Sibling Rivalry

Sibling Rivalry

DoubleKK

A/N: This chapter turned out a little differently than I intended. Read!

I was surprised to hear a masculine voice uttering a similar curse to mine at the same time. I looked at Gray, but he still seemed to be praying to the heavens to send someone down to rescue him. Then my eyes found Kai, who was keeping his own fixedly on the ground, avoiding anyone's gaze. I opened my mouth to speak…

But was interrupted by my sister screaming, "WHAT did you just call me?!"

Oh. Right. I had forgotten she was there. I was rather distracted by Kai's unusual displeasure at the sight of my sister, so I wasn't really paying attention. "Hmm? Sorry…..? What was that?"

There it was again. The crazy person look.

"What the Hell is wrong with you?" Amanda asked, more confused that angry now. "Are you on drugs?"

I ignored her. "Kai, Popuri, this is my sister, Amanda." I said, staring at Kai determinedly. He still didn't look up. "Remember? I told you she was coming the other day."

"Hello!" Popuri said excitedly. "It's so nice to meet you! Do you like chickens?"

"Hi, I'm Amanda" she said, immediately recovering from her out burst at me. Either she didn't hear the chicken comment, or just chose to classify the pink haired girl not right in the head. Instead, she focused on the man beside her. "Kai, right?"

"Mmm." Kai replied incoherently, still not looking up.

"Well, its nice to meet you both." I was gald that Amanda had been distracted by the new comers to forget about going ballistic on me. "Umm, Claire? What were we saying about where I was going to stay before?"

I was once again too distracted by Kai's strange behavior to answer. He had moved his eyes from the ground to Amanda confusedly. "Umm…Have we met?" he asked cautiously. Had his original look been of… recognition?

"Hmm? I don't think so." Amanda said, studying him closely. "Nope. If we have, I don't remember. And I think I would remember someone like you." She added with a sly wink.

Kai just looked even more confused at her flirty gesture. "Are you sure? Because I think that you and I once…."

I did not want to hear the rest of that sentence. I had a horrible feeling of what he was going to say next, so I grabbed both Gray and my twin by the arms. "Come on Amanda. I changed my mind. You can stay with me, if you want."

"Really?" Amanda looked pleased, but annoyed that I had taken her away from a chance of talking to a hot guy. Gray just looked confused. "I'm so glad that you are over our misunderstandings back then."

I chose not to respond to this. Popuri looked disappointed as I dragged away her potential new friend. "Bye! You should come over and meet my chickens one day!" she called. "I live right next door to Claire!" I have to say, Kai didn't look too happy either. I decided I would have a little chat with him later.

I let go of their arms when we were far enough away from the beach, and let Amanda walk a few paces ahead of me and Gray. "What the hell is going on?" he whispered. I shook my head.

"So, who was that hot guy with the bandanna again? Kai?" Amanda asked from ahead, trying to sound casual. "Is he taken?"

I ignored her again. "I'll explain later." I whispered back to Gray.

We got to my farm a few minutes later. Amanda looked around, clearly unimpressed. "This place is so… country…-ish." She said, her nose crinkled in what I took to be disgust. "Um, yeah. I live in the country. What did you expect?" I asked coldly.

"But where's your house?!"

"Right there." I answered irritably, pointing at my small cottage.

"That's it?" Amanda said incredulously. "But…it's so small! How do you even fit in there? My apartments bigger than that." She paused thoughtfully. "My rooms bigger than that!"

"Wow." I muttered. "You really are a city girl at its worst."

She just continued to look amazed at my living arrangements. "Gray?" I turned to him. He seemed to be spaced out, trying to ignore Amanda's and my bickering, and looked surprised when I acknowledged him. "Do you think that you stay here with Amanda for like, ten minutes? I really need to go talk to….someone."

"Uh, sure." He answered. "Who do you need to talk to?"

"Um, its-"

My sentence was cut short by a loud shriek. We both turned to see Amanda screaming at pointing at one of my chickens. "CLAIRE! You have disgusting animals here!?" She shrieked again as the chicken began to advance toward her. "You never told me that!" I bit back a laugh as she ran away, the chicken trailing after her.

"Well, maybe you should take her to the Inn instead."

--

After calming down my hysterical twin and assuring her that the chicken was not going to attack her, I walked briskly back down to the beach. I passed Poultry Farm and saw Popuri feeding her chickens and cooing to them freakishly. It seemed that her and my sister wouldn't get along well after all, as Amanda seemed to prefer her poultry on a plate. At least she won't be with Kai, then, I thought.

I walked through Rose Square, ignoring the gossip girls whispers of, "Oh yeah, I can't believe she called her own sister a foul name like that!" and walked onto the sand of the beach and towards the Sea Shack. Okay, I thought to myself, Lets approach this calmly and rationally.

"Kai!" I yelled as I burst through the screen door forcefully. "Did you sleep with my sister?!"

So much for calm and rational…

Kai, instead of being frightened by my rage, seemed to perk up from where he was slouching behind the counter. "Really? Did she remember me?"

I stared at him in disbelief. "….What? Uh, no." His face fell. I momentarily forgot my anger. "You're upset because she didn't remember you?"

He nodded glumly. "I just don't understand. I mean, it was only once, but…"

After hearing those words, I remembered why I had come. "So you have a one night stand, AND STILL want to hit on her again?!"

"No!" Kai said defensively, cowering slightly at my shouting. "I didn't sleep with her, and I didn't know it was her when you first told me! But when I saw her, I knew we had gone out before…"

I made a disgusted face. "Ew. I bet you didn't even know her last name then. So are you sure it was her?"

"Positive."

"Well," I sighed, "Its probably better that she doesn't remember you. I mean, if it was only once, and you didn't call her again or anything. She might be a bit pissed." I realized after that this wouldn't be true. Amanda's probably dated hundreds of one-shot deals.

"But that's just it!" Kai burst out suddenly. I jumped slightly. "Why wouldn't she remember me? Was I that bad of a date? It wasn't even that long ago!"

I rolled my eyes. "You can contemplate that yourself, Kai. Just don't talk to her, okay?" I left, leaving him to mutter to himself about doubts of his own attractiveness.

Wow. It is just like my sister to date a guy then forget him completely. I felt bad about leaving Gray to baby-sit her, so I went to the Inn quickly. I found him alone by the bar, looking troubled. I did not take this as a good sign.

"What's wrong?" I asked. He avoided my eyes. "Where's Amanda?" I demanded. He finally looked at me, guilt in his expression. "Uh…"

"What? Where is she, Gray?"

"I kind of…don't know." He replied sheepishly. "I just went to the bathroom, and when I came out…yeah."

I muttered a curse. "This is exactly what I need, to chase my sister around town." I said sarcastically. "I guess I have to go find her, then." I turned on my heel and left Gray standing there awkwardly.

I went out the way I came and wandered aimlessly at first. How I supposed to know where my sister would go in a town like this? My first guess would be shopping… I checked the Supermarket quickly, knowing it was a long shot. Karen said she hadn't seen her. I grunted in frustration once out of the store. Where else would she go…?

Then I had a terrible thought. The only thing Amanda liked more then shopping was…

"Is that hot guy in the purple bandanna taken?"

Aw, Hell no. Please no.

I ran to the beach for the third time that day. I headed for the restaurant, but didn't have to go any farther than the bench outside…

Where I was greeted by a sight I would have much rather not have seen.

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