So, another day, another chapter. I really hope that the grammar and punctuation is okay because although I proof-read it thoroughly as always, my brain is completely fried tonight. To sum it up, year 12 is basically more school work of a higher standard that is being squeezed into less time than any other year. I do not understand why we finish October/November while the other year levels go till November/December! Must say, I'm LOVING all of the senior-senior benefits though, hehe. Better/warmer/personalized school jumpers, first right to everything, canteen access anytime, the year 12 excuse, the list goes on...

Enjoy the chapter, you loyal readers of mine...

Chapter 22 – Swimming In The Gene Pool:

Rikki's POV

Life has been brilliant. Especially in our shared Benjamin-Bennett-Chadwick household, life has been just fantastic at the moment.

I have a half-sister whose arrival in my life has been like the missing piece to my soul; a part of me I never knew I was living without. Then there's Will whose life has been completed and fulfilled by Bella's confession to him with his discovery that they have a daughter together. Then there was Zane who was weaving through the seas of life with smooth sailing…

I wish.

Ever since Tam had turned up, my life had been knocked about and all of my previous assumptions and thoughts regarding my parents had received a cause for being questioned. Will's life was more messed up and unsettled than ever, leaving Zane to flit between the two of our messes.

Although Tam had only come over of her own initiative just the two times when she first visited to find and meet me and the second when I arrived home from being with Cleo at the hospital, to find the boys were looking after her, I hadn't ever initiated an invitation for her to return.

I was still suspicious and uncertain about the girl, about my sister. I had very little, if any, trust for her and if she proved to be anything like our mother, I doubt that would ever change.

However, although I had never invited her over again, she kept on turning up almost every day. She and Zane had really connected and formed a friendship and in-between his own problems, Will would strike up conversations with her. It was scary how well she had the ability to slide in and fit with the two boys. I was completely uncomfortable with the shifting dynamics that had become so routine, and I was even more uncomfortable with her presence.

My irritation towards her was accentuated when I walked into the comfortable scene of the two boys I lived with, along with the addition of my sister, lounging around, deep in conversation in the lounge room. It just irked me.

"Hey Tam? Around what time are you planning on leaving?" I questioned curiously as I walked over to the fridge, not interrupting the other three until I had raised my question aloud.

She looked over her shoulder at me, pulling herself up against the back of the lounge a little to assumably allow herself to have a more comfortable view. "Um, hadn't really thought about it. Maybe around 5-ish? Just depends on what bus I want to catch home."

"Not soon enough…" I sighed under my breath, but evidently audibly enough for the other three that I shared a room with at the present time to hear.

Tam's eyes flashed with a moment of shock and hurt, before the strength of her gaze quickly increased within seconds.

"That was a bit rude, Rikki…" Zane warned while Will on the other hand didn't say a word, simply looking up at me, before getting up and walking over to the bench that I was hovering around. "Rikki. Follow."

I sighed under my breath and took a few heavy, begrudging steps that followed in the direction of the blonde who led us to another room which I was assuming was for the purpose to talk privately. Just what I felt like. Great.

"Rikki? What's your problem with Tam? Sure, your last comment was uncalled for, but I can't remember one time when you haven't been icy or cold towards her."

I looked away with a determined pout. I did not need to answer to Will. Not only was it not any of his business, but I also didn't want it to be.

"I'm waiting…" he warned, crossing his arms as he stood up straighter, giving off the body language that combined with his words firmly meant that he wasn't going to be rushing away anywhere in a hurry and that he was not planning on giving up anytime soon.

"Just because she's my sister, it does not mean that I have to like her. Nor does it mean that I have to be forced to have anything to do with her."

I watched as Will's arms remained crossed, but he slowly leant back towards the wall. "She's your family, Rikki. Sure your mum might not of told you about her, but at the end of the day, it doesn't change the fact that she's your sister."

"I know that, but I've lived the rest of my life just fine without her, so why would I all of a sudden want her in my life or need her now? I don't see a reason for the need to change things."

"Well why shouldn't things change?"

I took a frustrated step away from him. "Stop hassling me, Will! I know where you're coming from with this. Now that you know about Allie, you think that you shouldn't push family away, blah blah blah. That's you. You're situation is a lot different to mine, incase you didn't realize. Allie's your child, but Tam's my sister. You have a responsibility, but I have a choice."

I wasn't prepared to plead my case against him unnecessarily anymore. My excuses were becoming flimsy, but I wasn't planning on explaining the full reason behind my desire to have nothing to do with my younger sister.

