My Sister, the Homewrecker......

[Dani]

“Previously on 16 and Pregnant…..”

“Tonight on an all new Secret Life of the American Teenager….”

“You ARE the father!!!”

“Ugh!” Kylie groaned and threw the remote at the TV. Considering that Kylie couldn’t throw any better than the average five year old, it was a miracle that the remote even hit its intended target.

It was bad enough that this stupid cold was preventing her from seeing Brody, possibly allowing him more time with Liesl with the pretty straight hair, but did she have to be reminded about Liesl constantly? If she had a dollar for every time that she had seen a pregnant girl on television in the past week, she could have bought out all of Sephora. Hmmmm now there’s an idea…..guys always fall harder for girls when they’ve had a total makeover. Like in that really old movie with that girl who wore the glasses and painted those super messy pictures…. Now all I need to do is iron my hair…..

“Hey there.” A familiar voice interrupted her vain and slightly ridiculous plan. “Bekah!” she exclaimed, both stunned and elated to see one of her best friends standing in the doorway.

Bekah laughed at Kylie’s enthusiasm. “Well, you don’t sound too sick. I guess it’s safe for me to come in.” She cautiously took two steps into the room.

Kylie quickly nodded her head. “Yeah, I’m like practically fine now,” she said, motioning for Bekah to come closer. “I’m going back to school tomorrow.”

“Okay, I’ll take your word for it, but if I get sick tomorrow, it’s your fault.” Bekah laughed again and plopped down on one of the floor pillows. “Sorry, I didn’t come around sooner. Chase and I….”

At the mention of Chase’s name, Kylie quickly held up a hand and shook her head. “It’s alright. I totally understand.” While she was enormously happy for Bekah, she wasn’t really in the mood to hear about how wonderful was Chase was or to have Bekah recall for the millionth time the romantic night at Coble’s when he asked her to be his girlfriend.

Of course, Kylie couldn’t really complain too much. After all, she had also experienced a romantic evening at Coble’s. Except instead of asking her to be his girlfriend, Brody had decided to use the occasion to confess that he had slept with Liesl again. Shaking off the mental image that had haunted her thoughts on more than one instance, she focused her attention back on Bekah. “So what’s new, you know, like other than Chase?”

Bekah looked at Kylie as though she had just asked her if she was from another planet. “Well, you know, school, I guess. Not much else.”

Kylie nodded her head slowly. Of course, not like she has anything else to talk about these days.

“Sorry if I keep talking about Chase,” Bekah continued, as though she had been reading Kylie’s mind. “That’s how it is when you’re in love.”

“Believe me, I know,” Kylie blurted out without thinking. Whoops! “I m-mean I like read it on some random website or something.”

“Uh huh, sure,” Bekah said sarcastically. “You’re not fooling anyone with that face. You might as well tell me who he is because as you know, I have ways of finding these things out.”

Bekah was right. She may have mellowed a bit since high school, but she would still go the extra mile for a juicy piece of gossip. She wouldn’t have to go far either. All it would take was just a quick phone call to Miki and the truth would be revealed.

Feeling trapped with no way out, Kylie decided that now was as good a time as any to confess. “B-Brody,” she finally said after several moments of hesitation.

Bekah gasped loudly and dashed over to Kylie, placing a hand over her forehead. “Is your fever coming back or something? Because I could have sworn that you just said that you love Brody.”

Kylie couldn’t help giggling at Bekah’s reaction. “No, I’m fine. And yeah, I’m dead serious.”

“Just how much cold medicine did you have?” Bekah asked, looking as though she were about to pass out in shock. “I heard that stuff can make you high or something. Your brain would have to be pretty fried to have feelings for someone like Brody Arthur. Did you forget about my sweet sixteen party?”

Kylie frowned and rolled her eyes. “I’m fine!” she protested. She didn’t mean to blow up at Bekah, but she couldn’t help herself. “That was like a million years ago. He’s different now.”

Ignoring Kylie’s sudden outburst, Bekah simply shook her head. “First of all, it was only three years ago. Second of all, since when do you like Brody? I know I haven’t been around much, but are you that lonely?” She leaned against the wall and sighed. “I should have never gone to New York.”

“No you shouldn’t have!” Kylie exclaimed. Trying to calm down, she attempted to explain herself. “I mean, I missed you a lot, but that has nothing to do with Brody. I had this really embarrassing crush on him when we were kids……”

“So what? When I was a kid, I used to wrap myself in toilet paper and pretend that I was in Swan Lake. Do you see me running around covered in two ply?”

Kylie let an even bigger sigh. She should have known that Bekah wouldn’t understand, just as Miki hadn’t. Was there anybody that would understand?

Just as she had with Miki, she continued to tell the entire story. She told her about the early days and how Brody had pretty much brushed her aside in favor of that girl down at the pet store. She told her about how he had suddenly reappeared in town and how fate had suddenly thrown them together in the Christmas pageant. Her face started to light up a bit as she recounted the tale of their first date and how nervous she was riding on his motorcycle. Her expression instantly turned sad as soon as she got to the part about how a dark storm cloud named Liesl had blown in and planted herself on top of said motorcycle, causing Brody to brush her aside yet again. Trying to not to get too emotional over it, she quickly rushed through the rest of the story to bring Bekah up to speed. Some details, such as what didn’t happen in his car that night and the fact that she hadn’t seen him in a while, were conveniently left out. As soon as she finished, she lowered her head, nervously anticipating Bekah’s response.

