At the school, things weren't going too well for the children. They had the morning out of lessons while they all queued to have their photographs taken, and whereas the year before, Ashley, Aaron, and the twins had stood waited together, there was a considerable absense where Evelyn was nowhere to be found. Evan approached the remaining two and slumped down next to them with a heavy sighed huff.

"What's eating you?" Aaron asked, noticing the rather annoyed look on his friends face.

"A horrible carnivore by the name of Kerry Rom." Evan complained. "I hate her."

The others looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

"This wouldn't have anything to do with Evie now would it?" Aaron teased.

"You tell me." He replied, jabbing his thumb in Kerry's direction.

Sure enough, over the other side of the assembly hall was Evelyn, sitting with Kerry, laughing and joking like they had been friends for years. Suddenly, Ashley's expression seemed to match Evan's. He had always been inseperable from his twin sister, and for the first time in their lives, they weren't getting on. And he had a feeling it was to do with the appearance of Kerry.

"Well, don't they look friendly." Aaron laughed.

"Don't they just." Evan complained.

"As soon as Evie realises, she'll come back to us." Aaron predicted.

Evan frowned. "Realises what, exactly? That Kerry's a stupid bimbo that's going to ditch her as soon as the popular girls move in?"

"Somehow," Ashley pointed over in their direction again, just in time to see the popular girls in question walk past and laugh at the other two. Of course, Evelyn shot daggers at them, as she always did, but Kerry laughed it off. "I don't think that will be happening."

"I mean about her in general." Aaron told them. "Trust me, there's more to her than she's letting on."

"You think she's hiding something?" Evan suggested. Aaron nodded in reply.

"Give her a break, guys, she's only been here three days." Ashley defended. "She doesn't have to tell you her life story."

"What are you defending her for?" Aaron said rather loudly. "She's taking Evie away from all of us. That means you too."

"I don't know what you're fussing over." Ashley defended, sounding a lot like her father. "Evie hasn't gone anywhere. Me and her are still best friends no matter who joins the school."

"That so?" Aaron questioned, giving Evan a look that suggested that he thought differently.

"Sure is." Ashley said, leaning back against the wall they were sitting by.

Evan was the one to voice what all three of them had been thinking. "Then how come you're over here, and she's over there...?"

Now Ashley was the one shooting daggers at Kerry.

"Claire, I'm sure that he didn't mean what he said."

"It sure sounded like it."

Kate had been sitting with Claire for about half an hour now, trying to comfort her about what Aaron had said to her that morning. She had Amy sleeping across her lap, and was subconsiously twirling the ends of her qucikly growing hair whilst she listened to Claire's fears that she was going to lose Aaron's love over this business with Thomas.

"He's not angry at you, honey, he's angry at Thomas." Kate reassured, but Claire was still pacing around the room. Kate noticed this. "Sit down, Claire, you're going to wear the carpet out."

Claire gave in and sat down, but went to biting her nail instead. "He keeps calling here...and I don't know what to tell him." She said helplessly. "He asks me what Aaron says when I talk about him."

"What does he say?" Kate asked.

Claire nodded in the direction of Kate's lap, where Amy was sleeping. "Nothing suitable for mention infront of a one-year-old."

Both women sighed. "Claire, maybe it's a good idea to let Aaron see him." Kate suggested cautiously

Claire looked around sharply to Kate, forgetting that she was currently tearing the nail from her thumb. "What?"

"It's the only way for Aaron to vent all this anger without hurting anyone who doesn't deserve it." She explained.

Claire shook her head. "Thomas doesn't deserve to see Aaron. He's not his son anymore. He gave that right up when he signed the papers allowing Charlie to adopt him."

"But Aaron deserves to see him." Kate reasoned. "Remember, he's only thirteen, and he still knows that his father abandoned him because he was selfish."

Claire was silent for a moment. "He shows up here wanting to meet his son. Why now? Why not on his birthday? Or when we came back from the island? He would have known exactly where we were with the news coverage. He would have known that I'd kept the baby. Why show up now?" She let out a shaky breath she had been holding and looked over to the mantlepeice where there was a photo with her and Charlie holding Aaron between them when they had been rescued. "I just don't want Aaron to get hurt if Thomas lets him down again."

"Then let Aaron decide for himself." Kate suggested. "You don't ever have to have anything to do with him ever again Claire. This is a chance for you and Aaron to get the answers that you've needed for the past thirteen years."

Again Claire went silent for a few moments, then she turned to Kate. "Will you be here, if he comes around, can you be here for me if Charlie can't?"

Kate didn't think twice before nodding. "Of course I will." She said, and leaned over to hug Claire without moving Amy too much in her sleep. "What does Charlie say about this?"

"Again, words that can't be mentioned around a one-year-old." Claire said, only this time with a choked laugh

Lunchtime came, and once again Evan, Aaron and Ashley found themselves one person down on their usual group. Evelyn hadn't been seen except in lessons when she had gone to sit with Kerry instead of them. Evan found himself more depressed than usual. He never thought that it was possible to miss someone when you still went to the same school, had the same classes, and lived under the same roof as them. Aaron nudged his friend in the shoulder.

"Snap out of it man, you look as bad as I feel." He sighed.

