Wow! I didn't think that I would get this chapter out this quickly! Truth is I could have got this out sooner if I made it a little shorter or cut it in half, but seriously once I started typing I didn't want to stop!

Only 3 reviews for last chapter (thanks Ciel Of Light, Crying Sorceress and Mushrambolover!) … I guess that I deserve that, but the quickness of this one has to help me score some brownie points, right?

I am trying to get the chapters back to a reasonable length, but it is kind of difficult coming up with filler plot. Anyway I hope that this keeps you satisfied for a little while!

Enjoy!

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CHAPTER 13 – ARROGANT PRAT/GIT AND GENDER CONFUSION

'MATTHEW! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU! GET YOUR LITTLE ASS DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW OR ELSE!' Aleks screamed abusively from the bottom of the staircase. A muffled voice cried out that he was coming as she heard frantic movement from above her. She tapped her foot impatiently against the pristine white tiles as she looked down at her thick, white-banded watch again. It read 8:23. She had seven minutes to get Matthew to his little league match, which was in West Brompton, no exactly the closest suburb to where they lived. It would take Aleks at least 15 minutes to drive there. Why did I agree to take Matt when I could be sleeping? Aleks asked her self as she trudged into the kitchen and pulled out an empty drink bottle. Oh yeah, how could I forget. Mum, dad, Odette and Tala were going to discuss something serious before heading over to the Hiwatari's to go over the details the marriage. Aleks shuddered at the thought. Its not like she disliked Odette, quite the contrary its just the idea of marriage was a little over-whelming and at the same time looking impossible in Aleks' life. She just seemed to have no luck with guys.

Matt would definitely need a water bottle and no doubt he wouldn't have got one for himself. She sighed as she flipped the tap on and filled up the bottle, waiting not so patiently as the slow, steady stream of water flowed out of the tap and into the bottle. Hang on a sec! She thought. Where the hell was Ariel after school yesterday. Sure she had cheerleading practice, but that didn't go all evening. Ariel had missed the whole conversation about the plans for today. 'Lucky cow,' Aleks grumbled as she continued to warrant death threats to her lovely sister who was no doubt sleeping after her late night, but was cut short.

'ALLIE, WHERE ARE YOU!' a young voice cried from the entrance. 'WHERE GOING TO BE LATE!' he wailed. Aleks' eyebrow twitched warningly, drawing her concentration away from the bottle just as it started to reach the top. The water erupted from the top of the bottle and splashed onto her black trackies causing her to yelp frustrated. She subconsciously dusted the water droplets off her after they had soaked through the material. 'ALLIE!'

'ALL RIGHT I'M COMING! HOLD YOUR HORSE!' she yelled back as she placed the lid onto the bottle, picked her car keys, purse and cap of the counter.

She was about to give her little brother a piece of her mind when she caught site of him and began to giggle. He looked distressed and utterly ridiculous! His chestnut colour hair was sticky out in completely random directions under his bright red baseball cap. He still had flecks of milk around his mouth from when he 'attempted' to eat breakfast. His grey vest was open revealing a creased, untucked navy long sleeved shirt and his grey, red pin striped pants seemed to be tucked into red socks, one appeared to be inside out. In his hands, Matt was holding his bat and glove along with his belt.

'Oh Matt.' Aleks giggled as she began to approach Matt, taking his backpack of the hook near the door and placed her belongs in it. He handed her his bat and glove, allowing her to place them in there as well. Kneeling down, Aleks brought herself down to his level and looked at him in the eye and smiled. 'I was horrible for making you dress yourself, wasn't I?' Matt nodded his head, as Aleks took of his cap and attempted to smooth his hair before placing it back on. Hurriedly she buttoned up his vest and tucked it and the navy shirt into his pants. Next she took hold of his hands that were still gripping onto the belt, and guided his hands through the belt holes in his pants and buckled it up. 'You ready, superstar?' Aleks asked as she straightened herself up, picking her own baseball cap off the ground and feeding her ponytail through the hole in the back.

'Sure am!' Matt replied happily as he opened the door and headed over to the twins' black CR-V that was parked in the driveway. With the backpack slung over her shoulder, Aleks locked the front door behind her and proceeded to the car. Dumping the bag into the backseat, pulling her Gucci sunglasses over her eyes and sticking the keys into the ignition, starting the car.

