- Text Size +
Author's Chapter Notes:
Well, here's the whole chapter I wrote. ;)
Aren't I such a good co-writer & best friend? Make Ashley re-post everything, & I just jump in to re-post one chapter. Lol.
And major thanks to the reader who had our chapters saved! I'm glad someone did! Lol.
"How does this looks, Kota?" Ellie asked, as she placed a big old floppy pretty lady hat on her head. It was purple with a big yellow bow on it. It matched the purple and blue dress she had on pretty well.

"That looks pretty, Ellie," Dakota smiled. "How do I looks?" She was wearing a flowery sundress that was too big, with Jackie's old high heels, and lots of fake pearl necklaces.

Ellie giggled. "You looks very rich, Kota."

Kota stuck her nose up in the air playfully, causing both girls and B.J. as well to giggle.

"Alright, c'mere," B.J. said finally. "I've finished sorting my make-up out."

Both little girls eagerly ran over to where B.J. sat, anxious to put some make-up on and surprise everybody.

B.J. let them choose their colours and helped then just a little, then made them up so the make-up was scene, but they didn't look like clowns or mini-sized sluts.

Soon enough, they were all set to go downstairs and put on their show.

"Just let me go make sure it's safe to go down, okay?" B.J. told them.

Both girls nodded, giggling with excitement. "We shoulds do talents too, Kota!" Ellie suggested. "Then we coulds sing or acts or whatevers!"

"Okay!" Dakota agreed readily.

B.J. headed on downstairs, peeking into the living room cautiously. "Is it all good in here and safe for lil' rug-rats to come down?" She asked, causing everyone to glance up at her - even Kevin who's finally off the phone.

"Depends on why they're coming down," Kevin replied in a wary tone. "What're they up too, B.J.?"

"Is this a bad time for a surprise?" B.J. asked curiously. "Because there's two little girls upstairs waiting to put on a fashion and talent show for y'all."

Nick smiled some, despite their current situation. "No, it's a good time. Probably exactly what we all need right now."

"Good," B.J. replied, then eyed her brother. "And I expect an explanation later when I haven't got the goobers attached to me."

Nick rolled his eyes as his sister headed on back upstairs and everyone there sat around, ready to watch the fashion show the girls wanted to put on.

B.J. smiled at the two girls standing there and nodded. "If you go stand on the stairs and go in one at a time, then come back up when you're done to change, it should work," she told them, as she realized they'd forgotten about Sarah.

Elenore and Dakota squealed and ran for the stairs, though both were careful going down. They were both eager to show off their costumes.

"C'mere Sarah," B.J. said softly. "Let's get you all dressed up too. Would you like that?"

Sarah looked up surprised, as it seemed everybody had just up and forgotten about her sitting there watching them silently. She nodded shyly, wanting to play, but a little worried Elenore and Dakota would hate her for joining in on their game.

B.J. smiled and took Sarah's hand in hers and led the little girl over to the trunk of dress-up clothes to help her pick out an outfit.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Dakota had run on ahead of Elenore, who was hiding out in the hallway secretly watching her friend.

"Wow. Doesn't my Baby look pretty," Nick grinned, watching as his four-year-old twirled about happily in her clompy high-heels.

Dakota grinned. "Of course Daddy."

Nick took a good look then and frowned. "Make-up!?!?!?"

"All models needs make-up, Daddy," Dakota told him matter-of-factly, as she turned once more. She then began to sing You Are My Sunshine, to which all in the room applauded.

Soon as Dakota had left the living room, Elenore came strutting in just like real models do. She'd her one hand on her side and was swaying her hips back and forth like a pro. She stopped in front of Kevin, pivoted, and flashed him a broad grin.

Kevin raised his eyebrows. "How in the world..." He trailed off, wondering how his little girl had learned all that.

"I watches Tyra, Kevy," Elenore told him. "She's really pretty!" She then made her way back to the living room entrance and began to act out a scene from The Chipmunk Adventure quite well, even managing to do their high-pitched voices.

Once she was done, her and Dakota linked hands and ran on back upstairs just as B.J. was doing Sarah's make-up.

"Oooh. You look pretty, Sarah," Elenore told the older girl.

