Finding Lost Loves

I woke up too early the next morning in a bad mood. Great. The sun had barely started to rise and every last one of my sisters was snoring like cows. There's no way I'm going to get back to sleep. I untangled myself from them, getting up so I could get dressed. I got my most torn up pair of classic skinny jeans and a white v-neck shirt and ratty sneakers.

I was trying not to think about what I'd almost said last night, but almost admitting something like that is hard to forget. I can't believe I almost told! I know they love me and all, but if I told them and things got all weird…I don't think I could stand that. I mean, really…what are the chances that all of my family are going to be okay with this? Yeah…my thoughts exactly. It's not like this comes up in conversation.

Ugh…I really put my foot in my mouth this time. I need a smoke. I had to rustle around for a couple of minutes, but I finally found a pack behind a dresser. Now, to sneak downstairs. The trick is not to get caught. My parents would flip out if they knew I left the house this early. I don't even want to think about what they'd do if they found out the reason was to smoke.

The stairs creaked more than they ever had before. I don't know why my stairs hate me. They just do. I do know that Dad was waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs. Shoot! I forgot that Dad had been sleeping on the couch. Of course, he would have heard me. Dad was looking right at the box of cigarettes I so stupidly hadn't even thought to hide. He's going to be so mad. The odd thing was, he didn't look mad. It was more like he was trying not to laugh. "Hand them over. You can be stupid when you're eighteen," Dad laughed, holding out his hand.

"Um…I don't know what you're talking about," I guessed.

"Nice try. Give them here," Dad said, not bothered at all by my terrible attempt at lying.

I sighed, handing them over. "How dead am I?" I groaned.

"I will allow you to live as long as I don't catch you with these again, Dad said, turning the sink on and running the cigarettes under the water to destroy them, before throwing them away. Sheesh. He acts like he can't trust me. It's not like I'd dig them out of the trash.

"All right," I whispered in shock. I thought I would be grounded for the rest of my life. "Why are you awake anyway?"

It was Dad's turn to be embarrassed. "…Um, I…uh, I couldn't sleep and I didn't want to wake you mother…so I came down here," Dad finished, lamely.

"Sure, Dad. Whatever you say," I said, maybe meaner than I needed to be. I wasn't too worried about it though. I'm honestly still kind of mad that Dad won't just break up with Mom and make life easier for all of us…or just me. I'm so selfish. I know I am, but I really don't mean to be. I don't even see why Mallory--uh, never mind. I can't even say it to myself. I guess I'm paranoid. It's not like Linnie really can read minds, like she and Allie insist. If she was, I would have to send her to the nearest freak show.

"It's the truth," Dad exclaimed, indignantly before chuckling. "That sounded really pathetic, didn't it…Just don't worry about it, okay?"

I rolled my eyes. "Sure, Dad. I've got plenty of other things to worry about and you sleeping on the couch isn't topping that list," I said, trying to look like I didn't care, but I really did. I think it showed.

Dad didn't say anything about it though. "Um…don't you have to go to school? It's only Friday, right?"

"Yeah. No one leaves the house at six in the morning, though. School doesn't start for an hour and a half. Way to keep track of time." I looked at Dad in amusement.

"Oh…I knew that," Dad said, awkwardly. "Are your sisters up?"

"Nope. They're all snoring upstairs. Why do I have to be the only person who doesn't sound like a freaking bulldozer when I sleep? Covering my head with a pillow does NOTHING to help the situation," I said, irritated at the thought of being pretty much thrown out of my room because they were all so loud.

Dad snorted. "You used to scream and flail around like you were being killed. When you were little, Katie and you tried to share a bed and you gave her a black eye. She still won't sleep near you and she doesn't even know why. She just has a spidey sense that tells her not to sleep near you," Dad said, chuckling.

"Psht, that's all in the past," I said, dismissively.

After that, everything got extremely quiet. I considered asking Dad about Shay, but it's too risky. What if he doesn't want us to know and tells Aunt Tammy not to say anything about him or her? Katie would kill me, that's what. I swear the girl has made this her life mission.

I finished my breakfast and decided I might as well go hunt up my phone since my sisters still hadn't dragged themselves out of bed yet. I hadn't even seen it in at least two days. It makes Mallory really mad. She says she might have something important to tell me, so I always promise to carry it around, but in a couple of days I forget again. I found my charger in the most remote corner of our house. I don't know what the hell I was thinking when I put it there. I need to leave a treasure map to find it.

