"We are told to let our light shine, and if it does, we won't need to tell anybody it does. Lighthouses don't fire cannons to call attention to their shining; they just shine."

~Dwight L. Moody


Laurel

"...and then I told the guy to fuck off," this was another one of Aunt Demi's gossip.

"Demi, please! The children are here," Carol reminded her. Everyone was sitting in the living room. Aunt Demi loved to judge everything when she got the chance. Zack and I made sure we were sitting the farthest from Aunt Demi and it wasn't just because her perfume was suffocating everyone in the room. Of course, it didn't take long before Aunt Demi grabbed Zack and made him sit next to her.

"Oh sorry, Carol. You know how I get when a babble," she chuckled. Aunt Demi was petting Zack like he was some kind of animal. "Carol, honey, you must really buy some sunblock for Zack. He's looking a bit tannish."

"That's how he is, Demi."

"Well, excuse me. Just trying to give you some advice so he doesn't get skin cancer or something," Kevin looked like he wanted to say something. If there was one thing that he didn't like was being told how to raise kids. "Oh Zack you've got your mom's eyes! Such a pretty shade of green. I could just take you home!" Ugh, kill me now! I thought as I rolled my eyes. Actually, now that I was looking at him, Zack didn't look anything like Kevin or Carol. He had black hair. Kevin and Carol were blond. Zack wasn't pale either. In fact, the only thing that he had in common with Carol were his eyes. That was really odd.

"Anyway," Aunt Demi continued, "I came because I heard the big news. I can't believe you're pregnant!"

"Yeah, we found out-" Kevin was interrupted by Aunt Demi.

"I just can't believe that you guys are going to have another one. So are you going to take Lauren back now or what?" She was really pushing it now. I so badly wanted to just kick her or throw the glass of water at her, maybe then she'd melt and all my problems would be solved.

"Demi, not in front of the kids," Carol looked tense now, "We've had this conversation before."

"I'm sorry Carol but I still don't understand why you went ahead and adopted."

"Laurel, Zack. Go upstairs and watch some T.V. while we talk to Aunt Demi," Kevin smiled at us but I could tell that he was forcing himself. He didn't have to tell us twice. Just because I wanted to rub it in Aunt Demi's face, I got up, went up to her and Zack, and stuck my hand out to him.

"Come on, Zack. I thing SpongeBob's on," I told him. He didn't hesitate to take my hand and I pulled him away from the monster that was Carol's sister. I smiled at her, "Bye Auntie Demi," I emphasized. Before she could say anything, we bolted to the stairs.

"I think you got her angry," Zack whispered as we stood on top of the stairs.

"How do you know?"

"Because she tightened her hold on me when I grabbed your hand." I smiled. I felt pretty proud of myself. Aunt Demi really was a pain in my butt. I didn't understand how Carol, who was such a nice person, have a witch as a sister.

"You know they're probably talking about you," Zack reminded me.

"Probably. I still don't get why she hates me. You wanna spy on them?" I asked him.

"We could be like ninjas! We will have to be sneaky and quiet." We took it step by step going down. When we made it to the bottom, we got on out knees and started crawling to the living room. The couch that Aunt Demi was sitting on, was turned away from us. We sat right behind it and listened.

"I don't get why you don't like her, Demi." I heard Carol say.

"She's a foster child. Her parents left her for a reason. Besides, didn't the social worker warn you about how much trouble she got in?"

"That doesn't mean that we should just-" Aunt Demi really liked to interrupt Kevin.

"I get it. It's for a good cause blah blah blah. But now you have a baby on the way. There's no need to have her around."

"Demi! We adopted Laurel beca-"

"You adopted her because you had a miscarriage, Carol." Aunt Demi said firmly, "You were going through a lot of emotional stress, I get it, but adopting wasn't going to replace the kid you lost." I was shaking, I knew I was. It wasn't because I was cold. I was angry. What did Aunt Demi know about my parents? She had no idea and still has the nerve to talk about me like I'm some kind of criminal.

"Laurel...?" I almost forgot Zack was beside me. I looked up at him, tears threatening to fall from my eyes. I blinked the tears away because I didn't want anyone to see me cry. For the first time since I got here, Zack actually looked worried for me. "Let's go," He spoke softly and gently nudged me towards the stairs. I nodded and we crawled away from the disputing adults.


We were in Zack's room. He didn't want me to leave him after what we'd heard because he thought that I needed comfort or something. I was grateful and everything but all I wanted was to be left alone. I tried to tell Zack that but you couldn't say no to him.

