Shining Through the Shadow of a Star

"Alright, when do you need me there?" I heard my sister ask into her phone. I was heading towards the kitchen to get me a RedBull when I passed her room and heard her talk. I'm not the type to usualy listen on other people's conversations but I didn’t know she was on the phone; I wanted to make sure she wasn’t going all psycho.

I shrugged it off and started walking my way to the staircase. It must've been her manager who has found her a new song to record or a company who wanted her to help them sell some new product. I was used to that now. I've always lived in my sister's shadow and I have never complained about it; it's not her fault that God blessed her with a talent whilst he decided that I don't need one. It has been like this ever since she won American Idol almost five years ago. You've guessed it right; I'm Jordin Sparks' sister.

I went down the staircase, straight to the kitchen, grabbed my RedBull and went back up not bothering to check if she's done with her phone call or not. It didn’t take me long to find out though. The minute I had closed my door and placed the can to my lips, there was a knock on my door. I decided to ignore it; I wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone. Today is the day that my grandfather passed away, five years ago. He was my favorite person. He was kind, caring and understanding. I sometimes wonder if they care about me as much as he did.

Jordin's voice brought me from my thoughts and I noticed the warm liquid running down my cheeks, to my neck. "Sister, is everything okay?" she sounded concerned.

"And why wouldn’t it be?" I threw back at her. I could be really harsh sometimes without noticing it.

"Well as a start, you haven't got out of your room much since this morning when we were all having breakfast and also, I've been standing here for a good five minutes, knocking and calling your name but you didn’t give me any response. Anyways, right now is not the time but you can come talk to me whenever you want to. Mom told me to tell you that dinner is ready, sugar."

I stood up and went to open the door for her. I didn’t need to unlock it seeing as it wasn’t locked. I don’t need to use the lock in this house; my family is well aware of when to give people their full privacy. She had a smile on her face and I couldn’t help but smile back. What was wrong with me? I should really stop being a bitch to the people who love me because they might get sick of it and give up on me.

She had of course seen the tears on my face but didn’t make a big deal of it; everyone was crying today and they expected me to be crying the most. "Sugar? Come here." She opened her arms for me to settle in them and then closed them tightly around me, not letting even one atome of air from around us go to waste; as if she was showing me that she's here for me, that I still have someone to make things better. She didn’t have to choke me though, but I guess that’s the Jordin we all love.

I pulled away, gasping. The hug didn't do any harm, though. "I miss him…"

"I don't blame you. We all do." I saw a tear roll down her face. And to think that he had been in her life the longest, seeing as she's the oldest of my siblings. That's right, it wasn’t just Jordin and I; there also was our brother Phillippi. He was named after dad. Even though he was one year older than me and two years younger than Jordin, he always acted like our protector. I was very grateful of him, of them both actualy. "Now," she started, "I demand you, Captain Sparks the mighty master of coolness, -if that even makes sense- to work your muscles a bit and come down before we both miss our share of dinner. You know how fast Phil eats." She grinned. I nodded and hugged her once more.

I skipped down the stairs, making a self-note inside my head about how I should lessen the amount of RedBull I drink at night. She told me she would follow me in a minute; she just needed to get her cell-phone in case her manager decided to call. She also told me that she had something important to tell us and I thought that it might have to be with the call she received earlier. She would wait until after dinner to tell us; one of the rules we had is that we shouldn’t talk whilst having dinner, unless it was important. Halfway through the meal, her phone rang again. She excused herself from the table to answer it.

When she had returned, she decided it was now the time to tell us what she had. Or at least Phil thought it was. "Who was that?" his protective side was starting to show.

She opened her mouth to talk but it was my mom's turn to cut her off now. "Her manager obviously."

"Actualy, that was Joe Jonas from the Jonas Brothers, you know, the guys I went on a world tour with two years ago. They want me to go back with them and he said that he was the one to call since our managers were too busy to talk." Jordin said in one breath. I could see she was excited.

"But didn’t they split up? I thought they all work separately now." Phil, Phil.. Would he shut up? "I don’t think you should go. Something's fishy."

"We'll discuss that later." My mom said.

I went to wash my hands but heard my cell ring. I looked at the caller ID; it flashed 'Vengeance'. Worry was eating me inside out. I flipped the phone open. "Claire," he started…