Chapter 8

4 years ago...

"JORRRIIIIII!" Derik runs full speed towards the unsuspecting pink-haired girl and launches himself at her. Jori turns and dodges to the side in slow motion, leaving Derik to fall and scrape his hands.

"*sniffle* Jori, why are you so mean?" Derik whines, patting his bloody palms against his pants.

"What do you mean, why am I so mean? Look at you, launching yourself at poor girls. Luce would never do that."

Derik immediately brightens up at the mention of Andri, and gestures for the bellboy behind him to hurry up.

"Are we going now? I've been ready since forever! Are we also going to stop by Adelle?" Derik grins excitedly.

"Yes, I usually drop by Avi whenever I can. Now we just have to wait for my ride," Jori smirks at how thrilled Derik is, but she herself was a bit jittery. The truth was, she only hinted to Luce that she was bringing a guest; she did not specify that it was Derik. 'I feel like I made a big mistake. Should I have told him it was Derik?'

Jori bites her lip but quickly changes to fiddling with her sleeve before Derik noticed how freaked out she is. The two stand there in front of Taryn's mansion for a few more minutes in silence until Derik speaks up.

"Um, isn't your ride supposed to be here by now? We might miss our flight," Derik glances around, but no car was in sight.

Jori frowns and tries to recall what her ride was or when they were scheduled to appear. It was then when it hits her.

"Oh no! I was supposed to take the car to the airport, but Jenni wanted to go have breakfast with my mom. We can take uh..." Jori furrows her brows, but could not think of a form of transportation.

The thing was, here at her stepfather's house, when you used the limo was tightly scheduled. Because they only used one car and had different routes throughout the day, everything had to be planned. Of course, this did not apply to Jenni, the princess of the family.

"Dammit, Derik, do you have a car you can call? The ride's not coming."

"Well, I do have several," Derik fumbles around his pockets for his phone. Jori pretends not to hear he had several cars at his beck and call. 'Well, who am I to complain? We need a ride ASAP.'

It wasn't long before a sleek sedan pulled up, and the two were on their way to the airport.

^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*

Nora opens the door leading into the piano room and smiles at the sight of Avi tinkering away. She stands by the window and listens to the end of the song, ready to be bombarded by the questions Avi brought on every time.

"Is Jori here yet? Will she be able to make it this time? I have a gift for Andri, please say she's on the way, Nora!"

"No, Avi, she's not here yet. Jori said that she's on the flight and that she'll be here in an hour and a half. Do you want to talk with your mom? She has dinner planned since you only had a few bites for lunch," Nora frowned when Avi drooped, "And you can't skip out on this one. Mrs. Berkeley told me she spent a lot of time preparing for this dinner."

Avi looks away, mumbling, "You know that she's probably just going to cancel this one."

Nora walks up to her side and rubs her shoulder comfortingly.

"She's still your mom. Remember when she held the princess-themed party on Christmas for you?"

"That was before we left Dad. Look what she did last year!" Avi blinked away her tears, "She went on a business trip for the entire week."

After promising that Dianne wouldn't be canceling this dinner, Nora checked the time and realized that Jori would be here in an hour. The two rushed to prepare the breakfast room, and in the rush, Avi forgot that she might have had a tutoring session on math.

****

"Jori!" Avi squealed, and enthusiastically hugged her stepsister, "why is someone here with y-"

"Derik!" Avi cried, "It's been so long I can barely recognize you!" She wasn't sure if it would be appropriate to hug him, so they ended up shaking hands.

"Wow, Adelle, look at you!" Derik grinned with excitement, "You look so much like your mom!"

Avi's eyes widened in surprise, but Jori said, "Avi, I would love to stay longer but the flight was moved up again. We can only stay for so long."

"Oh," Avi was disappointed but quickly ushered them inside the house, ensuring them that her mom was not home.

After stuffing the two with cakes and cookies, Avi entrusted Jori with her gift to Andri. Then, she bid them farewell and went to Facetime with her brother. 'What a great day! And next year Andri will be home... wait till I tell him I saw Derik!' Then she paused, 'Oh right, Jori wants me to keep it a surprise!'

Avi hopped the rest of the way to her room, smiling the brightest in months.