In all honesty, it wasn't Tam. Well it was to a degree, considering that I didn't even want to give her a chance due to the risk of trust, especially given the history. The deeds that my mother, our mother, had done were inches away from unforgiveable. Money isn't everything, but being so selfish to the two people that you were supposed to love more than anything else in the world, that was heartbreaking. I could live with my upbringing that was based around dad and my financially unstable life, but keeping a sister from me and keeping our family apart was worse. I didn't want to even acknowledge it anymore, it was easier to shy away from the fact. Tam might be nothing like mum, or she could be a replica who's walked in her footsteps. The fact of the matter was that I could not trust anything affiliated with my mother. That was where my trust for her was completely broken away and eroded. I don't think that there was even enough there for a trust for Tam to even slowly grow over time.

I was ready to walk out the door when he stopped me by continuing to speak and fight for his reasoning's and belief in family.

"Give her a chance, Rikki. If she doesn't prove herself worthy, then no one can blame you for not wanting to have anything to do with her. But she came chasing after you, so surely that's something to go off – it means that its something she wants, so she'll probably work for it."

"Well Mum didn't feel the need for us to be together and didn't have a problem with keeping her from dad and I, so why should I?"

He sat there seriously with a deep gaze, watching me for a minute until he bit his lip, which prompted more talking. "It's about your mum, isn't it? You don't want anything to do with Tam because your mum didn't want anything to do with you…"

I walked out of the room. In all honesty, Will wasn't the sort of guy to notice and piece things like this together quickly. He was naïve and quite often overlooked major facts in his attempt to reason about the target that was always his aim. However, much to my lack of luck, Will had hit the nail on the head in this instance.

"You know what?" Will offered quickly, likely in an attempt to delay my exit. "I could be annoyed with you -you and Bella- for hiding Allie from me, but I forgave you. Now before you say anything, I realize that neither of you are my mother, but you're both girls that mean a lot to me and you both betrayed me about one of the hugest matters that you could."

"Wow Will – we're so similar. Is there anything else you have done that you want me to deal with in the same way that you have, considering that we're basically one-in-the-same now?" I retorted to him sarcastically, not acknowledging his reasoning or his forgiveness on purpose.

"Fine, I give up. Sorry for trying."

I thought that I was going to be the one to bail on Will first at some point during our discussion, but he proved me wrong as he walked out of he room, shaking his head lightly at the same time.

Being left alone, I considered my options as to what next. I could sit out there, doing nothing with the others, but given the other events of today along with my dislike for certain people, I decided to make a coffee to take upstairs, planning to attempt to make a dent in the mass of work that was awaiting in my room with the decreasing time before completion was needed.

Walking into the lounge room, I walked straight passed the trio that were sitting together, all fiddling around and doing goodness knows what -not that I really cared- on their phones.

Reaching the bench, my reasonability disintegrated slightly more as my annoyance was pricked while I remembered all of the times that I had needed to remind the boys especially, as well as Tam about glasses.

"Tam..." I muttered under my breath, with the purpose of letting out a small portion of the steam within me, but it obviously came out louder than I had been intending after two heads looked over In my direction. "How many times to do I have to say about putting your glasses that you've used over there, instead of on this bench where we expect them to be clean?!" I snapped. Speaking hastier than I had planned, too.

This resulted in a typical roll of Tam's eyes that I was becoming accustomed to even after the few short weeks that I had known of her and the even less time that I had spent around her.

I stood there, arms crossed and shooting glances from where the other two were sitting back over to the glass. I tried to make it as clear as I could that I wasn't impressed and that I was waiting for the action to be corrected.

However, it was not the younger blonde who got up and moved away from her seat to correct her action. Instead, it was Zane.

"Sorry, Rikki… I must have forgotten."

My lips tightened and the seriousness of my gaze intensified. I hoped that they were two controllable actions that would counteract the shade of crimson that was in the early stages of flooding my pasty-skinned cheeks.

I had not quite recovered from my momentary lapse of embarrassment before Zane moved the cup over to the bench that I was talking about, shooting me a look that I couldn't mistake for anything other than: "are you happy, now?", before Tam jumped into the confliction during a weaker moment of mine.

"Rikki? Can I just ask why you're so quick to judge me? You always blame me first."

I debated a few reasons mentally, along with the option of just ignoring her all together and leaving the room without my coffee that had been my initial intention of entering the area that I really hadn't wanted to reside in in the first place. "I just figured that you still weren't up to speed with the way things work around here."

"But it's not just because of that, is it? What's your problem with? Tell me instead of being a brat who's ready to blame me for everything at the drop of the hat."

