"Shane!"

"Take your hands off her!" I struggled angrily against the ropes as my hands were tied behind my backs.

Dad's boss, the Captain was putting a gag on my little sister's mouth and that made me angry.

No one touched my siblings without their consent, specially when it was to tie us up.

Mr Chun turned to me annoyed, putting a gag on my mouth. I eyed him annoyed but tried to relax against my restraints though I was tense, glaring at the used to be nice man.

"Stop talking" the captain glanced at me, standing from behind Luly, annoyed. "Shane's not gonna be babysitting anymore"

Mom was standing in front of us, also tied up, looking at us in worry and betrayal at the man who had been there for her since dad died.

"I trusted you" Mom struggled against Mrs. Chun, glaring at him "Howard trusted you" the captain walked closer to her with every word mom spat "You've betrayed us and you've betrayed this country"

Yeah, mom. I don't think he cares about that.

"Guess what" The captain told her. "North Korea pays better" he turned to the other man in the room, pointing at us "Chun, watch them, they're squirmy" he turned to Mom and the Mrs, "You two, come with me"

With that, we were left alone with a grumpy Mr. Chun as we yelled - me profanities - that were muffled from our gags.

I turned to see Peter and Tyler in their little playpen. Peter was drinking his juice as he eyed us in confusion.

We had to get out of here.

~8 ~

After a little while of being watched over, my body aching for the way I was sitting - on my knees - with Seth tied the same way, back to back. Lulu and Zoe were tied up the same way with each other. I had Lulu right at my side for when she turned to me and Tyler.

Her eyes did this thing that annoys me. She crossed her eyes.

"Lulu" I spat through my gag in anger. There goes my anger management.

Tyler also began to cry hysterically and with my struggling, it forced Mr Chun to turn to us, walking toward the baby, trying to shut him up, getting frustrated.

In the moment he turned his back on us, Zoe and Lulu shitfted places, looking innocently at Mr. Chun when he turned to us briefly. Lulu worked on mine and Seth's ropes, Seth immediately turning to me to console me and calm me down.

I took a deep breath, nodding at him. Since Shane helped me and my session group, the process on regaining back my anger was better and easier.

I turned to my sisters, flashing thumbs up.

Zoe pulled out her gag and turned to Peter, "Now, Peter!"

Peter smiled with his toothy smile as he squeezed his juice. The liquid splashing Mr. Chun's eyes through the straw. He stumbled backwards where Zoe tripped him with her legs.

The rest of us stood and Seth round kicked Mr. Chun on his lower back to make him fall. Zoe grabbed Tyler and I immediately went to pick up Peter.

I grinned at Lulu's hiya! And Mr. Chun's sarcastic "That's cute" before Lulu kicked him where the sun doesn't shine. Yeah, right there. Ouch.

We all ran away.

Lulu locked the door as I grabbed the car keys...

What?

We're probably going to need them.

I pulled out the cloth used to cover my mouth while carrying Peter with my other arm, flinching when Mr. Chun punched a whole through the door.

"Seth!" I called out. He turned to me, "Fire extinguisher"

Seth grinned as he grabbed it from where it was hanging on the wall. Dad always made sure put house was protected from anything, knowing how troublemakers we were.

Seth sprayed the extinguisher on Mr. Chun's face he was showing through the whole in the door making me cackle.

"That stuff doesn't hurt" Mr. Chun told him, spitting out the foam of the extinguisher. 

Seth began to laugh with me, kicking his face with the fire extinguisher.

"Well done, little bro!" I cheered, high fiving him.

Seth passed an arm around my shoulders, "Like I said before. I'm the man of the house, Lexi. I have to protect you guys"

My smile grew as I nodded. "Let's go and protect them all"

~8~

We found Shane passed out on the garage.

We knelt at his side, different expressions of worry passing through our faces.

He was the big nanny! The army guy! He was supposed to be stronger than this...

Well, suppose that he was also caught by surprise his own boss betray him.

Yeah, he needs a pass on this one.

"Shane! You can't do this, you can't leave a man behind!" Lulu exclaimed, shaking him to try to wake him up.

"Hold on, I got it" I exclaimed, grabbing one of Tyler's bottles, pouring it on his face, startling him awake "You have no idea how long I wanted to do that"

Seth flickered my forehead, both of us chuckling, turning to Shane.

"Shane! Shane" Lulu and Zoe urged at him to wake up, leaning closer to him.