“That’s the biggest load of crap I’ve ever heard. Then again, look who I’m dealing with….”

Completely taken aback, Kylie quickly looked up. There standing in the doorway, with a malicious grin plastered on her face, was Alexia. “H-how much did you hear?” she asked her sister, her fear mounting.

Instead of simply answering the question, Alexia stepped into the room, looking quite pleased with herself. “My, my, sister dear,” she said, placing a hand on Kylie’s shoulder. “I knew your stupid kiddie obsession with Brody was back. I heard you singing about it in the shower.”

Before Kylie could protest, Alexia quickly began moving around the room, flailing her arms and moving her hips about. “Oh Brody, Brody…Oh Brody, Brody,” she began singing in an arrogant tone of voice. “Oh Brody, Brody, how was I supposed to knoooow…..that something wasn’t right here….”

Bekah burst out laughing. “You know, for someone who apparently hates that type of music,” she said, smirking at Alexia. “You certainly have the dance moves down pat.”

Alexia glared at Bekah. “Shut up, Barbie. This is a family thing. It doesn’t concern you.” Ignoring the slightly hurt expression on Bekah’s face, she focused her attention back on Kylie. “I must say that I admire your originality, big sis. I mean, replacing the word ‘baby’ with ‘Brody’, that is just the work of a musical genius. You should seriously audition for Glee once your ‘I want a bad boy’ phase dies down.”

Her anger even more apparent than before, Kylie shot Alexia a look and clenched her fists. “Brody’s not a phase!” she exclaimed.

Clearly not affected by Kylie’s anger, Alexia simply laughed in her face. “What are you gonna do, hit me? I swear, you cheerleaders make me sick. You ignore every other fucking person in the school that’s not a jock for most of high school and then right around graduation, you decide to fulfill some dumbass teen movie fantasy by fooling around with someone outside of your dense social circle. And you don’t give a damn whether they belong to someone else or not, you just go on ahead and shake your poms poms in their face.”

“I didn’t steal Brody! He and I….”

Alexia shook her head. “Please, spare me the details,” she interrupted. “Anyways, I came up here to tell you that Mom wants everyone downstairs for movie night.” She rolled her eyes at Bekah. “I guess you’re staying for that too, huh?”

Bekah folded her arms and nodded her head. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” she said proudly, smiling teasingly at Alexia.

“Fine,” Alexia said, glancing back at Kylie. “We’re watching Juno, by the way.” She flashed another evil grin at Kylie’s defeated face and danced out of the room. “Brody you’re a fiiiiiirrrrrework!!!! Come on let your coooooolors burst!!!”

Terrified that Alexia would spill the beans, Kylie immediately dashed out of the room after her only to have her process quickly halted by an inconveniently placed beanbag chair.

“Are you alright?” Bekah asked, helping her up. “You know, you’re not a bad person, right? At least I don’t think you’re one. I do think you’re rather insane for wanting to be with Brody Arthur, though.”

“I think everybody thinks that,” Kylie replied simply, following Bekah out of the room to watch yet another pregnant girl on TV.

[Dani]

Kylie looked in the mirror and skillfully began applying her mascara, being extra careful not to get it on her blue and white cheerleading uniform. She had never been clumsy with makeup in the past, but today she was so jumpy that her hand kept shaking.

Today was the last cheerleading competition of her high school career, her last chance to prove herself useful to the overly critical squad of Riverside High. When she first moved here, she was somewhat confident that she could win them over. After all, cheerleading was pretty much her life. She might have been a multiple loser when it came to beauty pageants, but she excelled at cheerleading.

Back in Mabtown, it was a well-known fact that Kylie was a cheerleader. She had been cheering ever since she’d made her way into the town at the age of five. She was one of the loudest girls on the squad, even once managing to perform through a whole game with a sore throat. She was one of the few girls to make varsity squad during her sophomore year. She was one of the best flyers, nearly hitting the ceiling during a routine. She had won various awards for her accomplishments, enough to fill an entire trophy case in her parents’ basement. Her team went to Nationals twice, even appearing on TV. If the word “cheerleading” ever came up in conversation, Kylie’s name was usually one of the first mentioned.

Riverside High simply didn’t care. They didn’t care about any of those things or about the multiple triple back handsprings that she could perform so effortlessly. In fact, they didn’t really care about Kylie in general. They didn’t even care enough to realize that her given name was Kylie and not Courtney, Kim, or Chloe. She had gone from being a flyer to being on the bottom of the pyramid.

Just then, a loud pounding sounded on the door, startling her and causing her to nearly stain her uniform with mascara. “Kylie! Move it! Everybody’s waiting for you!”

Kylie sighed. She wasn’t in the mood to deal with Alexia right now. In fact, she rarely was in the mood to deal with her. It was as though Alexia’s one purpose in life was to depress her.

Unfortunately, today was no different. “I know you feel like you have to make an entrance,” Alexia said, opening the door and standing in the doorway. “But we’ve been waiting downstairs for over ten minutes now. We’re long past giving a fuck what you look like.” She took a look at Kylie’s cheerleader uniform and shook her head in disgust. “So is Brody coming? You gonna meet up afterwards and play bad boy and cheerleader?”

Kylie shook her head and tried not to let her sister get to her. “No, he had to work,” she said simply. “Hopefully, we can go out later.” Even though she missed Brody a lot, she was a little relieved that he couldn’t make it today. She didn’t want him seeing her sitting on the bottom on the pyramid or dancing in the back row. She wanted to maintain at least some shred of dignity when it came to him.

