★

AMARA SAT AT THE Gallagher's table, with a mouthful of lasagna as she proofread Ian's essay. Her eyes scanned the piece of paper in front of her, and every so often she'd use a red pen and mark a spelling error. The door behind her swung open to reveal Veronica, who threw her purse down onto the countertop angrily.

"Well, the weddings not gonna work," she announced.

"Why not?" Amara asked, a thick noddle falling out of her mouth back onto the plate, and Lip laughed loudly from the seat next to her.

"That's attractive."

"Thanks I try," she replied, barely audible due to the food in her mouth.

"What happened?" Fiona questioned, standing up from feeding Liam at his high chair.

"Mama wants a real priest."

"Sheila said she'll make your wedding dress if you want," Debbie informed, glancing towards Veronica, who was grabbing a cup from one of the cabinets.

"Oh that's nice," Veronica commented. "But what good is the dress if I don't have a priest?"

"Why does it matter?" Amara wondered, making Veronica look her way. "I mean it is your wedding, right? Why does it matter what your mom wants?"

Veronica sighed, "because I actually like my mama. I know it's my wedding, but she's been waiting for me to get married my entire life. I want her to be happy with my decisions. I know that's hard for you to understand."

"Hey!" Amara flung a noodle at her, and the room broke out into a chorus of laughs. "That's not true. I actually did enjoy spending time with my mom before she became a raging, psychotic, drunken bitch."

"Mara could write a book with words to describe her mother," Fiona said with the shake of her head. "It's truly amazing. She's like another version of me!"

"What if you hired an actor?" Debbie questioned, changing the subject back to the wedding again. "Remember the guy who played Elmo at my birthday party?"

"You remember that?" Fiona sounded shocked.

"He took his head off!" Debbie said, her eyes widening. "It was traumatizing."

"Isn't it the same guy who twerked on me when I was thirteen?"

"Yup," Lip answered, handing her a piece of bread with butter on it. She grinned at him as she took it from his grasp, and she dipped it in the lasagna sauce. He knew her way too well. "The eighth grade formal. He was a chaperone."

"Not anymore, I hope," Fiona muttered, before looking at Veronica again. "You think an actor could work?"

"You know what?" Lip cut in. "I could probably get Father Pete to do it. If Carl will help."

"What's it gonna cost me?" Veronica asked.

"Uh, Karen and I use your place on Friday?"

Amara gagged from her spot at the table, making Fiona chuckle, and Lip roll his eyes. "Gross. They're totally gonna do it in your shower."

"We will not," Lip defended with another eye roll.

"Done," Veronica answered from the fridge, ignoring the teens' bickering. It wasn't unusual for Lip and Amara to insult each other, in fact, it would be weird if they weren't. Everybody around the house has gotten used to it, and even placed bets on who would have the better comebacks.

Amara, of course, would always out-wit him, and her reward was that she got to annoy them everyday. At least, that's what Ian said. Although Amara knew that they all loved her, so the jokes didn't bother her at all.

"Father Pete?" Fiona echoed. "The groper?"

"God willing," Lip responded with a smirk, and Amara nearly choked on her food with a laugh. "We got hotdogs?"

"No hotdogs," the eldest sister denied, and the room went silent as Carl walked in with a jar in his hands. Amara took notice of the goldfish swimming around inside, and watched with wide eyes as he stuck it in the microwave.

Carl turned around, glancing between the five of them, batting his eyes innocently. "What?"

★

"You don't have to go too crazy here, Shelia," Veronica told the older woman. Amara sat comfortably next to Debbie and Silvia, the two girls looking at a bridal magazine. "But as close to Ver Wang as you can."

"You are going to make a beautiful bride," Shelia commented softly, and Veronica's face broke out into a smile.

"Aww, Sheila! You're making me feel like Cinderella!"

"Screw Cinderella!" Karen yelled from the dining room. "Little doe-eyed bitch. Probably one of the worst role models for little girls."

"No," Amara argued. "I think the worst role models are girls who sleep with a different guy every night, even though they said they were going be exclusive with someone. Just my opinion though." Karen scowled at her, and Fiona lightly smacked her leg, although she couldn't hide the small smirk forming on her face.

"What? As opposed to not getting laid since freshman year?"

"It beats getting an STD at the age of twelve," Amara shot back, crossing her arms in annoyance.

"I think Cinderella was a feminist," Sheila said, clearly trying to diffuse the tension between the two girls.

"The whole idea of marriage is useless vestige of an archaic civilization."

"How would you know?" Debbie snapped.

