Finding Lost Loves

"Linnie, this is stupid." Allie was standing, well squatting, next to me in one of the two big trees.

"No, it's not. Just don't drop the net," I replied, patiently.

"I know, I know. Emma and Gracie would kill me if I did." I didn't answer, since she was right. Emma and Gracie are way too into this sort of thing. "Why does Tammy even own a giant net? At what point in her life did she think You know what I need? A giant net. She's crazy," Allie said, shaking her head in disappointment.

"I try not to wonder what goes on in Tammy's head. It makes me life easier," I answered, almost falling out of the tree since Allie did just what I told her not to do and let go of the net to fix her hair. I swear I'm going to kill her one of these days.

Everything was quiet for a couple of minutes, which I should have known was not good. I heard a quiet scuffling noise and Allie made a muffled squeaking sound. I sighed, before turning around to see if Allie had fallen out of the tree and killed herself.

Someone leaped at me and covered my mouth. I yelped, before realizing who it was.

"Now what would that net be for?"

Allie and I shrugged, innocently.

"Well, I think I know. Since your prank is ruined, do you want to get your sisters and Tammy instead? That is, if you promise not to scream?" Shay asked pleasantly, his hands still over both of our mouths.

We nodded.

"Good," Shay smiled, removing his hands from our faces. "What exactly were you planning to do to me?"

Allie took over explaining. "We were going to drop this big, awkward net thing on you and then call for everyone else and we'd get water balloons from behind those bushes and drench you with them."

Shay glared at us, playfully. "That wouldn't have been very nice. What did I ever do to you? But anyway, get them to come out here please," Shay said. I think he rubbed off on Gracie and Emma when they were babies, because he was just as thrilled about this recipe for disaster as they were.

Allie and I smirked at each other. It's way more fun to mess with our sisters than Shay anyway. "Tammy! Gracie! Katie! Emma! We dropped the net! Can you come out here for a minute and hand it to us?"

A second later we heard the front door open and then slam shut a moment later, followed by the sight of the four girls. "Damn it! Can't you two even hold a net?" Gracie complained, making me even more thrilled about what we were about to do.

"Where's the net?" Tammy asked.

"Just a few feet in front of you. Under the tree," I called down to them.

"Duh," Allie added, quietly.

" I don't- Argh!" Katie screamed as the net dropped on top of them.

Shay, Allie, and I scurried down the tree and grabbed the bags of water balloons and began absolutely pelting my sisters and Tammy with them.

"Argh! This is not fun! Stop it! You win!" they screamed.

We were all clearly thinking the same thing: no chance. Once we'd finally run out of balloons, we set the soaked, unhappy group free.

"Tammy you should know by now not to mess with me," Shay snorted, doubling up from laughter.

Tammy glared. "That's not funny. You want a hug?" she asked, holding out her sopping wet arms at him.

"No thanks," he laughed, waving her away from him.

"Hmph. Well, let's go inside. I'm cold and disappointed," Gracie said, but we could tell she didn't mind because of her smirk. We all went inside and the four of them walked past Allie, Shay, and I to get towels and change clothes.

They all came back a couple of minutes later with new clothes and looking a little bit friendlier.

"Um, hey," Shay said, still looking extremely proud of himself even though he had stopped laughing. "You can't blame Allie and Linnie for this. They were held captive," he said.

"How do you know which of us is which? We didn't introduce ourselves," Gracie wondered out loud.

Shay blushed. "I just remember is all. You basically act the same as you did when you when I last saw you…no offense," he muttered.

"We're not offended. We've always known we act like two year olds," Allie said, which is as true as it is sad. "We're really not mature. At all."

Shay clearly didn't know how to answer that.

"How old are you?" Emma asked, randomly. "You seem young to me."

Shay looked at Emma, confused. "I'm twenty-eight. Why?"

"Just wondering…Have you talked to Dad since, you know?"

"I feel like I'm interviewing for a job," Shay joked. "N-no…no, I haven't. We said we'd get back together as soon as you were adults. We didn't want your mother to take you. You were too young to remember what is was like then. The judge obviously liked your mother and no one would have disagreed because a lot of people thought the mother should get custody. We had to choose to stay together while you were put through hell, or for them to marry and he gets to keep you. It was easy really. I still don't even know why I'm here. It's not going to do any good for your mom to take you now. Whatever you are planning, it won't work. "

"Yes, it will. It's practically foolproof," Katie argued and went into our whole plan about how we were going to get Dad away from Mom.

At the end, Shay just sat there, trying to process everything we'd said. "That won't work," he sighed finally.

"What?!" Katie squeaked.

"It'd make her only want you more. She'd probably send you to some brain washing camp to make Emma straight and the rest of you hate her if she wasn't. She didn't let Taylor go, and she definitely won't let five people connected to her by blood go," he said, sadly. "It wouldn't be enough to disown you. She has to ruin your lives."

"Wouldn't we just have to say that we don't want to live with her?" Gracie asked. "Don't we get some say in it?"

"You'd get to say who you wanted to live with most of the time, but you versus her isn't going to give your dad sole custody. She'd probably have you on the weekends, or something like that," Shay said, and we could tell he'd thought of all of this before.

"What if we could record her and prove what she's doing? No one would let us stay with a bad mouthed drunk, who can't even take care of herself, much less us, would they?" Emma asked. "I don't want to be anywhere around her, but I can deal with her for a few more weeks if it means we never have to be around her again."

"Yeah, because Mom totally wouldn't care if we just started wandering around with a video recorder. That wouldn't be suspicious at all," I pointed out. Jeez, when did I become the one who thought of these things.

We could record what she says with a tape recorder, plus my phone can record things. It'd just look like we were texting," Emma said in a "duh" voice. "It's really simple…even for you," she added, just to be mean.

"Hmph, you're just jealous of my superior intelligence," I told her. It's true. She only wished she could be as smart as me. You know it and I do too. The only person who doesn't know I'm smart is Emma. She's in denial. It's sad really.

Tammy rolled her eyes at both of us. "Let's get back on track, okay? Really, you're all like squirrels…and be nice," she added to Emma.

"I'm always nice," Emma said, innocently. "I can't help that Linnie's-"

"Before you say anything, remember we're all here and will hear you if you're mean, grumpy pants," Allie said, cheerfully.

Emma didn't even answer since she seemed to amused by Allie's comment.

"Whatever, Gracie said. "We've got a plan now, but how do we talk to Dad. Do you think we could talk to Dad tomorrow when he comes to pick us up? It'd probably be helpful if you were here to help convince-Wait. Do you have some other people coming here today?"

"No, why?" Tammy asked.

"Because I can hear a car coming up here," Gracie said, running to the window with the rest of us hot on her heels.

"Oh, shit!" Emma swore loudly, and for once none of us bothered to correct her. We were all thinking the same thing.

"What?" Tammy and Shay asked, together following us to the window.

"No," we squeaked, shoving Shay away from the window. "They can't see you!" As we shoved Shay away from the door, we knew Mom and Dad were getting out of the car. Why could they possibly be here? What do they know?