My assumption was confirmed when they all plopped down on the couches. I cautiously sat on one of the couches near Kayla, sinking down on it immediately making me relax more.

"So... what do you think?" Jayden asked, breaking the silence.

"Eh, looks nice."

"Liar," Adrien narrows his eyes at me, "You probably think it's nothing compared to your rich house."

I scoff, "Rich? Do you have any idea how my house looks?"

"No, but I assumed with your brother being a cop and everything-" Preston starts answering for him but drifts off when his sister, Kayla, sends him a glare.

"Ha! I'm anything but rich," I claim and then blush, not knowing why I had brought that up. Kyle, Colin, and I manage but with our parents gone on business trips all the time, then gambling all their money away at casinos, we are always tight when it comes to finances. My brothers both started working at an early age and I work part time jobs, whenever I get the chance, to pay off bills.

I heard the door swing open from the hallway and everyone swirled their heads to see who it was. Two younger girls walk into the room bickering.

"It's fall, Val! You can't have ice cream in the fall!" the older girl says in an exasperated voice.

The little girl, who looked to be about five, runs up to Adrien and climbs up on his lap. Giving him a cute kiss on the cheek, she looks up at him expectantly. "Can we please have ice cream Adrien?" She asks in a little voice, pronouncing her 'l's and 'r's like 'w's, making it sound like 'adwien'.

Adrien sighs, looking at the girl with so much love, my heart melts. He looks up at me and points to the older girl first, then to the younger one, on his lap who was now playing with his watch. "Autumn, this is Harley. She's in eighth grade and this is Valerie, she is in kindergarten," he introduces. I wave to both the girls and they give small waves back to me.

Valerie then jumps off Adrien's lap and starts running towards the direction where I was sitting. My arms reach out to grab her as she trips and stumbles over the carpet. Picking herself back up, she lifts her tiny hands up and slings them around my neck, giving me a warming hug. Adrien gives me a grateful glance as I lift Valerie up to sit beside me on the couch.

"Wow, she's usually not comfortable with new people. She took about a year to even come sit next to me," Jayden admits. "Hm? Valerie do you just not like me?," he juts his lips out and raises his eyebrows, making a pouty face.

"Autumn's prettier!" Valerie comments, laughing as she clung onto my neck tighter, almost on my lap.

Harley walks over and sits on the couch near Adrien, right opposite to me. "I mean, she's not wrong. I feel like I've seen you before somewhere." After a moment's thought, she gasps suddenly, "Hey! You work at the orphanage! I've visited my friend's sister there before and you're the girl all the kids basically fangirl about!"

I laugh and take one of my hands that were balancing Valerie off her back and place it on my chest, "I'm honored to hear the kids love me since I love them a lot too, and yes, I do work at the orphanage."

"Woah, Autumn Scott works at an orphanage? Unbelievable, I thought you would be at a rich kid job as a model or something?" Again with bringing up the money. I frown at Adrien and he holds his hands up in surrender, "Hey, I didn't mean that offensively or anything."

Deciding to let him off the hook, I wrapped my hands around Valerie's waist and turned to Harley, "tell them I said hi the next time you go visit." She nodded in response.

"So!" Kayla stands off the couch and claps her hands together, "who wants ice cream?"

"Ice cream!" Valerie immediately screams and skips off my lap, jumping up and down with her hand raised.

"Kay, are you serious? It's fall," Preston emphasizes, giving his sister a look of disapproval.

"That's what I told Val!" Harley complains.

"Okay, okay, all of you," Adrien rubs his hand over his face, an action that reminded me of Kyle. "No ice cream but we can go play a board game!"

Valerie pouts when she hears the no ice cream but immediately picks up at the board game offer. She runs out of the room, down the hall, turning right, instead of left, the way we came. I hear a door slam shut and then she comes out of the room, holding a box, Monopoly, in her right hand.

She places it on the floor in the middle of the carpet and we all slide off the couch, one by one, to go sit in a circle besides her. She dumps everything out of the box onto the carpet and Amara starts collecting the monopoly money into piles, organized by value, placed under the side of the board. Having played this game with my brothers many times, I grab the house cards and organize them by color on the side so they are easier to find.

"I call being banker!" Harley yells, earning a glare from her older brother. I smile at how protective and loving Adrien is towards his sister. Something about it reminds me of how Colin and Kyle treat me daily.

"No! You got to be it last time! Can I?" I pushed down the jealousy that shot up on how close they all were. Athena was my best friend but we never hung out much, since she was always social, and we weren't this close anyway.

"Fine!" Harley groans and Kayla smiles with victory. They argue once again over pieces and finally settle on Harley getting the ship while Kayla with the shoe.

a/n: hi! i hope everyone's having a great day! val and harley are adorable!

anyway much love!