2A/N: Hello, ladies and gentlemen! I'm Merest (you can call me Red) and this is my first, real Fiction Press story. I know I'm going to enjoy writing this one! I hope you all enjoy reading it.
Summary: Just when I thought things were going to change, I end up falling in love with two guys, finding out a dark secret about my step-mother whom left four years ago and having to deal with my step-sister and her "friends". Let's also throw in the fact my father's getting distant. Everything's just one huge mess and I (as always) am the one stupid enough to stick around to clean it up.
Dominance Over What?
I.
Life's a summary to long for anyone to speak or write. Life isn't just your life, it's what you see, hear, touch and experience everyday. It doesn't matter if it's living or not, it came from something that had meaning and life is meaningful. I bet you're wondering why I'm saying this? Well, today's the day my step-mother left us four years ago. Today's the day my step-sister and I get in the most fights. Today's the day my father stays home from work to sulk. Well, at least that's what I thought.
I fell off my resting place when I heard the screen door in the front slam. Footsteps pounded their way down the hall and into the living room. I looked up to see my Dad setting down a box full of some junk I knew I'd have to unpack later. He stood up straight and wiped some sweat from his forehead,
"That's the last of them. Maybe moving during the summer was a bad idea."
My sister came walking in behind him, I glanced at her and frowned. She caught my eye.
"And now I suppose you want ME to unpack them all?" I asked pulling myself up off the floor the best I could; my arms were burning from constantly lifting so many boxes! I guess that's what I get for getting myself out of shape.
An amused glint appeared in his eyes, "Don't tell me you're getting out of shape Aimee?"
"It's been a long summer, don't start with me!" I glared at him.
He laughed, "Okay, okay. You and Sissell will start in the kitchen and I'll get everything out in here. Afterwards, you both should get ready for bed."
"It's only five o'clock." Sissell scoffed.
Why was she complaining about being able to go to bed? The heat must really be making her crazy.
"You're going to school tomorrow."
I was confused, "School? But it doesn't start for another three weeks."
"Actually, here, school started last week or so." He replied, opening the box and beginning to unpack the things that needed to be placed in the living room.
"A week!?" Sissell exclaimed, I felt like I couldn't breathe. "Why couldn't we of stayed in Pennsylvania!? This was a stupid idea!"
He huffed, "My business moved here, which I know I told you I was doubtful of but, it happened. So we had to come to Seattle."
I sighed, "Fine by me."
"Well not by me! Moving here is only benefiting you two." She fumed.
Dad's face went from composed calmness to stern,
"My business moved here, Sissell. You're just going to have to deal with it. This has nothing to do with anything else."
Sissell shook her head and stalked off to the kitchen. I was really annoyed by then, I don't see why she gets to just walk off after treating him disrespectfully yet when it comes to me talking back, it's a whole different story. Maybe it was because I'm his actual daughter. It's the only reason she could come up with.
Dad looked at me, "She may be right. Moving here was sudden but it's been four years since then. I can't stand being in that city or that house anymore."
I frowned, "You shouldn't have to stay there, Dad. You're the adult here, and if we had to move. We moved."
"Yes, but I want things to work out for all of us, Ai. You, Sissell and me."
To be honest, I didn't care about Sissell. She's a whiny, spoiled brat that I wish could've been sent to her relatives in Sweden but my Dad knew how they were. Heck, I knew how they were and I was just a little kid then. When Sarah and my dad had first gotten married, I was so excited about meeting her family. I loved Sarah so much and I thought her parents, siblings, cousins, etc would be just as fabulous as she was. Wrong.
They were stuck up, judgmental and verbally abusive. Probably even physically abusive. It's wrong to wish harm upon others but since Sarah disappeared, Sissell hasn't been far from being exactly like them so why keep her here? My father must've saw the expression on my face because he continued before I could comment,
"That's enough of that, Aimee. We're starting over."
"I got that." I replied stiffly.
He looked at me closely before shaking his head, and beginning to put things away. He was probably expecting me to be the least bit more mature than her, but she's the daughter of that woman. The woman that broke my father's heart in two.
I don't know what happened that day exactly but what I do know is that Sarah cheated on my father and he chased her out, making sure Sissell stayed.
But he loved Sarah so much; he was so loyal and faithful to her. My dad made her bad days turn into a completely hilarious one for her. And she cheats on him! My dad had been broken up enough back when I was only five and my mother had died in that air-plane accident. Then she comes along and finds her way into his heart. Heals it then rips it into tiny…little-
"Aimee."
I snapped my head up, losing my train of thought,
"Huh?"
