which was equally acceptable, “We can color if you want.” She shot him her big puppy eyes, “And maybe you can draw a picture?” Then, a thought occurred to her, “Oh yeah! When do I get to meet your girlfriend?” She’d overheard her mother talking about it, and felt rather smug about her spying skills on that front. She just needed to unleash them on the guy her mother was on a date with right now. She chose to believe he was suspicious until proven otherwise.

[Alexander McKenzie]

If one judged on appearances alone, it was quite likely that Alex would have never been allowed near any of the staff members' kids, period. Outwardly, he looked like a punk, and he knew it. Thankfully, not everyone was that closed minded, and ever since he was sixteen, he'd been offering services on and off for babysitting. It was a win-win, for the most part. He could help Conrad pay rent, and suppliment his tattoo funds. Plus, you know. He liked kids. And not in the creepy way, thank you. He enjoyed being around them, and had several that he'd babysat for for a while now. Gwyn was one such kid, and honestly, one of his favorites.

Okay, so Disney Princesses weren't his favorite thing in the world, but it was something he was able to reproduce fairly easily. Most Disney drawings weren't all that complex. So when Gwyn dropped her things on the table, he was ready to go. "Hey Gwynie," he said with a little grin, picking up one of the pencils she'd dropped. "Yes, we can color. And I'll draw you whatever you want." He didn't really want to know what she did with all his drawings, but he assumed they disappeared up into her room. "Should we draw something for your mom too?" He hadn't had any plans that day beyond sleeping in, so when Miss Bryant had called, he'd agreed fairly readily to babysit for her.

Her question about Ann caught him off guard, and he blushed a deep red. She wasn't supposed to know about that. "Uh." Eloquent, Lex. "You think there's another girl for me besides you?" He'd try to brush it off, because the last thing he wanted was Gwyn, and in turn, Florence, to know details about Ann. Not that it would work. But he could hope.

[Gwynie Bryant]

Gwynie thought Alex looked a little scruffy, yes. But she firmly believed that people should dress fancy all the time, so she was well aware that her expectations would never be met. It was simply something she had accepted over her twelve years of living. Besides, Alex drew princesses without fuss. And he drew them really well. For that, Gwynie would forgive a number of unfortunate fashion decisions.

But right now, she wanted information, so she decided to ply him with compliments and drawings that didn’t involve pretty dresses. That should work, right? “Thanks Alex.” She gave him her best sweet smile, “You should draw the dragon from Sleeping Beauty. I hear you’re really good at drawing dragons.” She pushed a blank piece of paper at him as she reached for her own coloring book. She felt like coloring in some Lion King today. Flipping through to book to find some lions, Gwynie grinned when Alex mentioned drawing something for Flo. He was so thoughtful. “Sure! That would be nice.” She paused, scrunching up her face in thought, “Hmmm… I don’t know what she would want…”

Her ruminations were interrupted as Alex blushed bright red. Gwynie’s smile turned a little wicked. Bingo. She giggled at his attempts to distract her. “Alex, you know we wouldn’t work out. You’re too old for me.” She waved a hand at him like she saw in the old movies she’d watched with her mother, “You’re practically an adult!” She eyed him, grinning mischievously, “So what’s her name? Is she nice? I swear, I won’t tell anybody.” Though why anyone would want to keep a girlfriend secret, Gwynie had no idea. “Did you take her to a dance?” Gwynie’s eyes got all dreamy, “I hope you wore nice clothes.” She gave his jeans and hoodie ensemble a pointed look. Honestly, Alex better had done it right.

[Alexander McKenzie]

Alex wasn’t a fan of dressing ‘fancy’ day in, day out. For occasions, yes. But not for everyday wear. At least, not until he had some job that required that, but he couldn’t see that happening anytime soon. For a day of babysitting, jeans and a hoodie were appropriate, thank you.

“You’re welcome,” he replied with a genuine smile. He didn’t know many people his age that were okay with this kind of thing. Not unless they had their own kids, or something. Or little siblings, like Connie did. “I can do him, sure. ... Were you talking to Jean Manne, by chance?” Last time the kid had been over, Alex had drawn him a dragon up his arm. He pulled the paper closer and got to work, lightly sketching out lines with the pencil. He hadn’t seen the movie recently, so he was pulling mostly from memory. If he really got stuck, he was sure there was a reference somewhere close by. “Well, think about it. I’ll draw whatever you want for her, and you can color it. Deal?”