"Here, Laurel. Sit here and I'll turn on the TV," He made me sit in front of his TV and turned it on. The screen showed SpongeBob and Squidward at the Krusty Krab and it was night. "Look, it's your favorite episode, Graveyard Shift." Zack quickly sat down by my side. I really liked the show but I wasn't really in the mood. I was so down that I didn't even laugh at my favorite part where SpongeBob tells Squidward that he used his clarinet to unclog his toilet.

"Laurel, you shouldn't care what Aunt Demi said," Zack advised. I stared at my hands on my lap.

"Sorry, it's just that...she's really mean."

"Yeah but at least she doesn't try to squeeze your lungs out." I chuckled at the comment but I didn't feel better. Zack sighed and thought for a moment. He got up and went to his bed. I started twiddling my thumbs. He came back with Jacob, his stuffed cat. "Uh, Laurel? I know that it probably won't help but when I feel bad, I hug Jacob. He makes me feel better. Try it." I looked at the old cat for a second then at Zack. Was he really being serious? I took the cat from him and gave it a hug so I didn't make Zack feel bad. I felt kind of silly doing this and having Zack look at me expectantly. He probably really believed that this cat made me feel better.

I started giggling. "What's so funny?" He asked.

"Nothing. I'm just happy that you're trying to cheer me up. Thanks Zack," I smiled. I still didn't think it was genuine enough. It needed to be something more to show him that I really appreciated it. My mom always said that kisses showed how much you cared for someone. What the heck, I thought.

"Well, glad you're not sad anymore," Zack beamed.

"But seriously, I'm really thankful, Zack," I leaned in and gave him a peck on the cheek. He looked shocked that I did that and his cheeks started getting a reddish hue.

"Uh...you-you're welcome," He quavered. I raised an eyebrow. Why was he acting weird now? Carol kissed him all the time. I shrugged it off because it was actually a little funny. I remembered the friendship bracelet I was still wearing.

"Oh, I have something for you!" I took off the orange bracelet. "Here, I made it for you." He still didn't look very focused. I rolled my eyes. I grabbed his hand and slipped the bracelet on his wrist.

"Thanks," He managed. Then I heard the door open. I turned to see who it was.

"Oh hi kids," Aunt Demi strode in the room like she lived here. What was she doing here? I didn't want to be near her and decided to just leave.

"I need to go to the bathroom," I excused myself and hurried out the door. As soon as I closed the door, a thought stopped me from running to my room. What and why was she in Zack's room? I slowly opened the door again and through the crack, I could hear them.

"I'm glad she's gone," Aunt Demi smirked, "Anyway, I came to see how you were doing up here and to make sure you were okay."

"Why wouldn't I be okay?"

"Because I don't trust that girl for a second. There's something fishy about her, Zack. If I were you, I wouldn't put my guard down."

"I don't think that she's dangerous." Aunt Demi looked at Zack, disbelief written all over her face.

"She's gotten to you too, I see. Zack, what happened? I thought you didn't like her either." I opened the door a little more. She was just here to talk bad about me some more. Kevin and Carol had probably already had enough of it.

"Laurel's a nice person, Aunt Demi. You just need to give her a chance," Zack insisted but she shook her head.

"I thought you were smarter than that, Zachary. I thought you had more sense than your parents but apparently I was wrong."

"Stop it!" Zack snapped. Aunt Demi almost flinched. "Stop talking bad about Laurel. She never did anything to you so you have no reason to be mean." Aunt Demi's face hardened.

"If that's how you feel then I'll be going," Aunt Demi straightened herself up and swiftly walked and swung the door open. I didn't have enough time to hide and her expression turned cold. "You." The way she said it, it made me want to run and hide under my covers. "You think you have everyone under your thumb, don't you? Well you don't fool me. I know you're trouble and when they realize I'm right, they'll be sorry they didn't listen to me." I didn't turn around but I heard her heels as she made her way down to the front door. Kevin and Carol were probably saying their goodbyes or something.

I looked at Zack, "Thanks for sticking up for me."

He waved it off, "It was nothing. She was getting really annoying." He yawned, "I'm tired. I'm going to bed. Good night, Laurel." He told me as he headed for the bathroom. As he passed me, his shoulder brushed past mine. My stomach churned a bit. I thought that was weird. I concluded that I was just hungry and went to the kitchen to eat some cereal before going to bed.


I didn't plan it, really, but I'm starting to ship Zack X Laurel :) I can't exactly do anything about that but that doesn't mean that Laurel can't be totally confused about it ^_^