Alexia rolled her eyes at Kylie. “You know he’s working to support his kid, right? He’s not working so that he can take your materialistic ass out to dinner. He doesn’t have time to watch you twirl around, do cartwheels, and flash your designer underwear to the entire student body.” She made a face and turned on her heel to go back downstairs.

So much for not letting Alexia get to her. Kylie groaned threw down her makeup and angrily stormed after her sister. “For your information, Brody and I aren’t playing around!” she exclaimed, following her down the stairs. “I like him and he likes me! And I didn't steal him from Liesl! She just showed up one day out of the blue and said that she was having his baby! I left him alone! He’s the one that came after me! He’s the one that asked me out to dinner! I know he likes her too and she’s preggers and everything, but I love him, dammit! You hear me? I love Brody Arthur!!!”

As she neared the bottom of the stairs, she immediately froze in horror. There, standing at the bottom of the stairs with their mouths practically hanging open, was pretty much her entire family. She didn’t realize that so many people would show up for her competition. She only expected the people that were staying with them to come. It was embarrassing enough that her own mother was going to see the tragic end of her cheerleading career. She couldn’t bear it that Jack, Bekah, Madison, and Taylor had come all the way down from college to watch it as well. Judging from the looks on their faces, she had worse things to worry about.

“Liesl?” her mother asked, nearly dropping the video camera that she was holding. “Lindsey Baker’s daughter?”

Alexia snickered and nodded her head. “I guess so. I mean, who else names their kid that? It’s not exactly the most common name in the world.” Peyton glanced over at Alexia and shook her head. “Actually, there was a Liesl in The Sound of Music,” she said. “She was the eldest of the von Trapp children.”

Smiling sarcastically, Alexia bit her lip. “You know how old that movie is? I hardly think that Brody knocked up some creepy old lady. Unless she had some sort of weird hormone pills....he’d really have to be wasted for that to happen though….”

Their mother put down the video camera and raised an eyebrow at Kylie. “Brody fathered Liesl’s baby….” She began, as though she were trying to make sense of the entire situation. “And he’s going out with you?”

Before Kylie could explain the situation to her mother, Alexia immediately chimed in again. “That’s right, Mom. Your precious little Kylie has gotten so desperate for a date that she’s resorted to stealing baby daddies. They were down at Coble’s a few months ago, playing footsie and eating breadsticks.”

Jack sighed and shook his head. “I can’t believe it,” he said. “I just can’t believe it.” The look on his face caused Kylie to panic even more. Oh no, now he knows! She had promised Brody that she would let him tell Jack about them. Now thanks to her big mouth, Jack now knew the truth. Brody is so gonna hate me now…..

“Jack, I….” she started to say, praying silently that Jack was no longer going through his protective big brother phase. “We didn’t mean to….” Her older brother glanced back at her with a smirk. “You ate breadsticks?” he asked with a smile. “I can’t believe it. You never eat breadsticks.”

Kylie nearly burst out laughing. This was nowhere near the reaction she had expected Jack to have. She thought he would have focused more on the fact that she had gone out with Brody, not what they had eaten. “Yup, I sure did,” she said proudly. “And I had pasta too.”

The entire room gasped in surprise. Even two year old Molly, who more than likely had no idea what was going on, formed her mouth into an O. “Pasta?” Madison asked, looking as though she were about to pass out any second. “With sauce on it and everything?” As soon as Kylie nodded her head, Nick stared at her with his eyes widened. “I think I need to go sit down now…..” Lucas, looking equally stunned, headed over to a nearby window. “Excuse me for a second. I’m going to go see if pigs are flying.”

Bekah laughed at everybody’s reactions. “Well, I for one am not surprised. Have you tried the pasta there? It works miracles. Believe me, I know.” She sighed and gazed off in a dreamlike state, obviously thinking about Chase.

Alexia rolled her eyes at Bekah. “Really? Is that so? I thought you looked like you were putting on a few.” She glanced at the others and shook her head. “So what if he got her to eat pasta? Big freaking deal. It still doesn’t change the fact that she stole someone else’s boyfriend.”

Kylie growled and clenched her fists. “I didn’t steal him!” she exclaimed yet again. She knew it was no use. Alexia would never see things her way.

“I’m sure you didn’t mean to do it,” her mother said. Kylie breathed a sigh of relief. Yes! Mom totally gets it! She was glad to have her own mother in her corner. “You’re a smart girl, Kylie and I trust you to do the right thing. I’m sure you know that ending things with Brody is the right thing to do.”

So much for her mother taking her side. “Say what?” she asked, trying to ignore the pleased look on Alexia’s face. It was one thing for Alexia to want to see her life ruined, but her own mother? Surely she would have wanted her to be happy, right?

“Hey, sometimes people can’t help who they fall for,” Sophie put in. “You can develop feelings for someone for all the wrong reasons. Sometimes it takes someone else to make you realize what the right reasons are.”

Their mother quickly shook her head. “It’s not that simple when there’s a baby involved. You have to put the children’s best interests first. Children deserve to have a mother and father together.”

Understanding finally dawned on Kylie. She was starting to think that her mother had snapped or something, but she knew exactly what brought on this ridiculous line of thinking. “Mom, just because Dad got married a month after he left you doesn’t mean…..”

Her mother took a deep breath and threw her hands up in the air. “One year! One year!” she exclaimed. “You remember what the judge said, right? Only what happens after the divorce was finalized counts. None of that symbolic new age commitment crap holds up in court.” She breathed another heavy sigh and shook her head. “Plus, you know perfectly well that Brody has to marry her. It’s the honorable thing to do.”

