Ali's POV
"Where is that girl?" I say to myself checking the time on my phone. "JJ's never late on pancake day."
"She's never late any day." corrects Ashlyn while adding sugar to her coffee. "Her mothers would kill her."
"They'd also kill her for just disappearing." I add with a sigh. Julie's been a lot more risky lately with her behavior and it's bothering me. Everyone knows I am on that kid's side no matter what she does but she's starting to make it difficult. I mean how can I condone her just leaving to explore a foreign country without letting anyone that stayed here know? Ash nudges my arm so I look over at her.
"Jay's here." she says not looking up from her eggs. "She just walked in with Mal." I look over at the food table before mumbling a quick thanks to Ash. I get up and make my way to the young blonde.
"Hey J Bug." I smile hugging her from behind. "Will you sit with Ash and I today? I need to talk to you." She nods her head and scoops up a few more pieces of fruit with the scoop before putting it down and moving to the eggs. "Make sure you show your Mama your plate once you get everything you want. You know how she is."
She sighs, "I know Aunt Ali." My face falls some at her attitude but I push away my feelings and press a kiss to her cheek before leaving her alone and going back to my food. I push around my pancakes while I think. She's never like that with me. I feel Ashlyn looking at me so I look up at her.
"Ali you've got to chill out." she tells me. "You're freaking me out with all your fidgeting."
"Sorry Ash." I say absentmindedly pushing my hashbrowns around with my fork. "JJ is acting weird."
"Maybe something's up. You should ask her," Ashlyn says taking a bite of her eggs.
My grip on my fork tightens. I sigh. "She's usually so open with me." She opens her mouth to speak. No words come out, because JJ plops into the seat beside me. Ashlyn takes a sip of her coffee and goes back to eating.
"Aunt Ali before you scold me for yesterday I'm sor-"
"Jay shh." I say cutting her off. "What you did was not okay. You just got in trouble last camp for running off and I defended you but you did it again. Julie Beth when is this going to stop?" She looks at me nervously and shocked because I used her middle name which I never do.
She looks down at her plate, "It won't happen again."
I look at her sadly because she's afraid, "Thank you love." I lean over to her and kiss her forehead. "Eat your breakfast."
-later-
Christen's POV
The bar clangs as I put it back on the rack. I wipe the sweat from my forehead and sit up. Alex hands me my water. "Thanks," I mutter taking big sips. Alex and I were lifting in the fitness room. We wanted to get a session today since we were gonna be training tomorrow.
Before we start another rep, Tobin opens the door while stalling a ball on her foot. She looks up and spots us. She throws the ball to her hands and holds it up to show me and Alex. "Soccer tennis?" She asks with a cheeky grin.
"Sorry Tobs but we're not done yet." I tell her laying back on the bench to go again.
"We only had one rep left," Alex says already heading out with Tobin and leaving me on the bench. I sigh and sit back up. She never likes to go all the way through a workout. I grab my almost empty water bottle and go after them so I don't have to be in here all by myself.
We go to the gym across the hall where Mal, Julie, and Morgan are setting up a net. I try to help Mal, but she turns and puts her body between me and what she's doing so I can't see. Well that makes me feel good. She also acted this way during breakfast. She didn't listen to me when I told her to do something. When I got onto her, it seemed to go right over her head. I push my thoughts away and try to focus on what we're doing now. Once we figure out how to set it up, we get the game going.
Tobin, Mal, and Morgan are on one team. The other group is Alex, Julie, and I. We get to serve the ball first. It travels back and forth. I start out kind of rusty since I haven't touched a ball since I got off the plane. I finally get back in the swing of things and my touches connect with the other two.
I'm not completely focused though. I can't keep my eyes off my youngest sister. Mal has been acting stranger and stranger towards me. She doesn't like to spend a lot of time around me. It's like she's trying to avoid me. Considering the fact we don't share a room, I didn't expect us to be glued to the hip, but I at least thought she'd still want to hang out. I miss our one on one time.
We take a break after the first game. Mal sits on one of the benches and pulls out her phone. I go to the vending machine off to the side and get two bottles of water. "Hey Mally!" I call grabbing her attention."Have some water! Catch!"
I get ready to throw it but stop my motion when she says, "I'm good."
I stare at her caught off gaurd. "Mal, drink. You don't want to get dehydrated." I walk to her and set the plastic bottle beside her finally making her look up.
"Really Chrissy, I'm fine." she repeats.
What am I supposed to do? She always listens to me the first time. Or at least she used to. I look over at Jules. She just gives me a sorry look. "Mallory. Have a few sips. I don't want you passing out." I say sternly taking a sip of my water.
She groans. "We're just playing soccer tennis." she pouts. "I'm not thirsty."
"Mallory," I warn raising my eyebrows. "Drink."
Her face scrunches up and she snaps, "You can't tell me what to do. You're not my mom."
I scoff. "What did you just say?" I growl indignantly. "You do not talk to me that way."
