A/N: Girls don't like boys, girls like cars and money! Sorry...I've had that song stuck in my head all day. Anywho...I didn't think any of you would mind another chapter. :D

Chapter 8: Childcare and Fire Extinguisher Education

Max's POV

We finally pulled into the Martinez's driveway (which was actually beginning to become familiar) and me and Ella hopped out of the car, keeping a careful distance from eachother. Ella went to grab the mail so as not to have to come in contact with me as I was walking up to the door. Don't get me wrong, I liked it that she was backing off, I just thought she could be a little extreme sometimes. I let myself into the house, dropped my backpack by the door, and wandered into the kitchen. I was only just getting comfortable enough to grab things from the fridge without feeling like I was raiding a gas station or something and could be caught at any minute. Two of Mrs. Martinez's cookies in hand, I leaned against the island and stared up at the cieling. The exhaustion from my first day at school was finally creeping up on me. All I wanted to do was flop down on a couch somewhere and fall asleep to shitty afternoon television.

Ella flounced into the kitchen and threw open the cupboards to grab something for herself, completely ignoring the fact that I was standing not five feet away from her. I didn't expect her to try and speak at all, which is why I was surprised when she turned suddenly and started to talk to me. "Okay, listen..." My eyebrows flew up at her demanding speech. How old was this kid? Twelve? She paused for a minute, and then resumed, her voice sounding a little less snobby, but still pretty much all-around annoying anyhow. "So, tonight I have to babysit for some kids until around eleven."

"Okay, and this concerns me how?" I asked, confused as to why she was sharing this useless piece of information with me as though it were vital that I knew what she was doing.

"I just want you to stay out of my way and let me handle them, okay? They're not hard kids, but I don't want you running around with them and showing them how to flapjack kick eachother in the heads." I snorted. She glared at me. "I'm not trying to be funny." she snapped.

"You mean, roundhouse kick?" I asked, laughing spitefully. She rolled her eyes.

"I'm sorry I don't spend my time watching kung-fu movies. I don't care what kind of kick it is, I just prefer to have both of the kids with all of the their limbs attatched and fully conscious when their parents pick them up. So just...stay in your room or something, alright?" I was a bit irritated with the fact that she (twelve and a half or so years old) was telling me (15 years old) what to do. Why would I even want to run around with a bunch of snot nosed kids anyways? Sometimes...okay ALL of the time...I didn't understand her. Eventually though, she let me be, taking off with a box of Cheerios up to her room.

I wandered into the living room, eyeing up the couch. The shitty T.V. scenario was sounding PRETTY damn appealing right about now. I grabbed the remote and turned it to some weird rap music video channel and flopped face down into the soft, cushiony couch. The giant bling bling and pimp cars lulled me into a dreamy state until I dozed off about twenty minutes after I'd settled in.

I woke with a start and fell off of the couch and onto the carpeting. The noise of small feet running up the stairs had snapped me out of the dream I had been having. I tried to remember what it was about, but only small details remained. It'd had SOMETHING to do with some grass and something silver. The rest of it was all too hazy. I squinted at the clock ontop of the television and saw that it was just after 6:00 p.m. "Oh shit..." I muttered, wiping my bleary eyes. I had been asleep for about two hours give or take. We'd gotten home at around 4:00, and I'd passed out not long after that. There was more thumping and then some laughter coming from the other rooms. I groaned. It sounded like Ella's babysitting charges had arrived. I hated children.

If there is one thing I cannot stand, it is a bunch of slimy little brats clinging to you and trying to get you to play make-believe with them. I often hoped, when I was ever around kids (which was very rarely), that I had been nothing like they were when I was little. I'm always slightly revolted at myself for having once been one of them. I mean, they're always making messes, and shoving dress-up jewelery in your face-It was then that I remembered the concept of my dream. I couldn't recall what had been happening, but I knew it'd had something to do with the taaffeite necklace. And with that on my mind, I remembered that I had failed to perform my daily ritual of checking on it in the afternoon. I hopped up from the floor and darted out of the room to run up and check that it was still safely under my mattress. The rational part of me knew that it would be there (there was no reason it shouldn't be), but the paranoid side of me just wanted to make sure. The paranoid part of me is most commonly the dominant one.

