Chapter Four

When Callie went shopping with Lily in Ridgeford, the Tuesday after they'd dropped Maddy off at school, she wasn't expecting anything too exciting to happen. But then she spotted Zach and felt like her whole day had turned around. She was fairly certain that Maddy wasn't telling her something and Zach, the boy who'd always been the brother Maddy had never had just had to know something.

"Zach, hi!" she called out to him.

Zach blinked a few times, surprised to see Callie in Ridgeford. Zach loved his Aunt Callie but he knew that she always had some kind of obscure reason for her choices. He wondered what the reason was today.

"Hey Aunt Callie!" he said eagerly, approaching her and Lily.

"So." she asked. "How is school going?"

She definitely wanted to know something about Maddy.

"School is good, my teachers are cool-"

"How's Maddy?"

There you go.

"Maddy's good, I have a few classes with her, her and Ava seem to be having a great time..."

He wasn't looking her in the eye. He wasn't saying something.

"Well Zach, Lily and I were just going to get some ice cream, would you like to join us?"

And give my lie detector test a try?

Callie had a strawberry cone, Zach had a chocolate cone, and Lily had a little bowl of vanilla. And Callie was fighting to find anything out about Maddy.

"So do you have many classes with Maddy?"

"I have math and english with her."

"That's good."

"I don't see her too often though, she's always glued to Sean all the time-"

All of the color drained from Callie's face as she dropped her spoon and it clanged down on the table.

"What did you just say Zach."

"I don't see much of her, she's really busy-"

"Zach, is Maddy dating Sean?"

"Yes."

Callie put her face in her hands as she struggled to keep her thoughts clear. This. was. not. happening!

"Mommy, wat's wong?" Lily asked her.

Callie raised her head, and put on a normal face.

"Nothings wrong sweety, I just miss Maddy."

Zach was watching Callie like he wasn't sure if he should say something or run away.

"Zach... Maddy can not date that boy. And you are going to help me break them up."

"H-how?"

Callie looked at him for a long moment.

"Did either of your parents ever buy you that moped you wanted?"

"No." he grumbled. "My mom thinks I'll crack my head open."

"I'll buy it for you."

"You will?!"

"Sure. Just do whatever you have to to break Maddy and Sean up."

Zach considered the possibilities. A moped... getting his extra sister to break up with her boyfriend. He loved Maddy but it wasn't much of a contest.

"I want the black one."

"Okay. I'll tell them you won it in a contest."

Ava was walking across the campus when she ran into Zach, a huge, happy smile on his face.

"What happened to you?" she snapped at him.

"I won a moped in a contest."

"You won a moped?"

"Yes, I did, and now Chloe Stuart is going to be all over me."

Ava rolled her eyes. "Please Zach, Chloe is such a whore, she has a different boyfriend every day... and you are lying, what happened?"

"I told you, I won a moped. It's black."

"Fine, act like a ten year, I'm calling mom and dad."

"Oh, that's mature!"

"Fuck you." Ava snarled at him, strutting her way to her next class. Zach blew a kiss at her in responce.

"Love you to sis!"

Ava hated to let in to Zach so easily, but she hated when he got his way. She punched her mom's number into her cell as she sat down on a bench.

"Hey Ava, how's school?"

"It's fine. But Zach is up to something, he just got back from Ridgeford and he's acting like he's stoned, and he said something about winning a moped and how this slut Chloe is going to be all over him."

"God, he is so like your father. But wait, he won a moped?"

"Yeah."

Ava could hear her mom huffing. Oh, she was pissed.

"I'll be right back." Ava heard the clang of her heels as she marched off and heard the distant yelling of her mother shouting "HEATH!"

Oh, Zach was so screwed.

She couldn't make out the words that they were saying but she could only imagine. Her mom was probably saying something like they had to return the moped right away and her dad was probably saying it was no big deal... a few minutes later, her dad picked up the phone.

"Hey Av. I talked to your mom and we're having the moped sent home so that he can't raise hell at the school. Enough about Zach though, how are you doing?"

"I'm fine. I got an A on my Spanish test and all the teachers keep looking at Heath like he's a time bomb."

Heath laughed. "He is your mother's son. Well, we gotta go Av, we're meeting Aunt Callie and Uncle Easy for dinner but we'll see you at Thanksgiving."

"Okay. Love you."

"Love you too."

As she put her phone into the pocket of her seven jeans, she felt semi-satisfied about the situation. She would have prefered if her parents had sold the moped, wiping that stupid, cocky look of Zach's face but seeing as how he couldn't use it until they got home, at least he only partly won.

She reluctently rose from the bench and walked off to Bio. She passed Maddy and Sean along the way, once again glued to eachother's side, their fingers wrapped tightly woven together. Sigh. They were almost too cute. Maybe they'd get married...

Please review, I'll update soon.