Author's Note: I'm keeping my promise, and since I got up to 14 reviews -when I asked for 12- I promised that I would update. I had to speed type this, just because I wanted to make sure it got published ASAP! I hope the Kendall/Anna scene is as angsty as I wanted it to be.

Happy New Year, it's exactly 12:00 in the morning now, and I'm writting while watching the ball drop. Hope 2011 is gonna be a great year for everyone.

Disclaimer: I own Kendall... if only that Kendall was Kendall Schmidt and not a stuffed animal named after him.

Count On You

Chapter 2:

Both Kendall and Anna stood there awkwardly, and Anna fiddled with her fingers through her gloves, looking down. She looked up, and grimaced, "Never mind on the seat, I've got something to do anyways." She dismissed, and started to walk away.

For some reason, that Kendall didn't understand, he grabbed her arm, stopping her from moving. "Anna, wait." He said quietly.

She turned around, shivering a bit. "Kendall, just let go. I'm cold and need to get home." She remarked, trying to tug from his surprisingly strong grasp.

Kendall took a long breath, "We're going to have to run into each other a lot, and it'd be a lot easier to break the ice now then have that awkward feeling all the time."

Anna frowned at him, and tried to cross her arms, only to have the one Kendall was holding still not move. "Kendall, there's nothing to talk about, because that awkward feeling is always going to be there."

He narrowed his eyes, "Since when did you become so pessimistic?" He asked.

"Since when did you use words like pessimistic?" Anna threw back, raising an eyebrow at the blonde. He opened his mouth to respond, only to close it again, "Plus, I'm not pessimistic, I just know that after you're in a relationship with a guy and he hangs up with you on a phone call, you kind of get awkward around him."

Kendall started to say, "Listen Anna, I'm sorry. All I want is for you not to hate me, that's it. You don't have to like me, talk to me, even forgive me. Just don't hate me."

She looked him in the eyes, the green eyes she looked into everyday when looking at her daughter, the daughter he'd never known, "Kendall, I never thought I'd say this, but I do hate you."

He threw his hands up, finally releasing her wrist, "I'm sorry I broke up with you over a phone call, I wasn't even thinking."

"I guess I should be happy that I at least heard you say it, it would have been worse if you just sent me a text." Anna replied, not sounding any happier, "Kendall, let's just forget all of this. I already determined in my mind that you're gone. Six years ago, when you left me, I let you go. I didn't pin on you. And now that you're back, it's going to be the same way as it's been. Let's just pretend that we don't exist, and stay away from each other."

Kendall's eyebrows scrunched up, "What's gotten into you?"

She whipped a small tear from her eye, "You got into me. I was fine before you came back. I had a good life, and I could pretend none of that happened. And now you're back, and I have to go through the same thing as six years ago."

He sighed, "I'm really sorry, about everything."

Anna just looked down, forcing her eyes not to let the tears come back. She shed the last tear over Kendall Knight a long time ago, and she had promised she wouldn't let any of her tears be over him again. "Has anyone ever told you that sorry doesn't solve everything?" She questioned.

"Yeah, mom used to say it all the time." Kendall mumbled. "If it helps, I am though."

She looked up, not really looking at him though, "It doesn't."

"Can I at least explain?" Kendall asked, biting his lip a bit. He just wanted to break some of the awkwardness between them.

Anna took a breath, and nodded slowly, sitting down on the bench. "I've got to get home soon though."

"It'll only take a minute." Kendall took a long breath, and then started, "Well, we never saw each other, and we couldn't talk much because you had school, and I had the band. And, I didn't want to keep stringing us both along, so I thought I'd be easier on both of us if we broke up." He looked down, "Guess that didn't work well."

Anna sarcastically mumbled, "And what great timing it was." Kendall didn't hear her though, and she just turned to him, "I don't really want you to make an excuse. I get it fine. There's a bunch of pretty girls in L.A, and I'm not much compared to them."

Kendall shook his head immediately, "It's got nothing to do with other girls."

Finally, the dark haired girl laughed, "So that whole Kendall Knight and Jo Taylor Dating thing a week later was just a big rumor." When he didn't respond, "I used to think you were a better person than that."

He shot back, "I used to think that you were forgiving."

Anna narrowed her eyes, "I only forgave people because they deserved it, and you –Kendall- don't." She retorted.

Kendall threw his hands up into the air again, "What did I do?"

She lowly replied, "For one, you broke up with me in a phone call. And two, during that phone call I was going to tell you-" She stopped herself, biting her tongue from letting more words slip by.

He looked at her, raising a bushy eyebrow, "You were going to tell me what?"

Anna said, "Nothing."

He repeated, "What were you going to tell me?"

She only huffed again, "Nothing, now leave it." She got up, huddling her coat closer over her shoulders. "Goodbye Kendall." She said, before starting to walk away.

Kendall expected himself to yell after her, but when he opened his mouth to speak, no words came out. Soon, the dark haired girl disappeared from his view, heading down the street.

He got up, and decided that this park wasn't as good for relaxing as it was when he was sixteen. Now, it just held secrets, secrets that even he didn't know. Heading down the street, he pulled his beanie off, the cool September day not bothering him like before. He had something else on his mind.

What was Anna going to say? Maybe that she loved him? They had said that to each other before though, so it wouldn't have been big. That was the only thing that Kendall could think of. What else could be big?

The entire walk back home he was thinking about it, and he walked down the driveway to the door of his new house.