Dakota eyed Sarah warily - she was starting to warm up to her some, but she still wasn't used to having to share all of her favourite people with someone else.

She eyed Sarah a moment longer, then began to root around in the dress-up trunk, emerging moments later with a flowered hair piece. "Here Sarah, you shoulds puts this in yer hair," she insisted. "It'd looks really pretty."

"Ooh, good idea Kota," B.J. praised, taking it from her niece and carefully placing it in Sarah's hair.

"There you go," B.J. smiled a few seconds later. "You're ready to go on down."

Sarah nodded and headed on downstairs, in her red laced dress, white gloves, and red heels. The white flowers in her hair matched perfectly too.

Dakota and Elenore quickly changed into new outfits - Dakota into a black and white polka dot dress and Elenore into a sailor's outfit - hat and all. She'd a thing for hats.

Once re-dressed and ready to go, both girls scampered on back downstairs, only to find Sarah still standing on the bottom step looking worried.

"What's wrong, Sarah?" Elenore asked concerned. The older girl looked mighty sad for someone who was dressed up so pretty. "Didn't they likes yer dress?"

Sarah shrugged slightly, and wrote on her notepad. Didn'ts go in yets....Scared....

Elenore eyed the pad, though she couldn't exactly read yet - though, she did know how to spell scared, as she was usually that. She frowned. "What're you scared for? They're nots gonna laugh ats you, 'less you do somethin' funny."

Dakota frowned as well, as she realized Sarah was scared no one would notice her, since they had forgotten she was upstairs with them earlier. "C'mon Sarah. We'll go withs you," Dakota offered, deciding to be nice for a change.

Sarah eyed her skeptically, but eventually took hold of the hand that was being offered.

Elenore grinned, feeling proud of her best friend for putting her feelings aside and helping Sarah out. She grabbed hold of Sarah's free hand and flashed her a re-assuring smile. "C'mon. We'll introduce you!"

The three of them then entered the living room together, surprising everyone in there as they all knew how Dakota felt about Sarah.

B.J. came to stand in the doorway behind them, as she'd witnessed the whole scene on her way down - she'd remained silent from her perch on one of the top steps.

"We're backs!" Elenore announced, twirling about, then making Sarah turn.

"We found our losted model!" Dakota exclaimed. "She gots losted an' we hads to finds her!"

Everyone smirked as they watched the three twirl about, Elenore and Dakota mostly showing off Sarah.

"You look very nice, Sarah," Jackie smiled at the oldest little girl before them. "We should find you a similar dress, but in your size."

"Yes, that would be perfect!" Denise agreed. "And shoes to go with it of course!"

Sarah smiled at them shyly, not used to so much praise being aimed her way.

"Ooh! I gots an idea!" Elenore exclaimed suddenly. "Let's go change an' go plays on the swings in the backyard! They're fun!"

"Yeah!" Dakota agreed, more than ready to agree with most anything her best friend suggests. "C'mon Sarah!"

Once more Sarah looked surprised, as did everyone else in the room. She gave a genuine smile as she grabbed the other two girls' hands once more and ran back upstairs with them to be rid of the dress-up clothes.

Nick spotted B.J. standing there and eyed her suspiciously. "Okay, what did you do to my daughter? I've tried everything to get her to be nice to Sarah, and she spends one afternoon with you and is suddenly being nice."

"Yeah, what gives Beej?" Brian asked, wanting to know just as bad as Nick and everyone else, just what was going on.

"She did it all on her own," B.J. explained. "I'd sent Sarah down here while Ellie and Kota were changing, and when they came back down Sarah was standing on the bottom step looking sad. Ellie asked what was wrong, and I guess she knows how to read the word scared, because they figured out that's why Sarah was just standing there. We'd kind of forgotten about her upstairs, until I realized she was by herself and included her in the game. So anyway, Ellie said some stuff, and Kota suggested she go in with them, so she wouldn't have to do it alone - and voila!"

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

"Why were you bein' mean to Ellie earlier?" Josh asked Spencer, once the girls were out of the room for a bit. "She only asked you a question."

Josh had decided to try and get an answer out of him again, since the girls weren't around.

