Dylan followed her out of the art block once the class was over; Addison needed to head for her final class of the day. She wasn't sure where Dylan needed to go and she wasn't going to give Dylan Willis the satisfaction of knowing that Addison wanted to know where he was headed. Instead, she just let Dylan walk next to her until Addison head yelling on the other end of the corridor and it took a moment to place that it was someone yelling her name.

"Addison!" Brigid cried hurrying up to Addison and looking highly apologetic. "I've got to stay behind and work on a ton of stuff for graphic design so I can't drive you home. Are you ok to ask Aaron for a lift?" Brigid asked looking very guilty because she knew how much Addison hated relying on any of her brothers for anything even if Aaron was the easiest and most relaxed out of her three siblings.

"Aaron is under house arrest until next week and he isn't getting his car keys back from Dad for another two months. Not after last time." Addison reminded Brigid lowering her voice slightly so Dylan didn't hear but from Dylan's sympathetic look it was clear that he'd heard anyway.

"Oh God, I'm so sorry Addison...could Eric-" Brigid started to say until she saw Addison wince. Spending time in an enclosed space, such as a car, with Eric was a recipe for disaster as he would no doubt ask Addison about school which was far too painful for Addison to handle remotely sober or without the help of caffeine. "I guess not, and Mark's probably out of the question too?"

"You guessed right" Addison said. Mark's driving was questionable, to say the least if Addison was being remotely polite. His car also had no seatbelt on the passenger's side. If someone asked for her honest opinion then Addison would have to say that she'd rather sit in the car with Eric than Mark because at least Eric stuck to the speed limit. Even if he made Addison want to bash her head against the dashboard. He was a big fan of asking irritating questions in small spaces. "I'd prefer not to die in a road accident caused by Mark braking too sharply because he saw a woman in a short skirt."

"Um...Addi?" Dylan coughed. Both Addison and Brigid turned to him each with their own various faces of surprise. Brigid's was probably from hearing Dylan Willis actually say something that wasn't a sarcastic insult. Addison's was because no one had ever called her 'Addi' before. "Listen...I could give you a ride home if you want." Dylan offered. Brigid continued to look at Dylan, even blinking in surprise while Addison just stood completely still and not fully sure if Dylan Willis had just offered her a ride home or not.

"You what?" Addison asked.

"I could drive you home. Save you getting the bus or calling your brothers. Um...where in town do you live? I could drop you off home on my way back to my house." Dylan said, scratching the back of his neck. Addison gave him the street and Dylan swiftly replied with an easy smile in return. "That's like three roads away from my house. I can drive you there on my way back home, it's not out of my way at all."

"Are you sure...about the ride?" Addison asked and Dylan nodded. The thought of being sat in a car with Dylan Willis for any amount of time was making Addison's stomach do backflips and she really wasn't sure why. It had to be from nerves because it couldn't have been anything else.

"Yeah its fine as long as you don't mind having to put up with my brother's gangly frame in the back seat; don't worry though, he doesn't sound as...'interesting' as your brothers...no offence."

"None taken, I say much worse things when being nice about them." Addison admitted shrugging her shoulders.

"Well thank you, that makes me a lot better about having to stay late." Brigid said giving Dylan an appreciative smile before she turned back to Addison. "I'll be home at about six so just ring me or come over if you need me." Brigid added touching Addison lightly on the arm before she quickly hurried back off in the direction of her final class of the day.

"Wow, you really have issues with your family don't you?" Dylan asked raising his eyebrows. Addison just shrugged her shoulders and turned to head off to her last class. Addison's issues with her family could have been logged down in a book that would rival the Bible on conflicting issues, preachy summons and a guy called Mark being a douche. To be honest it would be the kind of book that Oprah would love for truly terrible reasons.

---

Dylan came to meet her outside of her final class. It surprised Addison to no end but she didn't say anything. Her last class, Film Studies, had been pretty uneventful like always really. Addison had watched the film they were studying tons of times before so she could easily spend the entire lesson sleeping for all she cared. It seemed that the new student, a redhead girl who had been made to sit at the front, had either seen the film before or just wasn't interested as she had a small graphic novel hidden behind her textbook and she seemed much more interested in that than anything else that was going on in the class.

Dylan made small conversation, asking Addison about her class, as the pair of them walked to the student car park, stopping by a sleek black car that Addison had noticed that morning. She couldn't help but gape at it.

"Holy shit is this yours?" she asked Dylan failing to hide her amazement as she took in the pristine looking car. "Seriously?" She asked with a smile filled with awe.

"Yeah, she's mine." Dylan said sounding like an incredibly proud parent instead of a teenage boy talking about his car.

"Holy crap, she's beautiful." Addison said breathily. "You know, not many sixth form students have a 1980 Camaro for a car." Addison pointed out and a slow smirk crept across Dylan's face.

"You know about cars?" Dylan asked raising an eyebrow.

"Sort of. My brother Mark has a 1969 Mustang that he spent about three years saving up for, it was either the Mustang or a Chevy. It's a beast of a car but breaks down all time. I end up helping him out a lot with it. He doesn't trust my other brothers to go anywhere near it. Eric drives a Volvo and Aaron has crashed every single one of his cars so far." Addison said with a shrug while Dylan still looked impressed. It was the second time that day that Dylan had looked at her like that and it was still strangely unnerving as no one ever looked at Addison in that way, well if they had it hadn't been for at least two years.