'If mum asks, we left on time, right?' Aleks said as she reversed out of the drive way and onto the street.

'Yep!' Matt responded gleefully as he changed the radio to the CD player and turned up the volume. In no time Disney beats were filling the car and had Matt singing along, with Aleks joining in her and there.

When they arrived at the park, Aleks was pleased to see that they were only 10 minutes late. 10 minutes wasn't too bad, right? Turning off the car, she got the bag out of the back and pressed a button on the key, locking the doors. With the bag in one hand and Matt's hand in her other Aleks made her way over to the baseball diamond.

'Do you want me to explain to your coach while we were late?' Aleks asked.

'Nah, I'll be fine. Most of the other kids rock up later anyway.'

'Well if you're sure.' She said stopping next to his bench. Aleks handed him is bat and glove as Matt turned to meet up with his team who were warming up on the field. (A/N: have you ever seen a little league match of baseball? It's so cute! Half the time the kids can't even catch the ball, but that is what makes it awesome! LOL! Sorry that was random XD) 'Hold on a seconds tiger.' She said as she licked her finger and scrubbed the milk stains off Matt's face.

'Alllllliiieeee!' He pouted as she continued to assault his face.

'If you had washed your face after breakfast this wouldn't have happened. Better yet, the whole point of eating breakfast is to feed your stomach not your face.'

'Okay!' he sighed exasperatedly. Aleks laughed at the silly face her brother was pulling.

'Go get 'em!' she said as she gave his a quick peck on the cheek. She watched as his face morphed to one of completely embarrassment as he ran off to join his friends who had seen what had happened and now were laughing at his expense.

Aleks smirked to herself, amused as she made her way over to the stands where the other family members were sitting. This was her first time to one of Matt's games, as her mum usually took him, some times her new dad, so she didn't know an of the other boy's parents, hence had no idea where to sit. Walking up the steps she decided on the third row, and positioned herself a little to the left of a group of mothers, who no doubt had sons in Matt's team as they had taken the definition of 'team spirit' a little too far and were decked out only in red and grey.

Sitting down Aleks pulled her phone out of her purse that was in Matt's bag and checked her phone for any messages. Am I completely stupid? Aleks thought as she looked at her blank screen, indicating that there were no new messages. But of course she had no new messages, all of her friends would still be asleep like any normal person would be on a Saturday morning.

Thinking of friends, made Aleks think back to Ariel. Due to their closeness they were best friends, but Aleks couldn't help, but feel that there was something that Ariel wasn't telling her. They use to tell each other everything, but ever since they moved it was like Ariel had left her old self behind and had changed into some else. Its not that Aleks thought that change was a bad thing, she just didn't like being left behind, but it felt like she always was and things were only getting worse with the new Ariel. Letting out a tired sigh, she tossed her phone back into the bag and stretched out. She would find out what was wrong with Ariel as soon as she got home.

'Would you like some coffee, dear?' one of the ladies from in front of Aleks asked her. Aleks blinked a couple of times bring herself out of her deep thought.

'Pardon?' Aleks replied, genuinely confused.

'Would you like some coffee?' the lady repeated holding a furnace of coffee and a clean cup.

'Oh. Uh, yes thanks. That would be nice.' The lady nodded her head and poured some of the steaming brown liquid into the cup.

'How do you have it?'

'White with three sugars.' Aleks blushed as the lady raised an eyebrow before handing over the coffee.

'Thank you.' Aleks replied politely as she brought the cup up to her mouth and smelt the rich aroma, before taking a sip. Letting the coffee flow lazily down her throat and into her stomach.

'That's quite all right, love. You looked like you could use some.' She said as she motioned for Aleks to come sit down next to her, since she was sitting on the end of the group of mothers and didn't seemed to be interested in whatever they were talking about. Aleks laughed and her comment as she stepped over the down to the next level and took the seat next to the coffee lady.

'Yeah, well mornings aren't really my thing.'

'No me neither. I'm Grace, by the way.' Grace said extending one of hands towards Aleks. 'And that is my son, Jake.' She continued pointing over to the direction of the dugout where the boys had moved. It looked like they were getting ready to play. Aleks' eyes settled on a small boy with red hair and freckles, she assumed that he was Jake since he had an uncanny resemblance to Grace.