"It's none of yer business Josh," Spencer replied hotly, though he continued to play Candy Land.

"Yanno, if yer just gonna be mean to her and Kota, I'll tell your Mom to not let you play with Ryan anymore," Josh stated. "He's a bad....influence!"

Spencer scowled at the mere mention of his new enemy. "Try tellin' Ellie that," he snapped slightly. "I heard her tellin' Kota she likes trouble."

"Ellie's not gonna go nears him," Josh stated firmly. "I won'ts let her. Nots 'less he knows how to be nice an' nots hurt her."

"Pfft, likes she'll listen," Spencer scoffed. "Ellie does whatever she wants and plays with whoever she wants. Whether or nots anybody likes that person...."

"Ellie's not stupid enough to play with anybody who steps on her fingers and hurts her," Josh insisted.

"She plays with you now, doesn't she?" Spencer countered.

"I never hurt her!" Josh argued, before trailing off as he remembered he had slapped her once, and he used to always say hurtful things to her. "Well, that's different! We understand each other better now."

"Yeah, and once she understands Ryan better, she'll be all over him too!" Spencer replied bitterly.

Josh eyed him for a moment, then smirked some. "No way! You like Ellie, don't you?"

Spencer glared at him. "That doesn't leave this room Josh! It does and I will beat you up!"

Josh rolled his eyes. "You've been hanging out with Ryan too much," he told him.

"Whatever," Spencer replied. "Yer turn."

Josh rolled the dice and moved his player, doing as the card he picked up said for him to do. "Yeah, well, you better hope Ryan doesn't blab to Ellie that you like her."

"He won't," Spencer replied calmly. "Because I know he's been playin' Nintendo when nobody's around, even though Howie grounded him from it."

"Hey, shut-up over there!" Ryan piped up finally. "That's between us! You tell an' yer toast!"

"An' you hurt us, an' YER toast," Josh reminded him matter-of-factly. "So buzz off."

Ryan rolled his eyes in annoyance and resumed reading his book. Let the two share their secrets with him in the room, he can just use them to his advantage later. Especially the one about Ellie liking him - now he knew how he could get the little girl mad, and possibly in a crap load of trouble as well.

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

Once Dakota, Elenore, and Sarah had rid themselves of their dress-up clothes they went over to the boys and demanded they come outside to play with them. Josh, of course, was more than willing to oblige, though Spencer seemed a bit reluctant,. Meanwhile, Ryan flat out refused, though technically they hadn’t even asked him to join them.


As the five friends ran off, B.J. turned to look at Ryan. “Why don’t you take your book outside and read,” she suggested. “It’s such a lovely day out. Why waste it in here?”

“Because I like it in here,” Ryan replied flatly.

“Well, you know if you don’t go outside now, Howie will be up in a short while to send you out there anyway. So why not just go and get it over with? Save him the trouble of having to order you around – I’m sure you hate being given orders, a tough guy like you.”

“Shut-up,” Ryan snapped. “Whatta you know?”

B.J. shook her head, though she did notice him getting up and grabbing his sneakers that he’d kicked off once he was in the room. She headed on downstairs and into the living room, immediately demanding to know why everyone seemed so worried before the girls came in to cheer them up.

Ryan made is way out to the backyard once B.J. had left the room, deciding if he was ever going to put his evil plan into action he had best go on outside and observe the younger ones. He had to find the best opportune moment after all. He took a seat on the porch swing, pretending to read his book, when he was reading keeping an eye on the younger five that were currently playing on the swing set.

“Higher Joshy! Higher!” Elenore declared, as he was currently pushing her and Dakota. Spencer had refused and climbed up to sit in the tower that was attached to the play structure they were currently playing on.

“I’m tryin’, I’m tryin’!” Josh insisted, switching back and forth between Elenore and Dakota.

“This is fun!” Dakota squealed, as she kicked her legs on a forward swing.

“Yeah, maybe for you guys,” Josh replied. “But all Spencer and I are doing is watching you two have fun.”

“Aw, buts you knows you likes it Joshy!” Elenore laughed as she swung higher and higher.

