Disclaimer: Please see other chapters if you don't already know what I'm going to say!

A/N: Hey everyone. Sorry that it took me so terribly long to get this up. Circumstances beyond my control! I hope you enjoy this. Thanks for the reviews you all sent. Oh, and to answer one of those reviews, I make things bold/italic by using the text editor/chapter preview in the document manager.

March 2

In The Days Ahead

Chapter 8: Being Sneaky

Chloe Camden rushed up the stairs and into her older sister's room. She found Emily sitting on her bed reading her new magazine. Chloe ran through the door and leaped onto the bed, disturbing her sister's peace and quiet greatly. Emily sighed deeply and flopped her magazine down onto her chest, looking over at her younger sister to see what she wanted.

"Eemmiillllyy?" She asked slowly and sweetly with a little smile on her face. Emily continued to look at her and nodded her head. "Will you take me to the park to play cause I'm really, really, really bored." She said. Emily looked at her clock. 12:32 pm. Emily nodded her head again, sending Chloe into an excited dance around the room. "Whoo hoo! Thanks!" She cried, darting from the room to go get ready. Emily got up and walked over to her mirror. She looked at herself closely. She was in long grey sweat pants and a tight long sleeved pink shirt. She nodded at herself and went over to her dressing table where she grabbed a hairbrush and combed through her hair. She put on some tennis shoes and tied her hair back. Now that she was ready, she surveyed herself once more in the mirror. Perfect. She thought, and walked out of her room and down the stairs to the kitchen. Sarah looked up from what she was doing.

"Where are you going?" She asked, seeing that her daughter had tidied up a bit. Emily walked over and sat down at the bar stool in front of the island.

"I'm taking Chloe down to the park. She said that she's bored, and I have some reading to do for my English class by Monday, so this will give me some time to do it." She intelligently left out that it was 300 pages of reading, and that she hadn't even started yet. Sarah looked up at her daughter with a smile that made Emily nervous. Her mother had something up her sleeve.

"Ya know, Em, since you're taking one kid, a second definitely couldn't hurt. Ya know, give dear old mom some peace and quiet. Jack."

"Uh-uh. No way, no how. I'm not taking a five year old to the park with me. I have work to do."

"Emily please take him. He'll just play on the playground with Chloe. I have some cleaning to do around here, cause if you hadn't noticed, this place is a pig sty." Emily again refused and stood up, turning around and starting upstairs to get Chloe. Sarah smiled to herself, happy to be able to use her motherly-force. "You're taking him or none of you are going, and you'll all do the cleaning instead of me. Just be glad I'm not making you take Sean too." Emily glared in Sarah's direction for a few seconds before turning back to the stairs.

"Jack! Come down here and hurry up. I'm taking you and Chloe to the park." She yelled. He yelled back 'OK' and Emily again tossed a glare at her mother. Chloe and Jack came running down the stairs. "I'm gonna go get my keys from my…" Emily started up the stairs.

"Purse?" Chloe finished, tossing her sister the car keys. "Already got them." Emily led her two younger siblings out of the room and into the garage to leave, all the while scolding her younger sister for going in her purse, even if it was only to get keys.

Lucy Kinkirk took a deep breath and looked to her right. She gasped loudly and put her hand over her heart, feeling it racing at a million miles an hour. She sat down on the carpet floor to keep herself from fainting. As she was setting into her thought process, she was interrupted by her 4-year-old daughter.

"Hi mommy! Whatcha doing?" She asked. Lucy jumped and looked up, startled.

"Olivia Kinkirk, you scared mommy!" She cried with a smile. Liv giggled and jumped into her mother's lap. Lucy wrapped her arms around her youngest child. Lucy's thoughts cleared from her head as she looked down into the smiling face of her daughter.

"Sorry mamma." She said. "Come with me. Come play. I'm bored and the stupid boys won't play with me and sissy is at Katelynn's house. AND I can't play with daddy cause he's getting dinner for me and the boys and Jake and you." She complained. Maddy was at her friend's house for a sleep over that night and the boys were in their room playing Lego's with their friend Jake. Lucy got up and took her little girl by the hand.

