Chapter Seven: "Viewer Discretion Is Advised."

"LIFT."EDUARDO WHISPERED under his breath, grabbing me by the waist lifting me up. I leaned back over his shoulder, my eyes looking at the high ceiling as I pretended to struggle out of his grip, my legs kicking as if I was riding a bicycle.

He put me down, giving me a fake glare that went with the routine and doing multiple pirouettes before Ravi jumped in the air making it seem like he had momentarily slowed down in the air before putting his hands out and coming towards me in a somersault. I pretended to run for a couple of seconds doing movements that made me seem as if the character I was playing was getting paranoid before collapsing to the ground as if I had given up, moving my legs over my head before dropping slowly and dramatically them as if I was laying down.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Ravi and Eduardo in sync pirouettes, looking grim before they stopped and walked over to me as the music shifted into something eerie. Ravi grabbed me and threw me over his shoulder. I ignored the pain as my stomach hit his shoulder, rolling my eyes as I tried to keep them closed. When I opened them lightly, I could see Eduardo whom had done back handsprings over to us.

Ravi put me on the floor gently and stood over me as Eduardo finished off with a back tuck, turning quickly. The both of them pulled off blank faces as if they didn't care as they looked down at me and the music ended.

The sound of claps filled throughout the room as I opened my eyes slowly to see Eduardo holding out a hand towards me. I grabbed it and pulled myself up. "Good job Eddie." I told him, bumping his fist.

"You too Siddy." He grinned at me as we turned to Ravi.

I poked Ravi in his hard chest almost glaring at him. "My stomach feels like it's been prodded with by a thousand needles."

"Stop exaggerating and yes I'm sorry for your stomach colliding with my shoulder but we still did great for only three hours of practice with yesterday and today."

I slapped him on the shoulder, walking over to my bag. "Yeah we did great." I looked over at Mrs. Yousiff who had watched our performance yet didn't say a word. Sarah had told me a bit about the Head of the Dance Department. Apparently she had been a pretty famous ballet dancer back in her time.

She nodded towards me before looking over at the rest of our group. "Matilda you and your group of five can have this studio for practice. Isaac and Sydney, you two can practice your duet in studio B. The tap dancers have left for the day at this time. The rest of you are dismissed for the day."

She turned around to go to her office and I grabbed my bag and sweater as Isaac walked over to me with his stuff. "Let's go?" He asked.

"Bye Siddy." Eduardo said with a grin and I rolled my eyes.

"Bye Eddie, bye stomach killer." I said the last part to Ravi who scowled yet waved at me.

Isaac and I walked out of the room and I followed him to the empty smaller room of studio B. I dropped my stuff in the corner as Isaac hooked him phone up to the speaker. "From the top?" he asked.

I nodded and he started off his position, standing right behind me. As funny as it was this duet was a lyrical one. I was used to lyrical dances. Dances I could channel any emotion I felt at the time and use it to connect with the dance. Though this type of dance was extremely for romantic purposes which involved a lot of looking at each other and touching, I didn't mind much because he was a good partner to have.

It ended off with me looking up at Isaac's eyes, my hand touching his cheek before grabbing his hand and we slowly walked off to the side. Isaac exhaled as the music ended. "That was good, better than yesterday."

"That's because yesterday we were making the duet and now it's pretty good." I told him.

I thought that we should go over it again when Isaac suddenly sat down, pulling me down with him so I sat in front of him cross legged. "What?"

Isaac shrugged. "Tell me something about yourself."

I looked down at my lap, slowly pulling my fingers away from his hold. "There's not much to tell."

"Then what about dance, tell me about dance."

"Um, I've been doing it since I was three and I don't know. I guess I just loved dancing since then." I wasn't expanding on anything. I didn't feel the need to.

Isaac didn't take notice of my bluntness as he leaned back against his hands. "How come you said maybe?"

Oh shit. "What do you mean?"

"When I asked you out. You didn't say no, you didn't say yes. You said maybe."

"Because I wasn't sure." I decided on telling him.

"You weren't sure because you barely know me?" he asked.

That was a part if the reason. "Yeah."

