"I want to watch the Simpsons!"
"I want to watch Access Hollywood!"
"You watch Access Hollywood every night! I never get to watch the Simpsons!"
"I hate the Simpsons!"
"I hate Access Hollywood!"
"You did not just say that!"
Ginger and Kris were in their room, each with two hands on either end of the remote, screaming at the top of their lungs once again about what they were going to watch on television. It'd been three weeks and the politeness was over; Ginger was becoming the person she normally was at home and Kris had finally stopped being the best friend and became the sister. They'd done this about six times in the past week, fighting over what they were going to watch, who was going to wear what clothes when, fighting over the hair dryer and the bathroom, and every now and then teaming up to terrorize their little brother.
"I'm sorry," Ginger said, letting go and sitting down on Kris's bed. Kris, in the meantime, had been pulling so hard when Ginger let go, she flew backwards and landed on the floor. "I think I need my own television."
"Oh, yeah," Kris said, sitting up on the floor. "That would be perfect. Two televisions going off at the same time. We'd still be screaming at each other."
"Let's just watch the Travel Channel."
"Fine." Kris sat down on the bed next to Ginger and switched the station to the Travel Channel. "Did you talk to Zac today?"
"No," Ginger said, shaking her head. "He told me yesterday he was going to be busy all day. He might call me later but I doubt it. But I'll talk to him tomorrow if he doesn't call me today."
"You'll talk to him tomorrow if he does call you today."
"True."
"Don't you think you're getting a little too attached?" For the first time since Kris changed the station, Ginger looked away from the television and to her sister. Her violet eyes were glazed over in confusion.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Well you guys hardly know each other and you talk on the phone for hours and hours like you've been dating for years."
"It's just because we don't get to see each other often. You and your last boyfriend were always on the phone and when you weren't on the phone you were together. We can't be together so we just end up talking on the phone forever."
"At least you're not stacking up phone bills any longer."
"Yeah, now he's calling me so he's getting stuck with all of them." The doorbell rang. "Are you expecting someone?"
"Maybe it's a package." Kris stood up and went to the door, but Ginger stayed behind and changed the television channel back to where she wanted it. "Oh my God what are you doing here?" Ginger looked over, curious. "You know you're not allowed around here anymore." Ginger stood up and walked over. Alex was standing at the door.
"Alex? What are you doing here?"
"Don't get me wrong," Alex said, giving his sister a snide look. "I'm here to hand over the rest of my sister's things."
"You know the deal," Kris said, stepping in front of Ginger. "You're not allowed to be anywhere near this house, whether you're dropping off things or not. One of your friends�if you do have friends�is supposed to drop it off or you need to go through Mrs. Kindle."
"Well, Kris, you're right. I don't have any friends and Mrs. Kindle was not available at the present moment so I figured there would be no harm in dropping off a few boxes. I'll be going now, everything is right here for you." Alex tipped an imaginary hat and walked away. Kris shivered.
"Your brother freaks me out," she told Ginger.
"You're not the only one. Here, let's get these boxes." Ginger and Kris grabbed a box and brought them inside to their room. As Kris went out to get another, Ginger opened the box. "Oh my God," she whispered, pulling out one of the stuffed animals from her room. The head was torn off and the stuffing was lining the bottom of the box. "Kris!"
"What? What's going on?" Ginger looked back at her new sister, her eyes filled with tears. Kris looked in the box. "What is wrong with him?"
"I'm calling Mrs. Kindle. I have a feeling he didn't even try to talk to her." Ginger picked up the phone and settled at the window, where she peeked through the blinds to make sure Alex was not still out there. "Hi, Mrs. Kindle, did by any chance did you receive a phone call from Alex Stevens earlier today?" Kris sat across from Ginger, who was still looking out the window. "No? That's what I thought. Yeah, this is his sister. He just showed up here not five minutes ago with a few boxes of my things from home. Not only did he show up here himself, when I opened the boxes, all my stuffed animals were de-stuffed and ripped to shreds. He destroyed everything."
"I'll see to it that this doesn't happen again, Miss Stevens," Mrs. Kindle began.
"Yes, you do that." She hung up the phone. "I have a feeling that they stopped caring about me, Kris." Kris shook her head.
"Nobody's stopped caring about you, honey. There's not much she can do about it after it happened. She can stop it from happening again, though." The doorbell rang again. "I doubt that's him." Ginger peeked through the blinds and looked for Alex's car, but didn't see it anywhere.
"I don't see his car�but I still don't know. It could be him. You answer the door." Kris got up and walked to the door. She looked through the peephole and smiled at Ginger. "Who is it?"
"Nobody special," she said again, grinning. She opened the door. "She's in our room, over there." Ginger grew confused again but her eyes lit up when Zac stepped into the house. She got off the windowsill and ran over to him.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, throwing her arms around him.
"Well hello to you too, dear. How are you doing? I'm just fine."
"I missed you�"
"I missed you too," Zac returned, pausing a moment to kiss her. "Where's your room?"
"Our room," Kris butted in.
"Where's the room that the both of you are currently sleeping in?" Zac corrected, giving Kris a smile.
"It's over here."
