{ Chapter Seventeen: The Blood We Share is Not As Thick As Water }

WTH THE FLARE OF DRAMATICS THAT CIRCLED JANICE for a solid week after her confrontations with her aunt and father, Janice believes she is entitled to a little personal space.

In sweatpants, hair ties, rubber shoes and a beautiful, roughing game of street basketball.

Sitting on the edge of the street, panting heavily while draining a bottle of water, Janice welcomes the thin lining of sweat dribbling down her head like the orange ball is on the pavement in front of her.

She watches the teams pummel into each other; guarding, shooting, cursing and shouting encompassing the area. Stretching the burning muscles in her limbs, she contemplates about the first time she'd mustered up the courage to play with these guys.

The teasing for her began before she could remember. She was short—one of the shortest —and considered too puny to be on court with the rest of the bigger boys, like a wimpy little girl who got sick of dressing her dolls. 

One of the older boys in the neighbourhood, around 16 at the time named Julio (he visited now, having moved out), had turned down her offer of playing on with them and giggled with cockiness.

When Karlo was about to step up to defend his wicked talented sister—even though he was good two years younger than Julio and almost soiled his pants in doing so—Janice surprised them all when she challenged the boy to a shoot-off.

Julio had then laughed it off and accepted.

The bets were simple; if he won, she couldn't play. If she won, she was queen of the court.

Little did Julio know was that Janice had been going to a basketball camp for four years (she still continues the program every summer), and what she did lack in height, she brought back up in accuracy. So when you're beaten by a sixth grader who wears band shirts and ripped jeans, there's never really room for underestimation ever again.

That's why Janice loves breaking rules and classifications; because everything is considered impossible until you prove others wrong (and if anything, Janice likes to believe she can be right 120% of the time).

"Janice... you're... on..." wheezes one of her teammates, Cole, who promptly collapsed to her left. "God... they're... crushing... us."

Janice pats the poor boy's head. "I've got you. Try and remember how to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, and I'll try and save our team's dignity, yeah?"

"I'll be the best... plant there is! Good... luck," he wishes her, before closing his eyes to regain his breath. "Try no... broken noses... yeah?"

"No promises," smirks Janice, who was already tying her loose shoelaces, getting up and shouting, "Yo! In replacement for Cole. Prepare to lose."

"Losers bring fried chicken?" bets one of her teammates.

"We're up by seven, why not?" agrees the other team's leader, Harry, narcism coating his words. "To 25 points!"

Ten minutes later, Janice pries the meat off of another crusty piece of meat. She moans as the taste assaults her tongue. "Victory seriously is delicious."

"Yeah, yeah, eat up our twenty bucks," grumbles Harry good-naturedly.

"With pleasure," coaxes Janice, ignoring the weariness in her movements from a tiring game.

"I keep forgetting how good you are," says her teammate, Evans. "Not seeing you for a while makes that easy to forget."

There are seven of them out today, her brothers and the rest of the boys either grounding in job hours, fishing through Tuesday plans, or too lazy to do anything more than sleep-in.

Janice has been so busy with her own life she hardly made an appearance the past couple weeks. It used to be such a credential in her life pattern to throw a couple hoops, and it felt good to be in the loop again.

"Yeah, suddenly you get a job and schoolwork and become all responsible. What the hell? You're not allowed to just do that on us," says Gerome, one of the outgoing kids of group, which rustles and proclaims 'yeah's from the group in unison.

"Not my fault you're all too lazy to get up and do something that doesn't benefit you in anyway," says Janice.

Gerome pretends to choke. "Helping other's? Who do you think I am? Batman? I can't even get water on my own! Are you intentionally trying to make me gag?"

"Dunno. You do it unintentionally every time you bring your face out here," Janice snips.

"Okay, okay, break it up. I'm fresh out of first aid kits over here," says Harry, amused.

Gerome turns to raise an eyebrow at his team leader. "Harry, you made me open your band-aid packets all the time because you were scared of ripping it in half."

"Never mind, Janice," Harry says, giving a pointed look to Janice. "Beat him up silly."

Janice rolls her eyes. "Sorry, I'm not into animal abuse."

Everyone laughs silently as they saw Gerome protest a huge, 'hey!', resulting in another comical bickering session between the two of them.

They aren't a very wordy bunch, these guys, but they're definitely pleased to have Janice back, whether she knew it or not. She doesn't become essential to the game, and it doesn't hurt that having her on your team meant you pretty much meant you won already.

(That, she's hot, but they'd rather not risk never having kids again if they outright said that to her face).

Whether Janice is aware of it or not, she is accepted; just by a different family than she knows of.

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TRY TO THINK OF A FEW ORTHODOX CLICHÉ'S that make you want rip your hair out and leave deep indents in the wall in front of you.

It could be that women will never be equal to men (feminism strike now), that nerds are hopeless (offensive much), kids are too stupid to understand things (don't even think of it), or that you most likely may never accomplish your dreams (Martin Luther King Jr cries rain).

Now, to this ever growing list, let's add the classical: "You totally saw your brother's break-up happening but don't know what to say about it without most likely getting a black eye in the process, so he turns you into a silent shrink."

This isn't a cliché? It sure as hell is going to be.

"I don't understand," groans Aáron, something he's been doing for the past freaking hour. "Where did it go wrong?"

