Title: Upside Down

Chapter: Prologue

Summary: Tragedy strikes the Anderson Family. Blaine's two young cousins have to come and live with him and his parents.

Perhaps eleven was too old to be playing on a playground. But Lily and her friends did not care. The weather was great. It was a beautiful Saturday in February. Just one of the many reasons Lily loved living in Arizona. There were no clouds in the sky, and the temperature was warm. It was a perfect day for them to be outside playing on the playground in the apartment complex where Lily lived with her father, mother, and sister. And it was a descent little playground, just right for ignoring their unfinished homework still at their respective houses.

The girls were singing their favorite songs as Lily and Meg were on the swings, Katie and Courtney were playing on the monkey bars, and Jacquelyn was trying her hardest to climb the slide, but with no prevail, since her shoes had no traction. Suddenly in the middle of one of the verses, Jacquelyn interrupted the group. "Uh, guys. A cop car just pulled in Lily's driveway."

"What?" Lily asked looking over towards her building. Sure enough two state troopers were getting out of their vehicle. All the girls started to run over to Lily's house to see what was going on. When they reached the driveway they slowed to a walk. The two troopers, one male, one female, turned around. "Can I help you?" Lily asked the troopers sounding very confused.

"We are looking for Christine and Lily Anderson," the male officer responded.

"I'm Lily Anderson," Lily told them, "Christine is my sister. She's not home right now."

"Can you tell us where she is?" the female officer asked in a rather soothing voice.

"At a friend's house just down the road."

"Can you call her and have her come home please?" asked the male officer.

"It's an emergency," the female said.

Lily was now even more confused but also really nervous. What could be going on? Why did they need the girls? What sort of emergency was it where they couldn't call the girls' parents, who were out of town, but had to be on their way home by now? She took out her cell phone and dialed her sister's number. When Christine picked up the phone Lily said "Hey Teen, there are some cops here. They, they uh, they want to talk to us."

"What's going on?"

"I don't know. They want you to be here before they tell me."

"This doesn't make any sense Lil."

"I know. But can you just come home now? They said it's an emergency."

"Ok. I'll be right there. Love you. Bye."

"See ya," Lily said and hung up the phone. She turned to look at the two officers. "She's on her way."

Blaine had never seen his father cry before. Joshua Anderson was not a man that wore his emotions on his sleeve. Blaine knew that whatever news he had just received on the phone was not good. Not good at all. "Honey, what's wrong? What happened?" Blaine's mom Katherine asked as she stared, shocked, at her now sobbing husband. This terrible phone call, whatever it may be, had interrupted their dinner, and Blaine had a strange feeling that this meal wasn't going to be finished.

"Dad, what's...what's wrong?" Blaine stammered, unsure of what to say to his father in this unfamiliar situation.

"It's Thomas." was Joshua's reply.

"Your brother Thomas?" asked Katherine, referring to Joshua's twin brother to whom Josh was very close.

"What's wrong with Uncle Tom?" Blaine questioned then immediately regretted it because his father seemed to be in so much pain already. Repeating to his family what happened would only make it worse, or so Blaine assumed.

"He and Nichole. They... they were... they were in a car accident. They've both been pronounced dead." Joshua told his wife and son in between sobs.

"Oh Josh. I... I'm... I'm so terribly sorry," Katherine tried to console him, but knew it would never work. She knew exactly how close Joshua and Thomas had been. She could not imagine the intense pain that he was in right now.

"What about the girls?" Blaine asked remembering his two little cousins who he hadn't seen years. Gosh, he thought to himself, Christine and Lily must be in middle school by now! Holy crap, how time flies!

"The girls are fine. They weren't even in the car," Joshua told them. "But we are going to need to go down there. Not just for the funeral, but for the girls. We're bringing them back here to Ohio. We're the only family they have and they are only eleven and twelve, so they need somewhere to live."

"Well they can bunk in the extra bedroom we have," Katherine said, trying to lighten up the room, but doing so futilely.

"Pack your bags guys," Joshua said to Blaine and Katherine. "We're taking the next flight to Arizona."

"Okay," Blaine whispered as he ran upstairs to pack. Suddenly the realization came to Blaine that his aunt and uncle were gone. Really gone. Dead. He hadn't seen them in a while, since they had moved to Arizona, but Blaine loved his dad's brother, sister-in-law, and their two little girls. And now Thomas and Nichole Anderson were gone and Blaine could never see them again. He couldn't imagine what Christine and Lily were going through at this very moment. Blaine's eyes started to tear up. He needed to talk to someone. He picked up his phone and dialed the number that came first to his mind.

"Hello?"

"Hey. Kurt. Baby, please, I just need someone to talk to right now."