"What?" I scream. "Is he crazy or something. Or wait, scratch that. I forgot, he is crazy."

"Calm down Ricky. We'll get this sorted out. There's no way he'll win. We have a strong case against him,"

"I know mum but this is Kenny we're talking about. He has a way of bending things to suit his needs. I swear I hate that man." I spit.

I mean seriously, it's bad enough that he showed up at our house but custody, that's just insane. I would rather have my eyeballs crushed and force fed to me than live with him.

After all he's done he still has the guts to show his face and spew such rubbish from his mouth. Hmm, spew, that's a funny word. But still, my so called father is a living demon and I won't let him gain control over me again.

"Ricky? Are you okay?" mum is asking when I zone back in.

"Yes mum, I'm fine" I reply sighing.

She makes to hug me and I rush into her embrace even though I'm getting taller than her now. "It's okay. We're going to be okay."

"Thanks mum." The hug actually makes me feel better; always has even though I would never openly admit it to her. "Uhm...does aunt know about this?"

"Yeah, she does. She witnessed the whole thing. She had the day off, remember?"

"Kenny's such a mo-

"Language Ricky!" she cuts me off

"Sorry mum" I mutter but still complete the sentence in my head just to feel the satisfaction. Insulting my dad always makes me feel better about him. Weird, I know but still. It's not my fault he's such a jerk.

***

Once I freshen up and do my homework, my room feels too depressing so I head downstairs to watch some TV.

After a half hour of the Simpsons I can't help but feel a tiny bit better. I text Alex to find out if I can come over and he replies in the affirmative.

I go back to my room to get ready. Switching my shorts for a pair of black skinny jeans and pulling on a black parental advisory hoodie, I head downstairs where I find my black vans.

"Mum! I'm going over to see Alex" I yell as I make my way towards the door.

She comes out of her room wrinkling her nose. "Whose funeral is it?"

"I actually haven't decided yet." I scowl, shrugging.

Mum rolls her eyes. "Very funny Ricky." She replies sarcastically. "Be back by seven."

"Sure thing, mum." I reply closing the door behind me.

Ten minutes later, I'm texting Alex to let him know I'm close by. This is our usual practice when visiting each other so none of us actually has to knock.

I spot Andrew, Alex's younger brother, at the door and wave.

"Ricky, my boy, how's it going?" I roll my eyes at his terrible attempt at sounding like a rich gang owner and offer my hand for a fist pump.

"Hey Drew. Where's Alex?" I ask.

"Nice to see you too." He mutters, letting me in.

Alex's house is like my second home. His parents are rarely around because they're big business people so they have someone employed who keeps an eye on Alex and his siblings.

The house, or should I say mansion is like twice the size of mine and mine is pretty big, but I don't mind since Alex isn't all snobby and posh.

Anyways, about his siblings, there are three of them.

Andrew's one year younger and goes to the same school as us. He's a freshman who already has "most popular senior" tagged all over him. It's not like he makes an effort to impress people, he just does. Plus, he is smart and good-looking. Not that it matters or anything but he has the coolest green eyes I've ever seen and awesome dirty blonde hair.

Alex's other sibling is Emily; A cute little nine year old angel who is totally convinced that I'm her soul mate. She has the trademark dirty blonde hair but hazel colored eyes.

He also has an older step-brother, Xavier who's away at college. We're both grateful for that because when he was at our school, he had all the girls gushing over him saying he's totally hotter than Luke Benward; which in my book isn't even hot but I guess girls will be girls. It was totally sick even though it helped get us up the popularity chart while we were still weedy little freshmen.

Xavier and Alex have a similar physique. With their brown hair and well, green eyes. The brown hair, they get from their mum and the green eyes are from Alex's dad.

It just so happens to be that Xavier's dad also had green eyes and he inherited them. It's easy to believe that the four of them are related once you take a proper look at them.

"Where's Emily?" I ask, secretly scanning the surrounding area. She has the tendency of sticking to me whenever she knows I'm around. Today, I'm bent on avoiding her at all costs.

"She's in her room. Watching TV I think. Want me to let her know you're around?' he smirks.

"Pull a stunt like that and I'll shove mangoes up your-

"There's no need to get violent bro." he chuckles, raising his hands in front of him.

"I'm glad we understand each other." I smile

Rubbing his chin as if in deep thought Andrew looks at me. "You act like a girl."

"I do not!" I reply, shoving him.

"There goes evidence number one." He replies laughing.

I pretend to be offended, stomping upstairs.

"Evidence number two!" calls Andrew, doing his little monkey victory dance he came up with when he was in sixth grade and I can't help laughing too.

By this time we're in front of Alex's room and I move right in without knocking like I usually do. It ticks him off but that's actually why I do it.

"Alright my luvver?" he asks, smirking. Damn, he is so weird. "Thanks for knocking by the way." He states shaking his head disappointedly.

"What are friends for?" I ask dropping myself noisily on his bed and turning on his TV before reaching across to get a soda from his mini-fridge.

That's one of the perks of living in such a huge house and having rich parents. His bathroom is bigger than my room so you can imagine what his room is really like. It's a wonder he isn't a total brat.

