JULY 30

I laid on my bed, staring at my cell phone. Mal had been getting weird and distant all month. And now she was ignoring my texts and calls? What the hell?

I was a little frustrated that she wouldn't just tell me what was going on. There had been a couple of times where it had seemed like she was going to tell me, and then she changed her mind. So we'd been playing this back-and-forth game for an entire month, with me trying to find out what was wrong and with her refusing to tell me. Which of course had been putting a strain on our relationship, and now she was ignoring me altogether. How could I even try to help her if I didn't know what was wrong?

It wasn't just Mallory that was causing my irritation, though. Not at that exact moment, anyway. The screaming coming from the living room wasn't helping.

I groaned, pulling my pillow over my ears, trying to block out the noise. I'd thought Bexley had a set of lungs. She had nothing on Kensley.

Other than Mom and Kenny, I was the only one home. Bex was at Vanessa's, and the twins had spent the night over at Aunt Maddie's house. Dad was at work. Mom was on maternity leave, of course. She was going back at the end of August, though. And then Kenny was going to go to daycare, while Mom and Dad worked and us kids were in school. Luckily for Mom, Camelot Corporation had a nice daycare for their employees.

Even with the pillow over my ears, I could still hear the screaming. With another groan, I got out of bed and went into the living room, where Mom was attempting to get Kensley down for an afternoon nap. Sometimes during the day, she put her down for a nap in the living room instead of the nursery.

She looked at me when I came in. "Stryker," she said. I could barely hear her over my sister's wailing. "I'm so sorry if I disturbed you. She's just being really fussy right now. She's exhausted, but she won't go down for a nap."

"I can hear that. Here, let me try. I know what will work."

I took Kensley from my mom and started to gently rock her. Then I started singing softly. I couldn't sing quite as quietly as I would have liked, because Kenny was being so loud. But I managed to sing gently and loudly at the same time.

"We have the chance to turn the pages over," I sang. It was a song my grandparents had introduced me to. Whenever I went over to their house, we almost always played that song at least once. And we danced to it like idiots. Mom hated it, but I loved it. So did Kensley, I'd found out. It was the only way I could get her to sleep. "We can write what we want to write."

Mom made a face. "That will never work, Stryker. That's a stupid song."

"Shh. Just wait and watch. Trust me, Mom. It'll work." I continued the song. "We gotta make ends meet, before we get much older. We're all someone's daughter. We're all someone's son."

Kensley stopped screaming. She was still crying softly, and she was still awake, but at least she'd stopped screaming at the top of her lungs.

Mom's jaw fell open. "I don't believe it," she whispered.

"How long can we look at each other, down the barrel of a gun? You're the voice, try and understand it. Make a noise and make it clear." I smiled down at my baby sister while I sang. Her tears had stopped, and her eyes were fluttering. She would fall asleep any minute now. "Oh-wo-wo-wo, oh-wo-wo-wo. We're not gonna sit in silence. We're not gonna live with fear. Oh-wo-wo-wo, oh-wo-wo-wo."

I felt Kensley fall asleep in my arms. I kept singing, though, just to be sure. "This time, we know we can stand together. With the power to be powerful. Believing we can make it better."

I stopped singing. When she didn't wake up, I set her down in the bassinet Mom had in the living room. I made sure she was wrapped up well and then I stood up.

Mom still looked stunned. I was pretty sure that she never would have even considered singing that song to calm Kenny down. Like she said, she thought it was a stupid song. She really hated it. "You have got to be kidding me. My least favorite song in the entire world is the one that calms her down?"

"Yep."

She groaned. "I can't believe it. That's so lame. How did you even figure that out?" Mom asked, plopping onto the couch.

I sat next to her, shrugging. "When you and Dad went out to dinner the other night, she got really fussy. She was screaming just like she was a few minutes ago. I tried singing a bunch of different kid songs, and nothing was working. I went through all the nursery rhymes I could think of, and then I started singing theme songs of the twins' favorite shows. Finally I got desperate, and sang You're the Voice. It worked. It calmed her right down."

"I hate that song," she grumbled.

I grinned. "Kenny loves it."

She groaned. She leaned her head back, closing her eyes.

"How are you doing, Mom?"

"I'm tired, but I'm doing well." She opened her eyes and looked at me. "I really appreciate your help, though, Stryk. You make it much easier on me. Your father and I both appreciate your help."

I shrugged. "It's really not a big deal."

She opened her eyes to look at me. "It is, actually. Not many teenagers would be as helpful as you are. And you don't even have to be asked most of the time. You just...do it. I don't know if I've told you this, but I am so lucky to have you as a son. You have been one of the very best things to come into my life."

"Well, I think I'm pretty lucky to have you as a mom."

So I didn't reveal what was going on with Mal in this chapter. It is going to be revealed in the next chapter. I'm debating whether or not I want to put that chapter up today...

And I had to put You're the Voice in here again. I put it in the first fic kind of as a joke, and it just keeps finding moments to creep back in. If you guys haven't, you should look up the YouTube mashup video of Colin Morgan and Bradley James singing along to it. They're pretty cute. :) Sorry. Fangirl moment. Anyway, tell me what you think!