“Are you sure you have everything?” Elizabeth asked me after she had knocked on my door. I jumped at the sound of her voice, since I wasn’t expecting it, and she only giggled at me. “Well, do you?”

I let out a sigh as I turned toward the things I had packed to take over to Kate’s house. “Yeah, I think I have everything I need.”

Elizabeth smiled at me, giving me a kind of stare I hadn’t ever seen from her before. She looked so happy for me, and that in turn made me happy as well. She was going to be my future sister-in-law, and I was glad that we had always gotten along, unlike Ethan and I had.

“I’m really glad you’re going to be officially apart of the family, Maxynn,” Elizabeth now informed me with a sweet smile. “I knew from the beginning that you were different to Zach. Not only because you rejected him, but because he was determined to get you even after you showed no interest in him.”

All I could do was smile at her. This was the girl that was dating my ex-boyfriend, but it didn’t bother me like some people would think it would. She was already like family to me and I wasn’t even married to Zach yet.

Elizabeth left for class before we could really start talking to each other, but I knew I was going to have more chances to later, so I didn’t worry about it.

When I came downstairs to see Brianna smiling at me sheepishly, I knew what she was about to say wasn’t going to be good.

“I know you’re going over to Kate’s house to spend the night,” she began, looking at all the stuff I was bringing to get ready for the wedding the next day. “But I really need to go out and run a quick errand. Steve and your father are at work, Elizabeth’s in class, and Zach already went over to Logan’s. Could you please watch Ethan for about a half an hour?”

I looked over at the younger Deveraux brother who was sitting on the couch, watching TV like he always did. Now that we were actually getting along, I didn’t really mind babysitting him. But since I was supposed to go over to Kate’s, I didn’t exactly want to have to babysit him right then. But it wasn’t like I could just say no…

So I agreed to babysit him, hoping that it wouldn’t take very long so I could go over to Kate’s house like I was supposed to.

Brianna thanked me profusely as she left to run her errand, and I then lazily plopped down on the couch beside my future brother-in-law, who continued to flip through channels.

“I don’t get why you need to be babysat,” I sighed as I watched him to continue to flip through all the channels. “You might be eleven, but you’re a hell of a lot smarter than I am. And all you ever do is watch TV.”

He merely shrugged. “It’s not like there’s anything better to do.”

He finally stopped changing the channels when he got to an old Disney movie, and I couldn’t help but smile at it. Ethan watching these kinds of things reminds me that he really was just a kid, under all the genius things he could do.

“So,” Ethan started now, not even looking away from the TV and at me. “You and Zach are getting married tomorrow.”

For some reason, my face burned. “Uh, yeah. We are.”

Ethan rolled his eyes now. “You don’t have to be embarrassed. Is there even a point to being embarrassed anymore?”

I guess he was right, but that didn’t stop me from feeling the way I did. I was more nervous than embarrassed, if you want the truth. Zach and I hadn’t even graduated, and yet we were going to get married. I knew a lot of people were looking down on us for this, but I didn’t even care what anyone else thought.

“But what about you?” I quickly asked now, wanting to change the subject off of me now. “In a couple of weeks, you’re going to graduate from elementary school and then you’ll get to go to middle school. It’s pretty exciting, huh?”

Ethan merely shrugged again, and this caused me to roll my eyes at him. I really wished that he’d actually react a little more to what I was saying, but I was still glad that he was actually acknowledging me. He could have easily ignored me, if he wanted to.

“What about that girl you said you liked?” I now reminded him, wanting to get some kind of response from him. I saw him bite the inside of his lip, and I had to stop myself from grinning at him. “Her name’s Anna or something, right? Her brother’s in that famous band or something?”

Ethan said nothing to me, now having to force himself to stare right at the TV so he wouldn’t have to answer me. I now grinned at him, knowing he was now purposely trying to ignore me, so I knew he still had a crush on this girl, whoever she was.

“But wait,” I continued to tease now, wanting Ethan to know what it felt like when he made fun or teased me. “Aren’t you already married?”

He nearly fell right off the couch. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“You know, that little girl Zach and I babysat a while ago,” I grinned, thinking my lips might have cracked when I saw his face turn completely white. “Freya, remember? You two got married.”

“Well… so did you and Zach!”

“But we’re officially getting married tomorrow.”

Ethan glared at me, knowing that I had just won this argument. He now turned back toward the TV, pouting as he did so. I now saw why he enjoyed torturing me so much. It was actually kind of fun.

