A/N: Thank you to the persons who reviewed me. I am deeply in love with you, and I suggest we get married. No, I'm just kidding. Anyway, I don't write enough, which saddens me, because it makes me feel like a bad person. And then I realize that it doesn't matter much anyway, and I get on with my life.

OO

Family Portraits

Chapter Two

By You Friend Neighborhood Hobo

OO

The three girls that may or may not be related to Excel jumped back as the trap door opened, sending the bright-eyed girl known merely as Excel falling to her possible doom. Well, only Emily was the one who really jumped back, seeing that she was wearing her comfortable Nikes that she had purchased from her local Foot Locker (for a limited time only!). Yes, I realize that I said she was wearing something else before, but I can break continuality if I want to. Deal.

Ellen stumbled back, seeing that her heels were not the best for jumping, and Esme, having the wonderful not-so-lightning-fast reflexes of a sloth, fell with her possible sister. However, Esme, being smarter then our dear Excel, managed to grab hold of the side of the gaping hole that was our near and dear pit.

"AIIEEE!" Esme shrieked, tears pricking her eyes. "GET ME OUT OF HERE, EMILY! ELLEN!" She paused, contemplating the seriousness of her dreadful situation. "SOMEONE!"

Ellen, whose stiletto heel had broken in the stumble backward, had by now fallen on her backside, and was unable to comply with her younger sister's request. Emily, after thinking it over for a while, decided it would be better to help the twelve-year-old out of the pit before she managed to get out her self. After all, no one wanted to hear her complain the whole way back in the car about how, since she was the youngest, she was the most unloved.

After being pulled up, Esme was in tears, and she began sobbing into her sister's stomach, much to Emily's distress.

"I…I could of…duh…died!" Esme cried. She shoved her older sister away (much to Emily's own personal joy) and turned to Lord Il Palazzo, and pointed a quavering finger at him.

"You!" she cried. "You insufferable brute! You probably killed our sister, and before we could tell her about father…" she trailed off and began sobbing again, this time louder and accompanied by loud wails. Lord Il Palazzo looked on blankly, not really sure what she was talking about, nor caring.

Quite suddenly, Excel pulled herself out of the pit, sopping wet and coughing.

"Nuthin' down there today…" she mumbled to herself. She looked up to her lord, a looked of strained hope on her face.

"They gone?"

Esme looked up, having had her face in her hands, and she and her other sisters looked on with shock.

"Guess not," Excel said, not even looking behind her. "There's that strained 'they're-right-behind-you'-like tension." She shrugged. "Well, it's back into the pit I go…"

"Oh no you don't!" Emily shouted, rushing around and catching Excel by the collar, dragging her out and dropping her with a loud 'thud' next to the puffy-eyed and red-faced Esme. Ellen had taken off her heels and tossed them into the pit before it had closed up, and was now tapping her foot on the ground again, although it had less of an effect then it had when he shoes were on.

"What in god's name do you think you're doing?" she asked, her face turning red also. "How could you put us through something like that again, after what had just happened to father?" Excel, who had stood up and was wringing her hair out, suddenly stopped.

"What happened to dad?" she asked in a meek voice, suddenly somber. It was quite frightening to see such a change in her face so quickly and without warning.

Ellen looked at her sister, still trying to remain mad. She failed, and her face fell.

"He's dead, Excel," Ellen said. "We've got no one left, I'm afraid…that's why we came here. A letter would not have arrived in time, and you never returned any of father's calls before he died, so we didn't have high hopes when we called you. After awhile we decided that you really wouldn't call back, so we went to the address you had left in the single post card you sent us. And then when we came to your home, and there was that dead girl who said you were at work…" she paused and looked at Hyatt, who was sitting up, revived, looked around the room. "In fact I rather think it was her. Anyway, we didn't know where you worked, so we just had tea with the dead girl until you got back. And when you did you didn't even notice us at first, you just got dressed in that ridiculous outfit, a bit like the one your dead friend is wearing, rambling about one thing or another, and when you finally did notice us, you just pretended like we weren't there, and dragged your friend out of the house. Then we followed you in the car and offered you a ride, but you still pretending like we weren't there. Then you ran really fast and we couldn't find you!"

"You lost us in the sewers," Emily said, very matter-of-factly.

"Which is completely disgusting, by the way," Esme said to Lord Il Palazzo, sniffing and wiping her eyes with a tissue. "Really, there must be a better place to have secret and confidential-like meetings. Might I suggest a Starbucks?"

Lord Il Palazzo glared at the girl at the mere mention at the government-controlled franchise that brainwashed good citizens into thinking they were intellectual when they were really complete imbeciles, and Esme gave a small 'eep' of fear.

