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Half an hour later, I had managed to get us to the parking lot of the strip mall. It included a lot of complaining, moaning, groaning, piggyback rides, and are we there yet talk. In hindsight, I suppose I could've asked momma to just pick us up, but that would require effort on her part. And honestly, I don't think she's a big fan of effort.

"Finally," Skyla panted.

I rolled my eyes at her and searched around for momma's black convertible. Of course it was at the front of the building. I knocked on her drivers seat window, watching her jump. She saw me and exited the vehicle.

"God, Cat, why do you do that to me?" she exclaimed.

I thought about it for a minute. "I don't know."

"Cat, it was kind of a rhetorical… Forget it," she explained.

It seemed like all of her conversations with me ended like that.

I shrugged. "Okay!"

I put my hands on Skyla's shoulders and moved her in front of me. "This… Is Skyla."

Momma looked her up and down. "Sup, kid?"

She looked like she didn't know how to respond to that. "Sup with you?"

Momma smiled and knelt down. "You're not gonna get far on the tough act with that hair, kid."

Skyla gasped and crossed her arms, blatantly looking up at me.

"Hey!" I yelled. "I did that!"

Momma looked back at Skyla. "Good, then you still have a chance of being saved." She stood up and started walking towards the entrance. "Let's go!" she screeched.

I whimpered. Skyla just glared at her. Nice start, momma… Nice start. Once we were inside, I felt momma tugging on my arm. Why everyone feels the need to tug on me, I'll never know. A simple 'Hey Cat' would be just fine for future reference.

"Why are we here?" she snarled into my ear.

"Because Skyla needs a sweatshirt or something," I explained.

"Why are you buying clothes for her?" she asked.

I decided to use the excuse off the top of my head, only to realize that there wasn't one there. "Her parents will pay me back for it."

"Yeah, whatever." She suddenly became interested in her black manicure. "What am I doing here?"

"Because if I let her buy me clothes, I'd look like her," Skyla grunted.

I narrowed my eyes at her while momma just turned to face her in shock. "Way to go, kid…" she marveled, high-fiving her.

"I'm going next door," I sighed. "Don't spend too much," I felt my back pocket. It was stuffed with bills I had taken from Matt's wallet. "On second thought, go nuts."

I saw momma fist bump Skyla behind my back as I walked away. Well they seemed to be getting along just swimmingly. I hid behind a corner and made sure that they weren't still looking at me. All clear. I pulled out my pink pearphone and found Tori's number in the address book.

I sent her a quick text.

Can we come over tonight?

I got an automatic response.

Who's we?

Me Skyla Jade & Beck, I typed, giving up on proper grammar.

Wait wait wait, you still haven't found her parents?

I groaned. I need another lie. She's my cousin we'll find them tomorrow.

After a few minutes, I had finally gotten another answer. Yeah, go ahead and bring on the troops.

Fantastic. Now I had to call dad.

"Hello?" he answered.

"Hi!" I greeted back.

"Something wrong?"

"Oh, yeah, meet us at Tori's," I remembered.

"Why Tori's?"

"Something wrong with Tori's?" I snapped.

"No…"

"Well then meet us there, bye!" I interrupted.

Call disconnected. Good. I want them to talk tonight. Oh, who am I kidding, I need them to at least talk tonight. I've been here for too long anyways and now things are spinning out of control. I don't know whose idea it was to throw in Skyla, but… She wasn't safe either. And I still don't know how Robbie fits into this, and he's still oblivious to everything! I need to write this down.

Knowing the present day momma, she'd probably have to throw everything remotely resembling the color pink on the floor before they actually went shopping for Skyla's jacket. I had plenty of time. I walked into the food court and ordered a Grande Mint Tea. And with said tea… I was going to figure stuff out.

I needed to get Skyla back first. That much was clear. Once she was gone, then I would find a way to get myself back. But I wasn't going to just leave Skyla here to fend for herself. I know what that's like. It's not a very happy childhood. I care about Skyla so much already. I've known the girl for not even a day and all she's done is snap at me and mock my fashion sense. But I still cared about her.

I am almost convinced that this is my time. This is what I was put here for. I just need to put back momma and dad and then I'd be able to go back. But that's the thing. So would Skyla. And I still honestly had no idea how she was gonna put me and Robbie together. Oh, well no, I know what she has to do, so I'm gonna put in a little effort on my part, but… I just don't see it. Robbie? Really?

My phone buzzed quite loudly, earning stares from all the prissy couples. I glared right back. I'm a fighter today.

Where are you

Momma. It had been an hour already. And all that I had come up with was 'put them back together'. Fantastic. I didn't bother replying, I just got up and walked towards the end of the mall, where I had left them. I rounded the corner and saw momma clearly. But the little girl next to her was most definitely not Skyla. I felt my pulse quicken. That's not good.

I ran the rest of the way, grabbing Skyla by the shoulders and turning her to face me. "What did you do!" I screamed at momma.

Skyla's hair. It was pitch black.

"Relax, Cat, it's a wig," momma said, pulling off the piece to reveal a bald cap, quickly placing it back on. "She looked ridiculous before."

"She did not!" I yelled.

"Did so," Skyla coughed into her arm.

I suspiciously eyed the bag in momma's arm. "What'd you buy?"

She held the bag out in front of me. I peered in. "Seriously."

"Uh-huh," momma said, holding the bag closer to her again.

"You got her a leather jacket," I stated.

"Yup. Think of all the cows that were kill…"

"Stop!" I interrupted, not wanting to hear her sick fantasy. "How much did you pay for it?"

"Like a hundred."

I rolled my eyes. Matt's bank account was practically overflowing. He wouldn't even blink an eye at this. I reached into my back pocket and handed her one of the bills.

"Awesome."

"Alright. To Tori's!" I exclaimed, heading towards the exit.

"Whoa whoa whoa…" momma stepped in front of me. "Repeat."

I regained my original composure. "I said… Alright. To Tori's!" I tried sidestepping around her, to no avail.

"I'm not goin' to Vega's. I'll be at home," she turned to head towards the exit herself.

"Wait!" I stepped in front of her, motioning for Skyla to just casually move along with us. "You promised you'd help me with her!"

"Have Tori help you."

"But you said you would," I pointed out.

"But if Tori's there then why do I have to…"

I interrupted again. "Because… Skyla doesn't like Tori."

Momma looked down at her on that statement.

"It's true," Skyla added.

"Well." Momma got knelt down again. "You just earned like a zillion points in my book, kid."

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