A/N – "Thoughts"

Chapter 2 – Not Your Average Princess

As Amanda Craft grumpily curled deeper under her covers, she could hear her family downstairs in the kitchen getting breakfast ready. They had woken her twice already and they were getting on her nerves. It wasn't that she hated her family, she loved them, but she always felt like the black sheep of her family.

On the outside, Amanda was a carbon copy of her mother. Long blonde hair, blue eyes, and a model like body, that Amanda absolutely hated. Unlike her mother, Amanda hated the attention her body gave her; the gawks from the male classmates and jealous, sometimes vicious, whispers of the female ones. She tried her hardest to hide her body, never wearing anything short or revealing; usually jeans, t-shirts, sweatshirts and the like. While Kate loved the spotlight, Amanda much preferred to be in the shadows.

Inside, Amanda felt like she was not just in her mother's shadow, but Caitlyn's too. It was hard battling against everyone else's expectations of what she should do. Her mother wanted her to follow her and her older sister and be a cheerleader, but the idea of prancing around in a skimpy outfit and looking like an idiot, just didn't quite appeal to her.

But she did share a strong willed stubbornness that she had defiantly gotten from her mother. Two would clash almost daily on almost anything. Kate felt she was helping guide her daughter through life, while Amanda felt she was trying to turn her into something she wasn't. Its not to say they never got along. When they did, mother and daughter could be the best of friends. But as she got older those days were becoming fewer and far between.

Aside from Rebecca and Jason, she felt most comfortable with her father. She found it a lot easier to talk to her dad about almost anything and he would just listen to her. Father and daughter had a natural chemistry and enjoyed more of the simpler things in life. They could go out to breakfast and talk about almost nothing and enjoy themselves. One of the most important lessons her father had taught her was to be true to yourself and never judge a book by its cover, you could find the most interesting people in the most unusual wrappings. It was because of this, that Amanda believed was one of the reasons why she fell so hard for Jason. Not for who he was on the outside but on the inside. Though she'd never admit that out loud to anyone.

Even half asleep, Amanda could hear footsteps coming up the stairs and guessed that they belonged to her mother. Groaning, she slipped her head under her pillow, wishing and hoping that whoever it was would just walk by and leave her alone. That last thing she wanted to do was to have a happy breakfast with her family. "That is so not a great way to start the day."

As if on cue, her bedroom door opened, "Good morning honey," Kate said as she walked into the room. Kate watched with a grin as Amanda groaned and curled up into a ball underneath her covers.

For a few years after returning to Hill Ridge, Kate had tried to make a go of being a reporter but she didn't get anywhere and decided to make a change. Shortly after Amanda was born, Kate had decided to stay home for a little while to be the mother to her daughters that her mother never was to her. She stayed a stay at home mom until Rachel, her third and youngest daughter, entered fourth grade.

After a few failed attempts, she found her dream job. She had been hired by a wealthy businessman, via her mother, to help decorate a new addition to his home. The family had been so happy, they hired her to redo the whole house. Slowly, through word of mouth, Kate soon had a small client list that had her as their own personal shopper and personal decorator. It wasn't much but the pay was good and Kate enjoyed it.

As Kate grabbed the sheet and tried to pull it off her daughter, Amanda kicked her hand away. "Come on Amanda, breakfast is ready and everyone else is downstairs. Caitlyn only as so much time to spend with us, don't you want to spend as much of it together as you can?"

"Wouldn't want to disappoint the Princess," Amanda mumbled into her pillow.

"What?"

Sighing, Amanda kicked off her covers and sat up, "Nothing." After running a hand through her hair, she yawned and stretched.

Kate frowned a little; she had heard what Amanda had said. Kate desperately wanted to be close with her daughters, lacking that same relationship with her own mother. With Caitlyn and Rachel it had been easy but with Amanda, it felt like she was pulling away from her, and it hurt.

Amanda slowly got out of bed and stumbled down the stairs behind her mother.

"If it isn't the walking dead," Rachel said with a snicker.

"Shove it runt," Amanda barked back.

Rachel Craft was the youngest of the Craft girls at thirteen years old. Rachel was a trouble maker and a pain in Amanda's side. It seemed that she loved causing trouble for Amanda, especially when Jason was involved. Rachel had more of her father's features; dirty blonde hair and a cross between hazel eyes with specs of green and blue in them, all mixed with a mischievous grin that always seemed etched on her face.

"Girls," Kate warned. As breakfast progressed, Kate announced that the four girls were going to the spa for a girls day out.

Amanda had to bite her tongue from saying something sarcastic, "Yea, that's a great idea. I just love having going to the spa. I mean I go there what, like once every never." But she settled for a neutral, "Whatever."

While the other three left to get ready, Amanda turned to her father who was sitting at the head of the table sipping his coffee and reading the sports page. "Daddy?" Amanda asked softly.

