~Dedicated to extending families~

Chapter Nine-"Are you going to be my sister now?"

Jeffery Andrews was my mother’s boyfriend. She shocked me by the fact that she actually wanted me to meet him and on top of that, she wanted me to meet his kid. Firstly, I really wasn’t expecting Jeff to be rich, well not overly so, which is why my jaw dropped when we reached his house. The place wasn’t exactly small and it definitely wasn’t quaint. Two storeys tall and taking almost three blocks on the street, Jeff’s house was huge.

It was styled in those modern yet cosy home designs and screamed wealth with just one glance. Mum, shockingly enough didn’t seem all that taken by the house which could mean either she had visited Jeff at his house tons of times before or that she was used to rich houses. And since I lived with her and knew that our house wasn’t exactly a sight to see, I was opting for the former.

“Now Viv,” mum began, “I would like you to get to know Jeff and Holly today.”

I nodded. You can do this Viv, you’re a smoking hot geek and chatting to a wealthy businessman and his daughter who’s probably going to kick you and feed you poisoned tea and cakes is going to be easy. Super easy and super fun, really fun! No more than that, it was going to be amazing, great and wonderful all rolled into a bowl of cherries with a dash of chocolate and maybe some vanilla ice cream. Vanilla ice cream is good, even if the last time you had some was when you cried yourself to watching the Titanic because Matt made you look like an idiot-

“Viv?” my mother snapped me out of my thoughts.

“Huh?” I replied dumbly.

“I said Jeff’s waiting for us,” my mother replied giving me a concerned look.

Oh great Viv, way to go! Now your mother thinks you’re crazy.

Hopping out of my mother’s beat up blue family car, we made our way to Jeff’s doorstep. The door was dark and wooden with a golden knocker on the front shaped as a dog. I stared at it for a while, contemplating whether or not it was a warning to turn and run away, when the door swung open after my mother rang the doorbell for a few times which revealed Jeff, wearing simple denim jeans and a white button up shirt.

“Katherine,” he greeted warmly, then turned to me with a smile, “and Vivienne.”

I couldn’t help the smile that tugged at my lips as I greeted him return, “Mr Andrews.”

“Please, call me Jeff,” he replied, opening the door wider so we could step in.

The house seemed all the more luxurious inside than it did from outside. Large paintings of places from around the world were displayed on the warm, beige walls. A huge chandelier hung from the centre of the ceiling, shimmering with each crystal that was reflected by the sun’s rays. A large staircase that spiralled upwards was placed to the far left of the hall and a room which revealed to be a kitchen from the pots and pans being clanged.

“Daddy!” a little girl, who looked to be around four or five, came bounding towards Jeff.

I had to admit she was the cutest thing to have ever looked at. Two dark pigtails tied up with pink ribbons and a bright white sundress along with tiny pink sandals which would make Barbie turn in her grave. What made her ever cuter was the splash of something red, smeared across her forehead. Maybe ketchup or maybe it could have been red sharpie? Her green eyes widened slightly when they fell onto me before she smiled shyly. For the second time in less than five minutes, I felt my lips curving up into a smile.

“Katherine, you’ve already met Holly,” Jeff spoke, before glancing at me, “Vivienne, this is my precious daughter Holly.”

I smiled, “Hi Holly, it’s nice to meet you.”

Holly smiled in return, sticking out her tiny hand before whispering loudly, “You’re supposed to shake it.”

I laughed, placing my palm in hers, noticing how tiny she really was. Jeff clearly happy with Holly’s and my reaction grinned happily along with my mother. Holly turned to Jeff suddenly, a frown on her lips and placed her tiny hands on her hips. Her green eyes narrowed slightly as she puffed out her chest slightly. Adorable as she was, she looked a little angry at Jeff who was giving her an innocent smile.

“Daddy, you were supposed to help me with the pasta sauce,” Holly scolded, “and Mandy said that I’m too small to carry the bowl.”

Jeff rolled his eyes in affection, “Holly, why don’t you leave Mandy to cooking and show Vivienne your room, if that’s okay with her,” he asked, turning to me.

I nodded numbly. Was this how it would have been if my father hadn’t left my mother? All these years I’ve grown up, not really minding having no father around, but maybe I had missed out something important. I mean, who was going to be there to be protective of me when it came to boys? And it wasn’t like I had an older brother, it was just me and mum. No family that I could really remember when I was growing up and certainly no father-daughter like moments. I shook the thoughts away, as soon as I realised that my mother was more than enough.

“Sure,” I replied, “it would be great.”

Holly beamed up at me, before she took hold of my hand again and tugged me up the spiral staircase. For a brief moment, I glanced back down and noticed the small smile on my mother’s lips as she looked at Jeff. It seemed that she was in love, and for once since I had learnt about Jeff’s existence, I wasn’t going to object to their relationship. After all, if my mother was happy, then the least I could do was support her just like she had to me all these years.