“Freya’s too young for me, anyways,” Ethan informed me now, and I was surprised that he was telling me this. “She’s like six years younger than me or something. That’s just gross and too much of an age difference for me.”

I was the one to shrug now. “That’s not too bad. You two could still get married in the future and the age difference wouldn’t matter at all.”

Ethan did not look pleased by what I was talking about, but I still couldn’t help but laugh at him a little more. If he did grow up to really marry Freya, I would have laughed my ass off and say that I told him so.

“Can we just focus on the fact that you’re getting married tomorrow?” Ethan asked me now, still trying to act as if what we were talking about didn’t bother him at all. “I’m not going to get married for a long time.”

“I’m gonna laugh when it’s Freya.”

He scowled at me. “I don’t like Freya.”

Why was teasing him so much fun?

“Well, if you don’t marry Freya, I hope you marry Anna,” I told him honestly now, since I couldn’t think of any other girls he had ever come into any sort of contact with. “It would be really cute to go to your wedding.”

Ethan was glaring at me now as he said, “You’re really in a wedding kind of mood.”

I shrugged, knowing he was right. All I could think about was how I was getting married so soon, so I automatically thought about marriage for everything else, even the little boy sitting beside me. He wouldn’t be getting married for at least ten years, so I shouldn’t have been getting so excited for him.

“But speaking of the future,” I continued on now, and this caused Ethan to let out a sigh and plop onto the couch, no longer sitting up next to me. “Do you know what you want to do with your future? I know you’re really young, but… you’re a genius.”

He rolled his eyes at me and let out another sigh. “I don’t know, a teacher? Something like that, maybe. I think I can do a lot better than a teacher though, so I’ll most likely do something else. Maybe I’ll be a scientist or a writer. I’ll probably get to skip a few grades once I’m older, so I’ll really do anything that my young age will allow me to do.”

Ethan was definitely going to go far in life, I was sure. He was only eleven, and he was already smarter than me. I was sure he’d be able to graduate from high school right then, if he wanted to. But even under all his smartass and mature comments, I knew he enjoyed being a kid.

When the front door opened, we both turned toward it and I nearly jumped right off of the couch. If someone was finally home, then I could leave and go to Kate’s.

“Thank you so much, Maxynn,” Brianna smiled gratefully at me once she walked through the front door with grocery bags in her arms. “You can go off to Kate’s now. I’ll see you tomorrow!”

I smiled at her, quickly picking up my things and making my way out of the house after saying goodbye to both her and Ethan. I needed to leave quickly before either of them could stop me. I just wanted to hurry and go to Kate’s house, because the faster I got there, the faster my wedding would come.

So I drove as quickly as I could, trying my best to not go over the speed limit so I wouldn’t get pulled over and waste even more time…

I got to Kate’s house ten minutes after I left mine, and she didn’t even care that I was late in the slightest. But I was expecting this from Kate, who always understood anything I had to tell her.

“Maxynn!” Kate’s mother smiled happily when she saw me, jumping right off of the couch and hugging me tightly. “It’s so great to see you, sweetie! It’s been so long!”

I smiled at Mrs. Masters, happy to see her as well. It seemed like it had been years since I had gone over to Kate’s house, but it had really only been a few months. What with Kate having a baby and everything going on between Zach and me, I just barely had any time to come over.

Kate and I made our ways up to her room after chatting with Mrs. Masters for a few more minutes, and I felt my stomach twisting and turning with every minute that went by. In less than twenty-four hours, I was going to get married.

I shouldn’t have been so nervous, but I just couldn’t help but feel this way. I wondered how Zach felt about everything that was happening, but I knew that I probably would never know how he felt. He’d never admit to me that he was nervous.

“You noticed that Aveline hasn’t been at school since she tried to kill you, right?” Kate asked me once I dumped all my stuff on the floor of her room. “Do you think she’s gone for good?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know, and I don’t care.”

But honestly, I really did care. Since she had left, I didn’t have one threat on my life, so I was now certain that Aveline had been the one behind everything that had happened to me. And as much as I would have loved to send her ass to jail, there wasn’t much I could do if she was gone. So, since she obviously wasn’t going to bother me any longer, there was no point in dealing with her any longer.

I was going to have a nice, peaceful wedding, and I was glad that Aveline wasn’t going to ruin it for me. This was the start of my new life, and I just couldn’t wait.

