Kristy stared impatiently at the clock, tapping her pencil against her textbook. It was 2:45 on Friday afternoon- fifteen more minutes until school would be over for the week. Charlie was coming home from school for the weekend, and she literally could not wait to see him. Words could not express how grateful she was that the soccer team didn't practice on Friday afternoons.

Charlie went to Boiceville State. Even though it was only about forty-five minutes away from Stoneybrook, he lived on campus in the dorms. He said it was part of the college experience, and Kristy really tried to be happy for him, but it was hard, especially in times like these. She needed her big brother more than she had in a long time. She knew in her heart that he would be able to fix these things. He always did.

Kristy looked up at the clock again, but only three minutes had passed. Study hall was really the most useless class period. Normally she used this time to get a jump start on her homework, but there was no way that she would be able to concentrate today. Across the room, she saw Claudia absently doodling in her notebook. Maybe she couldn't concentrate either. Or maybe high schol had been unable to motivate her in the same way that middle school hadn't been able to. At this point, it seemed very unlikely that Claudia would even be a scholar.

Eight minutes left. Kristy put her head down and reflected. Even if she didn't need Charlie's input on everything that was going on at home, she really needed to see him. He had only been home once since going off to college, and that weekend went so fast that she hardly even counted it. This was the longest amount of time that they had spent apart in her whole life. She wasn't embarrassed to admit that she missed him. When they were growing up, she, along with Sam and Charlie, had been a team, all of them working together to take care of David Michael and help out their mom in anyway she needed. When Watson had come into their lives, they hadn't needed this as much anymore. Or at least that's what they had thought.

Lost in her thoughts, the bell rang. Kristy quickly packed up her things, and made her way to her locker. Pulling out the books that she would need for the weekend, she closed the door and turned around, almost knocking over Abby.

"Watch it, Thomas!" Abby shouted, laughing. "Don't tell me you're that excited to get out of here."

Kristy gave her an impatient look. "Abby, I told you this morning. Charlie is coming home for the weekend."

Abby gave her a blank stare. "So…? I thought that we were going to hang out. We always hang out on Friday nights."

Kristy shrugged. "Maybe. I really need to talk to Charlie first. Him and Sam. It's really important."

Abby gave her a confused look. "What's going on?"

"It's nothing," Kristy replied, brushing her off. She could understand why Abby was confused. She had shut her out in respect to everything that had happened in the last few days. She wasn't quite sure why.

"Okay then, whatever. We better get going, or we'll miss the bus," Abby said.

Kristy shook her head. "Nannie is picking up Sam and I today. We want to get home right away."

The two girls stood in the hallway, not saying anything to each other. Kristy could tell that Abby was waiting Kristy to offer her a ride home.

"I guess I'll see you later. Tonight maybe," Kristy offered.

"Yeah, I guess." Abby said.

Abby and Kristy each gave the other a half smile, then took off in separate directions down the hallway.

As she opened the door and ran down the steps of SHS, Kristy immediately saw Nannie in the Pink Clinker. Emily Michelle was in the car with her, waving and smiling. Kristy got to the car and slid herself into the backseat.

"Thanks for picking us up today Nannie. Where's Sam?" Kristy asked.

"You ran right past him," Nannie remarked, smiling.

Kristy quickly turned her head back towards the school. At the bottom of the steps, Sam and Stacey were standing together talking.

Kristy rolled her eyes. It's not like she had a problem with Sam and Stacey, but seriously, he knew that they had to get home right away. Kristy leaned over the front seat, and honked the horn, making Emily Michelle giggle.

"That wasn't necessary Kristy," Nannie admonished. "They were having a moment. Young love is a beautiful thing."

Kristy blushed, and rolled her eyes. Young love was basically the last thing on her mind these days. Or any day, really.

"We need to get home." Kristy said impatiently. "I need to talk to Charlie."

"Charlie's home!" Emily Michelle yelled, excited at the idea of seeing her big brother.

Kristy leaned out the car window.

"Come on Sam!" she yelled.

Sam tuned away from Stacey to look in their direction, and then gave Stacey a quick kiss good-bye. He looked at his watch, and jogged over to the car.

