Delilah sighed when she heard her grandparents come in through the front door. She pauses her typing to glance out into the living room.

"Delilah!" David calls. She hurried to where the couple is standing in the kitchen. They look worn out, emotionally drained, and unhappy. "You got the groceries?"

"Yes sir." She mumbles.

"Hmm?!" He answers sharply.

"Yes sir." Delilah says again, startled, but louder, and more clear.

"You took the bus by yourself?"

"I- yeah." Delilah cringes. She doesn't know how to feel about lying, if she should've.

"See, didn't have to throw such a fit about it. Where's the extra money?"

"Yeah, um, right there." She points to the cash sitting in the counter and David grabs the money. Delilah has left more than it would've been if she'd bought the groceries, not wanting to be yelled at anymore.

At least mum would be visiting soon.

"Mh. Thankyou." He hummed, leaving and going up the stairs.

"Have you made any progress on your schooling yet?"

"A bit." Delilah sighs, making Marcy glare.

"Make sure you catch up." She orders harshly.

Delilah nods and Marcy leaves as well, leaving Delilah to sigh in relief and return to her room and her work.

She works in anything other than that bothersome English project until she's caught up and beyond in all her other classes.

The next day, around 1, she picks her phone up, remembering that her mother would be on lunch break around now, she calls her.

"Delilah, dear!" Her mother answers cheerily.

"Hi, mummy." Delilah grins as the sound of her moms voice.

"How's everything going, baby? I'm sorry I couldn't call you yesterday, my break was cut short and I was so tired when I arrived home."

"It's okay, mama. I understand. I'm pretty good. How are you?"

"I'm fine babe. Your grandparents are being nice?"

"Well..." Delilah sighs, picking at her nails a bit. "They're not- not too bad. I'm okay, don't worry."

April hums. "I'm sorry lovely, I'm sure they'll get better. You're being such a good sport, love, I'm so proud of you."

Delilah felt her heart swell at the words. "Thankyou mama."

"Have you made any friends?" April asks excitedly.

"Kinda, there are some neighbors who are really nice."

"That's lovely baby! Are they your age?"

"They're a bit older." Delilah hums.

"How about school, darling? How's that been? It seems like you're all caught up on my end. Oh, except for English. You're a bit behind?"

"Yes, theres um- an essay that I- I don't have any idea how to do it, or even approach it." Delilah pouts.

"Well, it's not gonna go away if you ignore it, I hate to tell you, darling."

"I know, I just need to do a bit of research and I figured if I get ahead on my other classes so I'll have time to do it."

"Mm, alright, well just make sure it gets done, love. I have to go, but I'll be down to visit in one more week, baby. I miss you so much and I can't wait. I love you!"

"Love you too, mummy." Delilah smiles sadly, tears brimming her eyes. April hangs up and Delilah sniffles, telling herself to stop being such a baby.

She should find something to distract herself, she decides. She knows, ethically, she should do her schoolwork, but oh she just can't force herself right now. That's much too stressful.

So she gets out her nail polish and tries to decide from the many pretty pastels and such.

When she has a hard time deciding, she remembers that she heard her grandparents leave a bit ago, and that the boys gave her an open invitation to come over anytime. Company sounds nice to her right now.

Delilah smiles as she puts all the nail varnish bottles back into the pretty little white basket she has them in and shyly leaves the house, making sure she looks presentable, and hoping the boys won't mind her coming over for help with such a girly task as deciding what color to paint her nails.

As Delilah walks, he giggles to herself at the idea of the four manly boys helping her paint her nails, maybe painting their own as well.

She knocks on the door, hearing one of their voices yell "come in!" Delilah thinks it might've been michaels voice.

She finds that odd, they don't know who's there and if it might be a stranger but they're inviting them inside.

Regardless, she opens the door and comes in quietly, closing it behind her and listening to find out where the rackets coming from.

She deduced that they're most likely upstairs, but she doesn't know if she's allowed to just wonder up. She's not in the house she's currently living in, much less so here, she assumes.

"Um, it's me!" She calls up the stairs, hearing a chorus of chuckles.

"Well what are you doing down there, silly girl? Come on up. Or grab snacks first, If you want." She thinks it's luke, this time.

She gladly takes the offer, padding into the kitchen and opening the cupboard to where she thinks she remembers she saw them take snack like items out of, and grabbing a large bag of chips, some sugary cereal, and a package of Oreos.

Delilah grins as she carries all the items up the stairs and into what seems to be a second living room, where the four men are playing video games.

They all greet her with various adorable pet names as she wonders in and sits herself down on a beanbag, placing the snack items on the coffee table and taking a handful of Oreos.

"What are you up to today, princess?" Ashton asks, although his eyes are focused on the video game in front of him.

Delilah giggles as Michael groans at something, then answers. "I was doing my school work, but I got bored."

"Li, babygirl, would you give me one of those?" Calum asks, gesturing vaguely toward the cookies with his elbow. Delilah smiles and grabs one, extending it to him, and he opens his mouth, not taking his eyes away from the screen.

Again, the little girl giggles and gently sticks the Oreo into the Maori mans mouth, before grabbing a few chips for herself.

"Hey, no fair. I wanna be hand fed too!" Luke complains, and Delilah laughs.

"You're too far away."

Luke tsks, then chuckles. The pink haired girl empties the basket of nail polish onto the floor and spreads them out, humming a bit.

"What color should I paint my nails?"

The four briefly draw their eyes away from the screen to look at the options before going back to the game.

"I think the light pink, to go with your hair." Ashton says.

"No, she should do baby blue." Luke says. "Matches your eyes."

"Mh hm. Lavender." Michael inputs.

"I like the yellow." Calum argues.

"You guys were supposed to make this easier, not even more difficult."