I looked down at the dress I would be wearing the next day, my stomach doing flips over and over again. I could hardly believe that I was getting married the next day. I was officially going to be a Deveraux at this time the next day.

Since I was now over at Kate’s house, her daughter over at her grandparent’s house while her mom was downstairs in their living room and her dad was at work. And since I was over at Kate’s, Zach was over at Logan’s with Johnny. I was sure I did not want to know what the three of them were doing or talking about…

“Just think about it, Maxynn!” Kate giggled as she hopped up and down on her bed. “You’re getting married tomorrow! You’re really going to get married tomorrow! This is so exciting!”

Even though I wasn’t jumping up and down, I was just as excited as she was. I was sure I was even more excited, since I was the one getting married and all. But Kate had always been so much more energetic than I ever had, so it wasn’t a surprised that she was jumping up and down while I wasn’t.

“Aveline probably hates you so much,” Kate giggled when she finally stopped bouncing around as she began to look through her nail polishes that we could use. “I mean, you won the guy that she’s been after ever since before I can remember. It’s kind of gross, really. She was pretty much obsessed with him.”

I already knew that. I had known that for a while, but her trying to kill me at the party just proved that she was obsessed with him. It almost kind of scared me that she was still out there, not locked away like she should have been.

“I’d give you condoms for your honeymoon, but I’m sure Zach’s already got that covered,” Kate snickered with a wink, and it made my entire face turn into a complete tomato. Kate only laughed more when she saw this. “What, am I right?”

“No,” I denied quickly, even though I didn’t know the answer to that question. I had no idea what Zach had planned, especially since our honeymoon was being kept a secret from me anyways, so I had no idea what he was going to bring. All I knew was that it was going to be very awkward finding condoms stashed away in whatever he was bringing with him.

Kate blinked at me now, her eyes narrowing so suddenly that it almost freaked me out. “Did you not expect to do it or something on your honeymoon? Why do you look so freaked out?”

I swallowed the awkward lump in my throat, really not knowing how I was supposed to respond to this. “It’s not that I didn’t expect to do it, it’s just… I kind of forgot that that’s what people do on their honeymoons.”

Kate looked at me like she couldn’t believe what I was saying, and I said nothing else. I knew that she had had sex before, everyone knew that she had had sex before, since she had had a baby and everything.

“Why do you even have condoms?” I had to ask her.

She rolled her eyes at me. “Do you think I want to have another baby yet?”

Fair point.

I hoped she didn’t have any other kids for a while. As adorable as Allison was, she was still a handful for her parents. And even though both Logan and Kate had their families helping them, they still had to do most of the work and I could see that it was really hard. Just imagining what it would be like with two babies made my skin crawl. I was definitely not having a baby for a long time. I didn’t even care what Zach said.

But then again…

“But I want to have another one,” Kate continued with a smile, and I knew she was excited for the time when she could have another baby. “I’m going to wait for a couple of years, but I really can’t wait until I’m pregnant again. Logan and I were talking about it and we decided that we want four.”

I blinked at her. “That’s a lot of babies.”

She shrugged. “I know, but I’m sure we can do it. We’ll do it together. We both want a lot of kids, so… yeah. It’ll work out.”

I was sure it would. Both Logan and Kate were strong people, and together they were sure a power couple. All of the kids they were going to have were sure going to be lucky to have parents like them.

But now thinking about them having children worried me about having children. Would I be a great mother like Kate? Would Zach be a great father like Logan? I didn't know when we were going to have kids, but I was sure hoping it wouldn't be for a while. I didn't know about 
Zach, but I definitely wasn't ready for a baby yet.

But I couldn't help but feel a little worried. Zach had rushed into marrying me, so would he rush into having a baby? I didn't think I wanted to find out. We were still I'm high school, so I knew he wasn't going to want to have a baby just yet, but I knew I wanted to wait for 
a couple of years. This was definitely something we were going to have to talk about.

But I had to stop worrying about that right then. I was getting married the next day, and I wasn't about to let any of my crazy thoughts ruin it. I didn't have to think about babies yet, Aveline was 
gone so I was now safe, and Zach and I loved each other more than anything. There wasn't a single thing I had to worry about.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please NOMINATE Ethan for Funniest Character! It would mean so much to me! :)

Only three chapters left! The next chapter is the one I've been waiting to write ever since I started writing this story! :D

This is for the 2012 Watty Awards! Please COMMENT, VOTE, and SHARE! <3