Once again today, I had another opportunity to just walk off ignorantly but I steered away from that option. If she wanted a confrontation, that is what she would get. I mean what was the worst that could happen? I would offend her so terribly and she'd turn out to be such a sensitive individual that she didn't bother coming back? As far as I was concerned, it was a win-win situation.

"Well I'm sorry that I have such a short fuse around you, Tam. What can I say, you bring the worst out in me. It's a good thing that you weren't around when we were younger."

I watched her face twitch with a tinge of hurt from the comment, and it was at that point that I realized what a walkover this was going to be. Being my sister, I had initially expected her to try and put up a bit of a fight but I realized the fact that she was weak and that she was around six years my junior. If she hadn't of asked for the confrontation, I would have backed away now feeling like a bully.

"It would be a time thing. If we had known each other growing up, we would be used to it."

"But we're not. So, perhaps mum was right for leaving and keeping you away."

There was no response once again and she let her second expression of hurt and weakness shine through, which was never a good idea to do in front of an opponent. In the time that she took to respond, I started to sympathize and feel sorry for her, so I turned around and started walking out of the room in the opposite direction to where Tam hadn't shifted from her standstill. I was waving the white flag as a peace offering, surrender, but it was refused.

Tam caught my attention with seven short words, similar to Will's as he had worked the same thing out earlier. I stopped on the spot, turning around after she spoke.

"This is all about mum… Isn't it?"

I didn't respond. I couldn't say no, I didn't want to say yes and it was too late to turn around and leave the question in the room like how I had attempted to end the discussion with her just mere minutes earlier. However, this time, it was Tam who seized my moment of weakness and ran with it.

"That is unbelievable!" Tam spat disgustedly, making no confusion of how she felt. That girl really needed to work on her poker face. "I thought that you, you more than anyone else would understand, Rikki. You're just as bad as she is!"

"How? How am I possibly like mum?!" I screeched at her in response to the low-blow claim that she had just hit me with. "I wasn't going to say it, but the entire time you've been here, you have reminded me of her! But obviously you don't have the same tact that I do!"

Another expression that conveyed her reaction perfectly screened across her face, as it became flooded over with a level of rage that I had never seen from her before, nor had I deemed it likely to see.

"HOW DARE YOU COMPARE HER TO ME! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!" she screamed at me hysterically, completely losing her cool as she took a step that could be compared to a leap closer towards me, taking a breath to calm herself before I quickly started to speak.

"You're a spoilt brat! You got mum and you both had all the money! You get sick of mummy dearest so try to add a bit of drama to your life by looking for your older sister. I'm not interested in your little games."

It was at this point that the two boys who were silently sitting nearby and flying under the radar tried to intervene and add a smidgen of peace to the argument. Neither of us took it, that was the one thing Tam and I agreed on.

"You obviously don't know anything about me, then. Now I'm sorry to ruin your fantasy of our life… I don't know what sort of person she was with you, but she is everything I don't want to be. I apologize for the fact that you think that you've lived such a hard done by life and woe-is-you for having to be frugal and save your cents because you lived with dad, Rikki, but really you should be counting your grateful blessings. I would have given up anything to have that life and be in your shoes. That's why I'm here now, not because of whatever petty game it is that you think I'm playing!"

Tam was furious. It was not hard to tell and I had no privileged knowledge of that fact against the boys, just because I was her sister… Her rage was just written all over her face. I was tempted to make a teasing comment, just to work her up even more about my claims that she was insisting were so far from the truth, but I decided against that option after I noticed how distressed she was becoming.

Instead, I kept quite and bite my tongue just in case my common nature could not control an offensive comment from slipping out. Turns out that I didn't even need to talk after she continued standing up for herself, appearing to lose control of what she was saying from her increasingly hasty manner of speaking her mind.

"For my entire life, I knew that I had a dad and a sister out there, and I've been desperate to meet both of you for as long as I can remember. Our aunty would tell me bits and pieces about you two, but as soon as mum found out, she stopped letting her see me because she didn't want you guys to know about me and take me away from her. The bits that I did know were that although you two had bad money problems, you were extremely close. I wanted that so much and it was only after dad died that mum let her tell me that. All my life, I wanted to be you, Rikki, but now I just want to know you."

"At least you were one up on me. I never knew you existed, neither dad or I did."

She shrugged appearing to calm down minimally before speaking again. "Nothing you two could help or avoid… how were you supposed to know?"

At this stage, I was attempting to characterize and understand Tam. Despite open-attitude and honesty towards everything, she was still a complete mystery to me. It was intriguing and since standing up for herself, she had caught my interest.

