Lena rolled her eyes as she stood up to answer the door, with it being only a few weeks into summer vacation she still had paperwork to finish from school while all the kids slept in, in the mornings, leaving her to also clean. It was one of the only minutes she would have until later once all the kids left the house when she heard the doorbell ring, "Coming!" Lena called out going to answer the door. As she walked by the stairs she saw both Jesus and Taylor rushing down the stairs towards the door. Presumably hoping it was one of their girlfriends, it seemed like someone always had a date around the house lately.

Jesus looked up to see his mom and said good morning, "Morning. We'll get it." He said motioning to the door.

Taylor nodded in agreement to her older brothers statement running over to the door trying to see who it was that knocked. Looking out the window she opened the door quickly, "What are you doing here!?" She growled. Jesus' face mimicked Taylor's filled with anger, Lena peered around her two children to see Connor standing outside the house.

Connor looked up from the ground, "Is Jude here?"

Taylor shook her head, "You don't get to say anything more than what you already said to him."

Jesus nodded in agreement, "Get lost Connor."

Lena stepped in front of the two teenagers and motioned Connor in, "Come in Connor, I'm sure Jude would like to talk to you in a minute." She said politely, glaring at the two teenagers and their hostile and rude attitudes towards Connor.

"Are we forgetting what he said to Jude?" Jesus asked clearly agitated with Lena allowing Connor into the house. Jesus and Taylor had run upstairs and woken their siblings up while Lena brought Jude downstairs to talk to Connor.

Brandon shrugged, "Lena knows what she's doing, if Jude wants to talk to Connor we have no place getting into that."

Jesus looked to Callie hoping for someone to agree with him on this one, "Come on Callie, you know Jude better than anyone. Does he really want to talk to Connor? Does he forgive and forget that easily?"

Callie sighed, "He'll never forget, that's something he's learned, you never forget. But Connor is his one friend so it won't be bad for him to talk to him."

Mariana nodded in agreement, "You're first crush is always the hardest to let go of, and if Jude really did have a crush on Connor than even if Connor hurt him, a part of Jude is going to want acceptance from Connor. Plus Connor's is Jude's only friend other than the five of us."

Everyone gave Mariana a look of amazement, "Since when did you become a philosopher Mari? That's normally the rest of us while you say something to cheer everyone up." Taylor questioned.

Mariana shrugged, "I'm smart, I just choose not to let people see that, it might ruin my reputation." She flashed a fake, ditzy smile.

"Hi Jude." Connor whispered as Jude entered the living room. Jude looked up but didn't say anything. Lena nodded slightly and then excused herself to the kitchen. "Jude, I'm sorry." Connor tried again.

Jude just shook his head and silenced Connor, "Isn't this going to make you look bad and unpopular?"

Connor shrugged, "I don't care, it's been killing me not to talk to you the last few weeks, we didn't even say goodbye when school ended. Jude I want to be your friend I am sorry for not sticking up for you." Jude nodded for him to continue. Connor sighed, "So I was hoping you could forgive me and forget the stupid things I've said so we can be friends again."

Jude sighed, "I'll never forget. Maybe forgive, I'm not sure. But I want to be friends." He said timidly, he didn't look straight at Connor but more off the the wall behind him.

"Um, Jude, about what you said." Connor mumbled, uncomfortable, and unsure how to say what he wanted to say.

Jude finally looked Connor in the eyes, "You can forget that, there's someone else, Kyle, so you can go get a girlfriend and we can stay just friends."

Connor nodded, though his face looked like he was slightly hurt, Jude shrugged it off. "But Connor, we can be friends."

Connor nodded and smiled slightly, "Okay, I have to go, I have lacrosse practice, but I'll see you around Jude."

Jude nodded, maintaining a straight face and showing no emotions, "See you later."

"It's okay, you don't have to go and stick up for me, he didn't say anything to me." Jude said standing in the doorway of the bedroom all his older siblings were in. Brandon, Callie, Jesus, Mariana and Taylor were sitting in a circle whispering decided if they should do anything about Connor when Jude broke the almost silence causing them to jump and turn around and face him. Jude laughed at all his older siblings jumping from the sound of his voice, "We're just friends, but it's alright, I like Kyle, and as long as Connor's my friend. I'm alright."

Callie stood up and pulled her younger brother into a hug, "When did you grow up? You're so mature, you handled this even better than Taylor and Jesus would have." She teased receiving a "hey" from both Jesus and Taylor. Jude just laughed and hugged Callie back.

"Hello." Jude whispered into the cell phone. Taylor had given him her cellphone so he could call Kyle and talk to him, without having Lena and Stef down his back trying to hear what was going on and teasing him while he talked.

Kyle laughed, "Hey Jude." Jude could imagine Kyle sitting on the other side of the line just winking as he referred to the song he sang for Jude. Jude laughed, "Hey Kyle, I just wanted you to know, Connor came by today." There was a long pause before Jude received an answer.

"Oh." Was all Kyle replied with.

Jude couldn't help but smile, "And I told him we could be friends but I already found someone else so he could go and get a girlfriend and we'd just be friends."

Kyle's voice had a lighter tone when he said, "Oh." again. "So you choose me?"

Jude nodded and laughed, "Sure."

Kyle laughed also, "So that means you're going to come and sing tomorrow with me?"

Jude rolled his eyes, "I told you before, I don't sing. But I'll ask my moms if I can come tomorrow. Goodbye Kyle."

Kyle laughed again, "Bye Jude. Goodnight."

Jude hung up the phone, "Goodnight Kyle."

Stef standing in the doorway laughed, causing Jude to jump up and drop the phone.

"Oh, hi Stef...uh, hi mom." Jude corrected himself.

Stef laughed and entered the room sitting down on Jude's bed next to him, "Hey buddy. Lena and the rest of the kids told me about Connor coming over today. It sounds like it all went alright, from what everyone else said. But I just wanted to check in with you."

Jude nodded, "We're friends. It's alright, I told him I would never forget what he said and did but that we could try and be friends again."

Stef smiled at the young boy, so mature for his age, and the world just threw more and more at him, not giving him much of a chance at all just to be a kid, Callie did the best she could but at times like this Stef could see Jude hadn't been shielded from everything. "I'm proud of you Jude."

Jude nodded and hugged Stef. "Thanks mom." He whispered before releasing Stef from the hug and getting up to run downstairs to join his siblings at dinner. Stef laughed and picked up Taylors phone, hitting the home lock button on it she laughed at the background on it, one of the whole family from the park. This was their family now and it was slowly falling into place.

Authors note:

Sorry for posting late on this chapter it's been crazy, I was thinking about five or so more chapters before I ended the story and started one up that takes place about five years in the future? Let me know what you think of this chapter, if I get a few reviews I'll post another chapter sometime tomorrow, (promise!) Thanks and as always your reviews mean the most to me!