Adoption Adjustment chapter 10 & 11 (Patreon)

Sitting in the hatch back car McKenzie looked out the window, watching the neat grouping of trees zoom by as Miss Joleen drove them away from the park and closer to downtown where her mother would be currently working. She glanced to her side to see Kennedy and Abby buckled into the car, both leaning on each other and drooling as they slept. It made her smile. Reaching up she pulled her baby blue headband off, adjusting her hair before putting the cute plastic cat eared thing back in its place. Abby had insisted on sitting near the window and with Kennedy still asleep there had been no arguments about who would sit in the center.

She had never seen someone so heavy of a sleeper that a park full of kids yelling and squealing wouldn’t wake them up or how it was even a place for Kennedy to fall asleep to begin with. But the little guy had and then didn’t stir as lunch was cleaned or when Mr. Bishop helped carry him to his wife’s car. She didn’t really want to go spend the day in the little day care her Mom had at her office where Miss Joleen worked, she would rather go home. At thirteen though she hadn’t been asked, just told that was where they were going till her Mom was done working. She took another long look at Kennedy, sleeping next to her little sister. With them leaning on each other it was easy to see how they both had the same or similar enough to not matter strawberry blonde hair. She tapped one finger to her lips watching them. Really the two looked more like siblings than she did to her sister. She had the same eyes as her mom, the blue green, while Abby just had green eyes. Abby had the same hair color as their mom, but she had red hair. The aberration would be Kennedy having blue eyes, but that seemed less of a difference than her hair. If it wasn’t for her Aunt Rosy she could have believed she was the one actually adopted.

Looking to the front seat she curled up the corner of her mouth as she looked at the back of the head of Miss Joleen. She was a nice woman, but she was going to be so cross with them when she found out they had pranked everyone with Kennedy. She had even seen Kennedy before, briefly when they were dropped off before he went and spent time in the gym. While she, a teenager now, had to still stay in the daycare, it was incredibly not fair. Mckenzie wondered how much trouble they would get in, no how much trouble she would get in when her Mom found out. The tiny curl of her lip broadened as she considered a way to pin everything on Kennedy. That way she wouldn’t get in any trouble at all.

When they pulled into a parking spot and stopped, McKenzie expected Kennedy to wake up just like how Abby was, but still there seemed to be little response from him. Abby smacked her lips together, wiping the chin with her hand to get the drool off and then wiped it on her skirt. It took her a second to realize where they were, even though she knew before she got in the car where they were going. Seeing Kennedy still sleeping she pressed her index finger to his cheek a few times, poking him. “Time to wake up!” She said cheerfully, but all he did was roll his head the other way, mumbling something. She furrowed her brow, pressing her lips together as she prepared to yell in his ear.

“Abigail Addams, don’t you dare wake up your sister. She wasn’t feeling well earlier, so let her sleep as long as she can.” Hearing the voice of the adult made Abby stop what she was going to do, instead she pouted. Unbuckling her seatbelt she tried the door handle, once, twice, three times and she continued to try and open the child safety locked door. “Just a second, just a second and I will open that for you.” Joleen said, shaking her head in the youngest girl's direction. Mouthing the words thank you to the eldest who sat there waiting.

Getting everyone out was easy enough, even if carrying Kennedy was a chore. The girl was only slightly taller than her new little sister, but she did seem heavier. Indicating to her she might be ready for a growth spurt like McKenzie had when she was almost twelve. With the girl in a yellow dress in her arms she walked with the two others to head inside. Joleen put Kennedy down in a thicker carpeted play area next to a doll house and enough stuffed animals that the kids could hide under them when they wanted. She picked up a generic doll and put it in the girl's lap before walking away to talk with the other woman on shift to watch the children today. The daycare had been empty, making it an easy if boring day for her, but she was here now and she didn't mind staying and intended to let her employee call it an early day.