Now it was Alexia’s turn to look at their mother dumbfounded. “Are you serious?” she asked. Their mother simply nodded her head. “Of course, I’m serious. It’s tradition. Remember the Miller kids? The Herrons? You know shotgun weddings are a tried and true tradition among us. Just because we’ve moved to Riverside doesn't mean that we should lose our principles.”

Kylie had thought the exact same thing. She thought that Brody was going to marry Liesl and forget all about her. Her mother was right. Everyone else did it. It was the right thing to do. Still she couldn't help but remember what Brody had texted her when she had mentioned that she thought he was engaged. “Are you high or something?” That didn’t sound like someone who was getting married. “What if he doesn’t marry her?” she asked, clinging on tightly to Brody’s words.

Alexia wrinkled up her face into an expression of disgust. “This isn't about the right thing to do or this town’s dumbass desire to live in the 1950s. What about the fact that Kylie just stole someone’s boyfriend?” Before Kylie could protest yet again, Alexia held up her hand and continued. “And don’t give me that whole ‘I didn't steal him’ bullshit because everybody knows damned well that you did. You cheerleaders and your long flowing hair and tight ass mini-skirts, you think you got the whole world on a string. It’s about high time somebody put you in your place. I want to shake this Liesl girl’s hand.” She walked closer to Kylie, a wicked grin playing upon her lips. “You know he has to marry her, right? That’s why they call it a shotgun wedding,” she said, making a gesture of a gun with her fingers. “Because if Brody says no, then all Liesl’s daddy has to do is get out a shotgun and…..POW!!!” She pulled the trigger on her imaginary gun and laughed.

“Alexia!” their mother said with a gasp. “How dare you say such a thing? Murder’s no laughing matter!” Alexia rolled her eyes yet again. “Well Mom, isn’t that why they call it a shotgun wedding?” The entire room went silent for a few minutes, proving Alexia’s point.

“They can always get a divorce!” Chynna spoke up suddenly. “Mom and Dad got one and nobody got shot.”

Their mother chuckled and shook her head. “That’s different Chynna Girl,” she said, kneeling down to her level. “Someday when you’re all grown-up, you’ll understand.” Her lack of explanation caused Chynna to frown and storm off. “I’m not a baby!” she exclaimed. “I’m almost twelve years old!”

“Why don’t you find someone else?” their mother suggested to Kylie. “There must be tons of decent boys at your school.” She went to her purse, took out her cell phone, and started going through a nearby drawer. “I’m sure one of them can take you to the prom in a few weeks. Where’s the school directory?”

All of the color practically drained out of Kylie’s face. Did anyone care about her side of the story? Sure, she hadn’t exactly mentioned the prom to Brody, but he was the only person that she wanted to go with. “I can’t go to the prom with Brody?” she asked, a crestfallen look on her face.

Her mother shook her head and kept scrolling through her phone. “You really think it’s fair for the two of you to go out and have a good time while that poor girl’s home alone in bed? What if something happens to the baby? Trust me, Kylie, I’ve been pregnant four times. You never know what will happen. Do I need to remind you that I almost gave birth to you in an elevator? Or that Alexia was really close to being delivered by a guy in a furry mouse suit? Remember when I was carrying Molly and I fell down the stairs? You remember where your dad was? How about when I went into labor with her while all you kids were at school and your dad was nowhere to be found?”

Alexia laughed at the various comparisons. “Can’t argue with you there, Mom,” she said, watching her mother go through her phone with delight. “This certainly wouldn’t be the first time that we’d have to use some poor sap to rid Kylie of her stupid Brody obsession. This is the GCA Homecoming all over again.”

Kylie’s face turned bright red. Leave it to Alexia to bring that up at a time like this. “That was so not like this!” she protested. “That was like a totally different situation!” Alexia shook her head. “No, it like so totally was the same thing,” she said, sarcastically mocking Kylie’s valley girl slang.

Bekah walked over to Kylie and put her arm around her shoulder. “What exactly was the same thing?” she said, shooting Alexia a dirty look. Jack quickly held up a hand to stop Alexia from continuing. “Alexia, seriously, now’s not the time.”

Alexia immediately brushed off Jack’s protest to stop. “I can’t stop,” she said sweetly. “Barbie asked to hear the story and she’s a guest in our house. Mom always taught us to be kind to our guests. What kind of hostess would I be to refuse such a humble request?”

Having caught the attention of the entire room, Alexia began to tell her tale. “When Kylie was in junior high, she was so obsessed with Brody. He was seeing some girl down at the pet store, but she didn’t give a shit about that, just like she doesn’t give a shit now.” She glared at Kylie and continued. “She used to hang around him all the freaking time, batting her big dopey eyes, thinking that he’d give her the time of day, but he didn’t. Anyways, we were having homecoming at school and she was whining and crying because she couldn’t go with Brody, so Mom found some lame jock from a rival school to take her. Kylie didn’t even know the guy. Mom had met his mom through some sort of parent group or something.”

Taylor glanced up in disbelief. “You pimped out your own daughter?” she asked, her blue eyes growing big. “Geez, Aunt Danielle.” Gasping at the use of the term, their mother quickly rushed to defend herself. “It wasn’t pimping! No money exchanged hands! Just good old-fashioned matchmaking,” she said, flipping through the pages of the school directory. “Besides Luke was a really nice boy.”