'I'm Aleks Valkov. One of Matt's older sisters.'

'Oh, so you are one of Tatiana's daughters. Yes, your mother often talked about you and your sister. Your very pretty, just like your mother described.' Aleks blushed.

'Uh, thanks.' Grace merely smiled warmly at her as they began to settle back and watch the game.

An hour later, after cheering, praising, booing and congratulating the game was finally over, Matt's team wining 1-0 in a thrilling match! The spectators were collecting their belongings, getting ready to collect their children and head home. Aleks was happy to say that she had enjoyed herself and wouldn't mind if her mother asked her to go again. It was nice timeout and Aleks didn't really do anything with Matt, and this gave her an excuse to spend a bit of time with him.

'Aleks dear, you wouldn't mind going to Sam and giving him this mug of coffee and some cake that I baked.'

'Sam?' Aleks asked confused.

'The coach, hun. I usually have something to give him after each match but as you can see it's a little difficult to deliver it to him at the moment.' Grace answered motioning down to her leg that had been wrapped in a plaster.

'Oh! Oh my god. I'm sorry I didn't notice. Are you okay?' Grace laughed happily.

'Yes, yes, don't worry about me. I'm quite fine.'

'Oh good. Sure I won't mind. Just point me in the direction and I'll take it to him for you.'

Once Grace had pointed him out, Aleks walked over to the diamond, where the 'Sam' fellow was joking around with the boys. After a moment Matt noticed his sister standing a little behind them called out,

'Allie! Allie! Did you see my catch! It was awesome right.' Aleks laughed at his enthusiasm.

'Sure was junior.' She smiled. 'Uh, this is for you from Grace.' She said awkwardly handing Sam is coffee and cake after she noticed him staring at her.

'Thanks.'

'No problem.' She replied politely as she allowed Matt to lead her back to the dug out to fetch his bag. The whole time Aleks could feel Sam's gaze on her. She felt slightly uncomfortable, as he was rather attractive and she had not done herself any justice with her little tracksuit ensemble that she was wearing. As Matt started throwing his stuff carelessly into his bag, Sam approached Aleks.

'So you must be Matt-man's girlfriend?' Aleks giggled at his ridiculous assumption and smiled at him.

'What's it to you?' she asked flirtatiously.

'Nothing really.' He said taking a bit of the cake in his hand. 'Just thinking that he could have done so much better.' He continued with a cheeky smirk. Aleks smiled literally dripped off her face as she glared back at him.

'Prat.' She mumbled to herself as she grabbed hold of Matt's hand and his bag and led him away from the arrogant jerk and towards the car.

'Tell Grace her cake was delicious!' he called out after her. She gave no indication to whether she heard him or not she discretely flipped him off, causing his smirk to grow. Aleks hurriedly went and said goodbye to the other mothers and lastly Grace. Before she made her way back home, where she was determined to get that git far out of her mind.

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'Are you sure that you both happy with this arrangement?' Mihali asked from the front seat as he drove himself, his wife, Tala and Odette to the Hiwatari's mansion. Looking the rear view mirror to catch their expression.

'Well I don't know about Odds, but I okay with this.' Tala said. 'Anyway it could be a lot worse.' He continued with a cheeky grin. Odette gasped in mock shock, before clipping him playfully over the head before giggling. Mr Valkov smiled to his wife and she smiled back. To say the least, they were both surprised how well the kids took the arrangement. They appeared to take it maturely and the elders could not have expected anything better. A comfortable silence lapsed in the car as they awaited their arrival at the Hiwatari estate.

About five minutes later, they arrived and were welcomed by a butler, who led the four of them to Voltaire's study. It had been set up slightly differently to accommodate for Tala's parents. Voltaire was already seated behind the desk when they entered. He looked up from the document in front of him.

'Ah, I am so glad you are here.' He said as he shook Mihali's hand before he motioned for them to take a seat. Odette noticed that there were only four seats and that Kai was not there.

'Excuse me sir, but is Kai coming?'

'I am afraid not, my dear. It seems that he left rather early this morning and I don't think that he will be back for a while.'

'Oh.' Odette said slightly disappointed. 'Is he okay?'

