Author's Note: I know most writers have a time line of when their stories took place (like between the third and fourth book, etc), but I couldn't really come up with a specific place for my story. Just humor me, you guys!!! It's just a story! But it's definitely before Haunted.

Please be nice. This is my first Mediator story!!

Disclaimer: As much as I would like to, I don't own anybody or anything, although I'd like to borrow Jesse for one night ( Yes, I know - Naughty!

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I so totally hate having stepbrothers. They're real nuisances, I swear. Well, except for Doc. He's the only acceptable one. I actually like him.

But Sleepy is gonna get his butt kicked if he doesn't start leaving me alone about the whole Jesse thing.

I just hate it when I think about Jesse nowadays. It's hard enough to have him haunt my bedroom when he doesn't even want a relationship with me. Oh, yeah - that hurts. It's a constant reminder. Jesse is there when I wake up (well, sometimes. He's not into the whole morning-visit thing. I guess I'm too scary to look at when I get up) and he's there when I get home from school.

Now, I've tried getting over Jesse, I really have. I tried being rude to him when I first met him, but he's just so easy to fall in love with. Seriously. I didn't want to get attached, but if you looked into those big brown eyes of his and ALWAYS had him around - you'd fall head over heels in love, too, so don't try to deny it.

I will say this - he is a good bodyguard. I'm not too keen on him following me around when I don't know it, but he's gotten me out of trouble a lot. He's saved my life a couple of times and I'm totally grateful towards it.

But sometimes I would like to focus on other things, but Sleepy just didn't seem to want to leave me alone today. He started in on me during lunch. He just began telling me how Mom was very upset with me for sneaking out of the house the night before. Of course, I couldn't tell him that I had gone out because I just had to get away from the ghost that constantly haunts my room, so I did what any younger stepsister would do.

I told him to buzz off.

Sleepy gave me a dirty look. He said, "Mom is really worried about you, Suze. She thinks you're into drugs and gangs and all that."

I looked at him, surprised. "Did she say that?"

"Well, no, but it's obvious that's what she's thinking. Her and Dad had a long talk about it this morning."

"Sle- Jake, why do you even care? Why are you telling me this stuff?"

"It's hard to live in a house where the parents are worried sick about a bratty younger sister-."

"Stepsister," I corrected him.

"- and that's all they think about. It's annoying, Suze. I'm warning you. You'd better shape up," Sleepy said in a low voice.

Did..Did Sleepy just THREATEN me??

I smirked. "If you're trying to scare me, you failed miserably."

"Either you shape up, or I'm telling Mom and Dad about the guy that's always in your room at night."

How did he -? How could he know??

He must've seen my shocked expression. He confessed, "You can thank David for that piece of information. He'll say anything when you put him in a headlock." He winked at me (well, I think he winked. His eyes are always nearly closed anyway), and sauntered off to his lunch table.

I was so mad I felt my face turning red. Sleepy's never been smart enough to threaten me before, but now that he has I just wanted to kill him.

But knowing my luck, his ghost would probably haunt me for the rest of my days.

If Sleepy were to tell Mom about Jesse, how could I possibly explain it? She already has a hunch that I'm a complete nutcase. If I told her I'm a mediator, she'd send me to the crazy house for sure.

I hate stepbrothers. Did I mention that??

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Needless to say, when I went home I was in a pretty foul mood. I didn't want to talk to anyone, nor did I want anyone speaking with me.

I climbed the stairs to my bedroom and flung the door open.

Of course, Jesse was there. This time he was reading The Grapes of Wrath. Good Lord, I hope he doesn't die from the excitement.

He looked up at me and smiled. "How was your day, Susannah?"

I threw my bag as hard as I could up against the wall as my answer. The huge mirror nearly fell off its hook.

Jesse stared at me, giving me his unreadable expression.

I grabbed my headphones, jammed them on my head and began listening to Eminem. Anything to forget the day. I smashed a pillow over my head and tried to listen to the lyrics.

I felt someone sit down on my bed. I knew it was Jesse. The pillow was ripped out of my grasp. I had no choice except to look at him. I snapped, "What?"

He squinted his eyes at me and the headphones were off my head in a flash.

Damn those telekinetic abilities.

Jesse asked, "Susannah, what's wrong? It's clear you've had a bad day."

Ha! What nerve!!! The guy's trying to get into my business and find out what my problem is, even though he probably couldn't care less about me. If he did, I'm sure he would have told me he loved me by now.

"Yes, I've had a bad day, Jesse," I said through clenched teeth, "And I would rather not discuss it with you."

He glared at me. "Fine. If you would prefer it that way."

"Yes, I would," I snapped back.

He shrugged and went back to the bay window to read his stupid book. MY stupid book, actually. He took it from my bookshelf.

Just when I thought he was about to leave me alone, I heard him say, "I'm sure you'd feel better if you told me what happened."

"What makes you so damn important? Telling you my problem isn't going to make it any better," I cried. A little voice in the back of my mind was saying, Calm down, Susannah!! You're going to wreck any chance you have with him if you don't shut your mouth!!

But I knew there was no chance.

So, I blew up.

"You're not any different than any other ghost I've ever met before," I shouted. I'm sure the neighbors were appreciating this. "Except the other ghosts would eventually leave."

Jesse's eyebrows were knitting up. I could tell this hurt him. "I simply thought-."

"I thought a lot of things, too, Jesse. About what it would be like to be with you but you haven't shown any interest in that department." By this point, I had gotten up from my place on the bed and was standing near the door, shaking with anger. Jesse had this look of complete shock and bewilderment. "You're such the typical guy. We are always around each other, you know so much about me, but you can't even tell that I've fallen head over heels in love with you." I opened the door. "I hope you're not here when I get back." I slammed the door shut behind me and bounded down the stairs.

Sleepy and Dopey were just coming into the front door. Sleepy took one look at me and said smugly, "Leaving again, Suze?"

I pushed him as hard as I could. He landed on the floor while managing to take the lamp down with him.

I flew out the front door.

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Of course, I had no idea where I was going. I just had to get away. I could go speak to Father Dominic, but then I would have to explain why I was so upset. And then he'd give me a two-day lecture about not falling in love with ghosts. I really couldn't deal with that at the moment.

Plus, I was feeling super bad about pushing Sleepy and yelling at Jesse like I had. It's not Jesse's fault he didn't love me. Instead of being mature about the whole situation, I had to act jealous. Plus it's not Sleepy's fault he's so naïve.

It made me wonder why Jesse is still here. I just couldn't understand it. I don't know why he would want to stay on this earth. He'd probably be doing the salsa in his Spanish heaven if he left.unless he did something very bad in his lifetime and was afraid to crossover.

I wanted to beat myself for acting the way I did. The more I thought about it, the more reality took over. How was I going to face Jesse now? He definitely knew how stubborn I could be, but I had just made a complete ass of myself back at the house. Why did I even get mad, you ask?? I don't know. I guess Sleepy just pushed me too far and reminded me, once again, that I had a snowball's chance in hell with that cute ghost.

I walked. And walked and walked. Before I knew it, the sun was setting itself on the horizon. I guessed I had better get home before mom had another spaz attack.

Summing up all my courage, I turned around and started to head back. That's when I saw Paul Slater. He gave me a rather sweet smile considering he had tried to get rid of Jesse a while back and, oh yeah, kill me. He said, "Hello there, Susannah."

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A.N.: I know it's short, but my next chapter will be longer (and more interesting), I promise! Please review!