"But wouldn't this be a chance to get to know me?" he looked almost impatient and I was getting ticked off.

"Let's just take it from the top again." I said, standing up and we didn't bring up the topic again. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            I twisted the knob for the radio and once I found a station in this area that had music I could actually listen to I left it there, nodding my head to the melody as my mom turned off an intersection.

            I sang along to 'Don't Wake Me Up by Chris Brown as we neared our destination. I was thankful that this town was huge or extremely big so it could take my mom over a half an hour to get from some places to another. It took about twenty minutes for us to get close to our destination: the Cahill house.

            I stopped singing once I looked at the house. It was not a house. It shouldn't even qualify to be a mansion. Holy shit it was so much bigger than what I thought a regular mansion would look like.

I knew the Cahill's were rich. Everyone knew. They were one of the richest families in the world but their house was gigantic even for raising a lot of children.

As my mom slowly stopped the car on the sidewalk, I could see that the house wasn't even finished, seeing as a huge gate was being built around it, shielding the property from their neighbors. Workers were currently building at the front so my mom stopped the car at the side, eyes wide.

I understood her shock, I thought looking through the window at the huge house. It was filled with windows and marble walls. I could see a huge garden in the backyard from my perspective, filled with beautiful flowers. The glass parts of the large house shone brightly against the sun that I could see small rainbow reflect against the pavement of the long driveway.

One of the workers came up to my mom's window. "Are you Danielle Acosta?" My mother nodded and I stared at her. I wasn't sure if she was going to keep the last name. I was sure she would change it back to her maiden name.

"You can park your car right up the driveway." The man said before shouting directions off to his fellow constructers as the car was let through to go up the driveway.

When we got out of the car I still couldn't believe what I was seeing. "Holy shit."

"Sydney Janelle Acosta, watch your language." I immediately shut up. I hate it when parents pull out the full name card.

I sighed, following her as we walked through the path that led up to the front porch of the beautiful house. She was about to knock on the door when it had already flung open, revealing the youngest Cahill, Phillip. "Hi." He said with a big grin that showed his dimples.

I smiled back at him as he looked at me behind my mother. "Hi Sydney."

"You already know him?"

"At work.Hey Phillip." I said and my mother added anything else as Phillip grabbed my hand and pulled me inside the house. The first thing that struck me was how the huge open stairs a distance away from me that led to the second floor. The feet tapped against the hard wood floor as I looked at the beautiful paintings in the corridor.

A presence made its way into the room and I could see a really pretty woman enter the room. She was around my height with bright red hair in a messy bun and blue eyes. She was wearing jeans and a long plaid button up I was pretty sure didn't belong to her. The thing I noticed was the huge rock on her left hand ring finger. She was the one marrying Ivan Cahill and was Kim's cousin. "Hi you must be Sydney."

She stuck a hand out and I shook it. "Yeah that's me and this is my mom."

She turned her smile to my mom and they shook hands. "Liz is in the kitchen, I'll show you the way."

Phillip dragged me along as Natasha led my mom in the same direction. "Do you like Ninja Turtles?" He asked me.

"I have a cousin that loves the Ninja Turtles," I mentioned, remembering my little cousin, Michelle's brother. "He loves Power Rangers too."

Phillip's eyes lit up and I almost laughed at his excitement. "I love Ninja Turtles, everyone calls me Leonardo because he's my favorite. I love Power Rangers and Pokémon and..." He started a rant and I listened to him word for word as we entered another room.

We were in a spacious living room where a rerun of California Dreams was playing on the TV. Phillip dragged me to sit on the couch as Natasha and my mom went into a room that was probably the kitchen. I heard footsteps and another presence entered the room. This guy was tall like the family. He was really attractive too with blue sharp eyes and really dark hair. He had stubble on his face that brought out his crystal eyes.

He paused when he saw me, narrowing his eyes before walking over and standing in front of me, taking my hand and kissing the back of it. "Why hello beautiful."

I hesitantly took my hand away from his grasp. "Um...hi?"

"I'm Ivan but you can call me the man of your dreams." I think I would remember if a crazy hot man was in my dreams.

