As the days went by Annie began to feel a bit left out in the new family dynamic. It wasn't as if Jeff was outright ignoring her. But it seemed like he and Lexi were always doing something together, like going to an animation festival at Denver University, or a Colorado Avalanche game. Many nights she talked Jeff into taking her clothes shopping, which would lead to them getting something to eat along the way and leaving Annie alone to make dinner for herself.

Annie wouldn't have felt so isolated if she was being included in their outings. But anytime she offered to join them Lexi hemmed and hawed that she wanted to have 'father daughter time'. And even when Jeff tried to convince Lexi that Annie should come along also the girl came up with excuse after excuse until Jeff simply said, "Next time all three of us will do something." But of course when next time arrived the results was always the same.

Annie hated to admit it, but she was starting to feel a bit jealous. She was glad Jeff was getting to know his daughter. But she hated always being left out. And she was getting sick of how Lexi was treating her. Anytime she tried to talk to the girl Lexi either ignored her or replied with a snide remark. And no matter how many times Annie asked her to turn down her music or the volume on the laptop, Lexi never gave up a single decibel. Annie knew it had to be difficult for the girl to adapt to a soon to be stepmother, but she didn't know how much longer she could take all this hostility.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Annie groaned as she walked into the apartment, hoping for a relaxing end of the day. After a rough day at work, and the argument she had with the florist over the wedding flowers on her lunch hour, all she wanted to do was put on sweat pants and have a stress free evening.

I'm just glad tomorrow's Friday, Annie thought as she went into the kitchen. She put her bag on the kitchen counter, accidently knocking Lexi's book bag over. As she picked up the papers that had fallen out she saw a hand written note that was addressed to Jeff. Annie read the note, seeing it was from one of Lexi's teachers.

Dear Mr. Winger.

My name is Sophia Paterson, and I am Alexis's biology teacher. While we have never been introduced, I can tell you that Alexis is a bright student who's been pulling an A- average in my class. However, I've noticed a drop in her performance over the last few weeks that I must inform you about. She got an F on both her last test and quiz, and hasn't been turning in her homework. I understand things have been difficult for her, with her mother dying and going to live with a father she's just getting to know. I have even suggested to her that she go talk to the school counselor to help work through things. But there are only so many leniencies we can offer to our students, no matter what the circumstances are. I hope she will start improving her academic performance, since there is still time for her to regain the grade she is capable of earning.

Annie frowned as she finished reading the letter, seeing it was dated this Monday. That meant Lexi had had the letter for three days and hadn't yet shown it to Jeff. She decided to say something to the girl, both about her dropping grade and her keeping information from the two of them.

As Annie approached Lexi's room she noticed a new addition to the house, which was a poster size drawing Lexi had hung up on the front of her bedroom door. The drawing was of a giant rag doll with red yarn hair and a nasty smile. The rag doll was lifting one of its feet and having it hover over a cracked porcelain doll that had dark hair and big blue eyes.

Annie sighed in frustration, having a good idea about what the drawing was meant to represent. She was all for giving Lexi room to be creative, but this was too much. Since she had to talk to Lexi anyway, she figured she'd ask her nicely to move her artwork.

"Lexi?" she said as she knocked on the girl's door. "It's Annie. Can I come in?" She waited for a response, but after several moments of silence she simply opened the door and want in anyway.

"Hi," she said as Lexi sat on her bed, her laptop on her lap. "What are you doing?"

"Stuff," the girl simply said.

"Okay." She decided to start with something fun before getting into the issues at hand. "There are a couple things I want to talk to you about. But first I wanted to talk to you about the bridesmaids dress for the wedding."

"Are we going to have a day trying on dresses? You and all your friends spending hours finding the perfect look," Lexi snidely said.

Annie sighed deeply, desperately trying to keep a lid on her mounting anger. "Actually, I wanted to tell you there isn't going to be a uniform bridesmaids dress. I figured instead of picking out something most people would hate, it would be better if all the bridesmaids picked out a dress themselves. That way they can wear something they personally like and can wear it after the wedding instead of just for that day. So as long as it's royal blue, you can wear whatever dress you like. And as long as it isn't too expensive, Jeff and I have no problem buying it for you."

Lexi looked up at Annie, actually thinking that was a pretty good idea. But she didn't want to give in and admit it. So instead she simply replied with, "Okay, whatever."

Annie decided to just move on, since she wasn't going to get any sort of admiration from the girl. "As I said, there's a few things I wanted to talk to you about. I'd appreciate it if you took down that drawing you put on your door."