“Hey Vivienne,” Holly asked in her childlike voice.

I glanced down at her and smiled, “Yes?”

“Are you going to be my sister now?” she asked with hopeful eyes.

I found myself at a loss for words. Did I tell her that no my mother wasn’t going to marry her father and that after they broke up that we’d never see each other again, or should I tell her that yes, we’d be sisters forever and ever and nothing would change that. Seeing as how cute Holly looked and the way she smiled at me sweetly, I opted for the latter of the two. I may have been the only child, but I was not going to shatter this young girl’s hopes.

“Sure we are,” I replied with a wide smile.

Holly surprised me by wrapping her tiny arms around my waist before pulling me towards her room, “Come on Vivienne, I want you to help me with something.”

I followed the tiny girl curiously wondering what she needed my help with. It was obvious that the house was well maintained by cleaning and cooking staff and that Holly probably was treated like a little princess by everyone. She was the cutest girl I could have ever seen, so it was pretty hard to imagine anyone not helping her with anything. Holly came to stop in front of a white panelled door that had ‘Holly’ stuck onto it in big, bright purple letters. Pushing open the door, Holly tugged me into the large fairy tale themed room.

I fought a gasp as my eyes travelled across the large room, taking in the double bed that sat against a wall in the far right, surrounded by a veil of lace around it. The covers were a deep purple, with embroidered flowers sewn expertly into the duvets. The design seemed to have been continued onto the walls, because against the ceiling panels, the tiny flower pattern was painted intricately around the room with images of princesses all around the walls. There was one with Rapunzel looking down from her tower at her prince and another with Snow White in her glass case with her prince waking her up.

“Do you like my room?” Holly asked shyly.

“I love it,” I replied.

Holly grinned from ear to ear, “Good! I told Mandy to help me to clean it up because my new sister was going to visit.”

I couldn’t help but smile at Holly. Adorable, isn’t she Viv? Just imagine if you had helped mum find a boyfriend a long time ago then you would probably have gone through this and imagine how happy mum would be? Imagine how happy you would have been! You wouldn’t have been eating Chinese takeout in front of the TV while you let your mother go out with those random men who were more than once wore cheap cologne in the hopes of getting lucky.

“It looks really pretty,” I commented, “who did all these paintings for you?”

“Oh mummy did,” Holly answered softly.

I felt guilt washing over me, but before I could apologise to the tiny black haired girl she continued.

“Mummy died when I was four,” Holly spoke, “but I don’t remember her much, only that she looked like me.”

I nodded in understanding. The only thing that I could remember from when I was four was the fact that I had lost Mr Wiggles under my bed for a day and threw a temper tantrum in the park. Mum had to rush me back home to dig around for my furry old bear before she could get me to calm down. My eyes fell back onto Holly who was stroking the painting of Snow White before she looked up at me with a smile.

“You were supposed to help me,” she spoke, as though she just remembered bringing me into the room.

“Yes,” I replied, eager to take her mind off her mother.

“Look up there,” she pointed to a shelf which held tiny fairies and glitter in small pixie shaped jars along with small childish makeup and nail polishes.

“You have a lot of fairy stuff,” I said.

She nodded, “I like fairies a lot and daddy buys them for me from all over the world.”

I frowned, “He goes all over the world?”

Holly nodded, “Yes, for his job. He bought me purple nail polish,” she said straining to look through the fairies, “but Mandy was too busy to help me find it.”

I smiled, “Do you want me to get it for you?”

She grinned, “Yes please!”

I stretched up, looking over the tiny trinkets before spotting the nail polish that Holly wanted. It was a pale lilac colour contained in a bottle shaped as a butterfly. I smiled at it, before taking it down and handing it over to Holly who yet again threw her arms around my waist in appreciation. I felt my chest swelling with love for this small girl who I hardly knew yet felt protective of already. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad being her older sister?

“Can you paint my nails?” Holly asked; suddenly shy again, her cheeks turning a pale pink.

 I nodded, “Of course.”

I walked over to the white, fluffy rug and sat down, patting the side opposite me for Holly to sit down on. She grinned, folding her legs under her weight as she plopped onto the rug and handed me the purple liquid with another shy smile. Unscrewing the lid, I took hold of her tiny hand, and began to apply the lilac nail polish onto her small nails. She giggled, beaming when the first nail was complete and she brought her hand up to her face to examine it.

“It’s so pretty Vivienne!” she exclaimed, “Thank you!”

For what felt like the hundredth time, I smiled in return.

“How was Jeff?” Juliet asked, as we sat at the back of our free, study lesson.

“He was really nice actually,” I replied with a smile, “and his daughter Holly was adorable.”

“So I’m taking it as you like them both a lot?” Juliet asked with a grin.