Groggily Kenndy started to wake up, he moved one hand to his eye, rubbing away the things that gathered in the corner of his eye as she slept. Slowly he started to notice he was leaning on a bunch of stuffed animals, some small, some large, one almost as big as he was, in an area that had dolls and a doll house scattered about. The two walls in the corner had pink wallpaper on it with white butterflies, it was like someone thought of what it meant to be a little girl and made it a corner of a room. Moving his hand down he wiped away something wet and sticky from the corner of his mouth as he looked around the area outside the girl explosion. In the opposite corner there was white wallpaper with baseballs, bats, footballs and soccer balls on it. The area had a bookshelf and other toys, another shelf, construction vehicles, trucks, action figures. It wasn’t anything he would want to play with, but it was better than what was around him and… he looked down picking up a doll in his lap.

Still tired and groggy he just let go of it, letting it fall into his lap as he continued to try and figure out where he was. Kennedy knew he had seen this room before, but couldn’t place it. At the center of the room were two circular small tables, to the side at one wall were cubby holes, with a large tv mounted above them playing a cartoon he didn’t recognize. The opposite wall had a stack of large soft foam stuffed shapes. Both McKenzie and Abby were sitting at one table doing something and past them was a desk that the older woman… Miss Joleen sat at and on the wall behind her was a white board. Even seeing the full room his waking mind took a little bit to remember this was the daycare the girls had been dropped off at the other day. He was about to get up when he saw the older of the two girls tell the other something before getting up to come over to him.

“Look who woke up from her nap.” He blinked a few times before glaring at her. Kennedy considered telling her how they weren’t at the park anymore, a place with so many people he had been intimidated into doing what she said and that she had better watch it or he would show her how much stronger boys were than girls. That is what he wanted to do, but McKenzie had five inches on him and with him sitting it felt like she towered over him.

“What… what do you want?” McKenzie tilted her head to the side slightly, smiling down at the boy, who didn’t look like a boy. Taking note that his hair needed a good brushing with hair sticking after getting messing in his slumber, before sitting down on the floor Indian style in front of him.

“I just wanted to remind you that till we get home, you are my little sister.” He had agreed to that earlier, but he felt her leverage was gone. Sure he couldn’t change here, but he could sneak out when the old bat wasn’t looking and hide in the gym, or one of the gym's two bathrooms if someone was in there.

“Why should I?!” He said in a harsh whisper, not wanting the woman who had slapped his behind earlier to come over if she heard yelling. Still sitting in front of him McKenzie leaned forward on one hand, holding up the other with her index finger in the air.

“One, because I’m your big sister and you wouldn’t want me mad at you.”

“I’m older than you by four years!”

“You are shorter than by like a foot, and you are ten and I think really bad at math if you think ten is four years older than thirteen. Also… two!” She held up another finger. “Since I have a phone and you don’t, I have your new boyfriend's phone number. What would happen if he and his parents found out who you were and…” McKenzie drew out the word, thinking about what Max had told her. “How you kissed him. HMMM!?” Kennedy opened his mouth, about to protest that he hadn’t done anything of the sort, that it had been him who had been kissed, but as he did something hit him. This girl knew, she already knew that a boy kissed him. Shame, shame bubbled up leaving his cheeks burning and then the threat of telling them it would end up the same as before. Being kissed on the cheek wasn’t sex, he wasn’t some sexual predator, but those guys on the show always said how they hadn’t done anything and they were still arrested. He didn’t want to sit next to, talk to or be anything with any kids. If he wanted to have sex with anyone it was Miss Miah, but that wouldn’t matter when the police came.

“I will do it…” He said in a small voice.

“Are you sure, cause I have a three and a four. Maybe a five, but… I mean I have three more reasons why you should do as I say.”