"Zac, you want something to drink?"
"Sure. Do you have any coke?" Kris nodded. "That's fine."
"All right." Kris headed off to the kitchen while Ginger dragged Zac into her room.
"Oh, this is priceless," Zac said, looking over the room. Over the past three weeks that Ginger had been living in the room, it'd turned from just Kris's junk to a themed "best friends" room. Everything that was in there had to do with Kris and Ginger, down to the matching sheets and comforters on their beds.
"Shut up, it's was Kris's idea," Ginger said, giving him a big grin.
"You know what I just realized?" Zac asked, pulling her up against him.
"What?"
"You never introduced me to Kris."
"Yes I did."
"No, you didn't. I only met her the one time at the party, the first time I met you, and you barely introduced yourself to me." Ginger nodded. "You have yourself quite a nice place here, Ginger."
"Kris really went out of her way to make me feel welcome. She's always been able to do that for me." With that, Kris came into the room with two drinks in her hands.
"Aw�I didn't know you cared." Ginger shot her pseudo-sister a sarcastic look and it was returned. They both shared a laugh. "Here you go, Zac."
"Thank you."
"By the way," Ginger piped. "Zac, this is my sister and my best friend Kris. Kris, this is my boyfriend Zac." Kris giggled as Zac shook her head.
"Nice to finally be introduced to you," Zac said. "I've heard a lot about you."
"Likewise," Kris said. "So what brings you to town?"
"Well I had a couple of days off and I figured I should come out here and say hello. This long-distance thing is really getting to me," Zac said, looking over at Ginger. "Plus I wanted to see how she was doing here."
Zac and Ginger sat down soon after and began to talk, Kris finding something else to do. It wasn't long before Ginger got restless. "Do you want to go somewhere?" Ginger asked. "It's rather boring here."
"Yeah, sure," Zac said. "Where do you want to go?" Ginger shrugged.
"We'll figure that out on the way. Let's just go. Kris! We're going out for a little while, tell Mom I'll be back soon." Ginger grabbed her purse and her and Zac left without a confirmation from Kris.
"So Alex decided to stop by today and give me a couple of boxes of shredded up stuffed animals and ripped clothing," Ginger said to Zac later that night. They'd gone out for dinner and ended up in the hotel room they were in the first time they'd slept together. It was getting late and Ginger thought about going home but she was too comfortable in bed with her boyfriend to get up and leave.
"He came by the house?" Ginger nodded. "Did you call Social Services?" She nodded again.
"Yeah. They said they'd see that it doesn't happen again but I doubt they're going to do anything for me," she said. "I wonder when they stopped caring about me."
"They still care about you, Ginger. They just know you're in a safe place now so they don't have to fuss over you so much. As long as you're not in danger�" She sighed. "But that doesn't matter right now. Right now all we have to worry about is waking up in the morning."
"And hope my mother doesn't kill you once we get home."
"What makes you think I'm going inside that house tomorrow? I might not even stop, I might just slow down and push you out of the car and keep on driving�and I might not even slow down!" She hit him. "Ow!"
"You're going to stop and you're going to walk me to my door, give me a goodbye kiss, and then you can high-tail it out of there." He smiled. "No, I want you to meet my new mom. She's the closest thing I've had to a mother in a long time and it would mean a lot to me if the two of you met and got along."
"Meet?" Zac asked. "Sure. Get along? Well I'm not so sure about that one. I doubt she'll really approve of me after I bring you home after spending all night out with you. Is she going to beat my ass?"
"I don't know," Ginger said. "Maybe."
"Maybe?"
"Well I've never gotten in trouble before. I've never done anything I knew I wasn't supposed to do. I know I'm going to get a lecture, though. But�I don't care. It was worth it." A silence passed between the two of them as Zac began to stroke her long red hair. His mind began to wander, as usual, and a thought struck him that he wasn't sure he wanted to ask.
"Ginger?"
"Yes honey?"
"Can I ask about your parents?"
"Sure, honey."
"What happened to them?" She adjusted her head on his chest and sighed, thinking about it.
"It happened quite a few years ago but I remember it so well it might as well have been a few minutes ago. I was in the car with them when it happened and they were taking me to school. Usually my mother took me but the other car was in the shop for something or another so my father was in the car as well. I was in the back seat and I usually don't wear my seatbelt, I don't know why I never did, but that day I did and it was good thinking because it saved my life. The other car�well I never saw the other car but it hit us and it was terrible. They weren't wearing their seat belts and they died before the ambulance got there."
"Oh."
"Why'd you ask?"
"I was just curious�"
"Okay." She looked up at him and he wasn't entirely finished but she knew he wouldn't say more. "What else is there? Don't be holding anything from me."
"I'm not."
"You are."
"Well I don't want to say it, then."
"Say it anyway."
"Don't you think with your parent's death like that, the way your brother treated you, and having to move from house to house with different families, wouldn't you have some kind of psychological damage?" Ginger's smile faded a moment. She paused and then shook her head.
"You would think, but I'm a trooper, Zac. I'm just fine."
"You think so?"
"I know so. But let's stop talking about it. It's a terrible issue."