Anyway, when I finally found it, do you know how many messages were on it? 143! Yes you are reading this right! At least 75% of them were from Mallory ordering me to pick up my phone, or she would kill me. I skipped over all the older ones to the newest, which she sent five minutes ago. "Pick up your phone for once, a'ight? Can you come to school early? I want to talk to you. ;)"

I texted back. Duh, I wasn't going to miss the chance to use this in a future conversation about how I NEVER answer her texts. "Yeah, if my sisters ever wake up. See you. "

Of course, that started a round of texting, which I fail at since I don't enough to be freakishly fast like Mallory. "U answered! XD Good, since you're all paranoid someone will go through your phone and find something 'incriminating'."

"Easy for you to say. You don't have four sisters. -_-"

"True, home slice. :)"

"Home slice? Why do I even talk to you?"

"'Cause you love me."

"…"

"Don't lie."

"Whatever."

"Tell your sisters to get their lazy asses out of bed. That, or I will come over there and you know what happened last time."

Unfortunately I haven't been able to block out that particular memory. Mallory ran straight into my house and football tackled Dad in a hug. Why, I will never know. She's just a nut like that. "If that isn't motivation I don't know what is. X("

"Hmph."

I shot into my room and turned in a complete circle, trying to figure out the best way to proceed. After a moment, I decided I would just be a nice sister and politely wake them up. "Come on, guys. Time to get up." See? Perfectly nice, right. Guess what happened? They didn't move a muscle.

Time for plan b. Five minutes later, I was back in my room with rope, every alarm clock in the house, glow sticks, shaving cream, razors, and mascara, hot sauce. The coolest part? Dad didn't say anything when I walked by him with these things.

First, I scurried around the room hiding alarm clocks, all set for the exact same time on Radio Disney. Then, I pulled all of my dear, dear sisters into a semi upright position and tied them together. They really sleep that hard. Now for the fun part. I put shaving cream on all of their eyebrows and on all of the razors, so it would feel and look like I'd shaved their eyebrows. Then, the glow sticks. I broke every single one of them, probably forever making out floor glow in the dark, but I really don't care right now, and dumped it all over them, so they all glowed. Last, the hot sauce. I fixed my mascara, so it looked like I'd been crying. Thirty seconds before the alarms were set to go off, I dumped a ton of hot sauce into each of their mouths. I backed away, so I could watch the magic unfold.

It was a beautiful sight. The alarms went off and every single one of my sister bolted up, swearing at me, before realizing they were tied together. They looked at each other and started screaming. "You BITCH! You did NOT shave our eyebrows! I’m going to kill you!" They all screamed, turning to me. "Ow! My mouth is burning! Ow! Ow!

I fit my role perfectly. Crying, I whimpered, "I-I-I didn't know it'd d-d-do that, I s-s-swear. W-why are y-you g-g-glowing? I swear-I just g-gave y--you a l-l-little. I-I j-just wanted t-t-t-to
s-see what w-w-would happen…" I curled up even smaller and cried harder.

"What did you give us?!" Allie looked freaked out.

"Just s-s-some p-p-pills M-M-Mallory g-g-g--gave me. I thought y-you’d l-loosen up about m-m-me smoking, if you t-t-took them, b-but you freaked o-o-out. You were r-r-running around l-l-like crazy…and I though y-you would hurt yourselves so I t-t-tied you down, but y-y-y-you started glowing and y-y-your h-hair was growing l-like crazy and then y-y-you p-p-passed out. I d-d-d-did everything I could to w-wake you, but you w-wouldn't w-w-w-wake up." It was really hard not to pat myself on the back for this one.

"You WHAT?! How could you be that stupid? Call an ambulance?" Linnie yelped, completely freaking out. "What were those pills?"

Katie started crying. "Why'd you give them to us, huh?"

"We're going to die! My mouth is burning!" Allie gasped.

"Emma," Gracie said.

"Y-y-y-yeah," I sobbed.

"You are a bastard," she said, calmly. "Untie me right now."

"I know. You'll think twice before ignoring me again, won't you," I said. "You need to get ready now, instead of wasting time, say, chasing me down and hurting me."