"Kendall!" Four familiar voices called from a distance.

He turned around, and saw Carlos, James and Logan walking from their separate yards. He mumbled a quiet, "Hey," That none of them probably heard.

As they all got over to him, Logan asked, "What's wrong?"

Kendall just waved his hand, "Nothing, just… thinking."

"Thinking about…" James prompted, motioning for him to continue on.

The blond just shrugged, "Stuff."

Carlos smiled, "Well, I know what will cheer you up!" He announced happily.

The two other guys stared waving their hands frantically, "No, no, no." They both chorused, trying to tell him to keep his mouth shut.

The Latino just continued as if they had never said anything, "Well, James, Logan and I went to that sporting store –the one we used to get hockey stuff from all the time. You'll never guess who we saw." Kendall bit his lip, he mentally was chanting don't say Anna, don't say Anna.

James and Logan tried to cover his mouth, but Carlos pushed them away, "This'll cheer him up, I'm sure." He declared, turning back to Kendall, "We saw Anna! She was looking at some skates. Isn't that cool, we haven't seen her in forever."

Both the brunette boys gave him a shove on one of his shoulders, and Carlos frowned. Kendall was just standing there, still a bit confused, a bit lost, and a bit still wondering what Anna was going to say. Since when did he have that much room in his head?

Logan turned to Carlos, "See, this is why we weren't going to mention it in front of Kendall, let alone announce it to him."

Kendall shoved his hands into his pockets, not really listening anymore, "Yeah, I'm going to go inside. I'll see you guys later." He said, looking off into space. Without waiting for them to respond, he walked up the drive, and unlocked his front door, stepping inside.

He walked downstairs to his basement. It was a hockey room, that's the only way to describe it. Flat screen for games, a mini fridge in the corner, an array of hockey sticks and equipment spewed around the room. His old hockey jersey from high school hung proudly on the wall, for him to see. And a cabinet filled with snacks on one side of the room. A large, leather couch sitting in the middle, with a coffee table that was used at a footrest. Again; Hockey room.

Plopping down on the comfy sofa, he grabbed the remote and flipped the TV on. Kendall murmured, "Maybe hockey will take my mind off it."

Anna reached her street in a few minutes, grabbing Karlie from her friends down the street. As they walked back to their house, Karlie babbled, "Caitlyn's mom made us some cupcakes, and then we went and played in her backyard, and then we ran around and played tag."

Anna smiled at her daughter, "Did you have fun?" She asked.

Karlie nodded vigorously, giving a toothy grin, "What did you do, mom?"

Biting her lip for a second, she knew she didn't want to lie to her little girl. Anna wanted her to know better than that, but what was she to say? I talked with the guy who's your father, but he doesn't know. That would confuse the little girl, and she'd probably not hear any word but father.

Sighing, she replied, "I went for a walk, and stayed in the park for a bit." She wasn't really lying, but it still felt wrong, even if it was a white lie. Her daughter should grow up with better influences. She probably wasn't a great one when you looked at it anyways; Sixteen year old who got knocked up by her boyfriend, who left before he even knew, aunt threw her out of the house, and she had to drop from regular school to learning at home, and then giving birth to a baby without the father beside of her.

Suddenly, the little black haired girl asked, "Mom, is daddy around?"

Anna froze for a second. Karlie couldn't possibly know that Kendall was her father, no one but her and Anna's aunt did. That's it. Swallowing, Anna asked, "Why?"

Karlie played with her fingers, "Caitlyn said that her daddy was going to father, daughter day at school next week. And I want my daddy to be there."

"I don't think he'll be able to come." She replied thickly, her voice laced with fogginess.

"Mommy," Anna turned to the little girl, "Why don't I ever see daddy? All the kids in my class get to see their dads every day, and I don't ever remember seeing him." Karlie whispered, holding tightly to her mother's hand, looking up with puppy dog eyes.

Anna forced the tear back. She hated how Karlie didn't ever get the chance to meet her father, and she knew the pain of not getting the love only parents could give. When her parents died, she felt more alone than ever. "Your dad left." Karlie's eyes started to well up, and Anna stopped walking, kneeling down and whipped the tears from her face, "Not because he didn't love us, I'm positive that he would have loved you. He and his best friends were given the opportunity of a lifetime, and they had to go after it." She explained lightly.

Karlie bit her lip, and nodded slowly, "Will he ever come back and see us?"

"That's something even I can't answer."

When they got back to the house, Anna quickly helped Karlie into her PJ's, and settled her into bed, before heading back to her own room.

For most of the night she was up, staring at the ceiling. A face, with olive green eyes, wind-swept blond hair and bushy eyebrows clouded her mind.

Author's Note: Before you ask, some schools do Father-Daughter Days at them, because I remembering going to one of them when I was in 1st grade. I just thought it would be a cute little thing to add in, and show that Karlie really wants to know her daddy. I really liked the intense scene before that, between Kendall and Anna (Kenna!)because of the angst like feeling, and the high tensions.

-I had a comment about how Kendall would react to being a dad. Well, I'm still trying to figure it out for myself. He won't be figuring it out for quite a while, Chapter 10 being the earliest, more likely later in the story. He'll meet Karlie, but he won't know that he's her dad for a while. I've got a few little tricks up my sleeve for the next few chapters.

Review, please! I would love for it to get over 20. Please, I'll update quicker -unless I have something going on and can't get the time to write.