A/N:

Hi guys, I'm Is-Iz and this is the first part of my story Dearest Soon-to-Be (Half)Sister in Law. Confusing title, eh? p

Enjoy -

Disclaimer: I don't own W.i.t.c.h. Never have, never will. W.i.t.c.h. belongs to Elisabetta Gnome... Or is it Disney..? Oh well, W.i.t.c.h. belongs to whoever owns it. (Yeah, that makes sense)

Cornelia leaned against the car's window, resting her eyes, head and body from the jet lag. She had just come back from a three month long Figure Skating camp in Alaska, that was a prize she had won in a local contest a while back. She had told Elyon that next time she'd win the gold, and she had, but Elyon wasn't around. It didn't bother Cornelia as much as she first thought it would since she could visit Elyon anytime she wanted.

Besides, there was too much going on, on Earth anyway.

The car went over a large rock, or something of the sort, a bit too fast, making Cornelia's head decline and hit the window harder than anyone would have liked.

"Ow…" Cornelia grunted. "What was that?"

"Oh good, you're awake Cornelia," said her father's voice, without any indication that he had noticed his daughter's head hurt. Cornelia couldn't be bothered making him guilty and settled back comfortably against the window and started to drift again, since she found it hard to sleep in cars while they were moving…

Or at least, that's what she had thought. Cornelia had drifted easily into the land of sleep only to be woken up by her head having an unfriendly meeting with the ceiling of the car.

"Ow! What was that?!" Cornelia asked demandingly as she rubbed her head with her hand.

"Speed bump," her father said, without much hint of emotion (let alone sympathy) towards his daughter.

"That's why there's speed limits," Cornelia pointed out grouchily. She hadn't fallen asleep much on the plane ride so her current mood wasn't entierly that positive. She stretched her neck and looked at the speedometer. Upon seeing it, she said to her father,

"You shouldn't be going that fast, should you?"

Her father hadn't heard what Cornelia said and she figured out that he must be thinking hard about something. The way his eyebrows were behaving was a dead giveaway, since they seemed to have had a big part in forming the frown-like expression on his face.

"Dad," Cornelia said, trying to get his attention. "Dad!"

Her father seemed to jump at her voice. He looked surprised and a bit embarrassed, which was typical of him whenever Cornelia or her sister done that to him.

"What is it, Cornelia?" he asked, hiding up his embarrassment for not hearing her the first time round.

"Why are you driving so fast?" Cornelia asked. "Are we in a hurry?"

Her father just gave a nod, which made Cornelia wonder even more why they were in a hurry. Usually her father would at least say "Yes," or "No," instead of a plain nod, like the one he had given her.

"Okay," Cornelia said leaning back into her seat and giving out a big yawn. She wished that her car seat was like the seat in the plane. She could move it as far back as she wanted. Cornelia then too ask the key question, "Why are we in a hurry?"

"Your mother and sister can't wait to see you," her father said, and added a bit more quietly. "Your sister has some news to tell you."

"Good, that means she got back with Jorge," Cornelia smiled and closed her eyes, not seeing her fathers puzzled look at all. She remembered Jorge and how nice he was to everyone. She felt sorry for him that he had to put up with her little sister, Lillian.

"Your sister will tell you the news when you get home," her father repeated, though he did sound a bit worried. Cornelia didn't notice though since she was already starting to drift.

Cornelia was now resting on the spare bed in her parents house, having still been asleep when she and her father had arrived home. And although her mother was eager to hear every little detail on how the camp went and her sister was beyond anxious to tell her the news, they had to leave her asleep. And anyway, a grumpy, sleep deprived Cornelia certainly wasn't a good one.

When Cornelia did awake, there was a moment where she was scared as she did not recognise where she was, but as soon as she saw Lillian sitting in a chair nearby, reading a magazine, she realised what had happened and felt fine.

She lay in her bed, looking across at her younger sister, surprised at how much she had changed in three months. Lillian's hair had grown, Cornelia could tell, even though the hair was tied up back in a ponytail. There was nothing else to blatantly say that Lillian Hale had grown except what Cornelia's elderly sister instincts told her.

Finally, realising that Lillian wasn't going to notice she was awake, Cornelia formed the most perfect phrase in her head to catch her baby sister's attention,

"If that's one of my old magazines you little toad–"

"Cornelia!" Lillian exclaimed, out of surprise (and a little bit of guilt, for the magazine was one of Cornelia's old ones). She carelessly tossed the magazine on the ground and ran up to her older sister and jumped on the bed.

