Hellooooo! First and foremost, Aussies, have you melted yet? Today was a SCORCHER, I think here in the city it got to about 45 degrees! So please be mindful of that with this chapter and eliminate the cause of any grammar errors down to heatstroke.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. I've told you once, I've told a thousand times how greatly I appreciate your words!

Anyway, enjoy the chapter! I'm attempting to get to as many chapters written as possible before I plunge back into the hell hole of school!

Chapter 16 – The Blank Page

Rikki's POV

Zane, Will and myself stood in our places, staring in shock at the unidentified, yet familiar visitor who was standing outside of the house and by the open front door.

Will was the first of us to snap out of the trance that we had mentally been encased in; leading to physical paralysis in our places.

"Hi, can I help you?" Will questioned as he walked up to the door, leaving Zane and myself to continue gawking in a surprised shock, unable to move or do anything until we had more answered questions or had reached conclusions.

The girl at the door looked Will up and down cautiously before looking back into the house where Zane and I were. "Uh yeah, I've been told that Rikki Chadwick lives here. Who are you?"

"Her housemate, Will Benjamin" Will replied coolly, putting his hand out as a friendly gesture, before he too looked behind his back towards me.

Once again, the girl skeptically examined his jutted out hand that he was hoping that she would take to shake. As she let out a very slight nod that I only noticed due to the intensity of my stare and gaze at the girl, she shook Will's hand, before looking back in Zane and my own direction.

I really should have moved, I registered the fact that I had needed to and that Will and the girl were expecting me too, but I was mesmerized by the icy-blue orbs of the young teenager that were as clear as the depths of the ocean that I was privileged enough to be able to swim out to – so familiar.

"Rikki?" Will asked quietly, almost as though he was holding onto hope of the chance that the girl was severely deaf and was unable to hear him speak to me in case I had ignored the call, but all that his question had done was increase the interest and hope in the girl's eyes.

I took a few steps towards the door slotting (subtly but comfortably enough for my liking) behind Will's tall shoulders and only peering my head out from around him as a protection.

"Rikki?" was once again the next word spoken and the next question asked, but not by Will this time, but instead by the unidentified teenager on the doorstep.

"Who are you?" was the only defensive question that I replied with, crossing my arms in front of my stomach to link my body language in conjunction with my mood and the defensively strong vibe that I was hoping to portray.

"Tamsin Hunt. Call me Tam" she replied as she took a friendly step closer to Will and I with a smile spreading across her face the more she spoke. I recognized the last name from all those times during primary school when drawing up family trees and writing my mother's maiden name was necessary for the 'All About Me' type topics.

"You're my sister!"

The minutes after the shocking revelation were a complete blur that I'll never, ever have any picture of what happened. Honestly, I could have confessed the dark secrets of my subconscience that you attempt to bury away forever. I could have moved to China. I could have made out with Will and/or Zane… I still would have had no inkling or memory of it.

That what that Tam person, my sister, was saying was shocking… Life changing. It was one of those moments that would have had some serious advertising and foreshadowing of it with a soap show. Even if I had been told to prepare for and expect to be told the most shocking thing ever, even in spite of the fact that I had already been mentally piecing that revelation together, nothing would have prepared me to hear that confirmed and audibly.

At some point since then, the four of us had shifted to the lounge room, so now I was sitting... How I should've been positioned for the sake of my health when I was delivered that news as I was standing at the door.

Coming back into focus of the others, I listened as Will and Zane entertained Tamsin with small talk and the offer of a drink which she had rejected. So she felt hydrated… Interesting? Not what I was wanting to know.

"So why are you here? Why are you here now? Hear about my dad dying and think that you might get a bit of easy cash from it? Nice try sweetie, but it's not going to be a matter of thousands that you would get – it would be a matter of cents" I warned firmly, but attempting to coat it with a delivery that oozed with sickly sweetness… feigned sweetness; no sweeter than artificial saccharin.

I continued studying the younger girl closely, noting that she had squirmed a little by the end of my last questions. Ha, she knew the inheritance was next to worthless, she, whoever she was would be out of here faster than you could say 'bluffing'.

"I'm sure that it looks that way, Rikki, I really do understand how it must appear, but the first thing you should know about me is that money doesn't fool me. I'm only young, but I understand and have witnessed firsthand how little it's actually worth. I don't want yours or our dad's money" she said looking straight at me. Those ice-blue eyes sent a chill down my spine as her gaze stayed firmly focused and earnestly at me.

I've got to give her credit. This girl was good. I still don't believe her 'meaningless money' blah, but I was curious to know what was driving this girl who appeared to be in her mid-teens. Sure the share-house was a bit of a suburban castle, but I knew that I was only renting this place. Perhaps it seemed luring enough for a bored fifteen year old to give it a shot.

