Song of the chapter: Lush Life by Zara Larson ft. Tinie Tempah.

There was a smirk on Natasha's lips as she stared me down as if she knew that I'd just discovered she was Kylie's sister. I saw her lean into Jamie to whisper something and then, she laughed.

Jamie didn't laugh at first . He only had a little frown on his face before he gave a little smirk. Was it directed at me or was it because of whatever she'd said to him?

Nico took my hands at the same time Kyle hurriedly typed something on his phone before waving madly at me, a huge grin on his face. The last time I'd seen him, I'd acted like a snob. Even though there wasn't a chance for me to apologise to him, I had to be nice to him, regardless of what I'd just discovered. The same sibling I'd tried to avoid meeting was the one who stood right before me.

Before I waved back though, a small thought flickered across my mind. Perhaps he was pretending to be nice. His sister was so horrible and it was possible that he took her side at all times. But looking again, his smiled seemed so genuine and I didn't know what to think so, I decided to go with the flow. If he happened to be just as mean as his sister, I was gonna 'switch to a bitch' in an instant. Well, that rhymed.

I smiled to myself and gave a small wave as I approached the trio- more like duo because I wasn't concerned about the last one even if she could probably be my stepsister soon. Only thinking about that word brought a sour taste in my throat.

Natasha paused for a second as she saw the exchange between her brother and I. He looked kind of like a cute puppy as he shyly reached for a quick hug. That caught me off guard and I couldn't help but wonder if Natasha had told him I was the daughter of the man his mother was seeing. He probably doesn't even care. I thought.

"Hey Annabelle." He greeted as I cringed at the use of my real name.

He noticed this but when he looked like he was about to apologise, I spoke.

"Hey Kyle. It's okay." I shot him a mega-watt smile. He ran his hand through his dark hair and turned to Nico when Jamie cleared his throat.

"Hey buddy." I heard Kyle speak to the little boy as Jamie took in my appearance. I was wearing only sweats and jeans and there was nothing to feel so insecure about yet, my ears suddenly felt hot.

"I got it." I told him awkwardly, only both of us understanding why I said that. I was referring to the clothes I wore and what the heck did that mean? Anyone with eyes would know I got it. He only smirked at me.

If negative energy was a smoke, everywhere would've been pitch black and we'd all be gasping for breath at loss of oxygen now. Yeah, I was referring to Natasha's negative energy.

"Annabelle, fancy meeting you again." She spoke, clutching onto Jamie's left arm. Kyle looked up immediately, gesturing between the two of us. Apparently, he didn't see the need to introduce her when I met them outside. I wasn't complaining either.

"You've met?" He lookede surprised and I debated whether to tell him my experience with officially meeting her.

"Yeah, we even had dinner together." She spoke up, a slight smirk on her face. Honestly, it was either Jamie who learnt from her or she from him. Smirking was like their favourite expression.

"You're friends?" Kyle sounded shocked.

"Hardly." His sister snickered.

"Seeing how serious mom is being about her new love interest, seems like we'll be stuck with her and her abusive father." Natasha pointed at me and my lips began to quiver in an attempt to keep a rein on my anger.

There were two things I got from her statement. The first one giving me the assurance that Miranda liked dad as much as he did her and the second was quite obvious. She'd accused my dad again of being abusive and the reason for mom's disappearance.

I could swear I saw Jamie shoot her a disapproving look and Kyle wideed his eyes in surprise-that had to be his most used emotion today-before looking apologetic on his sister's behalf.

"Tasha" He warned in a low voice.

"Would you look at that? We've known each other for a while now." He smiled at me, surprise still written over his face and I smiled back at him despite the fact that his sister's comment was still nagging at me. If I had stood close to her, I'd have smacked her across the face.

"Do you like ice-cream, coffee...? We should meet up."

I suddenly remembered that Nico was beside me when he spoke.

"I have an idea." We all looked at him like he had somethging life-changing to say.

"Let's all go to the park."