Evan remembered what Kate had told him that morning about trying to cheer Aaron up. "That weird guy still calling?" He asked. Ashley raised an eyebrow when Aaron nodded.

"What 'weird guy'?" She asked.

"Some guy called Thomas." Aaron said lightly, while diving into his bag to retrieve the other half of his sandwich. "Apparently he's my real father." You could tell from the way he worded it that he clearly didn't care. "Which is a load of damned crap because Charlie's my Dad - always has been, always will be."

"So you're not going to see him?" Evan asked.

Aaron shook his head. "Don't see why I should."

"You're kidding right?" Evan said incredulously. "This is your chance, man."

"My chance for what? To see the man who abandoned me and Mom?"

"No! To get some bloody answers." Evan explained. "If it were me I'd want to know exactly what possessed him to do it."

Aaron didn't get a chance to reply because Evelyn made a sudden appearance and sat down beside Ashley, opposite the boys.

"Well, well, well, look what the boar dragged in." Aaron said as she appeared. "What brings you back to the bull-pen?"

"Come on guys, we always eat lunch together." Evelyn laughed.

"Oh yeah, and where's you're lunch?" Evan asked. Evelyn didn't answer. "That's right, you've already eaten it haven't you?"

"I ate with Kerry. She didn't want to eat on her own." Evelyn shrugged.

"Where is she?" Evan asked. "Aren't you two joined at the hip or something?"

Evelyn shot him a look. "She's in the library doing some research."

"Maybe you should be with her." Evan shot back. "While you're there, look up something for me. It's a book called 'What To Do When Your Sister Ditches You'." Ashley raised her eyebrows at Aaron, who was looking at Aaron like he had been possessed by an evil spirit. For the first time in twelve years, Evan and Evelyn were argueing. They were surprised that they even knew how not to get along with each other.

Evelyn frowned at her brother. "What are you talking about, I haven't ditched you." She defended.

"Where were you this morning? At break? In history and science? For the first half of lunch?" He didn't give her a change to answer. "That's right, you were with Kerry."

"Well someone had to be!" She snapped back. "Maybe if you two," She looked at Evan and then Aaron, "were more accepting of her, she wouldn't be on her own."

Evan snorted. "She's not on her own, Evie, she's with you - constantly."

"If you stopped accusing her of everything that pops into your head then maybe we can all get along with her." Evelyn suggested.

"Aaron said she's not to be trusted." Evan reminded her.

"And if Aaron told you to jump off a cliff would you do it?" Evelyn remarked, sounding just like Kate. In fact, repeating a phrase that Kate said nearly every day to Evan. Of course, the truth was, if Aaron was also jumping off the cliff, it would most definately garauantee that Evan would jump.

"Don't turn this around on me." Evan told her.

"Evan, what is the matter with you?" Evelyn repeated.

"What's the matter with me? You are." He told her.

Aaron and Ashley both looked like they were too scared to move for fear of death.

"What?" Evelyn asked, the beginnings of tears in her eyes.

"You're my sister, Evie. My twin sister. And in the past few days we've spent a total of two hours together." He told her. "Ever since Kerry came along you're completely ignoring me."

"Ignoring you? I'm trying to make her feel welcome. Not that you'd known what that means." Evelyn snapped.

"I don't know you anymore." Evan said sadly. "This time last week you were normal."

"I am normal." She defended.

"We were best friends, Evie. We told each other everything. No secrets, no lies - that's the motto remember. The motto that you came up with. We're meant to be a team." He pointed out, and she looked away with anger written all over her face. "Now I'm a teammate short, because she'd rather wear make up and tiny t-shirts with her new best friend." Evan indicated the short top she was wearing that day. "You're lucky that you were wearing a jumper this morning for the photo, because Dad would kill you if he saw you wearing that."

"Kerry lent it to me." She said in a matter-of-factly manner.

"If Kerry offered you arsenic would you take it?" Evan asked, bringing back her point from before.

Evelyn stood up, the tears that were welling finally spilling out. "Then tell me, brother, why can't you just accept the fact that I have a friend that doesn't revolve around you?" She didn't give him a chance to answer, and instead stalked off, wiping her face on her bare arm furiously as she left. To none of their surprise, she went in the direction of the library.

Evan huffed, and turned back to the other two, who were staring at him wide-eyed. "What?" He asked them.

"Evan...man. That was...woah." Aaron said, unable to get the words out.

"You're gonna get it in the neck later on." Ashley warned him.

"I don't know what the big deal is." Evan shrugged. "Someone needed to say it."

"But Evan, you just argued with Evie." Aaron told him.

"So."

"But, you've never argued." Aaron reminded him. "You're the Sheppard Twins. You don't argue."

Evan nodded in the direction of the door. "Apparently we don't have the same taste in people either." He shrugged. "She's made her choices."

Evan went back to his lunch, feeling that the weight that had been lifted off his shoulders was now being replaced with guilt. He had made Evelyn cry. Evelyn never cried. She hadn't cried since she was six and Aaron had put a toy spider in her hair that had turned out to be a real spider. She just didn't cry. Their father always said that he was like their mother with that. She never cried either. She had cried when she was happy that Amy was born, or when something drastically bad happened, but that was it. And now Evan had made Evelyn cry.

Ashley was right. He was going to get it in the neck later.