A/N: Thank you to .143, ComplexStatus, HjLostDreams, AllStarsGirl, Lazyb, BellaDora Soulmates and all the guests for the reviews! They are extremely insightful and helpful. In the last chapter I mentioned possible having Shell down the line, but there was a large outcry about it so I might possibly write a different love interest in the vast future, but it's iffy.

Chapter 8

Knowing that I am going to have trouble dealing with my current situation involving Rachel and my mother, I decide that I need to talk with somebody, and I know that my mother said that if I ever had an issue, I should come talk to her, but I feel like she is going to be bias to the circumstance. Ever since I was 13 I have taken care of myself after school, but I still would go over to my old Nanny Gia's house every so often. Since I've been in Vocal Adrenaline we barely see each other, it's a Friday afternoon and since we've won regionals my mother gave us Friday off and so I decide to go over to Gia's to talk with someone other than my mother.

I ring the doorbell to her apartment, and Carson her five-year-old son is with her when she opens the door.

"Hi darling, come on in!" She says ushering me inside and hugging me tightly; I hug her back and take a deep breath. She releases me and starts walking towards the kitchen.

"Hey buddy." I say kneeling down and playing with Carson.

"Are you hungry? Do you want a snack?" Gia says from the kitchen, motioning for me to follow her.

"No, I'm alright thanks." I say sitting down at the kitchen table.

"Are you sure your alright? You seem really tired." Gia says getting herself a cup of tea and sitting at the table, pulling Carson into her lap and letting him play with his toys.

"I'm fine… well, no I'm not," I start out, "I'm just kind of confused with the whole situation that I'm in.

"What's going on? " Gia asks, "You didn't get into anything your weren't suppose to now, did you?

"No, I didn't." I laugh, "Can I ask you something though?"

"You can ask me anything, you know that." Gia says reaching over and holding my hand.

"Did you know that my mother had another kid? Did she ever mention anything about that to you?" I ask.

"Wait, what? Do you mean recently?" She says confused.

"No, it would have been a really long time ago, I have a twin sister." I say, Gia is shocked.

"I honestly am at a loss of words right now, and no she defiantly never mentioned anything like this to me before. Did she just tell you?" Gia asks still baffled.

"Kinda, well my sister, Rachel showed up unannounced at one of our Vocal Adrenaline rehearsals about a month and a half ago." I explain.

"I must say that is really surprising, I honestly can't believe that your mother didn't tell you, I know Shelby isn't big on sharing her history or her secrets but this is kind of unbelievable." Gia says taking a sip of her tea. "How are you taking it? Is she nice, your sister that is."

"She's nice enough, but the whole situation has made it awkward between my mom and I. Whenever Rachel is around I kind of feel like my mother resents me or something." I say in all truth.

"I don't think your mother resents you, she just has a lot of trouble expressing her feelings, you know that, we've talked about this before." Gia is right, we have talked about my mother's inability to be endearing many a-time, but I still don't understand why its me she ignores and not Rachel, not that she should ignore either of us, but while Rachel has two loving parents at home, she is the only parent I have.

"She has no problem expressing her feelings with Rachel." I grumble, slouching in my chair.

"I believe that even though she may not show it, she still loves you Sky, have you tried telling her how you feel about the whole thing?" Gia suggests.

"Yes! And she ignores me!" I say frustrated.

"Try again, I know she is stubborn and tends to run away from her problems so it might take a while. But if she doesn't listen come and talk to me, I will knock some sense into her." Gia says knocking on my head.

"Oh no, you don't have to go through all of that trouble." I protest, but Gia refuses to hear it.

"Someone has to do it kid, this has gone on for far too long, you're her child, she can't just push you to the sidelines all the time." Gia says letting Carson out of her lap so he can go play in the family room.

"Ok, can we talk about something else now?" I say, I'm getting tired of constantly thinking about this, "This has been consuming my life lately."

"Oh, I'm sure it has, how's VA going by the way." Gia says changing the topic.

"We just won Regionals." I say proudly. "I actually don't hate it as much as I did when I started."

"That's good. I'm glad you like it." She says smiling.

"Well… I don't like it, I tolerate it." I say while making circles with my finger on the table. Gia looks at me curiously. "I just realize that its not that I don't like show choir, its that I don't like the fact that being in show choir is the only way I can get my mother to notice me."

"Ok, I thought you didn't want to talk about your mom." Gia says, "How about dance? Do you want to go back to dance, I know you love it."

