Wowwie! Already up to 50 reviews! I'm stoked! You don't realize how super amazingly awesome it is to read all of your comments. Thanks everyone! Hope you enjoy this chapter, it's full of older brothers being overly protective as usual. Always fun stuff. Lol.

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Chapter 11: History Projects and Face Punches

"Are you sure we should be using Wikipedia?" The boy, Shawn, sitting next to Sydney asked. "Yeah, the majority of stuff on here's true. It should be fine." Sydney assured him as she focused on the laptop screen, scrolling down the webpage as she read. The pair had been partnered up together for a history class project, which of course was put off until last minute.

"It doesn't need to be that great of work. Just as long as it gets done." She continued, scrawling some notes down on a piece of paper as the two sat on her bed. She stopped writing momentarily as she looked over to Shawn, "What are we supposed to be writing about again?" She asked as Shawn shrugged, "Uh…"

He rustled through the papers containing notes and articles about the topic which were spread around them before finding the one that had the assignment on it. "How imperialism lead to World War I." He read aloud as Sydney let out a frustrated groan and crossed out the notes she had taken, realizing they didn't pertain to imperialism or World War I.

"Here, let me try to find something." Shawn offered, turning the laptop towards him. Sydney say next to him with the paper and pen, ready to take notes that might actually help as she looked at the screen.

The two had known each other for a few years, having gone to the same middle school and had a few classes together in high school. So when the teacher paired them together for this project, neither was exactly thrilled. It wasn't because they weren't friends or anything, but actually for the complete opposite reason. They knew each other well enough to know that the other wasn't going to do any more work than they had to. When working in pairs there was one fundamental rule you wanted to follow: Always get paired with the overly-smart, ambitious student because they usually did most or all of the work and you'd still get a good grade even if you did nothing at all. Unfortunately, neither Shawn nor Sydney fell into the 'overly-smart' or 'ambitious' category, forcing the both of them to actually put some effort into this thing. The teacher must've paired them together on purpose…What a sneaky one…

"Try that website." Sydney suggested as she pointed to one from the long list of Google search options. Shawn clicked on it and the pair began to read through the information. It only took a few moments before they both sighed, the boredom evident on their faces.

"Well we kinda talked about this stuff in class, so how about you write half and I'll write the other half of the paper and we'll just put it together and type it up?" Shawn suggested and Sydney nodded before adding, "Yeah, that won't take that long. We can do that tomorrow at school or something." Liking the idea, Shawn closed his laptop, putting it aside as he started to gather the cluttered paper scattered around on Sydney's bed. Putting the project off for another day probably wasn't the smartest idea, but maybe tomorrow they'd feel more up to it. "After all, whatever you don't feel like doing today, put it off until tomorrow." Sydney stated philosophically as Shawn gave a laugh. "I don't think that's how it goes, but it works for me."

"So…now what?" Shawn asked as he sat next to her on her bed, as Sydney shrugged, "I dun know." Shawn looked around her room before standing up, "How about you give me the grand tour of your room?" He asked as Sydney laughed, "Yeah, because it's sooo huge. You might get lost in here." She replied sarcastically as both laughed.

"Hey, ya never know." He answered as he moved towards her bookshelf. Sydney continued to sit on her bed as she watched him pull a book off the shelf and open it. It was a photo album containing photos of the Mercer family. Shawn went through the pages before stopping at one in particular, a huge smile spreading across his face. "What?" Sydney asked, questioning his shit-eating grin as she stood up to see what the big deal was. Shawn ignored her inquiry as he took out one photo from the book before placing the album back on the shelf, his eyes still glued to the picture in his hand.

"That's some hair-do." Was the only thing that came from Shawn's mouth as he flipped over the photo to let Sydney see it. It was a picture of her from a few years back during Halloween when she decided it would be funny to dress as a Hippie, big hair and all. She was rocking an old Grateful Dead T-shirt, tye-dyed pants, a giant afro wig, and a drawn on handle-bar mustache. It wasn't the most flattering picture to say the least.

"Hey, that's not funny." She told him, although she found it hard to fight back the smile that was forming on her lips from the memory. "Actually, it's really funny." Shawn informed her as he looked back at the picture. "How long did it take you to grow the 'stache?"

"Shut up!" She laughed as she tried to grab the picture away from him. He was too quick, moving out of the way as he went back over to the bed, sitting down as he started cracking up. "This is too good."

Giving him a pouting look, Sydney rushed over to him, tackling him on the bed as the two fought over the picture. "Give it back!" She squealed, making him laugh harder as they wrestled over the embarrassing photo. "Nah, I'm keeping this one!" Shawn informed her as he continued to hold the photo just out of her grasp.