"Why? It's my room," she challenged. "You said I could do whatever I wanted to it."

"Yes," Annie said patiently. "This is your room, and you can decorate it however you want, including the inside of the door. But the outside of the door is considered the general apartment. And I'd rather you don't cover the outside of your door with things. Especially a giant drawing that makes me uncomfortable."

"What's wrong with it?" Lexi asked with false innocence.

"I think we both know what you're saying with that drawing. Can you please take it down?"

"No."

Annie looked at Lexi in surprise. "What did you say?"

"I said I'm not taking it down. It's my drawing and I want it on the outside of my door."

"Well this is my apartment and I'm telling you I don't want anything on that door."

Lexi got off the bed and rose to her feet, towering over Annie. "And what are you going to do about it? You're not my mother."

"You're right, I'm not," Annie said, standing her ground as she looked right into the younger girl's eyes. "But I am responsible for you. And as long as you're living with me and Jeff you'll do what I say. Now either take that drawing down or I'll take it down myself." With that she walked out of the room before she really lost her temper.

She made it out onto the terrace before yelling in frustration. She knew under the best circumstances teenage girls could be difficult. But she couldn't believe Lexi had talked back to her like that. The girl had been so disrespectful just because she asked Lexi to take something off her door. It was infuriating.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"Hey, how are my two favorite girls," Jeff called put as he walked into the apartment.

"Jeff. We need to talk," Annie told him.

"Can I put my briefcase down first," he said with a smirk. The smile left his face when he saw the look on her face. "Okay, okay. Give me a second." He took his suit jacket and tie off before following Annie out onto the terrace. "What's going on?"

"You're daughter is infuriating and disrespectful. That's what's going on"

"What happened?"

"She put a huge drawing on the front of her door. When I asked her to move it she refused, saying it was her room and that I had no authority over her."

"Well, it is her room," Jeff said simply.

"Jeff, that's not the point. She's been nasty and rude to me ever since she got here. She goes out of her way to be hostile to me. That drawing is just further proof. "

"Hang on, let me see this thing." Jeff walked into the apartment, coming back to the terrace after a few moments. "It's just a doll standing over another doll."

"Jeff, it's meant to be us. She's the giant rag doll and I'm the one underneath it."

"I think you're reading too much into it," he said to her.

"No I'm not. And even if I am, the fact that she refused to take it down when I asked her to just proves that I'm right. She has no respect for me and makes me feel like a third wheel. I want all of us to get along, instead of feeling like an outsider in my own home. And I don't want to always be excluded when you two do something."

"You're not excluded-."

"Jeff, every time you two do something it's just the two of you. Anytime I try to come along she comes up with some reason not to include me. I know she's your daughter and it's important that you two spend time together, but it's important that I spend time with her and get to know her too."

Jeff tried to argue, but couldn't as he realized she was actually right. "Okay, I'll talk to her and I'll make sure she treats you better. And the next time she wants us to do something, I'll make sure you're not left out. Is that everything?"

"No, there's more." Jeff followed her inside as she handed him the note from Lexi's biology teacher. "Her book bag knocked over and I found this when I was cleaning up her stuff."

Jeff took the letter and quickly read through it. "So she failed a test and missed some homework. It's not the end of the world."

"Jeff, we have to start taking an active role in her life, and knowing more about her."

"I am getting to know her," Jeff said, annoyed at feeling he had to defend himself. "What do you think I've been doing all those nights the two of us have gone out?"

"Jeff, it's great that you're spending all this time with Lexi. But we need to know about all aspects of her life. We need to know how she's doing in her school, and who her friends are, and what she's doing when she's not here. It's not just about being her friends; it's about being her parents."

For a moment Jeff was angry that his parenting had been brought into question. But it quickly evaporated as he realized he hadn't actually done too much real parenting. He really had been acting more like her friend than like a father.

"I just…we've been getting along really well these last couple of weeks. And I don't want her being mad at me."

"I know," Annie said simply. "But she'll be better off if you lay down the law when it's needed instead of letting her get away with everything. And I know she'll appreciate it later on in life, even if she won't now."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"Lexi, it's Je…it's dad. Can I come in?" he asked as he knocked on her door. A moment later he opened the door as she called out that he could come in.

"Hey," he said as he closed the door. "Can we talk for a minute?"

"Jeeze, everyone wants to talk today. First pocket princess wanted to talk and now—"

"Don't call Annie that," he said angrily before making himself calm down. "That's part of what I wanted to talk to you about. I want you to stop being so nasty to Annie. She's my fiancée and you're soon to be stepmother, and you've been excluding her and treating her terribly."

