I breathe a sigh of relief as I walk up to the apartment door; happy to finally be home. I begin inserting the key in the lock when the door opens.

The young girl who stares back at me, is surprised to see me standing there, just as I am her. She mutters a quick apology as she rushes past me and down the hall towards the stairs.

You've got to be kidding me.

I step in through the threshold, anger building within me as I set my things down. The TV is on, playing softly. A foot hangs off the couch and I walk over and find Miles sleeping. I turn off the TV and pick up his foot, swinging it off the couch.

He jumps up startled. "Ahh! Why'd you do that? I was having a nice dream, moms!" He complains, rubbing his eyes.

"What did I say about no friends when I'm not here, Miles?"

He looks back at me confused. "I didn't have anyone over."

"Don't lie to me! I just ran into your little friend as I was walking in." I raise my voice.

"I swear Stella, I didn't have anyone over." He looks back at me and I can see he's telling me the truth. My eyes narrow as I look up at the loft.

"What's going on? Why's is everyone being so loud?" Lucy walks out of the hallway, yawning.

I make my way up to the loft, pounding on the door before going in. Kai jumps out of his bed, pulling the blanket around himself. 

"Gees, what the hell, Stella!" He exclaims.

The look on my face causes him to look down, in remorse.

I'm pleased to see their room is clean, but there's an obvious scent lingering in the room as to what transpired. A torn wrapper at the foot of the bed, proof of what I already knew. "I ran into your friend as I was coming in the door."

I had the talk with the twins when I started seeing more of their friends hang around them, especially when I noticed more girls than guys. I thought Miles for sure would be the one I'd have to worry about with how much of a flirt he is. But it's actually been Kai, who has been giving me the most issues with girls.

"She was only here for a little bit." He tries to argue.

"You know the rules, Kai." I grab his phone, on the nightstand. "No phone for a week."

"What?" He yells. He struggles with pulling on his pants while holding a sheet over himself. "That's not fair!" He shouts as I walk out of his room and make my way back to the kitchen. 

I hear him stomping down the stairs. "Stella, give me my phone back." He demands.

I disregard his request, and put a tupperware of leftovers in the microwave to eat. I pour myself a glass of water and take an aspirin, to help alleviate the headache that's building.

"Stella, I'm sorry ok? I won't do it again."

"Now, when you say 'it' do you mean, 'it' or like, you know 'it'?" Miles butts in.

"Shut up, Miles!" Kai turns on his brother.

"I'm confused, I thought sex was like supposed to relax you but you're just as uptight as usual, if not more." Miles continues baiting Kai and Kai attacks.

They start fighting; wrestling over the furniture. While they've both grown and filled out, Miles is no match for his brother, when Kai is angry. They grunt and swear at each other, with each hit they land.

"Knock it off, you guys!" Lucy exclaims. She doesn't listen when I tell her to stop as she moves in to intervene.

She reaches out for Kai but when he pulls back to hit Miles again, his fists connects with her face. She cries out and falls back on the floor. I rush over to her, her nose is bleeding.

I turn back to the twins who are still fighting when they knock over a lamp, breaking it. I grab a hold of each of their ears and pull them apart. "Ow, shit!" Miles cries out. "Let go, let go, let go!" He pleads.

I push them back on the couch and make my way back the kitchen and grab a wash cloth, and some frozen peas. I wipe at Lucy's nose and mouth and tell her to hold the peas in place, hoping she doesn't bruise.

Kai and Miles, finally notice Lucy on the floor and both rush over to her. "What happened? Did we do that?" They question at the same time. Lucy glares at both of them as she stands and sits at the counter.

They both come to the kitchen and sit on either side of Lucy, looking ashamed.

"I'm sorry, Lucy." They tell her, simultaneously. The twins look at each other, annoyed. Then they call each other "asshole" at the same time, followed by, "stop it" again, in unison. Lucy and I laugh, while they look at us annoyed.

Which only makes us laugh harder. They're both scowling, but I see the corners of their mouths start to lift up. And then they full on smile and join us, in laughing.

"I really am sorry." Kai tells me after a moment. His dark eyes, showing sincerity as he looks at me.

"Apology accepted. But you're still not getting your phone back." I inform him, which he responds to by sighing, still frustrated.

"But..." I think about it before I continue, "if you do your chores without being reminded and you don't fight with your brother, I'll let you have it back by Monday." I tell him as I take a bite of my food.