Sadly, Gwynie was not so easily distracted. He set down his pencil and crossed his arms, mock-glaring at her. “I am an adult, thank you. And I babysit a four year old girl that’s pretty insistent she’s going to marry me, so there.” It didn’t seem like that would stop the tirade of questions either. Resigned to answering, he sighed. “Her name is Ann, and she’s very nice. She goes to Hammel too.” He didn’t want to keep her secret, per se, it was more that he wanted to avoid teasing from Gwynie and Florence. “I did, we went to the Valentine’s Day dance together.” He smiled faintly at the memories. At least up until Zac had punched him. “I did. I had a shirt with a collar and black pants. And Ann looked lovely. Are you done asking questions now?” Please say yes.

[Gwynie Bryant]

Gwynie squinted before shaking her head at the mention of a ‘Jean Manne’. “Nope. Never heard of him before.” She didn’t know what he had to do with anything, but for once, she didn’t pry, leaning forward slightly to inspect Alex’s work. “And it’s not a him. The dragon is a her. It’s Maleficent, who can turn into a dragon to eat the prince.” Honestly, this was something Alex should know already. But she didn’t scold him too much, because he was going to draw something nice for her mother, and doing nice things for Flo always saved you a scolding from Gwynie.

“Nuh-uh.” Gwynie challenged, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow like her mother did. It didn’t keep a little grin from appearing on her lips, but there was nothing she could do about that. “Well, that four year old is silly. You’re far too old for her too.”

But Gwynie stopped caring about that once Alex mentioned a Valentine’s Day Dance. Gwynie couldn’t think about anything in the world more romantic than that. So when Alex asked if she was done asking questions, the twelve-year-old scoffed, “Don’t be such a boy, Alex. I wanna know more stuff! What did she wear? Was it a big pretty dress? It should be. That’s what girls are supposed to wear at dances. Can you waltz? What color was her dress? Did you get her flowers?” She had to make sure her favorite babysitter did everything he was supposed to do at a dance. This was important!

[Alexander McKenzie]

Oh. Well, it had been worth asking. They were about the same age. The only issue was that Gwyn and Jean went to two different schools. After going to Hammel for so long, sometimes it was easy for Alex to forget about ‘normal’ schools. He’d have to stop that kind of thinking when he headed off to university. “Okay. Just wondering. I gave him a dragon tattoo with markers a couple of weeks ago. He’s my roommate’s brother.” Oh. Right. Maleficent. Female. “Right. Sorry Gwyn. I knew that.” He smiled and reached out to tug her hair gently. “Can you find me a picture of her, so I get it right?”

Of course the four year old was silly. But Alex often gave into her ridiculous games of prince and princess, and tried to placate her as much as possible when she claimed she was going to marry him. If he was going to marry anyone, well... it wasn’t going to be Henny. “I know. But it makes her happy.”

At least she was easily distracted. He looked at her as she scoffed. Great. More questions. “I can’t help being a boy, Gwynie.” Obviously that wasn’t going to get him out of anything, so he tried again to appease her. “She had a black dress. It wasn’t big, it was... elegant. I can dance, but I’m not sure I can waltz. And yes, I got her flowers. A little corsage.” He had thought he’d done everything right at the time. Knowing Gwyn, she’d prove him wrong. “Besides, I thought we were coloring, not interrogating.” No, Alex. You opened up this can of worms, you keep talking and keeping Gwyn entertained.

[Gwynie Bryant]

Gwynie raised an eyebrow, grinning as Alex tugged at her hair, “Suure you knew. And watch the hair, mister. Do you know how long it takes to get it done in the morning?” She sighed, shaking her head. Such a silly boy... “Yeah, I have one in my other book.” She rummaged through her stack of coloring books and pulled out the Sleeping Beauty one. “Here you go.” She pointed to one of the pictures, “Maleficent. In dragon form.”

Gwyn smiled at Alex, “You’re a pretty nice guy.” She wouldn’t be nice enough to let some younger boy think they were gonna get married, no way. But Alex was probably a lot nicer than Gwynie would be, in that respect.

