"Is that my hoodie?" Ethan asked when I answered his FaceTime.

"Well, hello to you too," I said as I munched on a slice of pizza. I looked over at the five demons I was babysitting to make sure they were eating. My aunt set out applesauce and veggies for the kids to eat. Like they would willingly. I considered it an accomplishment when I got all of them eating a slice of pizza. "It was the first thing I grabbed, and I do believe that you were the one that gave it to me."

"It looks good on you."

"Suck up," I said. The kids were starting to get antsy, so I let them go to the basement to play. It was five kids vs. me; as long as there wasn't any fighting, I considered it a win. "Shouldn't you be bonding with your family?"

"I'm hiding at the moment. Liam's family is coming over soon, and I don't want to face his younger sister. She has the biggest crush on me, and I think everyone, except Liam, is waiting for us to get together."

"What's so bad about that?"

"She is like my little sister, plus she is a senior in high school. Also, I have my eyes on another girl," Ethan said with a grin.

I rolled my eyes before saying, "So you are just going to hide all of your New Year's Eve?' I started cleaning up the kids' mess. If they had food left on their plate, I left it because a lot of times, they come back to eat it later.

"Liam will come and join me at some point." Just as Ethan said that, Liam burst into the room Ethan was hiding in. He didn't notice Ethan was FaceTiming me.

"Dude, my sister wouldn't shut up about you the whole way here. She was going on and on about how she wanted you to kiss her when the ball drops at midnight. I tried to tell her about..." Liam paused when he saw Ethan was FaceTiming me. "Oh, hey, Hailey."

"Liam, my love, I haven't talked to you in a while," I said with a smile.

He laughed, "I know, but something tells me that you were a little busy talking to a certain someone."

"Um, can we talk about how you called Liam, my love?" Ethan asked, butting into the conversation. Rude much?

"Don't worry about it," Liam said. It was an inside joke that started a few days ago when Liam accidentally called me instead of his date. "You are currently number one in Hailey's heart."

All of a sudden, I heard one of the kids crying, so I said, "I have to go." I hung up without an explanation. I went downstairs to see one of the boys putting on his coat and shoes. "What are you doing, Buddy?"

"I'm walking home," He said through his cries. Fun fact about this was he was only five years old. Another fun fact was he lived in another state, so that was a long walk home. Also, his parents wouldn't like me if I let him walk home.

"Why are you walking home?"

"Because they are being mean to me," He pouted.

I sighed, "How about we go upstairs and watch TV for a little bit? If you want to go home after that, I'll talk to your parents." He nodded, and we went upstairs. I turned on Disney Junior for him. He didn't even last five minutes before going back downstairs to the other kids. I followed after him.

When I got downstairs, I plopped down on a bean bag chair. The older three kids were taking turns playing Minecraft on the Xbox. The younger two were playing some weird version of house. I didn't understand it. With the kids content, I pulled out my phone to see Ethan trying to FaceTime me again.

"Hey," I said as I answered.

"What happened?" Ethan asked. He was clearly panicking. "Are you okay?"

I laughed, "I'm perfectly fine. I had a minor babysitting crisis to deal with. It is taken care of for now."

"Oh, good.

"He was freaking out when you hung up on us," Liam said, laughing.

"Why am I not surprised by that?" I asked.

"Shut up," Ethan pouted.

"Who are you talking to?" One of the demons asked. This caught the attention of the other demons, and they all swarmed around me. Oh great, this was exactly how I wanted to spend my New Year's Eve.

"This is Ethan and Liam. They are friends of mine," I said once all the demons were surrounding me. I was pretty sure one stepped on me. "Ethan and Liam, these chillins are my cousins that I'm babysitting." The demons soon lost interest and went back to doing whatever they were doing before.

"They didn't seem too bad. You made them sound like a nightmare," Ethan said.

"That's because you didn't pique their interest. Plus, I don't have to put them to bed," I said.

Liam laughed and said, "I'll be back." He disappeared out of the room Ethan and him were hanging out in. While he was gone, Ethan and I just chatted about random stuff.

"Did you flush?" I asked one of the demons when I saw him come out of the bathroom. He nodded before going back to playing.

Liam must have returned while I talked to the demon because he said, "Um, what?"

"I was talking to one of the kids. They just got out of the bathroom, and I wanted to make sure they flushed."

"I was confused because I thought you were talking to me. I was about to be like that was none of your business."

"You thought I was talking to you?" I said, unable to control my laughter. It was okay because Ethan was laughing at Liam's stupidity with me.

"What was I supposed to think?" Liam argued. He was just embarrassed and was trying to make excuses. "It wasn't like I could tell you were talking to one of your cousins."

"Whatever you say," Ethan said, still laughing. Liam was blushing from embarrassment.

Liam glared at Ethan and said, "I'm going to get you back for this." This just caused Ethan to laugh even harder. These two were two halves of a whole idiot, and nothing could convince me otherwise. They were okay separated but put them together, and they are sharing the same brain cell. However, that is how you knew they were amazing friends.

I looked at the time and said, "Guys, it's getting close to the ball drop. Time to go upstairs so we can watch it." The kids stopped what they were doing and went upstairs. I followed them, making sure none of them got left downstairs.

"I guess that means we have to come out of hiding," Ethan sighed. Liam nodded, and both left the room they were hiding in.

While I was pouring sparkling grape juice for the kids and me, I heard, "Ethan, where have you been? I have been looking for you all night. It's almost midnight, which means... Oh, who is this?" A girl who looked younger than me popped up on the screen. Something told me she was Liam's younger sister. The one that had a crush on Ethan.

"Hi, I'm Hailey. I'm friends with Ethan and Liam," I said with a smile.

"Then why have I never heard of you?" She scoffed. Not going to lie. She was a bitch that needed a slap of reality.

Ethan frowned before saying, "Why don't you go to where our parents are? I'm going to get a drink, and then I'll be right there."

"Okay," She said before disappearing. Thank fucking God.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know she was going to act like a jealous bitch. I'll talk to her and Liam about what happened. She didn't need to act that way," Ethan rambled. I was handing juice out to the kids.

"It's okay. It didn't bother me," I said. I grabbed my cup and headed to the living room where the kids were. "But watch your language. I'm surrounded by little chillins." I turned on New Year's Rockin Eve for the ball drop.

"Sorry," He mumbled.

"Ethan, there you are. The ball is going to drop soon. Oh, you must be Hailey. I'm Ethan's mom. He hasn't stopped talking about you since he came home," Ethan's mom said. Ethan looked a lot like his mom. It was like they were genderswaps of one another.

I smiled, "It is nice to meet you. Sorry, we have to meet for the first time over FaceTime."

"Hopefully, we get to meet in person one day," She said, smiling back at me. "The countdown is about to start." She ushered Ethan into a room full of people.

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"Happy New Year, Hailey!" Ethan said.

"Happy New Year, Ethan!" I said before drinking my juice. I hung up the FaceTime and looked up at the kids. "Put your shirt back on."

I knew right then, 2020 was going to be an interesting year. However, I didn't know how interesting it was going to truly be.