I ripped back the mattress and felt my heart relax when I saw the box laying, untouched, right in the exact position I had left it. I breathed a sigh of relief. When I set the mattress back down. Two strangers came into view, standing in the threshold of the door. I just stared at them while they stared back. One was this little girl (probably about five or six years old) with lots of curly blond hair, and big blue eyes. She was rather tall for how young she appeared, but still small, and looked like the kind of little girl that you expected to see in a children's clothing catalogue. The other was a boy of around eight. He too had blond hair and blue eyes, but his eyes were filled with mischief, whereas the little one looked all innocent and such. There was no mistaking that they were brother and sister, though. We stood where we were for a few more minutes and then the little girl spoke up.

"Hi, I'm Angel! I'm six. This is my teddy bear, Celeste. She's only a baby." She held up a little stuffed bear and grinned. "Do you live here, too? I've never seen you here before. Are you just visiting, or are you gonna stay forever?" While she was launching rapid fire questions at me, her brother just stared at my matress. I tried to follow the little girl's questions, but she was confusing me.

"Umm... I'm Max. I just moved." was all I could manage to get out. I looked at her. What was her name again? Angie? My mental question was answered when Ella came thomping up the stairs, calling out their names.

"Angel? Zach? Where did you run off to? I thought we were gonna watch The Little Mermaid." She stopped suddenly when she saw that they were talking to me. Annoyance filled her face. I threw my hands up in surrender.

"Hey...they started talking to me. I've been down in the living room this whole time. I only just came up to check on something a couple minutes ago." She still continued to look pissed.

"Come on, you guys. I've got the movie all ready to go." Ella started to try and herd the kids away from my room, but she was so far unsuccessful.

"Wait!" the little one called Angel said urgently, "Isn't your friend gonna watch the movie with us?" Ella just shook her head and shot me an icy glare.

"Maybe later, sweetie. She's busy right now." Ella began to lead her down the hall. The boy called Zach lingered by the door, however. He was still staring at my mattress.

"Umm...can I help you?" I asked, wondering why he was just standing there. He looked up at me like he was only just realizing I was there.

"Sorry, I was just looking at that mattress. There's a loose spring in it that would be perfect for this thing I'm trying to build." He was growing more excited as he talked. "You see, it's this simple hommade bomb. The spring would act as the-" Ella's voice cut off his explanation.

"Zachary, come on! I made popcorn and everything!" Zach turned around without another word and ran off down the hall. Apparently he was willing to sit through The Little Mermaid if it meant popcorn. I was just straightening the mattress back into place when I heard quiet footsteps approaching my room. Angel had come back. She poked her head in and grinned at me. I couldn't help but smile back. She WAS sort of adorable. You know...for a kid and all.

"Hey, when you're not busy anymore, you should come down and watch Arial with me. She's not my favorite princess, but she's really cool. My favorite is Belle because she really knows how to kick butt." She laughed when she said the word butt, like most little kids would, but it wasn't in that super annoying way they usually do it in. It was actually kind of...cute.

"Angel? Where'd you go? I'm starting the movie!" Ella was calling from downstairs. Angel waved goodbye to me and then ran down to join her brother and Ella. I chuckled. She was the first kid I'd met in a long time that didn't make me wish I was blind and deaf. After Angel ran off, I tried to find something to do in my room. I doodled on the back of a notebook, checked the necklace again, rolled off my bed repeatedly...I even went so far as to look over the book we'd been assigned to read for English class. I ended up chucking it under the bed after about four pages. I finally found a little entertainment in working loose the spring Zach had pointed out. Then I made my way downstairs.

Ella and Angel were sitting on the couch in the living room, watching The Little Mermaid. Zach sat on the floor near it, munching on popcorn and tinkering with what looked like a pack of batteries wrapped in electrical tape and wires. I raised my eyes at his interesting toy, and when he saw me and the spring I was holding, he grinned. "Sweet!" he burst out, hopping up and running to grab the treasure. "Now I'll be able to finish it. Thanks!" I noticed that one of his front teeth was missing. I glanced over at the two on the couch. Ella was looking severely annoyed at my being in the room, and Angel looked like she was about to wet herself with excitement.