Alexia laughed. “Yeah, a nice boy that stood her up,” she recalled. “Kylie spent the whole night with all the other stood up girls, hanging around the punch bowl and crying.” Her mother sighed and reluctantly nodded. “True,” she said. “But they eventually met up again and wound up dating. If it wasn’t for my meddling, your sister would have never gotten her first boyfriend.”

Yeah, and he totally ditched me too….. Despite Bekah’s kind arm wrapped around her, Kylie still didn’t feel relaxed, not in the slightest. “I don’t want some other guy!” she cried out, doubting that her opinion even mattered anymore.

“I know this seems unfair right now,” her mother said. “But someday you’ll look back on this fondly, secure in the knowledge that you’ve done the right thing.” Still going through her phone, she grabbed her purse and headed towards the door. “Let’s get a move on and try to make the best of today. We all get to see you cheer and your brother has some good news to tell us.” She turned to Jack and smiled. “Why don’t you share your good news now? That should brighten things up around here.”

Jack looked as though he were the cat that had swallowed the canary. “Well,” he said, clearing his throat. “Miki and I are getting married.”

His mother looked as though she were about to fall through the floor. “You’re what?” she said with an astonished look on her face. Alexia groaned in frustration. “Way to go, Jack. That’s just what this family needs, another Kylie,” she said with a scowl. “She’s not going to live here too, is she? I have a hard enough time getting to use the bathroom as it is.”

“Remind us not to ask you to make a toast at the reception.” Jack said, rolling his eyes. “And for your information, we’re saving up to get our own place so you don’t have to worry about Miki’s warm and cheerful personality clashing with your cold, hard, bitchy one or her interfering with your precious teeth brushing time. And guess what? You don’t have to come and visit us either.” Pleased that he had managed to shut Alexia up, he redirected his attention back towards his mother. “Wow, I thought you’d be happier. I thought you liked Miki.”

His mother collapsed in a nearby chair. “Of course, I like Miki. I like her very much. I just can’t understand why you had to hurry. I mean, it’s not like you have to get married right away……” She gasped loudly and leaped up, pacing back and forth. “Oh my god, is she pregnant too? Jack, I can’t believe you’d do something like that! She’s only 16! You’re 19! We just moved here….I have no idea what the age of consent here is….you know you could go to jail….”

As her mother babbled on about prison visits and how she was too young to be a grandmother, Kylie made a quick escape to her room to get her cell phone. She needed to be alone with her thoughts, thoughts that she had the right to have, no matter what anyone else said. She walked over to her closet and grabbed one of her few outfits to survive the hurricane, her old cheerleading uniform. It still looked good as new, bright red with the word “Dragons” emblazoned on it in big, bold white letters. She clutched the garment tightly and fell onto her bed. She picked up her cell phone and began absent-mindedly scrolling through her photos, trying to cheer herself up. Eventually she landed on a photo that made her smile a bit. It was one of her and Brody, goofing off in Holiday Hall one day during rehearsal. She remembered how happy she had been that day, how much she had laughed. She couldn’t wait to be finished that day. She couldn't wait to spend more time with him. She remembered him grabbing her hand and smiling at her as they walked out to the parking lot. As the scene continued to replay in her head, her smile started to fade away. That was also the day that Liesl happened.

No! Liesl already had enough. She had perfect hair, good looks, Brody’s attention, her mother’s and Alexia’s sympathy. She wasn’t going to hog Kylie’s daydream as well. Attempting to block out Liesl, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She thought back to her first date with Brody, one of the few Liesl-free memories that she had left. As she mentally relived the entirety of it, she began to sing one of her favorite Katy Perry songs. “You make me….feel like I’m living….a teenage dream,” she sang softly. “The way you turn me on…..I can’t sleep…..” She wished that the past few months were all just a dream and that she’d wake up in her old bedroom in Mabtown, a popular cheerleader at North Ridge High, who was still on cloud nine from her wonderful date the night before. She wished that she could go back in time and get her teenage dream back or perhaps make it last longer than it did. She wished that…..

“Kylie! Get your ass down here! Even a ditz like you doesn’t take that long to retrieve a cell phone!”

Alexia’s voice knocked her right out of her trance. Nope, she wasn't living a teenage dream. In fact, she was living a teenage nightmare.

“Coming!” she said, leaving her room and heading downstairs, silently thanking the genius that had invented waterproof mascara.

[Dani]

“And I was like, baby, baby, baby……ohhhhh”

“Chynna, turn off that fucking beaver music! It’s bad enough I have to share a room with you, but I shouldn’t be forced to listen to that little screechy bitch!”

“Moooooooom! Alexia called Justin Bieber a bitch!”

Kylie lay stretched out on her bed down the hall from Chynna’s room, trying to block out her sister’s music and the argument that it always seemed to lead to. While she felt bad for Chynna, it felt good to not be a target of Alexia’s bullying for once. She couldn’t really blame Chynna for playing it so much; it was after all a very catchy song, one of those ones that get stuck in your head after a while.

“Like Brody, Brody, Brody….ohhhh,” she sang, falling into her habit of altering the lyrics. “Thought you’d always be mine….mine” She couldn’t help it; the lyrics actually seemed to speak to her. The song may have been annoying, but it was very relatable.

“For you, I would have done whatever,” she continued singing, her voice getting a little louder. “And I just can’t believe we ain’t together. And I wanna play it cool, but I’m losing you. I’ll buy you anything. I’ll buy you any ring.”