“You know what I mean.” The twelve year old scolded gently, still grinning. Of course she wasn’t actually annoyed with Alex, but sometimes she needed to be firm with him. “Ooohh…” She breathed, captivated by word of an elegant black dress and corsages. “No, no, I wanna know more!” Gwynie couldn’t wait until she was old enough to go to dances and dance with a boy, “What kind of flowers did you get her? Do you have pictures??” If he had pictures, she wanted to see them.

[Alexander McKenzie]

“Of couuuurse I knew,” he shot back, smirking. “How long does it take? Six minutes? Seven?” Legitimately, he didn’t know, but he knew girls made a big deal out of things like hair and makeup in the morning. He leaned back in the chair as Gwyn pawed through her books until she found the one she needed. “Perfect. Thanks, Gwyn.”

“Oh really?” He arched his pierced eyebrow at her. “What makes you say that?” He knew he tried to be a nice guy, he just wasn’t sure if he succeeded all the time. Apparently, he was doing something right.

Firm? Gwynie was being firm with him? Alex had to grin and shake his head. “No, I don’t think I do. Girls are smarter than boys, remember?” It was something most girls seemed to grow up just knowing, that they were smarter than the male population. He was fine to let Gwynie think that. Unfortunately, that also mean that she would demand more information. “All right, all right! There was a rose involved. And yes, I have pictures, on my phone. Let me guess. You need to see?” He didn’t really wait for an answer, because he knew what it would be. He pulled out the phone and opened up the little folder with the dance pictures. “There you go. Enjoy.” There weren’t many. Just a few he’d snapped himself, and a couple he’d requested other students to take of him and Ann together.

[Gwynie Bryant]

“Suuuuure you did.” Gwynie imitated his tone with a grin. She snorted, “Pshh. No. It takes like… thirty minutes. Don’t make me take you through the step-by-step of hair care, although you need it.” She teasingly poked his head as a good-natured jibe at his brown hair.

“I dunno.” Gwynie picked up a purple colored pencil and started coloring Cinderella’s dress, “You’re a big kid, but you don’t act like you’re better than anyone. And you like helping people.” She shrugged, “You’re cool.” She didn’t see what the big deal was; of course Alex was nice. She didn’t associate with mean people. Surely Alex knew that he was a nice person! Silly Alex.

“You got that right.” Gwynie grinned. “Oooh! YES. Yes, I want to see! Show me!” She leaned forward and snatched the phone out of his hands, rapidly flipping through the pictures. “Oh my gosh!” She squeaked, “Look at how nice you look! And she’s so pretty! You should bring her over sometime!” She exclaimed, wiggling with excitement, “I wanna meet her! Pleeaassee?”

[Alexander McKenzie]

“’Course I diiiid,” he mocked right back, smiling. This was why kids were so much fun. Yeah, he was totally set on having a family when he was older. “Hey hey hey!” The teenager batted her hand away before faking self consciousness, running his fingers though his shaggy hair. “What’s wrong with my hair?”

As Gwynie went back to coloring, Alex picked up a black pencil and started sketching out the dragon, but in a new pose, with wings spread wide, and her mouth open to expose her teeth. He was such a boy sometimes. “That makes me nice?” He had no idea that kids’ expectations were so... simple. Then again, he could easily think of a handful of people off the top of his head from Hammel that didn’t meet those simple things. “No one’s better than anyone,” he affirmed, drawing a wing for the dragon. “Doesn’t matter about social status or money. You remember that, Gwyn.” He shook the pencil at her. “So don’t go marrying some guy for a lot of money, ‘kay?”

Maybe the subject of marriage would distract her from harassing him about his girlfriend. That could work, right?

Alex watched in amusement as she flicked through the pictures at warp speed. Of course Ann was pretty, and for a moment, he just sat there with a quiet pride. Of course, it didn’t last long. His eyes went slightly wide at her begging. “Uh...” Would Flo even agree to that? Not that they would do anything... inappropriate. And it might be nice for Gwynie to have a female to play with... “Maybe. I’ll ask her later if she wants to come next time.” He winked and reached for a red pencil. “You two can be girls together.” And probably gang up on him, but he wasn’t that worried.