"Are we good? Siblings again?" Stephen was clearing off the dinner table when he heard his sister's voice from next to him. He nearly dropped the cheese covered plate when he got hold of Charlotte's exact words.

"A-are you serious?" He stuttered. Stephen couldn't believe it. Was Charlotte seriously apologizing? Was their hateful fight over? Was Charlotte waving the white flag and calling a truce? This seriously could not be happening. The last time he had talked, or been acknowledged by his sister before today was two days ago when Charlotte shot him a dirty look when the two siblings were passing each other in the hallway on his way to pre-calculus.

Charlotte didn't even bat an eyelash. Her hazel eyes shot him in the face a look that said, "do you think I'm kidding"? "Fine. If you don't want to call a truce." She huffed, pretending to sound annoyed even though she knew it within her that he was probably dying for them to be siblings again and be at peace again. Like Charlotte said, she was pretty much a "detective", basically a "mind reader." For some reason, she always had a clear clue of what people were thinking about and most times when she acted on how she thought people acted, and most times she was right. There were times when she backfired on what she thought was right, but they were very little times.

"Okay, fine. Truce. Siblings again?" Stephen set down the polished white plates down on the kitchen table next to him carefully and stuck his right hand out to his little sister. He did a sigh of relief inside. Things were finally back to normal, like the way he wanted them to be. Stephen was never the type to break into a fight and more of what you would label a "peacemaker." He was always one to take the high road and do his best to avoid a problem and if it was a serious problem, he would do his best to work it out and make sure everything was alright.

Inside, he was a proud Hufflepuff (he had gotten his mum and sister to mentally sort him into one of the four Hogwarts houses when he was seven after he begged Jenna if he could go to Hogwarts like Harry and she sadly told him there was no Hogwarts). Stephen regarded kindness and respect his number one personality traits and two of the most important traits a person should have.

"Fine." Charlotte shook her brother's hand grudgingly. "But I have a question for you, why did you join the school play? Did you? And did you quit because of me?" She near-interrogated him. There were so many questions she wanted to ask him but judging from the way it was, it seemed to be like a round of third-degree.

"I'll answer however many questions you have after I clean these dishes and set everything back to where it belongs." Stephen nodded over to the stack of plates he had set aside to make peace temporarily with his little sister.

"Stephen, if I come down here in ten minutes and find that you haven't put everything back to where it belongs, you are going to be grounded. You've had nearly twenty minutes!" Jenna exclaimed at her elder son, walking into the kitchen.

"Okay, Mum." Stephen nodded and got on with his chores. What exactly was he going to tell Charlotte? Did he have to tell her about Grace and that whole mess as well? Grace, he thought to himself. She had slipped his mind for the past few weeks as things had been hectic for a while and focusing on a "crush" wasn't really the thing to do when things were hectic. Did it mean that he didn't like her anymore?

He spent the rest of the time remaining silent and finishing his chores while his sister sat with her leg up on a kitchen chair and scrolling through something on her phone that probably was all the importance.

"Finished." He came up to his sister after he finished the dishes and everything. Stephen had no idea what they were going to talk about or what they were going to do. It had been awhile, a long while, since he had done something or spent time with his sister. Things for him just seemed a little too awkward but Charlotte probably didn't see the awkwardness or feel that anything was wrong.

"How's life?" Charlotte asked, in a monotone voice, from behind the screen of her phone, not looking up.

"G-great," Stephen replied. "How about you?"

She put her phone down. "Well, I'm decorating sets and stuff for the school play so I guess it's been good."

The two siblings stayed silent for a while, neither of them knowing what exactly to say. What exactly was there to say? The two of them were teenagers now and had lives of their own. Before they were fighting, they never had a "serious" talk or anything with each other. They were just on good terms. The last time they had spent "time" like this with each other, they were probably ten or eight and still young kids.

"I only joined the school play because I liked Grace," Stephen blurted out quickly, not realizing what was coming out of his mouth. The moment it came out of his mouth, he instantly regretted saying it.

Charlotte slowly looked up at her brother, her hazel eyes wide open, pierced on him. Did she just hear him correctly? Did he just say that he joined a school play to get close to a girl? And two, that girl being Grace Becker? Future prom queen, all-around popular, American/British, bouncy and golden blonde hair, Loven Academy thespian Grace Becker?

"You did not just say that." She managed to mutter out those words, still absolutely shocked at what she had heard. In her fourteen years of life, her brother had never even showed one slight bit of interest towards another girl.

"I did... maybe," Stephen muttered, couldn't even believing himself. And why was he telling his fourteen year old sister about this? The world really was a strange place sometimes.

"Well how's your crush going?" She asked him, trying to sound interested and not totally still in shock as that was her current state. Even if you dumped a bucket of ice water on her or did everything to try to get Charlotte out of the shocked stage she was in, nothing could possibly work. There really was no way for her to forget everything that she had heard in the past sixty seconds.