He drops his head on the counter with a thud. "Keep it then," he mumbles.

"Wow, you're not even going to try, huh?" I take another bite.

Kai lifts his head up, defeat written all over his face. "Have you met, Miles?"

I bite back a smile as I chew my food. "Those are the terms, take it or leave it."

He looks over at Miles who grins at him, lifting his eyebrows repeatedly. Kai groans. "Fine. But you might as well just keep it, he's so fu—" He stops when he sees my hardened expression.

"He's so freaking annoying." He finishes.

"You only find me annoying because I'm the funnier better looking one and you know it!" Miles states.

"You're definitely the more annoying one, Miles." Lucy gives her two cents.

"No one asked you." Miles defends.

Groaning, I rinse my plate as they all begin arguing. I turn back around, "Enough, it's late and you all should have been asleep when I got home."

"Technically, I was sleeping before I was so rudely awaken." Miles tells me, smiling. "Me, too." Says Lucy. I can only see her eyes behind the pees, but I know she's grinning. 

"Goodnight." I tell them.

Kai picks up the broken lamp, throwing it away. "Night Stella." He says making his way up to the loft.

"Night Moms!" Miles tell me, chuckling.

"Goodnight, mom. Love you!" Lucy says as she runs to her room, giggling.

*****

"No one's going to notice, Luce." Miles voice reaches my ears before I come to the kitchen.

"Yeah sure." Lucy mutters, sarcastically.

I walk in and see Lucy is finishing making breakfast, while Miles is eating a plate of what she's made.

"Morning."

They both look over at me, smiling. I see the bruising on Lucy's face. "Shoot, I was hoping you wouldn't bruise." I tell her as I hold her face while I inspect it. She smiles at me as I push back her curly hair away from her face; it's grown long in the last three years. I purse my lips, "We can stop at the store before we go to the museum today, if you want to cover it up."

"Why can't I use some of your make up?" She questions.

"Because it won't blend in well, enough. You're a little darker than me, Luce."

"Uh, a lot darker." Miles states. I look over my shoulder at him and glare. "What?" He asks dumbfounded.

He knows she's sensitive about her darker skin tone. Especially when a group of girls were bullying her at work, calling her racial slurs. 

Miami is a melting pot with a diversity of cultures and ethnicities, so I was surprised she had to deal with that here. After all of our traveling, we realized the busier the city or town, the better for us, with the bounty on my head. 

But we also dealt with a lot less, narrow-minded people. But racism still exists, pretty much everywhere, unfortunately.

"I need to grab some things anyway and we can pick up some concealer, if you want?" I tell her. She doesn't say anything. " We need to get going soon. Is Kai up and ready?" I turn asking Miles.

"Yeah, he's just taking his morning dump." He says, casually. I give him a look again.

"What?"

I shake my head, as I finish throwing all the ingredients in the crockpot for Kalua pulled pork, to cook while we are out all day so it's ready for dinner, when we get home later.

I thank Lucy for making breakfast and grab a plate, sitting next to Miles. We go over the plan on going to the Museum and then grabbing lunch before heading to the beach afterwards.

"What time is yours and Kai's shift at the coffee shop, tonight?" I ask before shoving some food in my mouth.

"6 till closing." He says and gulps down his orange juice. He exhales loudly after finishing his juice, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, then burps. "Mahalo Lucy, the grindz was delicious!"

"You're disgusting and you're welcome." She responds smiling, sitting down next to me.

"How was work?" She asks as me, as she takes a sip of her juice.

I tell her it was fine. Busy. Leaving out the details of the encounter with Ginger. But then I'm reminded of the new schedule change. I inform them of the day changes and the longer hours for the next few weeks.

"So what time will you be home?" She asks, covering her mouth as she chews her food.

"I'll be getting off at 4 am instead of midnight, so I'll be home by 5-5:15ish.."

"But then it'll go back to midnight?"

"Yes, it's supposed to."

She nods as she continues to eat her food. "Oh, I want to show you what I made!" She exclaims excitedly. She hops off the stool and runs to her room. She comes back out and holds a piece of clothing out to me. It's a cute, yellow and black plaid jumper dress.

"Wow, Lucy! This is incredible. Is this what you've been working on?"

She nods as I hold it out and look at the details. "You're amazing, Luce!" She grins back at me.

