•2375 words•

EDITED

"Welcome to our home!" I exclaim, as Addi walks through the door.

Addi is Jamie's little sister, and she's coming to live with us for a month. I've always wanted a little sister, so I'm going to try my best to become really close with Addi. Despite what Ash and Jamie have warned me about, I can't wait to get to know her better.

They warned me that if there's one thing I ought to know about Addi, it's that she has a viscous temper. Her constant meltdowns and anger issues are enough to annoy anyone, supposedly. Well, we'll soon see about that, as I can cope with a lot. A few years ago, I had a foster carer who fostered A LOT of children. And I mean, A LOT- maybe about 12 at a time. The house was huge, and to be honest, it was kind of like a mini orphanage. I stayed there for around 4 months, and boy, did I go through a lot during that time. Half of the kids were aged 2-7, and almost all of those had issues with their temper. The house was like a zoo, I swear. Nevertheless, the kids were actually quite nice. And in that case, I guess I can manage to live with ONE 6-year-old for a QUARTER of the time I lived with ELEVEN of them.

I take Addi upstairs to show her to Myliey's room. Now, I love kids, so I wanted her to stay in my room. However, Myliey kinda took first dibs. Her room is bigger, too, so it's probably better for both of them.

Myliey has been quite upset lately, so maybe having a little roommate will cheer her up. She did get excited when we told her that Addi was coming to live with us, so I think she likes kids.

"This is it!" I shout, as I open Myliey's door as wide as it will go. "This is your new room, Addi!"
She runs straight in, and jumps on the bed. Kyron and Jamie built a temporary bed for her last night with some scrap wood from the garden. They did a pretty good job, to be fair. There was a spare mattress in the loft, also, so they put that down, along with my spare duvet and Ash's spare pillows. She has a bunch of spares. Addi's new bed looks so cosy- I want to sleep in it.

There's nothing better than a smile on a child's face, and that's what I'm seeing right now. She looks so happy to be here, the cutie pie. See, children aren't so bad.

She stops jumping on the bed for a minute, and sits down. She looks around in awe of the pink decorations (which Kyron and Jamie bought from the shop) and then looks over to the other corner of the room- Myliey's side. Myliey's side has yellow wallpaper and, surprise- yellow decorations.

"I want those, I want those!" Addi declares, pointing to Myliey's wallpaper and decorations.
"Look," I tell her. "You have lovely pink ones; you don't need yellow ones above your bed like Myliey has."
"Fine," she says in a strop, looking down with sad eyes.
"The yellow decorations are only over there," I sigh. "You can look at them whenever you want."

She jumps up to me and gives me a hug. I smile, as she smiles back and says, "I love you, Brooke."

Oh, my God. I'm tearing up. That- sh- she's just adorable!

I hug her tighter until Myliey comes into the room. She walks over to where Addi and I are hugging, and starts to bribe Addi to come to her. She immediately jumps out of my arms and into Myliey's. Myliey then carries her over to her bed, where they both sit down, snicker, and giggle. Ugh, the cheek. How does Myliey even have the audacity to do that? I have to say something to her.

"Er, Myliey? Why did you take Addi off me?"
"Oh, Brooke. Don't be so stupid. She obviously likes me more than you. Don't you, sugar plum?"
She laughs and cuddles Addi. Addi looks at me and nods her head.
"It's true," she says.

Grr. I know what Ash and Jamie meant when they said she's annoying. That's it, I don't like kids anymore. What I was going to say to Myliey was, 'Myliey, she's sleeping in your room. Let me have a little time with her.' But oh no, she can keep her. I just hope Addi turns her back on her. Then she'll understand.

I slam the door of the girls' room and go downstairs to where the others are. They're playing a board-game with Ron- that's something Lisha would never do with us. They all look so happy, and I can't wait to play it with them. It's Guess Who?- my favourite.

"Addi! Myliey!" Ash shouts. "Want to come downstairs and play a game with us?"
"Sure!" Myliey shouts back. I'm quite shocked, because Myliey is never up for playing games.

The 2 of them come running downstairs with a smile on both of their faces. Oh, Myliey. Just you wait until Addi starts to wind you up. Then you'll see. Maybe little children were worse than I thought. In fact, they are. And so are teenage girls- coming from a teenage girl, myself. I can't believe what Addi and Myliey did before.

"What are we playing then?" Addi asks.
"Guess Who," Ash replies, rolling her eyes. I think she's also sick of Addi.
"Ooh, yay!"
"Stop squealing," I interrupt, covering my ears. Jeez, has it been a month yet? I can't wait for Addi to go back home.

Myliey and Addi take a seat down at the table in the dining room with the rest of us.

We have 3 Guess Who games, and there are 7 of us- which means one of us will have to miss out, each round. Myliey and Addi are going to be playing against each other, and the other pairs are Ash and I, and Kyron and Jamie. Ron will switch between us after each game, so he gets to play too. It might sound pretty confusing, but I think it's going to work well.

Let's play.

"No!" Addi strops. She's on the other side of the table, but I can hear her like she's inside of my ear. "I said, does your person have glasses?"

We all stop playing our own games as we notice Addi flipping her and Myliey's game.

"It's not fair!" She wails.

Myliey flips the board game back over and runs after Addi, who has now stumbled upstairs.

"Jeez," Kyron whispers. "She really is a handful."

Jamie nods. "Well, I'm not getting involved," he says. "I've had to put up with her for 6 years, already."

I don't blame him. If I had a little sister like her, I wouldn't want to get involved with her tantrums, either. I guess I should have listened to the warnings Ash and Jamie gave me- this girl really is viscous. I feel sorry for Jamie, too. This is his little sister. And he has had to put up with her for 6 years, as he said.