We hang out and talk about school for a while before I decide to go see what new games Drew has. Total mistake because as I'm walking down the hall I spot a familiar blonde head in front of me, I make to run but she's already spotted me.

"Ricky!" Emily squeals, hugging me tightly; So much for avoiding her today.

"Hey Emily." I smile. It's not like I can be mean to sweet little kids. "Did you miss me?" besides, she's my best friend's sister, how hard can it be? I've already been through hell in her hands.

"You bet. Want to come have a tea party at my room?" she asks grinning like she just won the lottery. I groan whilst internally face palming myself. I totally forgot about her aggravating tea parties. "Sure, I'll just go invite Drew. I mean, the more the merrier right?"

"I already asked him and he said no. You can try though. I'll go set up." And with that she skips happily to her room.

Getting to Andrew's room, I knock.

"Go away Em. I'm busy." Talk about being mean to little kids.

I let myself in and he smiles. "Oh, it's you. Sorry about that, it's just Emily wants to have one of her tea parties again and I don't think I can live through another one."

I just stand there smiling.

"Dude, you're creeping me out,"

More smiling and then he figures it out. "No, no and no." he shakes his head. "I am not going to accompany you."

"Come on Drew, you can't just abandon me with her. Please."

"I'm not doing it."

"Why not?" I ask furrowing my eyebrows at him.

"I live with her bro; do you know what that's like? Tea parties every other day."

"I'll let you seat at our table during lunch?" I offer.

Andrew scoffs. "I'm not that desperate."

"How about until mid-terms?" I coax.

He thinks about it for a while. "Deal" he mutters; getting up and groaning.

We get to Emily's room to discover that she's done 'setting up'.

In the middle of her large room, where a round cherry wood table sits, she has placed six chairs. On the table are six pairs of teacups and saucers which I'm guessing are new since we didn't use them the last time I had to sit through one of her tea parties.

Three of the chairs are already occupied by her stuffed animals. She has a whole collection of them in her walk-in closet and doesn't let anyone go near them; calls them her prized possessions.

Right in the middle of the whole setup are two elaborately decorated tea pots filled with what I'm assuming would obviously be tea and milk. We never play pretend at her tea parties.

"Welcome to Emily's tea party." She announces, raising her hands in a welcome gesture. Oh, God, I think to myself, running my hands listlessly through my hair. I hope I survive this one.

We take our seats and I end up sitting next to a stuffed tiger. Drew takes the seat to my right leaving the seat across for Emily.

"Uh, uh, uh" she says. "We all have assigned seats. Please check the little cards in front of you."

Sighing simultaneously, Andrew and I reach out to the little pieces of paper on which Emily has scribbled names. The card in front of me has Emily's name on it and my seat is to my right, were Drew is seated. How did I not see this coming?

"Shall we begin?" she asks as she takes her seat next to me. "The Introductions must take place first, of course. I'll begin." Oh boy, I sigh, silently reaching my leg across the table to nudge Andrew who's scowling.

"As you know, I am your noble host, Emily Roberts." When she's done she nudges me to speak.

"Uh, I'm Ricky."

"Well is that your full name?" she asks

"My name's Jericho Davis." I sigh. I tend to do that a lot during her tea parties.

"Thank you for being polite Jericho." She states.

I still don't get why little girls enjoy these things. I thought tea parties are meant to be pleasant and enjoyable. Emily makes hers boring and frustrating. Not to mention the stern and overly formal manner in which she considered us for the duration of the affair.

Seeing as the stuffed animals can't introduce themselves, Emily speaks up.

"Uh, they're a little shy. You see, they're not really used to attending such formal events." I snort. Andrew chuckles and kicks me underneath the table.

"This is Mr. Ted Crupper" she points to a large green T-Rex. "Ms. Wendy Gardener." She gestures at a pretty pink teddy bear. "And last but certainly not least, Theodore Williams." This makes me laugh as I stare at the tiger sitting to my left. Williams. I laugh again and Emily gives me an odd look. "It's not polite to laugh at people." She says

"Sorry." I mumble trying to act the part. Nudging Drew who's sitting across from me I mouth "This is aggravating."

"Don't I know it?" He replies

"Side talks are considered impolite too. Now do introduce yourself." I snort. How can this girl be only seven years old?

"I'm Andrew Roberts." Says Drew in a tired tone.

This is going to be a long tea party. I sigh

***

After sitting through Emily's hour long tea party, I don't have the heart to do anything else so I say my goodbyes and head home. Times like this I'm glad I don't have a younger sister to bug me. Jeesh, how do the boys survive living with her?

When I get home, I let myself in quietly and go to tell my mum I'm back. I find her in the kitchen making dinner so I help set the table before calling my aunt downstairs for dinner.

We make small talk as we eat and my mum asks about Alex but my heart's not in it. Emily's tea party has me wiped out.

Thankfully, dinner's over quickly and I head upstairs to my room after doing the dishes. Remembering what Adira said about Skillet I decide to check them out. They actually have a bunch of nice songs which I end up downloading. Plugging in my ear buds, I fall asleep to the sounds of Scream; my favorite so far.

~

~

~

~

Got some time to rest up soooo *drumroll please* 

new update!

Byee