Seth and I exchanged a look, turning to them.

"Where's mom?" Zoe asked.

"Mom?" Shane asked in confusion.

I flickered my fingers on his face, "Come on, soldier. Use your brain!"

Shane immediately seemed to recall his last memories. "I'll find her. You guys run and get help! Hurry"

Tyler began to cry.

We all nodded as Zoe and Seth stood. I passed Peter to Seth's arms once he was up.

"We're counting on you, soldier!" I warned, but my words were more worried than actually sounding a threat.

I ran toward the van, leaving Lulu with Shane, knowing she'd be behind us in one second.

"Oh! I call dibs on driving!" I exclaimed, showing them the car keys.

Zoey stopped from climbing up the driver's seat, giving me an incredulous look. "Give me the keys, Lexi"

"I know how to drive too!" I told her. "That I wasn't trusted with the car because of my anger issues was different. I'm calm and better now. You guys have to trust me!"

"I do" Seth immediately went to my defense.

Zoey hesitated for one more second, "I do too, sis. Climb up"

Zoey turned away and helped Seth buckle the babies up as I climbed on the driver's seat, grinning.

My heart pounded as memories of dad teaching me how to drive passed through my head. It was one of the few times he stayed home more than two months and I still hadn't developed any anger issues. He taught me everything he knew about how to drive and it was probably the only 'Lexi and dad alone time'  I could ever have, considering I had five younger siblings to share dad with. It never bothered me having to share because I loved being an older sister and seeing how much dad spent time with each one of us but those moments, to me were very treasured.

It was the most painful reason that almost stopped me from hating him when he began to spend less and less time with us and more with his work. Those moments were in my head whenever I justified my anger and it intensified when he completely stopped wanting to drive with me. Of course, I already had my license but he banned me completely from driving.

Still, every knowledge from driving hadn't gone away as I started the car, surprised at how easy every maneuver came back to me as I drove the car in reverse out of the garage.

"Hold on, baby sibs" I told them, checking to make sure the coast was clear.

Lulu was in the passanger seat, grabbing the seat tightly as if scared I was going to crash.

"Zoe, Lex, either of you call 911" Lulu told us.

I hissed trough my teeth, glancing at Zoe questionably through the rearview mirror.

Zoe made a face, "Oh, my God. I think we forgot our phones"

Seth gave us an incredulous looks, "Great. The only time you guys don't have it"

"We're gonna be okay" I said, trying to reassure them as I moved the gearshift away from the reverse block, driving forward. My hands were lightly shaking. It had been a while since I was being a wheel.

"You're doing okay" Zoe told me, seeing my hands on the wheel. "Just don't get angry"

"I'm too scared to be angry, Zo" I pointed out, glancing at my wing mirror, panicking. "Because of that. Oh, God. What do we do? What do we do?"

Mr. Chun was giving us chase. My heart was pounding in anxiety, gripping tightly the wheel.

"Find a cop" Seth told me. "And take deep breaths, Lex. You're okay. We trust you"

In some words, that managed to calm down a bit my anxiety.

Hearing my siblings say they trusted me, literally with their lives right now after months of them walking in shells around me as if I was going to break was the best feeling in the word.

I was finally trustworthy and they didn't see my anger issues while talking to me. They saw me. They saw Lexi. They saw their sister.

"Find a cop, alright" I said, nodding, taking a deep breath, looking around to find a cop car or something.

Mr. Chun's car drove forward, standing next to my side and a bit of anger flared up making me move the wheel and bump his car with ours.

However, that movement backfired on me because Mr. Chun's car whirled away enough to stand face to face with us, him driving backwards.

We began to scream in panic, seeing through the mirror that he was panicking as well.

Mr. Chun's car, thank God suddenly moved away, driving away decently, falling behind but still began to drive fast behind us.

I bit my lip, "He's gaining on us"

Zoe and Seth exchanged looks as if talking silently to each other. Zoe nodded.

"I'll handle it" Seth told me as Zoe searched through Tyler's diaper bag.

"Hurry then" I said, glancing toward Lulu's side, seeing Mr. Chun now at our level but this time with a gun pointed at us.

Lulu and I screamed.

Seth threw a dirty diaper directly at Mr. Chun's windshield.

I gagged in disgust but was glad for the distraction as his car began to steer around, out of control.

"And to see, once upon a time that was you, sis" Zoe teased me, raising her head from between the front seats. When did she shrink back on the seat?