"Yeah, whatever… Trust me I know all that too. You're preaching to the converted here" I replied with an uninterested eye roll, before shuffling forward in my seat on the lounge and cupping my chin in my mouth to intensify my concentration and focus which was directed at the girl in front of me, with the intention of finding some way to make her crack. "What's in it for you, kid? Why the heck would a girl like you be interested in pursuing something as risky as this? One test and you'll be named and shamed as a fraud."

"What test? DNA test?! Go for your life. I'll tell you again. I'm not interested in inheriting money or possessions! I know you and your dad's circumstances, there wouldn't be much to go around anyway. All I want is to know my sister before it's too late like it was with dad" she replied, matching my positioning that I had been attempting to crack her, which only ended up strengthening what she had to say. This girl was strong.

I pouted, before licking my lips as I considered where to go from there. "How do you know this? How do you know mine and dad's 'circumstances'?"

"Carol. Our aunt Carol… She came and saw me. Said that had died and she explained the full story to me... When mum left dad, she was pregnant with me. Carol said that mum had told him about it at some point, but I don't know… Ever since I can remember she's been a drunk. It could've been a hallucination, it could've happened; I guess we'll never know. Anyway, she told me all this so that I could know the truth, especially since dad's gone… She wanted me to know that dad wasn't the self-indulgent idiot that took you away from mum like she the man that she had tried to paint him as, and that's why I've wanted to track down you" she explained earnestly and seemingly honestly as she let out a nervous sigh and clenched her hands together while looking down and waiting for some sort of response from me assumedly.

I didn't know what to think. Her story added up, but it didn't. Sure mum had left me and dad long ago, but that aside, from what I could remember she was never a bad person as she had implied that she was. I looked over to the stunned and visibly gob smacked silent boys that I lived with for some sort of help. Nothing.

That was it, after hearing that, the shock snapped me. The shock of a sister, the shock of my mum - I couldn't take that hit. I stood up and walked away, storming up to my room, yelling to the girl behind me: "No… No. You've got it wrong. I don't have a sister. Never have, never will…"

My poor body was in an overdrive of emotions. The confusion of the news that I had been dealt, my denial that quaked my mind in shock and especially the anger and intense heat that was burning off of my flaring temper.

I sat upright on the edge of my bed in a trance, staring at the white wall that was facing me, a wall which had all of a sudden become the most interesting and soothing thing in the world.

Although I had isolated myself up in my room for a while, it was only a few minutes later that Will came up and lightly knocked on the wood of my door frame.

I looked over my shoulder to see his calm and genuinely caring face that was more comforting than the white wall and was exactly what I needed right now. "Come in. I've had more than enough of door knockers today" I muttered grumpily, which Will ignored as he sat down on the side of the bed next to me instead.

"Are you okay? That's quite a bombshell to be dropped on you."

I rolled my eyes, keeping a sarcastic front which at this point seemed easier. "No, really? I can't think of much more settling or calming news than that, can you?"

"Rikki…" he warned sternly, although still calmly as the decibel of his voice hadn't altered since his initial concerned comments when he entered into my room.

"What, Will? What do you want me to say? Blurt my feelings out and tell you how I'm not sure how to feel?! How to think?! How I'm not sure who I am more angry at and that I don't know what to do about that blonde ticking time bomb downstairs? There you go, if you want something to be all nice and reassuring and counseling about, there you have it."

He let out a sigh as he stayed looking down at his feet momentarily either for the power of pausing or else in a scramble as to dig up something that he could say to me in response. "Rikki, I can't tell you what to think, what to feel, how to act, all of that, okay, so I won't. I'm sure you must be feeling so confused about all of this and that you just want answers, but I just wanted to say to you that you should try and take a step back and look at this from another perspective."

"Oh wow, you're a built in psychiatric counselor now too are you? A healing guru?"

Another sigh. "No. I'm just saying that you should look past all of the nitty gritty details that your parents or mum would be responsible for about why you didn't know about her, and just look at what's in front of you. Well downstairs."

I didn't respond and tried to erase what I'd heard Will say since it made too much sense. It was too good of a suggestion when all I wanted was just to be angry and alone.

"Now I'm not the best judge of character, but I think that she sounded fairly legit" he added without my reply to his last statements. "How old is she? 15? 16? She's still extremely young to try and track you down, of her own accord and risk being hurt or rejected by putting herself out there just because she wants to know her sister. She's probably looking for answers too."

"She's not my sister though! She's a complete stranger!" I debated in disagreement.

