"ey, honey," I hear Mum saying and I put the book down to find mum standing at my door with a brown bag in her hand.

Food? New laptop? New phone? A dolphin? A boyfriend?

Wait, no.

I don't want a boyfriend now.

"Hey, Mum," I greet her back. "What you got there?" I nod to the bag.

"It's just a dress I found in the store and I thought it would look amazing on you tonight," she replies, walking over to my bed and placing the bag on it.

I put the book down and I move to the end of the bed, peeking inside the brown bag. I find a red laced fabric and I get the dress out to take a look at it.

"It's so beautiful," I stare at the red dress in my hands with awe.

"I knew you would like it," she smiles at me.

"Thanks, Mum," I put the dress down and wrap my arms around her, hugging her and she hugs me back.

"Anytime, honey," she says, then she pulls away from me.

"By the way, don't tell Cameron I bought you a new dress, he wanted a pair of new shoes a few days ago and I told him that I don't have money," she tells me in a low voice.

I chuckle, "Don't worry, Mum. Your secret's safe with me," I assure her.

"Okay," she nods. "Thanks, honey," she pats my shoulder before walking out of the room.

I swing my legs out of the bed and place the dress on the back of the chair, so it doesn't get wrinkled or anything, then I get back in bed and continue reading my book.

Then I pause again, suddenly remembering Jennie and mum. I can manage mum so that's not too hard, but handling Jennie will be like walking away from the edge of the roof and still falling off.

That probably doesn't even make sense.

I know for a fact that Jennie will be all over Luke the entire time and from the looks of it, Luke doesn't really like her anymore.

Jennie isn't really the clingy kind though, so maybe she'll just ignore Luke and sit on her phone the entire time, while still annoying me.

I'll just assume that for now.

I pick my book up again and continue reading it for the next two hours or so, until I hear a knock on my door.

"Come in!" I yell.

The door opens slowly and dramatically, may I add and a head with black curls pokes inside. I squeal, jumping off of the bed and she squeals back.

"Avianna!" I scream.

"Anna!" My cousin screams back and she grabs me in a tight hug and I hug her back.

"I missed you so much!" I exclaim once we pull away.

"I missed you so much too," she smiles.

"You look amazing," I tell her, gesturing to her outfit.

She is wearing a white skater dress with a halter neckline that hugs her upper part perfectly and flows down, it's end reaching her knees and a pair of white stiletto heels in her feet.

Her skin color is of a bronze shade now, probably from spending too much time tanning in Miami. Her black curls are cascading down her shoulders and nearly reaching her lower back. Over all, my cousin looks like a model.

"Thanks, girl," she grins. "I freaking love your hair though, like its shade is so beautiful right now," she gazes at my hair with awe written all over her face, while holding an ombréd-lock of mine in her fingers.

"Thanks, Avi," I chuckle slightly.

Her eyes dart around my room for awhile, until they land on the red dress resting on my chair and her brown eyes widen.

"Are you wearing that?" She points at it.

"Yeah," I nod.

"Oh my God. That dress would look hella gorgeous on you," she says in excitement. "Come on, we have to get you ready for tonight. Who knows who's going to be there?" She says the last part in a teasing tone.

"Guess who's going to be here?" I tell her, as I watch her searching in my closet for something.

"Who?" She asks from the depths of the closet and I thought that Narnia sucked her in for a moment.

I'm obsessed with that movie.

"Luke Carter."

She comes out of my closet and raises her arched eyebrow at me, "The hot guy next door with black hair and green eyes?"

"Yup," I nod.

"Now, we really need to get you ready for tonight," she says in a serious tone.

"Why though?"

"Hello? It's Luke Carter. We need to spicy you up a little, not just for him but for you too. Feel confident, Lyn," she starts rummaging through my closet again.

"You just have to ask me to be that one character trait that I can't be?" I ask, sitting on my bed, then crossing my legs. I grab a pillow and fiddle with its loose threads.

