A/N: No one noticed last time that I put "Chapter Nine" on chapters nine AND ten. Hehe... I'm devious...

I Need a Job

Chapter Eleven

"Ari?" Max asks dumb-founded. "Is that really you?"

I nod as she comes towards me, and just as I think I'm going to get a hug from my -and I use this term lightly- loving sister she comes forward and punches me in the arm. "Um, ow." I say rubbing my arm.

"Where have you been, Ar?" She asks. "I haven't seen you since you left for college!" She grabs me in a fierce hug and I'm reminded of when we were younger when she would grab on to some part of me when she was scared. "I missed you." She whispers, even though it comes out as more of a mumble since she's pressed against my chest.

"I missed you too."

"How did you find me?" She asks. "I kinda dropped off the edge of the world in case you didn't notice."

I shrug, "Oh that was easy, I hired a PI."

"You hired a private investigator?"

"That's what I said, Maxie, or do you need me to repeat it slowly so you can understand?"

She pulls away from me and growls, "I told you not to call me that."

I grab her in a head-lock and give her a noogie, "What are you gonna go about it?" I get my answer nearly a second after I ask it as she drives a hard elbow into my rib cage. "Ow, Birdie, when did you get so strong?" I say using one of Max's most infamous nicknames, which I made up when she went through her "Birds are so awesome!" stage when she was eleven.

"I took self defense classes after the, um," She pauses here for a few moments before she whispers, "after the accident."

"What?" I ask, confusion written on my face. "What accident?"

"The sperm and egg donor didn't tell you?"

"Max you shouldn't call Mom and Dad-" I start before getting cut off.

"Mommy!" A little girl's voice shrieks. "I lost Princess Penelope!"

"Did you check under your bed?" She calls back over her shoulder.

There's a very faint rustling that I have to strain to hear and then a call of, "Never mind!"

"Max," I start, "who was that?"

She sighs and runs a hand through her hair. "This may take a while, have a seat." She says waving her hand towards the couch.

I take a seat on one end while she sits on the other. "Explain."

She nods her head. "Okay," She takes a deep breath. "Three and a half years ago I was walking back from the super market. It was dark and I was alone." No. Please, no. "I didn't expect anything to happen just a quick trip to pick up some Blue Bell ice-cream." She laughed bitterly. "I was humming some generic pop song, I can never seem to remember which one... and then..." She chokes up and stumbles through her words before composing herself, "And nine months later Angel was born."

"Oh Max," I say reaching ovr and grabbing her in a tight hug.

She hugs me back just as tight and pulls back, saying after a few moments, "But Mom and Dad kicked me out because they wanted me to terminate the pregnancy." I give her a look of astonishment. Never in my life would I have thought about our parents doing something like...that. Even if they were over-controlling at times. "As you can probably tell from the overly loud three-year-old that has a tendency to shout when she plays with her toys I obviously didn't go through with it."

I nod. "I wonder where she gets that from."

She whacks my arm, "Oh shut up! You did the same thing!"

"An how would you know that Miss Omniscient Max, if I was out of first grade when you were just learning how to play with dolls?"

She smirks evilly at me, "I have my ways. But on a totally different point of interest I need to go grocery shopping and I'm assuming you are going to be staying here for a while."

"Quite the opposite actually." I say, "I'm just popping in for a quick visit, two weeks at most."

She snorts, "Oh yes that's so 'quick.'" She says putting air quotes around the word quick. She gets up and disappears into the kitchen reappearing a few moments later with a pair of keys. "Just give me a sec, I've got to go convince Angel to come to the store with me." She goes down a small hallway and runs off into a room where I can hear muffled voices.

And then, suddenly like a tsunami a small little voice shrieks, "We have person over!" A loud laugh is followed by this realization.

Then, without warning a ball of blonde hair is attached to my left leg giggling and laughing. Max pops back out of the room and says, "That's Angel." I look down and see a little person standing there that looks almost completely different than my baby sister known as Max.

Where as Max has brown hair like every person in out family excluding our Mom, Angel has light platinum blonde hair. Max has dark brown eyes that look like chocolate and Angel has blue eyes that look like the sky. I look up at Max and ask a silent, "Is this real?" She nods softly. I'm overcome by emotion and find that my voice isn't working very well. "Hello?" The little girl says waving her hand in front of her face. "Are you okay, Mister?"

Somehow I manage to nod and drop down on one knee in front of her. I open my mouth and close it a few times, "You know, Mister, you're going to catch flies. At least that's what Mommy always says, right, Mommy?" She asks turning to Max.

"I'm your uncle," I say somewhat hoarsely.

She gasps loudly and her little hands fly up to her mouth, "I have an uncle?" She asks excitedly.

I give a microscopic grin, "Yeah. But you can call me Uncle Ari."

She giggles happily, "Uncle Ari! Uncle Ari!" She starts to skip around in circles and claps her hands.

I look up to my baby sister and smile. She gives a small smile back and twirls her keys around her pointer finger. "Come on you small ball of crazy," She says picking up Angel and putting her on her hip. She walks toward the door with me following. "Time to go shopping."

Well, isn't this chapter fine and dandy? The end is kind of bad, (read: terrible) oh well. And as of right now I'm no longer friends with my friend Alex. Here's what went down:

"You should go out for cheerleading!"

*loud laugh* "That's rich, Alex." *pregnant silence* "...You aren't serious."

"But, Heart it would be so much fun!"

"I would trip and fall on my ass!"

"No you wouldn't You've got the personality for a good one because your not snobby and you've got good grades and give me a quarter for the swear jar!"

*sigh* "Alexandra." *pause* "No."

"I'll give you ten dollars."

"Twenty."

"Fifeteen."

"Do I have to?"

"Yes."

"[insert bad word that starts with F]."

"That'll be fifty cents."

"[insert bad word that starts with F]."

Today's Random Piece of Information: Poem:

Everybody wants happiness,

Nobody wants pain,

But you can't have a rainbow,

Without a little rain.