"HEBE TIEN, WHERE THE ----------- WERE YOU LAST NIGHT AND TODAY!?" Hebe cowered underneath the wrath of her mother, whose eyes were mere slits and whose cheeks were red with anger.

"I ALMOST DIDN'T GO TO WORK TODAY BECAUSE OF YOU!" At this, Hebe began battling her expressions, struggling to keep her exterior smooth and cold, so that her mom wouldn't see that she was hurt. When, exactly, was the last time her mom took time off work for anything or anyone? She bit her lip to keep herself from retorting something rude.

"Sorry. I didn't have my phone, and I ran into a friend, so I decided to sleep over." She lied effortlessly. "Their line was disconnected at the time. I'll tell you next time."

"Learning such bad habits--I should get you a babysitter!" Her mom pinched her cheek. Hebe snapped away, flinching at her mom's cold fingers. Her mom, obviously, didn't notice. She smacked her hands together, as if clapping away the dust. "Anyhow, young lady, you're going to clean out the basement as your punishment."

"Yes sir." Hebe kept her voice low in case her mom could actually hear her. She fled down the stairs to the musty basement.

It took Hebe half a week to clear out her basement, and when she finished, her mom promptly messed it up again, smiling and telling her that it was the new 'in' for interior design--casual and unkempt. Hebe grinded her teeth, but didn't comment. After all, if her mom went to work without a guilty conscience, it was less likely that she would come home.

--

"Hey." Over the course of the one week, she'd actually grown to be okay friends with Aaron. Their friendship, however, was on the fence and frail, and was mostly made up of smartass comments and sarcasm. She hadn't brought up the subject of him asking her about dating because she didn't know how to bring it up in a way that wouldn't send him running. It was weird though, that all his friendships were the same--he made you feel like one-of-a-kind, along with forty other one-of-a-kinds--but he didn't get close to you.

What was more amazing , however, was that she'd evened things out with Mei, just a little. At least to the point where Mei didn't call her 'betch' on MSN anymore, anyways. But hey, she had to take what she could get. Mei, however, was still overprotective of Aaron, and Hebe could barely bring him up without a snarl come up from Mei's throat, which was pretty intimidating.

"Heeey," Aaron grinned. Jiro smiled as well, waving his long fingers. Mei looked at her pointedly, the corners of attempting to twitch upwards--failing miserably, of course. Which, in the end, made her look as if she was battling a seizure.

"Are we almost done putting the book together?" Aaron asked, checking his nail (Hebe found out that he had some weird habit of doing this.) He hadn't really been doing anything for the book, and it was mostly Jiro who had been doing the work.

"Yeah, I'm just putting the finishing touches on it," Jiro replied. His eyes narrowed with his next statement: "You know, it'd be nice if you tried helping me."

"Yah, yah," Aaron smiled innocently. Being cousins was Aaron's ticket out of doing much work. He knew that Jiro had an immense infatuation with Selina, whom turned out not to be Aaron's blood sister anyways. To Hebe, he smirked; which she had to admit, looked kind of really, really h--hot (Yuck, thought Hebe). She'd never admit this out loud, of course. NEVER.

"Uhh. So, what about Saturday?" Jiro interrupted. "Let's go to Aaron's house, actually. The book is due Monday, so we can finish it and then do whatever we want." Mei agreed, and Hebe shrugged. It sounded good. Aaron's reaction was a little...different.

"No," he answered flatly. "Why don't we go to YOUR house, Jiro?"

"Because," Jiro said primly, and then he leaned in to hiss at Aaron and for Aaron's ears only, "Because there's no Selina at MY house." Aaron snickered and threw back his head, now full-out guffawing.

"Fine, fine, you win. My house it is," he held his hands up in surrender. Hebe laughed, too, though she wasn't sure why Aaron was laughing. For sure, though, they were going to Aaron's house on Saturday.

--

Hilarious. Absolutely. Not that I'm talking to myself--that Jiro is so straightforward about liking Selina. It helps, I guess, that they're not actually related. Otherwise, -alert~!

How to escape Hebe, though, is another story altogether. By the way she looks at me, with one raised eyebrow while biting her lip, I know she's still wondering about that. Like hell I'm going to answer. She'll just have to deal.

--

They had to ring the doorbell four times until Aaron finally answered. He didn't look apologetic as he let them in. Mei was instantly all over the place, and Hebe could catch some phrases along the lines of, "Aaron's couch....Aaron's picture...Aaron's pen!...Aaron's sweater....eeek!"

This was going to be one very, very long and tiresome visit.

--

[[initially written& added on april 20.