Hayley here: It's summer break! FINALLY.

Thanks to images-in-words for being my editor and title enthusiast this time around. Enjoy!

KalenCaelli: Beth tries to "run away" to Rachel's apartment one day, because of course Shelby is "so very mean" *snort*

Of Little Sisters and (Not Really) Mean Moms

Alone is a word that doesn't usually apply to me, since I share a shoebox apartment with two other people, work in the theatre, and have a full social calendar from high school and NYADA. I'm always go-go-go with people and rehearsals and interviews…sometimes it's too much to bear and the stress does get the best of me, despite my best attempts to hide it. But my show is over for the night, Kurt is out with his Vogue Magazine clan, and Santana is god only knows where. My face is freshly washed from my night care routine plus an additional honey face mask just for the hell of it. I'm in my yoga pants and purple NYADA sweatshirt, yelling at the TV screen as if my comments towards Donna the Home Decorator are going to change Tori and Isaac's mind about which house they're going to choose.

"What the hell are you doing? The windows provide amazing amounts of natural light in the living room! That's exactly what you wanted 10 minutes ago, get your head in the game."

My phone pings; it's a text from my director about tomorrow's show, and I respond to it as quickly as possible, trying to avoid a long conversation. I'm just not in the mood. I'm tired, and I'm calm for the first time in weeks.

I stand and stretch when my stomach growls and I realize I haven't eaten anything in a few hours. The spinach dip in the fridge is calling my name.

"Rachel?"

Literally calling my name? I spin on my heels and gaze over towards the front door. So much for being alone.

"Rachel, are you home?" a quick pound and a little voice that softens even Santana's bad mood. It's Beth.

Weird. Shelby didn't say anything about stopping by tonight…that's very out of character for her, I hope everything's okay…

My heart beats a little faster as I make my way towards the door and unlock it, pulling it open. "Beth…what are you doing here?" she's standing alone. Why is my seven-year-old sister standing at my front door, late at night, in a questionable part of the city, without our mother? Her eyes are bloodshot and she's white-knuckling the straps on her backpack. A severe panic starts to set in. "Where's Shelby?" I drop down into a squat and reach for her forehead, checking for fever. I check her arms for scratches or bruises in case something has happened to her that Shelby doesn't even know about.

"I ran away!" Beth declares, pushing me off of her and running towards the living room before I can protest, throwing her backpack onto the couch and plopping down.

Oh hell no.

"Um…" I shut the door slowly, trying to think through my options here. Call Shelby immediately? She's probably making herself sick with worry, why the hell hasn't she called me yet? Does she not know? I can't just start attacking Beth with questions, or she'll run from me, too. If she was going to go somewhere, why wouldn't she run to Cassie first? She lives a lot closer to Shelby than I do. Why would she feel a need to go anywhere? Shelbs must be having a bad night. How did she get here? She's seven! "Okay…why did you run away?" the most obvious question would be the easiest to answer, right?

"Mommy is just so mean! She never listens!"

So, Shelby is in fact in a bad mood. The woman wears the stress dress often, though she can't always pull it off.

"Bethie Boo, you can't just run to me when mom is in a bad mood. How did you get here, anyways?" If you stay calm, she'll feed off you and do the same. Hopefully.

"I stoled mom's subway card from her purse while she was yelling on the phone at someone and walked to the station," Beth admits, her eyes guilty and her lip quivering. Her skin is pale and the color drains from my face to just about match her complexion. She was in the subway, alone? SO many terrible situations that could have happened flood my mind.

"Did anyone," I swallow, hard. "Did anyone bother you or talk to you at all on your way over here?" I ask, trying not to sound upset.

She shakes her head. "The guy asked where my mom was, and I lied. I said she was in the hospital and that I was going to see my sister. Then people left me alone."

Crisis averted. Somewhat. My heart feels like it's going to fall out of my chest. Shelby is going to freak out.

"You know I have to call mom and tell her where you are, or her stress is going to put her in the hospital and what you said won't be a lie anymore."