“Hey, I know!” Josh exclaimed a few minutes later. “We c’n play with the new light sabers I got! Brian bought them for me at the store earlier, after Riley and I convinced him too!”

“Cool!” Spencer piped up from his spot in the tower. “Go get ‘em Josh!”

“Okay!” Josh replied, carefully moving away from the swings and running on inside to fetch his brand new light sabers. A few minutes later he came outside with them and Brian, who wanted to go over a few rules before letting the kids play.

Dakota, and Elenore jumped off their swings and ran over to them, as Spencer hopped down from the tower and followed after them.

“Now, before I let you guys play with these, there’s a few rules I want to go over first,” Brian began, spotting Ryan on the porch swing as he spoke. “You listen too, Ryan, in case you should ever decide to play with these.”

Ryan looked up from his book, to show he was listening – he might as well, wasn’t like he was reading his book anyway.

“Now, when you play with these, there will be absolutely no hitting anyone on purpose,” Brian told them, making sure to eye Ellie, Josh, and Ryan the longest. “If you hit someone with these on purpose, I’ll take them away from that person and they won’t be able to play with them again until I say so. They’ll also be in very big trouble with me, understand?”

“What ifs it’s an accident though?” Elenore wanted to know.

“If it’s an accident, you’ll just be told to play more carefully,” Brian replied, smiling some. “But let’s try to not have any accident, okay? Also, no trying to purposely poke each other’s eyes out; I don’t think my mother would appreciate bloody eyeballs all over her lawn.”

The kids giggled some, as that just sounded plain old silly. Heck, even Ryan smirked at that one.

Brian began to pass the light sabers out then, being sure there were no arguments over what colour they’d gotten.

“Sweet! I gots blue!” Elenore cheered, doing a small victory dance.

“Me too!” Josh grinned, carefully waving his around.

Brian smirked, as he knew whose favourite colour was what. He figured if he gave the two hot-heads their favourite colour, then maybe they’d play nicely on the same team.

“I wants green, please, Uncle Brian!” Dakota told him, as she patiently awaited hers.

“Here you go Kota,” Brian said, handing her a green one. “One green light saber, that lights up when you flip the switch on the handle.

“Hey! I wants mine to light up too!” Elenore protested.

Josh rolled his eyes. “Ellie, they all light up, Silly.”

“Oh!” Elenore replied, looking for the switch on hers, and flicking it once it had been found. “Cool!”

“Sarah, Spencer, what colour what you two like?” Brian asked them.

“Red!” Spencer insisted, reaching for one of the red ones.

“And you Sarah?” Brian turned to the little girl who was still standing there.

Sarah looked over at Dakota nervously, and pointed to the green one. She was hoping Dakota still wanted to play with her, as she’d had fun playing with her and Ellie during their fashion show.

Dakota grinned. “C’mon Sarah! Yer on my team!”

Sarah smiled in relief, and eagerly retrieved the green light saber from Brian, before running off after Dakota.

“Frack’s never gonna believe this,” Brian mused, turning to Ryan then. “There’s a red one here for you, if you want to play with it later on. I’m sure Spencer could use someone on his team.”

Ryan nodded to show he had heard him, then made like he was going back to reading his book.

Brian shook his head and went back inside, anxious to inform Nick that Dakota was letting Sarah be on her team willingly.

After Brian had gone on inside, Ryan got up and grabbed the final light saber, deciding now just may be the best opportune moment to put his plan into action. He joined the game, helping Spencer out whenever he was being attacked by another team – he decided to play nice for a while, so it didn’t look like he’d planned this or anything – least, he was hoping it didn’t look like he’d planned it.

“Hey Elenore!” Ryan called out, about twenty minutes into their game. “What’s this I hear, yah like me?”

Elenore froze where she was, causing her to get hit with Sarah’s light saber, though it didn’t faze her. Sarah wasn’t hitting all that hard – besides, she was used to being hit much harder with belts by adults.

“I do not!” Elenore denied finally. “Whoever told you that was lying!”

“You like me! You like me! You really, really like me!” Ryan teased. “And we all know you like Spencer too!”

“I do not!” Elenore argued, repeating herself. “Spencer’s my friend an’ that’s it!”

“You wish he was more though!” Ryan laughed.