“Please don’t tell anyone, I don’t want to go to jail.” Kennedy pleaded with her. Once upon a time he didn’t think going to juvie would be so bad, his case worker at the time had told him a bunch of bad things, he thought he could tough it out, but deep down he knew it was mostly bluster. He had been okay up to this point because he could run, he could hide or make himself look smaller, doing what he was told. In jail there would be no running, no hiding and if he went in there or worse adult jail and they thought he liked kids. No he couldn’t do that! This girl, this little girl was the worst bully he ever encountered with what she was threatening him with so casually.  

“Jail? You wouldn’t go to jail.” Kennedy felt his jaw quiver, she didn’t even understand what she was threatening him with, of course he would.

“You said you don’t want me out of the house, but if you told people I would go to jail! You know that right? You have to know that! You can’t tell anyone!” The two of them both looked at one another like they were dumb. Kenndy because this girl just didn’t understand the world and her thinking at most Kennedy would be grounded. It wasn’t like their prank hurt anyone and they hadn’t stolen anything.

“Well if you don’t want to get in trouble you better do as I say. Now hold on.” McKenzie said, pulling out her phone, pointing it at Kennedy.

“I will, but ahh what are you doing?” She looked from her phone screen to Kennedy and then back to the phone screen when she clicked on her camera, ready to start recording.

“Going to make a video of you saying how you are the prettiest ten year old there is and how you are so happy to have a little sister and big sister to play with.”

“I am not going to say that!” McKenzie lowered the phone, crossing her arms over her chest.

“So you rather see what happens when you don’t do what I say?” Kennedy picked the doll up off his lap that he had dropped there, tossing it to the side into the mountain of stuffed animals.

“This isn’t fair!” Ken huffed, he was right, it wasn’t fair at all. Yet he didn’t really have a choice, well he had one other and that would lead to a worse place. So he really just had no good choice, just one bad and one really really bad. “Fine.” Mckenzie sat up straighter with a big smile on her face, knowing that she had him where she wanted him and with videos like this there was no way she would be getting grounded at all, it would all go on him if her Mom ended up angry.

“Well for not doing what I said you first have to…” She thought for a second. “You are going to stand up, hold the sides of your dress, and twirl around like you are happy and say how happy you are that everyone thinks you are a little girl. And you are going to do it sounding as happy as can be.”

“But…” Kennedy stopped talking, the girl hadn’t so much as given him a hard look, just raised an eyebrow. Standing up Kennedy pressed his lips together, trying to give a pleading look to the girl that he was growing to hate. ‘How did Miss Miah end up with a girl this mean!? I can’t believe I’m doing this!’

“I am just so, so, soooo excited that everything thinks I’m a little girl! Today is just the bestest day ever, ever!” Kennedy had a closed mouth smile on his face that was large enough to touch his eyes as he swung his head from side to side slowly and he pinched each side of his dress, doing a single twirl doing his best to pretend there wasn’t a camera on him right now taking pictures.

“That was good! Now do the next one and I will leave you to play with the Barbies till we go home.” Kennedy felt like he could cry, he wouldn’t, but he felt like he could as he looked into her eyes.

“This is really embarrassing… if I do a good job saying it, could you not keep the pictures?” Mckenzie bit into the corner of her lower lip. The first video was to keep her out of trouble, she really didn’t need the second.

“If you make me forget you have boy bits in those panties I will not keep the video.”

“Video?!” She nodded.

“Yep.” Kennedy sighed, closing his eyes for a few seconds.

“I’m the prettiest ten year old princess there is! And, and I'm super happy to have a little sister and a big sister as pretty as you to play with!” Kennedy added a playful giggle at the end, feeling like he was going to end up sick to his stomach again. That same smile was on his face, but he let go of the dress, as he saw someone standing behind McKenzie. The smile slid off his face as he looked at the woman with long red hair that came down to her middle back, she had green eyes, minimal makeup, more than a few earrings in each ear. He kept taking her in as he was frozen in fear, hoping she hadn’t heard him just say that. This unknown woman had freckles across her face, glossy lips that he could only dream about kissing. She wore a purple ribbed tank top that did nothing to hide how large she was in the chest, tight black workout leggings with a gray pattern going down the side and a pair of purple athletic shoes.