"Um..." I didn't know what to say.

"Ivan stop harassing the poor girl." Natasha came out of nowhere, pulling him back by the collar of his shirt. "I'm sorry for him he's just a little...weird and flirty. He's always been like this."

"Hello?" Ivan waved a hand over his fiancée's face. "It's like I'm not in the room."

"Sometimes it's better when you aren't in the room." Natasha commented and Ivan rolled his eyes, kissing her cheek before falling back onto a different couch and changing the channel.

Natasha looked down at Phillip. "Do you have any homework?"

Phillip hesitated before nodding. "I have to read something but I don't want to."

"Why not?" She sighed, pushing the hair off of his forehead gently.

"Because it's too hard to read," he said, pouting. "Everyone in class can read it but I can't and this stupid kid makes fun of me because of it. He's an ass."

My eyes widened at his language as did Natasha's as she whipped her head to face Ivan. "Ivan."

"Yes my dear?" He said as if he was in bliss, tearing his eyes off the flat screen TV. He took at look at Natasha's face and I could see the color drain from his face as he realized he did something wrong. "Shit." I could hear him whisper under his breath.

"Do you realize that swearing in front of Phillip actually makes Phillip to swear and think that nothing is wrong?" She accused him and he bit his lip.

"No...?" He said cautiously and I had to hold in my laughter at this situation.

Natasha closed her eyes briefly before shaking her head and mumbling. "I'm going to end up marrying an idiot."

Ivan's jaw dropped. "Well that's rude."

Natasha opened her eyes and sighed a smile on her face. "It's the truth," She turned to Phillip. "I'll help you with your homework, okay?"

Phillip's eyes brightened and he nodded just as another person entered the room and Natasha took a seat next to Ivan. This guy actually reminded me a lot of Lucas and Joey, almost like a smaller version of them without dimples, maybe around the age of thirteen I didn't know. He wore a sweater and jeans, a huge duffle bag was on his shoulder and his dark hair was flattened on his head with sweat. He dropped the duffle bag on the ground before going to another couch and collapsing. "Why did I decide to play hockey?" he mumbled.

"Because it was either that or figure skating and Dad wanted you to play a sport." Ivan muttered, keeping his eyes trained on the TV.

"But Lucas doesn't play a sport." He whined, trying to get up but failing.

"Sydney this is Greg, my thirteen year old shitty excuse of a brother."

"You're not so great yourself Barbie collector." Greg smirked, turning his head to look at his brother and I almost burst out laughing feeling a hell lot more comfortable like I was with my friends.

"I was five," Ivan got up from the couch, sitting on top of Greg who groaned, trying to push him off. "We don't talk about that you little-"he stopped talking once he caught Natasha's glaring eyes.

"You've already corrupted Greg. Phillip is still in the room." Natasha pointed out to the kid beside me who was entranced by the cartoon shown on TV.

Ivan stayed on top of a struggling Greg as someone else walked into the room. Joey. He was texting on his phone, wearing sweats and had Beats around his neck. He looked up when I heard him sniff the air. "Greg could you take your sweaty hockey stuff here into the laundry room for God's sakes."

"Shut up Joey." Greg mumbled still trying to shove Ivan off of him.

Joey looked around the room before realizing I was there. I could see so much of Lucas in his features but I ignored them when I remembered him laughing at his own brother after he got slapped by his girlfriend. "I know you. You're that new girl in our grade."

I'm glad you caught up with the program, I wanted to say but a simple, "Yeah." Was all I could muster.

Phillip leaned against my arm, looking over at Joey. "Where's Lucas?"

"I don't know and I don't really care." He said dryly, settling on the couch where Natasha was.

"Ivan get off Greg you're suffocating the poor kid." Ivan got up and sat next to Natasha as Greg regained his breath glaring at his brother.

"You're such a d-"Natasha made a noise that cut Greg off and glance at Phillip. "Never mind."

Ivan pressed a kiss to Natasha's mouth and she pulled away only for Ivan to keep herself where she was by wrapping his arms around her body.

"The following program is sure to contain nudity, sexuality, mature subject matter and coarse language. Viewer discretion is advised. Would you two get a fricking room?  I've been saying this for over a year!" Greg yelled, getting up.