"Go help Sis." He still calls her by that, I have to face it. I'm a shallow, hateful person and my father is just to sweet for that.
I nodded, he looked annoyed and I didn't want to aggravate him anymore than I already had. I walked into the kitchen and saw Sissell washing out the new dishes my dad had brought before we came here. I walked over, taking in a calming breath,
"Need some help?"
"I wasn't expecting you not too." She retorted.
I held in the combat I wanted to shoot out and walked over. I took the glass cups that she'd already washed, dried them and put them in a cabinet. We organized everything in silence; it was nice. I couldn't help but remember back when this was fun to do with her.
I shook my head, shifting my thoughts to school tomorrow.
"What are you going to wear tomorrow?" Sissell asked, it was as if she'd read my mind.
I shrugged, "Something casual."
"As always, huh?" She shook her head. "You're going to end up being a loner forever, however, I shouldn't be surprised or worried. It isn't like clothing would help anyhow."
I glanced at her, she was right. Sissell was beautiful and back in our old school, the guys fell head over heels for her. Sissell had long, soft and flowing long bleached (natural at that) blonde hair. Her bangs fell over her very pale blue eyes. She had fair-tanned skin, no blemishes or disgusting scars. And to put the cherry on top of the ice cream, she had a perfect figure. She was fit and exercised every single day. Then there's me.
I looked down into the soapy water and observed myself. I had all my mother's features, except the eyes. I got those from my dad. I had wavy jet-black hair, pale skin and hazel eyes that had a good bit of green streaked in them. As for my figure, I was slim, no where near fat but slim. To slim, my dad tells me but it's my body.
I was pretty, not goddess-beautiful like Sissell but pretty. I had to tell myself that because the only boy (or should I say man) that compliments me is my father. A close friend of mine that loves to randomly drop by from Australia compliments me as well, but he's family to me. I think they know I hate the fact Sissell gets all the attention.
"Aimee!" Sissell yelled in my ear.
My hand flew to my ringing ear, I turned and glared at her,
"What's your problem!?"
"I called your name like fifty times and you still didn't say anything!" She yelled, taking the glass plate out, which I noticed was the last, and put it in the cabinet.
"What do you want?" I hissed quietly, not wanting Dad to hear us arguing again.
She crossed her arms under her C-cup boobs and huffed,
"You're not exactly helping, you know? If you're going to just stand there gawking, get out instead of standing in my way."
"I just zoned out, jeez." I shoved past her and opened a random box, taking out a hand full of silverware.
I opened drawer and stuck them in there. After what I knew were hours, we were done with putting everything away and cleaning the kitchen. We both headed for the staircase, my dad made it clear to not go upstairs until we finished the downstairs area. Sissell tried to shove me off her as we fought our way up the stairs. I was almost the first up the stairs until she tripped me. That's just like her.
She ran up the rest of the steps and swung the first door open,
"It's huge!"
I rolled my eyes, picked myself up then walk up the stairs, past her room and into the only room left. There was a bathroom right across from Sissell's room. I could've sworn I read that this place was a three bathroom. I opened the door and walked in. The room was bigger than I'd expected. It was painted a beige color with indigo abstract designs in the mid-section of the walls.
My bed sat across the room, next to the window which had a window seat. On the other side of the room, the floor went downwards into two wooden steps and there was a door. I went down them and opened it. I grinned. I had the third bathroom.
"No way!" I heard Sissell's voice at my door.
I smiled, "Slow and steady wins the race."
"This is so not fair! I deserve this room way more than you."
I looked at her, raising an eyebrow, "Why is that?"
"I have the social life! I'm going to have sleepovers almost every weekend. Who's going to want to go across the hall to the bathroom?"
I shrugged, "Obviously, you and your friends."
"You would say that." She sighed miserably. "Fine, it doesn't matter. At least we don't have to share one."
I nodded, that'd be horrific. My dad made a very smart choice.
"These are some nice rooms up here." My dad walked into the room. "Very nice. Satisfied?"
I nodded but Sissell had to give it her best shot,
"Wouldn't you think it'd be better to let me have this room? I mean, who's the one that always has the friends coming over?"
My dad nodded his head in a pensive way, "Yeah, you're right but who also always has the drama? Having a bathroom across the hall could mean a person actually leaving the room to go to the bathroom instead of going into the one actually in the room. That way the person can step out instead of demanding me to drive them home. Don't you agree?"
"Yo-you're right!" She smiled. "I didn't think of it that way."
I rolled my eyes, "Can you two have your bonding moment somewhere else. I'm going to clean and organize my room a bit, take a shower then go to sleep."