"No I haven't," she said simply.

"Yes, you have. Whenever we do something you've insisted that Annie doesn't come along."

"I just want to get to know my dad."

"Yes, and I love spending time with you. But it's important that you also get to know Annie. She's a really amazing person and I don't want the two of you at each other's throats. What is it about her that you don't like?"

Lexi was silent for several moments, not wanting to reveal that she didn't want the twenty something to act like she was her mom. "She just bothers me."

"Well, if you spent time with her and got to know her I know you'd like her. Can you please try and get along with her for me?"

"Fine," she said simply.

Jeff smiled before taking the teacher's note and putting it in front of her. "I also wanted to talk to you about this. Annie found it when your bag fell and she was picking up the stuff that fell out."

Sure she was, Lexi thought sarcastically as she looked at the note. I bet she found it because she was snooping through my stuff. "So I missed some school work. I have other things on my mind besides school right now."

"I know. And from the note it seems your teacher feels you're a good student who's understandably fallen behind. But I don't want you to fail your class and have to repeat it or go to summer school. So can you do your homework and try and improve things?"

"Okay," she said.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"Hello?" Jeff said as he came in and heard noises. "Anyone here?"

"It's me," Lexi called out as she came out of her room with her phone in her hand.

"Hey Lexi. TGIF."

"No one says TGIF anymore dad," she said while playfully rolling her eyes. "Is it all right if I spend the night at Cassidy's? We're going to stay up all night and watch every Saw movie."

"Sure," Jeff said before remembering what Annie had said about knowing who Lexi's friends were. "Actually, I would like to meet Cassidy before you go over there."

"What? Why?"

"Because I'm trying to get to know you, and I'd like to match a name to a face when you talk about them. Just have her come over here to pick you up. I'm not going to interrogate her, just a simple 'hi, how are you?" After a few moments of silence he decided to offer his counter proposal. "Okay, I'll give you a choice. Either she comes over for a quick meet and greet, or I drive you over there and get to know her entire family."

She glared at Jeff before bringing her phone up to her ear. "Cassie, is it all right if you pick me up and meet my dad?...Because you're so interesting he wants to know you…Okay, see you at seven." She hung up before looking at Jeff. "Happy?"

"Ecstatic."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"Dinner was good," Lexi said politely at Annie.

"Thank you," Annie said back to her. All through dinner Lexi had been almost formally polite to Annie. While the girl wasn't being exactly warm, the politeness was an improvement over the previous hostility she had felt.

They started cleaning up when the buzzer rang. Lexi ran over and pressed the button. "Yeah?"

"It's me!" Cassidy said.

"Come on up," Lexi said as she buzzed her in. A couple minutes later she opened the door as soon as she heard a knock. "Hey," she happily said as the two girls hugged. "Ready for a night of torture?"

"Can't wait. I still haven't seen the last two."

Lexi stepped back as Jeff approached the two of them. "Yeah, this is my dad."

"Pleasure to meet you," Jeff said.

"Same," Cassidy said. "I can see where Lexi gets her height from. But her mom was also tall…so I guess it doesn't really matter if your tall or short."

Jeff laughed at that one as Annie came over. "Hi, I'm Annie. Jeff's soon to be wife."

"Nice to meet you," Cassidy told her. "You're really pretty."

"Oh, thank you. I hope the two of you have fun tonight. It was nice meeting you," Annie said as she went back to the kitchen to clean up.

Jeff pulled his wallet out and gave Lexi a twenty. "Well, I won't keep the two of you from your marathon. Here's some money in case you two want to get pizza or something. I'll see you tomorrow Lexi."

"Thanks dad," Lexi said as the two of them walked out into the hallway.

"Why didn't you say your dad was a giant hottie?"

"EW, gross Cassie."

Jeff chuckled as he closed the door and went into the kitchen. Annie was at the sink, her back to him as she washed dishes. He walked over and wrapped his arms around her waist. "So, it looks like we're alone tonight. We have the whole place to ourselves."

"It looks like we do." She felt Jeff's fingers lightly rub her stomach as he pulled her hair to the side and kissed her shoulder. "Stop," she moaned. "We've got to clean this stuff up."

"Annie, we're parents now. We've got to take advantage of any alone time we can get."

"You'll just look for any excuse to-." She gasped as Jeff's fingers slipped under the waistband of her skirt and underwear and rubbed against her. "Screw it, the pans can soak for a while." She turned around and pressed her lips against his as she wrapped her legs around his waist. He backed up into the refrigerator as they slid to the kitchen floor.