Kenzie found herself laughing at the display in front of her, she looked off to her side to see if Abby was going to have a problem with someone else claiming to be the prettiest princess, but she wasn’t at the table anymore and the light was on under the bathroom door.

“Hello there little, ladybug.” Kennedy swallowed hard, but found himself unable to move as he looked at the woman in front of him. He was terrified and turned on at the same time, wanting to both flee and hug her so that he pressed his head and face into her chest. She wasn’t talking to him though, she was looking at McKenzie who she was standing behind when she walked up. He hadn’t noticed her coming into the room at all.

Turning her head at first, then soon her entire body before jumping to her feet McKenzie felt her entire body buzz with excitement to the point she was practically vibrating she wrapped both her hands around her Aunt. “Aunt Rosy! You're in town! I missed you! I missed you!”

Rosemarie wrapped one hand around her niece, running the fingers of her free hand through the girls matching red hair. “I missed you too, ladybug. I heard we were getting a new member to the family and I just had to come visit.” She turned her attention to the young blonde girl who had just proclaimed she was the prettiest princess, giving her a loving smile, but never let go of her niece. Knowing shortly little Abigail would be charging her like a bull to do the same. “You must be Kennedy, it is a pleasure to meet you. I’m your Aunt or I will be your Aunt. My name is Rosemarie, but the girls tend to call me Rosy. You can too if you like.”

Unable to utter a sound as the beautiful woman talked to him, seeing him dressed like this. Believing that he was just another girl was hard for him to process. Many kids and a few adults at the park had believed the same, but having someone who made him wish he was a year older so he could take her out and well… do things a boy and girl do together see him like this had him more than flustered. He wasn’t sure why, but he bowed his head and put his palms over his face, wishing her and everyone would just really disappear once he couldn’t see them anymore.

Pulling back from her aunt, McKenzie looked at Kennedy, seeing his embarrassment. “She is shy.” She wasn’t sure why she had said that, she had never lied to her aunt before. McKenzie liked having Kennedy as a little sister, she at least did what she was told even if she needed some prodding, so much better than the mean spirited boy, but she knew she couldn’t lie or shouldn’t even if that was her plan all along to not get in trouble. She hadn’t done anything yet except say Kennedy was shy and infer he was a girl, but still saying that to her aunt made her feel truly guilty.

“Umm actually, Aunt Rosy, Kennedy is a seventeen year old boy.”

Looking down at her thirteen year old niece who was only three inches shorter than her five foot eight height, Rosemarie raised an eyebrow to the outlandish statement that the girl in front of her was a teenage boy. She had already heard how the girl declared herself to be the prettiest ten year old princess, and she wasn’t sure why McKenzie thought she could get away with the claim. “Is that so?” She said with a smile, wondering if they were playing a game before she came in or her little red headed niece was trying to get Kennedy to play a role in some make believe story before Kennedy had refused telling her how she was a princess.

“I’m telling the truth. Kennedy tell her! You can trust her I promise.” Kennedy’s eyes flicked from McKenzie to the older woman who said he could call her Rosy. His heart felt like it was beating fast enough to burst out of his chest like in that alien movie he had watched in the middle of the night once when everyone else was asleep after he had been told it was for adults. He had been twelve and it hadn’t been too scary. He had just made a deal with the girl so that she wouldn’t tell anyone about who he really was and then the first person that came near her she went and blabbed.

“No…” He dragged out the word. “I’m ten and not a boy.” He did his best to sound irritated at her.