I nodded, “Yes, I’m glad that my mum finally found a decent guy for once.”

Juliet smiled knowingly. She knew about all the disaster dates my mother had gone through before finding Jeff.

“What about Saturday night?” she asked suddenly, changing topics.

My eyes widened slightly as I realised what she meant.

“Oh,” I began, blushing slightly, “it was uh…great.”

“Just great,” Juliet asked, leaning closer, her green eyes lighting up.

I bit my lip nervously, “Okay so Dave might have kissed me.”

“HE KISSED YOU!” Juliet beamed, grabbing the attention of Mrs Flavia.

“Juliet Summer and Vivienne Lanter, do you wish to visit Mrs Bright’s office?” Mrs Flavia asked in her thick French accent.

I felt my cheeks heating up while Juliet stuttered an apology before turning back to face with a large smile.

“You kissed Dave,” she whispered excitedly.

I nodded.

“Tell me all about it! Don’t leave out anything at all,” she replied giving me a stern look.

I laughed softly, “Well he kissed me outside my doorstep and it was really quick.”

“Quick?” Juliet repeated, “How would you know if the kiss was quick unless,” her eyes widened, “you didn’t!”

I frowned, “Didn’t what?”

“You did!” Juliet replied with a sly grin, “You vixen!”

“Miss Summer,” Mrs Flavia boomed over our desk, “I’m afraid you do not understand my first warning.”

Juliet smiled innocently before apologising, “Désolé Madame Flavia.”

Mrs Flavia frowned slightly, her brown her eyes narrowing before she nodded, “No more warning after this.”

Juliet nodded, “Merci.”

As soon as Mrs Flavia was out of earshot, Juliet turned to face me with a look that screamed, ‘I knew it all along’.

“Sean Gregory and you kissed,” Juliet commented.

My face suddenly grew hot, my mouth went dry and my eyes widened to the size of Texas.

“H-How did y-you know?” I stammered unintelligently.

Juliet rolled her eyes, “Oh please Viv. I’ve known you for most of my life, there’s nothing you can hide from me, that and you were really red in the face when I came to get you and found you and Sean a little too close for a pep talk.”

Heat rose to my cheeks once again and for the millionth time, I cursed my pale skin.

“He was just teaching me to kiss, because I was freaking out about not being able to kiss anyone,” I spilled out, “and I mean God, I messed up bad didn’t I?”

Juliet raised an eyebrow, “Aren’t you blowing this out of proportion?”

I sighed, “I guess.”

“Besides, this is like those Harlequin romances,” Juliet continued, “all romantic and you with Dave with the hint of Sean as some bad boy action.”

“Jules,” I hissed.

Juliet smiled apologetically, “Désolé.”

“Lanter,” Sean greeted me as I stood in front of the vending machine, contemplating whether I should buy a healthy apple juice or just stick to my regular Coke.

I felt my cheeks rise with heat, “Sean, hi,” I squeaked.

He chuckled, “I heard your date was great with Dave.”

I frowned, “Who told you?”

“A little birdie,” he replied with a smirk.

When I just raised an eyebrow at him, he answered, “Jules.”

I rolled my eyes, “Figures.”

“So listen, there’s something I need to ask you,” Sean began, but was cut off when Dave approached me.

He smiled at me, placing a light kiss to my cheek, “Viv, I finally found you.”

I caught Sean rolling his hazel eyes before speaking, “Dave,” he greeted not as warmly as he had greeted me.

Dave smiled, “Sean, nice seeing you man.”

Both guys did that weird man handshake, where they slapped each other’s backs and did that hand shaking, fist hitting thing before Sean spoke again, this time addressing both me and Dave which for some reason Sean didn’t look all that happy about.

“Right, I was about to ask you something as since Dave’s here,” Sean glanced at Dave then back at me, “this Saturday, a few of us are going to my dad’s lake house and I was wondering if you both would like to come?”

Dave glanced down at me and for a moment, a thoughtful look passed through his eyes before he smiled, “Sure I’d go, if Viv’s up to it.”

Say yes Viv! A lake house, which means a LAKE HOUSE! Go on, just a three letter word, one syllable, YES. What’s the worst that could go wrong? Oh I don’t know, maybe Dave found out that Sean taught you to kiss, but it ended up being that amazing mind-blowing kiss that you could never forget and it made your body tingle like you had just stuck your finger into a plug point.

“Yeah, sure why not?” I replied with a smile.

A/N You didn't think that I wasn't going to have the last say did you? LOL, okay what did you think of the chapter? Yes, it's a filler and yes not much happened but what do you think of little Holly? Jeff? Don't worry, next chapter is a whole lot more exciting, I get to write a laid back, drunken lake house type of chapter *whoops*. Remember to vote, comment and spread the word!

xoxo

Mona-Mae