Don't forget to vote and leave a comment! I love to hear from you guys!

Harrison/Harry (Harold)- 20 (Junior in College)

Charlotte (Lottie)- 17 (Senior HS)

Sebastian & Sophie (Bass & Soapy)- 16 (Juniors HS)

Tessa (Tessy)- 14 (Freshman HS)

Madeline (Munchkin)- 7 (2nd Grade ES)

|| ✨ || ✨ ||

"I'm so proud of you! You made the team!" Olivia squeals in Sebastian's ear while he laughs, hugging her back tightly. Sometimes I think he would prefer to have her as his sister than me, but I feel the same about him and a monkey. I smile as I quietly move into the room to see the other girls hugging him too while he grins widely at them. The previous sounds of laughter and the XBOX console come to a halt when the boys realize that there are females present in the room.

I slowly walk up to my brother, gaining more confidence each time a head turns my way. I give him a wide smile and practically jump on him like Olivia did moments before. His laughter booms as he hugs me back tightly, slightly swaying me from side to side. I let go, looking up at him, and start congratulating him, "I can't believe you made the team, now I owe dad twenty bucks," I punch his arm slightly.

"You gambled with dad on whether I would make the team or not?" he questions in disbelief but it's the mischievous glint in his eyes that tells me he regrets making that bet himself.

I smile sheepishly at him, "Maybe... What? Someone has to gamble with him now that Harry is back at college."

"This is why I hate you," he deadpans fighting the smile on his face.

"Oh please, I've done much worse to you, remember the Universal Studios incident?" I ask with a smirk on my face.

"You promised you would never bring that up again!" He complains in a whisper hoping his new teammates don't have any dirt to ridicule him with in the future. I see a business opportunity developing slowly in the back of my brain.

"I make no promises, you should know that by now," I giggle at him. He gives me a cheeky grin the excitement clear on his face.

"I'm surprised you're not having a whole meltdown with all these guys in your space, well done sis," he points out in a loud whisper no doubt gaining their attention. Shit.

My face slowly paled as I turned around to see the boys with their mouths slightly agape, which to me makes no sense because they probably have no idea who I am. I looked towards the girls for help but of course, they were busy chatting away ignoring my silent plea.

My brother looks at me and realizes that I'm slowly starting to freak out and casually places an arm around my shoulders and gives off a casual smile to the guys. I'm usually not used to this much attention from this many members of the opposite gender. One guy I can handle talking to but multiple? I think not.

"Guys, this is my older sister Charlotte she's a senior at our school, you've probably seen her around the halls or something," Sebastian tells the guys while squeezing my shoulder slightly. They all slowly look me up and down.

I hear a slow chorus of "hellos" from around the room as my face starts to heat up. One boy gets up from the couch and walks over to me with a sly grin on his face. Ladies and gentlemen, Zach Blackwood.

"Well Sebastian, you never mentioned you had such a gorgeous sister," he gently grabs my hand and kisses the top of it without breaking eye contact.

I scrunch my nose in disgust, "Nice try, but I'm not interested." I snatch my hand out of his grasp. The other boys in the room cheer on my rejection. I look over at Olivia and cannot decide whether she wants to castrate Zach or curse him out in front of everyone. Sebastian doubles over in laughter.

"What the hell? I was just being nice," Zach looks more amused than upset which puts me in a better mood. "Although, I've never been rejected by a girl before," he says with a sly grin and I scowl in disgust.

I shrug my shoulders. "I'm not at liberty to accept those kinds of compliments from someone that's supposedly taken," I say pointedly, glaring at him.

Olivia walks up to him, her face the picture of pure calm. "You're a piece of shit, and anything we had, is done," she states before smiling and walking away. Zach's face scrunched in confusion and he walks after her as she leaves the room.

My attention is caught by movement from the L-shaped couch.

Oh no. Nathan Ward. He just happens to be your stereotypical baseball captain. So good looking it should be a sin. I've always had a tiny crush on him, but nobody needs to know that, ever. I came to terms with the 'never gonna happen' answer and have since then tried to block his whole existence out of my brain.

He has practically every girl clawing at his feet for attention. Dark brown hair almost black with shockingly dull hazel eyes, a lean muscular build that makes other guys self-conscience. Oh, and he's six-foot-two inches which makes me feel like a munchkin at my five-feet-seven inch height.

He stops in front of me, giving me one of his perfect smiles, "Hi I'm Nathan, captain of the baseball team." Swoon. Play it cool Charlotte.

