[AN: This chapter's super long. I know that in the book, Chris' brothers are named Emory and Sheldon, and his sister is named Deborah, but I decided that I didn't much like those names, so I changed them. I also didn't use their actual ages. I made those up. Don't tell Stephen King.]

Ren was trying so hard not to feel bad for Chris having to live in a house like this. It could barely classify as a house to be honest, and it was falling apart. She knocked tentatively on the door and waited, reminding herself not to say or do anything stupid around his family.

A small girl about ten or eleven with dark blond hair and a sunny smile opened the door for her. "Hi. Chris is in his room. He's changed his shirt like five times already. Come on in. Oh, and he's been brushing his teeth a lot too. So if he smells like a breath mint that's why. CHRIS! SHE'S HERE!"

Ren smiled at her, charmed. She slipped off her sandals, and ventured further into the house.

A door just off from the living room opened, and Chris stepped out, appearing quite nicely groomed. Ren had to conceal a sudden idiotic giggle when she realized what a hottie her boyfriend was. "Hey, Ren."

"Why'd you wear that shirt?" his sister asked. "The third one you tried on was nicer."

"Olivia, remember that dollar I gave you not to talk?" he said pleasantly. "Don't make me take it back."

"Sorry," she said, and looked up at Ren. "It was nice to meet you. But I can't help myself from saying things that embarrass him, so I'm going to go outside now. Bye!" She ran through the kitchen and out the back door.

Chris rolled his eyes. "Sorry. She talks a lot."

"I think she's cute," Ren said, grinning. "I'll take her home if you don't want her."

"Nah, I like her when she's not embarrassing me." He sighed, as if he had just remembered something painful. "I also have two younger brothers. And an older one. You won't have to worry about Eyeball, he probably won't come home, but the younger ones are…interesting. One thinks he's a zebra and the other one is just weird."

"A zebra, eh?"

"Yeah." A smile warmed up his face and he rested one of his hands on her waist. "I'm glad you came."

"Me too, I think I'm going to enjoy your family," she said.

It turned out that Ren was right about liking the Chambers family. His mother, who was a rail-thin woman with a frightened but genuine smile, made her feel welcome and appreciated. But she was kind of afraid that one of the boys, Levi, was going to bite her. Levi's twin, Eli, was quite calm, but Chris warned her to be prepared for one of his outbursts.

"If you touch my zebra pellets one more time, I'm going to kill you," Levi said at one point to Olivia.

"They're not pellets, they're corn, and I wasn't touching them, and I'm cute and I refuse to die," Olivia shot back.

"What stinks?" Levi asked, and then looked at Chris. "Are those your stupid brussel sprouts?"

Chris tightened his lips impatiently. "They're good. And they don't stink, you stink. You stink horribly actually, get away from me."

"If we wanted any lip from you, we'd tell you to kiss our butts," Eli told him.

Ren snickered.

Chris looked over at her. "Don't encourage them."

Levi peered down at his plate, and then up at Ren. "Holy crap! My food disappeared!"

Smiling at him, she asked, "How can this be?"

"It's okay, I'll just yell till my mom brings me more food."

He opened his mouth to start shouting, but Mrs. Chambers jabbed her fork in his direction. "If you start screaming in front of our guest, I'll make you wear that sweater grandma knitted for you every day."

Levi's bright blue eyes widened. "You wouldn't."

"I definitely would."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't buy his story," Eli said. "Shoot him."

"Apology accepted. Have a bun."

Levi waggled his fingers in greedy excitement with a mad scientist look on his face. "Don't mind if I do!"

Mrs. Chambers took her napkin off her lap and set it down on the table, finished with eating. "So, Ren, what are your plans for after high school?"

"Does anyone want to know what I'm going to do when I'm grown up?" Levi asked.

"No," Chris said automatically.

Grinning at Chris' and Levi's exchange, Ren looked back at their mother and replied, "I'm not really too sure. I'm taking a year off for sure to be with my mom…and then after that, I don't know."

"Chris has already applied at different universities," Mrs. Chambers said.

"Really?" Ren gave Chris a questioning look. "I never knew that."

He shrugged. "Sorry."

"Like at where?"

"Nowhere special. Can I have some more potatoes, Mama?"

Olivia took a sip of her juice, and then her entire face twisted in revolt. She hacked for a second before she regained her composure.

Chris was smiling curiously at her. "Hmm. And are you okay, Olivia?"

"Potent orange juice," she replied.

"It's carrot juice," Mrs. Chambers told her.

She squawked. "WELL! Now I have to get my innards cleansed! Thank you very much!"

"Don't talk about innards at the table," Chris told her. "Is it really that impossible to go through a meal without talking about body fluids or bodily goo or other things that should be kept inside of the body?"

"I'm sorry," she said. "It's okay anyway. I think I'm going to barf, so there's no need to cleanse my innards."

Chris and his mother both massaged their temples, groaning quietly.

