¤Chapter 2¤

"Wyatt... come on now, this would look great on you!" Piper said desperately trying to get her son to buy some much needed new clothes. Piper, Leo, Paige, Wyatt, Chris, and Prue were all at the local shopping mall buying some much needed new summer clothes for the kids. Paige was over in the colorful little girls section helping Prue, while Leo and Piper wrangled with Chris and Wyatt.

"Mom! I don't need any new clothes!" Wyatt said, getting upset, as he had so often been doing lately.

Ring ring. Wyatt's cell phone rung, a little muffled from being in the pocket of his baggy khaki shorts.

"Hey!" He said into the receiver, as he walked away from his frustrated mother leaving her standing their holding a dark blue short sleeved polo shirt. Wyatt had been doing this more and more lately, blowing off his family for his friends, and Piper was finally getting upset about it.

Piper walked a few feet away where her husband, and middle son Chris were looking at some jean shorts. Chris was getting pretty tall, about 5 foot 10 now, his hair was shaggy and light brown and he was wearing a pair of dark blue jeans and a white and blue t-shirt.

"Finding anything good?" Piper asked Chris, forcing a genuine smile.

"Yea, I'm just gonna go try these on though, mom, be right back," Chris said retreating into the dressing rooms about ten feet to the left of them all.

"Wyatt's doing it again, Leo," Piper said once her youngest son was out of earshot, "I am really getting frustrated!"

Leo threw a glance over in Wyatt's direction where, sure enough, he was pacing around talking into his cell phone.

"Well... just don't overreact just yet, maybe we should ask Phoebe, she might know what to do," Leo tried to comfort his wife.

"How do they look?" Chris yelled over to them, stepping out of the dressing room.

"They look great," Piper said, turning from her husband to her son.

"Okay, one second then!" Chris said smiling a hundred watt smile at his parents.

"Well, I don't think I am going to be able to get Wyatt to get anything, do you think you got enough for Chris?" Piper asked Leo, glancing over at Wyatt once more.

"Yea," Leo smiled grabbing a conglomeration of clothes he must have set on the nearest rack.

Piper looked to her left and saw Chris thrust open the white wooden door of the dressing room stall, shorts in hand. He was walking quickly over to them, smiling.

"We ready?" He asked still smiling, as he almost always was. Chris has such a bubbly personality that he could make almost anyone smile.

"Yea, let's go wrangle Paige and Prue," Piper told her two family members.

"Uhh, I don't think we'll have a problem with that, mom!" Chris said in awe, pointing behind Piper.

Piper turned around to look and saw a pretty little girl with tan skin, dark eyes, and long dark hair, walking beside, basically, a big pile of colorful clothes.

"Paige... we can't afford all that," Piper said, in just as much awe as her son.

"No worries," Paige started, poking her pale face around the pile of clothes she was toting, her hair was a dark black and in a ponytail, "I will pay for half of it."

"Are you sure...?" Piper said, her face still expressionless and staring at the clothes.

"Yes, hun! Trust me, I can afford it now," Paige said smiling, and of course this was true... about ten years back Paige had gotten back into Social Services working as a Social Worker, but then she decided that it just wasn't for her. She then started to right a series of suspense books for teens and young adults, they were instantly a hit. Paige had been making money from them ever since.

"Well, if you insist," Piper said, feeling a little embarrassed that her sister was buying some of her daughters clothes for her, but lately the restaurant and club just weren't raking in that much money these days. "I'll go get Wyatt while you guys pay for the clothes," she said, immediately walking towards her oblivious son.

"Wyatt, come on, we have to go," Piper said, waving anxiously at her son.

Wyatt gave her a dirty look and followed her back towards the rest of the Halliwells, who were getting checked out. It took about ten minutes for the cashier to ring up all those clothes, and as they left Piper swore the cashier made a certain rude hand gesture at her.

They walked out of the mall, into darkness, it was probably about 8:30 p.m. by this time. Wyatt still talking on his cell phone, laughing, smiling, and ignoring the rest of his family.

"Wyatt! Are you ever going to get off that DAMN cell phone?" Piper yelled, this was the final straw for her.

"Mom! What the hell is your problem?" Wyatt screamed back at her.

"Hey, hey, hey guys!" Paige said frantically, holding her arms out, trying to get her big sister and nephew settled down.

"Give me the cell phone! Give it to me, NOW!" Piper yelled at her son. Leo gave Piper a look that said, I told you not to do anything.

"No!" Wyatt said defiantly, holding his cell phone up in the air away from his mother.

"That's it!" Piper had finally lost it, she clenched both her hands into fists, pointing them up towards the phone, and flung all her fingers outwards, blowing up the cell phone right in Wyatt's hand. "Now, get in the car!." She pointed towards the dark blue mini van behind her.

Wyatt looked like he was about to say something, but decided against it, as he walked slowly to the back door of the mini van.

Everyone just stared at Piper...

"What?" Piper said in a huff, "It got him off that damn cell phone didn't it?"

She stormed to the drivers seat, getting into the car... the other just followed wordlessly, no one talked that whole ride to the manor. When they finally got to the house someone finally said something.

"Look Wyatt, I'm sorry but–" She was cut off by Wyatt opening the car door, slamming it shut and running into the house.

"Okay guys, let's carry this stuff into the house..." Piper said, still feeling hurt and guilty. She divided the sacks up between herself, Paige, and Leo, telling Prue to go open the door for them. They lugged all the clothes into the conservatory and put them down on the creme colored couch.

"Okay, grab what's yours and go put them away," Piper said stepping back with good reason... Chris and Prue jumped right on what bags they thought were theirs.

Paige stepped forward, grabbed a bag and smiled.

"What? It was cute," She said opening her bag, looking into it, and smiling.

"Phoebe called while we were shopping and said she was taking Cole and Emily out for ice cream, she said she would drop Cole off back here when they were done," Piper told Paige.

"Well, okay, just tell Cole I am at home when he gets back, I am really tired and am gonna turn in for the night," Paige said smiling at her sister and brother-in-law.

"Okay, night Paige, tell Henry and the girls I said hey," Piper hugged he sister good-bye and walked her to the front door.

"Just, take it a little easier on Wyatt, Piper... It's not easy being sixteen," Paige said as she opened the front door and stepped over the threshold. Piper watched her as she walked across the street and into the nice white house.

Piper let out a sigh and heaved the door closed, still feeling guilty.