Ivan broke away from Natasha with a laugh as Greg grabbed his duffle bag and fled the area. That's when another body came into the living room, almost stumbling as Greg bumped into him.

Lucas walked into the room, a closed sketchbook in his hand and a small iPod nano clipped on his plaid button up shirt. His other hand in his dark jeans and his socks were black as his hair that was hidden under the olive green beanie. He sighed, straightening himself and the earphones in his ears. He wasn't wearing his glasses but I took notice of how he looked around the room before landing on me. His lips parted and he almost dropped his sketchbook before holding onto it. "Hey."

"Hi." I said back, feeling my hands get clammy.

He paused before walking over and sitting down next to me. He smelled like a type of cologne I couldn't make out but I liked the scent of it a lot. His plaid shirt wasn't meant to be big, it fit him perfectly as the fabric of the sleeve fitted over his lean toned arm.  He put his sketch book on his lap and I watched out of the corner of my eye as pushed the sleeves of his shirt up to his forearm showing his veins.

After knowing Mary Anne for more than a full week I could think about what she would say if she saw a hot guy's forearms. I never understood why some girls thought that was attractive (I mean they were just veins what the hell?) but on Lucas...dang.

"Are you here because of my mum's offer?" he asked, turning to look directly at me. The glint of the light in the room caught itself on his hand where the ring was on his middle finger.

I twisted my head to look at him, struggling to form a sentence because of his intense brown eyes. "Uh yeah I am."

He leaned in closer, dropping his voice to a whisper. "You convinced your mum?"

"Yeah I don't know but I think it was when I said your mom's name that she considered it."

Joey scoffed from the other couch and Lucas leaned back from me. "Mum's name can buy clothes. Dad's name can buy corporations."

He was looking at me weirdly as his eyes flickered over to his twin then back to me before putting his headphones back on. By the way he said that about his parents it was almost as if he was bragging about how rich his family was.

"So Sydney are you new in town?" Natasha asked me.

I nodded. "Yeah I just moved from Toronto a couple weeks ago."

They didn't prod for any reason as to why I could move from a big city to here and I was grateful for that.

Ivan had a weird look on his face. "Ah Toronto...I think you're going to get along with our other brother Sam. He has a huge obsession with Drake music."

"He's in England for school and soccer." Natasha explained. Oh that was the brother Octavia had called a god.

"I miss Macy." Phillip mumbled against my arm.

"Macy is Sam's girlfriend, they're both in England and soccer players." Natasha expanded again and I nodded in understanding.

Lucas flipped open his sketchbook and I could see him take the pencil that had been put on top of his ear and start fluently stroking it against the page. He didn't act as if he noticed but I fully turned by body to face him as he took the earphones out of his ears and the dangled from his shirt. His face was tensed up as he made circles, pressing harder on the pencil to darken the color. He paused once, biting his lip and looking down at the paper before making lines.When he was done, I let out a breath I had been holding and his face softened as he put his pencil back to where it was before, putting his sketchbook on my lap.

"What do you think?" He whispered to me and I felt a shiver up my spine.

He drew a tree in less than 45 seconds and even though it had been a short amount of time he managed to conjure up a beautiful picture of a tree. I could see the swirls that represented the leaves and the way he drew the lines on the tree and roughly sketched branches. "This-This is really good." I told him quietly, looking up at him.

He stared at me with those brown eyes of his. I felt like he could see all of me as he observed my face. "Thanks." He whispered back as I handed the drawing back to him.

Lucas wrote something at the bottom before he ripped out the paper from his book quickly so the noise wouldn't seem loud across the room. He folded it into a square and handed it to me. "Keep it."

I took it hesitantly before slipping it into my jeans pocket. "Thanks."

Phillip moved himself from my arm and stood up, grabbing my hand and pulling me up. "Let's go see mum."