"I'm Charlotte, and I already know who you are," I say quietly, shaking his outstretched hand gently.

He shuffles his feet, "Right, sorry."

"No don't apologize, you had no idea, it's all good, really," I stumble over my words like an idiot. His smile slowly turns into a smirk and he looks back at his teammates.

"And that is how you talk to a girl, idiot," he looks pointedly at Zach who wanders back into the room, his left cheek a little redder than it used to be. The boys cheer for him and even slap him on the shoulder. That gorgeous asshole.

I scoff, rolling my eyes, and walk back over to my friends. They give me sympathetic smiles. Olivia looks like she's about to kick someone in the face while Quinn wraps an arm around her waist, whispering to her.

Courtney hugs me from the side reassuring me, "Don't worry, we are going to go out and have fun tonight, okay? Olivia just bitch slapped Zach and Chase is throwing a party tonight. He said I could bring anyone I wanted, special preferences to a specific girl," she winks at me.

Olivia smirks at us, "A party? Fantastic I needed a good excuse to get drunk." We laugh at her pathetic reasoning. Olivia turns towards Sebastian and starts talking in a louder than usual voice, obviously trying to get everyone's attention. "Hey, Seb, can you please tell Momma C  that we're going out tonight to a party and we probably won't be home until around two in the morning so she shouldn't wait up for us. Hey, maybe I won't even come home tonight," Olivia keeps trying to make up excuses most likely to get Zach's attention.

Sebastian looks over at me a little weirded out but one intense glare in his direction and he puts a smile on his face, "Sure, of course, sounds good I'll let mom know."

Zach's head perks up from his spot on the floor, "A party you say? I'm in!"

"You're not invited," Olivia snaps. "I would say I'm sorry but you can go fuck yourself." His friends look around in confusion at her very aggressive words. 

"It's invite-only, Chase from Westview is throwing it and I'm pretty sure it's obvious he doesn't want you guys there," Courtney clears up.

Slowly the general chatter quietens down once the word Westview leaves Courtney's mouth.

"What the hell are you, Northlake girls, doing going to a Westview's party?" Nathan's voice asks across the room. I raise my eyebrow at his sudden interest.

"And who the hell are you to ask us?" I demand. Who does he think he is acting, all in charge?

"Westview is our rival school!" Nathan reminds us and I roll my eyes.

"Oh, who gives a shit? It's a party, we were invited, and Charlotte made out with Chase a couple of times so what is the big deal? You can have your rivalry on the field but off the field, they're not so bad, maybe even nicer than you assholes!" Everyone is frozen in silent shock at Olivia's outburst.

I turn to Liv with my mouth wide open in shock.  "Liv!" She smiles at me sheepishly. Sebastian looks at me, questioning me with his eyes. Crap. I feel everyone's eyes on me. "Look it's not that big of a deal okay? It's only happened like twice and I can barely remember it!"

"The point is that you betrayed your school by doing something like that, with him," Nathan spits out at me. Clearly, the baseball captain rivalry is strong between these two. Strange since Chase never even mentioned them once.

I cross my arms over my chest, suddenly defensive, "Oh cry me a river Ward, like I could give two fucks about school rivalries, and since when is it okay for you guys to hook up with girls from other schools but as soon as we kiss one boy from another school it becomes a big issue? You don't know me." I turn to my brother, "Keep a leash on your dogs, they're pissing me off." And with that I walk out of the room and up to my bedroom, hearing footsteps from the girls behind me. Once my door is closed I turn around and face the girls, "What an insufferable jackass!" I all but shout.

"Let's just go out and have fun, okay? Look it's not a big deal, he's Nathan, everyone knows how annoying he gets whenever Westview is mentioned," Quinn remarks from stance next to the door.

"It's just the fact that he thinks he has to oversee everyone in our whole damn school. He's the baseball captain! It's not like he's someone important," I take a deep breath after my rant.

Olivia looks at Courtney and smirks slightly, "I don't think I've ever seen her get so upset over a guy before." I look at her with a straight face.

"Oh, can we just drop it already? Nathan is an ass; Zach is a player; the baseball team is full of idiots in general. Now let's get ready and go out!" Courtney smiles and pushes Quinn towards my wardrobe.

||  ||  ||

Hello Everyone! I really hope you enjoy this chapter, here you get to meet a lot of the main characters for this story.

Let me know what you think! xx

Sammipott xx