"Impatient much?" he asked Kristy as he put on his seatbelt.

Kristy gave him a look. "We need to get home. You know that."

"Ten minutes isn't going to change anything," Sam muttered.

"It could," Kristy shot back.

"Sam and Kristy are fighting," Emily Michelle observed.

"I know. And I think that they should stop it right now." Nannie said.

"Me too," Emily agreed.

Kristy and Sam grinned sheepishly and spent the rest of the ride home in silence. Kristy stared out the car window and looked at all the houses they passed. She wondered if they all had some kind of secret inside of them that couldn't be seen when looking at the freshly painted shutters and manicured lawns. Maybe you had to be part of a family to know what really went on. And maybe sometimes you could never know everything, even then.

As soon as they pulled into the driveway, Kristy saw the Junk Bucket, and her mouth stretched into a smile. Charlie was really here. She ran into the house, dropping her backpack on the floor in the hallway, and not stopping until she reached the living room where Charlie was watching television. David Michael was practically sitting on top of him.

"Charlie! You're here!" Kristy shouted.

"That I am," he replied, smiling. "It's good to see you Kristy."

"You too," Kristy said, grinning from ear to ear.

Sam walked into the room. "Hey Charlie."

"Hey," Charlie replied back.

Kristy looked at both of them. "Ok, I guess we're ready then. Why don't we go upstairs to my room," she proposed.

"Do you mind if we wait a little while?" Charlie asked. "We're in the middle of a movie."

Kristy looked him in the eye. "This is really important Charlie."

Charlie sighed. "Fine." He turned to David Michael. "We'll finish this later buddy."

Charlie, Sam, and Kristy all walked up to Kristy's room. Kristy shut the door and waited for someone to say something. No one did.

Finally, Charlie broke the silence.

"Now what's going on?" he asked, putting his hands in the pocket of his Boiceville State sweatshirt.

Sam shrugged. "Nothing's really changed since what I told you on the phone on Wednesday night. Watson hasn't been home since then."

"Has Mom talked to him? Or has anyone?" Charlie asked.

"Not that I know of," Kristy said. "Mom has basically been pretending that nothing ever happened. It's weird."

"Well maybe then it was a one time thing," Charlie proposed. "Otherwise, I'm sure that mom would be more concerned about it."

Kristy shook her head. "This is serious. They were fighting before this even happened. I heard them. I think that this has been going on for awhile."

"She's right," Sam affirmed. "You didn't see it. I think that Watson has a serious problem. I just don't know what we can do about it. I don't think that mom knows either."

"Mom's been through this before. She can handle it. And you guys can help her if she needs it," Charlie offered.

"Maybe we should all talk to mom about this together," Kristy suggested.

"That's a great idea Kristy," Sam said. "Mom's working late tonight, but we could all talk to her sometime tomorrow. She'll have to listen if we all come to her together." He turned to look at Charlie. "What do you think?"

"If we can talk to her right away in the morning it would work," Charlie said. "I'm going back to school in the afternoon."

Kristy's face registered surprise. "You're not even staying the whole weekend?" she asked.

Charlie gave her a withering look. "There's a party on campus tomorrow night. I'm not going to miss it."

"Why help your family, when you could go to a party?" Kristy muttered.

"Oh come on Kristy," Charlie shot back. "It's not like I haven't been there, done that. It's time for the two of you to step up. I don't even live here anymore."

"Come on Charlie, you're being a little harsh. You're still a part of this family," Sam countered.

"I'm a part of it. I don't run it," Charlie said. He then turned around and walked out of the room. The air was heavy with his departure.

Sam looked at Kristy helplessly.

"Charlie, wait," he called, running out of the room.

Kristy sat down on her bed. The room seemed smaller somehow, without her brothers in it.

She didn't even know what to think now. She couldn't remember a time when she hadn't been able to count on Charlie. Family had always come first to her, and to Charlie as well. She hadn't imagined in anyway that his going to college would somehow change that.

If Charlie couldn't be counted on to make things better, she was going to have to do it herself. She just had absolutely no idea how.