Babysitters and wizards

[Gena Martin]

Monty Green

Gena was surprised when she was asked by Mister Greene to go to his apartment and make sure his son on his day off wasn't too bored. Apparently boredom didn't suit Monty. She would have never guessed that. Actually she knew that. Many did. Monty was young, but it was his brain that made him so unhappy to be bored. Gena pulled some strings for that case. She wanted Monty to be okay. And that wasn't easily done. But in the end, she had an idea how she could do it, how she could distract him from boredom. There were only a few things left from the ground. A set of books, scanned and uploaded, was among them. Not many knew of it, naturally. 

Letting herself in, Gena smiled at the younger boy as she came in. Holidays on the ark could be pretty harsh on kids. They couldn't go out and play. They were limited to a space station. On the ground, she would suspect Monty would find himself a quiet place and still study there or find some trouble with his friend Jasper. 

"Hey Monty." Gena greeted him as she got in, clutching the tablet tightly. "What are you up to?"

[Monty Green]

Monty was bored, his parents had left for work a couple of hours ago and as he wasn't working that day, he had nothing to do. Jasper was busy and even if he wasn't, Monty doubted that his parents would want him to spend his day off with the other boy. Apparently they 'spent too much time together' and Jasper was a 'bad influence'. Bad influence or not, Jasper was his friend and his only means of entertainment when he had nothing else to do, there wasn't a lot to do on the Ark and that made for a lot of boring days off, at least when he was working he was focussing his mind on something productive.

The boy had found an old chess set whilst rummaging through his parents things in an attempt to find something to do and was currently sat at the table playing against himself. The set had a few pieces missing which he'd substituted by using a couple of scrunched up balls of paper, but the game was doing little to ease his boredom. He couldn't expect good results when he was only playing against himself, it didn't offer any entertainment at all. He'd just started to rest his forehead against the tables surface when he heard the door to the apartment open and his head shot back up, expectantly glancing towards the door. He'd expected one of his parents, or maybe Jasper had freed up some time, but instead he saw Gena standing in his home instead. "Hey Gena" he greeted the woman, forcing a smile even if he didn't particularly feel like smiling. "Just playing chess... Feel free to join me" anything would make his day more enjoyable, even homework, he doubted that she'd come over to give him homework, but it would definitely give him something to do.

Gena Martin

[Gena Martin]

Gena grinned. Trust Monty to find perhaps the nerdiest game the Ark had rescued. She wasn't one to play chess. She knew the basic rules but she never got good at it. She didn't have time for it either. She rather spent her time cooking, mixing tasted from the limited supplies to create something to make others happy. Just a little smile made her day, even more so when they were giving out the leftovers to those in need. She loved those smiles. Gena came over to Monty and sat down the tablet. "I fear I am a more boring partner than you are to yourself. I'm not good at chess at all." Others were. She had seen kids play before, but it had never taken her fancy.

"I've come with other entertainment actually." She grinned as she pointed to the tablet she had brought. "You know some things and records have been saved - even with those regular viruses and stupidities this gem I found has been saved. Back around the millenium there was a book series that was really popular. There are movies, too. The Arks database has the books and the movies. I really think you'd enjoy them, so I brought them. I thought that might be more interesting than sitting here alone, all by yourself."

Monty Green

[Monty Green]

"Oh..." Monty muttered, disappointed by Gena's words. He had been hoping that she'd agree to join him in his game of chess, at least then he'd have some form of entertainment, anything was better than playing against himself even if his partner wasn't very good at the game. At the very least he expected Gena to stick around and keep him company, having a friend nearby would make the time pass quickly, even if they had nothing to do but talk. "I've come with other entertainment actually" Gena's words caught his attention and for the first time, he actually looked at the table that she'd brought with her in interest.

A smile appeared on his face as she began to explain herself, a book series, that would definitely be more fun that sitting at home all alone with nothing to do. "What are they called? What are they about?" he asked Gena, unable to keep the smile off of his face. He was happy that she'd thought to bring something that would keep him entertained and something that he might actually enjoy at that, but that depended on what the books were about. If they'd once been popular then he didn't see why he wouldn't enjoy them and even if they didn't live up to his expectations then at least Gena had tried to give him something to occupy his time instead of leaving him to sit by himself all day and play chess.

Gena Martin

[Gena Martin]

“Well they are about kids in a special school.” Yeah that made them sound exceptionally boring, if she was honest, but it was something. It was part of what this was and so she had to begin there. “A school for witches and wizards.” She had the movies, too, if he wanted to start with that. But given who Monty was, a studious boy, she guessed he’d want the books first. “So the books are about a kid named Harry Potter. He grew up thinking he had no magical powers and then was told he does, he is a wizard and he then attends this school learning more about his parents and fighting an evil wizard with his two sidekicks Ron and Hermione.” Gena smiled. Ron and Harry could totally be Monty and Jasper some days.

“There are movies, too and I have them, too. I’m pretty sure the books and movies are entertainment for multiple nights, if you’re up for it.” She guessed they would meet up more than that day. His parents were worried and that meant they didn’t want him alone sometimes. “The movies alone are hours and hours of fun. And I might have brought the appropriate snack.” Well any snack was appropriate since hard to come by.

Monty Green

[Monty Green]

Monty listened as Gena explained the books with interest, they sounded amazing. A school for witches and wizards, with magical powers... He wondered what else the books had to offer and he was definitely interested in finding out. "They sound awesome!" he told her, glad that she'd brought him something to do, chess was fun but there was only so many times that you could play chess before you became bored with it. The books that she'd brought sounded much more entertaining. He'd never heard of Harry Potter before, but Monty could already tell that he'd enjoy reading the books and even watching the movies, although he already suspected that he'd enjoy the books a lot more. He enjoyed reading, he just never really found books that he enjoyed often, it sounded as though Gena had found just the thing to reignite his love for reading.

"We can read and watch together, right?" he asked, knowing that these things were more enjoyable when you had a friend by your side to share in the fun. She'd said that watching the movies could take hours, spending hours watching movies could get dull if he didn't have someone to watch with and Gena sounded as though she could explain something to him if he got confused about anything. "Snack?" the word caught his attention almost immediately, he didn't often snack, not when things were rationed so carefully upon the ark, but snacks were something that everybody liked, how could they not like them when they were such a rare treat.

Gena Martin

[Gena Martin]

Gena loved that he offered her a snack, but she didn’t need one. She’d rather save food and just drink something. It would be enough. It should be enough. Gena smirked at the boy. He was such a good boy. “Later. When we’re into our reading.” That alone would be a promise in itself she guessed. She doubted either of them would even think of any snack while they read. They could stay and read together or read to each other what ever they liked best. 

“We should build something. Too.” Gena grinned at that. “They called it blanket fort. So we need blankets. And we need lights and we need pillows. And we need to start now.” It would take a while and she wanted to make the best of the little time they had in order to get it finished before his parents were home. They had time until after, but she was sure Hannah would only tolerate it, if the work was already done by the time she was back.

Monty Green