"You took your time waking up!"

"You took your time to notice I've been awake for about ten minutes now."

"Oh, sorry," Lillian apologised, blushing a little with a guilty smile. "It was really interesting, what I was reading. So I wasn't really aware that…"

"Don't worry, I'm not holding a grudge," Cornelia teased and ruffled her little sister's hair. Lillian fought back by lazily flapping her arms at Cornelia.

"Leave my hair alone," she said childishly. "Or else I won't tell you my news."

Cornelia laughed, "I don't care about your news. Even if it means it could save the world." She sat up straight and proud as she announced, "I know it anyway."

"Y-You do…?!" Lillian asked, rather dumbstruck. "But… how? Mum didn't tell you, did she? Or was it Dad–"

"No," Cornelia said with a quick shake of her head. "I'm your older sister. When I heard that you have good news I knew exactly what it was. And I am very happy for you."

"Um… Thanks, but…"

"What's the but for?" Cornelia asked, not really sounding that bothered. "Jorge is a nice person and I'm glad that you two are back to–"

"No!" Lillian shouted, with such force that Cornelia froze in some kind of fear. Fear for what the news could possibly be if it wasn't what she had thought it had been. And Cornelia had been absolutely certain that it was about Jorge.

Stay calm, Cornelia told herself. It's probably nothing boy related… This is Lillian! Of course it's boy related!

"Listen," Lillian hissed quietly. "Mum and Dad are angry at me for this, so please don't blow your head off at me when I tell you."

"It depends just what this 'news' is," Cornelia warned her sister stubbornly. "I mean you better not have hurt Jorge. His father collects my rent! When you were engaged to him, his dad let me get away with paying the rent late. If he's angry at you—at me—then who knows what he'll do!"

"Yeah… um…" Lillian tried to speak confidently, but it was obvious she was intimidated by Cornelia now. "You know how I pulled out of my engagement to Jorge…"

"Yes..?" Cornelia made sure that Lillian got the message that she was not impressed, through the tone of her voice and her expression. She then added, as a guilt attack, "I was charged extra on my rent for paying the last payment late the day after you pulled out."

"Well I'm engaged again," Lillian continued anyway. "And I'm not going to pull out of it, I swear!"

"To who?!" Cornelia demanded out of utter shock. How could her sister have even known a guy long enough to get engaged anyway?!

"Is it Jorge? Please tell me it's Jorge," Cornelia pleaded Lillian. She didn't want her rent to suffer.

"It's… not Jorge. But Jorge is fine with it, I swear! He supports us and–Cornelia? Hey! Where are you going?!"

Cornelia had got off the bed and was stalking off towards the door that lead into the small hallway, ignoring her little sister who had now given up on trying to call her back. It was useless, Lillian knew, since Cornelia could easily be voted one of the most stubborn people in the world when she wanted to be.

Cornelia stayed in her parents house to have dinner and to sleep over night, since she was still a bit tired and she didn't want to go to her flat this evening. She would leave it until tomorrow morning, then she could go back to living her life. Her normal, simple, happy life. Hopefully without having to deal too much with the news Lillian had told her. In fact, Cornelia spent the evening avoiding all talk about it, instead she told them stories about what happened at the Figure Skating camp.

In the morning, she didn't stay til past 8 o'clock. She had gotten up early so she made herself an early breakfast and when her parents came out she said that she was going back to her flat and said goodbye to them. Her main excuse for going back so early was that she had to make sure that her flatmate hadn't burnt it down or sent some other disaster upon the tiny flat. Not that her flatmate was such a person to do that, but Cornelia had to make some light-hearted excuse.

The walk to her flat only took about twenty minutes, partly because Cornelia was walking slowly while she thought out what her little sister had told her. Cornelia, herself, had liked Jorge not just because his father was her rent collector, but because he was an overall nice guy. Polite too. He and Lillian had known each other all throughout school and when they finally got together they actually stayed together, which, Cornelia imagined, would have been a hard thing for them to do. Especially since Lillian would still gawk at any good looking guy across the street and even flirt with them.

Cornelia missed the times when Lillian had been a real little toad, and not a giant frog like she was now. The little girl who loved to annoy and pester her had grown up into a beautiful, but flirtatious person.

