She's My Little Sister

Why Didn't You Say That You Had Her?

CORY WAS PANICKING as he looked around the house.

He was bent over, looking under the couch, when Eric walked in and asked, "Cory, what are you doing?"

"Well, Michelle and I were playing hide-and-seek and now I can't find her!"

Eric rolled his eyes and said, "Well that's how the game works."

Cory shook his head rapidly, now looking behind the TV. "No, I mean she's hiding."

Eric once again rolled his eyes. "Cory, it's called hide-and seek. Michelle hides and you seek her."

"I mean she's disappeared."

"Cory, you really don't understand how this game works, do you?"

Cory stood up, rounding on his brother and yelled, "She's missing, Eric! I found her, and then I turned my back on her to grab something and when I turned back around she was gone!"

Eric's amused demeanor dropped and he asked quickly, "Does Shawn know?"

"Yeah. He's actually looking upstairs right now for her—OF COURSE HE DOESN't KNOW!" Cory exclaimed. "Shawn would kill me if he found out I lost his sister."

Eric nodded in understanding, but began to walk to the kitchen and said, "Well, good luck finding her."

Cory's mouth dropped open in shock as he called, "Eric, come on, you've got to help me!"

Eric groaned, but figured that he didn't want to be on the receiving end of Shawn's anger even though Cory was the one who lost her. He thought about heading back out to his friend's house, and just wait Shawn out, but he knew Cory would never let him do that. So instead, he sighed, giving in and started helping his brother.

The Matthews brothers searched every single inch of the house, checking outside and even went over to Mr Feeny's but the baby was no where to be found.

Cory had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach as he and Eric entered the living room again. He couldn't believe that he lost Michelle. Now what happened? How was he supposed to explain that to Shawn? Oh, hey, Shawn, you know how you left Michelle for me to watch? Yeah, well I lost her and wasn't able to find her. My bad!

Shawn would never forgive him. He'd hate him forever, even if they did end up finding her, Cory would never be trusted to be left alone with Michelle again. He'd lose his best friend, and he'd be lonely for the rest of his life, all because he was irresponsible and turned his back on the girl.

Cory groaned quietly, and he and Eric walked upstairs to their room. As they passed Morgan's room, Cory heard Morgan say, "You're a very messy baby, Michelle."

Both boys stopped, almost getting whiplash from how fast they turned their necks, and walked into their little sisters room, and their eyes widened when they saw Michelle sitting on one of Morgan's chair, covered in baby food.

"What do you two want?" Morgan questioned, wanting to get back to playing.

"Michelle!" Cory said, rushing over to the baby, scooping her up, relief filling him. "You're here!"

Morgan rolled her eyes and said, "Duh! She was with me the whole time."

Cory and Eric shared a look of disbelief.

"Why didn't you say that you had her?" Eric asked.

Morgan shrugged and said, "Nobody asked me."

Shaking his head, Cory walked downstairs with the blonde baby, and headed into the kitchen, just in time too. As soon as Cory entered the room, Shawn walked through the back door.

Shawn gave a confused smile when he saw the two and he asked, "Why's Michelle covered in food?"

Cory sighed and said, "Morgan."

Shawn nodded, though not too sure what that meant. "So, what did you guys do today?"

Cory shrugged nonchalantly, trying to keep himself from blurting out the search that took place a Monet before he walked through the door and said, "We watched some TV and played hide-and-seek."

The shaggy haired boy nodded and said, "Is that it? Nothing else happened?"

Cory shook his head quickly. What Shawn didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

"Nothing."

"You sure?"

"Positive."

Shawn nodded, thanking Cory for watching her, and headed home with his sister.

As soon as the Hunter siblings left, Cory let out a sigh of relief.

{}~{}~{}~{}

Shawn was pacing around in his room as Michelle lay asleep in her crib.

It was nearly her first birthday, and Shawn wanted to make it the best birthday ever. He never had the most amazing birthday's growing up, so he wanted Michelle to have great ones. The only problem with his plan, was he had twelve dollars.

"Okay," He said to himself. "I so if I have twelve dollars and I want to buy her a cake and at least one present, then I'll have to buy her something not very expensive. A small cake from the bakery is about five dollars, so I'll set six aside for that, and I can get her a small tea set like Morgan's got, and that's around four dollars, so I'll have a dollar and a few cents left."

Nodding, satisfied with his plan, he wrote it down, and split the money, setting both chunks off to the side in his drawer.

He drew his covers back, ready to jump into bed, but right before he could, a shrill cry filled the room.

Sighing, Shawn walked over to Michelle, and tried to soothe her back to sleep in her crib. After failing to do so, Shawn picked her up, rocking her back to sleep. It took a few minutes to do so, and when he did, he sighed in relief. He gently sat her down in the crib again, running a hand through his hair.

Laying down in his own bed, he laid on his back, staring into the darkness. He wasn't very tired, despite the long day that he had. He couldn't bring himself to close his eyes and try anyway.

Sighing, he rolled onto his side, and a few minutes later, his eyes grew heavy, and Shawn fell into a deep sleep.

A/N: I haven't updated this book in a while. I'm going to try to get back on a schedule, but I wouldn't get your hopes up because I suck at doing things on time. But next chapter who'll probably be Michelle's birthday. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter though!