"Are you not busy anymore? C'mon...let's go play a game in the other room. I like Ariel, but I've seen this movie a bajillion times before." She slid off of the couch and sprung over to where I was standing, wrapping her small hand around mine. I tensed, but didn't pull away like I normally would have. I tried to relax my arm muscles, but she was dragging me across the room towards the entrance to the hallway.

"Angel! Where are you going? I'm supposed to be watching you, honey!" Ella sounded friendly enough, but I could hear a hint of frustration in the bottom layers of her tone. Angel continued to pull me until we were in the kitchen. Then she started towards the counter.

"Let's play restaurant! I'll be the waitress and you can be the customer. Come and sit down! I'll take your order!" She pointed to one of the chairs that were positioned in front of the island in a 'stool-at-the-diner-counter' sort of way. I stared around the room awkwardly, not quite sure what to do.

"Umm...I think-Isn't Ella supposed to be watching you or something?" I said, looking for an excuse to wander back up to my room. I really didn't mind this kid (she wasn't that bad in comparison to all the rest of them), but I wasn't really the type to actually play games with ANY kid. But she started to get these sad puppy dog eyes, and I was afraid she might get upset and start crying, so I through my hands up in surrender. "Hey...hold on. Don't get upset. I-I guess I can play for a little while." She brightened right up and pulled out a chair for me.

"Right this way, madamoiselle." she said in a fake French accent and giving a deep bow. I hopped up onto the stool and pulled myself up to the counter. She walked behind the island and swung the towel that had been hanging on the oven handle over her shoulder.

"Hi, I'm Angel, and I'll be your waiter this evening. Can I start you off with something to drink?" I was surprised at how professionally she was going about playing this game, but I was soon interrupted when Ella came storming into the kitchen. She took one look at me and Angel playing "restaurant" and began to fume.

"You know what? I give up. Why don't you just go ahead and take over everything. You come into my house, you take my bedroom, my mom, and now by babysitting job? Jesus, I might as well just be the guest and you be the daughter." I could tell that this wasn't just about the babysitting. She was obviously pissed at me for several reasons, but I couldn't see any of them as logical. Therefore, her attitude was making me extremely irritated.

"Ella, will you quit whining about everything? It's not my fault that this kid wanted to play with me. I didn't ask her to come in her and mess around. She DRAGGED me in here. I can't help it if I'm more fun and they'd rather hang out with me." I knew I was really hitting below the belt, so to speak, but I would jump at any chance to push her buttons. In my opinion, she deserved it. After all, she'd been nothing but nasty to me since I'd first gotten here. I saw the tears well up in her eyes, but she spun on her heels and marched back to the living room to keep an eye on Zach and quite possibly sob. I rolled my eyes. Twelve year olds...they're just so moody.

It was then that I noticed Angel looking at me. "What?" I asked.

"Why are you guys so mad at eachother? What did she mean 'you're taking over'?" Curiosity burned in the little girl's eyes. I tried to brush it off.

"It's nothing, kid, don't worry about it. We're just having a little disagreement." She put her hand on her hip and looked at me with eyes that said 'Seriously?'

"Do you think I was born yesterday?" she asked rhetorically. My eyes widened a bit. "If you don't want to talk about it, just say so." I was astounded. How old was she? She looked to be about six, but talked with all the maturity and pitch of a teenager, and a mature one at that. But she suddenly reverted back to kid mode and a big grin flashed on her face. "So, what do you want to eat?"

"Umm...I'll have...a cheeseburger and a milkshake, I guess." I said, wondering what she planned to do once I'd given her my "order". But she just shook her head.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but we don't serve those here." Then she leaned in closer and whispered: "This is a fancy restaurant. They only serve fancy food here." Then she was the waitress again. I was at a loss for what to do. I didn't know any "fancy foods". The classiest thing I'd ever eaten was a steak sandwich at some random sub place. She seemed to detect that I was struggling a bit. "Here, miss...allow me to run you through the menu." And she proceeded to list about twenty different food items, none of which I could pronounce well enough to ask for. She ended up getting me to order some "roasted duck with a raspberry glaze, and a cheese souffle".

While she was "preparing" my food (we were using imagination here, people) I asked: "Where did you learn about all this weird food?" She looked up from pretending to flip something in a pan.