Channeling her inner pop star, she jumped off the bed, grabbed her hairbrush, and started singing into it as though it were a microphone. “And I’m in pieces, Brody, fix me. And just shake me ‘til you wake me from this bad dream…..I’m going down, down, down, down. And I just can’t believe my first love won’t be around.”

As the chorus started, she began dancing around the room while she sang. “And I’m like Brody, Brody, Brody…..ohhhh…..Like Brody, Brody, Brody…..nooooo…..Like Brody, Brody, Brody…..ohhhhh. I thought you’d always be mine, mine.”

She whirled around with a flourish and caught sight of Jack standing in the door, causing her to freeze in embarrassment. “Been watching Glee again, sis?” he asked with an amused grin.

Kylie plopped down on the edge of her bed, her face quickly turning a deep shade of red. “No,” she said, trying to come up with some plausible excuse to explain what she had been doing. “I was just…..uh….practicing my American Idol audition?” Geez, what a totally lame excuse….even I wouldn’t believe it….

Just as she had predicted, Jack didn’t believe her for a second. “So you and Brody, huh?” he asked, a frown starting to cross his face. “He’s my best friend. You’re my sister. My best friend and my sister…..”

Panic crossing her face, Kylie moved further back on her bed. Her and Jack hadn’t really discussed her and Brody’s confusing relationship since her accidental slip of the tongue awhile back. “I-I know y-you should have been so t-totally in the loop about this, but we….”

Jack’s frown grew even deeper. “Dammit, Kylie, what is it with you?!” he cut in. “Are you trying to steal my best friend or something? I know you’re jealous because I’m more popular than you are right now, but this is just ridiculous!”

Kylie recognized her brother’s words right away. They might have sounded cruel to most people, but they were very familiar to her. She had said the pretty much the exact same thing when she found out about Jack and Miki’s relationship. While she had been pretty upset at the time, she no longer felt that way. “Jack,” she said, trying to reason with him. “I know I was like such a major bitch when you and Miki hooked up, but that was such a majorly long time ago…..”

Jack kept right on ignoring her. “I can’t believe Brody. I mean, just who does he think his is? What gives him the right to put the moves on my baby sister? And where does he get off not telling me about it?” He clenched his fists and cracked his knuckles. “I guess my fists will have to have a little talk with his face!” He turned around and began angrily stomping towards the door.

“Nooooooooooooo!!!” Kylie practically flew off the bed and made a beeline for Jack, knocking him to the floor in seconds and landing on top of him. It was like a scene straight out of a movie, except that it wasn’t slowed down for dramatic effect. “Please, please, don’t hurt Brody!” she cried, “I didn’t mean to fall in love with him! It just randomly happened one day. I was so going to tell you about us, but he wanted to tell you and he thought that I should tell Miki because he was sure that you guys would take it better if we each told you separately. He’s just been so totally busy with Liesl and baby stuff, so he couldn’t tell you, so I wound up telling Miki and…..oh my god, the baby! He’s gonna have a baby, he can’t die! Don’t punish the baby! It’s not the baby’s fault that Brody’s such a good kisser! Please Jack, please, please….I’m begging you…..”

She glanced down nervously at her brother, tears rolling down her face as she awaited his response. He remained silent for a few seconds before his frown started to vanish. What happened next completely stunned her. Instead of yelling back at her, Jack instantly broke out into laughter. “Geez, Kylie, calm down. Brody already told me everything a few months ago.”

Kylie’s expression quickly shifted from a look of panic to a look of annoyance. “Then why didn’t you just say so?!” she asked angrily. She gave Jack another shove and stomped back to sit down on her bed. Still laughing, Jack got up and brushed himself off. “Well, you said it yourself,” he said with a smirk. “You know, you were like such a major bitch when like Miki and I like hooked up, like you know?”

Rolling her eyes at Jack’s over exaggerated imitation of her, Kylie sighed and nodded her head. “Yeah, I was a major bitch. And I don’t know if I told you before or not, but I’m like really, totally sorry. You have like no idea how sorry I am.” She frowned as she thought back to the insensitive things that she had said to Miki. Maybe if she had been nicer about Jack and Miki’s relationship, Miki would have been more understanding about her feelings about Brody. If only she could rent a time machine…..

Jack smiled and shook his head. “You don’t need to apologize. If it wasn’t for you, Miki and I wouldn’t be engaged right now. You could have kept your mouth shut and not told me that she had come back, but you didn’t. I would have just gone back to school and kept right on thinking that I’d lost her forever. Believe me, what you did for us is much better than an apology.” He brushed himself off a second time and rubbed his shoulder. “Damn, sis, where did you learn how to tackle like that? The Steelers sure as hell could have used someone like you during the Super Bowl this year.”

“Glad I could help,” Kylie said, smiling back at him. “Seriously, it was like nothing. She was totally missing you and I know you were missing her, so it didn’t take like some sort of rocket scientist to figure out that I had to reunite you guys.” She blushed a little bit as she recalled Brody randomly showing up in Miki’s room that day. It was yet another example of how quickly her thoughts would turn back to him. “Were the Steelers those semi-hot guys wearing the yellow?” she asked, still thinking about Brody. “You, know the ones with that guy with the kinda spiky black hair?”

Jack kept right on smiling. “So Miki was talking about me, huh? What did she say?” he asked, his eyes growing big with interest. “And I didn’t know you had a thing for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Watch out now, you wouldn’t want Brody to get jealous, would you?” He burst into another fit of laughter.

Kylie immediately shook her head. “Oh I majorly doubt that. I don’t think he’d like get jealous or something.” He’d probably care if Liesl was crushing on some random football player….