“I’m telling the truth!” McKenzie pleaded with her aunt, giving her foster brother a glare when she turned her head to look in his direction. “You can trust her, I promise! We won't get in any trouble, she can help.” Kennedy again looked between the two, something in his facial expression must have given something away about what he was thinking or so he thought when he saw McKenzie nodding towards him vigorously. Swallowing hard he fiddled with his hands, having a hard time meeting the beautiful freckled women’s eyes. Swearing to himself that if McKenzie was playing him so he would be taken away he wasn’t just going to lock her in the basement he was going to push her down the stairs and lock the door before he was carted off.

“Ummm. I’m not what I said… I’m really a seventeen year old boy.” Rosemarie leaned her head back ever so slightly, not responding for a few seconds. Each one ticking by making Kennedy more and more nervous.

“Is that so? What makes you think that?” Rosemarie asked. Kennedy’s eyes flicked back to McKenzie for a second, feeling unsure of himself more with the playful tone of voice the pretty girl was using.

“Ahhh.” He swallowed hard, adding a little firmness to his voice. “Because I am. That is what all my paperwork with…” He waved his hand in the air forgetting what the government agency was called that he had been in since his parents passed. “The child protective… adoption people!” Rosemarie nodded her head slowly, glancing over at her niece for a second before letting out a long but restrained sigh. Everyone knew any system controlled by the government was broken, most commonly the justice department was thought of with their two systems. One for the rich and one for everyone else, but  hardly anyone thought of how broken a system could be when it came to taking care of children. Out in California she had heard that any child in their care that had money coming to them, that they would bill or just take the money right out of the child's accounts to pay for education, food and housing. She knew from her own experiences that the education they got was well behind what children got in normal public schools and she knew just how messed up their records could get, when she was told her time was up when she was seventeen.

Not a dollar in her pocket, too young to get most jobs and no place to live she was pushed out of the foster care system to fend for herself on the streets. She hoped Kennedy was fibbing or had just overheard something incorrectly, but she could believe some overworked agent mixed up the girl’s file with some boy’s. Making it so that as far as the government was concerned she was seven years older and a different gender. She really, really hoped the girl was wrong, otherwise if it wasn’t for her older sister this girl would be living on the streets, trying to survive. Nothing an eleven year old should ever have to consider, let alone live through. Rosemarie could see the worry on the girl's face. She was just about to open her mouth to reassure her when the door to the daycare’s bathroom opened up and her youngest niece came walking out, her hands still dripping with water from when she washed her hands.

Seeing her Aunt Abigail’s lips moved to a large smile as she opened her mouth. Dashing forward like a rocket her white sandals clapped on the floor as she charged forward, arms spread wide. “AUNT ROSY!” She yelled loud enough that Joleen stopped what she was doing to watch the youngest Adams leap forward, wrapping her arms around her aunt as the woman caught the girl in her arms, spinning her around in a tight hug before putting her down.

“I’m happy to see you too, Abby bug!” She laughed as she spun the girl around, putting her back down on the floor with a bright smile, ignoring the fact the girl had wiped her wet hands on the back of her tank top. “We were just talking.” Rosemarie looked at the two other girls there with her. “It was about your new sibling here, I heard her say how she was.” Rosemarie met Kennedy’s eyes, poking her in the stomach and trying to give her a reassuring smile.

“What was it? That she was the prettiest ten year old princess.” Kennedy found himself blushing enough that he put both his hands over his cheeks to hide it. He had just confessed who he really was, what he was and she was teasing him about what McKenzie had made him say to keep that very secret. It was like shame personified had found its way inside of him and was trying to get back out through his face.

Abigail pushed her jaw forward, shaking her head three times before making a fist, pressing her thumb against her chest. “I’m the princess!”

Rosemarie adored the girl, she was so pure, not innocent. She knew that for a fact, but she was always true to herself. She reached out touching the girl's cheek. “You are a princess, but so is Kenzie and so is Kennedy, little bug. Just like your Mommy is a queen, but that isn’t what we were talking about. It seems both Kenzie and her think she is a teenage boy because the adoption people say so. What do you think? Does she really look like a teenage boy?”