"Just do all the colors." Michael chuckles.

"That would look messy." Delilah sighs dejectedly.

"What's wrong with a little bit of a mess?"

Delilah hums and shrugs. "I guess." She picks up the lavender and paints it on her thumb. "What are you playing?"

"Over watch." Luke answers.

An: Im sorry guys I know nothing about video games so if it's like "Hey four people can't play over watch on the same tv at the same time" I'm sorry but bear with me it's not that important to the story itself, yeah?

Delilah hums as she looks at the screen.

"Do you play video games, doll?" Ashton asks.

"No." Delilah sighs as she begins painting the pale yellow on next nail. "I asked once, but mum said most video games are too violent. Doesn't want me playing them."

Calum scoffs as his character is killed.

"Your mums probably right, love. You're a bit too little." Luke hums.

"M not too little." Delilah pouts, looking up from her nails. "I can do it."

"No, you're too little." Calum teases as he sits next to the little girl. Delilah pouts and sticks her tongue out at him. She moves on to doing baby blue on her middle finger.

"You should do black on that one. It can be like an accent nail." Calum says as he watches her paint, pointing to her ring finger.

"They're all accent nails." Delilah giggles.

"Yeah, but you're doing all colorful pastels."

"Mhm, sure." Delilah smiles at calum as she picks up the black. Her mum said she doesn't really want Delilah to paint her nails black because it's too grown up and a bit 'goth' looking, but it's just one nail.

She finishes that hand with light pink on her pinky finger and then looks to calum, who's paying attention to the video game on the screen.

"Calum?" She asks delicately, and the kiwi man turns his attention back to her.

"Could you do my right hand? Please?"

"I can try. It probably won't look as neat, though." He chuckles, picking up the lavender bottle.

"Better than if I try with my left hand." Delilah hums. "Can I do yours too?" She giggles, not really expecting an answer, or a positive one, at least.

"Sure." Calum shrugs. "I want black."

Delilah's eyes light up at this. "Really? I didn't think you'd say yes."

Calum chuckles as he tediously tries his best to paint Delilah's nails without making a mess of them. It takes him a bit longer than it took delilah to paint her left hand, but Delilah doesn't mind. She's grateful he even agreed to paint her nails in the first place.

By the time he's finished, Luke's dead too- in the game, that is,- and has joined them sitting by the beanbag chair and watching, adding to their conversation.

"You should do mine too, babydoll. I want them blue." Delilah grins at the opportunity and nods.

"Course." She paints a matte top coat over all her nails before delicately starting on calums hands with black. While she waits for them to dry, she does Luke's baby blue, then goes back and does a matte top coat on calum, then a glossy top coat on Luke.

When she's finished and screws the cap on her topcoat, and squeals when she's picked up and set in Michaels lap, who has sat himself behind her when she wasn't paying attention. "You scared me! Rude!" She giggles as the boy all laugh at her reaction. Ashton has joined and sat next to calum.

"Gimme the cereal please." Delilah hums and calum passes it to her, all of them snacking on it as they talk.

"How are you doing, babe?" Ash asks.

"I'm okay. What about you guys?"

"We're good, just okay?"

"Schools just kinda upsetting, but it's fine, I'll deal with it." Delilah hums, leaning back against Michael.

"What's upsetting?"

"I'm having a hard time with an essay in my English class, that's all." Delilah hums. Ashton grabs the basket of nail polish and looks through the colors. He decides on dark red and hands the bottle to the small girl in Michaels lap.

Delilah smiles brightly at Ashton as she unscrews the bottle and takes his large. soft hand, resting it on her knee and begin to paint his nails as well. "This is a pretty color." She mutters, and the five go back to conversation.  She does a glassy top coat on Ashton before Michael has her do dark green on his nails, with a matte top coat.

Delilah lays sleepily against Michael as they all talk, and after a while, she sighs and pouts.

"I think I should go back."

"Why's that, princess?" Calum questions gently, setting a hand on her thigh and rubbing comfortingly.

"Marcy and David are gonna be back soon, probably. They'll be upset if I'm not there, I didn't tell them I was leaving." she leans further into Michael and he wraps his arms around her tightly. "But I don't wanna gooooo." Delilah whines a bit and they chuckle.

"Why didn't you tell them you were leaving? Do they not let you?"

"I mean, I don't know. They weren't around. They're kinda mean." The little girl hums tiredly, not thinking too much about what she says. She whines a bit when she's pulled into a different person lap. She hears Ashton and Michael argue between each other and realizes it's Ashton who dragged her into his lap. She's facing him with her head rested on his chest legs curled up on top of his.

"They're mean to you?"

"They're not nice."

"What do you mean by that, babygirl?" Luke asks, setting a hand on her legging covered thigh.

"They're rude. Say mean stuff." Delilah relies quietly.

"Like what?"

"Like I'm a baby or crybaby or whiny or immature, irritating, ungrateful, brat, annoying, inconsiderate, over sensitive..." the boys frown as Delilah tiredly rambles.

"That's not good, baby." Calum frowns. "They shouldn't treat you like that."

"It's true." The pink haired girl whines tiredly.

"No, it's not, and they shouldn't act like that."

"They're just grumpy." Delilah hums. "But mums visiting soon so it'll be okay."

"Yeah? You're mums coming?" Luke asks.

"Mhm, in a week. M happy."

"That's good, baby." Luke says, and they all chuckle at her sleepiness and her tired responses, before calum picks her up and carries her downstairs, the. sets her down at the frown door, Luke bringing down her nail polish. The four all hug her goodbye before she returns to her grandparents house, and luckily, they haven't returned. She goes to her room and eats a piece of candy before laying in bed and scrolling through er laptop, soon falling asleep like that.