Don't own it. Would appreciate reviews so I know what people think.

Chapter 2: Meet the Halliwells and calling dibs

A couple of days had gone by since the Sons of Ipswich had met the Elder Almira and made the choice to meet the Halliwells.

Caleb and Pogue had explained what was really happening to their girlfriends. They told everyone else that they were going on a surprise vacation their parents had set up for them but Sarah and Kate knew the truth. They weren't particularly happy about it either, that their boyfriends would be gone for who knows how long and that they were leaving to meet three female witches. However, after having a big fight (mostly between Kate and Pogue), they calmed down and confessed that it would probably be for the best. They of course didn't want their boyfriends or two of their good friends getting addicted and dying.

So the boys were lounging around Caleb's living room, waiting for their ride to San Francisco to get there. "How do you think we're getting there? Broomsticks? Flying vacuum cleaners like on Sabrina?"

Reid burst out laughing. "Vacuum cleaners? Sabrina? Pogue, man grow a pair."

The long haired boy grabbed the throw pillow next to him and threw it at Reid's head. "Dude, my little girl cousin likes the show and makes me watch reruns with her whenever I'm babysitting her."

"I don't know Pogue." Tyler said. "I think Reid is right. Grow a pair and read a book or something."

"Of course Baby Boy says read a book. He probably reads those romance books that chicks love." Reid laughed. Tyler let his eyes bleed black without thinking, preparing to Use to throw more pillows at Reid.

"TYLER! Stop Using." Tyler looked at Caleb and forced the power back down, lowering his eyes to the floor. "Okay, okay, you three. Let's just keep an eye out for the Elder to come get us instead of fighting with each other." Caleb finished reprimanding his brothers. He moved away from the window he had been standing at and collapsed in a nearby armchair. The boys were silent for a few seconds and then started talking about unimportant things. Reid was interrupted in a middle of a story about another girl he knew by an unfamiliar swirl of blue lights in the middle of the room. The lights moved in front of Reid, washing his face in a sparkly blue light. He jumped to see a figure in front of him.

"What the- How the hell did you do that?" The figure that surprised them was none other than the Elder Almira. The boys all had looks of confusion written on their faces.

"I'm sorry to have surprised you. This in the way whitelighters travel. It's called orbing and it allows us to travel across the world quickly. This is how we're getting to San Francisco and to the Halliwell Manor. If you could hold onto your luggage and each touch a part of my arm, we'll be on our way."

The boys looked at each other. They had already decided to trust the Elder, but this was a little beyond them. Shrugging, Caleb grabbed his duffel bag and put a hand on Almira's shoulder. The other boys followed Caleb's example and they disappeared in a bunch of blue orbs.

"1329 Prescott Street" Tyler read off of the house. The Elder had dropped them off in front of a pink Victorian house and then had left, telling them to go ring the doorbell. "Well, here we are. Since she dropped us off here, I guess this is where we're supposed to be."

"Thank you Captain Obvious." Reid thought. Tyler did have the unfortunate ability of stating the obvious at times.

"Reid." Tyler sighed. "Who wants to ring the doorbell?"

Reid took a step forward, swinging his bag onto his shoulder. Then he turned around and faced them, a smirk gracing his face. "Boys, it's time for you to see how a man acts in the face of the unknown." He headed up the steps, Tyler's chuckling following him. That was Reid for you. Always diving head first into action without thinking about the consequences. He followed Reid up the steps just as he rang the bell, Pogue and Caleb moving behind Tyler.

Ding dong. They could faintly hear the sound of someone running down the stairs. The door swung open, revealing a petite pretty young woman with brown hair that fell in soft waves to her shoulders. Her brown eyes looked at them curiously. "Hi. Can I help you with something?"

"Oh God yes!" Reid muttered.

Tyler hit Reid in the back with his shoulder and pushed his way past his blonde friend. Holding his hand out, he said "Hi, I'm Tyler Simms and these are my friends Caleb Danvers, Pogue Parry, and this idiot is Reid Garwin."

Shaking his hand the girl replied "I'm Melinda Halliwell, nice to meet you. So, can I help you with something or is this just a random meet and greet?"

"Halliwell? Actually, yes. We're looking for a Piper Halliwell. Is she a relation of yours or are we at the completely wrong house?"

"No, you're at the right place. Piper's my mom, but she's not here right now. How do you know my mom?"

Caleb spoke up. "We don't actually know your mom but we were told she and her sisters could help us. Almira sent us?"

"Oh. OH! So, you're innocents?"

Caleb looked at Pogue, his eyes holding question marks. "Yes. Yeah, we're innocents" Pogue said.

