Lydia

It was dark by the time we got home from the hospital and I realized that the days were getting short. Graham's CT was clean so that was good. And we stopped and got chinese food on the way home from the hospital. I hadn't had any in weeks and I was starving. Graham and I took a bucket of fried rice and the bag of spare ribs up to my room.

We sat on the floor to eat.

"Summer's almost over," Graham said what I had been thinking.

I nodded. "Guess we have to go back to school soon."

"Yeah. It's going to be weird not playing football this fall."

"Are you going to miss it?"

"Nah. Never really liked it much."

"What are you going to do instead."

"I dunno. What do you usually do after school?"

"Read. Watch TV. I uh, well last year Dad got me guitar lessons."

"Really? How come I've never heard you play."

My cheeks get got. "I dunno. I'm not that good yet."

"Well, I'm going to be around this fall, so you're going to have to play in front of me sometime."

"Yeah, I guess."

"Hey Lyds, you're pretty awesome."

"Well, that was random."

"No, well, yeah. I just wanted you to know it. That's all. And uh, I hope it's okay. I know sometimes there was uhmm, but there's not. I mean, they're can't be. I mean, your my sister. And like, if something went like wrong or like..."

I knew exactly what Graham was trying to say. I shook my head and smiled a little. "Graham, it's okay. You're something like family too."

**Epilogue**

"Hurry up we're going to be late!" Graham yelled.

"I'm coming! I'm coming!"

I checked my outfit one more time. A red plaid mini skirt, a white sweater and a pair of black riding boots with black leggings. I had let Graham help me shop for back to school, as much as I had to admit it, he had better fashion sense than me.

"Let's go!" He yelled.

Ever since he got the cast off, he had been intolerable. Always on the move. Always going. He kept trying to get me into all sorts of horrible activities too, like running. Who runs for fun? Actually I had discovered I wasn't half bad and Graham was trying to convince me to try out for the track team.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." I appeared in the kitchen and Kirsten handed me a peanut butter sandwich.

"Sorry sweetie, you missed breakfast," she said.

I shrugged. I had eaten plenty of panckakes this summer, I didn't feel deprived and I munched my toast happily as we walked out to the car. It was the perfect September day. Crisp and just cool enough.

I climbed into Graham's new Ford Explorer. Actually we were supposed to share OUR new car but Graham already had his license and I did not. It was on my to do list though. Maybe. I found the big truck kind of terrifying to drive.

"Is it going to be weird this year?" I asked him.

"Nah, why would it be?"

"I dunno. Ugh. I kissed Luke."

Graham burst into laughter. "Oh man, I had totally forgotten about that!"

"Yeah, well hopefully the rest of the school has too."

"He keeps Facebook messaging me, to ask me."

"Are you going to take him up on it?"

I shrug. "Eh, we'll see how it goes."

"How's Ruka?"

"She's good. She misses Austin but they're trying to do the long distance thing. Oh, she might come stay with us for a few days."

"That'd be cool."

"Yeah."

We talked a little about our class schedules, what we were already planning to change, what teachers we had heard were absolute nightmares, I tried to convince him to take an AP class with me but he refused, worried that once baseball season started he'd be too busy to study for the exam.

"What if you're just OK at baseball?" I asked.

He looked over and smiled at me. "Don't worry, I won't be. I'll be great."

A/N: AHHHH! After four years it's over! Thank you so much to all my readers who waited patiently for me all these years. I'm glad to give this story some kind of conclusion. It's been hard coming back to it, after all, the last four years have changed me a lot as a person and I've tried to not let that affect Graham and Lydia who never aged a day. Anyway, thank you for the reviews, PM's, and encouragement. If it wasn't for you, I would have quit long ago...