When I was a kid, Cinderella used to be my favorite fairytale. I would ask for my dad to read the Brothers Grimm version almost every night before bed, and I'd watch the Disney movie over and over whenever I was given the opportunity. I'd always wanted to be just like Cinderella.

But here I was now, with a wicked stepfather and stepsister. I was no longer wishing to be just like her.

I knew that Lacey was only nasty toward me because she was jealous of me. It was obvious, and her snide comments about how close I was to the Lost Boys made it clear to everyone. But to this day, I still didn't know why Leo hated me so much. He'd always been nice to Simon and Charlie, but never to me. If my mother or brothers were around, he would act as if I wasn't even there, like I didn't exist. When they weren't around, the verbal abuse would begin.

That was why I tried to stay in my room as much as I could, away from both Leo and Lacey. My mom thought I was having behavioral problems and just being antisocial; she had no idea I just wanted to be away from her husband and stepdaughter.

I did try to come out of my room every once in a while. I hated feeling like I was confined to one room in the house; it wasn't like I wanted to spend all of my time in there. But whenever I even tried to spend some time in the living room, the dining room, the family room, or even the backyard, Leo or Lacey would find a way to harass me about something.

But today, I decided I wouldn't let them scare me away. It was my house too, and I wasn't always going to stay in my room. That was unfair to me.

So I sat in the armchair as Lacey laid out on the couch, watching something on TV that I wasn't paying attention to. I wasn't looking up from the book I was reading, but that didn't mean I couldn't see Lacey glancing over to glare at me out of the corner of my eye.

She liked to think she bothered me. I never cared what she thought; I knew that if I'd let it bother me, it would do nothing but fuel her ego. And that was definitely the last thing I wanted.

When Leo made his way into the living room, I knew I was about to regret coming out of my room. I guess this was what I got for thinking things might have been different for me this time.

"I want you to clean the house before I get home," Leo was the first thing Leo said to me, not even looking at me as he finished tying his shoes. "I expect the place to be spotless."

I gestured toward Lacey, who was lounged across the couch like she owned the place. "What about Lacey?"

Leo simply glared at me, and I knew that that was as much of an answer as I was going to get. He wasn't about to make his precious daughter do any housework; that was all reserved for his stepdaughter.

I didn't know why Leo demanded such things from me, since I rarely ever did them. Usually this resulted in yelling and rude words coming from him, but I was used to that. His words didn't bother me like they had when he'd first entered my life.

Sometimes I really felt like Cinderella, but with a wicked stepfather instead of a stepmother and only one evil stepsister instead of two. And since my mother worked so much, she never even noticed how Leo treated me.

"You better do what my dad says," Lacey sing-songed from her spot on the couch, not even looking away from the TV. "He'll get mad if you don't."

I sighed, shutting my book with a roll of my eyes as I stood up from my seat. "Well, it's not like he won't be if I did end up cleaning."

Nothing would ever make Leo like me. I could clean the whole house every day, be polite and do everything he said, but he would still have disdain toward me. And I really hated that that bothered me as much as it did.

With only a glance at me, Lacey suddenly smirked, reaching out and knocking her soda over, the sticky brown liquid spilling all over the coffee table and carpet below.

I merely smiled wryly at her. "I'm not cleaning that up."

The unfortunate thing was that I probably would be the one to clean it up, because I knew Lacey would never clean up after herself no matter what. She never cared who cleaned up after her as long as someone cleaned it.

When the doorbell suddenly rang, neither of us immediately jumped to go get it. I didn't know why I even expected her to budge.

"Get it," Lacey ordered, waving me away without even looking at me.

I went to open the door, not because she'd told me to, but because I'd do anything to just get away from her. I didn't even know why she was home, since she usually went out on the weekends with her dumb friends.

When I opened the door to see that no one was there, I swore at the neighborhood children under my breath. The whole idea of doorbell ditching never made sense to me; I guess its only point was to annoy the people on the receiving end, so the mission was definitely accomplished because I was annoyed as ever.

I went to close the door, but before I could even move, there was suddenly someone jumping out from the side to right in front of me, shouting, "Boo!"

I screamed, jumping back and tripping on a pair of Leo's shoes that he'd lazily thrown off. Landing right on my ass, I grabbed one of his stray shoes and threw it at my attacker.

Once I was finally able to calm down and actually look at who had scared me, I was shocked to see my cousin standing there, laughing his happy little ass off, proud that he had been able to frighten me as much as he did. Without another thought, I threw Leo's other shoe at him.

The man at the door easily dodged the shoe, still laughing like the idiot he was. "It's nice to see you too, Eb!"