"Hey Syd-" A new voice spoke as the door to her bedroom opened. "What the hell!" Jack's surprised voice said as he looked between the two. The wrestling stopped instantly, both realizing how awkward it must have looked with Sydney sprawled on top of some guy on the bed. But hell, they both had their clothes on!

"What're you shouting about now fairy?" Another voice grumbled as Sydney inwardly groaned. Here we go. She scrambled to try and get off of Shawn before- "The fuck!" …before that happened. Bobby pushed his way into the room, and of course Angel followed closely behind. It always seemed like wherever there was one, another was sure to follow.

"Hey, wait a minute! It's definitely not what you think. I was just trying to-" Sydney's protests fell upon deaf ears as Bobby grabbed Shawn, hauling him to his feet and shoving him forcefully onto the wall. "The fuck you think you're doing!" He shouted at a horrified looking Shawn as Sydney stood to go to his rescue before being grabbed by the back of her shirt and pulled back to meet an angry looking Angel. "Are you stupid or something?" He asked her rhetorically as she gave him an annoyed glare.

"We were doing homework!" She protested as Angel scoffed, letting out a humorless chuckle. "Yeah, I used to use that same excuse all the time home-girl. Let me guess, you guys studying up on physical education?" Angel snapped back as Bobby finally took his predator like gaze off of Shawn momentarily to give a rather disgusted look towards Angel; obviously not wanting to have the thought or image of his little sister like that. It was enough to piss him off even more as he focused his attention back on Shawn again, swinging his fist and connecting with the side of Shawn's face.

"Motherfu-MA!" Sydney yelled, hoping Evelyn would come to the rescue before Bobby or Angel decided to pound him to a pulp. It didn't take long before Evelyn was standing in the doorway, trying to take in the situation in front of her. "Bobby! Let go of that boy!" Bobby chose to ignore her, never taking his eyes off of the kid before him, a dark bruise already starting to form on his cheek. "We were doin' homework Ma!" Sydney defended her and Shawn although Evelyn had already known that the kid had come over so they could finish their history project.

"She's in her room with the door shut, on her bed, on top of some punk!" Angel protested back, his grip still firm on the back of her shirt. "Bobby, let him go. I'm not going to ask again." Evelyn remained calm, yet the sternness in her voice was clear. Very reluctantly, Bobby took a step back, waiting for even a small excuse to jump back on him. "I knew he was over here because they needed to finish a school project." Evelyn informed Angel, not concerning herself over the accusations coming from her two sons.

"Come here dear. We'll get you fixed up." Evelyn spoke softly to Shawn as he glanced warily over at Bobby who still had a death glare focused on him. Sydney pushed herself away from Angel and went over to Shawn, making sure to bump into Bobby before putting a reassuring arm around Shawn's shoulders. "Sorry my brothers are complete assholes." She told him, making sure that the rest heard as she glared at her two brothers. "I-I think I should go now." Shawn mumbled as Angel interjected, "Yeah, I think you should." Evelyn scowled at him before helping Shawn out of the room and towards the bathroom. "Nonsense. You don't worry about them. We'll get you fixed up and you'll be good as new. I do apologize about my sons though…they can be a little…quick to react." Evelyn continued to try and comfort the kid as Sydney went to follow them.

Making her way to leave her room, Bobby stopped her, a hard scowl glaring down at her. "If you get pregnant I swear to god I'll shove my foot so far up your ass-" He began to threaten as Sydney interrupted him, an equal scowl of her own, "Our clothes are still on, you dumbass." Pushing past him, she made her way towards the bathroom.

"Thanks ma'am, I uh…thanks." Shawn told Evelyn awkwardly as she placed a cold washrag on his face. Evelyn watched him sympathetically, this not being the first time she had to nurse a poor kid back to health that one of her sons irrationally beat up. Sydney stood in the doorway to the bathroom, looking apologetically at Shawn's embarrassed expression as Evelyn continued, "So, you'll be staying for dinner right?"

Sydney couldn't help but smile at her history partner's horrified expression. Welcome to the dysfunctional world of the Mercers.

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Not exactly sure how I feel about this chapter. I had a general idea of what I wanted to do, but then I started typing and these characters just had a mind of their own and I came up with this. Lol. Don't know if I'm going to have more chapters where Shawn makes an appearance or if he's scared away for good. Let me know! ;P

Anyways, hope you enjoyed. Reviews are amazing!