"Oh...my mom taught me how to order in a fancy restaurant a long time ago. We go to them quite alot actually. Last year, she took me to Atelier for my birthday while we were in New York. It's in the Ritz-Carlton on Central Park. Their Filet Mignon is divine." I felt my eyes growing wider.

"Jeese..." I thought, "This kid's parents must be loaded."

"We really are rich, if that's what you were wondering." Angel said, as though she could read my mind. "My daddy's this really upscale lawyer, and my mommy's parents were rich, too. We're pretty much set." I liked that she was being so blunt about this. She pretended to set down my plates in front of me as she continued her story. "But...my mommy and daddy are out of the house alot on 'social occasions', so we get a babysitter on most nights of the week. Usually, it's either Ella or Nick." The guy whose name was Nick...the one with the dark hair and communicative dark brown eyes...him? I was burning with curiosity. Angel studied my face. "What? Do you know him?" She asked.

"Umm...I don't know...what's his last name?" I prompted.

"Damon." she chirped, and watched my reaction. His face popped up in my mind. It was easy to get lost in the deep pools of his eyes. I snapped out of it. Whoah...what had I been doing? I shook my head a little to clear it. Angel started to smile. "You do know him!" she cried in excitement. "Isn't he nice? I love it when he babysits us. He's really quiet, but if I ask nice enough, he usually plays games with me and stuff. And Zach likes him too 'cause he never yells at us." I tried to picture Nick playing Barbies with Angel, but the thought made me laugh. "So..." Angel went on, "How's the food?" I took an imaginary bite and pretended that whatever I was eating tasted excellent.

"Yum...that's really good. Mmm..." Angel laughed as I continued to fake eat. A couple minutes later, she threw the towel at me, and then skipped around to my side of the counter.

"Okay! Your turn to be the waitress, and I get to be the customer this time." She hopped up on the stool next to me, and looked at me with expectant eyes. I hesitantly slid off my chair and walked around the island.

"Umm...I don't really know any fancy food like you do..." I said awkwardly, looking around the kitchen.

"That's okay...your restaurant can be any kind you want it to be. It doesn't have to be fancy." she reassured me. I breathed a sigh of relief and flung the towel over my shoulder like she had done previously. Then I walked over to "take her order".

"Ummm...hi. What can I do for-What do you want to eat?" Angel tried to supress her laughter at my suck-ass waitressing skills, and politely asked:

"What are your specials today?"

"We have the uh-the grilled cheese, and-with a side of chips. And chocolate shakes are half price today." Angel looked like she was thinking carefully.

"You know what...that sounds really good. I'll have the grilled cheese and chips please." I nodded and then awkwardly pretended to assemble the imaginary sandwich. Angel piped up though, half way through. "Hey, Max?" I paused what I was doing to look over at her and rose my eyebrows, waiting for her to continue. "Hey, I'm kinda hungry now. Do you think you could make me an actual grilled cheese, please? With chips and a chocolate shake?"

"Oh...um...I don't know. I really can't cook that great. I might not-" She was looking at me with those puppy dog blue eyes again though. I could feel my SOUL melting. I almost face palmed. This was ridiculous. Why was I caving in to a six year old? This was NOT Maximum Ride's usual plan of action. "Well...I suppose I could try. I don't really know how well it'll turn out, but-" Her face brightened up.

"That's okay! I'm so hungry, I'll eat anything." I nervously hunted around the kitchen for supplies. Angel had to help me find a pan, but I mangaged to locate the bread, butter, and cheese by myself. As I stared at the ingredients with utter confusion, Angel seemed to realize that I needed help. "The first thing you do is put the pan on the heat and put butter in it. Then you spread both sides of the bread with butter. After that, you make a sandwich with the cheese and then you grill in the pan. It's really easy. I'd make it by myself, but my mommy says I'm not supposed to use the stove."

"Yeah...I probably shouldn't be allowed to use the stove either." I muttered as I cut of a pat of butter and turned the dial on the stove to turn the heat on. I waited to see which spot glowed red and then put the pan down. I made the sandwich as best I could, and then plopped it in the pan. Whew...now the only thing left to do was make sure I flipped it when it was ready. Angel kept me busy while I was waiting by asking me tons of questions, mostly about who I knew and who I didn't know.

