As Alex and I walked through the twisting hallways towards the kitchen I told myself to ask him to make a map for me later.

We passed multiple people, some that looked familiar, and some that looked almost exactly like the last person I saw. Which was definitely weird.

"This is going to sound really weird, but I think I'm going crazy."

He put his hand on his chest and gasped, "No!"

"Yeah I know right, crazy. But was there perhaps two of the same people that just walked by?"

He started laughing and said, "Oh you mean Josey and Eli? They're twins, almost completely identical."

"Oh good, so I'm not going crazy."

"I wouldn't say that."

I hit his arm and we kept walking.

Finally we reached the kitchen and I couldn't help but notice how loud everything was compared to last night.

"You know what you're an idiot Chris. I mean honestly, I have to save your arse for everything. No thanks or no change. Just an I'm sorry and I won't do it again. Well you know what I'm done with the bloody 'I'm sorrys,' change your ways and I'll help you get out of a mess. But before then, ask someone else." Kenny came barging out of the kitchen and as we walked in I saw a darker haired boy, shirtless, throw an apple across the kitchen and it slammed against the wall, splattering.

"Christopher James Meyers if you don't clean that up I'll sick your father on you!"

"Oh bloody hell Lianne, shut up." He went to storm out of the kitchen but Alex caught his shoulder.

"Get off me."

"Chris you should listen to him."

"Oh like I should listen to you?"

"Well you should listen to someone." Alex growled. Alex looked so concerned and stern, I wondered what was going on.

"Yeah well good luck with that." Chris shook Alex's hand off and stormed out of the kitchen.

"I'll be right back." Alex told me before running after Chris.

"What was that all about?" I asked Lianne

"Chris has some problems and Kenny is sick of fixing them for him. That's all I'm going to say."

"Oh." I looked at the mess on the wall. "Where are the towels?"

"The towels?" I motioned towards the splattered apple on the wall and she shook her head, "Darling it's alright, I'll get it."

"I insist." She handed me the towel and nodded her head in satisfaction when I had finished and thrown away the leftover apple.

"Thank you my dear, would you like some pancakes?"

"Yes please." She put two pancakes on a plate and handed it to me. I heard a crash upstairs and looked at Lianne.

"It's okay. You get used to it after awhile. Just make sure when something like this happens, don't get into the middle of it."

"Duley noted." She chuckled and turned back to the stove.

"Lianne, I'm hungry." A tired, high pitched voice said from behind me.

"Goodmorning Gracie, would you like some pancakes too?"

The little girl climbed up into the chair next to me and nodded. She was in Frozen pajamas and held a stuffed reindeer. Her hair was a frizzy mess of long brownish-orange curls. A ginger.

"Here you go Ms. Gracie."

"Thank you Lianney." Lianne looked at me and smiled. She winked and turned back to the stove once again.

I finished my pancakes a few minutes later and felt a little queezy, but I pushed it aside.

"Wait!" Gracie shot her drooping head up all of a sudden and looked at me with bright blue eyes.

"Hi." I said laughing, she was so adorable

"Are you my new big sister?!" She yelled with a huge grin on her face to show a couple of missing teeth.

Sister? I didn't know about that just yet. I got here yesterday and I was already being called a sister? She was young, but still, wow.

I couldn't turn down her big, bright blue eyes and smile though.

"I guess so." I finally said

"Yes!" She jumped into my lap and wrapped her arms around my neck tightly. "Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!" She giggled

"Um, you're welcome?"

"Ms. Gracie has been talking about you non-stop since her daddy told her you were coming to live with us. She was mostly excited about finally getting a sister instead of all her brothers."

"Wait. Woah woah woah woah woah. Brothers? Finally getting a sister? She's the only girl?!" I was not aware of this.

Not at all.

"Except you!" Gracie yelled, she climbed back into her own chair and smothered her pancakes in syrup.

"You didn't know that?" Lianne asked confusedly.

"Um, no."

"Oh well I'm sorry dear. They're not all that bad, they just have their bad days like everyone else."

"How many are there?" I asked. I started counting off the ones I've seen.

Alex.

Kenny.

The twins.

Chris.

That's five.

Plus Gracie is six.

Plus me is seven.

Wow that's a lot of kids.

I took a bite of my pancakes.

"Well Paul has nine boys." I spit out my pancakes and choked. Gracie started patting my back and asked frantically,

"Are you okay?!"

"I-I um, I'm fine." I too a deep breath. "Nine?!"

"Well two of them are in college." I sighed with relief

"But they're coming home sometime during the summer."

"So let me get this straight. Nine boys, one girl. That's ten kids."

"Plus you is eleven my dear." I resumed eating my pancakes as Alex came back into the kitchen absolutely fuming.

"Hey there." I said as he sat down at the buffet with me.

"Hi." He deadpanned "Lianne can I please have some pancakes?"

"Of course you can."

Alex sighed but smiled a little bit. "May I please have some pancakes Lianne?"

"Why yes you may." She set a plate of pancakes in front of him and he devoured them silently.

"Alex!" Gracie beamed after a minute or two.

