Do you get a feeling that sometimes the whole universe conspires to make your life that much harder?

Well, I do. All. The. Damn. Time.

To be honest, though, I am exaggerating. I don't have it that hard, I just have been jobless and living with my parents at 20!

If I had been alive 70 years ago, my days would have been totally different. Totally. Like I would have had to spend all day in a fast food place getting yelled at for making people's orders all wrong or get yelled at a supermarket by a middle-aged woman, for not having her yogurt on sale! I mean, I didn't do well in school.

But none of that even matters anyway because everything changed when the aliens attacked.

No for real though, Earth was attacked by a bunch of aliens 50 years ago. Real aliens, not those tall blue guys or the little green ones.

Don't get me wrong, things weren't as bad like they showed in those movies. I mean we don't live in ruined cities, hiding away from the aliens and plotting one day to overthrow them. When the aliens destroyed all our governments and annihilated our armies they deemed the rest of us as not much of a threat.

There are other things that are much, much different now. Like totally different. Our whole lives changed and not always for the better. School became that much harder, you think biology is hard now? Imagine how hard it is when you have 50 mandatory alien species you have to learn!

So anyway, back to the present. I am about to start my first real job. It isn't exactly the perfect job like what my sister has, but it's a job, and it would prove to my parents that I am not trying to leech off them for the rest of their lives.

All the good jobs are all taken by the aliens these days, and most of the rest is automated. So only the best of us get to be doctors and scientists and all that cool stuff. Kids are tested for special programs since they are really, really young and at each grade they make us take these really hard tests. So, the geniuses will have respected, high paying jobs and the rest of us grunts get stuck with the mundane or the yucky jobs that the aliens didn't want to do. My own sister is a scientist. Do you see how I'm not the favorite child in my family?

It will all change today though. Hopefully.

Well you see, I got a job as a babysitter for a very special baby. An alien baby. The father is some sort of intergalactic businessman. He is like super-rich and deals with a lot of tech stuff.

So why would a man like him need a nobody like me to babysit his kid, you ask?

Well, he didn't. I was hired by his sister because they needed a human for the job. You see, the baby is half-human. Only a few species of aliens are compatible with us, and the baby's mother got lucky. Well, not too lucky cause unfortunately, the mother died during the birth because our bodies were not meant to give birth to a baby that sized. They thought they needed a human to help raise the child. I was told in the interview that they valued the baby's human parentage. I don't know why though, them aliens are way cooler than we'll ever be.

I wasn't sure exactly why I was picked. It's not like I was special or anything. I don't think I even have all the qualifications. What do you need to babysit anyway? I didn't do any babysitting diploma or something (do we even have those? I'm sure we do. There's a course for literally everything these days.). But they for some reason only got a few candidates. I jumped at the chance cause the money is good and how hard is babysitting anyway? Alien or not.

I adjusted my shirt for the 100th time as I waited for the taxi to arrive. My first choice was a plain white t-shirt with the words "Caution: Brain Not Found". But I decided to save that for another day when they get more used to me. I have lots of clothes like that. I mean if the whole world calls you stupid all the time. You might as well own it.

I hopped onto the taxi as soon as it pulled over, don't want to be late on the first day of work. It was by sheer luck that I got the job and I didn't want to push it. I would have to take the train tomorrow cause I did not have the money to do this every day. Maybe I can even try to find a place closer if I ever have that kind of money.

I did read up on some tips on the internet about how to take care of a child, but how much of it will be the same for an alien baby? I should have asked the Dariins next door. They are aliens, so they should know. But they talk in the third person so, talking to them makes me dizzy.

 I hope I don't get stuck in traffic, I mean these self-driving cars are designed to avoid traffic jams, aren't they?

I arrived at the apartment complex with 5 minutes to spare. Perfect. Much better than my usual timing. Mom used to say I was late to my own birth. A couple of people were waiting for me in the lobby. And a tall, thin, stern-looking woman with a beak for a nose looked annoyed. What's her problem? I am not late.

"Miss Short?"

I nodded.

Yep, that's really my name. Madeline Short. It didn't help in high school since I was actually 5'1.

"I am Mrs. Miller, the head housekeeper for Mr. Oban. Miss Oban is waiting for you. Follow Me."

She called herself Mrs. Miller, how stupid is that? You know who she reminds me of though? My high school principal. This Miller woman is already my least favorite person and I haven't even met anybody.

Oh! well, I won't let her ruin my day. I looked out the glass elevator as it went up and up. How many floors are we going up? We'll end up in space at this rate.

The baby. Focus on the baby. That's the most important thing for me today. I think I can take care of him well, I mean I was a baby once and I grew up just fi..ne.

Finally, the damned thing stopped, and we stood before a door until Mrs. Miller had her face scanned. She opened it and gestured me inside.

OK. This is real. I am about to start my first job.

Wish me luck.