“Are you kidding me?” Jack asked, shaking his head as well. Of course, he’d get jealous. He told me he was into you. You do know what ‘into you’ means, right?”

Kylie nearly fell off of her bed. “He actually said that?” she asked, her mouth practically falling on the floor. “Like the words ‘into you’ like actually came out of his mouth and everything?” Her heart immediately started beating twice its normal rate. When it came to relationships, Kylie was really strict about specific words and phrases. In her mind, the phrase “into you” was a big deal. Sure, it wasn’t exactly “I love you”, but it was certainly a big step up from “I like you”. Maybe there was a chance for her after all. Still, there was one major obstacle in the way. “Did he like tell you how he felt about Liesl?” she asked cautiously, terrified of the answer.

“Does it really matter now?” Jack asked with a sigh. “I mean, she’s having a baby with my best friend and I wish her well, but I don’t even know her. I don’t have the same parents as her. I didn’t grow up living in the same house as her. I didn’t have to beat the crap out of a kid at daycare to protect her.” He frowned a little and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I’m sure she’s a pretty cool chick and all of that, but she’s not my sister. You’re my sister, though. And unlike some people in this house, I’ll always have your back.”

Despite feeling comforted by Jack’s kind words, Kylie was still worried. He hadn’t exactly answered her question. “You heard what Mom said. They have to like get married and stuff. It’s the like right thing to do. I mean, look at all the other kids. This girl from school just had twins and lives down the street with her boyfriend. I think they’re getting married or something. Remember Mom’s friend, Miss Lenny? Her daughter had twins too and also lives down the street with her boyfriend. They have like their own house and everything. They’d probably be married too if she weren’t like only fourteen.”

Jack raised an eyebrow and chuckled. “Kylie, you’ve known Brody since the fourth grade. You ever remember him doing something just because he was forced to do it and not because he wanted to do it? I swear that dude had more excuses for getting out of homework and chores than you had pairs of shoes.”

Ignoring the comparison to her shoes, Kylie smiled as she recalled how Brody was when he was younger. “Yeah, I remember. His brother had like this really cool pet monkey that they trained to do all of their work. At least that’s what they said he did. I wonder how long they got him to do their homework for. I mean, I know those monkeys are supposed to be like major geniuses and stuff, but I don’t remember Alexia getting hers to do fractions.” She laughed, remembering the trip to the pet shop to pick up the monkey. They had originally gone in to pick up a dog, but as soon as her siblings heard about the monkey, they just had to have one. Her smile faded as she recalled also meeting Brody’s then girlfriend that day. “It doesn’t matter whether he wants to or not,” she said, glancing down. “It’s like Alexia said. It’s a shotgun wedding. If he doesn’t marry her, her dad’s gonna totally shoot him in the head or something. He has to marry her so that he doesn’t get hurt.”

More laughter erupted from Jack, making Kylie feel even worse. I thought he said that he had my back. “Geez, you actually believe in that stuff?” he asked. “People don’t do that anymore. They either get married because they love the person or because they’re stupid enough to think that getting married just solves everything. You see how it worked out for our folks?” He continued before Kylie could answer him. “Plus, shooting someone or aiming a gun at them can get you thrown in the slammer.”

He made perfect sense. A shotgun wedding hadn’t done their parents any good. Their biological father had stuck around long enough to create them and Alexia before running off to Mexico with their babysitter. Still, that was a very extreme situation. “What if Tammy suddenly showed up out of nowhere and said that she was having your baby?” she asked, trying to find an example for Jack to relate to. “Like you got drunk one night or something and wound up doing it?”

Jack made a face of utter disgust. “Well, first of all, I’d get her both a lie detector and a DNA test. In fact, I’m sure Mom would insist on it. If she passed those, then I’d run out and get myself a cat scan because there’s not enough alcohol in the universe to make me even think of crawling in bed with her. There would have to be something seriously wrong with me. And if that all checked out, then I’d run to Miki and do some serious, hard-core begging to get her to still marry me. Because no matter what kind of crazy bullshit Tammy manages to pull, she’s not going to get in the way of Miki and me spending the rest of our lives together. I love Miki. I’m not letting her go to marry someone that I don’t even like, much less love. I mean, what kind of moron does that? I’d still go and see my kid though. Hell, I’d probably even try and fight her for custody if I could.”

Why did Jack have to make such perfect sense? She struggled to find another example; one that would pose a huge dilemma and drive him to the brink of insanity like her problem had driven her. “That’s like really sweet,” she said, sincerely meaning it. “But like what if Miki somehow got pregnant by her crazy ex Oliver? What would you do then?” That situation actually seemed more far-fetched than the previous one, but she knew that it would drive him crazy.

Judging from the look of rage on his face, her example had done the trick. Jack looked as though he wanted to punch a wall. “Why that little son of a bitch!” he exclaimed. “I swear to God, if him and his fucked up family so much as go near Miki, I’d…..”

Now it was Kylie’s turn to laugh. “Like chill out, Jack,” she said, finding his sudden anger very hilarious. “It’s just like a totally random hypothetical situation. It’s not like it’s going to seriously happen or something.”

