A/N: Thanks for continuing to read, review, and follow! I appreciate it. Sorry for the late post. A friend wanted to look at a car yesterday, and I went with her. She only wanted to look mind you. She ended up buying it, and all of the paperwork involved took some time to complete. All of that ended up eating up most of my day. This chapter skips ahead a little and is a shorter update. I wanted to get something up for everyone though. Hope you enjoy this update!

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Miranda shook her head as she watched her brother from across the playground. AJ had been watching Amber as he worked up the courage to ask her to the school dance. The brother and sister had gone over how he was going to ask Amber several times, and AJ had practiced what he wanted to say over and over again. Now that the moment was here however, he looked like a deer caught in the headlights, and it was easy for Miranda to see from across the playground that AJ had forgotten everything. If her brother was to have any chance of going to the dance with Amber, Miranda was going to have to step in and help AJ. To that end, she walked over to her brother.

"Are you okay?"

AJ swallowed hard and shook his head. "Not really. I'm nervous. What if she says no?"

"Amber likes you so I honestly don't think she will. If she does though, it's on her, and she just doesn't realize how great you are. Like our Moms said, it'll hurt, but you'll be okay. You're strong like both of them. Now, come on. Let's do this. You've got this."

"Okay." AJ nodded and followed Miranda over to where Amber was talking with two of her friends.

/

"Hi, Miranda! Hi, AJ!" Amber smiled as the brother and sister duo joined her group.

"Hi, Amber!" Miranda said. She nudged AJ to bring him out of his stupor.

"Uh … Hi … Hi, Amber." AJ cleared his throat after his voice cracked.

Brittany thought AJ looked uncomfortable, but she wasn't sure why so she simply shrugged it off. "So, Miranda, did you talk to Tommy?"

"Yeah, I did. He was okay with me not wanting to go with him. He said he was actually relieved I turned him down."

"He was? Why?"

AJ snapped out of his fog long enough to hear the question. "Tommy told me that he just wanted to go with some of his friends too. Plus, his older brother had a girlfriend when he was the same age. He was putting some pressure on Tommy to find one too."

Miranda nodded. "Tommy said that while he liked me, it was just as friends. He figured if he asked me and I said yes, he could explain things to me later. He thought I would understand and that we could still have a good time together. He's right about all of that, and we agreed to share a dance."

"That's really good to hear. I'm glad you and Tommy worked it all out." Amber said. She knew Miranda had been worried about Tommy's feelings and didn't want to hurt him.

"Me too." Miranda saw that AJ looked like he was about to say something, but he quickly backed down when Brittany and Lanie began to talk again. She had to help her brother, and she knew the best way to help him was to get the two girls away from AJ and Amber. She knew her brother didn't want to ask Amber in front of anyone. Miranda had to get them alone together at least for a few minutes, but she was at loss as to how to accomplish that. It was then that two people came to mind, experts at distraction if you will, and she asked herself what her Aunt Kendall and Aunt Greenlee would do in a situation like this. Miranda quickly came up with a plan, one that she knew her aunts would approve of. To distract Brittany and Lanie, she simply needed to give them a topic of conversation that she knew they couldn't possibly resist, themselves. More to the point, what they would wear to the dance.

"What are you planning on wearing to the dance? I'm still trying to figure it out myself."

Lanie's eyes lit up. "Oh, I know exactly what I want to wear!"

"I went shopping with my mom last weekend." Brittany added.

With the two girls engaged, Miranda glanced at her brother and nodded her head towards Amber, silently telling him to use this time to his advantage.

AJ got the hint and nodded back before he turned his attention to Amber. "Um. Do you have any plans for the dance yet?"

Amber shook her head. "No, not yet. I'm not sure if I want to go."

"Why not?" AJ asked as he tried to mask his disappointment at the girl's statement.

"I'm kinda afraid what some of the other kids might say."

AJ was on alert and ready to defend Amber. "Did someone say something to you?"

"No, but they'll be a lot more kids there and more adults. Sometimes, they can be meaner than the kids."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. For what it's worth, I'd make sure that no one said anything bad to you."