'Yes, I am sure that he is. You and Tala would know more then anyone how much he likes to ponder over things.' Both Tala and Odette nodded at this comment. Kai was one to cogitate and it was a bad habit. He always seemed to shut himself off from the rest of the world and it would take Tala and Odette forever to bring him back to reality. This time they couldn't help, but feel this was different. He seemed so cold and abrupt yesterday. 'But don't let my grandson's behaviour concern you, at the moment. We have a lot more pressing issues.' Everyone nodded.

'So what kind of details are we looking at?' Tala asked.

'Well, I am glad that you asked my boy. The whole point of this arrangement was to create a merger between your father and my companies along with the Nikolai's.' Voltaire paused as Tala indicated that he was listening. 'The marriage is required to produce two heirs before you, Kai and Odette will be allowed to take over the company and run it as you see fit.'

'Wait a moment. When you say two heirs, you mean two sons right?' Odette asked awkwardly.

'Yes, that's right.' Mihali replied. Odette looked at Tala anxiously and he squeezed her hand reassuringly, but did not look her in the eyes. His attention remained focus on Voltaire. I have to start thinking about having children? Odette's mind screamed. But I'm a child myself! There is no way in hell that I am old enough to have children.

'I think that last important note that I should point out, is that under no circumstance are you allowed to divorce before your first son is 18. If you do so, you renounce all rights to the company and they will be automatically passed on to your children.' Odette seemed to have a pain expression on her face, as she remained deep in thought. Sure she loved Tala, but as a brother. She had never really thought about him as anything more, but it seemed that they were going to have to talk things through. This was serious, and there was no way of getting out of it unless the complied to the details or else Odette would be left with nothing. She had no family as it already was and she could growth to love Tala, right? Odette took a deep breath and studied Tala. The parents were talking about some minor details concerning the wedding, which didn't really seem relevant to her at this point in time. Tala appeared to be on a different planet, his mind was racing. He felt Odette's gaze on him and made eye contact with her. He managed a weak smile, before he leaned over and whispered in her ear,

'Do you want to go for a walk?' Odette offered a little smile back and nodded. Tala stood up and offered her his arm. She took it politely, while he explained to the adults that they were going to go for a walk around the grounds.

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Ariel let out a yawn as the faint buzzing of her mobile from her bedside table woke her. She rolled onto her back and stretched like a feline, before rolling over once more and reaching her mobile. She rubbed her eyes with her left fist as she tapped the read button with the right hand. In a split second the screen read, Morning Sleeping Beauty x. Ariel could help but sigh giddily as her stomach did little somersaults. She tapped back a reply, before sending it off. She felt strange not telling Aleks about Roy, hell it felt weird that she had to sneak off just to see her boyfriend. Boyfriend… now that felt creepy saying and they had been going out for three months! Ariel did even know what the big deal was about not telling people that she has a boyfriend. She supposed that timing had been a little off with what had been happening, but hell if she didn't tell someone soon she was going to burst!

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Kai pressed the doorbell, and heard the melodic chime throughout the house. He waited patiently for someone to answer the door. A shadow seen through the translucent glass in the door indicated that someone had heard the noise and was going to let him in. He heard the sound of the metal sliding against each other as the person unlocked the deadlock. When the door finally opened the warmth of the light inside seemed to beckon Kai inside. He looked down and say Sian's mother smiling warmly at him.

'Hello Kai, Sian didn't tell me that you were coming over tonight.'

'Uh, yeah she didn't know either. I wanted to surprise her.' Mrs Zylstra motioned for him to come inside as she shut the door behind him.

'Well I'm sure that she will be very happy to see you. She's been rather quietly lately. Got no idea what is wrong with the girl. Maybe you can liven her up a little?' (A/n: should parents be saying stuff like this to their daughter's boyfriend? ) 'Better yet, while you are up there see if you can talk to my son. He has barely left his room in weeks. Heaven forbid why. He seemed so happy with that nice young girl… what was her name again?'

'Odette.' Kai offered. He had no idea why he even prompted her; he was only sealing his death. It seemed that his girlfriend's ability to talk and talk was inherited from her mother.

'Yes, Odette! Such a lovely girl. I haven't seen her in awhile. I thought that she was Sian's friend as well…'

'Janet!' called a male voice from the living room.

'What is it Paul?'