"What are you doing here?" I demanded, taking the hand he offered to pull me up off the ground. "And why don't you ever tell us that you're going to visit?"

"The element of surprise," he mused, doing some kind of weird hand movements in front of his face.

At twenty-two years old, my cousin was still one of the most immature people I'd ever met. Almost everything out of his mouth was a joke, and he rarely ever took anything seriously, so I always found it weird that he was older than I was, and that he was even considered an adult.

"Rex," I growled, not in the mood for his jokes. "You didn't just visit for no reason. New York's far from here."

My cousin shrugged. "I'm going to Washington for a wedding," he informed me. "My two best friends are getting married."

"Washington's up north," I informed him flatly, as if he didn't know.

My cousin rolled his eyes at me. "As welcoming as you always are, Eb," he sighed, and I pursed my lips to stop myself from retorting. "I just thought that since I was on this side of the country, I could visit."

I shouldn't have been very surprised, since Rex's family had enough money that he could have bought a plane ticket and visited for no reason if he really wanted to. My family was rather well off, but Rex's family was just as wealthy as Luke's or Quinn's. Our shared grandmother was a wealthy women, and that money helped her children take off in their careers and businesses so that they could become well-off as well. She even helped her grandchildren, since she was the reason why Simon and I could both go to Neverland Academy. But because my family had money, my aunt was able to meet a man who was even wealthier than our family was, and she went on to marry him and have Rex as an only child.

And because they were so wealthy, they decided to live in New York, all the way across the country from the rest of their family. I used to be sad over the fact that he lived so far away when we were younger, but now that we were older, I realized that that was life.

I then remembered the girl sitting in the living room just a few feet away. Rex noticed my smug look and raised an eyebrow at me.

"I just can't believe you're here." I smirked, remembering the turmoil he'd gone through the last time he'd visited. "What with Lacey and all."

As if on cue, my stepsister made her way out from the living room and into the foyer, both Rex and I freezing at her sudden appearance, as if she wouldn't see us if we didn't move. Unfortunately, she wasn't that stupid.

"Rex!" my stepsister screeched, immediately bounding over and wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug. "You came to see me, didn't you? Didn't you?"

Rex looked down at his step-cousin for only a moment before looking back up at me for help.

I shrugged simply, knowing there was nothing I could do to help him.

"Uh..." was all my cousin was able to utter, not wanting to hurt her feelings but also not wanting to lie to her.

That was what I never understood about Rex. Even though he was silly and joked around, he never wanted to hurt anybody else. He was one of the most caring and protective people I'd ever met, so it was just so confusing to me that that was paired with his goofy attitude.

"You know, Rex's wife is such a pretty woman," I found myself saying, and Lacey turned to glare daggers right through my forehead. "And not only that, but she's pregnant with their first kid, which must be super exciting."

Lacey hated it when I reminded her that Rex was married. Though she was completely boy crazy, she'd always had a crush on Rex, since the moment she'd met him. I didn't know if it was because he was older, or because he was funny, or if it was based solely on the fact that he was good looking. Either way, even though they weren't actually blood related, it was still weird.

"I'm going out," Lacey informed me coldly, unhinging herself from Rex and making her way toward the door. "Don't wait up for me."

I rolled my eyes. "I wasn't planning on it."

She turned toward Rex and winked at him. "See you later."

Rex and I both shuddered as she made her way out the door, and I'd never felt more relieved that she was gone.

"Is she still..." Rex started, trailing off as he watched her go.

"Insufferable?" I guessed, finishing his sentence for him. "Yep."

I had to give Rex credit for the way he treated Lacey. She was a complete pain in the ass and yet he was still polite and kind toward her. He totally didn't need to be so nice to her, since he only saw her every so often. I had to see her every single day and I couldn't say one nice thing to her.

My phone rang then, and for a moment I was worried that it may have been Leo, ready with another order. When I looked at who was actually calling, however, I was unsurprised to see that it was much worse.

"What do you want?" I demanded once I answered.

"Whoa," Rex blinked, surprised by my tone. He then seemed to realize something and smirked. "It's Quinn, isn't it?"

"Do I hear a man's voice on the other end?" the aforementioned boy questioned on the other line. "Are you cheating on me?"

I felt my right eye twitch. "It wouldn't be cheating, since we're not dating."

"You're right. It's much more of a domestic partnership."

"We're not living together!"

"You want to?"

"You might not be living together, but you sure argue like a married couple," Rex muttered from beside me, and I shook my fist at him as a sign that I'd hit him if he kept talking.

"The voice you hear is Rex," I finally explained to Quinn, not needing him to think I just had random men in my house. "My cousin Rex."

"Rex is there?" Quinn asked, sounding excited. I couldn't even open my mouth to answer him before he continued. "I'm coming over."