"So…this is Chris' room," Ren said slowly as she followed him into his bedroom. She looked around appreciatively.

Chris was quite glad he had remembered to put away his underclothes before she'd come over.

"Yes. This is my room. The clean half is my side."

"There's tape down the center of the floor," she noted.

He shrugged. "Yeah, I'm not allowed over that line. Neither is Eyeball. It's how we keep from killing each other."

"Such intelligent young men you are," she said.

"Well, not so much Eyeball. But yes, I'm very intelligent. And very charming." He grinned. "Sit. Get comfy."

She crossed the room and sat down on the bed, and then, when the bed sank as he sat down next to her, she mumbled, "Oog. Lard ass."

"Oh, it's muscle. I bet you don't have an inch of muscle."

"Wanna bet?" she demanded. "I could kick your ass. If I was mad enough, anyway."

"Oh look!" he squealed. "A flying pig! Make a wish!"

She laughed, "Oh, shut up. I'm serious, Chambers."

He poked her shoulder.

"Don't provoke me because then I'll have to hurt you."

He poked her in the tummy.

"Hey! None of that!"

He continued to poke her and she attempted to swat his hand away. He put his hand over her face and held her back at arm's length.

"You're cheating!" she cried, but her voice was muffled.

"How am I cheating when there aren't any rules?"

She lunged at him as he dove at her. The collision was quite brutal.

"Okay, okay, you're stronger!" she screamed.

"I'm not done proving my point yet!" he giggled. "You will feel my entire wrath!"

"I don't want to feel that!" she squeaked. "Your mom is in the next room with your younger siblings!"

Chris laughed and pinned her arms down at her sides with his knees, tickling her. She laughed so hard she began to cry. She tried to scream out for him to stop but she was having difficulties.

Olivia suddenly walked into the room. She screeched. "Holy Moses!"

Chris flew off of Ren. Ren shoved him off the bed and pushed her hair out of her face. "No, Olivia, this isn't what it looks like!" he protested.

"Of course not, you were just wrestling," she said sarcastically.

"No, really, it started off that way!"

"Yeah, mm-hmm, I believe you," Olivia said. "You know, they did have a Sex Ed week at my school, so don't think I don't know what you were doing!"

"Couldn't you have knocked?"

"No!"

"Give me back my dollar!"

Olivia rolled her eyes and ran out of the room, yelling, "MOM!"

"Oh crap." Chris raced after his sister.

"Hey, don't run away from me." Ren hurried after him.

"Mom," Olivia called, entering the kitchen, where Mrs. Chambers was doing dishes, assisted by the twins. "Chris and Ren--"

Chris arrived in the kitchen three seconds behind her. He rammed into her, making her fly into the fridge.

"Watch the fridge, you two!" Mrs. Chambers snapped. "I wasn't listening to her anyway."

"They were wrestling on his bed!"

"Oh, the whole 'wrestling' thing?" Mrs. Chambers asked.

"But that's all!" Chris insisted.

Ren offered, "Actually, he was tickling me as well. That's why I was screaming."

"And that's all!" Chris insisted.

"Right, Chris," his mom said. "Mm-hmm. I believe you."

"Mom!" he cried. "Livvy blows things out of proportion! We were just trying to see who was stronger!"

"There are other ways of finding that out," Mrs. Chambers told him. "Thumb-wrestling, for instance."

"What's going on?" a new voice said. Chris' older brother, Eyeball came into the house.

"Your brother was trying to become a man," Mrs. Chambers filled him in.

"In front of all you?"

"Mom!" Chris shouted.

"If you woulda waited a few minutes, you coulda just used my car," Eyeball offered.

"Oh my God," Chris muttered, covering his blush with his hands. "Olivia, I'm going to murder you so gruesomely, they're going to have to use DNA samples from your hairbrush to identify your body."

"It was innocent," Ren said.

"Don't refer to your boyfriend as an 'it!'" Olivia scolded.

"What's happening?" Levi asked. He and Eli had been having a bubble war and had missed the conversation. "Is Chris in trouble?"

Olivia whispered something discreetly in his ear.

"Oh!" he yelled. "Gross! They were doing it like pigeons?"

"Levi!" Chris snapped.

"They're blushing," Olivia giggled. "Look at what I have created."

Eyeball messed up Chris' hair. "It's about damn time, Christopher."

"I'm running away from home," Chris announced. "Goodbye."

"Chris," Mrs. Chambers laughed. "Come on."

Eyeball nudged him. "Yeah, don't get your panties in a knot."

"We're going for a walk. I have to work off this blush."

"Is that all you have to work off?" Eyeball teased. "Might wanna do that in private."

"Shut up," Chris snapped. "I'm walking Ren home now."

"But I never got to meet her!"

"You've been in the house for two minutes, you could have gotten acquainted with her, but you were too busy making fun of me," Chris said. "Good day."