He pulled me along to the kitchen door and I looked back to see Lucas behind us, closing his book and following us through the door. I almost gasped at the sight of the stainless steel kitchen. It was large like the rest of the house. My mum and Elizabeth Cahill were laughing at something when they noticed our presence. Liz had her jet black hair in a ponytail and was wearing designer jeans and a loose top. Phillip let go of me to go to the big refrigerator and Lucas pulled up a stool for me to sit on and one for him beside me. Elizabeth smiled at me. "Hello Sydney."

"Hi Mrs. Cahill." I said, tapping my fingers on the big island.

"Call me Liz," she turned to my mom to gesture to Phillip who was opening a cabinet. "That's my youngest Phillip and this is Lucas. Lucas attends school with your daughter in fact he was the one who told me to pick you Sydney."

I blinked as Lucas waved at my mom before returning to his sketchbook. I heard that from Mrs. Yousiff but glancing at Lucas who pretended like he wasn't paying attention as he drew a line in a part of his page confirmed it for me. "Oh wow, um, thanks for the offer."

Liz waved a hand. "To be honest it was between you and that Matilda girl. Mrs. Yousiff spoke highly of her but she doesn't look like she would be the right kind of mentor for Phillip like you."

"I like Sydney."Phillip spoke up making me smile a little as he put three glasses on the table and went back to the fridge to get our fruit punch.

Another door opened connecting from the kitchen to somewhere else and a guy came in. He had rosy cheeks, brown gelled hair and brown eyes. He didn't look like he was that far from my age and there was something about him that reminded me of Phillip. "Hey mum, Luke, Leonardo."

Phillip grinned at the nickname of his favorite ninja turtle before handing me a glass cup filled with fruit punch.I shot him a smile that said thanks before taking a sip as the boy introduced himself to my mom and me. "I'm Christian."

Christian went to the fridge, took out a can of Red Bull before trying to leave the kitchen. Liz stopped him. "Christian put that back in the fridge."

"But mum, my teacher decided to give me a test tomorrow and I need to stay up to study tonight."

"Put the drink back." She told him, getting serious.

He sighed. "But m-"

"Christian Bartholomew Cahill put the drink back." She told him sternly and he paled. The thing about the situation was that Lucas and Phillip had both decided to laugh out loud at Christian's middle name.

I focused on the way Lucas laughed loudly, the happiness that had shown on his face in the moments, his lips curling back to reveal his white teeth. The way the beanie on his head almost fell off as he finished his last laughs made a smile find its way to my face.

Christian scowled putting the drink back and stomped out of the room. Liz rolled her eyes and turned to me as I drank the fruit punch. "So Sydney, your mum and I were discussing and we agreed for you to come over to the house on Saturday afternoons, Friday afternoons and Wednesdays for at least an hour so this doesn't ruin your dancing schedule. If you have time you can study here sometimes."

"I'm great with that." I had nothing better to do after dance anyway.

"Good so I'll see you here next week Wednesday after your practice and I know that on Friday I'll see you but next week you have the showcase and I know how long that takes to practice so we won't see you that day. We Cahill's will be attending."

"Showcase?" My mom asked and I held back one of the biggest eye rolls of my life.

"Remember? Next Saturday I'm performing."

My mom covered it up. "I remember it just slipped my mind." Or maybe you never listened when I had told you. Shocker there.

"Are you doing a solo?" Phillip asked me, sitting on the stool next to me.

"No I'm doing a duet, a trio and a group number with all the Elite members. They wanted to do a huge production number with every single person but apparently there wasn't enough time."

"I can't wait to go to Hamilton Academy when I'm older." Phillip said, restless on his seat.

"Would you two like to stay for dinner?" Liz asked us and my mom declined politely.

"Plus we have all that homework Mrs. Olivera had dumped on us today." Lucas mumbled, glancing at me before turning to his mom. "I think I'll eat dinner in my room tonight. I'll see you tomorrow Sydney."

I nodded and he grabbed his sketchbook and drink before leaving the kitchen. The scent of him was still remembered in my mind even when mom was driving us back home. I sat in the back of the car so she couldn't see what I was taking out of my jeans pocket.

I took out the piece of paper and unfolded the picture of the tree. I looked at the bottom right corner where there was Lucas signature of his name and a word. One syllable.Three letters.

Hey.