Enjoy!


Chapter One

Mercedes walked into her family home already happy to be there because she could hear her older brothers yelling about God knows what and saw her mom sitting at her desk quietly working through the noise.

"Hey baby. How was school?" Lena asked, her youngest daughter.

"It was school, Quinn's coming over tomorrow. Is that still okay?"

Lena simply nodded before shooting her signature smile at her. "That's fine, though your brothers are in town for three more days."

"I thought they were going back today?" Mercedes asked, hearing a loud thud and giggling when her mother just threw her head back.

"I swear you'd think they were twelve and not twenty one." Lena said before getting up and walking up two of the stairs. "THERE BETTER NOT BE ANYTHING BROKEN OR BUSTED UP THERE!" She shouted and it grew eerily quiet. "Oh hell to the no!" She said running the stairs.

Mercedes was the youngest of six, the daughter of an English professor and Pediatric surgeon. Her parents had been together since they were teenagers and were still madly in love. They both came from decent families and lived pretty simple lives… if you count having a set of twins then finding out they're expecting again only five months later, simple.

Her oldest brothers Kenneth and Kevin were born first and made their presence known immediately. They were rambunctious from the moment they entered the world with no end in sight. They both graduated top of their class and were currently attending Princeton, Kenneth for law and Kevin for architecture and engineering.

David and Harrison came next; they were… twenty times worse. They both decided to come a little early but we're surprisingly above average for premature twins. David was currently attending Georgetown for business and Harrison was at NYU for political science. Of the six of them those two were the most independent, they never needed help with anything and always figured out ways to torture her without ever getting into trouble.

Next came Maia, she was rebellious from the minute they tried breast feeding her. She refused to go with the flow and was extremely stubborn. So stubborn that their father challenged her to the point that she was seeking a medical degree from Columbia just to spite him. Neither of their parents wanted their children to follow in their footsteps, they wanted them to make their own paths so when Marcus told their daughter she could do anything except medicine, she did just that.

Last to come was Mercedes. She came quietly and as a surprise, Lena didn't know she was pregnant until she was already six and half months along because whenever she tested it kept coming up negative. Marcus always said that's how he knew she was going to be different, every child before let their presence be known but Mercedes hid so well it had doctors baffled. She didn't cry or shout or even talk, not for a long time. Lena and Marcus were both worried until she started singing at the age of two. That's how she would let them know she was just shy.

"Hey tulip." Her father said, giving her a kiss on the forehead as he walked past her.

Tulip was her nickname because just like the flower if you come too close too fast she'd shy away.

"Hey daddy, are you headed out?" She asked.

"Mhm, going to run to the store, wanna come?" He answered before they both heard shouting and what sounded like a herd of rhinos running then saw one by one her brothers appeared with their mother on their heels.

"I SAID DO NOT BREAK ANYTHING AND YOU MANAGED TO BREAK LITERALLY EVERYTHING!" Lena shouted.

Marcus shook his head and Mercedes looked on amused before David ran towards her making her take a step back.

"No." She said, attempting to run but was quickly picked up and used a human shield.

"Put me down!" Mercedes protested before her other brothers came and got behind David.

"You wouldn't hurt tulip! Look at her, look at those cheeks!" David said as Kenneth squeezed one of her cheeks.

Lena narrowed her eyes at them before shaking her head. "Put my baby down."

David held onto her tighter and shook his head. "Nope, you're still mad. Look at the face of innocence!" He said hold Mercedes out making their mom laugh.

"She breaks!" Kevin shouted, kissing Mercedes on the cheek. "Always knew you were the best little sister ever."

"I second that, thanks kiddo." Harrison said as David finally put her down.

Mercedes just rolled her eyes already knowing they were about to hug her and that's exactly what they did.

"Okay, I'm going to go to my room now." Mercedes said, wiggling away from her brothers and ran upstairs to her room. She let out a sigh before throwing herself onto her bed. She looked up at the glow in the dark stars and smiled remembering when her brothers let stand on their shoulders so she could reach the ceiling.

She decorated her room in blue, purple and yellow. Her parents let her and her siblings go wild with decorating their rooms and hers was as vibrant as they come. Her brothers had given her teddy bears every year for her birthday since she was three and there was currently a built in wall that housed all the bears and as childish as it was she loved her wall of bears.

She pulled out her books and placed them on her desk before checking her phone, noticing she had a message from Quinn.

Soooo? What did he leave you?

Mercedes looked at the message, remembering what she was talking about and opened her notebook. She looked through it then saw in the bottom of her notes from weeks ago. It was a note from Sam Evans.

Hey, you're a hard girl to find. Text me 567-331-0781

-Sam Evans

Mercedes read the note three times feeling herself blush and get nervous at the same time. She wasn't entirely sure why he'd given her his number and she wasn't positive she would even text him.

It was just a note.

Well what did it say?

Just that I was hard to find… gotta go, family night. xoxo

Mercedes didn't wait for her to reply before shutting her phone off and quickly changing into a shirt and some shorts then heading downstairs.


