original posted: 5-26-07

edited: 6-17-10

Meant to Be: Just the Girl
(the click five)

She laughs at my dreams, but I dream about her laughter.

xxxxxxxxx - (nettie)

"Annette!"

God, I hate my name.

I mean, Annette. It sounded horrible and it didn't fit me one bit. It was for this reason that at school everyone called me Nettie, but there were certain people who refused to do so. The prime example: my mother. According to her, the name that was on my birth certificate was what everyone should call me. She was never big on nicknames.

"Yes, Mom?" I walked out of my room to the hallway so I could speak to her without having to yell. Yelling was something that she, like all mothers, hated.

"Can you please pick Hannah and Liam up from school?" she asked me.

"What about Penny?" I asked in return.

"Penelope is at soccer practice," She said. There she goes again with the full names."You won't need to pick her up."

I sighed heavily, "Fine."

"Thanks sweetie!" she smiled at me and went back into her room.

Ever since I had gotten my driver's license, my mom had me running all her errands for her. She supposedly was too "busy" to drive down to the store or to pick up my little siblings from school, even if it only took a few minutes.

Sighing, I walked down to my old, beat up Chevy and climbed in the front seat. I started the car and began to drive down the road to the elementary school where my youngest sister Hannah attended.

Then I realized something: I'd be picking up Hannah and Liam. Without Penny. Oh great, this is going to be a fun ride, I thought. Liam and Hannah never got along. Liam, the most annoying 12 year old ever, would always make fun of poor little Hannah. And Hannah, who never really took the hint, knew exactly how to drive Liam over the edge and into insanity.

Hannah was six. She had just started the first grade and was still learning how to not get on Liam's nerves. She did get annoying sometimes, but how could you hate her with those adorable brown curls and big blue eyes? Not to mention her sweet smile and six-year-old charm.

My little brother, unfortunately, had anger issues. Just one annoying remark from Hannah could send him over the edge. And so, you can see why I would dread taking the two of them home without Penny.

Penny, Liam's fraternal twin, was the mediator. I never understood how she managed calm Liam down so easily, or how she was able to get Hannah to stop doing whatever it was that was irritating my brother, but I was grateful for it. Without her, I'd probably go crazy from all the arguing.

But that day I didn't have Penny. So I had to deal with the chaos myself. Great.

I realized I'd pulled up to the school. By then I knew the system: park in the parking lot, wait for the kids, and take them home. The middle school where the twins went was right across the street from the elementary school, and they conveniently let out at the same time, so usually Penny and Liam would walk over and meet Hannah outside her classroom and then walk her over to the car. All I had to do was sit and wait.

I waited for a while, but nobody came, so I sighed, turned off the car and walked out. Almost immediately I heard them.

"STOP IT, HANNAH!" I could hear Liam screaming. Taking the initiative, I walked over to my two siblings to see what was going on.

"Hey guys, what's up?" I asked, trying to sound casual. Hannah looked up at me with tears in her eyes.

"Nettie! Liam's being mean to me!" she pouted and I gave her a hug. Liam looked at me with a disgusted look on his face.

"Liam, why are you being mean?" I asked him.

"SHE'S BEING SO ANNOYING!" he answered angrily.

"Hannah, were you being annoying?" I asked my crying sister. She looked back up at me and nodded. I sighed, again.

"Hannah, you know that's not good. Can you please apologize to your big brother?" I asked her. She nodded and went up to him and gave him a big hug. To my surprise, Liam actually hugged her back.

I smiled. This wasn't as bad of a fight as they usually were. Hopefully there wouldn't be more arguing in the car.

"C'mon guys, let's go home." I began walking back to the car. Liam and Hannah followed me. After we had all got in, we drove back to the house. It wasn't long before Hannah began her annoying six-year-old antics. She was making these weird noises with her mouth, over and over again, like the ones Donkey used to annoy Shrek with in the movies. She must've watched it recently or something.

After just a few minutes of enduring her noises, Liam snapped, like he always does.