She looks me straight in the eyes. "What're you gonna do about it?" I clench my jaw and reach to grab her but she jumps up with yelp and sprints out of the gym.
"Mallory Dianne Pugh! I'm gonna . . !" I shout after her. I don't finish because I don't really know what I'm gonna do. All I know is she's not getting away from me.
"Don't do anything stupid, Chris!" Julie hollers as I run through the double doors and towards the lobby.
I spot the tail end of her braid turning the corner. Al did her hair this morning and she looks adorable, but that's beside the point. She sprints to the elevator and presses the up button repeatedly. I speed up in an attempt to catch her. As I draw within arms length, she slips in and murders the close button. I slam my fist against the closed doors. I run to the stairwell and sprint up. By the third set of stairs I pause to try and guess where she's going.
She's probably going to go to the floor most of us were on, including herself, Mom, and Mama. I make it to the floor and burst through the doors. Mom is waiting outside the elevator. I internally groan as the doors open and Mal spots her. She jumps into Mom's arms and nuzzles into her neck. "Mal-Pal, what's wrong?" she asks.
She hiccups, "Ch-Chris-sy i-is s-scaring me."
"That's not true!" I yell coming up next to them. "Mallory won't listen to a word I say," I say annoyed with my arms crossed.
Mom looks at Mallory sternly. "Is that true?" she asks trying to put her on the ground. Mal desperately hangs around her neck.
"Chrissy was telling me what to do and she can't do that!"
"Says who?" I retort.
Before Mallory can respond Mom cuts us off. "Alright, alright!" she sighs. "I think that you two need to have a talk."
I look at her in confusion. "A talk?"
She nods, "Yes Christen a talk. Let's go to my room." she starts to walk in that direction and I trail behind her. "Carli said we'd have to do this. Damn it. She was right." she mutters to herself while unlocking the door. Mom drops Mal down on the bed Mama's sitting on reading. "Car put that up. It's time for that talk."
Mama smirks and pulls Mal into her lap, "I was right." Mom rolls her eyes and tells me to sit before leaving to go check on JJ and Lexi. "So what happened?"
"Mal won't listen." I tell Mama eyeing Mallory. "I told her to drink some water so she wouldn't get dehydrated and she said no."
She sighs, "Mallory why wouldn't you drink some?"
"I wasn't thirsty and Mama she's not in charge of me!" explains Mal getting loud. She tends to get excited when she's frustrated. Mama shushes her and rubs her back to calm her down.
"Mally you don't have to yell baby," softly soothes Mama, "we're all right here." Mal relaxes and rest her head on her chest looking towards me. "Tell me why you think you don't have to listen to Christen."
"She's not my mom." she mumbles sounding pitiful. She looks up at Carli with a little smile, "Or my mama." Mama smiles down and kisses her nose.
"You're right but she is your big sister, huh?" Mal nods and looks down. I smirk. See Mal? You should've listened to me! "Christen Annemarie get that look off your face." scolds Mama pulling me out of my trance. "That wasn't me giving you permission to boss her around." Mal sticks her tongue out at me and Mama pops her leg. "Mallory Diane, no. We don't stick our tongues out at people. That's rude and unlady like."
"Yes ma'am. Sorry Christen." mumbles Mallory slumping even more into Mama.
"Anyways, Mal, Chris is still your big sister so you need to respect her. If Chrissy tells you to do something you should do it. But Christen you shouldn't be telling her what to do all the time. Did Mal really need to drink that water?" asks Mama looking at me.
I sigh and shake my head, "I guess not."
"I didn't think so. You can't just make her do things because you want her to. Now if there's a safety issue, or if she's breaking a rule, or maybe Mom and I left you in charge then you may tell her what to do, but you may not be bossy. Do you understand Chris?"
"Yes Mama. I get it." I look down. "I'm sorry I scared you Mal." Mal looks at me with her cute crooked grin.
"It's okay Chrissy." she climbs out of Mama's lap and into mine. "I still love you." I smile at her and tickle her a little bit making her giggle.
"Thank goodness! I'd be really sad if you didn't. I mean Lex and JJ are great but you're my favorite." Mal laughs and then looks at me seriously.
"Lexi is my favorite. She does my hair." My jaw drops before I attack her sides with tickles making her beg for mercy. "Okay okay! You're my favorite! You're my favorite!" I stop tickling and hug her super tightly.
"I've missed you Mally." I whisper holding her close. "You haven't hung out with me in a while." She kisses my cheek and hugs me back.
"Can we watch a movie sissy?" I smile and look over to Mama. She smiles back and jokily rolls her eyes before getting her laptop and putting her Netflix on for us.
"I'm going to go check on everybody else. You two be sweet." she hands me the computer before kissing each of our heads then leaving. I start to browse through the website before stopping on a movie.
"Look Mally! Zootopia!" I say clicking on it. We were supposed to go see it together awhile ago but we never got the chance. Mal reaches over me and turns the light of laying against me. I happily hold her and watch the movie becoming tired. The last thing I hear is Mal giggling before falling asleep.