“No I don’ts!” Elenore declared, stamping her foot. “I do nots like you or Spencer like that!”

“You must if you’re willing to deny it so much instead of ignoring me,” Ryan pointed out.

“Shuts-up!” Elenore yelled, glaring at him angrily.

“Make me,” Ryan smirked.

Elenore growled, charging him with her light saber. “You shuts-up rights now, Ryan! You hear me? Rights now!”

“Ellie! Don’ts!” Dakota shouted after her friend. “Yer gonna gets in trouble with Uncle Brian!”

Ryan smirked more then. “Hey Elenore, who do you think told me about your crushes? Besides you, who else knew about them?”

Elenore glared more, still trying to hit him with her blue light saber. “You shuts-up Ryan!”

“Elenore and Spencer sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!” Ryan sang obnoxiously. “First comes loves, then comes marriage, then comes Elenore in a baby carriage! Sucking her thumb, pooing her pants, trying to do the hula dance!”

Elenore let loose and extremely angry growl and whacked him hard as she could with her light saber. “SHUTS-UP!!!!!!!”

“Ow!” Ryan yelled, trying to fend off her attack. “You stupid lil’ brat! What’re you hitting me for? If Dakota hadn’t told me about your crushes, I wouldn’t be making fun of you right now!”

Elenore turned then, her eyes narrowing hard at her best friend. “You tolds him!?!?!?!?”

“No!” Dakota cried, not liking the look Elenore was giving her right then.

“Yer s’pose to be my best friend, Kota!” Elenore yelled angrily. “Yer s’pose to keeps my secrets!”

“I dids! I dids keep yer secrets, Ellie!” Dakota insisted, backing up some as Elenore came closer to her.

“No you did nots!” Elenore screamed. “How else would he knows them? Huh? Tells me Kota! How else would he knows them!?!?!”

“I don’ts know!” Dakota exclaimed. She’d never seen Elenore like this before, and it was starting to scare her. “Ellie, yer scarin’ me!”

“Goods! Be scareds Kota! You better be!” Elenore fumed, raising her light saber as she neared her so-called best friend. “How dares you tells him! How dares you!”

“Buts I didn’t tells him!” Dakota insisted once more, trying to keep her distance from her enraged best friend.

“Ellie,” Josh tried, as he knew the truth. “Don’t.”

“Stays outta this Josh! It’s between me an Kota!” Elenore snapped.

“But I know who told!” Josh protested.

“Of course you do, Joshy,” Elenore replied calmly. “It was Kota the backs stabbin’ ex-best friend who tolds!”

“Ellie! I wouldn’t tells! I wouldn’t!” Dakota cried fearfully. “I swears it!”

“Liar!” Elenore screamed, suddenly seeing red as she charged Dakota. “Don’ts lies to me! I’m sick of peoples tellin’ me lies!”

Dakota was stunned for a moment, unable to believe her best friend in the whole universe was about to hurt her – and all because Ryan decided to frame her for something she hadn’t done!

“ELLIE! NO!” Josh yelled, quickly running after her, as he realized what was about to happen.

Elenore caught up to Dakota quickly and started to smack her repeatedly, everyone and anywhere with the light saber. She was furious like never before. She thought she could trust Dakota, but it turned out she’d been wrong!

“OW! ELLIE! STOPS!” Dakota wailed, as she tried to fend off the blows with her arms. She’d dropped her own light saber when she’d started to run. She should’ve run inside – Ellie wouldn’t have attacked her if there were grown-ups around – or would she have? She didn’t know anymore. “STOPS! ELLIE! OW!!!”

Spencer sprung into action, right alongside Josh – the two of them trying to pry Elenore off Dakota who’d fallen to the ground in defeat and was lying there covering her head as she sobbed.

Sarah meanwhile, also sprung into action, but in the direction of the house. She had to get help – and fast! Who knew if Josh and Spencer would be able to pry Elenore off Dakota!

The adults and younger Carters all looked up concerned, when they heard a distressed voice cry out – a voice they thought they’d never hear.

“BRIAN!!!!!!!” Sarah shrieked, running into the living room at top speed. “NICKY!!!!!!!”