"SHUT UP!" he shouted. He clamped his hand over Hannah's mouth and she screamed.

"Liam!" I almost stopped the car so I could stop him, but I was a very cautious driver and I was worried about crashing, even if I was just going to pull over. I'd only had my license for a couple of months, after all.

Hannah continued to scream, even though Liam's hand muffled it. Then I heard a shriek from Liam and saw his hand retreat from Hannah's mouth. My guess was that she had bitten him.

I heard Hannah giggle.

"Guys, please, stop fighting! We're almost home!" I begged them. Jeez, I really needed Penny. Stupid soccer practice. They both pouted and faced opposite directions for the rest of the ride. Well, at least they were quiet.

We finally pulled into the driveway of our lovely home. (Note the sarcasm; our house was rather small for a family of six.) Liam flung the car door open and practically sprinted through the front door. I helped Hannah out of her car seat and walked with her into the house.

xxxxxxxxx

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

I grudgingly sat up in my bed and switched off the annoying alarm clock.

Great. It was morning already. Morning meant waking up. Waking up meant school. And school meant Lucas Fort.

Ah, Luke: the most stupid, annoying, arrogant guy in the entire world. Ever since the first day I met him (in sixth grade), he had constantly been bugging me. He followed me around, went out of his way to annoy me, and he even started to ask me out every day in 7th grade. Turning Fort down quickly became a part of my daily routine.

I never understood the reason behind his actions. I mean, there were hundreds of other girls at the school. Why'd he have to choose ME to pick on? Sighing, I got out of bed and began to get ready for school. I dug through my closet to find something decent to wear.

After rummaging in my closet for a while, I finally found an outfit worthy of wearing. I pulled on the light green T-shirt and denim jean capris, and went to the bathroom to do my hair.

It was a complete and utter mess. Tangles of auburn curls swarmed my head, my almost-impossibly-long bangs covering my light blue eyes. I sighed and began to fix it. After making sure my hair was decent, I bounded down the stairs and got ready to leave.

Nobody else in the house was up yet, but that wasn't a surprise. My entire family hated mornings. I ate a small breakfast and then drove to school.

Almost immediately after I climbed out of my car, the torture began.

"Annette!"

Oh. My. God. Not again! WHY ME?!

I reluctantly turned around to face a boy my age, leaning on the side of his shiny car and smirking at me. His dirty blonde hair was blowing in his face, covering up his blue eyes.

I sighed heavily, "Lucas." I spoke his name as if it was some kind of evil death threat.

"Hey, Annette. What do you say to going out to a movie Friday night?" he smiled at me.

Luke Fort was the only person other than my mom that called me Annette. And he did it just to annoy me, too.

"No, for the millionth time. And don't call me Annette," I sneered. I was beginning to walk away when he spoke again. Clearly he was not done tormenting me yet.

"Why not?" he asked.

"Why? Because I hate it and it makes you sound like my mother…"

"No, no! I meant why won't you go out with me?"

I looked him squarely in the eye.

"You know perfectly well why," I told him.

He frowned. "Actually, I don't," he spoke.

How could he not know?! I'd told him enough times, that was for sure. Oh well. One more rant wouldn't hurt. Well, it wouldn't hurt me, anyway.

I took a deep breath and began, "Because you're a spoiled brat who thinks of no one but himself. You're rude, you annoy me constantly - AND you think that you are better than everyone else just because you're rich."

He looked like he was going to protest, but I wasn't done yet.

"I'm not done yet! You haven't stopped asking me out no matter how many times I tell you no, and you have absolutely no respect for all the other girls who like you! You just reject them rudely! You know, Lucas, you actually have a chance with them, so STOP coming after ME!"

"Nettie!" We both turned to see another girl our age, her light brown hair blowing in her face from the wind. She was waving at me.

I turned to glare back at Luke one last time, and then stomped off to walk to class with Mikayla, the girl who had approached us.

Looks like he was off the hook for now.

xxxxxxxxx

A/N: Thanks for reading!

-Kyllex