"Yeah, you're right. Now she is, but how will you know her unless you try? Trust me, when you have a painful sister like Sophie, it can be easy to take for granted... But despite how frustrating she can be, I would still want to know her if I was in your situation. Family's one of those 'the good, the bad and the ugly' things."

"Okay William, you can leave now. You're getting far too wise for yourself now."

A smile spread across his face as he turned around after the point of stopping at the door. "Thanks. I think that that's a compliment, coming from you."

About ten minutes after Will left my room, I felt that I had cooled down enough to a manageable level. From the stairs I could see the back of three heads that appeared to be awkwardly sitting there in silence. As soon as my footsteps drew near enough to the trio and to the extent that they were audible, the three heads swiveled around to face me.

"Do you want me to start a Royal wave for you lot while I'm at it too?"

I only received an amused response that I hadn't expected from Tam as she snickered at my admittedly lame attempt of a joke. It was obvious that she wasn't yet used to my wild sense of humour that the two boys who failed to even flinch at the comment, proving that they were evidently desensitized to my humour in contrast.

"So anyway… Who's up for a game of Monopoly?" I questioned with a clap of my hands to join them together in a somewhat like a fist shaped formation.

This time, the trio kept their reactions through their facial expressions synchronized. A look of cynicism.

Will was the first to verbalize the group's questioning looks. "Um, Rikki? Don't you think that you and Tamsin should talk?"

"Kidding, Will. Kidding."

The discomfort that had grown on Tam's face since my previous comment was evidently eased by the reassurance that it was solely a joke.

"So why should I believe you, kid? I want evidence before everything gets all sisterly."

"What evidence do you want? Photographic? Personal details? What exactly?" she questioned with a completely straight face before pulling her phone out to hold, which was the only visible item that she had brought with her for the visit.

I shrugged and she turned her attention to the phone, unlocking and scrolling through to a photo which she held up in my direction.

"Does she look familiar? That was me and mum about six months ago" she commented as she passed me the phone.

There was two immediate things that I noticed about the digital photo as soon as I saw it. Firstly, it was undoubtedly the mother that I had known and loved for some of the first years of my life until she had dumped me and dad, except for the fact that she was nothing like the beautiful angelic woman that I had mentally pictured through all the years that I hadn't seen her. The fifteen or sixteen years hadn't done anything for her appearance. Her face was bloated, her skin sagged, she had more crow's feet than a family of crows and her pasty skin that I had always envisioned as aglow had an awful light yellow tinge to it. I knew well enough what that was all indicators of.

The second unusual and notable point about the photograph was how detached the two looked. They had obviously posed for a photo that someone else had taken, but there wasn't the same smile or glow that you would see in the majority of mother/daughter photographs that were renowned for capturing the intimacy of such a close family tie and bond. The closest thing about them was the fact that their heads were shifted slightly to meet in the middle of a gap for the sake of their full heads being captured in the photo.

A few seconds after my thoughts on the photograph had been mentally summarized, she pulled her phone back and placed the object back in her lap. "So, want more evidence than that? Ask me anything."

"Why are you here? Why did we never know about you?"

"I just want to know you Rikki.. And maybe someday, have some sort of dysfunctional relationship, friendship, whatever, with you. My entire life I've been compared to you – told how I was nothing compared to the daughter you were to mum. I'd never met you, but I hated you for most of my life. That wasuntil I found out all that about dad… How mum had left you. I didn't know what to believe anymore so I just wanted to meet you and start making own decisions and making my own life."

Good gosh that was deep. All these lies, what we've been told, what we've trusted, I just didn't know anymore. My head spun.

"Does mum know that you're here or not?"

She shook her head definitively. "No. I snuck out, but I don't think that she would even really care, either way… Or notice, before the end of the week anyway."

I opened my mouth to reply but was interrupted by the sense of vibration from my pocket along with the ringtone that I recognized. "Hold on. Talk about that in a sec."

I walked away and turned away from everyone to stand in the corner for some vague sense of privacy as I answered the terrible phonecall that I wish I had never received.

"Rikki?" A hysterical Cleo screeched. "Rikki, I need you! I'm at the hospital – Something's happened to Lewis! He isn't moving!"

So now we have all met Miss Tam... And in typical Far From Perfection fashion, she is holding back way more secrets than what she is letting on. I am certainly going to have a ball writing and forming her character… Just you wait guys! Now, I know that the whole 'Rikki having a sister thing' has been done to death on the H2o FanFiction world, but stick with it! I'm going to make sure that my little Miss Tam is worth the cliche.

Also, any predictions as to what's wrong with Lewis?! Goodness gracious, I'm going to die writing the next chapter! Facing your fears is beyond exhausting!

Don't forget to review ;)

Next chapter: Everyone rallies together to support Cleo, but at the hospital, each girl finds themselves personally being haunted.