Jamie shot him a disapproving look. "Tomorrow's the start of another school week. You shouldn't do anything exhausting."

When Nico wanted to disagree, he added. "The park is one of those things."

"It's spring break starting tomorrow for the whole week and the next." Nico stuck out his tongue at his brother making Kyle lugh and give him a high five.

"Just because you don't go to school anymore doesn't mean you can suck the fun out of others' week because of ignorance." Kyle scolded Jamie and ganced at me. "Isn't that right, Annie?"

I'd been silent this whole time and Kyle and Nico looked at me expectantly and was what I saw a hint of the same expression on Jamie's face?

"Annie, come on, let's go to the park." Nico nudged my arm. "My friends are always at the park at this time."

I sighed in surrender. I'd come out here, I might as well tag along. I heard Natasha snort then, making me rethink my decision and a word of declination was already formed on my lips when Nico added.

"If you don't come with us, I'm gonna start calling you Annabelle."

My face broke into a grin as I recalled the first time he'd threatened me. He'd looked very serious then compared to now.

"Who am I to say no to this cute little boy?" I piched his lips in a way kids of his age hated but he smiled instead. Kyle laughed and Jamie was actually smiling too.

I didn't bother to look at Natasha to confirm that she was not smiling. The fact that I'd kept quiet didn't make me a weak person. It was either her notion about dad changed or she kept it to herself if she didn't want any trouble.

We were at a five minute walk from the park and while Nico ran ahead, Kyle quickly fell into step with me and Natasha walked with Jamie, a good two feet behind us.

The first thing I noticed was her clinginess and I couldn't help but wonder if they were an item. Maybe sometime last week, I could've said that it wouldn't surprise me but after the conversation we had in the car, it was obvious they weren't the same kind of people. But wasn't that the same way I thought of Jamie before we got at least a little bit closer that we were sure we wouldn't hit each other at any conversation we had? Natasha deserved that chance too.

As if Kyle knew what I was thinking, he spoke up.

"I'm sorry about my sister's behavior towards you. There's no excuse for being mean to someone, especially one you've barely known." He sighed and then, chuckled.

"At least not until they act like an ass."

I smiled and he continued. "It doesn't matter what's going on with you. You're the only one that knows what your problem is so if you can't pour your heart out to someone, you have no right to be mean to them because they don't even know what's going on."

I felt guilty that he was the one telling me this because no matter how insignificant my actions were, I'd acted the same way towards him.

He opened his mouth like he was about to say something and then shut it again. He did this again and I chuckled. This made him speak.

"Dad used to be very abusive towards my mum. According to him, he loved his children so much but he didn't love his wife. Everything she did was always wrong in his eyes but how did he expect us to love him as much when he treated someone we loved more in such manner?" He scoffed.

"At some point, he even blamed her for making his children hate him and that's where everything became worse."

"After a lot of battle on mom's side, with the help of lawyers and activists, she finally gained custody and we moved away from him."

He gave a half smile at the sad expression on my face.

"Now, that's not why I said my sob story." He pointed at my face.

"Tasha has been scared ever since mom started dating again. She thinks every man mom meets is just like dad."

"That should be the reason she called dad 'abusive'." I nodded in understanding.

"Which she shouldn't have said." Her brother frowned.

"You know, if you're going to be sisters, you're going to have a lot of work to do concerning her." He joked.

"Mom has had her share of work for many years. She loves someone now and we should be happy about it." He concluded as Nico ran up to him, pulling him along to help him cast a spell on the birds (whatever that was.) I fought the urge to look back at Natasha and Jamie as I silently pondered on what Kyle had just told me.

He'd indirectly pleaded on his sister's behalf but at the same time, making me know that I wasn't forced to do it because she was at fault no matter what her excuses were. One question kept bugging me however.

Was she being mean to me because she didn't approve of my dad's relationship with her mom? If so, could it mean that she was nice to other people? It was one thing to try to fix your relationship with someone because of misunderstandings between you. It was another thing if the person's natural behavior was being mean.

