JeromeASF's Little Sister

Ch. 3 : Pranks

Jerome's POV
I looked up at the clock to see it was already 10 o'clock. I turned to Sydney.
"Syd, it's 10 o'clock, you should go to bed." I said.
"What? No." Sydney said.
"Yes. Go." I replied.
"Dude, she's 13, you know. My parents never told me to go to bed at 10 when I was that age." Ian said to me.
"Doesn't matter. Syd, go to bed." I said.
"Jerome, you're not in charge of me." She crossed her arms.
"Sydney, I don't want to argue with you. Please, just go to bed." I sighed.
"Fine, but, I can't exactly see where I'm going." She nodded towards the dark hallway leading to the guest room.
"Use your phone." Mitch said in a 'duh' voice.
"Don't have one." Sydney shrugged.
"What? You're 13! How do you not have a phone?" I asked, surprised.
"My stepdad said I could have one for my next birthday but now I'm here." She replied.
"Damn. I mean, uh, dang." Preston said.
"When is your birthday?" Rob asked.
"October 29th." She said.
"Stop getting off topic. I'll come with you and use my phones flashlight." I said.
"No, it's fine. I'll go by myself." She huffed.
Syd stood up and began walking towards the dark hallway. I watched for a couple seconds after she disappeared into darkness. I heard a sharp thud and then she mumbled, "Fucking wall."
The others must've heard it too because they started laughing. I heard a door open then close.
"You know, you should probably get her a phone tomorrow." Lachlan said.
"No shit, Captain Obvious." I replied.
"And you tell her not to curse." Mitch smirked.
"Oh shut up, Benja." I punched him in the arm.
Everyone laughed. Suddenly, the lights flickered back on.
"Yay!" Rob squealed like a little girl.
"Dude, my eardrums!" Vikk said since Rob had squealed into his ears.
We ended up watching The Purge. It was FREAKY!!! Despite it being a horror movie, I ended up falling asleep halfway through it.
The next morning, I was woken up by something being smushed into my face. My eyes flew open and I sat up abruptly.
"What the fudge?!" I yelled.
All the other guys sleepily opened their eyes and looked at me with confusion. I licked the substance off my upper lip. It was whip cream. Wait a second. If all the guys were asleep, then who put whip cream on my face?
"Biggums, why is there whip cream on your face?" Mitch asked, sleepily.
"Which one of you did this?" I asked, gesturing to my face.
"I was asleep." Preston said.
The others said the same thing.
"Oh come on. There's no one else here besides you guys." I scoffed as I wiped some of the stuff off with a tissue.
"Yes there is." Someone said quietly from behind me.
I whipped around to see Sydney standing there holding a whip cream can. She smiled evilly.
"You little devil child!" I stood up quickly.
"Catch me if you can!" She took off running.
I chased after her. She made a sharp turn into the kitchen. I followed her. We ran back out into the living room and then out the front door.
"Get back here Sydney!" I said as we ran around the side of the house, into the backyard.
"Not gonna happen!" She replied.
I was starting to become breathless as she ran inside through the back door, right into the guys.
"Not so fast!" Mitch said as he grabbed Sydney.
He effortlessly threw her over his shoulder as she tried to squirm away.
"Mitch! Put me down!" She said.
"Nope." He smirked.
I walked around to face Sydney.
"Seriously?" I asked.
"What?" She replied.
"You just had to prank me? Then run?" I asked.
"Yep." She said.
I rolled my eyes at her. Then, I had an idea. Time for revenge.
"Mitch, I think it's time for initiation." I smiled deviously.
"Huh? What's initiation?" Sydney asked.
"You'll see." Mitch replied.
He ran out the back door with all of us following.
"Initiation!" Mitch shouted.
He tossed Sydney into the deep end of the pool. Revenge is sweet. When we moved here, all of us had been pushed/thrown into the pool by another guy. I expected Sydney to swim back up shortly afterwards but she didn't. She sank down to the bottom, slowly. What the? She must be drowning, I thought.
"Oh shit!" Lachlan shouted.
He must've just realized what was happening, too. Without warning, he dove in. He resurfaced two seconds later. His arm was wrapped around Sydney's waist as he swum to the edge of the pool where we were. Sydney coughed multiple times and spit up water. Lachlan pushed her upwards at us. I immediately reached down and pulled her all the way up. She knelt on her hands and knees and continued to spit up water. I sat down next to her. I didn't know what to do to help her, though. After a minute, Sydney stopped coughing and sat up. She looked at me. Her eyes were red from the chlorine. I felt bad.