"It'll be faster if you don't run, and just let us hurt you," Allie suggested, like this was an actual possibility. Now that I think about it, I might as well get it over with and not have some mystery substance put in my bed sometime in the future. Plus, I'll be able to get to school--and to Mallory--faster if I just do it.

"Fine." I untied them and, as expected, I was tackled to the ground and had glow stick paint splattered all over my shirt…which actually looked kind of cool. I looked like I'd been to a rave. "Okay. Okay. Hurry it up, now," I said, my voice muffled from the pillow Linnie was trying to smother me with. Yeah, my sisters are really nice, trying to murder their poor, innocent sister.

They stampeded towards the closet, kicking each other out of the way in an attempt to get their clothes first. Gracie won, which is not surprising considering she could knock any one of us out if she wanted to. She never would, but you can never be too sure that she knows her own strength.

They all got dressed in record time and I sprinted downstairs, past Dad to get pop tarts. "Dad, we're ready. Let's go. They can eat in the car!" I yelled over the thunder of my sister's footsteps coming down the stairs.

Dad looked at me kind of weird. "Is there any reason you actually WANT to go to school? I'm not going to get a call from the principal, am I? You better not light anything…or anyone on fire?" He looked on the verge of checking my backpack for lighters. Thankfully, he decided not to--not that I had anything in there. I just like to know that I'm trusted-- and we FINALLY went out to the car, with me trying to hurry everyone on their way.

Not too long later, we pulled up at the school. I checked my phone, which I'd actually remembered to bring this time.

Whew! It's not quite 7:00 yet, so I'm still technically early. Me and Mallory still have half an hour before school, never mind that she called almost an hour ago…Oh, forget it. I'm so dead.
I jumped out of the car, quickly. I didn't want them to start asking questions. Sometimes, I let them hang out with me and Mallory, especially since Mallory's obsession is getting them to like her, but it would be really awkward if they were here for this.

I knew exactly where to go to find her. Behind the school, there's a trail in the forest. Mallory and I always go back there to smoke, since it's out of school grounds. Otherwise, Mallory will get sent to detention for about the millionth time, and frankly she's got better things to do.

"Hey," I murmured, sitting next to her.

Mallory grinned, stomping her cigarette out. "Is there anyone else around?" she asked, fluttering her eyelashes at me, flirtingly.

"No. I don't think so," I whispered, staring at her like a complete freak.

This only amused Mallory. "You never make the first move, Closet Case."I chuckled, leaning in and kissing her. "Or not. You just like to prove me wrong."

I raised an eyebrow. "Are you complaining?" I asked.

"Nope," she chirped, laying her head across my stomach. She sighed. "One of these days…I'm just going to jump up on a table and tell everyone about us…Then, everyone--including our families-- will be okay with it and we'll all dance."

"Like in High School Musical?"

"When did a lesbian couple come out in that movie?"

"Never, but it would have made that movie ten times cooler."

"…Or cool at all." Mallory suggested.

"Good point," I admitted, playing with her silky, long hair.

Mallory hummed, and leaned into my fingers. "That feels good. Keep going," she murmured.

"I'd love to, babe. We really need to go to school now though. If we don't, you know Meadows will send me to the office-"

"AGAIN."

I sent Mallory an amused look, before ignoring her interruption. "Dad already warned me about getting sent to the office…Plus, he found out about the cigarettes, so I'd better not push it," I added.

"Did he freak about it?" Mallory asked. She made no move to get up.

"No. It was all right, actually. I think he's sleep deprived. Him and Mom have been fighting a lot, and Katie's got us all acting like we should be riding around in the Mystery Machine," I said, quietly. I didn't really want to talk about what was going on, more than I already had.
I was glad that she didn't push it, but I really wasn't surprised. Mallory's pretty good at guessing what I'm thinking most of the time. This was one of those times. "Come on, Scooby," Mallory giggled…and she wasn't the only one.

The bushes were laughing! I darted towards them, planning to threaten the lives of whoever had seen us until they were a cowering mess who didn't know what they had seen. The bushes exploded about twenty feet away as four people, who because of the shadows, I couldn't see who they were. I had a pretty good idea though.

"…I guess you don't have to worry about coming out."