Melinda hesitated. They knew of her family but had hesitated when she asked if they were innocents. Something seemed a little off about them but she wasn't really sure. If they turned out to be warlocks or demons or something evil, she wasn't strong enough by herself to defeat all four of them. Maybe she should get Wyatt. Just then, she heard a noise behind her and looked over her shoulder. Wyatt was coming down the stairs. "Uh guys? Can you hold on a sec? Let me talk to my brother real quick." At Tyler's nod of understanding, Melinda closed the door gently in their faces.

She turned and faced her brother Wyatt. "Hey, Wy. Where's Chris?"

"Out with Bianca." They both made faces at the Phoenix's name. Melinda couldn't understand what her smart, funny, cute brother saw in that conniving slutty witch who claimed she was good, but Melinda maintained that Bianca was inherently evil. "What's going on Mel? Who is that?"

"They say they're innocents, but I don't know. I kinda got the feeling that they were hiding something. They're looking for Mom though and they know Almira."

"Well, we could always call Almira here and see what she says. But I'm here, so even if they are demons or warlocks instead of innocents needing help, I can take care of them." Wyatt had a protective gleam in his eyes, his hands flexing.

"You know Wy, you can be a little scary when it comes to your family. Oh twice blessed one, demons tremble before you!"

Wyatt rolled his eyes and opened the door, revealing the Sons waiting patiently. Well, the two oldest and Tyler were. Reid had his arms crossed and his foot was tapping. Wyatt looked at him, his eyebrows raised. "Come on in guys. I'm Wyatt, this weirdo's oldest brother" he said, gesturing to Melinda. She rolled her eyes and left. "Make yourselves at home. Our parents should be back in a bit. We can just hang out in the solarium and get to know each other."

The boys followed the tall blonde man into what they assumed was the solarium and set their bags next to a wall. Melinda had already claimed a chair for herself and sat there reading. "Mel, you have two days left before summer and you're still doing homework? You know I didn't mind high school and Chris would have lived there if he could have, but we still didn't do homework during finals week. You take geek to a whole new level."

Mel glared at her older brother. Gee, thanks big brother for labeling me as a freak in front of four incredibly hot guys she thought. Knowing her brother though, he meant to do that. He and Chris were both incredibly overprotective when it came to her and boys. So much so that even though she was 17, almost 18, she hadn't had a serious boyfriend. Any guy she met would meet her brothers and then run out on her, terrified. "Actually Wyatt, I'm not reading something for school. I'm reading The Chronicles of Narnia."

Tyler smiled. "Chronicles of Narnia is my favorite series. What book are you on?" He sat down next to Mel and they started talking about their favorite books and authors.

Caleb laughed. "So I guess your sister is a big bookworm like Baby Boy is?"

"Baby Boy?" Wyatt asked.

"Oh, it's our nickname for Tyler. He's the youngest in our group."

Wyatt nodded. "Got it. We sometimes call Mel Tink. Not original but when she was younger, she was obsessed with fairies. So Chris, our other brother, nicknamed her Tink after Tinkerbell. She usually just goes by Mel though. So, are you guys related?

Pogue was listening to their conversation, occasionally jumping in. Tyler and Mel had joined the other's conversation. The only one not involved was Reid; he had pretty much tuned out. He would have made another move on the girl but it seemed to him like Tyler might like her. When Tyler showed an interest, he backed off…most of the time. It's just what friends did. So he had nothing better to do besides tune out. However, he was startled out of his day dream when a car door slammed. Footsteps pounded up the steps outside. Mel and Wyatt looked up at the same time, their eyes meeting.

"Five bucks it's Chris. Fight with Bianca."

"No dice Wyatt. Ten bucks it's Angela with boy problems."

"You're on. Got your ten bucks ready?"

A feminine voice yelled out as the front door opened. "Mel. Mel, you won't believe what happened. Jason was being a total p-." The slender blonde stuttered to a stop as she caught sight of everyone staring at her. "Uh, hi?"

Mel stood up. "I'll talk to you guys later. We can go up to my room Angela." She walked over to her oldest brother and held out her hand. He dug into his pocket, pulled out a ten and handed it to her. "Thanks! Let's go Ang!" The two girls ran up the stairs laughing. There was a lot to talk about.

"Reid. Reid. Reid!" Reid blinked, slowly coming back to Earth.

"Baby Boy, you can stop waving your hand in front of my face. Hey, I call dibs!"

Wyatt stood up, a look of anger shadowing his face. "You're calling dibs on my sister?" he said, slowly enunciating each word. He seemed to get bigger in his fury.