"Do you think we can stop by the fabric store and get some more thread and material?"

"Sure, we can do that." I tell her as I hand back the jumper. "You should wear that today."

Last year she asked for a sewing machine for her birthday and she's been tinkering around with making different things. She started out with pillowcases, which then led to making pillows that now sit on the couch, to curtains that now hang in her room, my room and the sliding door. She made me a few maxi skirts which I love and now she's working on jumpers and dresses.

She also helps sew a few of my outfits for work when I've needed alterations or if they've ripped.

"Are we ready or what?" Kai comes out of the hall bathroom.

"Someone's grumpy." Lucy states as she sits back down to finish her food. We've all learned Kai is not a morning person.

"Are you ready?" I move to the sink, to wash my plate.

"Yes, I've been up waiting on all of you." He says as he goes to the fridge and grabs a water bottle.

"Okay, well, load up the cooler with some drinks. And we'll head out as soon as Lucy's finished."

"And you all better be ready. I'll be quizzing you at the museum on what we'll be looking at based on your study plan this last week." I call out as I head back to my room, to finish getting ready.

"Aw man, I thought she was kidding about that?" I hear Miles whine. "Hurry, what was the section we were supposed to study this week?"

"Nope! You called me a teachers pet when I reminded you to study. Serves you right." Lucy responds.

"Kaaaiii!" Miles yells out for his brother.

"No Miles, you didn't want to listen to me, either, brah." Kai tells him.

"You both suck." Miles concedes.

******

"Well, it's clear who studied and who didn't" I state as we are finishing up our time at the Museum. "You know what that means, right Miles?"

"Yes." He grumbles, handing me his phone.

"And no games this week, either." His eyes widen in disbelief. "Nooooo! I'll be bored out of my mind!"

"You'll have extra time to study." Lucy smiles at him, to which he glares at her.

I stop to use the restroom before we head out to grab lunch. I tell them to decide what they want, knowing they'll argue on where to go but I figure it's better here than in the car.

I'm washing my hands when I hear a commotion outside the bathroom. I hear Miles and Kai's voices before Lucy runs in, on the verge of tears.

"They're throwing Miles and Kai out!"

I run out of the bathroom and look around not seeing anything, other than a group of teenagers, with two of the boys in the group adjusting their clothes. Then I catch a glimpse of two guards, strong arming Kai and Miles out the doors. I run towards them with Lucy following behind me.

"Hey!" I shout as I come out of the building. "Let them go!"

The guards turn but don't let the twins go. Kai's hair is a wild mess from the top knot, he had his long hair in, he's breathing heavily as is Miles, whose lip is bleeding.

"I said let them go." I repeat myself as I approach them.

"They were causing trouble with some of the other visitors inside and being disrespectful." One of the guards tells me.

"That doesn't give you the right to put your hands on them, they're minors. Now, for the last time, get your damn hands off of them." I say through my teeth.

"Are you their guardian?"

"Yes."

The other guard snorts. "Right..."

I walk up to him. "I'm not going to ask again." By now, there's a small crowd gathering since we are just outside the entrance. The guards look around and then at each other before they release Kai and Miles, shoving them hard.

Kai turns towards the guard but I grab his arm, stopping him.

"Don't come back or next time you'll be leaving in cuffs." One of the guards tells us. He spits towards our feet before turning and going back in. The crowd starts to dissipate, a few people still glancing our way.

"What happened?" I tug at Kai's arm to get his attention but he wrenches his arm out of my hand and walks away, muttering, "Nothing."

I turn to Miles and reach up, looking at his busted lip. "Are you okay?" He nods but looks ahead to where his brother is still walking, heading towards a bench before he sits down.

"What happened?"

Lucy proceeds to tell me a couple of the girls from work were there and started saying things to her along with their guy friends. Miles tried to intervene but then one of the other guys punched him, which is when Kai got involved and a fight followed. That's when the guards came and broke it up.

"But the guards didn't even listen when I told them, the other group started it. They just grabbed Kai and Miles and started hurting them as they took them out." Lucy tells me, her eyes filled with tears.

Just then, the other group of teenagers walk out of the museum, laughing loudly. "Is that them?" I ask. Lucy and Miles look over and nod. 

"Go sit with your brother." I tell them, waiting for them to walk away towards Kai.

I turn my attention back on the group of idiots and make my way over to them.