Me, Jealous. No Way

"Oh, My God", Haley exclaimed as she took off her jacket, "Annie was amazing. So cute, and funny, and sweet".

"You've said", Alex neutrally said as she unpacked her bag.

"She made this for me last night", Haley announced, showing them a drawing, "Look at how she signs her name with that big loopy 'A'".

"That's nice", Alex replied, a thin smile on her face.

"I'm totally going to frame this!", Haley squealed, before suddenly pausing, "Oh yeah. She's coming over later so I can help her with her homework. We can frame it together then! Yay!".

[Commentary]

Alex

"I made this for Haley four years ago", Alex began as she showed them a detailed drawing with her signature at the bottom. She then brought up the drawing Annie had made and put them right next to each other, comparing their quality. Gesturing towards her drawing, she rhetorically asked, "You think this got framed?". Staring intently at the camera, she answered, "She tossed it in the garbage, after writing Mrs Haley Jonas Brothers on it, like, 30 times".

[Commentary ends]

After Haley left the room, Zephyr turned to look at Alex and asked, "Hey. Do you want to go to your room?".

"Sure", Alex replied, finally snapping out of her thoughts.

As soon as they entered Alex's room, Zephyr quickly turned to look at Alex and questioned, "What's wrong?".

"What makes you think something's wrong?", Alex queried, not looking directly at Zephyr's eyes.

"Well, you're not looking at me in the eyes", Zephyr commented, "And you looked like you were on the verge of tearing apart the drawing Annie made for Haley". Moving over next to Alex, who was sitting on her bed, he asked once again, "So tell me. What's wrong?".

Feeling his concern, Alex was moved and sighed, "Fine". After taking a deep breath, "When I was younger, I made a bunch of stuff for Haley. Drawings, paintings, whatever you can think of. But she never cared about it, not even once. And now she suddenly cares more about some shitty drawing of someone who's not even family over mine, her own sister".

Seeing her rant finally over, Zephyr wrapped one arm around her waist and pulled her right next to him. "It sounds like you're jealous", Zephyr observed.

"Me. Jealous. No Way!", Alex exclaimed, vehemently denying his claim, "How can you say that?"

"Well", Zephyr muttered, rubbing the back of his head, "I've noticed that you tend to get jealous rather easily".

"What?!", Alex yelled.

"It's not a bad thing", Zephyr said in an attempt to placate her, "But maybe tone it down at times".

"What do you mean?", Alex asked, not getting his claim.

"Like today", Zephyr remarked.

[Flashback]

"I can't believe that Mrs Jonathan gave us that much homework", Raul complained as he placed his books in his locker. Hearing no reaction, he turned to look at Zephyr, "Why are you so quiet?".

"She's been like that since the start", Zephyr argued.

"And besides, you should've expected to be given more work if you got moves up to the higher chemistry class", Emma added.

"That's exactly what I was going to say", Zephyr complained.

"You snooze, you lose", Emma countered, sticking her tongue out at him.

"I can't hear you because you're still in the kid's class with Michael", Zephyr countered, wearing a victorious grin on his face.

Emma gasped at his words, "How dare you? use my only weakness against me?".

"Come on Zephyr, no need to be so rude", Raul intervened, putting an arm on Zephyr's shoulders, "And besides, it's not her fault that she's so short".

"How dare you?!", Emma exclaimed in faux anger.

"Don't worry midget", Zephyr placated, "I'm sure you'll grow some day. No matter how many years away that is".

At his words, Raul snickered and Emma laughed. Before they could continue, Zephyr felt someone grab his hand and drag him away. Without even properly greeting them, Alex yelled, "Hey Raul. Bye Raul".

Hearing who it was, Zephyr allowed himself to be dragged away as he waved at Raul and Emma.

[Flashback ends]

"What was wrong with that?", Alex asked, not seeing where she went wrong.

"I was talking with Raul and Emma and you dragged me away, totally ignoring Emma", Zephyr reiterated.

"She kept looking at you", Alex defended.

"We're friends", Zephyr countered.

"But she was laughing while staring at you", Alex argued.

"She's dating Raul, who was right next to her", Zephyr explained.

Hearing his words, Alex sighed and rested her head on his shoulder, "Fine. You're right".

"I always am", Zephyr bragged, "But go on. You didn't say it".

"Isn't it enough that I admitted it?", Alex complained.

"Nope", Zephyr answered, making sure to pop the 'p'.