"Are you alright?" Ian asked Sydney as he sat down next to her.
"I think so." She said.
"Can you swim?" Ryan asked.
She shook her head.
"Sydney, I'm so so sorry. I didn't realize you couldn't swim." Mitch said while kneeling down next to us.
"It's fine. I never told you guys." She replied.
"I'm gonna go get you two some towels." Vikk said as he walked back inside.
"Thanks, Lachlan." She looked up at Lachlan who was standing with Ryan and Rob.
"For what?" He asked.
"For literally saving my life." She replied.
"It's fine. One of my first jobs was being a lifeguard. Those instincts took over. You were drowning, I dove in to get you out." Lachlan shrugged.
Syd got up and walked over to Lachlan. She wrapped her arms around his stomach and hugged him. He looked genuinely surprised but hugged her back. With Lachlan being 6 feet tall and Sydney being short, probably less than 5 feet tall, it looked a little awkward but they still hugged each other. The back door opened and Vikk appeared with two towels. One was blue, the other was pink. Since when did we have pink towels? Lachlan and Syd let go of each other and Vikk looked a bit confused.
"Uh, here are your towels." Vikk handed the blue one to Lachlan and the pink one to Sydney.
"Sexist." Syd said as she wrapped the towel around her body.
"What do you mean?" Vikk asked.
"You gave me the pink one simply because I'm a girl. I hate the color pink." She said.
Well then, I'm learning more and more about my sister every minute.
"Sorry, geez. Both of you should go change into dry clothes." Vikk said.
We all walked inside and sat down on the couch while Lachlan and Sydney walked upstairs to change. I felt so bad for her.
"I feel like such a dickhead." Mitch groaned.
"Biggums, it's not your fault. We didn't know she couldn't swim." I assured him.
"Um, dudes? Did we ever make a video introducing her to our fans?" Preston asked.
"Oh fuck! No, we didn't." Vikk said.
Everyone became silent for a few minutes.
"Ugh. Why is everything becoming so chaotic now that she's here?" I groaned.
"I didn't realize I was such a pain in the ass." Someone said from behind me.
I turned around to see Sydney. Damn it.
"Sydney, that's not what I meant. You're not a pain in the ass. It's just, now that you're here, everything has changed and become crazier." I replied while standing up.
I walked over to her.
"Oh really? That's not what it sounded like." She said.
I knelt down to look her in the eyes.
"It is, believe me. Syd, have you ever thought about how this is affecting me? I'm a 21 year old guy who was just been reunited with his younger sister that he hasn't seen in 12 years. I love you very, very much. I love you more than you can ever imagine. I really do." I explained.
"As much as I want to believe you, I can't. In all fairness, you haven't been in my life for 12 years." She replied.
"Doesn't matter, Syd. I'm here now. With my favorite sister. And that's the best feeling in the world." I said.
"I'm your ONLY sister." Sydney put emphasis on 'only'.
"I love you very much Sydney." I said.
She just stared at me. Her bright blue eyes felt like they were looking into my soul or something. They looked just like Dad's. Suddenly, an idea popped into my mind.
"I think it's time you meet the final member of our family." I said while grabbing my phone off the nearby table.
"What?" She asked.
"I'm gonna FaceTime dad." I said while opening up his contact.
I called him. After a few rings, he picked up. He smiled at me.
"Hey Jerome." He said.
"Hi Dad. Um, I have someone I'd like you to meet." I said.
"A new friend? Or a girlfriend?" Dad smirked.
"New friend but she is a girl." I replied.
I handed the phone over to Sydney.
"Hi Mr Aceti." She smiled.
"Hi. You're a friend of my son's?" He asked.
"More than a friend." She replied.
"You seem a little young to be his girlfriend." Dad seemed confused.
"Um, well, I'm not his girlfriend. I'm actually his sister." She said awkwardly.
"I'm sorry, what now?" Dad asked.
"Hi Dad." Syd replied.
He went quiet for a moment and looked shocked.
"S-Sydney?" He finally asked.
She nodded. He smiled widely.
"Oh my god! I haven't seen you since you were a baby! You're so grown up! How old are you?" He exclaimed.
"Haven't seen you in a while either. And I'm 13 now." She said.
"I can't believe this! Jerome, you still there?" Dad asked.
I moved next to Sydney so he could see both of us.
"My two favorite people in the entire world. I can't believe you two finally met after all these years." He smiled.
"Me neither." Syd and I both said at the same time.
We both looked at each other and smiled widely.