"Yeah," Silvia spoke next. "You don't even have a boyfriend. You just have fuck buddies."

Amara snickered at her choice of words, knowing that she'd overheard her tell Fiona that the night before. "I bet she's fun at parties," she whispered to the brunette next to her, who shook her head in amusement. "I mean, seriously. Way to rain on Veronica's parade. It's her wedding day tomorrow, for God's sake. Why is she acting like somebody just killed her dog?"

"Maybe somebody did," Fiona replied with a shrug, and they both laughed.

"Because I watched one unravel," Karen responded to Debbie and Silvia, making Shelia shoot her daughter a dirty look.

"Oh," Debbie scoffed. "So one example of a bad one makes them all bad? Hmm?"

"I still wanna get married," Silvia stated. "I want a pink and purple wedding!"

"Oh my Gosh!" Debbie replied just as eagerly. "Me too! We can have matching weddings. Ooh! Or we can have our weddings on the same day and combine them together!"

Amara quirked a brow as they continued to plan their future weddings. For a second, she wished she were a child again. She'd love to have no concept of how shitty the world was, and how stuff was before everything got complicated. Why did she want to grow up again?

"In olden times, marriage was nothing more than a legal exchange of woman for property."

"Maybe you're being a little pessimistic," Fiona told her.

"It's just a piece of paper!" Karen defended.

"And a birth certificate is just a piece of paper, but that has value." Debbie said. "Money is just a piece of paper!"

"And we're human beings that live on a floating ball that could just decide to fall at any given moment," Amara chimed in, and they all looked at her weirdly. "Yeah, too dark. My bad, I'm just a professional overthinker. Hey, is there a job for that?"

"Hey," Veronica's voice rang out, and she stared down Amara. "Gloria Steinem, enough of the blah-blah." Amara jokingly stuck her tongue out at the older girl, and then stole a handful of chips from the bag Fiona that was placed in her lap. "Let's talk bachelorette party."

"I already got that covered," Fiona said.

"You better," V replied, doing a little dance on top of the table she was standing on. "Cause we gonna be doing it!"

★

Amara followed after Lip into the church, and she looked around the large room curiously. She'd never really gone to church, her mother wasn't necessarily a religious person, so this was basically her first time inside of one. Well, besides the few times her and the boys had stolen things from it before.

"Why do I have to do it?" Carl asked, sounding annoyed.

"Cause you're the only one who's young enough to be an alter boy."

"But Amara's short like a kid!" Carl protested, and Amara lightly smacked the back of his head.

"I'm not a boy, genius."

"You sure look like one," Carl shot back, and she shoved him.

"Shut up."

"Besides, we'll stop him before anything goes down," Ian cut in. "Promise. Amara might be short, but she knows how to pull hair and kick ass."

"Thank you," she mocked. "And I'm still growing, for your information. So be quiet."

Ian flinched, covering the top of his head with his hands. "Not the hair!"

Lip chuckled, before knocking on the door, and the man looked up from his seat. "The Gallagher boys and their girlfriend," Father Pete greeted, and Amara shifted uncomfortably, not liking the way he was sizing her up. His gaze found Carl, and his smile broadened creepily. "If you three are here to steal the new offering basket, you're out of luck. Already off to the bank."

"Relax," Amara said, subconsciously stepping behind Lip so he couldn't stare at her boobs any longer. "That was a one time thing."

"Yeah," Lip agreed, glancing back at her with a confused look on his face, as if he didn't understand why she was suddenly standing behind him. "Carl here is interested in being an alter boy."

"Well that's a big responsibility," Father Pete said, crouching down to stoop to the short boy's level.

"Yeah, we tried talking him out of it, but he just kept on crying and crying. So we brought him in. See if you thought he had what it takes."

"Hello there, Carl."

Lip smacked his shoulder encouragingly. "Be back for you in a bit bud."

The trio walked over to the seating area, but only Ian and Amara sat down. Lip leaned against the row behind him.

"Wanna watch Scarface again tonight?" Lip asked.

"Can't," Ian replied. "I got a date."

"With your boyfriend or fake girlfriend?" Amara questioned, laying back on the bench to stare at the tall ceiling above her.

"With Kash," he clarified, and she heard Lip chuckle.

"You're a slut," the blonde said, and suddenly a loud grunt echoed throughout the church, making Amara shoot up from her position. "Shit." They ran towards the back room again, finding Carl standing over a knocked out Pete. Lip glanced back to Ian and Amara with a smirk.

"Looks like we've got a priest for V's wedding."

★