Caleb and Pogue groaned while Tyler stiffened. Was he going to have to fight Reid for Melinda? True, he had only met her today but he already liked her and wanted a chance to date her. Tyler's thoughts were interrupted when he noticed objects in the room were shaking.

Reid's eyes grew a little bigger. Not that he was scared of Wyatt but he did seem ready to hurt someone. Now, it wasn't fear but more of a concern for his life. "No! No dibs on your sister! Not that she's not attractive…"

The objects started to levitate a little bit, still shaking. It was clear that Wyatt was trying to keep a hold of his emotions while still struggling with his desire to protect his little sister from good-for-nothing boys.

"I was talking about the blonde! Who was that?"

Wyatt blew out of his breath, gaining control when he learned the blonde boy wasn't after his sister. "That was Angela Jenkins, a friend of the family. I don't like this whole dibs thing but Angie can take care of herself. If she doesn't like you, you'll know. And you're ears will probably be bleeding because of her telling you that.

"And your sister can't?" Tyler asked.

"That's different. She's my baby sister." Caleb nodded; he got what Wyatt meant. Even though they weren't related, the boys were still his brothers. His was a different sort of protectiveness, but he still knew what Wyatt was talking about. Wyatt looked out the window. "I'm going to go help my mom and then you guys can meet her and the rest of the family." He started walking out of the room and then stopped. "If any of you hurt my sister, Chris and I will tear that person apart. Literally." He left the room.

Reid clapped Tyler on the shoulder. "Good luck man. You're going to need it."

"What? I don't like Melinda. We just met. I mean, yeah she's cute and everything but still."

Caleb raised his eyebrows and looked at the youngest skeptically. "What's not to like? She's pretty, seems smart, she's funny, and she has strong bonds with her family."

"Strong bonds with her family?" Pogue punched Caleb on the arm. "Can you be anymore gay?"

"You're both gay and whipped by the way. Ty, man, we've known each other our whole lives and I can tell when you like a girl. Granted, it doesn't happen very often, in fact I was thinking maybe you were gay-"

"I'm not gay Reid. I just prefer the girls that I date have brains that they actually use, unlike the girls you like. But, you're not gonna go after Melinda?"

"Nope, she's all yours." Tyler grinned and the boys laughed.

Giggling, the two girls burst into Melinda's small room. Mel flopped on her bed and looked at her best friend who was currently sitting on Mel's computer chair. "So, what's up with Jason? What did he do now?"

Angela flipped her blonde hair. "Oh, he cheated on me; I kicked his ass and broke up with him. He doesn't matter. What does matter, though, are those four extremely hot boys in your living room. And I'm not including your brother in that group, although Wyatt is really cute."

Mel made a face. She knew that her brothers and male cousins were cute, but she did not need to hear it. "Eww. You know that creeps me out when you say Wyatt is cute. Anyway, their names are Caleb, Pogue, Reid, and Tyler. Reid is the blonde, Pogue has the long hair, Caleb's the oldest, and Tyler's the youngest. From what I could tell, Caleb and Pogue have girlfriends but Reid and Tyler are single."

"And you're interested in…?"

"Please Angela! I've only known them for an hour or so."

"And you're interested in…?" Angie repeated. She knew her friend and could tell when Mel liked someone.

Mel groaned. Angie knew her a little too well. "Well, if I had to choose…Tyler."

"Haha, I knew it! Totally cool with it, so long as I get dibs on the blonde. I like his looks."

"You would. It seems like you always fall for blond bad boys." Mel smirked.

Angie gasped dramatically. "Name three."

Mel started to tick off on her fingers. "Mark. Travis. Carson. Carter."

"Okay, okay! I said three."

"Jason," Mel snuck in. Angela glared at her and Mel made a face back. They held each other's eyes for a few seconds and then burst out laughing.

Just then Piper called up to them. "Girls! We're ordering pizza for dinner. And there's stuff we have to talk about."

Angela looked at her friend. "Your mom is going to order pizza instead of cooking dinner. Is she possessed?"

Mel smiled. "Could be. They were out vanquishing demons. Maybe we should do a spell?"

"How about a spell to attract those two guys?"

"And you know how well that turned out for my mom and Aunt Phoebe when they cast the "to attract a lover spell" when they were first learning their powers."

"Oh fine. Be the reasonable Wiccan and ruin my fun."

"Whatever. Let's go eat."

"And find out where the boys are going to stay while they're here?"

"Maybe," Mel shrugged. The girls ran down stairs, ready for dinner.