XxYesterdayTodayTomorrowxX: NEVEEERRR. Just kidding, it's this chapter! So sorry: I usually just type all the user's names and I have no idea why I'm so used to 'Yesturday' …Stupid accents.

Muffin's Lilac: It just happens I swear and I just go along with it! Thanks!

coolowl: Aw thanks!

Hahahahahaha I finally did! I finished chapter 3! And thanks for the fantastic 6 reviews everyone!

"Hey Melvin!" Norma's cheery voice spoke up once he hit 'Answer' on his phone.

Rachel and Melvin were having lunch at a local diner she suggested. The place had sentimental value to her but she didn't feel like giving out a life story anytime soon.

"Hi Norma, how are you?" Melvin replied back while he nodded to the refill of coffee the waiter offered.

"I'm fine, you? So how was the will thingy?"

"Um…good…and I think we'll have to talk about that when I get home…I'm probably going to be home by 4 or 6 at the most."

"Okay, I'm already at your home anyway. I just stored my stuff in the drawer you gave me and candy in the other. I'll be here until you get home. Do you have anything you want me to do?"

Melvin thought for a moment, "Not really anything I can think of…" He looked at Rachel who was eating her sandwich and looking at a girl. The girl looked at her but Rachel turned away. He didn't think much about what had just happened. He'll get to it when the time comes. He realized he did need her to do something, "wait…can you take the empty boxes in the empty room for me?"

"Why?"

"We'll get to that when I get home. Just do that since it's really all I need."

There was a slight pause, "Alright whatever you say. What do I do with them though?"

"Just throw them out unless you need them."

"I only need a couple. See you at home!" She hung up. Why did he want to talk to her face to face? Was it that important or serious? She shook her head to no one. She knew him and all she had to do was just trust him. She put on her headphones to listen to music as she walked to the empty room, took a few boxes, and stomped at the boxes to flatten them. At least this was a fun thing to do.

"That was my fiancé who was calling me."

"It'll be my room?" She was referring to the room he talked about in the phone call.

"Yep, it's empty anyway so there's really nothing to rearrange."

She knew he wouldn't realize it but the fact he actually told her she was going to get a room of her own actually meant something to her. Maybe he was going to keep her after all.

As she was eating, she knew that Autumn was looking at her. She wished she could maybe talk to her or something but everything felt way too distant now. She looked at Melvin, who had finished his meal and was now just finishing up his coffee, "I'm going to the bathroom. I'll be right back." She left before he could reply.

The girl Rachel was looking at talked to the waiter and began to leave. He decided to talk to her. Maybe she was a friend or complete stranger. What did he have to lose? He walked toward the girl, "Hi, I know this is crazy but do you know Rachel by any chance?"

The girl turned around, looked at Melvin and gave him a nod, "Yeah, she's my best friend. Why?"

"I was just a bit curious. How long have you too been friends?"

"We've been friends since 1st grade…now, who are you?"

"I'm Melvin…Rachel's…" It still felt weird having to say 'father'

The girl understood, "I'm Autumn. Are you Alan's friend or something?"

"Yeah. He was my best friend."

"She took it hard." Autumn admitted, "When he died, she shut everyone out…even me. She doesn't even talk to me anymore. I thought that we were going to be friends again after Darcy died but Alan died five months after she died."

"Is Darcy your friend as well?"

"Yeah…it was the three of us. Well, two of us now. Hey, I think Rachel's coming back. Just hand me your phone for a sec. I'll give you my number." He took out his phone, unlocked it and handed it to her. After a few seconds, she gave it back to him, "I just…want to help Rachel but she won't let me."

"I'll try to help as much as I can, okay?" He said reassuringly.

"Okay. I better go now."

"Wait," He knew that she didn't even pay for the meal. What kind of person was she? "You didn't pay for the meal."

"The waiter who served you is my brother and I get discounts. I just pay later. Oh and enjoy a 15% off discount of your meal!" Seeing the door from the girl's bathroom open, she left without saying bye.

They arrived home by around 8:00 PM thanks to the heavy traffic and the refill for gas. He opened the trunk of his car and helped Rachel get the suitcase. It wasn't that heavy but he didn't want to stand around there waiting for her to get her suitcase. He saw that the lights were on so Norma must have been waiting there. He got out his keys, unlocked the door and stepped inside.

He found Norma lying in the couch, reading some manga called Black Butler. She sat up once she heard the door slam and gave them a smile, like having Rachel next to him was completely normal. Then again, she is pretty good at hiding her feelings so God knows what she's truly thinking. She set the manga down on the coffee table and walked over to greet them, "Hi!" It was the only word she really could say.

"Hey, this is Rachel and she's going to be staying with us." He said trying to find the right words to tell her. He didn't know what to say and he had been thinking on how to tell her on the car ride home. Maybe he spoke the right words.

To Rachel, Norma was familiar. She was probably in the web show too but she honestly did look like Boxxy once she looked at her face to face with all that makeup. She was really nice and jumpy though. She didn't ask why she came to stay or any of those personal questions. She only asked stuff like if she watched anime and if she ever listened to any bands. And both of them were in fact true. Of course, her being a stranger, she kept her sentences short. She didn't mean to at all but it just happened to be a force of habit she had created over the years.

"Well I think it's time for you to go to sleep now, don't you think?" Norma asked after a few minutes of a conversation.

More like pathetic, "Okay. Where do I sleep?"

"You can sleep in my room for now." Melvin replied.

