Chapter 1: Surprise of a Lifetime
Thank you RECH2o for this idea. I hope everyone enjoys this.
Rikki's POV
One year, my father had been lying to me for one year. One of the few people I still trusted was lying to me for one year. He had gotten married a year ago to a woman I had never met before. Now he has decided that I should meet her and her two daughters so that he could move in with his wife.
"Just a dinner," He said. I felt the need to meet her so I agreed. "Just meet her."
What I want to know is why couldn't have met her a year ago, or even before that? Why did he have to lie to me for a year? Why did he just have to prove my point of not being able to trust anyone? I wish someone could answer that.
Cleo's POV
So she was lying to me. She was lying to Kim, and if I'm not mistaken, she had to have been lying to my father and her fancy new husband, for I never heard of anything like this till this morning when my mom called and asked to see me and Kim.
But what should I care. It wasn't like I was always going around telling her the truth about everything that went on in my life. Should I blame her if she didn't want to tell me? If I were her I wouldn't want to tell me. I would've told someone, but I wouldn't have told me.
So here I am, helping my little sister into one of my old spring dresses, wearing the pink dress I hadn't worn since the incident with Charlotte, waiting for my mother to walk up to the door and pick us up to meet her oh-so-secret husband and his daughter. It was all I could do to keep myself from running off and never coming back, which I very easily could've done if I did not have a hairbrush to my sister's head.
"Why do you think she lied to us?" Kim asked as she sat perfectly still for the first time in forever. I just let the brush find its way through her hair as I thought about her question.
"Some people just feel there are some things the ones they love are just not going to understand," I answered taking from more of a personal experience. I had my secrets that no one but some of my closest friends and our boyfriends knew.
"Well, it was wrong," Kim said, not moving an inch. "She should've told us." I half agreed with her. I had a secret I couldn't tell so I knew where my mom was coming from.
"That is what everyone says when they learn the truth," I answered, my eyes not moving from where she was staring. "But in reality, deep down, everyone knows it was better for them to keep quiet, and that they should've never spilled in the first place. People want other to be quiet about some things." I dropped the brush on the table and sat down next to the window.
Kim got up from her seat and moved to sit down next to me. Neither of us spoke, and neither of us had a chance, for at that second, the door bell rang and it was time to get this dinner over with.
Rikki's POV
My father had this funny idea of what a perfect daughter should look like; light colored dress, hair as neat as it could possibly be, quiet, controllable, a girl that would jump to do whatever her father asked, a girl who never broke the rules, talked to only those her father approved of, never lied. So pretty much the exact opposite of who I was, exactly like Emma, or Bella, or Cleo. My dad always wanted a perfect daughter, and today, I think his wish finally came true.
My dad dragged me to the restaurant half an hour early so that he would already be here when his wife showed up. To live up to the little girl who did ballet in his head, I had to put on a floral halter top dress, put my hair in a nice bun, and smile, no matter how much I wanted to be anywhere else, and I did, for him.
I was wondering how I could get out of this dinner when his wife walked in. She seemed familiar, like I had met her before, but I couldn't place where. No, I knew I had seen her somewhere, but it had to be at least a year or two since. Then when her daughters walked in, I knew where I had seen her. Cleo's house, she was Cleo's mom, and my new step-sister, was my soul sister.
Cleo's POV
Rikki! My new step-sister was Rikki, my best friend and the person I had been closest to for the past three years was now a part of my family. I should have been ecstatic, this should've been good news. But I didn't know what to feel, and I could tell I was not the only one.
I was only half listening that entire dinner while my mom spoke of who would room where, and how great this was going to be, all of us living together. If I had been listening, I would've caught on that my mom thought Kim and I were al of a sudden move away from dad and move in with her. But I didn't catch it, and before I had time to turn down the offer, I was thinking too much into it.
"You're right mom. This will be great," I said with a smile in Kim and Rikki's directions. "Don't you guys think?"
Rikki was staring daggers. I knew she would be. Kim looked away from the table, as if just looking at the door could help her runaway.
Rikki's POV
So, before I knew it, I was dragging box after box into the room Cleo's aunt painted for what looked like a five-year-old who loved the sea. How I got roped into this was beyond me. Other than the fact neither Cleo nor I would have to buy a room on campus at school, living with my dad and Cleo's mom was already not working for me.
"It's not that bad," Cleo kept telling me as she started to unpack her limited boxes. She and Kim were lucky. If things got bad here, they could just up and go to their father's. I was stuck, no matter how much I hated it.
I sighed as I put my stuff away. I guess she was right. How bad could things really get? I was living with my best friend for crying out loud.