"Do you know Monique Cooper?" she asked. I shook my head as I studied the expiration date on a jug of chocolate milk in the fridge. It was the closest thing to a chocolate shake I was going to get. "She's really cool. She's over here with Ella sometimes, and she babysits with her. She talks alot, and she likes to play dress up with me all the time. It's super fun. She's a sixth grader." I nodded.

"Is chocolate milk okay?" I asked once I figured that it wasn't spoiled.

"Yeah, sure!" Angel chirped. "Hey...I'm going to find Celeste. I think I left her in the living room." And she skipped off down the hall to go reclaim her teddy bear. I shook my head. I liked this kid, I really did. I just wasn't sure if I could do this all the time. I leaned back against the refrigerator, and slid down onto the floor, exhausted. It had been a LONG day. I was running through everything in my head when I noticed a sort of funny smell filling the room. I sniffed at the air, trying to pick out what it was. After a few sniffs, it wasn't hard to identify. Angel confirmed my fears when she skipped back into the room.

She paused suddenly, and the shrieked loudly. "Max!" she yelled. I hopped up immediately. She was pointing to a spot behind me. "It's on fire!" I spun around.

"Holy shit!" I yelled, forgetting that she was only six. Unfortunately, I had bigger things to worry about than protecting the virgin ears of the kid in the room. The grilled cheese I had been attempting to cook had erupted in flames on the stove. Obviously, I had left it to cook for SLIGHTLY too long. "Shit, shit, shit..." I muttered to myself. Then Ella came tramping into the room, Zach right behind her.

"What's that disgusting smell?" she asked with a pinched face. Then she saw the fire burning away on the stove and screamed as well. "What the hell did you do?" She was directing this right at me. "Why is the stove on fire!" She was flipping out on me. "Max! I told you to just stay out of the way and let me do my job!" I walked over to her forcefully.

"Listen! This isn't the time to argue!" I directed her. "We have to get the kids out of the house!" Ella looked like she was going to continue to yell, but then caught sight of the frightened Angel, standing near us. Gazzy actually looked slightly fascinated. I saw him mouth the word 'cool' as he looked at the flames with oogling eyes. Ella nodded.

"Angel, Zach! Get out of the house! Hurry, run!" She pushed Angel in the right direction, towards the door. Her brother took her hand and the two of them ran down the hallway, Angel in tears, and Zach looking back a few times.

"Ella! Grab the fire extinguisher!" I shouted. She hurried over to a cabinet and took out the large red canister. She started to read the directions to herself. "Oh for God's sake, toss it over here!" She threw the canister in my direction. I caught it and quickly pulled the pin out, aimed the nozzle at the flames, and pulled the handle. White foam shot out of the end of it, putting the flames out with a sizzling noise. I continued to spray for a few seconds until I was sure it was completely extinguished. Then I let it hang limp at my side. Both me and Ella were breathing heavily. I looked over at her, expecting to see her relieved that it was over, but instead she was glaring at me. "What?" I demanded.

"You could've killed everyone!" she yelled, throwing her hands in the air. I couldn't believe it. I'd just saved her sorry ass, and now she was going to scold me like a naughty child? "I told you to just stay out of the way, and let me do my job, but instead, you drag poor Angel into some stupid game, probably just to piss me off, and then set the stove on fire to top it all off. You're ruining this house!"

I was furious. It was taking all I had not to punch her. Instead, I settled on giving her a face full of fire extinguisher foam. She squealed as it splurted onto her face and all over her hair and clothes. "Eew!" she shook off gobs of it in anger.

"Stop complaining to me about how I'm 'ruining your house'. You whine like a toddler." I shook my head in disgust and made to leave the room so that I didn't get any angrier and accidentally burst a blood vessel or something. Suddenly, though, I was being hit in the head with a roll of paper towels. It didn't hurt, but I whipped around to see Ella laughing at me. This struck a last nerve. "That's it! I've had enough of you! It's time someone taught you a lesson on what happens when you pick a fight with someone who will actually fight back!" I launched myself at my half-sister, knocking her onto the floor. Lucky for her, she didn't hit her head on the way down.