"I would love to go back to dance but I can't, I don't have the time with all the VA rehearsals." I say bummed.

"You just said that the only reason you are in VA is because of your mother right? So I don't understand, if you don't like it, why don't you just quit?" Gia proposes.

"My mother would never let me, she would kill me." I argue, "I don't think anyone has ever quit VA in the history of VA."

"So what? You can be the first one, maybe she will actually pay attention to you for once." Gia says sarcastically.

"Its never going to work, even if my mother somehow magically agrees to let me quit, there is no way I can get to dance." I point out.

"I can take you. Its only 20 minutes from here and I'm nannying a girl who goes to your old studio, I'm sure they will be ecstatic to have you back on their competition team." Gia offers.

"Really? You would do that for me?" I smile at her and she smiles back.

"Of course kiddo, you deserve it."

The rest of the afternoon was so nice, I played with Carson and talked more with Gia. Being around them makes me evaluate my home life more. I recognize that I can't keep trying to do things solely just to please my mother and I need to start to do things for myself. I get home at about 6:30, and to my surprise my mother is already home. I left her a note vaguely telling her where I was so she would have fewer grounds to get mad at me, plus I'm still kind of grounded. I didn't really specify where I was on the note because I thought that she might get defensive or something if she found out I was at Gia's. As I walk through the front door I can hear her moving around the kitchen. I quickly walk through the kitchen and into the living room, my mother follows me thirty seconds later.

"Where were you?" She asks.

"I left a note." I inform her.

"I am aware of that, however you didn't say where you went." She responds to me comment.

"Does it really matter?" I say contemplating leaving the room even though I just got there.

"Just tell me Skylar." My mother says getting irritated by my roundabout answers.

"I was at Gia's ok? I didn't tell you because I thought you would get mad." I finally answer.

"Why?" She asks looking distrustful.

"Because I miss seeing her and I needed someone to talk to." I say, shrugging hoping she will leave it.

"What did you need to talk to her about? Why didn't you just come to me?" She says getting slightly hostile.

"I just needed to talk with someone other than you ok? God." I am really annoyed by my mothers constant probing for information. I figure that since we are already in a semi-argument I might as well drop the bomb. "I want to quit Vocal Adrenaline, no, I am going to quit Vocal Adrenaline." I say it nice and clear, making sure that she understands that there is no other option.

"Why?" She dead pans, I can't tell if she is angry or not, she probably just hasn't fully registered what I've just said.

"I really don't like it and I want to go back to dance." I say, my mother stands silently; I'm worried that she is going to be super mad.

"Do you want to quit because you actually don't like glee, or because we're having issues at home?" She asks in a cool tone after a few seconds of silence. I don't know how to respond to this, I feel like if I tell her the truth she is going to be unhappy… you know what, screw it; I'm sure she can handle me telling her how I actually feel.

"Its because of what's going on at home." I say, bracing myself for her to start yelling.

"Fine."

"What?"

"I said fine."

I can't believe this; she's letting me quit without even a little resistance.

"So you are completely fine with my quitting?" I ask slowly.

"Well, even if I told you that you couldn't that wouldn't stop you from quitting so what's the point?" She says crossing her arms, she seems really angry.

"Well, if you're completely fine with it…" I say, getting ready to leave the room.

"Did Gia talk you into this?" My mother says suddenly changing the subject.

"What? No!" I say getting defensive. I can't believe my mother is blaming her for me wanting to quit.

"Skylar I don't want you going over there anymore, you are to old to be visiting a nanny." My mother says looking at me.

"What are you talking about, she's not just my nanny, she practically raised me!" I say, it's to late when I realize that was a mistake; the words have already left my mouth. My mothers face goes flush, she is so angry.

"You're not going over there anymore—" She starts.

"You just don't like the fact that I'm closer to her than I am to you. You're jealous that she gets my affection and you don't'? Just to let you know, this is how I feels when I'm around you and Rachel." There, I said it. I know she is going to hate me for it but it needed to be done. Maybe she can finally understand how I feel most of the time. I leave the room without saying anything else; I can feel her glare burning a hole in my back as I walk away to my room. Once again my mother is mad at me, but lately she's been so mad at me all of the time, I'm starting to get use to it.

A/N Hate it? Love it? Let me know. I'm going to write Rachel into the next couple of chapters a lot more, don't worry.