Pure fear and utter panic raced through me as I squawked out, "No, you're not!"

"Why not?" I could hear the rustling in the background over the phone; I knew he was gathering his things together. "Rex loves me!"

"Only because you're so much alike," I couldn't help but grumble, not really intending for him to hear.

"But you love him," the head Lost Boy snickered. "Does that mean you love me, Ebby?"

I scoffed. "In your dreams."

Quinn gasped. "How did you know?"

I couldn't let this happen. Quinn was hard enough to deal with on his own, and Rex was the same exact way. I could not have the two of them together or else my head might explode. Was there anything I could say to stop him from coming over and making my afternoon miserable?

"I'm coming over!" Quinn warned, and he continued talking before I could come up with a plan. "Bye-bye!"

I was about to shout at him, but he hung up before I could. I stood there for a moment, speechless. Was I really going to have to deal with this?

"Quinn's coming over?" Rex grinned, understanding why I was so unhappy but not caring in the slightest. "That's great! It's always awesome seeing him!"

I'd forgotten how much in common Quinn and Rex actually were. Both loved to torment me, and because of that, they loved each other's company. This was not going to go well for me.

Rex made his way into the living room, but all I could do was just stand there, wondering what I had gotten myself into. Was there a way for me to escape somehow, just letting the two of them spend time together while I left for somewhere? Or was I stuck to deal with these two morons making fun of me?

I knew my mom wouldn't like it if Rex had come all this way to visit for me to just leave and go somewhere else. And when I made my mom upset, I made Leo upset. And I could hardly handle Leo when he was in a normal mood.

"I'll go make some coffee," Rex volunteered, patting me on the shoulder before heading toward the kitchen. I let out a defeated breath. There was nothing I could do.

Fifteen minutes later, the doorbell rang. It was time for my misery to begin.

Opening the door, I didn't even hesitate before ordering, "Go home."

My eyes went wide when I saw that the person at the door was not who I thought it was. Instead of Quinn standing there with his wide grin, there stood Luke, his hand raised mid-wave.

"I'm... I'm sorry," I apologized, sputtering like an idiot. "I thought you were..."

"Quinn?" he guessed, grinning. I was glad that he wasn't upset that I snapped at him.

I nodded, still embarrassed. "Yeah..."

"He told me to meet him here," Luke shrugged. "He asked if I wanted to hang out with the two of you, and I thought he was already inside since his car's here and he's not in it."

"Sorry," a familiar voice suddenly interjected behind me, and I was so frightened that I screamed and jumped forward, almost slamming right into Luke.

I turned around to see both Quinn and Rex, doubled over from laughing at my reaction. I moved away from Luke, embarrassed by the fact that I had nearly ran into him.

"What are you doing in my house?" I demanded to Quinn, taking advantage of his doubled-over state by putting him in a headlock. "I could get you arrested for trespassing."

"I let him in," Rex informed me, at the ready to dash away if I came after him. "Through the sliding glass door in the kitchen."

I groaned, digging my knuckles into Quinn's scalp as he squirmed to try and escape my grasp. Soon I grew tired and let him go, but not without really letting him have it. That was what he got for coming over here uninvited.

The leader of the Lost Boys stood up straight, rubbing at the top of his head. "You play dirty," he pouted.

I stuck my tongue out at him. "Best way to play."

I then remembered that both Rex and Luke were still there, and I felt my face heat up as I turned back toward them. Sometimes I got so lost in my games with Quinn that I forgot about my surroundings.

"I didn't expect to see you too, Luke," Rex grinned, clapping his hand down on Luke's shoulder as a greeting. He then smirked over the British boy's shoulder, looking at me as he continued. "I'm sure Ebony is happy you're here."

I glared at my cousin, who merely winked at me as Quinn rolled his eyes. Though I tried to make it very obvious when I flirted with Luke, I always hated it whenever anyone else brought my preference for him to his attention. As much as I wanted him to know I liked him, the last thing I wanted was for him to learn it from somebody else.

"I invited Christian and Keegan along as well, but they were busy," Quinn explained, as if that made the fact that he'd invited himself over any better. "So you're stuck with just the two of us."

Though I'd agree that I was stuck with Quinn, that was definitely not how I felt with Luke. If we just dropped Quinn and Rex from the equation, I would be on Cloud Nine. But alas, instead of just the two of us, we also had his best friend who loved to torture me and my cousin who acted ten years younger than his actual age.

This... was going to be interesting.

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"I wonder why Ebony's cousin seems so familiar," said MP13Girl, in the most robotic tone ever.

I'm not even going to try to remember how many months it's been because it's just going to make my heart sad

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