"Where will you sleep?" He was already doing too much by keeping her.

"In the couch," He gave a small laugh, "I'll probably be up all night trying to make up some work I'm supposed to do, anyway."

She knew that he was going to make her sleep in the bed, whether she argues or not. She only gave a small nod as he stood up from his chair and lead her to his room. He told her where the bathroom was and said good night.

"Good night." She replied and he left. She shut the door and slid down the door. Great. She was doing those stupid 'sliding the door' clichés in movies. In order to make the cliché complete, she'll have to curl up in a ball and cry but two problems:
One: why the hell curl up in a ball?
Two: she doesn't cry over stupid stuff and what reason does she have to cry? Of course, she could think of a lot of reasons to cry but she felt positive she has long since dried the tears out of her eyeballs.

Hell, why is she even on the goddamn floor anyway? To rethink those stupid little thoughts about wanting her old life back? Well it's gone and there's nothing she can about it. She might as well forget about it. She stood up and opened her suitcase.

Besides, people have it much worse than her, don't they?

"I know, I know. I have a lot of explaining to do." Melvin said once he set two cups of coffee on the kitchen table. He sat down next to her, "What question do you want to begin with first?"

Norma took the cup and took a sip. She wasn't a huge fan of coffee but if she was offered any, she took it, "I'm debating between the question 'where'd you get her' and 'why you have her' but they both seem like the same question so maybe I'll just let you tell the story." She wasn't mad at all but she seemed a little bit bothered by all this. She probably had every right since he didn't even talk to her.

So Melvin told the story. She knew about Alan's death so he told about how he first saw Rachel at the funeral. He told about the will, Katherine, and only left out the part about Autumn but only because he forgot about it. He made sure she understood that there really was no time for them to sit down and talk about it since there wasn't any time. It was just all sudden.

Norma listened and only spoke until he was finished, "So are you seriously going to keep her?"

He gave a nod. He tried to drink more from his coffee but he already finished. He stood up to get a refill.

"Let me ask you something. And please be honest. Why do you want to adopt her? Don't say that it's because you think its right or any of that stuff. I've been through 2 foster families that fed me that stuff." She said it sternly. She could never be that serious unless it was necessary to be serious. She had a tough life growing up. He already knew she was going to take this topic more seriously than ever.

"I…don't know." Was his single reply.

"But are you sure you can handle this, though? You're vice president of the Acid Factory, we just moved in and are getting married soon, and we now have this 14 year old girl. Do you truly think you can handle all this pressure? We can move up the wedding if you think it's the best." She changed the subject. She knew he would come up with a reason…soon. She knew she shouldn't be so…serious or something about this but she can't help it…She's even annoying herself at this. Again, this was just something she felt she couldn't control.

Rachel seemed to remind her of herself when she about her age. Her parents died around the same age Rachel was. She had been placed in two foster families: one fostered her for a reputation and the other fostered for the money. None of them ever gave that love her real parents ever gave her and she was too old now to be placed into another foster family. She made herself promise that if she was to ever have kids, she'll love them forever. She'll never betray them or hurt them. She was never ever going to show the neglect her foster families ever gave her.

And she was never going to die while she still has kids. (It was an impossible promise but granted, she was 14 when she made that promise and for some reason, it stuck to her.)

And all she wanted to do now was protect Rachel from whatever the cruel world wanted to shove at her. She loved her already like she was her own.

He shook his head, "It'll be fine. I can handle this." He changed the topic, "How do you feel about adopting Rachel?"

She only gave a small smile. The answer was simple that she didn't need to think, "I love her already."

Norma kissed Melvin goodbye for the night, grabbed the extra boxes she kept and went off to her apartment. She would be moving in around the week soon. Once she left, he went to the kitchen, finished his coffee and placed the coffee mugs in the sink. He had a lot of work to do. He quietly went to his room. She was asleep. He knew where everything was so he grabbed a change of clothes, a blanket, and some flowchart supplies. The only noise he ever made was when he grabbed the poster board. She was still asleep though she made quiet little whimpers in her sleep, like she was having a nightmare. He set down his stuff and walked over to her. Even in the night he could see that she's crying.

She awoke in a few seconds and immediately stood up. She took a deep breath as a small test to show this wasn't a dream, "am-I awake?" She asked out loud. Everything felt too real. The dream and her own world seemed to collide and she now can't tell the difference between what was real and was not real.

"Yes." He tried to remember what his mother used to tell him when he had a nightmare. He couldn't at all remember, "The dream felt real, didn't it?"

"Yeah…"

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No thanks, I'm just tired."

"Alright. Good night." He stood up, grabbed his stuff, and left the room.

When Melvin began making his flowcharts, he thought of Norma's question about why he wanted to adopt Rachel. Well why did he? He knew it was the right thing to do but was doing it because of that made it the right thing to do? It seemed more pathetic now that he thought if it. He remembered what Norma told him about the foster parents that would only use her to look good. He knew that he would never do this. Was doing this only because it was right technically mean that he was doing that?

He looked at the time and looked at his work. Barely any work had been done. He knew he was right; this was going to be a long week.

It takes so unusually long with writing chapters as of recently and I have no idea why to be honest so here's a maybe unusually long chapter. Well, I have state testing right now up to Thursday and a Washington D.C trip next week so I'm pretty hyped for it. Obviously, the chapters are going to take alittle longer to create so I have to apologize. Well, see you all in the next chapter!