"Aw. No midnight jogging today to make yourself thinner?" Asked Sissell.
"Sissell." He warned.
She snorted, leaving and going into her own room. Dad was looking at me with those eyes that were identical to mine, yet I could never pull off the facial expressions he made; here comes the speech,
"Ai, you know I think of you and Sissell equally. I love you both just the same. No matter what mother you came from."
"She's not your daughter. She's some other man's daughter." I muttered.
He didn't look worried anymore, "Aimee, this is where we start over. I want us to be a family."
"We'll never be a family." I said furiously.
He closed his eyes, running his fingers irritably through his sandy brown hair, "You just turned sixteen, it's time to grow up and step out of the past. I'm not going to have this argument with neither you or Sissell again."
He left, closing the door behind him. I wanted to scream; I'm so tired of him acting like everything can easily mix together as if nothing never happened!
It's been four and a half years, Ai. Let it go…just let it go….
My conscience taunted me and it made me even more angry. I can't just let it go! I stood there with my hands clenched. I sighed, this wasn't going to get me anywhere. And if I kept thinking about it, I wasn't going to get anything done. I decided not to move any furniture around, and instead unpacked all of my clothing, cleaned the bathroom, took a long shower and got dressed in my pajamas. I set the alarm on my clock before getting comfortable in my bed. I was asleep before I knew it.
I woke to my alarm clock ringing loudly like a beast. I had to force my eyes open, it was seven thirty in the morning. I shut up my clock then rolled out of bed, walking into my bathroom. After a nice shower, I got dressed and prepared my stuff for school. I dreaded this day. I felt like crap, even looked like crap.
I dragged myself downstairs and plopped down at the counter, my head slamming onto the counter from exhaustion. Thanks to the repetition of a memory slash dream I hoped to forget forever, I continued to wake up last night.
"What's with you?" I groaned, today was going to be disastrous.
I looked up at Sissell, who sat beside me with a bowl of cereal,
"Tired."
"It was only midnight when we got to go to bed, you can't be that tired."
I looked at her without blinking and she scrunched her nose,
"Never mind."
"Good morning, girls." Dad walked into kitchen. "Did you two have a good night's rest?"
Sissell shrugged, "I slept pretty good, can't say the same for Ai."
"You need to start eating more, Ai. You need energy." He said.
I sighed, "I'm not hungry."
"You're never hungry. You exercise more than you eat. If you don't start eating, I'm taking you to a doctor." He said.
"Fine." It's worth a shot, I grabbed a bowl and poured me some cereal.
After we all ate breakfast, we went our separate ways. Dad gave us the directions to the school then took the thirty minute drive to work while Sissell drove me to school. She was a year older than me and had her restricted license. Just another thing that proves how much better she is than me. Despite everything, I hated being drove everywhere in her ugly, new Volkswagen Convertible.
Eventually, we got to the school. It was fairly big and people were entering the building in groups. I took in a deep breath. Okay Aimee, you can do this! I mean, it's just school. Can't be any different from any other school. I'll end up the loner, Sissell the social butterfly.
We walked into the building and into the room that had Main Office on a sign pointing to it. I entered the office and was immediately greeted,
"Hello, hello! How's your morning so far?"
"It's great madam! Thank you for asking." There she goes.
"Your names?" She asked, pulling something up on the computer.
"I'm Sissell-Maria Sharman."
"Aimee Sharman." I mumbled, already knowing what was coming next.
She typed quickly on her computer then frowned. The overweight secretary look at me over her thin glasses,
"Aimee? How is that spelled? A-M-Y correct?"
How is it that my name is always spelt wrong, yet everyone gets Sissell's?
"No, it isn't spelt or pronounced Amy." I forced a forgiving smile, this get's annoying after a while.
The woman pursed her lips, "It's pronounced I-me? Like eye then me?"
"Yes ma'am and it's spelt A-I-M-E-E." I leaned against the desk, yep…this school was definitely no different from any others.
The woman nodded, typing then clicking around on the computer. A faint chime went off throughout the building; it was the bell. I was going to be late for class on my first day here. The printer started groaning, slowly ejecting papers. The woman stood, grabbing them,
"These are your schedules and a map to find your way through the building. You're both lucky your father called ahead of time or it would've taken much longer."
Sissell gave her I'm such an angel smile,
"Thank you very much."
"You're welcome! That'll be it, you can head to class. Oh! And welcome to Ballard High School."
We nodded our thanks before leaving the office. Sissell's smile fell and she took my schedule, lining it up against hers,
"Wow, will yah look at that? We have two classes together. Fourth and sixth."
