Time Warp: Just The Two Of Us (Kailin)

[Deleted]

Summer 2009

Zach understood. He really did. Even after missing the family vacation a few years ago due to a broken leg, he still found going to the summer home and being around the entirety of his family incredibly daunting. In fact, he was thinking that he might move out sometime in the next year. He was already looking at apartments near the University campus to see what the market was like and consider whether he’d even be able to afford it with the meager leftovers of his financial aid. He might have to consider getting a job…

Anyway, this year Zachary Bishop had no reason to be kept from a very well deserved respite of college, yet here he was, isolated and alone with his little sister whom….he didn’t really get along with. She was, after all, stuck in that annoying, early adolescent phase, but it was more than that. They just didn’t have enough in common to carry a conversation beyond two words. And Zach knew she wasn’t sick, like she claimed.

Whatever, if she wanted to play hooky on this year’s vacation, then that was her business. If their parents were too preoccupied with everyone else to notice the obvious lie, then that wasn’t his problem. Zach decided that he may as well use this time to get some also well-deserved peace and quiet from the insanity that usually came with a full Bishop house.

Zach sat in the middle of the couch in the den, slouched down and wishing that Devlin had left the PS3 behind. He could have the 360. Playstation had the better games anyway, not that Dev would agree. Zach mashed the buttons on the PS2 controller as he tried to beat the next boss in his current run through Star Ocean Till The End of Time. He was bored. Zach wondered if he should call Ollie and have him come over? Whatever Kailin was doing…well, Zach wasn’t paying attention to that, not when the universe needed saving.

[Kailin Bishop]

A whole house to herself! Well, not exactly the 'whole' house since zachy decided he was going to stay home too. She had thought herself clever when she played sick so she didn't have to go, but apparently she wasn't 'old' enough to stay home by herself. She was 12 for goodness sake! But ah well, they had a house for a lot of people, and so she didn't think she'd run into him too often; or at least, that's what she hoped for.

Kailin, in her pajamas, got out of her bed and started the trek down to the main floor of the house, hoping to get her stash of cookies and mountain dew so she could start watching movies. She had tried texting her friends, but they were still asleep. If anybody was a early riser, it was Kailin, so she wasn't able to sleep until 6 pm every day. It wasn't how she worked.

So slipping off into the main room area in order to reach the kitchen, Kailin found that her brother was sitting and playing video games, so she used that opportunity to try and sneak into the kitchen unnoticed. She did manage to, but upon returning with the cookies and dew in her hands, she accidentally knocked her side into one of the side tables that sat in the room, effectively causing her to drop her cookies. All over the floor. Loudly.

A quick intake of breath, and frozen in place, Kailin hoped her eldest brother didn't hear. After all, she was supposed to be sick.

[Deleted]

Zach was of the same opinion as his sister. She was twelve years old. That was more than old enough for her to be able to stay behind by herself! Zach would have been able to do it just fine. He was pretty certain that the only reason their parents didn’t allow it was because she was a girl.

Oh well, it wasn’t that bed. At least he could dick around like this for the next couple weeks, until the others came back. It was a solitude that the broody boy didn’t get all too often. It was glorious. Maybe he’ll write a poem about it later?

Zach’s concentration was interrupted by the sound of…something…scattering about the floor. He turned his head and ached himself to face his blonde sister and her spoils which had fallen across the floor.

He sighed and paused the game. “There’s real food in the fridge, you know,” he uttered with an air of irritation behind his words. Zach moved to stand and crossed his arms in a classic “big-brother” way. “You gonna pick those up?” he asked, suggesting with his eyes that the correct answer was “yes.”

[Kailin Bishop]

Zach wasn't the most authoritative brothers that she had - that role was given to Devlin, most definitely. Or her dad. But mostly Devlin. Either way, while she wasn't too intimidated by her brother's 'scary face', she didn't want him to tell on her and she get in trouble.

"But I'm sick, and real food makes me sick." Kailin knew for a fact that her statement made absolutely no sense, but to the 12 year old girl, it was the most solid argument she could make. She took a munch of one of the cookies that she held in her hand and took a quick bite before sticking her tongue out at him after she decided it probably was best interest to pick up her loot. And so she did, but not because he told her to.

[Deleted]

Zach was short, compared to his other brothers - specifically Devlin, Gaige, and Gordon - and had essentially no muscle to speak of. So he knew that all he really had going for him was his creeper aura when it came to coercing his little siblings’ respect. And that never really work out too well. He supposed that the other thing he could do was lie about his power and threaten to make the spiders invade their beds at night(a scheme that only worked with the twins), but Kailin was smarter than that.

Zach twisted his face, bewildered by the girl’s argument. “That…that doesn’t even make any sense…!” he exclaimed softly, almost to himself. He sighed. “Besides…what’s mom going to think when I tell her you only had cookies all week.” Yeah, right. Not even Kailin could pull that off. At this rate, those cookies wouldn’t last the day, and Zach wasn’t going out to get more…..probably.

He knelt down and picked one up, sticking it in his mouth. Then proceeded to collect his own loot.

[Kailin Bishop]

"It makes complete sense! You're just too old to understand the logic behind it!" Zach was roughly 7 years older than her, and to Kailin, that was more than half of her life, which was old.

She coughed somewhat realistically for emphasis before speaking again. "Oh, that's easy to answer. You won't." Because why would he tell on her? After all, one of the cookies was in his mouth. She wasn't manipulative, but Kailin knew for a fact Zachy wasn't the kind of guy to tell on any of his siblings. She shook her head.