Cornelia sighed at the sight of her flat, when she saw the familiar sight of the big house that was really a collection of little flats. Her and her four friends had taken advantage of all the flats being so close together, which was how they all came to live under the same roof. Cornelia fumbled with her keys in the lock and eventually the lock clicked and allowed her inside. The sight she saw made her gasp and then she tried not to laugh. To think that they probably stayed up all night waiting for her to come home.

Her four friends were slumped on the couch, which had been moved in front of the door so that they had somewhere to sit while they had waited for Cornelia to come in. Well, three of them were on the couch. Irma was on the floor, next to a bowl of chip and another bowl of dip, and looking as comical about it as ever without even trying. Cornelia smiled warmly at them and decided not to wake them up.

She made her way past them quickly and quietly, into the kitchen where she put the kettle on. She decided the smell of morning coffee would wake them up, and if it didn't she'd gladly drink their coffee for them. It would be nice to have Heatherfield coffee as opposed to Alaskan coffee. The Heatherfield one tasted more of home.

"And to think they stayed up all night waiting for me…" Cornelia mused calmly for a moment before getting the life scared out of her when a loud sounds came from behind her.

"Bah!" four voices shouted in unision.

Cornelia was halfway in turning around before getting attacked by hugs from the four girls that had tricked her into thinking that they were asleep.

"Cornelia!" one of them cried with joy, though Cornelia couldn't tell who said it.

"We missed ya Corny!"

Cornelia knew who said that. Who else called her Corny and spoke with that voice?

The group hug went on for a minute more, with each of the girls saying something along the lines of, "We're so happy you're back," or "We really did miss you." Then came the barrage of questions and inquiries about her time in Alaska. Cornelia turned the table by asking them why they had, at one time, rung her at two in the morning.

"Irma said that it would have only been five in the afternoon," Taranee said with a giggle. "We knew it wouldn't be but we called you anyway."

Cornelia rolled her eyes and shook her head a little, but wore an amused look on her face the entire time. It was nice to come home to this. She wished that it had happened like this at her parents home too; smiles hugs and laughter.

Instead all I got was the usual whirlwind of Love Drama that follows Lillian.

"Hey, what's the frown for?" Will asked, seeing the frown on Cornelia's face. Cornelia looked up suddenly.

"Oh, it's nothing," she tried to assure them but it was foolish to think that she'd be so successful in that.

"What is it?" the four of them asked in perfect timing. Cornelia knew that there was no escape. Especially when one of them could easily read her mind anyway. No doubt that's what Taranee was doing even though Cornelia was going to tell them.

"Well…" Cornelia started to say but then asked, "Did you guys hear any news about my sister while I was away in Alaska?"

Irma and Hay Lin looked at each other, Hay Lin nodding at Irma, who then made the gesture of her finger slitting her throat like a knife would.

"I did," Hay Lin said, and then rephrased herself while pointing between herself and Irma. "We did."

Irma's palm connected with her face and she turned around and walked a few steps away.

"Were you surprised when Lily told you that she got engaged again?" Taranee asked.

"Well obviously," Cornelia started to rant. "If it's not to Jorge then it should be to no one at all!"

"Wow, Cornelia…" Will said unsurely. "You seem a bit annoyed at this…"

"And why shouldn't I? I go to Alaska and Lillian gets engaged to some random guy and–"

"Random guy? He's not random."

"Of course he's ran–" Cornelia's rant made a sudden halt as she looked at her four friends with a near gob smacked expression. "What do you mean? Do you know who he is?!"

"His name's… Christopher…"

"See? Jorge is a much better name than 'Christopher'. Who calls their son Christopher anyway," Cornelia immediately attacked. "I mean, seriously."

At this point Irma let a big sigh out and raised her hand, "Permission to speak?"

"Granted," Hay Lin said very uneasily. Cornelia expected some somewhat humorous comment such as, "23 of males in Europe are called Christopher." But no such comment was coming.

Irma turned around and looked Cornelia dangerously in the eye. Cornelia felt strangely intimidated by this unfamiliar look from Irma. Irma said, with next to no expression in her voice, "My parents named their son Christopher. You sister is engaged to my brother, so deal with it."

If the relationship between Irma and Cornelia was a mirror, a huge crack would have just been formed. And the crack was destined to only get bigger.

A/N: Don't you just love it when you have siblings/friends that constantly have a whirlwind of drama follow them? One of my friends is like that. Maybe I should dedicate this story to her p