New Step Brother, New Family, New Life? Thanks for Nothing, Dad

From that morning, when I first saw Psycho outside my window, he hasn't left my mind. It seems that everywhere I turn, Psycho is there. Stalking me, watching me. Maybe, I'm just now feeling the mental breakdown of shock.

Or maybe not.

Whatever it happens to be, I know something is wrong. After all, it's only been two days. And if I have really been worrying about this in such a short time, does that mean it's really all just in my head?

It was confusing, and with only five days left before the wedding, everyone had a lot on their minds. I didn't want to vent and worry them more.

So, I was sitting in my room, sucking on a mango Tootsie pop and playing my guitar when, out of nowhere, Tyler fell backwards on to my bed. I jumped, nearly choking to death on my sucker. Taking one final bite, I threw the white lollipop stick in the trash and turned to Tyler accusingly.

"What the hell? You nearly killed me just now," I scolded, angry with the smirk that appeared on his face.

"Sorry, but it's just soooo boring!" he complained in a whiny tone, dragging the 'o' longer than needed. I sighed and sat my guitar in its stand.

"Well, what do you want to do?" I asked, watching as he sat up, legs criss-crossed to face me.

"Hang out with you," was his simple reply. I don't know why, but that made me blush. So I stood from my bed and walked over to my desk, playing with a few papers to hide my red face.

"Ok," I spoke slowly, "How about we... I don't know..." I thought. An idea popped into my head and I turned to him, smirking. "How about we have a little competition?"

"What?" Tyler asked, obviously confused. I could only laugh and reply with a simple:

"You'll see."

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Later that day

Tyler and I spent the whole morning creating my vision. By the end, it was absolutely amazing. When Ethan, Smokey and Josie got home, dragging along Kris, Alex and Trent, I was waiting for them.

I herded everyone into the family room, ready to announce the big event that would be taking place this afternoon. But, of course, Ethan had to go and be his big annoying self about it.

"What are you doing? I wanted to go play videogames! I don't wanna play your stupid game! Let's do something more interesting! McCartney, stop being so annoying. Why--" Ethan rambled in a whiny voice until I cut him off.

"We are have a Boys versus Girls competition, a Battle of the Sexes if you will. And you WILL be participating. There are four events which I have so cleverly named: Bucket Race, Balance Beams, Climber and Noodle Battle. We will do the first two today, and the last tomorrow."

Everyone stared at me like I was crazy, but I didn't really care. "So who goes first then?" Josie asked, glancing around the group.

I replied, "Well, we as times need to decide that. The first game, Bucket Race, is where the player saddles a horse, grabs a bucket, and rides into the pasture. They must ride to the far creek, get a bucketful of water, and ride back as fast as possible. The person with the most water in the least amount of time at the end wins."

Everyone nodded, and then split into teams to pick their player. "I think we should play McCartney. She's the best rider," Alexandra said, meeting me eye. Everyone nodded in silent agreement. We turned back to the guys, who had chosen Trent as their ride.

"It's on, buddy," I said, fist-pounding Trent.

Once in the barn, I took my Dalila from her stable and slid on her bridle. Trent did the same with Prince, no doubt his favorite horse of the bunch.

"On your marks," Josie shouted, smiling at me and Trent, "Get set! Go!" With that, we both raced into the tack room.

I had saddled my horse first, but Trent wasn't that far behind. So, to get some lead, I jumped on to Dalila and raced out of the barn, holding my reins in one hand in the bucket in the other.

I had to admit, being on that horse so early after my injury rattled my bones and hurt, but I was to proud to lose. I knew that I would be sore later, but that's what Icy Hot was invented for, right?

The creek was about 3/4 of the way to the far boundary of our land. With Dalila's fast canter, it didn't take long to reach it. Within minutes I had a jumped from Dalila and filled my bucket with water. Trent was at my side in minutes.

"I'm so going to win," he said, smirking at me. I rolled my eyes and jumped up, sliding into my saddle and racing away.

In the end, I had returned to the barn first, but only by seconds. We sat our buckets on the ground, our clothes wet from the sloshing water and measured. Josie stood and turned to me with a smile.

"The girls win!" I jumped up, punching the air with a loud "Yes!" Both Trent and I were panting after that long ride.

"Way to go, Mick," Trent said with a smile, hugging me. I laughed and nodded my thanks. The sun was slowly sinking, so we had to hurry to the next event. I led the group to an isolated part of the pasture where Tyler and I had built an obstacle course of wooden beams sticking up from the ground.

"Ok, this is how Balance Beams work. Each player has their own starting/ending point. They must start on the beam with the ladder labeled by their gender. From there, the played can use any of the other wooden piece to cross over to the other side, grab their specific flag, boys are blue and girls are pink, and bring it back. If at any time the player touches the ground, they must go back to the beginning and start all over," I explained.

"What if you have the flag and you touch the ground?" Kris asked.

"Then you place it on the beam you fell from and start over," answered Tyler with a nod. The guys huddled up and so did the girls.

"Ok, either Josie or Alex," Smokey said quietly. I nodded.

"Yeah, Josie should. She probably has the best balance and tactical type skills out of all of us. No offense, guys, but Smokey and Alex, you would probably act impatiently and try to move too quickly," I said, shrugging. Smokey and Alexandra nodded, so our chosen person was Josie.

"We choose Ethan!" Trent shouted enthusiastically, throwing his hands up in the air.

"Yeah, and I'm so totally going to win this one!" Ethan added, smirking and crossing his arms over his chest. I noticed Smokey roll her eyes and kiss his cheek.

"Sure you will, love," answered Smokey, causing Ethan to 'humph' like a child. Everyone laughed, and it was then that I realized we all needed this little big of fun. Everyone has been so stressed with the wedding, my attack and worrying about me that there wasn't any humor or fun in the house. I noticed the smiles on everyone's face, and it made me happy.

Josie and Ethan climbed their designated ladders, studying and planning in their heads the paths they would follow.

"Let the game begin!"

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Josie's POV

I stared hesitantly at the wooden beams jutting from the ground. I knew they were stable, but it would be hard to navigate them without falling. So when McCartney shouted to begin, I stayed still.

"Josie? What are you doing?" Smokey shouted. It was then that I noticed that Ethan was already a fourth of the way there. I sighed and carefully stepped onto the tallest post. From their, I carefully and slowly jumped down onto a lower horizontal piece of wood.

"Ethan! Be more careful!" I heard the guys shout. I guess I hadn't noticed that Ethan had fallen almost four times already. I continued to move slowly until, finally I reached my flag.

But so had Ethan.

I grabbed the pink flag and stuffed it in the front pocket of my jeans. I had already memorized the course back. It was easy. Short post, jump to tall, side-step left for another, step down onto a shorter post and to the ladder.

Let's just say the girls win again.