2. Wish that wasn't the case

Chapter 2: Wish that wasn't the case

Kelsey's POV

*****

It had been about a couple of hours since the Walkers left. Not long after, Ethan left to go and hang out with his friends, leaving me alone with the children. That was why I wanted to come up with something to do with them. They didn't know me and I didn't know them well enough either. I needed them to trust me because after all, I was the one who was responsible for them.

After a while of tearing apart my thoughts on what we could possibly do, an idea suddenly hit me.

"How do you guys feel about going to the arcade tonight?" I asked after I called all of them down.

Upon hearing the word 'arcade', Noah and Lara's faces instantly lit up. Ellie, on the other hand, looked quite disappointed.

"What is it? Don't you like the arcade?" I asked Ellie, kneeling down in front of her.

She quickly shook her head before speaking. "It's not that I don't like it, it's just that I always go to the arcade with Ethan, I don't want to go without him," she said, looking around in hopes to see him coming in through the door.

Hearing her say those words made my heart tighten at how much she loved her brother. The thought that he instantly went out with his friends instead of spending a little bit of time with them right after their parents left saddened and angered me. A brother should always be there for his siblings, and yet Ethan couldn't even stay half an hour alone with them.

I instantly shook the thought away and tried to come up with a way to convince Ethan to join us.

"Tell you what, how about I call him and you ask him if he wants to come with us? I'm sure he'll accept," I said, trying to sound optimistic.

I may have lied a little bit. I was not so sure that he would accept, but having sweet little Ellie ask him could have been a way to convince him.

She excitedly nodded her head and I quickly searched through my phone for his number. I didn't know why on earth I had ever decided to save his number, but at that moment, I was glad I did.

"Hi Ethie, it's Ellie. Kelsey wants to take us to the arcade tonight and I was really hoping that you could join us," Ellie said as soon as Ethan answered his phone.

"Really? Okay. Be home soon then."

Her smiling face fully lit up when she hung up the phone, handing it to me and giving me one of her huge smiles.

"He said he will be here soon so that he could join us."

The smiles on Lara and Noah's faces as soon as Ellie's words left her mouth did not go unnoticed. I was surprised at how easy it was for her to convince him, but I was glad that Ethan accepted to join us. Maybe it could have been a way for us to try and get along, considering that we were going to live together for about four months.

It made me happy to know that he was ready to drop what he was doing just to go out with his family, and it also made me think that maybe, just maybe, he cared about them much more than I initially thought.

*****

My idea of going to the arcade was a very successful one. The kids and I bonded over games and I found out how sweet they all were.

I also found out how I was too quick in judging Ethan. Maybe he wasn't the nicest person when he was with me, but with his siblings he was a completely different person. The look on his face when he was around them was a lot different than the one I knew. He actually seemed happy, like there was nowhere else he would rather be.

He seemed real, and not the usual person he made himself appear to be in front of other people.

I also found out that they were all very competitive when it came to winning games, but win or lose, they still made sure to have fun.

It made me feel really happy to see them all having fun and enjoying each other's company. Seeing them made me see how lucky they were to have each other. I didn't have a big family like they had. It has always been just me and my dad and it got lonely sometimes. I had no siblings to fight or have fun with. My best friend Meg was the closest thing I had to a sister.

"Why don't you come join us?" Noah asked all of a sudden after his dance battle game was over, breaking me away from my thoughts.

I was currently sitting on one of the tables, watching the dance battle between Lara and Ethan, and Noah and Ellie.

"I didn't want to intrude," I replied with a smile, feeling like I would ruin family time.

"Nonsense, you're going to be part of the family for four months, might as well join our crazy competitions now," he said smiling at me.

Hearing him say those words made me really happy. I was glad that they accepted me and that they weren't planning on making my life difficult like they had apparently done to others in the past.

It was clear that their mother was exaggerating when introducing Noah, he did not appear difficult at all. I couldn't help but smile at the fact that maybe the reason he wasn't difficult with me was because he respected me from the start.

"Come, you can play against me," Ethan said as soon as he won his game against Lara, surprising me a little with his offer.

"Good luck, you'll need it. Ethan is really good at this game," Lara huffed as I was walking towards the mat next to Ethan.

"I know you're on the dance team and all, but you're going down Kelsey," Ethan said with a smirk as soon as the countdown began.

It was true, I had been on my school's dance team for three years in a row. I had loved dancing ever since I was younger and the passion never subsided. It was exactly why I knew that I could beat Ethan, no matter how good he actually was.

"You're on E," I said, putting my game face on, which probably made me look like a constipated monkey by the weirded out look on Ethan's face.

It was like those scenes in the movies where the two guys narrow their eyes at each other and there's that cowboy music thing playing in the background, making it oh so dramatic.

*****

"I can't believe you beat me!" Ethan said with a pout, pretending to be hurt.

"Maybe you shouldn't have been so sure that you would beat me," I taunted, making him roll his eyes.

"I didn't know you were that good," he said, making me wonder whether or not he had actually just complemented me.

Something I was sure about was that one game of dance battle and I was already starting to feel like we could eventually be good friends.

"Do you guys want to go grab some Chinese food and then head home?" Ethan finally asked his siblings, turning around to face them.

"I love Chinese food," Ellie squealed, hugging Ethan and making me smile at how cute they all were.

After going to the restaurant for some food, we were all pretty tired and the girls even ended up sleeping in the car.

"Can you help me take them to bed?" Ethan asked as he picked up Lara bridal style with the help of Noah.

I simply nodded my head and gently lifted Ellie, walking her inside the house and up to her and Lara's room.

"They're so sweet," I whispered to Ethan as I looked at the two girls sleeping peacefully.

"They really are. They deserve better," he said, making me frown before he quietly walked out of their room and checking in on Noah who was already fast asleep.

For a second I found myself staring at him. He didn't spend a lot of time with his siblings but by the way he looked at them adoringly, it was evident that he loved them. He was not the bad brother that his mother considered him to be.

"I'm glad he's sleeping. He hasn't been sleeping much lately. I wanted to come and make sure that he's okay," he said as I was approaching Noah's room as well.

"That's really sweet Ethan" I told him.

"He's my little brother, what did you expect? That I didn't care?" He said. He sighed before continuing, "But tell anyone I have a soft side and I'll hurt you," he said with a small laugh.

It was normal. Certain people preferred caring in secret, but it didn't mean that they cared any less. In an odd sense, I understood him.

"Your secret's safe with me," I replied placing my hands up in retreat, making him chuckle slightly before heading to his room.

"Thank you for not making my day miserable," I said before he entered his room, making him look at me.

"I don't hate you Kelsey. You might have thought that I did, but I never did," he said, catching me by surprise.

I never thought that he hated me, I just never understood why he was a jerk most of the time.

We ended up staring at each other not saying anything. I hadn't noticed how shiny his dark brown eyes were until that moment. They were really nice.

Suddenly, he cleared his throat, standing up straight. "I'm going to go back to bed now, unless you want to join me," he said with a smirk, going back to his cocky attitude and making me roll my eyes at him .

"I'd rather not," I said, wanting to slap that smirk off his face before turning around and heading to my room, wanting to ignore the laughter that came from him.

I knew that most people had mood swings, but his was the weirdest. Couldn't he have gone to sleep knowing that he was actually nice for once in his life?

I guess that what they say is true. It's hard for people to change their attitudes towards someone so quickly.

I just wished that that wasn't the case with Ethan.