Melanie's POV

The moment I saw Sam pull Pete towards the end of the path, I thought I saw Freddie trying to take a final look at her before she was gone. He seemed unhappy. Unwilling.

"I don't know about this anymore," he said, breaking the silence between us.

"Huh?" I understood what he said, but I wanted to know why.

"I don't want to do this anymore," he replied. "If not doing this may cause her physical pain, I would rather she feels the pain on her skin than in her heart, which is what I'm doing to her right now. I swore that I would never let anyone hurt her again, but I'm the one who's hurting her."

I couldn't help but agree. Freddie made a lot of sense. "I know, but aren't you afraid that she may get hurt by Pete? Like, permanently?"

He hesitated. "I know that what I'm doing is selfish, but I'm sure she would rather be disabled and live with someone who truly loves her, than be healthy but living with someone who's always threatening to hurt her."

"How do you know if Pete doesn't really love her?" I questioned him.

"If he loved Sam, he would never threaten to hurt her. Instead, he should do all he can to protect her from harm..." he sighed. "Just like I would..."

I turned around to look at the leaving couple who have distanced a mile away from us. "Little sister, you'll always be so oblivious, won't you?"

"Huh? Did you say something?" Freddie asked.

"No, no," I replied. I guess he heard my mumbling. "Let's go home, I just remembered that I have some work to do."

His face lit up. "We can finally go home?"

"What do you mean by 'finally'? Don't you like spending time with me?" I asked.

"Must we go through this again?" he replied. Apparently, he had gotten sick and tired of my frequent questioning of his loyalty and faithfulness towards me. I managed to make him bring me to the carnival after much persuasion that morning, but he was still cold towards me. Well, I guess that's the way things were.

That night, when I returned home, I went over to my sister's room immediately after some screaming and shouting from Carlerella. She has gotten tougher and feistier each day. I don't even know why.

"Sam," I knocked on the door. "Are you in there?"

The music coming from the room stopped as I called out. Then, a couple of footsteps were heard approaching the door. Soon, my sister was out.

"What's up?" she asked.

"I was wondering if you were okay," I pretended to care about her, hiding away my agenda. "You know, after that..."

"I'm fine," she replied harshly. "Now, if there's nothing else, I'll..."

I interrupted her. "You know alot about Freddie, don't you?"

She froze at his name, then looked up at me. "So?" she asked, maintaining that harsh tone of hers as she bears the grudge for me for snatching her boyfriend away from her.

"His birthday is coming and I want to do something great for him," I replied. "I'm sure you know alot about him considering that the both of you were the best of friends."

She sighs and let me in her room. It's rather rare that she allows me into her room. Not that she doesn't allow anyone else, but she prefers keeping a distance from me. Once, I asked her why and she just said that it was weird having four 'Sams' in her room since she had a full-length mirror beside her bed.

"What do you want to know?" she asked me, no longer having the harsh tone in her voice.

"Well, let's start with his favorite snack," I replied, pulling my notepad out from my pocket.

"You keep a notepad with you?" she was surprised. "You just carry it around with you all the time or what?"

"Sometimes, I just carry it for convenience," I replied, in a tone that says 'obviously'. "Just like you carry your ribs and fried chicken with you all the time."

"You are one nerd, just like that..." she paused when she remembered the boy. "Never mind, let's just continue. What was that question again?"

So we had that little chat for about two hours before bedtime was near and mother started shouting at us for wasting electricity by leaving the lights on after bedtime. Actually, she was more of shouting at Sam. I never understood why she always picked on Sam but not me. Maybe it's because of the different 'maturity levels'.

The next morning, I proceeded immediately to Pete and my secret hideout. It isn't much of a secret anymore, considering the fact that Freddie just exited that place with ease when we released him from the abduction.

"Hmm..." Pete was mumbling about something in his lab. I decided to go check out while I report to him about my findings.

"Pete?" I called out to him. He was still kinda busy, so he didn't bother to even take a look at me. "I found something very interesting."

As he heard my report on the little chat I had with my sister last night, he decided to take a look up at me and listen attentively. "Go on. I want to know exactly what she told you."

"I started asking her about Freddie's favourite snack, which she replied was..." I was interrupted when Pete shook his head at my report.

"No, no, no, no, no," he said. "I don't want to know about your personal research for your boyfriend's birthday, I want to know what happened exactly, as in, what did she say about the book."

"Oh, right," I replied as I flipped through my notebook. "She said that the book that Freddie gave her was called 'Prehistoric Prophecies'. It was her favorite book even though she never read it, but she did flip through it once and something weird happened."

"Something weird?" Pete confirmed with me as he leaned forward from his chair and intertwined his fingers together.

I continued. "Yes, something weird. She said that she once felt currents surging through her, as if she was struck by lightning, but she was not hurt at all."

"Really?" he said as he stood up from his chair and paced about the room. "Do you have the book?"

"Yes," I replied enthusiastically as I found that he was finally interested in what I was saying. "She said that she no longer wanted anything to do with Freddie, so she decided to give the book to me." I took the book out from my pouch and handed it over to Pete.

"Wonderful!" he shouted. As if it was for dramatic effect, thunder boomed and storm clouds circled above our building as Pete let out the darkest laugh I've ever heard. "Now, I can finally get to my ultimate goal!"

I stared at him in shock. I never knew that boy could be so vicious. I never knew he would have thought of that plan that changed everything...

A/N: Hey all! I'm back! This time, I'm going to update this story every week (hopefully) until it's completed. As for 'iGet Starstruck', I still need your votes to decide if I should continue with it or not. So, please do me a favour, I know you all are very nice people :D Stay tuned for more 'iAm the Stepsister' next week!