"Which are?"
"P.E., and Lunch." She answered, looking displeased.
And they say the "Dumb Blonde" jokes were just jokes, "I don't think you're suppose to consider Lunch a-"
"Whatever." She cut me off, shoving my schedule back into my hands. "See you in P.E. then."
Sissell looked down at her map then turned and walked briskly down the hall. I looked down at my schedule, and the one subject I absolutely hated was first. Calculus. I huffed, looking at my map. Room 404 was across the building I was in! I groaned, running down the building, following the map. After several minutes of getting confused and retracing steps, I found the room.
I could hear a male voice-most likely the teacher-yelling at someone. There was silence then the door opening. I stammered like an idiot,
"Um, I'm a new student."
He frowned, "Let me see your schedule."
I handed him the paper, he snatched it and scanned it quickly before huffing, muttering under his breath,
"They give me the new student."
Gee, thanks for the nice greeting. I really wanted to go home. Having all the students stare at me like I'm some alien wasn't helping either. The teacher handed me my schedule and huffed again,
"Class, this is Aimee-
And he pronounces it wrong…
"-Sharman. She'll be joining our class, make her feel comfortable. Aimee, I am Mister Yun, your teacher and I hope you're one less dunce in this class."
The class snickered, obviously I'd missed something. I must've looked irritated because he started at me with glaring eyes,
"Is there something you want to say?"
"You pronounced my name wrong." I replied.
He frowned, getting that same confused look as the woman in the office,
"I couldn't have. I've never pronounced a single name wrong."
"I have an I in my name, which makes it pronounced Aimee, not Amy."
"Hm, fine. Find yourself a seat." He said harshly.
I sighed, that's one teacher down that hates me. I walked to the back of the class and sat down in an empty desk. Everyone was still looking at me, I really hope I didn't have something on my face. Mr. Yun spoke, getting everyone's attention away from me,
"Get out your text books, we'll be starting our next lesson."
I did as he instructed, opening it to the page written on the board. I looked around the room; good, everyone had lost interest in me. That was until I turned to my right, looking into two beautiful, dark blue eyes. When he noticed I'd caught him staring, he frowned and looked away.
What was that all about? I continued to look at him, he had long crimson red hair that was pulled back into an Indian braid and creamy white skin. He crossed his arms over his muscular chest, his hand clenched in a tight fist. I sighed, leaning my head down on my desk. First day here and I already pissed someone off. And he's really attractive at that. It was the first time I have ever seen a guy with long hair. But anyway, what did I do? Take the seat of his girlfriend or something? I rolled my eyes, believing that logic. Only pathetic people would get so angry at that and usually every person I meet was just that.
I jumped upright when I heard Mr. Yun roar,
"Miss. Sharman, this is your first day here and already you're thinking of taking a nap in my class!?"
Of course, I couldn't stop myself from opening my big mouth,
"It's not my fault Calculus is so boring."
Oops. The entire class, except the pathetic guy I was sitting next too, erupted into laughter. Mr. Yun's face started turning red; I can't help being sarcastic, just a trait I picked up. Mr. Yun looked like he was about to start foaming at the mouth,
"I'll be sure to call your father today; I don't believe you could be the daughter of Caleb Sharman with such disrespect toward your elders."
The entire class quieted down. Never would you think a businessman slash lawyer could be so famous. I mean businessman, I understand but he was more of a lawyer than a businessman. Sort of. The students began to whisper and they spoke loud enough just so I could hear.
"I knew that last name of hers seemed familiar."
"Caleb Sharman's daughter, huh? She doesn't look like him."
"Yes she does. Look at her eyes."
"Yeah, I heard a rumor that when he's doing a case, he'd make people break down just by staring them in the eyes."
"That's awesome!"
A girl beside me said loud and clear, "You think you're so perfect."
"She doesn't have to be so mean…."
I sighed, closing my eyes, "Please, forgive me Mr. Yun. It's been a long week for me."
Realization seemed to cross his face and the anger was gone. Did I mention that after Sarah left, somehow everyone in my former town had found out my dad was single. I never really found out why it was such a huge epidemic. He nodded,
"Fine but pay attention in class or I'll fail you."
He resumed his lesson and I continued to get looks which all intensified. Most of them glares from the girls and others interest in probably giving me a number to give to my father. Yep, this place was definitely going to be just like every other school I've attended. Just my luck.
A/U: I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! Please note that I do not attend the school Ballard High, so I would not know where the office would be and how everything is structured. Everything is, basically, made up except the name.