"…There's no on left?" Excel asked quizzically. "Mom died too? How come you didn't call and tell me that?"

"She might as well be dead," Emily said bitterly. "That basted who she was having an affair with before dad died - - you didn't know about that, but he was your psychiatrist when you were little - - he's so 'worried' about mom and her mental health after dad died that he's got her on a billion different drugs that leave her like a zombie."

"Of course, he's not really worried about her," Esme said, crossing her arms. "He just wants her to obey his every beck and command without any lip."

"Which is why we came besides the fact that we were sure you would want to hear this horrible news in other ways besides the message 'dad's dead' on your machine," Ellen said, grabbing Excel by the wrists. "Excel, our new step-father believes that if you're not at the funeral, what was left in father's will for you should go to him, seeing that he's the new head of the household. And of course mom agrees with him, seeing that she's got no mind of her own now."

"Well," Excel said, wrenching her hands free of her older sister, "I really would love 'ta see old daddy dearest as he goes six feet under, but I got stuff to do." She turned her back on them to face her lord, trying to revert to the old Excel known and loved by all, although her face was having trouble compiling, seeing that she felt like crying and reaming composure at the same time making the end result blood shot eyes, flushed cheeks, and a stony look with her eyes looking at something beyond Lord Il Palazzo's head.

"World domination and stuff like that. So, tell pops and mom I'm sorry, but I have my own life now that turns it's finely boneded nose, even though noses can't really be finely bonded, mostly because boneded isn't a word, and also 'cuz they don't have bones, they've got cartilage, upon the social butterflies and high society of my childhood hometown."

"Tell him yourself, you little cunt!" screeched Ellen. She turned on her heel and made her way to the door, opening it. She stepped through, but before she slammed the door, she turned and faced Excel's back.

"I never thought you to be so mindless and self-absorbed. Do you even know what he left you, you little bitch? Everything. He left you every god damned thing; the money, the estate, his fucking country club membership. Everything is yours, and it's about to go to some worthless shit who only cares about the grooming of his fucking moustache." With that the door shut with a loud bang, echoing through the great halls of ACROSS's place of meeting.

Excel remained looking ahead. She had by now lost her composure, and her face had fallen. Esme and Emily looked at each other, then Excel, then the door, then each other again. They shrugged and proceeded to follow their older sister.

"He really left me everything?" said a meek voice behind them. They turned, and saw the back of Excel; shoulders slumped, looking at the floor. Emily motioned for Esme to comfort their oldest, and she nodded, then left.

"Yeah," Emily said as the youngest sister departed. "He did."

"Why?" Excel asked. "Why would he do that? He knows - - he knew - - that I didn't want anymore of that. That I didn't want to be apart…apart of the family. Not in that way." Emily shrugged.

"Honestly, I don't think he gave a flying fuck about how you felt. I think he did it because he liked you best, and because he knew - - or thought - - that you would be the best choice in governing the family. Better then I would, at least. Or Esme. Maybe even Ellen." She paused. "Or maybe it was because he missed you, and he knew we missed you, and he thought it was the only way he could get you to return home. I don't know; I kinda' don't care either." She narrowed her eyes. "What I do care about, though, is what happens to our name. It's not going to be walked all over and dragged through the mud by some good for nothing government fuck who just wants the money from us and the power from us and nothing else." She glanced around the room and Hyatt, who stood with her hands folded in front of her, slightly confused but not really showing it, and at Lord Il Pallazzo, who sat in his great chair watching the whole thing with more interest then one would guess, and sighed.

"Look, I'm not really sure what the hell you do here, or why, or how. And I don't care to know. But you're family. You owe us something, I think. You owe us this much. You owe dad this much." Emily walked to the door, and before reaching for the handle, paused. "But most of all, sister Excel," she said looking at her sister who still had her back to her, looking at the floor, "you owe this to yourself. I know you never thought much of yourself - - you never really had any boyfriends because everyone thought you were too weird and you talked to much and you had crazy ideals, and you never had many friends because no one seemed to understand you enough to try, and you failed classes a lot and you were always in summer school, even more then I was - - but this is your chance. Here's how you can live up to what dad thought of you." She opened the door, and as she left, her voice drifted through the room.

"Here's how you show everyone your worth."

OO

A/N: Semi long; sorry that the paragraphs are so freaking huge. Anyway, I think that this chapter is a little better then my last one, so I hope you enjoyed reading it. I hope you stick with me even though I don't update often, and when I do it takes for ever. Review and tell me what you think.