She immediately grabbed my hair, and we started to roll around, basically wrestling on the floor. I think we rolled backwards a couple of times. Suddenly, I rolled over the fire extinguisher, and the handle got pushed down. White foam shot out of it, saturating both us and the kitchen with it. "Let go of me!" I shouted, grabbing her wrists and rolling precisely so that she slammed into the oven. She groaned and then kneed me in the stomach. It knocked my breath out, but I refused to let go. We were rolling in foam, and it still smelled like burning toast, and my shirt was so tangled up it was practically off my body. Ella slapped at my face when she managed to get her arms free, and her nails made contact with my cheek. I could feel them leaving scratch marks like cat's claws would.

I pushed her back off of me, and pushed her face away with my hand. She tried to bite it, but couldn't quite figure out an angle to do so. She started kicking her legs maniacally in attempts to get me off. I managed to stand up, but she grabbed my ankles and pulled me down. The floor was slippery with the foam, so I lost my balance and hit the ground with a huge, rather painful thunk. She let go of my legs and tried to crawl up next to me so that she could jump on top of me. I was too quick though, and before she knew it, I had jumped ontop of her back and had pinned her to the floor, with her arms behind her. "You've got too much attitude for a twelve year old!" I said angrily, sitting on her back. She groaned in pain, looking a little disoriented. She'd been thrown around quite alot.

It was then that I heard a funny sniffling noise. Ella must have heard it too, because we both turned our heads to look at the kitchen entrance at the same time. Mrs. Martinez was standing there with a shocked expression on her face. Tears were running down her face. I dropped Ella's arms, but didn't move. Neither me nor Ella spoke. "My two beautiful daughters..." Mrs. Martinez said sadly. "They just won't stop fighting." She wiped her cheeks, but her eyes were still watering.

"Mom..." Ella spoke up, her face covered in foam still. Our entire bodies, and a whole section of the kitchen were actually covered in it. Mrs. Martinez just shook her head though.

"The kids are in the living room. I can watch them if you two want to clean up." she started to walk off towards the living room. I could hear some Disney movie (possibly Mulan) playing. I hopped off of Ella, and we looked at eachother almost guiltily as we stood up. Though we had been angry at eachother (furious, really) it had never been out intention to make Mrs. Martinez feel so...so..sad about it. We brushed ourselves off a bit.

"Ummm...I'm going to go check on the kids." Ella said, wandering away. She seemed to still be a little angry, but not nearly to the extent that she had been before. I stood there in all the mayhem we had created, and I don't just mean the mess. It slowly dawned on me. Maybe I WAS ruining this house. I seemed to brim with trouble no matter where I went. Mrs. Martinez was probably planning to send me home at this very moment. The whole idea made me wilt from the inside. I ambled deadly up the stairs and into my room, probably trailing foam as I went along.

When I got to my room, I hobbled into the bathroom, stripped out of my foamy clothes, and turned the shower on to piping hot water. Then I curled up in the bottom of the tub, and let the steaming streams of aqua pour on my skin. I shut my eyes and tried not to feel any emotion. I was dramatically unsuccessful.

Hours had passed since me and Ella's bitch fight in the kitchen. I was laying in bed in my sweatpants, playing with the taaffeite necklace. I knew I probably shouldn't be taking it out so often, but it was hard to resist. I had grown used to just whipping it out whenever I felt like it, just so I could look at it. It was almost sort of a comfort object by now. It reminded me of home. Not really in a good way (there weren't many good things to remember about home), but in my opinion, a bad memory is better than no memory at all. I twirled it around in my fingers and thought of the tearful expression Mrs. Martinez had been wearing upon discovering me and Ella fighting.

A terrible guilt brewed inside me. After laying in the shower for around a half hour, I'd crept downstairs and poked my head into the kitchen soundlessly. She had been forlornly wiping the last of the foam off of the counter. I pulled back before she turned around and saw me and ran back up the stairs, feeling so awful I was quite sure I was going to be sick. Angel and Zach had gone home about an hour ago. I'd heard Ella saying goodbye to them, and the sound of doors opening and closing. It was now 12:09 at night. Noticing only because my stomach began to rumble that I hadn't eaten any dinner, I slid out of bed and crept out into the hallway. Everything was silent. It seemed that Ella had already retreated to bed by the way her door was closed, lights off.

