I don't own the Ducks and reviews are great. Sorry it's so short.

She stumbled into the dorm, letting the door slam closed behind her. She collapsed to the ground with her back against the side of her bed. The girl ignored the stinging pain in her back from where she collided with the wooden frame. Instead, Esmeralda just hugged herself and cried. She couldn't believe that he had told her he loved her. He shouldn't have!

Never before had she hated her family more then she did at that moment. She wished she hadn't had to turn and run, she wished she didn't have to cause Adam pain, but to save him pain, she had to cause him pain.

She didn't go to sleep that night, she just sat there and cried. All the pain she had felt inflicted on her was nothing to what she felt at that moment but it was necessary.
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"Adam, honey, why aren't you eating?"

"Not hungry, Mom," Adam mumbled, pushing his food around absentmindedly. For the last twenty minutes, Adam had been quiet, only Phoebe knew what was wrong.

"If you're sure," his mother said, unconvinced. "If you decide you want something later, I'll make you anything you feel like eating."

"It's okay, Mom, I'm just going to go to bed." Adam pushed his plate away and walked slowly upstairs, his shoulders slumped.

"What's wrong with him?" Jason asked, looking at the doorframe Adam had disappeared through. Phoebe didn't answer; she only dropped her head sadly. "Phoebe? What's wrong with Adam?"

"I... I can't tell you!"

"Don't you know?" Kelly questioned, putting her fork down as she surveyed her youngest sister.

"No, I know, I just can't tell you. Adam wouldn't want me to!" Phoebe sighed before mimicking Adam's earlier motion and pushed her plate away. "Maybe I be excused?"

Mr. Banks nodded and Phoebe quickly got up, leaving the dining room. The sixteen-year-old made her way up the stairs and stopped outside Adam's room. She quickly opened the door to find her brother laying on his bed, one arm draped over his eyes. Phoebe sighed and stepped in to the room.

"Everyone's worried about you," Phoebe informed him.

"Don't care," was Adam's sharp reply.

Phoebe sighed again and sat on the edge of Adam's bed. "Adam, tell me what happened."

"I took your advice. I told her how I felt and she ran off," Adam mumbled, not uncovering his eyes.

"Adam, I'm sure there's a reason!" Phoebe assured, trying to convince herself as well as Adam. "She likes you! I know she does. She has since we were little. I'm sorry my advice backfired but I thought that when you told her... well I always though you two would end up together." Phoebe sighed a third time and patted her brother's arm before getting up and leaving Adam alone.

When she walked into her room, she was met with her three other siblings. Her brother stood near her dressing table, Maria sat on her bed and Kelly stood next to the door, pushing it shut the moment Phoebe was clear of it.

"Spill!" was the only word Maria said for all three of them.

Phoebe hesitated before dropping her head. "Adam told Essi he loved her!"

"That's a good thing, why is he sad?" Jason asked, a frown creasing his brow.

"Because she rejected him," Phoebe mumbled.

"WHAT?!"

"I don't understand it either. She loves him! She loves him! I just don't get it!" Phoebe exclaimed, sitting down on her bed.

"Darla has her reasons. They may not be clear to us, but she does. She wouldn't have rejected Adam for any other reason," Jason said with confidence, his arms folded and a contemplative expression on his face.

The four siblings stayed silent as they thought this over. None of them had more to say on the matter.
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The soft whimpers of the small girl rang louder then any other sound in the world. They weren't loud in the way of volume, they were like a tick of a clock; something you could hear over everything else, no matter what. He located her easily.

After the ceremony, his mother and her grandmother had taken them all to the beach. He didn't know why, but they did. She had slipped away almost immediately. Now she sat on a rock, the roaring waves smashing into the bottom of the rock.

Quietly, he slipped up to her and wrapped his arms around her tiny waist. She turned her head into his shoulder and he knew she was crying. That was all she had done since her mother's accident. He didn't say a word; he simply ran his fingers through her thick, brown hair and held her to him. Only when all the tears had stopped running did she look up.

Her brown eyes swum in a pool of red, looking as though they were on fire, her face was pale and her lips were chapped. Her nose was red from the mixture of cold ocean breeze and the endless tears.

"How could he? How could they?" she pleaded for him to tell her in a weak voice that was saturated in more tears.

He had no idea what she was talking of, so he simply kissed her forehead before tucking her head under his chin. Whenever 'they' was said, with no indication of whom, it tended to be her brother and father, but he didn't know what she was referring to when mentioning them.

"You're not safe," she told him in a whisper, not lifting her head. "If they find out about us, you'll never be safe."

"What us?" he asked, pretending he didn't know what she was talking about. He did know though. Whenever he was near her, or heard her name mentioned, his breath would hitch and his heart skip a beat before increasing rapidly. He was only eight but he knew that she was something different.

"Let's keep it that way," she said, lifting her head and offering him a sad smile. "What us, Banks?"

I am sorry for the long wait, but my computer decided to screw around and delete the chapter. But this one is as close as possible. Thank god I write a lot of it at school on old fashioned paper and pen! Hope you liked it and don't hate me!