"Well we can't have my little princess being bored, now can we?" She asked. Liv shook her head with a giggle. Lucy walked with Liv out into the living room. "What should we do?" She asked. Liv smiled slyly and ran over to the cabinet by the tv. She opened it up and looked around inside for a moment. She then smiled and grabbed something. She ran back to Lucy with her arms behind her back. "What do you have there?" She asked. Liv smiled widely and revealed what she was holding: The Princess Barbie Movie: her favorite!

"Can we watch this and it will be just mommy and Livie time?" She said. Lucy smiled at her little daughter. She always cherished the time that she could spend with her only child that was not a triplet. Lucy nodded her head and took the DVD from Liv's hand. She put it on and sat down in the easy chair to watch. Liv ran over and jumped into Lucy's lap. She curled up. Lucy put her arms around her daughter's shoulders and Liv reached up to hold her mother's hands as the movie started.

"I love you mommy." Liv said snuggling deeper into her mother's embrace. Lucy's eyes filled with tears.

"I love you too angel." She said. They then continued watching the movie, not a worry in the mind of either. Even though Liv was young, she had the power to change her mother's entire mindset…well, for a few hours at least…

Emily Camden sat down on the bench facing the playground at the park. She looked ahead of her and watched Jack and Chloe playing, Jack on the swings and Chloe on the climber. She sighed and looked down at her rather large textbook. Sadly, she picked it up and turned to page 483, starting to read the assignment. After reading for almost 15 minutes, she was just turning the page when her eyes were covered up by someone's hands and she could see nothing.

"Guess who…" Said a masculine voice. Emily's face lit up and she jumped up and turned around, taking the hands off her face.

"Justin!" She cried. She leaned in for a kiss, which she received. After she and her boyfriend separated, she sat back down on the bench and Justin did the same. He put his arm around her and she leaned into him happily. "What are you doing here?" She asked.

"Ally was begging me to bring her down here. Apparently her friend told her to meet her here…she wouldn't say who." He explained. Ally was his 8 year old sister "What are you doing here?"

"My sister was begging me to bring her down." At the same time they looked up and saw Chloe and Ally standing in the sand watching them. When they saw that their older siblings had spotted them, the 8-year-olds spun around and burst into fits of giggles. They high-fived one another and Emily and Justin heard Chloe say: "Good work, Al!". The couple's jaws dropped and they looked at one another.

"So it was all a scheme, concocted by my little sister!" She cried. Justin laughed.

"I think so!" He said. "Ally!" He called. "Get your little 8-year-old butt over here!" Ally came over with a little smile on her face. "Explain please."

"Well…me and Chloe are friends, and you and Emily are…well…friends…and so we thought it would be fun to all be together." She said. Emily jumped into the conversation.

"And you didn't just tell us this…because?" She asked.

"It's more fun this way!" Ally said with a big smile. "Goodbye, big brother. Goodbye future sister-in-law. OH! Did I say that?" She cried jokingly and ran back to Chloe. Emily and Justin couldn't keep themselves from laughing. They turned to one another.

"Ya know, Emily, you're 17th birthday is in 4 days." He told her. Emily smiled and pretended that she didn't know.

"Oh, it is?" She asked with a growing smile.

"It is. And I was thinking that we might go to dinner down at the little French place on 32nd and Elm to celebrate." He said, putting his arm back around his girlfriend. "What do you say…pick you up at 8 o'clock?" He asked. Emily smiled broadly.

"Sounds lovely." She said. They looked over to make sure that the girls and Jack weren't looking at them. When they saw that they weren't, they leaned in and began to kiss. After a few seconds of this, they heard the giggles of 8-year-old girls and catcalls. They separated and turned to see Chloe and Ally who were again looking at them. Justin put his hand out in their direction, motioning for them to quit it, then leaned in and began to kiss Emily again. This was turning out to be a good afternoon after all.

A/N: I hope that you liked this…I did! : - ) Please, please review! Don't miss chapter 9: What was Lucy so shaken by at the start of section 2? Find out this and more in that chapter!! Chapter 9: Coming soon.