Nico had finally met with his friends and I stood behind Kyle as he fished his pockets for some money. He hurried up to the five kids, including Nico and waved at them before turning around to purchase ice cream from a truck.

"Thank you." A brown haired girl said to Kyle as he handed her a cone like he'd done to the other four, including Nico.

She eyed me curiously and her blue eyes sparkled as she spoke to Kyle. It seemed like the kids were all familiar with him and vice versa.

"Is she your girlfriend?"

Kyle grinned at the girl who'd just spoken and put his hands around my shoulders good-naturedly.

"Why, Carrie, do you think we look good together?" He asked her and the others looked at him curiously but before he spoke, Nico beat him to it.

"No, she's Jamie's girlfriend." He frowned, making me choke on my own spit.

"Who's my girlfriend?" Jamie suddenly appeared behind us, resting his right hand on left Kyle's shoulder.

"Who wants to watch Kyle soar high from the swing?" I asked a question as quick as possible to stop the flow of awkward conversation.

Jamie chuckled and shoved Kyle as a frown etched up the latter's features. This had to be the first time I'd seen a frown on his face. He pouted but it looked adorable as he spoke.

"Why do I have to be the pawn in your risky games?" Obviously, this wasn't the first time someone had suggested something like that.

The kids had begun to pull at the hem of his shirt as he groaned.

"You look like the gullible one who'd agree to do anything as long as it's going to be entertaining to others." I laughed.

I pointed to Jamie. "You should learn from him. It's a great attribute."

His eyes glanced to mine for a second before a smirk found its way to his face.

"Trust me, I have greater attributes."

Kyle only stuck his tongue out at us childishly as the kids successfully got him to move to the swing set.

I now stood next to Jamie awkwardly and I shoved my hands into the pockets of my hoodie, glancing about, trying to look anywhere but his face. I noticed now that Natasha was nowhere around.

"Where did she go?" I wondered in a barely audible voice.

"She had to meet up with someone at the mall. She'll be back when we're about to leave here, though. Why? Miss her?"

I couldn't keep myself from scoffing. "Yeah, right. If I'm being true to her stupid words about my father being abusive, I'd have shoved her face right into the dirt." Well, forgiving wasn't so easy. There had to be time involved in the process.

"Look who's being aggressive. It's Tinkerbelle." He said in a monotone voice and chuckled. I smiled the tiniest of smiles at the mention of the nickname he used.

"I see that we're down to nicknames now." I spoke, changing the subject as we began to walk forward.

"The nickname wasn't borne out of you being sweet." He scrunched up his nose which made him look so cute that I had to look away in order not to be caught staring stupidly.

Catching sight of Kyle and the kids, I noticed that they'd moved away from the swings and were now forcing him to go down the slide. I grimaced at his current dilemma.

"Don't you think we should go rescue Kyle?"

"I have half a mind to leave him at the mercy of those kids as one of the many paybacks I owe him for the horrible pranks he plays on me.

I cocked my head to the side at his response. "Kyle is the prankster among you two? I should learn from him."

"But my paybacks are better." He pouted. What was up with him and his cute expressions today?

"And besides, I'm a better teacher." He smirked playfully. Before I could give a response, he spoke to the kids surrounding Kyle.

"Who wants to play Lazer tag in the park?" They all yelled in excitement and he gave me a wink.

"Loser has to teach whatever the winner wants to learn."

A/N: Hey guys. I apologize for being so late with this chapter's update. I hadn't completed the typing since a month ago. I shouldn't feel so terrible because I'd said this beforehand(in my author's note, last chapter.) but...I feel terrible for being so late.

How are you all doing? I've been so busy, even during my holiday visit but nonetheless, it was fun.

What did you think about this chapter? And do you think Kyle and Natasha's mom did the right thing by moving away from their dad?

The next chapter is filled with funny conversation, I lmao-ed a lot while writing and re-reading it. Don't worry, the twenty-forth chapter will come sooner than you expect.

Lots of love from your friend,

Hanie. (hugs and kisses.)