The Thompsons.

22 Avery Benson

"I'm okay, really. Please stop pestering me." Avery grumbled as she sipped her tea at home. We decided that it would be best to close up shop earlier in the day in order to take care of Avery, even though she seemed perfectly capable of doing that herself.

"Okay, if you're fine, then you can answer our questions." James asked with his arms crossed from where he stood against the mantle in the living room. All of my brothers were here, as were Danny and Charlie. Avery sighed but nodded anyway. "Full name?"

"Avery Benson."

"Age?"

"Nineteen years young."

"Occupation?"

"Unemployed at the moment."

The questions continued flowing until Avery got bored of answering and began asking questions of her own.

"So, are you all Thompsons?" I looked at my brothers curiously.

"Why is that so important?" I asked for us.

"It just is. Will you please answer the question, I answered all of yours." I nodded with a small sigh and answered her.

"We are," I pointed to all of my brothers who waved their hands slightly at the mention of their names. "That's Danny, my boyfriend, and that's Charlie, James' boyfriend." I pointed to them individually again. Avery seemed overwhelmed but nodded anyway.

"Okay then. Can I talk with you all without Danny and Charlie? It's more of a family matter."

"Anything you need to say to us you can tell them. They are family." James said matter-of-factly. Avery gave us all an exasperated look but spoke anyway.

"Fine. I was put up for adoption practically as soon as I was born. My parents didn't want a girl, so they threw me away. I was adopted when I had just turned one. I am not telling you my life story, don't worry, but that was relevant to what I'm about to tell you now." Avery hesitated and took a breath before speaking. "I'm your sister."

Silence.

I looked at her and then at my brothers.

"How are you our sister? Why didn't we know about you before?" Liam asked in shock.

"I already told you, my real biological parents didn't want me, so I was put up for adoption as soon as I was able to go."

"That explains why they hate me so much." Everyone looked over at me. Some eyes held pity, others confusion. "If anyone tries to say that they don't really hate me I will throw you in the fucking fire. Don't think I'm joking for a second. You know its true. Why would they ignore me all my life if they truly loved me?" I asked rhetorically. "Are you telling me that they didn't want a girl so you were put up for adoption?" Avery nodded at me silently. "Then why am I still here?"

"I was wondering when we would get here. Now, Lia, you would have been put up for adoption if it wasn't for the agencies refusal to take you in. Why you ask, well, you were too young for a start, and the agencies wouldn't take you at such a young age, unlike me. The laws ended up changing, so you had to stay with your birth parents until the appropriate age, but by then, the boys had grown attached to their little sister. They left them in charge of you whilst they were out gallivanting with work."

"Okay, how and why do you know this?"

"I've done a little digging and followed up on my research. Also, Nick, you were not meant to be born. Not an accident exactly, just not planned if that makes sense." Nick shook his head. "If Lia was a boy you would not have been conceived." Avery clarified. I took a deep shaky breath and nodded, taking everything in. Danny sat by me the whole time, hugging me and stroking my hand comfortingly.

"Well shit. We have another sister."

---

"Are you kidding me? I have a sister that we didn't know about for nineteen years which makes sense in James' case. Nick wasn't meant to be born but because of me he was and I was meant to be put up for adoption as soon as I was born because Mel and Chris only wanted boys? What the shit? I feel like I'm living in some sort of shitty soap opera. Is this normal?" I ranted to Danny as soon as I got into my room. I was having a mini internal breakdown downstairs with everyone but as soon as I was up with Danny alone, all shit went out the window.

"Calm down. We'll figure this out and life will go back to normal. Whatever normal is right now but you get my drift." Danny said whilst gripping my shoulders to stop me from pacing my bedroom floor.

"Super helpful, thanks that's just what I needed." I groaned as I faceplanted my bed. I groaned into my duvet and rolled onto my back to stare up at my boring plain white ceiling. "This so isn't normal." Danny stood quietly for a minute before flopping down next to me and pulling me into his chest protectively.

"It'll be okay. You'll all get used to having a sister and everything will calm down and go back to however it was with one more person in the equation. You'll be okay, your brothers will have to live with another sister pulling their hair out and wrecking their shit and we will be fine. We can overcome anything that comes barging into our lives."

"I suppose you're right, oh wise one." I grinned up at my idiot. He smirked back at me.

"Of course I'm right. I am the wise one after all." I giggled and slapped his chest softly before sitting up and releasing myself from Danny's grip.

"Well after that shocking revelation, I think it's time to marathon. Harry Potter, I don't care what you say." I stated as I put the first disc in. "Let the wizarding world of Harry Potter consume you." I said in a deep voice before switching off the lights and climbing back into my bed with Danny.

James and Charlie went and spent their first night in their own place, Avery stayed with us in James' now old room and Danny stayed in my room with me, much to Leo's displeasure. He met us halfway and made us promise to keep the bedroom door open. It had been one strange day, and not one that I was wanting to relive anytime soon. Unfortunately, strange new siblings meant bringing the parents back into the equation, and again, that was something I didn't want to relive anytime soon, but I just had to wait out the inevitable, and hope that phone calls (not conducted by me) would suffice.