Beth's lip quivers more and a pool of tears spills from her eyes. "I don't want mommy to be in the hospital, I just want her to be nice again."

"Beth…" I sigh, exasperated but attempting to show her that I'm not mad at her. The last thing I need is her bolting from here. At least she's safe in my apartment and not still roaming the streets. I remember how scared I was my first time in the city by myself, and I was eighteen. How she even managed to make it here is a miracle to me. She must be more attentive to detail and directions than I thought, because I still get lost trying to get places.

"Why don't you tell me what happened?" I sit down on the couch with her and turn to face her, taking her hand. "What you did was very dangerous so there better be a good reason. Is mom—"

*Popular, you're gonna be pop-u-lar, I'll teach you the…* my phone blares, scaring the shit out of me. I turn to look at it and then back to Beth. "That's probably mom."

The little girl visibly gulps. My hand shakes when I reach for the phone. If Shelby was upset about something before, I don't want to experience her current mood. Why can't I go back to yelling at HGTV and eating chip dip by myself? That was an excellent 10 minutes while it lasted.

I answer the call and hold the phone a considerable distance from my ear.

"I turned my back for one fucking minute, Rachel, I'm going to pass out. This is why I shouldn't be a mother, it's a good thing your dads knew what the hell they were doing and you never got yourself into a situation like this. If I just paid attention and didn't get so distracted with work—maybe I should quit. Yes, I should definitely quit. Rachel, Beth is gone, I don't know where the hell she is please, PLEASE tell me she's with you. I'm going to kill her. I'm going to hug her so, SO very tightly and then I'm gonna kill her."

It all came out in one breath; one very loud, very desperate breath. No wonder she's such an impressive singer.

"She's here, mom, she came straight to my apartment."

"Oh, thank god—Cassie, Rachel has her!—I'll be right there. Gods, is she okay? Tell me nothing happened to her…"

"She's fine, mom, please take a deep breath. You're going to make yourself sick. She's just a little shaken up. I'll talk to her. But listen to me for a second—don't come over tonight. Give her and yourself some time to cool off, she can stay with me for the night, and then in the morning things will be better. I'm not saying not to be upset with her," I rush all of this out, so she can't cut me off. "But your being in a bad mood isn't going to help anything, either. So, take the night. Okay?

"I don't know, Rachel, I—"

"Mom, trust me." I can see Beth letting out a sigh of relief from her spot on the couch but I shoot her a glare to let her know that she is not getting out of this just because I told mom to cool it. "Also, don't quit your job!" I add as an afterthought. "Just take the night to chill."

A heavy, annoyed sigh is my response, but I know it means I've convinced her. I press my lips together and take a breath. A lot just happened all at once, and although I work well under pressure, I still wish it hadn't happened at all.

"Fine, fine. I'll pick her up at 9 tomorrow morning, okay? Just…Rachel don't let her out of your sight, please."

"I won't," I promise her. "She's okay, Shelby. Breathe, okay?"

There's a silence, and then finally an, "Okay. I love you. I love you BOTH so much. I'll see you tomorrow morning."

"We love you too, mom."

I toss my phone to the side and stare at my little sister, wondering what I'm supposed to do now. I told Shelby not to come over because I just knew that her attitude was going to make things worse, and that's the whole reason Beth ran in the first place. But I don't know how to handle a situation like this! I ran away once too, against Shelby's previous statement, but my dads handled it much differently than Shelby would.

Shelby will handle this in her own way, though. I need to talk to Beth like an older sister, not like her mother.

Beth stares up at me, guiltily. "I'm sorry, Rachie." She whispers. "I just got upset."

I run a hand through her hair, softly. "I know you did, Bethie Boo, but that doesn't mean you can just run away. Especially in such a big city! You could've gotten kidnapped, or hurt. And Shelby was so scared for you. You're too young to be going out by yourself, still. The world is not always as kind as we try to say it is, and some people don't care if you get hurt. You understand?"

Beth nods softly.

