Chapter 2

"He that always gives way to others will end in having no principles of his own." Aesop

The next morning I looked at the clock, "OH CRAP!" I ran around the room grabbing my clothes and changing then grabbing my school stuff and ran down the stairs. "Mom, why didn't you wake me up?!"

"Why do I need to wake you up, Nicki dear?" My mom asked, confused.

"SCHOOL!" I yelled half walking, half running to the door.

"But it's the weekend, Nicki." My father said stirring his coffee and taking a sip.

I stopped dead in my tracks. "Why did I forget that?" I said shaking my head embarrassed and blushing as red as a beet. "Sorry, I guess I'm still tired." I walked back to my room and put my bag down and walked to the window and opened it, I leaned out.

"BOO!" Screamed three little boys, my triplet brothers.

"You guys are so loud I would be able to hear you twenty miles off." I said turning to them smiling, "so what were you monsters up to yesterday?"

"We gotted to help Mommy and Daddy wit the, ummm, living room." One of them answered. "Yeah it was fun!" the other two agreed loudly.

"Hey, Nicki, do you know where the triplets are?!" My father yelled from down the stairs. "They're in here, I'll watch them if you want!" I yelled back the triplets smiled.

"Okay!" My father called back.

"So what do you three want to do?" I asked them.

"The park! The park!" They yelled in unison.

I laughed, "Alright, let's go." I said walking to the door.

When we got to the park I saw Isaac sitting on a bench, "Wonder why he's here." I thought out loud.

"Wonder why, who's here?" asked one of my little brothers. I smiled, "Oh, no one, Jean, now go play and make sure Adam and Iah don't hurt you or themselves." Jean ran off after his brothers to the play ground. I looked around for a spot to sit and saw the only spot to sit was next to Isaac.

I walked over and sat down on the end of the bench next to him, "Hey," I said smiling at him. "Oh, hey. Why are you here?" he asked smiling politely at me. "My brothers wanted to come here, they're triplets. You?" I replied.

"My nephews wanted to come down here I live with my brother and his wife, so I baby-sit and hang out with them." Isaac said smiling.

"Aww the responsible uncle." I said jokingly.

"Shut up," Isaac said laughing," but they actually have some good stories to tell."

I smiled then looked around the playground for my brothers, "And they destroy the Earth."

"What?" Isaac asked questioning my sanity.

"My brothers have come up with an evil plan, which means I have to stop them, so I'll be back in a sec." I stood up and walked over to my three scheming brothers." Adam, Iah and Jean what are you three up to?"

"Nothing." they said in unison hiding their hands behind their backs. "Yeah right, hand what ever you have over." I said holding my hand out. They put their heads down and put three garner snakes into my hand. "Now off with you. I catch you with these again and I'm telling mom and dad."

"Yes ma'am." They said and ran off to the play scape.

I rolled my eyes and put the snakes down by a nearby bush and walked back over to the bench and sat next to Isaac.

"How do you know when they have an evil plan?" Isaac asked.

"They look around for me and hide in shadows underneath the play scape," I replied smiling, "They're evil little monsters, but I can easily stop them. So, are your nephews evil?"

"Actually they're little angels." Isaac replied twin boys ran over to Isaac. "Uncle, can we go home now?" one asked. "Yeah, we have to do our 'omework." The other asked. "Sure, hey Nicki we're gonna go now so I'll see ya later." He said standing up. "Actually talking about homework my brothers need to do theirs'." I stood up to go retrieve my brothers.

"If your going all of us could walk together I think we live in the same direction." Isaac said. "Sure," I said smiling, "let me go get the mutants." I walked over to the swing set and retrieved them.

"Okay, we're set." I said.

They started to walk down North street listening to the five of them talk.

"So, your nephews are twins and my brothers are a triplet, that's kind of funny." I said smiling.

"Yeah I guess it is. Hey, might I ask you something?" Isaac asked nervously.

"Sure, shoot." I replied skeptically.

"Why were you standing in the middle of the street?" he asked concerned.

"Oh, you looked sad, but I thought I didn't know you so I couldn't cheer you up." I replied a little sad remembering his face, "Why were you so sad?"

"It's a long story." Isaac replied.

"We have time." I replied smiling.

"When I was 6 my parents practically deserted me. I was left with my brother who was 22 at the time. He had a good job so he could support me for a while or however long. He called our parents one day and all they said was 'we left him with you for a reason'," Isaac replied sadly, "It was hard to be told by your parents at that age that they don't want you."

I looked sadly at him, not knowing what to say, "That's sad."

"Yeah it is, well, we go this way, so see ya later." Isaac said waving and turning the corner with the twins.

I walked home with my brothers thinking about what to say to cheer him up when I saw him again.

Her phone rang, "Hello?" I answered

"Hey Nicki! I was just wondering where you are, I'm at your house right now." Said a girl's voice very energetically.

"Oh, I'm almost there Ember; I forgot you were coming over. I'll see you in a few." I said closing the phone and starting to run, my brothers chasing after me.

I arrived at my house out of breath.

"Took ya long enough." Ember said jokingly, smiling at me.

I smiled," Hey Ember. Come on monsters let's go in. You can come too, Ember." I opened the door and went in the house.

"Oh, hey, Nicki dear did you have fun at the park?" her mother asked.

"Yes, mom. And look who came by." I said smiling at Ember.

"Oh, hi Ember it seems like ages since you were here last," My mother said giving Ember a hug.

"I know we've been busy doing the garden and fixing up the back yard a whole long list of small things to do." Ember said smiling.

"Well I'll bring up some snacks in a little bit. Oh and Nicki your cousin Kiki is coming over Monday after school." My mother called after me.

"Okay, I'll make sure my list of 'things to do' is done." I said walking up the stairs with Ember.

"So, are Cammie and Bella coming it seems I haven't seen them in ages?" Ember asks.

"I'm not sure; we can call them when we get to my room." I said thoughtful.

When we got to my room Ember's pocket started to ring, she pulled out a small black cell phone with a skull on it, "Hi Mark honey." Ember answered, I held my laughter and fought a smile. Ember started getting all gushy so I called Bella and Cammie and invited them over to hear and see Ember.

"Hey Nicki, what's up?" asked Cammie.

"Hey, I just wanted to see if you and Bella wanted to watch Ember talking to Mark?" I asked.

"Ok, we'll be over in a minute. Bye."

It was only like 5 minutes and I hear a knock at the door. I run down and see that it was Cammie and Bella. "Come on, she's still talking to him, hurry up!" I told them and ran back up to my room.

They were right behind me, trying to keep up with my speed. When we got in my room all we could hear was a girl giggling, it was from Ember. She was blushing; we all looked at each other and started laughing. I was on the floor holding my sides because it hurt so much. It was funny because she was usually like a tomboy, but when she talks to Mark she is a girly-girl it's so scary that it's funny. We were laughing so hard that we were crying.

"I'll call you back." Ember said closing her phone, "I'm going to kill you guys!" she said running at us and trying to strangle us. We ran away trying not to get killed.

Ember sat down, "Jerks!" Was all she said and was then quiet. We stopped running, exhausted from laughing as well as running. I fell down on the floor as did Bella and Cammie.