Surviving the McLane Boys ('On Hold Still...')

Chapter 5 - The Bike Ride, Claire, The Kitchen, My Room.

This is dedicated to all my friends at school who've been reading my story and giving me awesome feedback! Love you guys!

A special dedication (in no particular order) to Alice, Neesh, Dani, Arti and of Course Mads for... well I'm just dedicating it to them since Mads insisted   - . -

thanks for the suppport :)

Chapter 5

I’m alive. I. Am. Alive.

That’s all that goes through my head when we pull into the McLane driveway.

Soon all I can think is: Shoot. How do I get off this thing? And: Jake was definitely planning this.

I manage to get off a bit more gracefully than this morning.

At least something is working for me right now.

I immediately start heading towards my house before someone can stop me. Namely Jake.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Steady on Shorty! You’re coming back with us! Mom said she wanted to see you after school, so she can explain and everything...” Wes drags me back towards his front door.

We walk through the double doors and into a cool, tiled hallway.

“Mom! Where are you? I’m home!”

“We’re home too!” the rest of the gang pushes through the door nearly toppling me over.

I follow them towards the kitchen where Claire stands at the stove stirring something in a pot. Tristan and Dylan sit at the table stuffing their faces and everyone else makes a beeline for their bowl of chips. Once she sees me her face breaks out into a smile and she comes over and gives me a long hug.

I smile to myself; Claire was best friends with my real mother when she was still alive.

*

My real mom, Rosaline, was killed in a car crash when I was four. My father remarried after that and now I’m stuck with Jenny. She’s nice enough, but we could never get along as more than friends. We aren’t even good friends, just on good enough terms that we don’t rip each other’s hair out.

I miss my mom, a lot. Though I only knew her for four years, she was the best. She comforted me when the boys were mean to me, she’d have tea parties with me, she’d read me my favorite book to me every night no matter how tired she was.

 I sometimes lie in bed wishing she was still alive. When Lilly and the twins came around I started to feel more distanced from my so called ‘family’. Dad loves me, anyone can see that. Dad loves Jenny, anyone can see that. Jenny loves her kids, anyone can see that. I even love them… most of the time, anyone can see that. Jenny just doesn’t like me that much, only I can see that.

So talking about hot guys, shopping, getting ready for school dances and all the other things normal girls do with their moms was left for me to do by myself. I’ll admit Jenny tried, but I could see it was too much of a strain for her so I told her she didn’t have to pretend to like me. We never acted like a mother and daughter. I stayed out of her way, and she ordered me around.

Dad even stepped in and tried to get me to call her mom. But for me, she was Jenny. She could never be mom. Lilly and the Twins don’t know that I’m their half sister though, so I have to put up a fake front a lot of the time and call her ‘mom’ instead of Jenny.

I became closer with Claire after mom’s death. She was definitely more motherly than Jenny and she loved me like I was her own daughter due to her only having boys. Since she knew Jenny and I weren’t on really friendly terms she would take me out for a day every now and then, talk to me, see if I was alright and pamper me. When we moved I really missed her a lot. I called her every now and then to talk about problems or just to say hi, and she acted just like she always had. Like a mom.