"What? Car out of control?" I asked, amused.

"Yeah-watch out!" Zoe began before exclaiming, pointing forward.

We all screamed, me immediately and instinctively pressing on the brakes, snapping the wheel to the side to avoid the big truck in front of me, successfully driving past around it.

"Oh, my God" I exhaled, relaxing my hands on the wheel, still driving.

Lulu pointed, "Look, Lexi! It's the cops!"

I followed her gaze, seeing a parked cop car. "Finally"

I pressed on the accelerator, seeing a sign with the speed limit, glancing to the speedometer making sure I went past the limits to catch the cops' attention.

The sirens began to wail as the cops began to chase after us, driving past the high school on our way home, seeing several cop cars were now on my tail.

"You wanted cops, then cops we got" Zoe mused.

I smiled, taking one hand of the wheel, holding a hand to her.

Zoe smiled, high fiving me.

"Too cute, sisters bonding" Seth said sarcastically as I returned my hand back to the wheel. His voice was very panicky. "But, Lexi! You're going too fast"

"That's the plan" I told him.

Seth widened his eyes at me, "You're not gonna have time to stop"

"Who said anything about stopping? I'm parking" I told him, smirking.

This parking move was from Shane, remembering this time we were the ones saving him. I violently turned the wheel, parking on the sidewalk in front of the house.

"Go, go!" Zoe told us, all of us opening the doors, climbing out of the car.

Zoe had Tyler in his car seat and Seth pulling Peter by his hand. I rounded the car toward the passenger's seat with Seth on my heels, grabbing Lulu's hand, dragging her with me toward the garage where we left Shane.

Shane left some sort of underground hidden place with mom on his heels, sound and safe.

"Hey! Hey, hey!" Shane told us in alarm, seeing the cops behind us. "What are you doing to these kids?"

We stopped in front of Shane as the lead cop exclaimed, pointing his gun at us "Police! Hands where I can see them"

We turned to them, slowly raising our hands, breathing heavily.

Shane and mom had no choice but to obey as well.

"Everybody! Put your weapons down!"

Oh, we were definitely screwed.

I saw Mr. Chun behind the cops, holding a big big gun. One of the ones used on Lulu's violent games that shot dozens of bullets at the same time.

I gulped in worry as the cops raised their hands and complied with his demands, lowering their guns.

"I want the GHOST" Mr. Chun demanded.

I heard quaking, looking down, seeing Gary walking toward us from behind and stopping between us and Mr. Chun.

Mr. Chun aimed his gun to Gary and I worried. It was dad's duck. Gary is family and he was being threatened.

"Um...Calm down" Shane told him. "It's just a duck"

A duck that believed was a guardian dog but okay, Shane. Protect Gary by downplaying how violent Gary was.

OH!

Gary took after me! I was violent too when I wanted to!

"Where's the GHOST?" Mr. Chun demanded again.

"I have it" Shane told him, pulling out an object from his pocket "Here"

"Bring it here!" Mr. Chun demanded.

Shane began to walk past us.

I followed him with my eyes with a frown, hssing in worry "Shane"

What's he doing???

You never did what the bad guy wanted! That's not what heroes do!

Shane glanced at me. At my concern and just smiled reassuringly. Woah, since when does he smile? "Everything's gonna be okay, Lexi. I promise"

I hoped so.

Shane walked closer slowly and put the object on the ground as Mr. Chun instructed. He was kneeling next to Gary and my anxiety increased.

Please don't die. Neither of you.

"Okay, duck whisperer!" Mr. Chun snapped. I frowned. Did Shane... Talk to Gary? What? "Step away!"

Shane did as told, raising his hands, "Gary now!"

Gary immediately jumped and bit Mr Chun....

Ouch.

Seth cringed in sympathy for where Gary bit. The same place Lulu kicked earlier.

Out of the bushes, Principal Fletcher?? Jumped toward Mr. Chun and went all ninja on him making him drop his gun which Shane grabbed. The cops went back for their guns and pointed at Mr Chun as Principal Fletcher stopped manhandling him.

She looked up at Shane, calmly as if she didn't beat a man up one second ago "Couldn't let you have all the fun"

Now that the threat was gone and was being arrested, we lowered our hands and we crowded each other in a hug. Now that the adrenaline as wearing off, I almost fell in shaky legs if it weren't for Seth whose arm supported me standing as we all shared a family hug.

We were all together.... And safe.