"And plus, you're eating them too. So." She slapped his hand away, whining "But don't take too much!"

[Deleted]

“Old??” Zach repeated, his expression still perplexed. “I’m not even 20 yet,” he mumbled again. “How is that old?” Old to Zach was like…25…yeah, twenty-five was old. But nineteen? “Quit being stupid,” he said mercilessly.

“Right, and who’s gonna stop me?” he muttered back. Zach might tell on her…but then if he did, she might tell on him, that he was blazing in the treehouse again last night. Parents were out of town, of course he was going to take advantage.

“So?” he shot back. “And I’ll take as much as I want…besides, I’m older and bigger than you, so I need more to fill me up.” Because that made as much sense as Kailin’s earlier argument.

[Kailin Bishop]

"Yeah, because I'm the one who is eating cookies off the floor. I don't know about what your definition of stupid is, but it isn't me." Kailin said adamantly, crossing her arms across her chest - which actually looked kind of awkward considering she had a half filled cookie box in her hands.

"You realize I know what you've been doing in the treehouse? I'm not 10 anymore, so I know what drugs are. I could just casually call mommy and tell her that the funny smell in the treehouse made my head hurt really bad." And who else was in the house but her and Zach? Kailin was too innocent to know of drugs yet, too. She raised a brow challenging at the spider sensor, not appreciating the insult and the half- threat. Because she could play, too. Kailin was good at those games.

Mommy's little girl, yeah?

"Not by much," She muttered in terms of his size, grabbing her soda and popping the can open, taking a sip with a slight scowl.

[Deleted]

"Haven't you ever heard of the five-second rule?" he scoffed. Everybody knew about that rule. Though these cookies had been there a little more than five seconds....whatever, they were still good and if there was anything terribly dangerous in this house, they would've caught it already.

Zach sent her a glare. "You wouldn't dare," he hissed. Zach couldn't afford to get caught with that again! Their parents had a fit and made him clean out the gutters all season the last time they found his stash. "You do that and...and I'll tell the Queen Bee you're the one who's been stealing her make-up and blunting the ends to her lipstick." Whether or not it was true, Claudia didn't have to know.

"Oh, really?" Zach grabbed another couple cookies and stuffed them in his pockets, then straightened up to his full height...which was still pathetic, but still taller than a 12-year-old girl. "You wanna test that theory?" He bit into another cookie.

[Kailin Bishop]

"That's what gets people sick," Kailin crinkled her nose. Actually, the idea of eating those cookies then didn't seem so appealing anymore. It was on the floor. When was the last time the floor was legitimately cleaned? She grabbed a few and then threw them at the older boy. "Actually, have them. I want Oreos."

But his challenge surged through her being, causing her lips to curl upward into a mischievous smirk. He really chose the wrong girl to tell that to, "Honestly, Zachy, I think you know I would." Kailin was a little sister - it's what she did. She would do the same to Gaige or Katy, but not Lany or Claudia. Lany was too sweet and Claudia was a vindictive mega-bitch when threatened. So when he retorted, her own eyes narrowed.

"And what if I told her it was you who was trying to get back at her for when she puked on your hoodie. And then tried to blame me?" She didn't know if it would work, but the Queen Bee was also the Queen of Revenge, and so maybe she would believe it? Claudia liked Kailin, too, as evident by the times the girl found herself in Kailin's bed after a late night out.

She rolled her eyes, "Please. All I have to do is kick you and you'd be on the floor in seconds. I'm not afraid of you, dumb butt."

[Deleted]

“Uh-huh, and when was the last time I got sick?” Sometime earlier this year, actually. He’d gotten the flu right before school started in the spring semester…and he still went to class. Zach gave an unamused glare down at his sister, who just rejected the cookies in favor of…a different kind of cookie. “Fine, your loss,” he said, munching on yet another cookie.

Zach stewed silently as Kailin - sweet little, vindictive Kailin - proposed her own threats. “And why would I care about that?” he lied. Zach and Claudia had had more than their fair share of engagements. Actually, if they weren’t yelling at each other or being overall hostile to one another when interacting, then there was probably something wrong. There was just something about her that really irked the spider boy. And that’s why he continued to steal her skinny jeans.

“Dumb butt? What’re you, five?” No, she was twelve. Not much of a difference. “Whatever.” Zach walked away, disgruntled because he couldn’t match wits with a stupid kid, and dumped the cookies on the coffee table. “Do what you want,” he mumbled as he flopped back down on the couch. Zach picked up the game controller and resumed his playing. These monsters were stupidly hard.

[Kailin Bishop]

"Um, do you want me to count?" Kailin challenged in return, still crinkling her nose at her brother's inability to care about his own health by eating a cookie off of the floor. Had he seen the twin's feet? Or, smelled them at all? They always ran around and caused dirt to build up, to which their mom would complain because of the dirt.

To say she wasn't amused by her control on her elder brother would be a lie - Kailin loved the fact that she could get what she wanted with a little bat of her eye lashes and a teary-eyed pout. As a little sister, it was her duty to get under the skin of siblings that allowed her to while still being the idolized child in the family. Savvy was the only one who could one-up her, but then again, Savvy was really annoying so it never worked.

"Twelve. One-Two. The age after 11. I thought you could count better than that." But she had won, most definitely. He sat back down and ignored the rest of what she could have said. Part of her, however, was not okay with that because he was getting the last word. So she made the last word.

"Video games? I thought you were nineteen."