He didn't answer back to her and stayed silent which gave Charlotte the answer she needed without asking everything. "You haven't spoken to her yet, have you?" Even though she didn't know if that was the case, Charlotte probably wasn't off or wrong. She expected this type of thing coming from her brother.

"Sometimes I've had..." Stephen answered slowly, not trying to make himself sound like a complete idiot in front of his younger sister. The last thing that he wanted to do was to sound like a loser in front of her. He was sure at this point that Charlotte was a lot "cooler" than him. Was this how stuff between siblings were supposed to be? Wasn't the older sibling supposed to be "cooler" than the younger one? If that was the case, then obviously whoever made up that rule had probably met the Smith siblings.

"Like in person? Not in your dreams?" Charlotte asked, sounding mock-surprised. Personally, she was surprised if Grace and Stephen actually were talking because she didn't expect that of her brother. He was awkward and stoic and for so long she didn't expect him to like someone and for them to be talking. This was all weird and foreign to her.

"Okay, maybe we haven't talked that much but then again, who are you to tell me what to do if you haven't been in this position before?" He retorted, cornering in on her.

Now it was Charlotte's turn to grow quiet. "Look, I'm trying to help you," Charlotte answered, her cheeks blushing red in frustration. Something set her off and she didn't know what it was.

She realized something when her brother said that: She had never been "in love" or liked anyone before. Sure, she loved her parents and she loved her extended family, but had she ever loved anyone that was a guy? Up to this point, she had never dated or had a longterm crush on anyone in her class or school. She knew Isa had a short summer fling last summer when she and her family were on vacation in Mustique, and for weeks after that, Isa wouldn't stop rambling on and on about the guy she met at her hotel in Mustique.

Charlotte just smiled patiently and threw in a happy or supportive comment in time after time, even though she was bored to death about what Isa had to say. Somewhere along the way, the communication stopped between Isa and this guy. She stopped mentioning him and Charlotte didn't dare to question why they weren't staying up until two in the morning gossiping on the phone about last summer.

"Geez, sorry," Stephen remarked, he didn't know that he hit a sensitive spot in her or that he said something that probably offended her. But then again, how could he have offended her with what he said?

"Whatever," she muttered. "I need to do homework anyways. Nice talking to you," Charlotte added quickly, her voice faltering. Stephen nodded slowly and Charlotte slowly walked back upstairs to her room, feeling defeated with every step she took.

She collapsed on her back down on her bed and took a long deep breath to take in everything that was happening. Life could be worse, she thought to herself, telling herself not to freak out so much about what was going on. She didn't even know why she was acting upset and why she was freaking out internally.

Were these the "teenage hormones" that everyone was talking about and what all the adults dreaded? Great. This was just great. Charlotte sighed to herself as she thought about how "forever alone" she felt. Suddenly, it felt like everyone was suddenly in a relationship or had a crush besides her. Again, she didn't know what it was that set her off to make her think like this but she didn't like it. Was she jealous even at the thought of her brother potentially dating someone popular?

Then again, she was only fourteen. Stephen was sixteen so there was a two year age gap between each other. But besides that, there were plenty of fourteen year olds who were more advanced than having a crush. Take Isa for example. Charlotte was a few months older than her but Isa serial-crushed on guys the first week of school and Charlotte just followed her around to be a good friend and to be there for her.

There were those upperclassmen who dated other people and took each other to dances and everything, but they were upperclassmen so that didn't count at all. What was it about her that made her repel guys? Why weren't her weekends filled with dates and cutesy romantic stuff?

Somehow, she was going to change that. She really was. She didn't know how that she was going to change how she was feeling at this moment.

Charlotte's hazel eyes brimmed over her biology notes as she sat in English class, studying for the quiz that she had next period. Quietly from the back of the classroom where she sat, she observed what was going on around her. This was the first time she had really "observed" the people around her, the first time she was taking in what was going on.

There were Julie Halner and Cameron Derold who were sitting in the very front of the class and obviously not caring about who was watching their display of affection and it was evident that they were dating. Ew.

Sadie Neilsen was sitting next to her and would always smile at Charlotte whenever she cast a look over at Sadie. Sadie mostly kept to her books and to herself and preferred that rather that socializing with her classmates.

Phoebe Keiller and Natalie Wainer were giggling with each other and kept turning around and giving snide looks at everyone in the room and every time the person they were giggling at made eye contact with either the two of them, they would erupt in more hushed giggles, so hushed and snide, they could ruin your day and make you feel bad about yourself. Charlotte was already the victim three years ago when everyone discovered what the social hierarchy was and its effects.

But was this really how school was? Was school really all about mean girls and lovey-dovey couples? Less than twenty-four hours ago, none of these thoughts were coming into Charlotte's mind and now they were. And now she was on a desire to crack the code of how to fit in, even if she didn't know that she already fit in with everyone else.

A/N -

Sorry for the long wait, I've been busy a lot since school's started and everything, but abandoning this story is not an option. Expect more chapters coming soon. Your continued support means everything to me!

- Irine