"Dylan!" a voice called from across the parking lot causing Dylan to look away from Addison towards the source of the voice. A gangly looking fourteen year old came running towards them until he stopped just in front of Dylan's car panting slightly. "Hey, sorry I would have been waiting for you but I got caught up in the library." The boy said. Addison saw some resemblance between the boy and Dylan and quickly guessed that this must have been Dylan's brother, the one that Brigid had mentioned the day before.

"Leo, its fine we only just got here." Dylan said shrugging his shoulders.

"Oh ok then! Hi there!" Dylan's brother said looking over at Addison with an enthusiastic grin. 

"Oh yeah; Addison meet my baby brother Ass Hat, Ass Hat meet Addison." Dylan said nodding towards his brother.

"You're such a butthead." The teen muttered under his breath giving Dylan a swift kick in the shin. "My name is Leo actually. It's good to meet you." He then said as he looked over at Addison. Addison gave him a polite smile while Dylan opened the car door.

"Get in the back bitch, guests ride shotgun." Dylan said his brother with a smirk while Leo muttered a swear word under his breath as he got into the backseat of the car. "I'm gonna tell Mom you said that."

"Butthead." Addison heard Leo mutter again. While smirking, Addison walked round the sleek looking car until she got to the passenger's side. She was surprised when she saw that the door was already open. Dylan was leaning back over towards his side of the car and as Addison slid into the seat she gave Dylan and questioning look. Dylan just replied with a slight smile and an unhelpful shrug of his shoulders. No boy had ever opened a car door for her before, she never thought it would be Dylan Willis to do it either. True, Addison did not know much about him yet but Addison would have thought that old-fashioned manners weren't Dylan's forte, clearly, she was wrong.

"Where's Niamh?" Leo asked glancing around the car like he had just noticed that whoever 'Niamh' was wasn't here.

"She's gone to some comic book store in the middle of town to see if they have anything in there that she doesn't already own. Doubt it." Dylan said to Leo before glancing at Addison. "Niamh's our sister." He explained. "I think she's in one or two of Lisa's classes." He added as he started the car while Leo launched into a story about his day.

"So today in biology we got to dissect a frog and apparently that's the first time they've done in a few years because the last time they did some guy named Aaron Harper protested and staged a sit-in. He then gave every single frog their own personal funeral, with names for the frogs, on the playing field." Leo explained from the back seat. Addison snorted. She remembered that day; well she remembered how angry their father had been when he had found out. Addison hadn't seen him that angry for a long time. Dylan looked over at her, clearly recognising the last name as it was Addison's.

"Your brother?" Dylan guessed and Addison nodded.

"Yeah he's the youngest after me; his frog was called Agamemnon. There's a memorial poem, well it's more of a limerick, written in the boy's bathroom next to the cafeteria." Addison said while Dylan snorted with laughter. "Aaron has always had a flair for the dramatics."

"So you never staged any amphibian memorials?" Dylan asked.

"No, we were made to dissect a cow's heart instead but my best friend Brigid passed out because of the whole 'dead animal organ on a table' thing so I had to sit with her in the nurse's office. I think my biology teacher was happy about that, he was probably expecting me to be Aaron 2.0 and demand the hearts be blessed or something with holy water." Addison said.

"I got that all the time back when we lived in Bristol and my teacher made me sit at the front of the class because she thought I was going to be just like Dylan." Leo said from the back seat.

"Hey, the woman had it in for me when I was in year four!" Dylan quickly retorted.

"Didn't you call her a witch and put pins on her chair?" Leo asked between his loud snickers while Dylan looked smugly proud of that fact for a moment. Addison found that she was smiling alongside Dylan until a buzz coming from her pocket alerted her to a text message. Glancing at the screen, she noticed it was from Aaron and swiftly remembered that she never rang Aaron back after her art lesson. Looking down at the text message she actually wished she had.

Aaron: 3:21- Eric and Mark have been arguing over chicken marinades for the past three hours. I'd run now if I were you.

Dylan to look over at her curiously. Addison tried to ignore this as her phone beeped again with another text from Aaron.

Aaron: 3:23 - Ok I'm done with these twats and their constant arguing. I'm going down the side of the house and going to see some friends. Catch you later if you don't flee to Brigid's.

"Is everything ok?" Dylan asked as his brow furrowed in concern.

"Huh? Yeah, yeah it's just my brothers...like always. This dinner with them tonight might just kill me." Addison explained rubbing the bridge of her nose as she felt a tension headache appearing. If there were some possible way of getting out of the dinner then she would have jumped at the chance. Thank God Brigid would be home by six.

"You...look...if you're not too keen on going home you can always come round to our house for a while." Dylan said scratching the back of his neck. Before Addison could say anything Leo stuck his head into the front of the car.

"Our Mom worries that Dylan is highly anti-social so you coming round your house will probably make her year. It will prove that Dylan can actually talk to people as appose to just punching them in the face." Leo said with a huge grin plastered on his face.

The look on Dylan's face was genuinely priceless as he elbowed his younger brother in the stomach causing Leo to loudly groan in pain. Addison watched with mild fascination at how Dylan and Leo interacted. It was so different to how Addison acted with her own brothers. She was close to Aaron but Aaron tried not to spend much time at home anymore because of Eric's general presence at home.

"Your parents won't mind me coming over?" Addison asked while Leo continued to grumble in the back seat from being elbowed by Dylan. Dylan looked from Leo back to Addison and shook his head.

"No, of course not. My Mom wouldn't mind at all." Dylan said. Addison noticed Dylan did not mention his father and she knew from her own experience when it came to talking about her mother that asking questions about the parent not mentioned was never a good thing. Instead of saying anything, Addison just nodded her head and she was grateful that Dylan seemed to take this as a whole sentence.