Yes, more high school musical. So what?

~8~

I was sad Shane was leaving. His mission was over and he no longer needed to babysit us to protect us.

I watched him and Lulu talking from afar, not liking goodbyes at all. But I was there to make sure nothing bad happened to my little sister - Yes, she was safe with Shane but the last few hours made me want to make sure with my own eyes -.

My lips twitched in a small smile, seeing Shane hug Lulu.

My family walked closer from behind me. I looked at them over my shoulder, smiling as Seth wrapped an arm around my shoulder, side hugging me as we all walked closer to Shane and Lulu. He pulled away and lowered Lulu to the floor.

"From now and on, it's your command" Shane was telling Lulu, saluting her.

I smiled as Lulu saluted back.

"At ease, soldiers" Lulu told us all.

Shane was smiling at her, looking up and this time smiling at all of us, "Your father would be so proud of all of you" he turned to me, "He was wrong as well into not believing in you. You're strong, Lexi" how many times did I wish dad would say that to me? I blinked away tears and nodded with a grateful smile. Shane smiled back and turned to Tyler who fussed, waking up. He grabbed the baby from mom who smiled as she let him. "Aww, look who just woke up"

Look at that. Shane actually looked like a dad with Tyler.

"Shane?" I asked, bitting my thumbnail.

Shane turned to me, "Yes?"

I hated goodbyes, yes. But I didn't want him to leave thinking I hated him. "Are we ever gonna see you again?"

Shane frowned, "What are you talking about?" I frowned. He looked at all of us seriously. "We still have two more missions"

He turned to Seth and then back at me.

Seth's musical.

My graduation.

~8~

Seth looked incredible as he sang.

The entire family, including Helga and Principal Fletcher were watching him with smiles in our faces.

I was extremely proud of my brother. He was a great actor, a good singer and he finally followed his dreams. No matter what dad wanted him to do, I knew he'd be proud of Seth for being himself.

~8~

"And next, we have Alexia Plummer"

My grin was big as I fixed the graduation hat on my head, walking up toward the podium to receive my diploma.

"It's Lexi, please" I grinned as I accepted.

Principal Fletcher smiled in the mic "Sorry. Lexi Plummer"

We shook hands and turned to the camera, smiling for the flash.

"Thank you so much!" I beamed and walked down the podium where I found a grinning Mary.

We squealed at each other, hugging tightly.

"Oh, my God, Oh my God!" Mary and I jumped up and down excitedly. "We did it. We did it! Yeah!"

I pulled away, both of us squeezing our hands before she dropped them, waving at me as she went to her family.

I turned to my own who had been patiently waiting to finish acting like a little girl with my best friend and I grinned.

However, who I embraced first was even a surprise for myself.

I jumped into Shane's arms, wrapping my arms around his neck, uncaring that my hat fell. I felt him return my embrace.

"Thank you for this" I whispered on his ear. "Without you helping me. I would have never graduated, Shane"

Shane hugged me tightly for one more moment and pulled away, pulling my cap back on - He had caught it before it went to the ground - and smiled.

"Nah, it was all you" Shane told me, "You just needed a little push to the right direction"

"Still" I said with a small smile. "You helped my family in ways we didn't know we needed"

With that, I turned my back on him and allowed mom to engulf me in big hugs and kisses all over my face.

"I'm so proud of you, baby" Mom said lovingly. "Your dad would be proud too"

My eyes filled with tears and I chuckled, hugging her tightly. It was when I felt several arms and bodies squishing us that I laughed into the family embrace.

I loved this. I loved my family.

And I no longer felt that angry at the world. Sure, there were still moments where I slipped and almost returned to be the angsty girl but I finally put aside the roots of where it came from. I released that weight over my shoulders and I could finally enjoy my family.

All thanks to one person.

~8~

The End.

Phew.

Took me.... years but I finally did it.

I hope you all liked it. I know it took me a long time to actually finish this journey with Lexi due to a lot of things, lack of inspiration, college, Netflix took the movie out, I couldn't find it anywhere and I could give a lot of excuses but I can say that I actually finished it which I'm proud of myself..

I have several books I still don't find it in myself to finish that when I do actually finish one, I feel so happy with myself.

I hope you're also happy with this ending because it meant a lot to me. I wanted to write it in two parts but if I didn't finish it now, I would have never finished. That's why this last chapter's so long hahah.

Thank you for reading :)

You guys are amazing. 

Peace and out,
De.