Ethan snickered, knowing exactly where this was going, and looked up at her. "Yes?"

Not much had changed with Ethan. He was still constantly good nature, almost never lost his temper, and while it had gone away a little, his aloofness would sometimes show through. After working as a teacher for almost nine years, he had become a counselor in the Junior High School.

"Is there any way you can get me out of this?" she begged him.

"Amanda, your mother just wants to spend time with all of her girls. She misses that. Its not gonna kill you," Ethan told her.

"But the spa?" Amanda whined. When Ethan looked at her, as if to say suck it up, she sighed, got up, and angrily walked back upstairs to change.

Ethan chuckled to himself. Living with four women had taught him a lot and two of those lessons was chose your battles and never, ever get in between two of them unless they were going to draw blood.

While the spa had been relatively painless, aside from the fact Amanda was bored and had a slight headache from the inane chit-chat she was forced to participate in with her family and the spa workers. But afterwards, her mom had decided to take the three shopping for clothes. It wouldn't be that bad but Kate and Amanda had very different ideas of shopping.

Amanda would go to Macy's or somewhere and just buy jeans and t-shirts or go to Miranda and Lizzie's store if she wanted something different. But Kate and her sisters loved going to the more trendier and upscale stores compared to Macy's.

Kate had shoved a bunch of skirts into Amanda's hands and then made her try them on. As Amanda looked at her reflection in disgust, "What the hell color is this? Purple or blue? And who the fuck would wear something this short?"

A soft chuckle from behind her ripped her out of her thoughts. Amanda turned around and saw Caitlyn. As if reading her mind, "Well, I know of one person who would love to see you in that," she teased.

"Shut up," Amanda shot back but unlike with Rachel, there was no malice. While Amanda felt like she was constantly competing with Caitlyn, she was still the one who Amanda went to for advice. As a teenager girl it was kinda weird to go to your mother about the important stuff and with Caitlyn so much older than her but still her sister, it made her feel more comfortable going to her instead.

Caitlyn had graduated from UCLA and worked in San Diego with a marketing firm as a computer specialist.

As she got older, her blonde hair slowly got darker and not it was almost a light brown. She also grew tall, standing at almost 6'3" without heels and was incredibly beautiful. Like their mother had taught them, Caitlyn had found using her beauty was a very effective weapon in the business world. People often underestimated that gorgeous blonde and had no idea she graduated with a 3.5 GPA.

"I'm surprised you weren't taking people out at the spa."

Amanda smirked, "Believe me I was tempted."

"You and Mom still going at it?" Caitlyn asked concerned.

Amanda just shrugged, "Its like she's doesn't even try to understand me."

"Or maybe you don't try to understand her?"

Rolling her eyes, "Can we talk about something else?"

A wicked grin appeared on Caitlyn's face, "Sure." Looking at her own reflection, "So how are things with you and the hubby?" Caitlyn giggled as Amanda's face went bright red.

"He's in New York working with his dad on a movie."

"You miss him," Caitlyn told her matter of factly. Before Amanda could ask how she could know that, "Its written all over your face. Plus, you get moody when he's not around for awhile."

Amanda smiled softly as she remembered Jason was going to be home soon. "He's coming back in a few days. Do…How do you know…know when you like someone? I mean really like them?"

Caitlyn looked at her for a moment with a small grin. "Trust me Mand. You really like him."

Amanda sighed as she looked at herself. "Yea but does he really like me?"

That night, Ethan was sitting on the couch in living room, flipping through channels, when Kate walked in and dropped down next to him. "Somethin wrong?" he asked cautiously, never taking his eyes off of the screen.

"I swear your daughter just loves to be difficult," Kate snarled softly.

Hearing the words, your daughter, immediately triggered alarms in Ethan's head. "Why?"

"I gave her countless great outfits to try on but she found faults with all of them," Kate grumbled as she pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes, trying to ignore the dull ache in her head. "Its like she gets a kick out of aggravating me."

"Come here," Ethan said as he raised his arm and Kate leaned into his side. Wrapping his arm around her, "Do you give her stuff she'd like or stuff you'd like?" Even though Kate didn't answer, Ethan knew the answer.

"I just miss being with my girls," Kate whined softly. "Caitlyn's in San Diego, Rachel is growing up, and Amanda is…I don't know what."

Ethan gently rubbed her side, "Amanda is just trying to find herself. When she gets a little older, she'll come back, and you two will be inseparable again."

Kate smiled sadly, "I remember when I couldn't get her to shut up." She then laughed softly, "Most of the time, it was Jason this and Jason that. I think every other word out of her mouth was about him." Sighing, "Now she won't even tell me anything."

"She's a teenager babe," Ethan told her. "She'll grow out of it."

"Just a stage," Kate thought to herself, "Doesn't mean I have to like it."