"You should be confident of yourself though, Anna. You're really beautiful and you have a great personality. You should be proud of that," she tells me as she gets out a pair of silver heels out of my closet.

"I mean, come on. Have you seen yourself in the mirror? You have natural ombré hair which lots of girls would die for. You also have a really nice voice. How can you not be confident of that?" She exclaims.

"I don't know. I just feel really insecure about myself sometimes, I guess," I shrug.

"Well, you shouldn't because you're a stunning person and you need to know that," she points at me with her white-painted fingernail.

"Thanks, Avi," I smile at her.

"No problem, girl. That's what family is for," she says. "Now, where's Ab-"

"I'm here!" She yells, bursting through the door.

"Abby!" Avianna squeals.

There are a lot of A's in this family.

"Avi!" Abby squeals back.

The both of them wrap their arms around each other, hugging. Then Abby pulls away and she walks over to me, before she hugs me too and I hug my other cousin.

Abby looks beautiful too, wearing an A-line scoop neck dress with short sleeves, its fabric is of a dark green satin and it stops until her knees.

Her blonde hair is held up in a fancy bun with a few strands framing her small face. The makeup covering her face is simple and brightening her fair skin.

"Now that the trio is complete, we need to help Anna with getting ready for the Christmas party," Avi smiles widely.

"Yup," Abby nods. "Go take a quick shower, then we could do your makeup," she pushes me to my bathroom door.

"Hold up," I say, stopping suddenly. "If you're going to use makeup, please don't put too much."

I don't have anything against makeup, I just don't like putting that much of it because it annoys me the entire time.

Sometimes whenever I feel like I wanna scratch my eye or something, I end up smudging the mascara all over my eye and I look like a raccoon.

"Don't worry," Avi assures me. "We'll touch up your face a bit only."

"Okay. You may proceed then," I tell Abby and she pushes me inside the bathroom before closing the door behind me.

| | | |

"So?" I question as soon as I step out of the bathroom, smoothing my dress down.

Abby looks up from her phone, at the same time Avianna looks up from her nails. Both of their eyes widen and they jump up, screaming excitedly.

"You look gorgeous!" Abby throws her hands in the air.

"Mhm," Avi nods her head enthusiastically.

I walk to the full-length mirror I have next to my dresser and I smile at the reflection staring back at me.

Mywaves are left as they are and the makeup gives my face a natural look. Abby put mascara on my eyelashes, so I just have to restrain myself from scratching my eyes. Although, I prefer my glasses, I have eye contact lenses on.

The dress is of red tulle and it has an off shoulder neckline with A-line half sleeves that stop until my elbows. The end of it reaches my knees from the front and my ankles from the back. In my feet are a pair of sliver heels that Avi found in my closet.

"You're so going to get Luke's attention like that," Avi says in delight.

"Wait, Luke?" Abby frowns, "Luke Carter?" She asks and I nod in response.

"You invited one of the hottest guys in school to the Christmas gathering?" She asks in surprise.

"Well, I wouldn't call him...that, but yeah," I nod again.

"And she calls herself not confident," Avianna tells Abby.

"I know right?" Abby agrees.

"It was just a one-time thing and the girls convinced me to do it," I explain.

"Speaking of the girls, are they coming?" Abby questions.

"No. Colette is in Scotland, Sophie is in West Africa and Riley is in Brazil," I reply.

"Too bad. I really wanted to see them," Avianna says.

"Girls! Can you come downstairs?" I hear Mum calling us.

"Coming!" I reply back.

"Let's go, guys," Abby opens my bedroom door.

I glance at the clock, before the girls and I walk out of the room and down the stairs.

18:35 PM

| | | |

The house isn't that filled with people. Only because mum invited the people from our family, that are on good terms with us.

After Anastasia passed away, lots of people in our family either didn't care because 'she has a twin so why would we?' and the others blamed me for it, but we weren't close with those so we/I didn't give a crap.