"What's up baby girl?" Alex immediately brightened up as she climbed into his lap.

"Have you met my new sister?"

"I have."

"Isn't she awesome?" I laughed and Alex looked at me out of the corner of his eye.

"I don't know, she's okay I guess."

"Okay?!" Gracie said incredulously, "She's awesome."

"I thought I was awesome." Alex mocked hurt and Gracie hugged him tightly.

"You are Alex, just not as awesome as her."

"You haven't been in the house a whole day and you're already replacing me." Alex said to me

"Yeah, it's called swag."

"None of which you have, you're just a girl so she likes you better."

Gracie climbed into my lap and stuck her tongue out at Alex.

"Exactly, she likes me better than a bunch of stinky boys." I said to Alex and Gracie plugged her nose.

"Yeah, stinky boys." Her voice sounded funny.

"Well maybe I'm the one who should take a swim in the pool."

"Maybe you should." Alex laughed and Gracie went to finish her pancakes. "Hey can you show me back up to my room?" I asked Alex

"Of course, as long as you don't attack me again."

"You threw me into the pool!" I exclaimed as we started walking through the many hallways and rooms.

"You wouldn't get out of bed!"

"Are you two still talking about this?" Kenny asked coming out of a room. He was shirtless yet again but this time smelled all gross and sweaty.

"She brought it up!" Alex said as I looked into the room to confirm my suspicions. It indeed was a workout room. Complete with, well, whatever you would need to work out.

This room was considerably smaller than a full gym though, probably only meant for one or two people to work out at a time.

"There's a full gym on the third floor." Alex whispered in my ear and I jumped back in surprise.

"Wow you're easily scared."

"I am not!"

"You are too."

"Am not!"

"Are too."

"You're impossible."

"This is true." Alex chuckled "That's Kenny's workout room, he doesn't really let anyone in there. If you're ever looking for him though, you know where to find him. Just beware the stench."

"I'm standing right here Alex, I can hear you."

"Oh trust me, I know." Kenny threw a towel at him and Alex recoiled before it hit him and we continued walking down the hallway.

"So when are you going to unpack?" Alex asked as we came into my room.

"Probably today and tomorrow." I went over to my bed and a wave of nausea hit me. I stumbled and Alex was by my side immediately.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah I-I'm just not feeling good all of a sudden."

"Why don't you sit down." I sat down on the edge of the bed and he put his hand on my forehead.

"Well you're not feverish."

"That's good." My stomach all of a sudden clenched and I ran into the bathroom and puked my breakfast up.

Alex stood there the whole time, holding back my hair for me.

When it seemed like I was finally done, he filled a cup with water and handed it to me.

"Sip it." I nodded and sat back. I took a sip and felt it slide down my burning throat.

"Stay here, don't move." I rested my head on the cool bathtub and waited for him to come back.

"Lianne said its's probably motion sickness or jet lag from the plane ride yesterday. She sent Helena up here with some medicine. Here let's get you into bed." He took my water from me and set it on the counter. He then picked me up bride style and carried me to my bed. I leaned my head against his shoulder as he laid me down and pulled the covers up over me.

Another older lady who I hadn't seen before came in and gave me some medicine to take. She took my temperature and nodded.

"No temperature, poor dear. I'll bring you up some food later on. For now just rest." Her and Alex left and closed the door behind them. I felt my eyes droop and I let them shut, falling asleep.

~°~°~°~°~°~

I woke up multiple times throughout the day and puked my guts out. Sometimes Alex was there and sometimes he wasn't.

It seemed though that he would always show up sooner or later. After I would puke he would come a couple minutes later and take me back to bed because I was so nauseous.

After about the third time puking my guts out I developed a serious headache.

Now Alex didn't leave my side at all, even while I was sleeping because I felt so dizzy.

Finally around dinner time I began to feel better.

Helena brought me a bowl of chicken soup and Alex put in a movie.

"You don't have to stay in here with me, in fine."

"I want to." He came around and sat on the bed next to me, resting his head against the headboard like me. As I slowly ate my soup and watched whatever movie Alex had put in I took notice of how close he was to me. His arm was around my shoulder and one of his legs was over top of mine.

He must've noticed me staring at him because he bent down and smiled at me.

"Uncomfortable?" He asked, almost shyly, like he wanted me to disagree.

"Not at all." I smiled back at him

"Then I guess I'll do this then." He intertwined his hand with mine and looked back at the TV. I blushed profusely and was glad that he wasn't looking.

"Then I guess I'll do this." I snuggled in close to him and rested my head on his shoulder.

"Then I'll do this." He kissed the top of my head. "You're hair smells like coconut."

"Is that a good thing?"

He nodded. "I like coconut."

"So what exactly is happening here? You know, just to clear things up."

"Well I believe we're flirting with each other."

"Okay." I blushed again

"Do you want to stop?"

"Nope." I said with a yawn. I saw the edges of Alex's mouth twitch up slightly as he turned his head back towards the movie. I smiled as I let my eyes close and fell asleep once again. Though this time, my head was on the shoulder of a very attractive guy.