Sam and his friends had just left practice when he ran into his ex. She was a gorgeous girl but was way too vapid for him to try to keep up with her. He saw her waiting by his truck and sighed because he knew this was going to be an encounter that wasn't about to be pleasant.

"Hi Sammy."

"Jennifer , I don't have time for whatever this is so please move away from my car." Sam said, throwing his gym back onto the bed of his truck and walking to the driver's side.

"Don't act that way, I just want to ask about homecoming." Jennifer said, batting her eyes at him.

Jennifer was gorgeous. She was roughly 5'7, had long dark brown hair and piercing gray eyes. She always looked like there was a storm brewing within her eye which should've been his first red flag. What she lacked she more than made up for in looks, she was a bit of a freak too.

"That's a conversation that doesn't involve me."

"We should still go together since we're nominated for homecoming king and queen. We already have our colors picked out and it's not going to be any harm to spend one last night together." She replied, winking at him and he knew immediately what she was offering.

"As tempting as that sounds, I don't want to have sex with you. Bye Jen." He said getting into his truck and pulling off.

He needed to run to the store to grab the few things his mom asked him to get for dinner before he could go home. He made a quick stop by the local shop and walked straight down the aisle to grab pasta before noticing a familiar face.

He didn't know what his luck was but he wasn't about to squander it.

"Small world." He said, causing her to jump. "Sorry didn't mean to scare you."

"It's okay…"

"Are you always this clumsy around me?" He teased and Mercedes eyes grew wide before she blushed.

"I'm sorry about falling on you." She blurted out and he just chuckled.

"Don't be, it's a hell of a way to introduce yourself to someone."

"Oh.. well I should be going, my dad's waiting for me." She said softly.

Sam smiled at her before taking a step forward. "Did you get my note?"

Mercedes nodded looking up at him nervously. "I did."

"And you still didn't text me?"

"I… I thought it was a joke." She admitted.

"No joke, you should text me."

"You don't even know me… I have to go but it was good to see you again." She said before turning and walking away.

"How about you give me your number and I'll text you?" He countered causing her to stop and look back at him.

"I-"

"Hey Tulip, you ready to go?" Her dad asked.

Mercedes just nodded, smiling at Sam who just winked at her before walking away. The exchange didn't go unnoticed by her father who smirked and nudged her slightly.

"Come on, your brothers probably started eating the drywood." He joked, choosing not to ask her about the young boy.

"David probably put Ken in the oven already." She joked back with a giggle.

"Or worse, Maia is about to sacrifice Harrison, I will never understand why she has it out for him."

Mercedes laughed. "It's because he cut the hair off all her dolls when they were little… at least that's what she told me."

"Mhm, either way we better hurry and pick up the food." Marcus replied and she just nodded.


"Ma!" Sam shouted when walked inside. "I grabbed the pasta like you asked." He added as he walked into the kitchen, noticing that she wasn't in there. He could smell the food cooking on the stove, he looked around making sure no one was in there before grabbing a fork and getting a forkful to eat.

Mary walked into the kitchen seeing Sam stuffing his mouth before she walked over and grabbed the fork from his hand. "You know dinner is for the whole family." She teased.

"Sorry ma, I'm starving." Sam said, kissing her on the cheek. "Where's everyone?"

"Stacey's on her way and Stevie is in his room." She answered, moving him out of the way so she could finish making dinner.

"Is this a full family dinner or just us?" He asked, noticing his mother tense up.

"Your dad won't be joining us, he's having another late night." She replied.

Sam knew something was going on between his parents but he chose not to push it any further than the occasional question. He was the middle child of three, Stacey was the oldest and by far the most awesome person he'd ever met.

She never liked to stay in one place so when she graduated from high school, she chose to use her college fund to travel. Both of their parents begged her to at least get a few courses in but she kindly told them that by the time she was twenty-four she'd be able to pay them back tenfold. That was a year ago and she did just that.

Sam was second born and let his mother say, he was the calmest child she had. Sam was simple as long as he had his guitar and sports he really didn't care about anything else. He spent time with his family, always made time to do volunteer work, and keep himself out of trouble.

Stevie was the youngest and the wildest. He also came well after his older siblings and milked being the youngest as much as he could. He was at least kind and loving but he could also get away with murder if he wanted to, all he needed to do was bat his big blue eyes, and everyone folded.

"Sammy!"

Sam smiled and picked up his little brother and spun him around. "What's up kid! Did you finally get that girl to hug you?"

"Shh, mommy doesn't know about her." He replied, covering Sam's mouth.

"Oh, sorry. We'll talk about it later, man to man." Sam whispered and Stevie just smiled before jumping out of his arms and running away to do something else.

Mary shook her head and shot Sam a knowing look. "He has another girlfriend?" She asked teasingly.

"This one is the love of his life." Sam answered, shaking his head. "I'm going to get a quick shower then I'll get Stevie to set the table."

"Thanks sweetie."

Sam went upstairs to his room and quickly got out of his practice clothes before heading to the bathroom. He grabbed his towel right as his phone went off.

Hi. It's Mercedes… Mercedes Jones.

Sam smirked before replying back. Hey Mercedes, Mercedes Jones.


So sweet! until next time!