At this point, I couldn't decide whether she had proven herself to be an optimist, pessimist or a realist. Knowing that, I believed that I would have a better insight into her, her attitude to life and whatever problems she was slowly eluding to and revealing regarding her life growing up with mum. It was one of the outstanding qualities that I first liked to learn in people to understand them better. Dad had always told me that there were three types of people in the world and now, that was a concept that I believed too.

All of my friends, boyfriends, family, colleagues, everyone, I would categorize. Take for example, the girls. Cleo was difficult. She was such an intense and emotional person that her views would rely strongly on the situation. One minute she would be in ultimate positivity, but the second something went bad, her entire attitude would be downcast and pessimistic. Interestingly, Bella was much like Lewis, in that manner. Both were positively inclined, similarly to Cleo, but when it came to the crunch, the two could see the full picture and dealt with that in a realistic manner. Next was Will - a clear-cut realist. He could see the full impact of what was going on and his attitude to the big picture altered accordingly, if there was a reason to be negative when times weren't going to improve, he would do that, but if there was cause for a positive outcome, once again he would react with that attitude. Then there was Zane. This had been one of our few compatible points when we were together… We were both pessimists that didn't shy from embracing the negativity of a situation. Him more so than me, but I guess we could relate to each other with our view of the world. We weren't fooled. We knew and had experienced the hard way that all that glitters isn't gold, from two completely opposite ends of the scale.

At this stage, I was leaning somewhere between believing that she was a optimist or a realist. In fact, regardless what sort of persona she had, she was putting up a fight and slowly gaining my respect I must admit. People who stand their ground have always impressed me and this occurrence was no different, only my connection to this individual was.

"Why do you have such a big problem with mum? If anything, I thought that I should be the grudge-holder, Tam. At least you had her."

"I had what? Had mum? No. I had a mother, not a mum. We weren't any better off than you ever were financially. What made you think she would change her ways from being a mother who neglected her first daughter? Any money we do rack up goes straight towards the booze or the pokies. If I want a 'new' piece of clothing from the Op shop or food other than the shelter stuff, I would have scrounge around for a couple of dollars or find my owns way of earning money. But hey, if you want that life with mum so much, be my guest, just don't ever accuse me of being like her."

With those final, hard-hitting words, Tam turned around and walked straight out of the room appearing to be headed in an unwavering direction towards the front door. After she had walked away, a space where she had been standing was made vacant and I could suddenly see the two boys again, instantly seeing their expressions that translated to open-mouthed shock. They weren't the only ones.

"Rikki! We have a spare room! Aren't you going to do or say something to her?! She's your sister – she can't live like that!"

I let out a pent-up sigh and made the split second decision that I doubted I would be able to go back on, following her out of the house and walking down the street until I caught up with her, calling out her name to slow her down.

"Tam… Wait up."

She stopped on the spot and turned around to face me behind her with one swift movement, so fast that her currently ponytail-styled hair would have caused whiplash. "What? Did you think of another point that you want to argue against me about? I'm not especially in the mood for it anymore… Just leave it be. You win, I win, whatever."

"No. I think I want to ask you whether you want to stay with us for a while, well the boys did. And I mean you really don't have to but I guess it's the right thing for me to do if your living situation is as bad as you say it is…"

She looked straight at me in shock for a few moments before her face lit up in a smile.

Although the boys had laughed with her during the times that she'd just sort of found her way to our house to spend time with me (for me to only dump her on Will and Zane), none of that laughter and none of those smiles seemed as true or genuine as the one I was given then.

"Thank you, Rikki. Thank you so much."

After the two of us had made our way back up the street together, the boys took her under their wing once again, introducing her to her room along with more intricate details and rules of our household, so I snuck off to my room with the excuse of nearing a work deadline that needed more progress to be made on it.

However, later that night when I came out of the room to refill my bottle of water, I was anything but prepared for the situation of two heads of people who were sitting together on the lounge, locked in a kiss.

I'm DYING to know what everyone's thoughts of Tam are now because she's been about a 50/50 split with reviewers. Half like or don't mind her, while the other half don't trust her. Whose view do YOU have? Rikki's side or Zill's side? All I can say is that if I thought writing Rikki/Will/Zane was fun, I didn't know the fun I was getting myself into by adding Tam to the mix!

Oh, and I have exciting news. This week, I planned the rest of this story (about another 15 chaps so we're a long way off yet)... Along with... A sequel!

Next chapter: Aftermath of the kiss. Relationships, boundaries, loyalties, trust and morals are all questioned. Meanwhile, Zane makes a confession of his own. (Originally the next chapter was supposed to be Cleo-centred, but she's been pushed to the chapter after for the sake of continuity, sorry Clewis fans!)

Don't forget those reviews ;)