I took the stairs stealthily and made my way into the kitchen. My stomach was so hungry it was actually almost painful. As I was slinking around the corner into the kitchen, I caught sight of something else moving in the darkness just ahead of me. A rustling noise could be heard. The kitchen lights were flicked on and Ella came into view, leaning on the counter and munching on a bowl of Raisin Bran with milk. She looked just as surprised as I felt. We just stood there, eyeing eachother up for a minute. Finally, we both relaxed, and I slipped by her to open the fridge and rummage around, pulling out a leftover collection from the spaghetti dinner we'd had last night. Ella watched intently as I doled out the noodles into a bowl and popped them in the microwave. I waited in awkwardness while they heated.

"You forgot to eat dinner, too?" she finally spoke up, polishing off her cereal and tossing the bowl in the sink to be washed. I nodded. More tense silence ensued. My microwave beeped and everything was quiet as I sprinkled parmesan on it. "Look..." Ella said suddenly, leaning on the counter again. "All this...this fighting. It has to stop. I know I keep blaming you for wrecking the house, but really? It's us fighting that's ruining everything." I paused to listen to her. For the first time since I'd gotten here, nice words were coming out of her mouth. It was a miracle. "I can't say that I've been the nicest person in the world to you-"

I snorted loudly, and she rolled her eyes. "Okay, okay...I've been...well I've been a bitch."

"Hey, watch your language." I interjected. "You may be 'mature for your age' or whatever, but you're still only twelve."

"And a half." she talked on, as though it made a difference. "But, that's beside the point. The point is...if we keep fighting like this, it's going to rip the family apart. My mom loves me, and...for SOME reason...she loves you to." I tried to ignore the diss within the words of wisdom, and settled to more forcefully stab at my noodles. "So...I'm just going to have to suck it up, and get used to you living here." She paused for a minute, and then looked up at me with sincerity. "If you want to know the truth, you're really not that annoying to live with. I was just jealous because I felt like you were gonna steal my mom away from me. I've been an only child since I was born, but now I have to learn how to share her. I'm sorry I'm not very good at it."

I thought about her apology for a minute, and after deciding it was sincere enough, said: "It's okay...I understand. Sort of..." I shrugged. "I-I'll try not to get on your nerves though, I guess. You know...for your mom, and stuff." We both nodded.

"So...truce?" she asked tentatively, extending a slightly shaky hand. I stared at it, but then agreed.

"Truce." And we shook on it. After that, she stood in the kitchen silently while I finished my pasta. When it was done, I felt pretty good, but something was missing. I knew just what would hit the spot. One of Mrs. Martinez's chocolate chip cookies. I hurried over to the fridge and started to hunt for the platter of them.

"Watcha looking for?" Ella asked from where she was standing by the island.

"Your mom's cookies. I thought there was a whole plate of 'um in here."

"Oh...I gave some to Angel and Zach to take home. They really like them, too. I don't know if there's any left." I hunted around a bit more, and finally came upon the platter.

"Haha...found um." I said with delight.

"Ooh..." Ella said, sounding intrigued. "How many are left? That sounds really good right about now." I stared at the plate and then said.

"Umm...there's one and a half left." I informed her. There was a pause.

"Oh...well...are you still hungry?" she asked rather quietly.

"Yeah, kind of." I answered. Another pause.

"You can have the whole one if you want." It was my turn to pause.

"Thanks." I spun around, shut the refrigerator door, and handed her a half a cookie. She took it and bit into it.

"Ahh...I love my mom's cookies." She grinned. I started to leave the kitchen, and then paused right before leaving the room.

"Hey, Ella?" I said over my shoulder. I saw her look up at me with expectant eyes. "Goodnight." I said, and then started to walk away.

"Goodnight." I was just able to catch as I hopped up the stairs. I had half a cookie in my hand. There had only ever been one of them to begin with. I'd broken it in half so that she could have some. I just didn't want her to know I was being nice. It's kind of a pride thing.

A/N: Yay! Es finite! I really liked this chapter, actually. I hope you all do too. I love writing chick fight scenes. They are very entertaining. I always watch a few on the internet to get ideas before I write fight scenes. Chick fights are RIDICULOUS. Anywho...review please!