"I was jealous", Alex muttered, "There. I said it".

"Good", Zephyr murmured. Then turning to look at Alex, he whispered, "Since you've been such a good girl, you deserve a reward" as he brought his face closer to hers.

A smile appeared on Alex's face as she didn't hesitate to press her lips onto his.

[Time Skip]

"Hey", Alex greeted as she opened the fridge to take out some lemonade and quickly poured it into two glasses.

"Hi", Haley replied, turning to look at the girl sitting right next to her, "Annie, this is Alex, my other sister". Hearing this, Alex momentarily froze before quickly recovering. "And Alex, this is Annie, my little sister", Haley added, introducing Annie to Alex.

"Hello. It's So nice to meet you", Annie said.

"It's nice to meet you too", Alex replied with a strained smile, before turning to look at what Annie wrote in her book, "I'd advise you to go through questions 6 to 10 for mistakes, but I doubt Haley would've noticed them". Finished with what she had to say, Alex grabbed her two glasses and walked out of the kitchen.

Quickly arriving in her room, Alex handed Zephyr, who was reading a book while sitting at Alex's desk, a glass and placed her glass on the nightstand. Jumping back on her bed, she took up her book, and began to read, occasionally taking sips of her lemonade.

Unfortunately, they weren't able to read their book for long because a few minutes later, Haley strolled into the room, ensuring that her steps were as loud as possible. Turning to look at Alex, she asked, "Oh. I'm sorry. Were you trying to read?".

Alex rolled her eyes and replied, "You're the one who tries to read".

At her words, Haley erupted in anger and yelled, "Oh My Gosh! I am not that stupid! Stop judging me for everything that I do!".

In response, Alex started to shout back at her, and they would've continued to do so until they were interrupted by Zephyr. "Enough!", he screamed, his loud thundering voice halting the two sisters from continuing their verbal bout, "Stop shouting at each other!".

Hearing his commanding tone, the two sisters stopped themselves from arguing back, allowing Zephyr to continue. "I don't know what happened to cause your relationship to deteriorate to what it has to now, but I know that you need to mend things", Zephyr began. Turning to look at Haley, he continued, "You've been an inadequate older sister. Despite all the effort that Alex has put in, you consistently ignore her efforts. You've even begun favouring someone you've only known for less than a week over her". Then gazing at Alex, he finished, "You've been a bad younger sister as well. You're smarter than Haley, and that's an undeniable fact, but there's no need to constantly insult her for her poor academic grades. For all you know, her talents could lay elsewhere like fashion or something. It might not be something you're interested in, but you shouldn't try to push her down with your pointless barbs".

Finished with his rant, Zephyr let out a small sigh.

Hearing what he said, Alex and Haley looked down at the ground, somewhat embarrassed but mostly disappointed with themselves. Taking a deep breath, Alex finally spoke up, somewhat removing the awkward and tense atmosphere. "He's right", Alex muttered, talking to Haley.

"He is", Haley agreed, "We've been so focused on our differences, that we forgot that we're sisters".

"Good", Zephyr murmured, nodding his head, "Now that you've realised your mistakes, hug each other to fix things".

"Really?", Alex asked.

"Do we have to?", Haley inquired.

"Yep", Zephyr answered, resolute with his standing.

"Fine", Alex grumbled, awkwardly making her way over to Haley. After a few seconds of trying to hug each other, Alex and Haley finally wrapped their arms around each other.

"Is it just me or have you grown down there?", Haley whispered into Alex's ears.

"Haley!", Alex squealed in embarrassment. Just as she was about to separate and end the hug, Alex and Haley heard the shutter of a picture being taken. Quickly swerving her head towards Zephyr, Alex's eyes widened in horror. "Zephyr! Delete that photo!", Alex screamed.

"Delete that! Please!", Haley begged, "I have a reputation to uphold at school".

"Don't worry", Zephyr calmed them down, "I'll only send it to Claire, Phil, Jay, Gloria, Cam and Mitchell".

"Zephyr!", Alex screamed as she rapidly separated herself from Haley and ran towards him.

Quickly dodging Alex, Zephyr laughed as he ran around the room, with Alex shouting at she chased after him.

(AN: I was supposed to update yesterday for the chapter I missed on Thursday, but my little brother broke his arm playing outside with his friend so I had to take him to the hospital. And because of the holiday, I had to wait for a long time before the doctor saw him so by the time I got home, it was too late for me to finish the chapter.)