"You would?" The fact that AJ would defend her brought a smile to Amber's face.

"I would."

"That means a lot. Maybe, I'll go now."

"Could I ask you something?"

"Uh huh."

The boy took a deep breath and blurted out the question. "Doyouwannagotothedancewithme?"

Amber looked confused. She couldn't quite make out the question. "What?"

AJ took another breath and asked the question again, slower this time. "Do you wanna go to the dance with me?"

"You really want to go to the dance with me? Why? You could go with anybody. Why me?" Amber couldn't hide her surprise.

"Yeah, I really want to go with you. " AJ nodded. It was hard for him to believe that Amber couldn't see how special she was. "Why wouldn't I? I mean, I … I like you, a lot. You're smart and funny and nice, and you've stood up for Miranda and me. I also think you're really pretty."

Amber blushed when she heard AJ confess his feelings for her. The girl quickly frowned when an unpleasant thought came to mind. "But my mom, she's been really mean to your family."

"Yeah, she has. You're not your mom though."

"But I was mean to you and Miranda."

"Yeah, you were, but that was a long time ago. You were just saying those things because of your mom and what she said. Did you mean them?"

Amber shook her head adamantly. "No, I didn't. I wish I never said them. I'm so sorry I hurt the two of you."

AJ smiled. "I know and so does Miranda. That just proves to me that you're different than your mom. You're sorry. You've apologized to us and have done whatever you can to make it up to us, which you have. You've changed. Your mom hasn't." AJ paused for a moment and thought of another way to explain the difference between Amber and her mom. "Maybe it's not that you've changed so much as that you've let who you really are show to others."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I think that you've always been nice, but you were just afraid to show that you were because of your mom. She kind of overshadowed you and scared you some. Right?"

Amber nodded after a moment. "Yeah. Whenever I would disagree with what she was saying and ask her to stop, she would yell at me and start saying bad things about me. She would do the same with my dad. After a while, it was just easier for both of us to keep our mouths shut or just go along with her. I'm not very proud of that."

"Trust me, I get it. My dad has said a lot of bad stuff about others that have made me really mad, especially about my Moms. When he drinks, he's even nastier. What helped me was that I didn't live with him. My Moms ran interference for me so I didn't have to deal with him and hear his garbage. If I hadn't had that, I might have done the same thing that you did. Now that you don't have to hear your mom saying all those hateful things all the time, you're listening to yourself and finding out who you really are, and I like that person. I like her a lot."

Amber blushed profusely as she fought back tears. The last thing she wanted to do was cry at school. She was truly touched by not only what AJ had said about her but by his insight into her situation as well. "Thank you. That really means a lot to me. I … I like her too. I mean me. You're right about me listening to myself now. It feels good finding my own voice, trusting it, and finally having the strength to use it." Amber bit her lip as she considered AJ's earlier question. "I have to ask my dad if it's okay, but I would really like to go to the dance with you."

AJ grinned widely. "Yeah?! You would?!"

"I would. I'll ask him tonight and call you after. Is that okay?"

"Definitely!"

The bell rang to let everyone they had to head back inside.

"I'll talk to later, AJ."

"Okay." AJ stood frozen in place as Amber walked away closely followed by Brittany and Lanie. Thanks to Miranda, the two girls had no idea what had just occurred only a few feet from them.

Miranda shook her head again at her brother and smiled. She was really happy for him and also very proud of the way he opened up. Miranda nudged AJ, breaking him out of his daze. "We need to head back inside."

"Oh yeah, I guess we do." AJ looked at his sister with the biggest grin she had ever seen on his face. "Miranda, she said yes!"

"Of course she did. I told you she would. Amber's smart and knows how special you are. I'm happy for you, AJ, and really proud of you. You did good. I didn't doubt you for a minute."

"Thanks, Miranda, and thanks for having my back and helping me. I don't know if I could've done it without your help."

"I'll always have your back." Miranda stated with conviction.

AJ nodded. "Same."