Cleo's POV
Two weeks, did it really only take two weeks for us to be against each other. You would think that two girls who shared the biggest secret in the world would make great roommates. You would be dead wrong. And I think if it wasn't for Bella and Will someone would've killed the other, and I think you know what I'm talking about.
Rikki was the most hopelessly annoying, uncaring, and demanding roommate and sister I had ever had, and I had lived with Kim for fourteen years. She kept me up all night with complaints, couldn't seem to understand the meaning of the words share or ours, and took everything so literally. It was plain obvious that she had never had a sibling or roommate in her life.
With nowhere else to turn, I took all my complaints to Bella. I could tell that after a while, she was getting a bit annoyed, but I didn't know who else to talk to. I couldn't live with Rikki, and I couldn't break my mom's heart and tell her I was moving back in with my father. There was just no winning.
Later Zane had explained to me this, "You have to remember, Rikki is use to being the only child. No one has ever told her to do anything and no one has ever gotten something over her. She is going to be distant, you just have to except her into the circle, not make her fit."
He thought that Kim and I should be the ones to change. We were the ones who were real sisters. We had everything almost perfect before we got another sister. So why should we be the ones to change.
Rikki's POV
I found out quickly there was no living with Cleo. She was annoying, controlling, and a downright perfectionist. Everything she did was bothersome, her rules, her cleanness, her Emmaness, her fish tank, and her how she took criticism so hard.
Kim was no better. She got everything she wanted with a blink of her baby blue eyes and swish of her perfect blond hair. She was so self sufficient, she tore everyone down so she can stand on her own. She was immature, and a downright baby when it came to change. If it didn't favor her, she didn't like it.
When I tried to complain to Will, he only thought fit to try to reason with me, like I was the problem. I couldn't turn to anyone else because Bella would be on whatever side Will was on and Emma was sort of out of touch and she'd agree with Cleo.
"Cleo is use to being the big sister," He told me. "She has always been the one in control of the house and her sister. Everything is under her rule. Kim is use to being the baby. She has always gotten everything her way. Everything was for her, favoring her, or making her happy in some way. You are coming into the middle, you just have to deal some times."
When I had asked how he knew this, all he said was he knew this guy and left it at that. I didn't know what to say. Will wanted me to be the one to change. No way, I was not about to change just to fit Cleo and Kim's semisweet sisterhood. It just wasn't going to happen, ever.
Cleo's POV
I'm done with Rikki. So is Kim. We were not going to let her ruin what we had as sisters, and we were not changing so she could be in, so that an outsider could destroy us.
This was war, Sentoris vs. Chadwick. There was no way Rikki could win this war. It was two against one. I knew everything about her. She knew nothing of Kim. I was more powerful, even if she was more destructive. I had the brains. Kim had tactics. We had numbers, the element of surprise, power, smarts, and cleverness to win this war. Rikki stood no chance.
Rikki's POV
It was war, Chadwick vs. Sentoris. There was no way those two could win. I knew everything Cleo was. I had the dominate power, and Kim had none. Cleo had the problem of having to protect someone. All I was protecting was my honor as the only child. How could I not lose.
Anyway, I had the power of Daddy on my hands. I had the daddy who would jump to my rescue whenever I called. All they had was their mother. What was she going to do, wet towel them back to health, like that would help Cleo. Yeah, this war was in the bag.
Bella's POV
How did we let it get this far? Why did we not see the signs and stop this before it got this far?
"They're going to kill themselves, or worse, the town," Zane had told Will and I when we were discussing this. "We have to stop them." Zane looked like he was going to freak out.
"There is nothing we can do," Will had said. "If we interfere, we could end up hurt." I knew he was right. Both Will and Zane looked to me. I shook my head.
"I don't have any power when it comes to that, you know that. I am no middle player." I say confidently
"You have to try," Will said. "You are the only one powerful enough to stop this."
"Fine," I sighed before jumping into the water and swimming to Mako. I knew he was right.
Once there, I could already smell the smoke and hear the thunder and wind from the fight on the beach. As quickly as I could, I ran to the beach. What I found was terrible. I didn't know what to do. Using the little voice I had, I called, "Guys, please, this is stupid." They didn't listen to me. I just knew someone was going to get hurt.
Then the biggest of all shockers happened. I heard a voice I did not recognize yell, "Freeze." Then everything froze. There was no more wind. The water was completely iced over. The fires drastically cooled to the point of snow. And Cleo and Rikki were staring at a blond girl standing on the other side of the beach.
"Now, please tell me this is not a stupid sibling revelry," She said with a smile and laugh. No one moved. Everything was just so tense and frozen to its spots, except this one girl who seemed to lose and happy. I didn't know who this girl was, but right now, I wouldn't want to be her.