"Running away when something gets hard doesn't make it easier to deal with later, Beth. I know that's a very hard lesson to learn—some adults struggle with it, too—but it's the truth…" How do I get this point across to her? A thought occurs to me. "When you were having a hard time drawing that tree the other day, did you quit just because it was hard?"

She shakes her head.

"No? What did you do?" I press. Maybe if she comes to her own conclusion, it'll be easier for her to understand.

"I erased it and tried again," she mumbles, wiping away a tear that's falling down her cheek. I reach for the Kleenex on the side table and hand them to her.

"Exactly. So when things get hard, you erase the bad, count to ten, and try again. It might not always fix mom's mood, but it will make things easier on both of you. Does that make sense?"

She nods, sniffing. "I'm sorry, Rachie." She cries. "Is mommy gonna be really, really mad at me?"

I sigh. It's hard knowing how she's going to be tomorrow. "I think she'll be upset, but she'll be thankful that you're okay more than anything else. Just promise me, and promise her that you'll never ever do something like that again, okay? If you need to get away for a while, call me. Call me and I'll come get you, or call your Aunt Cassie and ask to go see her, but do not try to go anywhere by yourself. It's too dangerous."

She throws herself at me, wrapping her arms tightly around my stomach. "I promise, Rachie, I promise. Please don't be mad at me. I won't do it again. She wouldn't let me paint until I ate my steak and I don't even like steak and then she got a call from work and started yelling at the man on the phone, and when I ate a few little pieces of steak from the section she said I had to finish, I started painting again, and then she told me to put them away for the rest of the night because I didn't listen even though I ate four whole bites! Then she started yelling at the guy again and I got mad and left."

I blink at her, slowly. Oh, to have the problems of a seven-year-old.

"I know mom can seem strict sometimes, Beth, but that's nothing compared to how she treats her students, even. Be thankful that all she did was take away the paints for the night. I know it seems unfair, but she does everything for a reason and you have to trust that, okay?"

"But I don't—even—like—steak—" Beth sniffs between words and I let out a sigh. I can't blame her there, but not everyone can be raised vegetarian. Especially not someone as picky as Beth when it comes to eating.

"You have to get your protein from somewhere, Bethie Boo, or you won't grow strong and healthy like me and Shelby. You liked it enough to eat a few bites and be okay, was a few more really going to hurt you?"

Beth contemplates this for a minute, as if I've presented her with this crazy new idea. "I guess not." She lowers her head.

"Don't be upset with yourself anymore, Beth, just know better for next time, okay? I know you were focused on painting, but sometimes before we can play we have to do things that aren't as fun. In this case, it was finishing dinner."

Beth nods her head and hugs me again. "I'm sorry, Rachie."

"Apologize to mom tomorrow, okay? For tonight, we're going to make you a protein-filled snack which you will eat, we're going to keep your drawing things put away, and we're going to watch a movie. Sound good?"

She nods, looking disappointed that I still won't let her paint or draw, but I'm not about to go behind Shelby's back after something like that happens. Normally when Beth is here we make chocolate chip cookies, but I'm not going to reward her for her behavior. At the same time, I think taking away her art supplies and giving her back to Shelby tomorrow is punishment enough for now.

I stand and head to the kitchen to dig through the cupboards for something to cook for Beth. She follows my tracks, leaving her stuff in the living room. "…what kind of protein snack?" she sounds hesitant and a bit nervous. I laugh to myself as I look around.

"Pita chips and hummus," I announce with a smirk, grabbing for the bag of chips and then making my way to the fridge to retrieve the chickpea dip. Beth scrunches her nose.

"Awe, really?"

"Well I don't have steak in my house, Bethie Boo, and you need your protein. So unless you want to go back to Shelby's tonight…"

Beth holds her hands up in a surrender. "No, no, hummus is fine!" she declares, her eyes wide. To prove her point, she grabs the container from me and reaches into the bag of chips, scooping a big dollop of hummus and shoving it into her mouth. She winces. "Mmmmmm!"

I laugh out loud and shake my head. Who needs a night off, anyways? Rest is boring, and my life has always been a continuous circle of events. Especially ever since Shelby and Beth came into my life.