Abigail’s attention let her hand fall down, looking towards Kennedy as she whispered to herself just loud enough that those standing by could still hear her. “I’m the princess.” She didn’t remember how old Kennedy had said they were, but whatever it was she hadn’t really believed him. Not in her heart, he was barely taller than her and everyone got taller when they grew up. Today he had wanted to play dress up, he had said Mom had made him. Sometimes she told her what to wear, but she was a big girl now and could pick out her own clothes. Today she got to help Kennedy pick out some pretty panties, some of her socks and after he had gotten sick he had even put on her dress and, and, and… she had almost forgotten how they had traded shoes, but his were broken. Kennedy didn’t look like a boy at all really. So she scrunched her face up, shaking her head. “I vote that Kennedy is a girl, but like if I grow taller than her then I get to be the older sister!”

“I thought you liked being the younger sister, being spoiled like you are.” McKenzie said, forgetting momentarily how her sister was undermining her.

“Oh… well then she can’t have my spot.” Abby said, McKenzie nodded once, knowing how that would come out, but then mentally kicking herself.

“Wait… you don’t get to vote if she is a girl!” Across the room Joleen looked blankly at the family, wondering what exactly they were discussing.

“Kenzie is right, Abby bug. You don’t get a vote if she is a girl.” McKenzie looked over at Kennedy, chewing on the inside of her cheek for a moment, realizing she had just referred to Kennedy as a girl. The entire situation had gotten out of her control.  Meanwhile Kennedy was feeling uneasy, and the word uneasy was doing a lot of heavy lifting. On one hand this woman could easily turn him in, even if McKenzie said she is trustworthy and Abby… she was just a brat. There didn’t seem to be another hand… just more worries with her not taking them seriously. It was maddening that someone could see him, even dressed like this. Have him confess and then still think he was not just a girl, but one seven years younger.

“How about this Kennedy?” Rosemarie glanced at each of her nieces before focusing her attention on the blue eyed girl who had started to look more and more nervous as the conversation went on, just making her heart weep for the girl. She could imagine her telling the employee working her case that it was wrong and them saying they would look into it later, just blowing her off. They weren’t evil, they were just overworked, underfunded and the people with the real power to make positive change for them didn’t care. “I will talk to your case worker Kennedy and clear all this up, but for now. No more of this teenage boy stuff. You girls are too  young to be thinking about boys.”

“Kenndy loves a teen boy!” Abby declared happily remembering what she learned at lunch. “She kissed Kenzie’s classmate at the park today!”

“I did not! He kissed me! It was… yuck!” Rosemarie put a hand over her mouth, covering up her smile. It was precious to hear the girl get a kiss from a boy when she was clearly upset about it as she shivered. It was one of those stories she could tell to some future boyfriend to cause embarrassment in a way only family could. She remembered trying to do that to Miah when she visited her after her engagement, telling her suitor how when they were younger a boy had kissed her on the cheek under some mistletoe and how she had given him a blackeye for it.

“Well, is that okay with you Kennedy?” She asked, knowing how important independence was to someone coming from her background.

Kennedy really didn’t want to try to reassert himself a second time and have her still not believe him. His ego felt like it had been through a shredder today, the last thing he needed was someone to cut it up into confetti. If she didn’t the only thing he could think to do was to pull up the stupid yellow dress and pull down the panties to show her how much of a man he was. Flashing a woman he wanted to drool over while wearing an eight year old girl's clothes was not how he wanted today or any day to go. “It's fine.”

“Good. Then you girls stay here, I’m going to go bother my sister, in a way that only a little sister can.” She gave a wink to Abby. “Maybe I can see if we can go out for dinner tonight. What do you say?”

McKenzie had kept chewing on the inside of her cheek, she had told the truth, but her little game with Kennedy hadn’t ended. It was all going to be straightened out and she did have the video to show her mom, because when she told Aunt Rosy the truth she really didn’t want anyone to think she was a liar. She didn’t think she could let go of it in her mind, but the idea of going out to eat sounded so much better than eating something microwaved or left overs that they tended to eat when their mom worked late. “Pizza! Can we have pizza!?” She asked excitedly, thinking about going to the place that had a pizza buffet.