Myliey and Addi both come back downstairs, and the rest of us are still silent; out of horror. They go to the freezer and Myliey takes out some ice cream. She passes it to Addi and says, "There you go, princess. Let's go upstairs and play a different game."
Both of them glare at the 5 of us sat at the dining table.

What? Ew. She is not a princess. If anything, she's a demon. And she does not deserve ice cream.

If I ever had child and they acted like that, I would be done with them, straight away. They wouldn't act like that in my house- they'd be in time out.

I wonder if I'd be a good mum... I hope so. If I raise my child well, though, then they shouldn't act like Addi in the first place. In fact, what am I on about? I'm 16, and I think that's way too young to have a child.

"Ash," I say. "Do you think I'd make a good mum?"
Yes, I do still want to know.

"Um, that's a bit of a random question," she giggles. "But I reckon you would be!"
"Anyway," I say. "16 is way too young to have a child. I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm not gonna have a kid anytime soon."
"Ha, yeah," she nervously giggles. "Way too young."

She sounds sarcastic.

"It is though, don't you think?"
"Yup," she responds quickly, before getting up from her chair and speed-walking upstairs. What is wrong with her?

Addi and Myliey come downstairs again and go into the living room. Myliey turns on the TV (and puts it onto a kid's channel, of course) and Addi sits down to watch it. Myliey turns around and stares at us, before shutting the door. I think she's just trying to wind us up at this point, but it's not gonna work.

She left it open a little bit when she shut it, so I can see Myliey through the ajar door. She's sat down on the sofa with some blankets, and Addi's sat on her knee. I laugh silently, as I only know what's to come- Addi will turn her back on her. Then, it's game over. Myliey will go back to being in a mood with everyone.

Addi may have only been living with us for a few hours, but I can't wait for Myliey to see the true side of her- the side that I was cautioned about. According to Ashlyn, Addi's psychotic. And already, I can confirm that that is true. Oh God, who knows what else she's capable of. I've never been able to say that I'm scared of a 6-year-old, (even when I lived in the foster home with a bunch of them) but now that I've met Addi, that's changed. I'm scared of her. Very scared.

After breaking my daydream, I notice that Kyron, Jamie and Ron have all left the dining table. They've gone upstairs to Jamie's room to play on his Xbox or something. I'm sat here on my own, ranting to myself. Why don't I go and see how Ash is? Good idea, Brooke.

I walk upstairs and see Ash crying in her room. What in the world is the matter with her? All I said was that 16 is too young to have a child. Hm, maybe she's just upset today.

"What's the matter?" I ask.
"Oh, nothing."
She slowly shuffles away from me as I sit down on her bed.
"Do you not want to talk to me or something?"
"No, it's not that. It's just- Never-mind, I can't tell you."
"Ash! You're my best friend, you know that you can tell me anything."
"Nah, it's fine."
She wipes her tears from her face and jumps off the bed. She paces out off the room. I can't even be bothered to chase after her- she clearly wants to be left alone.

I stay sat on her bed for another 5 minutes or so, and then decide to leave. On the way into my room, I see Ash crying in the bathroom. I don't know if I should go over to her, because she seems like she's in a mood with me. But oh well, why not?

"Ash, I'm sorry. Whatever's the matter, please tell me."
"No, no. It's okay," she sighs. "You haven't done anything. I've just realised something."
"What've you realised?"
"Just... you, talking about how 16 is too young to have a baby."
"Wait-"
"No, no," she chuckles.
"Oh, I was gonna say."
"What were you gonna say?"
"I can't believe you think 16 isn't young."
"Oh. That's not what I thought you were gonna say," she says, slowly.
"What did you think I was gonna say?"
I'm confused.
"Erm... doesn't matter. Bye-bye."

She quickly shuts the bathroom door. What did she think I meant?

Ugh, girls. Sometimes I wish I'd never made friends with any. Don't get me wrong, I love Ashlyn, but sometimes she's really weird. She's usually weird when she's keeping secrets from me. Wait. Is she keeping a secret from me?

OH MY GOD.

IT'S JUST CLICKED! I know what she meant.

I run over to the bathroom, where Ash has stopped crying. I grab her by the collar and pull her into my chest. I then extend my arms so she's thrown backwards, a little.

"ASHLYN EVANSTON," I howl. "You're not, are you?"
"Mhm," she nods.
"I- How do you know?"
"I took a test."
"And it was positive?"
"Mhm. Are you mad?"

I let go of her collar as she starts to tear up, and I jump into her arms.

"OH MY GOD!" I squeal with happiness.
She smiles at me and hugs me tighter.
"I can't believe this," I whisper. "You're pregnant. Have you told anyone?"
"Nope."

My jaw drops and I smack my mouth.

"Oh my God," I whisper again. "I'm actually gonna be an auntie."
"Yes!"
She rests her shoulder on mine.
"How many weeks are you?"
"About 19 now," she says.

I give her another huge hug and then drag her out of the bathroom by her wrist. I take her into my room.

"You won't tell anyone, will you?" She nervously asks.
"Nah, of course not. Wait, have you not even told Kyron?"
"Nope."
"No? Omg."
"I wanted to tell you first, but I was nervous. And I was crying because you said that 16 was too young to have a baby. I kind of agree, but, you know. And I want to keep it, or course. I think I'm strong enough to have a child- mentally and physically.
"Awe, congratulations!"

Squeezing her tighter, my smile becomes bigger and lightens up my face. Not to mention the fact that Ash's smile is even bigger- she seems like she's so grateful that I wasn't angry at her.

I can't believe this- I'm so happy.

Brooke x