There is mum's sister, Aunt Maria and her children–Avianna, Tyler and Chris–and her husband Micheal. There's dad's brother, Uncle Nicholas and his children too–Abby and Carrie–also Aunt Fae, her husband, Daniel and their cute six year-old, Landon. And lastly, my grandma and mum's dad, my grandpa. Then there's dad's boss, Mr. Olatunji and Jennie and some of dad's workmates.

Surprisingly, Jennie didn't annoy me yet or anything and I'm starting to suspect that she's just waiting for a time when her father or mine isn't near, so they don't see her true self.

Luke still isn't here yet and I'm starting to think that he maybe changed his mind and decided not to come. No, Anna. Don't think of that. He's coming, just wait. It's still seven in the evening. It's not that late for him to come.

"Um, is that a piercing?" I point at Carrie's nose as soon as I take a closer notice of her.

Carrie is actually fifteen now, so I'm surprised that she pierced her nose since she has this huge fear of needles and anything with a sharp end.

"No, it's a sticker. What do you think, genius?" She replies in sarcasm, pushing her black hair out of her face.

"You don't need to be sarcastic. A little 'Yes, Anna. It's a piercing' would have been nice," I cross my arms.

"Yes, Anna. It's a piercing," she says in a sweet tone. "Are you happy?"

"Yes, thank you," I tell her.

"Why are you so tall?" She asks, looking up at me.

"I don't know. Ask my parents, they made me," I reply.

"How tall are you again?"

"Five foot ten," I answer.

"Are you not afraid of growing so much that you hit the ceiling?" She exaggerates.

"Stop being extra, Carrie. I'm not even that tall," I insist.

"Female seventeen year-olds are supposed to be five foot three, you're as tall as a male adult," she says.

"Where do you get these things from?" I ask.

"Internet," she shrugs.

"You ever thought of doing something more useful? Like reading?"

"Why would I waste my time reading?" She grimaces.

I sigh, "Go to the backyard, Carrie. Dinner's starting soon," I tell her and she nods, before strutting to the balcony door and walking out of it.

Ding-dong!

"I'll get it!" Mum yells and she walks out of the kitchen, before going to the front door.

Let's see who is it.

"What are you doing here?" Mum shrieks.

Oh no.

I quickly march to the front door and I see Luke, Emily, Luna and Clara standing at the door entrance.

"Luke, you came," I smile.

"Hey, Cherries," he says, grinning.

"Would you please explain what's going on here?" Mum turns to me.

"I invited the Carter's because I thought, why not?" I simply reply to my mother.

"But, honey-" Mum starts.

"Mum, please. You said it's okay for any friend of mine to come," I plead.

"Anna, dear, it's alright. I can just leave," Emily says softly.

"No, Mrs. Carter. I insist," I tell her, before I turn to Mum once again.

Mum sighs, "Fine. Come on in," she mumbles, stepping aside and the four of them walk inside the house.

"Anna, take them to the backyard for dinner," Mum says and I nod, then Mum turns around to walk back to the kitchen.

That's when Aunt Fae walks inside from the balcony and she notices the four new guests.

"Hi, there. I'm Fae," she introduces herself.

"Nice to meet you," Emily smiles. "I'm Emily. Those are my kids, Clara, Luna and Luke,"

"Hi," the three of them say.

"Nice to meet you all. You're Italian, right?" She asks Emily.

"Yes," she answers.

"We're going to be good friends," she tells Emily, hooking her arm through hers and leading her outside.

"Okay then," Clara says slowly and I laugh.

"It's so nice to see you guys again," I tell Clara and Luna.

"Likewise," Clara smiles.

"You look really beautiful," Luna comments.

"Yeah," Clara agrees. "Don't you think so, Luke?" Clara turns to her brother.

"Eh," Luke smirks.

I send Luke a dry look, before I turn to his sisters. "Thank you." I smile at them.

"Come on, let's go to the backyard," I tell them.

❀