“Brownies!” Abby said, throwing her hands up in the air like she had said the secret word to win a game show.

“Brownies aren’t dinner.” McKenzie declared correcting her sister.

“Yeah, well they are better than pizza!” Abby responded by sticking her tongue out. Rosemarie turned to the only one who hadn’t responded, noticing how the girl had shrunk back when the two started arguing. Rosemaire had no intention to stop them, that was just how kids were and doubly so for siblings. She still acted like that with her sister at times, she had missed having Miah there to play with, to argue with when she was lucky enough to be adopted. This girl had no one and seemed to pull in on herself the louder the girls got, something she could also understand. Kennedy was young enough that she could still have a healthy family life, being with her sister and her girls would put her on the right path. Unlike herself, she had seen the bad in people too often, she made a living off of those people. So the only family she was ever going to have far as she was concerned was her nieces and her sister.

“What about you Kennedy? What do you want for dinner tonight?” Kennedy deeply wished she would stop looking at him, it made it so much harder for him to not look back and when he looked at her he wanted to stare. Her long red hair, her green eyes, the freckles across her face and her… well she had the same wonderful assets Miss Miah had and he really didn’t want to think about that unless he was alone.

“Umm, anything is fine.”

‘Anything is fine.’ Rosemarie nodded. ‘The girl had been with her sister for a week and still hadn’t come out of her shell.’ She recalled how Miah had said the child she was adopting had to be fostered first because of behavior issues and how they hadn’t had an easy time with previous foster homes. She had mentioned how small Kennedy was because of the first home they were in. She didn’t think the girl was that small for her age, but she wasn’t a good person to ask about those sorts of things either. The scar on the girl's chin though spoke volumes to her, violence and abuse. That was something she understood.

“Well we don’t have to decide right now, think about it and maybe you three can come together and decide for us. Brownies do sound good though, little bug.” She leaned down, giving her niece a kiss on the forehead. “Maybe for desert though, okay?” Abby nodded happily to her aunt, watching her walk off to talk to miss Joleen.

“I want soup!” The eight year old declared suddenly turning on her sister who just crossed her arms.

“You do not. The only soup you like is ravioli’s from the can and that isn’t even a soup.” McKenzie narrowed her eyes at her sister, knowing she loved pizza just as much as she did, but just loved being difficult to try and win. Always trying to win when no one was competing.

“It tastes good… but maybe we can have pizza. But, but, I want pepperoni!” The young girl declared. Kennedy stood there, all three of them still standing in the girls play area. He didn’t have anywhere to go, so he just stood there watching McKenzie shake her head at her little sister's demands.

“Why would I care if we get pepperoni? We always get pepperoni.” Abigail put her firsts to her hips, moving up to the balls of her feet to try and look taller as she looked up to her much taller, older sister, glaring hard into her eyes.

“But I want pepperoni!” McKenzie opened her mouth to speak and then stopped before taking a deep breath. Turning to Kennedy who was standing a little ways back from herself and her pesky siblings.

“This is what you have to look forward to, but this is how you put a stop to it.” She said, rolling her eyes before looking back to her sister who for some unknown reason was puffing up her chest to attempt to look bigger.

“Abby, you win.” The younger siblings' eyes lit up almost like a christmas tree, throwing one fist in the air, hopping around in place in a circle.

“YES!”

Looking from the now dancing Abby and then over to McKenzie, he tried to puzzle out what was going on. His eyes flicked between them a few more times. “But she didn’t win anything.” he whispered to the older of the two girls. McKenzie shrugged before whispering back.

“She would just keep going, telling her she is the winner when I’m really the winner by getting her to stop is just part of being the older sibling.