Jack unclenched his fists and relaxed his hands. “I’d still marry Miki, no matter what,” he said, taking a deep breath. “As for the kid, they might be considered a Hale while she’s pregnant, but the second they come into this world, they’re a Howard. And I don’t give a damn how many psycho, wacked-out, royal nut jobs I’d have to fight in order to make that happen. You remember how demented they were? Not only did that son of a bitch take advantage of Miki, his entire family stalked the living hell out of her after they broke up, even the four year old. I swear that kid was like one of those creepy demon possessed kids from a horror flick. And you remember what their sister did? She made up a story about being raped and cutting herself so that Miki would feel guilty and run crawling into her sleazy brother’s arms. You know how sick and twisted that is?!” He paused for a second as the anger drained from his face. “I know that our family isn’t exactly perfect, but we’re not that twisted. Mom may be a little crazy, but she’s still pretty cool. And I’d like to think that I’d be a good father….I certainly have a good idea of what not to do.”

Kylie stared at her brother in stunned silence. If anyone doubted whether or not Jack loved Miki, he could prove them wrong within a matter of seconds. “Yeah, our dads were totally messed up,” she said, heading over and patting Jack on the shoulder. “I remember when Dad wouldn’t support me for Miss GCA. He went and helped Jordan’s sister instead. I guess he knew that I was going to lose.” It was just the first in a long line of times when Kylie was reminded that she wasn’t a real Howard, a fact that her current stepmother would often remind her of. “You know what’s so funny? I got ditched by two different fathers, yet everyone seems to think that I’m like some totally evil monster that’s going to keep Brody away from his baby. I so don’t get why people think that. Am I really that horrible, Jack?”

Jack sighed and gave her a hug. “Just who exactly is everybody?” he asked after letting go of her. “You know Mom’s just stressed out, right? She’s got so much going on, Rhett dying, Mrs. Richards dying, us moving here, Brandie, Cori, and JJ living with Dad and Ronnie……she just sometimes goes crazy. Plus, she probably doesn’t want to start stuff with Liesl’s family. You remember how Mom used to get in those random crazy feuds with people because of us? With all that she’s going through now, I don’t think she wants to have another one. And don’t pay Alexia any mind either. She just wants to get a rise out of you because she has nothing better to do with her life.” He stood against the wall and folded his arms. “So who’s calling you a monster? I don’t think you’re one. I know Bekah and Miki don’t. The rest of the family doesn’t. I doubt Brody does. Was it Liesl? Did she say something?”

Kylie quickly shook her head. “No, she didn’t say anything like that. I only met her once. Brody invited to the Christmas pageant thingy. He wanted us to be friends, which I thought was totally insane, but I so would have tried, like you know? Anyways, she said that she’s threatened by me because I’m so ‘damned beautiful’ and doesn’t want to be my friend, which is like even more insane. I’ve been friends with Bekah and Miki like forever and they’re like way prettier than me. Plus, Liesl is like so majorly gorgeous. Why would she be so freaked out by me? She’s like the super special one. I’m lucky Brody can even like remember my name.” She sat back on her bed and covered up her face with her hands, hoping that Jack would leave before she started bursting into tears.

Instead the opposite happened. She felt Jack’s hands on her shoulders, causing her to remove her hands from her face. “Well, she’s right, you know? You are damned beautiful. We do look alike after all.” He chuckled a bit before returning to a more serious tone. “So let me get this straight, and feel free to correct me if I’m wrong……you and Brody went out only once before this Liesl chick randomly showed up, right?”

Kylie nodded her head and opened her mouth to whine about Liesl, but Jack held up a hand and continued talking. “Okay, so Brody decided to risk his friendship with me, his already rocky relationship with his sister, and the wrath of his baby mama’s crazy pregnancy hormones all for a girl that he went on just one date with? Now who’s like the super special one?”

A smile began to form out of the corners of Kylie’s mouth. While Jack had been making sense pretty much the whole time, his words were finally starting to stick. “I-I like never really thought of it that way,” she said, suddenly no longer feeling the urge to cry.

“Of course you didn’t,” Jack continued. “That’s the problem with this family. Yeah, we’ve been screwed over so many times, but there’s nothing wrong with seeing the positive side of things. I mean, has it even crossed your mind that this thing with Brody could actually work out? Did that thought ever occur to you at all?”

Yet again Jack had a point. Sure, Kylie had numerous daydreams about her and Brody being together, but she never really thought of them as reality. Any time they had come remotely close to being reality, Liesl always popped up, whether it was in the flesh or in spirit. Her presence always symbolized that she was the far superior one and that she was far more worthy of Brody’s time than Kylie would ever be. Was that really the truth?

Kylie closed her eyes and entertained yet one of her many daydreams. However, instead of thinking about what it could have been, she thought about what it could presently become. And boy, was it wonderful. Her mood completely uplifted, she rose to her feet and grabbed her purse. “Come on Jack,” she said, breaking out into a huge smile. “I’m gonna go take my super cool, totally favorite big brother out for a majorly huge pepperoni pizza with extra cheese.”

Jack laughed and headed out the door. “I thought Nick was your super cool, totally favorite big brother,” he said. “And since when do you eat like that? You used to always say a minute on the lips equals forever on the hips.”

Kylie followed Jack into the hallway, closing the door behind her. “You know I can have like more than one super cool, totally favorite big brother, right? It’s not like there’s some sort of law against it. Plus Nick owes me ten bucks anyways, so that kind of gets you like major brownie points right now.” She laughed and walked down the stairs. “And yeah, it does take a minute on the lips, but I think I’ll be fine if it stays on my lips for like only thirty seconds. I’ll just have to eat like super fast, that’s all.”

As she kept walking down the stairs, a huge feeling suddenly came over her. For the first time since she’d arrived in Riverside, she felt that everything was going to be alright. It was really a great feeling to have.

It was a feeling that she wanted to last forever.