'Just let the poor boy go upstairs. I don't think that he came over to have you take his ear off.'

'Don't be ridiculous, Paul. I only kept him for a minute. Did you want something to eat Kai?' She asked him.

'Nah, I'm all right. I'll just go to Sian's room?'

'Yeah, she should be up there. I'll bring some food up later then.' Kai merely smiled as he made is way up the stairs.

When he walked passed Logan's room he hesitated momentarily before he knocked on the door. He heard no indication to whether Logan was in there or not; all he heard was the croon of some eerie ballad. Cautiously he pushed open the door and spotted Logan at his desk.

'Hey man. How have you been?' Kai asked quietly. He heard a mumble fine, but just from the back of Logan's head, Kai could tell that he wasn't fine. He's dark blonde hair was a complete mess, almost reaching his shoulder raggedly. He was all hunched over the table. Leaning against the door frame he sighed, 'anything you want to talk about?'

'Look, I'm fine alright?' Logan snapped as he turned around to face Kai. He's once brilliant blue eyes that shone with mischief and confidence had been reduced to clouded, dull and empty. Kai was a little taken back by his abruptness, but shook it off.

'Whatever, mate. If you need someone to talk to, you know where I am.' And with that Kai shut the door and continued to Sian's room. Without bothering to knock he opened the door and found her on her bed reading something. She looked up when she heard the door open, and was surprised to see Kai there instead of one of her parents.

'Hey.' She said softly. 'Tell me I'm not dreaming.' She placed the book she was reading down on the bed.

'Hey.' Kai said entering the room. Approaching her, he continued. 'I assure you that, you are not dreaming.' Now he was standing next to her bed.

'Good.' Kai raised an eyebrow at her, as she pulled him down on top of her, winding her arms around his neck before placing a soft, but heated kiss on his lips, one, which he returned. After a moment he supported himself up onto his forearms and looked down at her.

'I saw you brother just before. He looks like shit.' Sian rolled her eyes.

'Well at you least noticed something.' She mumbled.

'What was that?'

'Nothing, he just hasn't gotten over the break up with Odds yet.'

'Didn't he break it off with her, or wasn't it some mutual agreement or something?' Kai asked honestly confused.

'Yeah, but he only did it cause he thought that it was the right thing to do. Not cause he wanted to.' She paused and brushed a couple of stray strands off of Kai's face. 'Kai, I've never seen him this bad.' She whispered. 'It's scary. He wasn't even like this after what happened to Tash.' At this point, Kai had rolled off from on top of her and was lying next to her.

'I guess that I shouldn't tell him that she's getting married then, should I?'

'What? Married? To who?'

'Tala.'

'When?'

'We found out a day or so ago. It turns out that when we were younger, our parents made an agreement that when we came of age Odette would have to choose either Tala or myself to marry. Since the death of her parents, the plan was pushed forward.'

'So, she chose Tala over you?'

'Not exactly. He said that he was willing to do it and Odette said that she couldn't choose and so when Tala asked she accepted.' Sian went to hug him in a comforting manner, but he pulled back rather rigidly. 'Don't.'

'What?'

'Just don't.'

'Don't what Kai?' Sian asked peeved. 'What the hell has been wrong with you lately? One minute you are fine and the next your not. Are you sure that your not a girl? You are always having this massive mood swings and you are seriously confusing me! Stop feeling sorry for your self and start carrying about what is happening around you!'

'Don't you dare start on me.' Kai growled standing up.

'Don't start? I already have mister, and I haven't finished with you.' Kai turned at glared at her darkly. It made Sian shiver slightly; she had never seen him that angry.

'Well I have finished with you.' With that he left her sitting on her bed, wide eyed and at a loss as to what had just happened.

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Well that is it for this chapter? What did you think? Am I getting better? Worse? You'll be pleased to know that I have some ideas for the next chapter, but please don't expect it as quickly as this one, cause I really need to do some school work! I am so far behind /

Also please, please let me know if there is anything you want to read. Maybe something happen to a particular character, do you want to read more about one character an less of another or maybe you want to meet a new interesting character, if you hate all the characters that are present so far! Please talk to me! I love hearing from your guys!

Thanks also to Kani-chan, CS and Mush for reviewing my author note. Without you guys I doubt that I would have continued!