Who We Are

"Katerina," Emily begged, tugging on the sleeve of my jacket, "Can we please go to my house today?" Her eyes were wide as she tried to "puppy dog" pout.

I rolled my eyes at her. "Fine. We can go to your house tonight. I'm serious though, we're going to be spending more time at my house." I stood up from the steps outside the school as Dean came walking out with Gwen next to him.

"I'm ready," he said, offering a smile, "Lets go."

I shook my head and wiped the dirt off my clothes, "Change of plans. We're going to Emily's."

Dean made a snarky comment about me caving in quickly and I smacked his arm as Gwen reminded me that Dad would be too tired to pick me up after work. "How are you doing to get home?" she asked as she pushed her blonde curls out of her eyes.

"I'm sure Colette can give me a ride home, right Em?" I turned to Emily who was already talking away on her cell phone to the nanny she'd had since she was a child.

"Yeah Colette, we need you to pick us up from school. Oh, and you can give Kat a ride home later, right?" she added on, giving me a thumbs up when Colette said yes. I smiled and shrugged at Gwen.

"Do you want me to walk you home? Em can pick me up from the house."

Dean laughed loudly as Emily shook her head frantically. I ignored her, figuring that it wouldn't kill her to drive a couple block and pick me up. Gwen shrugged as an answer but I grabbed her arm and starting leading her home anyways. It took us a few minutes but soon enough we were knocking on the door and smiling at our sisters as Gianna pulled the heavy door open and locked it behind us.

"Daddy called," Octavia told me as I slipped out of my shoes, "He's not going to be home until late."

Gwendolyn rolled her eyes. "That's surprising," she said under her breath, causing me to pinch her arm before she could say anything else and upset the little ones.

I tossed my backpack onto the floor by the door and took the stairs two at a time. When I was in my room I made my bed quickly since I forgot to earlier and then I grabbed a piece of paper from under the nightstand and wrote down Emily's home number and her cell phone. I jumped down the stairs and put it on the fridge with a magnet.

"Numbers are on the fridge," I told my sisters as I wandered back into the living room and threw myself down onto the crowded couch next to them. Gwen and Lissy were sitting on the floor leaning against the couch while Octavia, Gianna, and I were taking up the spots on the cushions, our eyes focused on the little t.v. that sat on the entertainment center.

We didn't have cable but we had a lot of movies. Hundreds maybe. The entertainment center was brown and the middle section was a shelf for the television. On either side there were glass cases were you push it in and it pops open at you. There were four shelves in each case and each one held two rows of movies.

Someone, most likely Octavia, had stuck the Notebook DVD into the DVD player. The beginning was playing on the screen. The part where Ryan Gosling jumps and hangs from one of the spokes of the ferris wheel so that he can ask the girl out. When he started to lose his grip we all covered our faces although we already knew what would happen.

Before he got his answer a honk sounded from the driveway and I hopped up, kissing the youngest girls on the head. I told them to call me if they needed anything. Then I slipped out of the door, locking it behind me as I went.

I climbed into Colette's red minivan and greeted her warmly. "Thank you for picking me up. I didn't feel right letting Gwendolyn walk home alone."

"It's no problem, darling. You're a good sister," she replied sweetly as she started the van and backed out of the cracked driveway. I noticed as we were driving off that the Radke boys weren't home. I figured that they'd run off to a friend's house until they could figure out a way for their Dad to let them back into the house. I sighed and realized that over the years this had happened quite a bit. I felt bad for them, of course, but I knew that this was merely routine for them. Well, besides the whole sleeping over at our house part of it.

Dad never let any boys stay over, no matter the circumstances. Maybe he let them stay because it was getting late and they had no where else to go or maybe he let them stay because he simply felt bad for them and being a cop, he didn't want to endanger anyone else by letting Ronnie Radke roam the streets at night.

He had broken up their family fights before, yes. He'd barged over there and warned Mr. Radke that he better get his act together but Dad had never, ever, let anyone sleep on our floor before. Especially when he wasn't home. I was confused and wanted to ask him. I decided it'd have to wait for later. That was, if I still cared about it later on.

The ride to Emily's house was about 15 minutes. We pulled up to the large gate of her house and Colette typed in the numbers. Like that, the iron gate slid open, allowing us access to the property. Emily grinned when she saw both of her parents' cars parked in their wrap around driveway.

We all got out of the van and Emily led Dean and I through her house and up to her room. I had been here too many times to count since we became friends and I'd still never know how to get to her room from every direction. There seemed like there was an entrance to her house on every wall of the first floor and that there were also a million staircases that could lead to Em's room. So I just blindly followed her, not even bothering to try and figure out the path.

We entered her room and Dean and I ran over and threw ourselves onto her huge bed. "Movie marathon!" Dead shouted happily. I grinned and let myself lay in Emily's bed as she went to her closet and changed into her "more comfortable" clothes.

"Okay," she said, "Let's go." Then she led us down to the basement which also doubled as the home theatre and two lane bowling alley. Dean made popcorn as I picked out a movie and sipped on my blue raspberry slushy that my best friend had so kindly made for me.

"I got it!" I shouted as I walked to the other side of the large room. Dean and Em were standing near the concession stand chatting away as I walked over. "We're watching The Lion King!"