Janice is certain her ears were raw from the amount of ranting and moaning her brother's doing. She hadn't planned on getting holed up with him in a room and talking about his relationship problems (he's got 99 problems, but his girlfriend won't be one anymore) and she finds this hilarious since she hadn't dated anyone seriously in her life to know how to deal with him.

Flings or flirting, that she can do. Commitments? Seeing her brother crumble in front of her, she understood why one hasn't happened yet.

Just suck it up already, bro, her insensitive/rational side whispered harshly in her head, and while feeling a little guilty about it, she agrees with it.

She feels helpless in this situation, and this just fuels her guilt. Her brothers were both out with their dad, and Aàron and her are home alone.

Frankly, she'd rather be under the circumstances of watching a four hour documentary of grass growing at the moment than having a heart-to-heart about 'why getting dumped sucks'.

Add lack of helpful advice on touchy subjects to Janice's list for virtues of femininity (in other words, no more than two).

"I, er, am sure it happened because it did," Janice says meekly, a little desperate at grappling any consolidation she could.

"But why does fate hate me?" whines Aàron, brushing a hand through his dark hair, making it stick up in odd angles. He digs himself deeper into the sofa, moaning every three minutes. "What wrongs have I done to deserve this?"

If this guy kept going on, he would become the modern version of Shakespeare. Five hundred century sonnets of betrayal and destiny and heartbreak was not a fun way to spend an afternoon. Someone get Janice a plastic bag before she spills her disgust on the floor.

"Aàron," Janice says boldly, "you're an alright guy when you're not making me uncomfortable or emotionally unstable. But you really need to lay off her. Raven..." Deserves to rot in the pits of hell for letting me keep up with your BSing... "might not have been the one for you, you know?"

"B-but... I was so sure... I-I--"

"If I buy you the extremely expensive video game that you've been wanting for a year, will you shut up?"

"Well," Aàron sniffles, "that might help."

She sighs. She knows her brother well enough to know that while he was hurt by this recent turn of developments, including that he genuinely liked his ex, he's not as deep as love as he probably thought. Quite truthfully, she thinks it hurt Aàron's ego more than anything, since his one component of regret seemed to be empty.

It seems so obvious to her; the subtle shifting of an accidental touch, a grim smile at something they disliked in each other, or the lack of infatuation that seemed to glow in two lover's eyes.

It could be from always pushing her own—controlling the bullets coming out of her mouth with crimsons crescents on her palms, liquid confidence in place of the hardening insecurity, the water ravine in the ducts of her eyes hidden behind the crack of a joke—emotions away, but she is an empath, and even if she does not know it, it was a brilliant power indeed.

"If I tell you I'll still crush her if I see her again, will you please stop coddling with that pillow? It'll be like a turkey on Thanksgiving if you squeeze the stuffing out of it like that."

"It's helping me with my emotional distress, you judgemental prick," Aàron squishes the object to his chest further, but he left a ghost of a smile tugging at his lips. "Though if you go all terminator on her, I won't be complaining. Pulling out a couple hairs while you're at it." At Janice's raised eyebrows, her brother grin broke free. "Actually, I won't mind if she goes bald."

"There's the aggressive, rough but humiliatingly impolite Aàron that we all missed-ish!" Janice cheers, pumping a fist in the air. "Now what do you want to do?"

"Other than sew and knit and make you do my homework?" he jibes, his mind erased of his earlier dilemma. "Why a sharp, fitting game of monopoly, of course."

"Video games it is the—wait, what?"

Aàron chuckles at the disbelief coating his sister's face like a second mask. "What? I want to have a very good sister to brother bond."

"You just want to see me bankrupt, don't you?"

Aàron doesn't even bother denying it. "Hell, yeah."

Janice shakes her head, even though her bemusement is nothing short of playful. "Go get the board in the cupboard." Once he scurries off to look for the old game, Janice trails behind him to the unoccupied living room from the twins' room they were in earlier.

Plopping down on the couch she can fondly remembering jumping over a couple weeks ago to tackle her brother, she lies down. "I still can't believe we're doing this..."

"You better believe it!" calls Aàron, somewhere from the labyrinth of their house, disappearing tp find the monopoly board.

Janice chuckles, swinging out her phone from her back pocket, scrolling through messages and notifications she'd neglected the entire day. Before she knows what she's doing, she's texting one specific person.

Janice The Diablo: heads up, going to be engaged in intense monopoly showdown of bankruptcy. may be unreachable for plus three hours.

She smiles as she hears a ping, an instant message buzzing back.

James Ruth(less): as long as no one takes too seriously to the soon to be threats, good luck xD reminder that you have the appreciation day thing tomorrow at five o' clock. don't be late dia ;)

Smiling, Janice puts away her Nokia, the day of anticipation already buzzing through her like bees. She's so excited that it takes her a moment to register Aàron calling her from the other room. "Coming," she shouts, already rushing to the room, the smile fixated from there forth.

It's funny, isn't it? Janice is so observant of the emotions of everyone else, that she can be so oblivious when it involves her own.

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A/N: STRAIGHTER THAN PARALLEL PARKING WON THE WATTYS AWARD FOR HIDDEN GEMS AND I HAVE NOTHING ELSE TO SAY EXCEPT THANK YOU SO MUCH AND I AM IN LOVE WITH EVERY ONE OF YOUR COMMENTS AND FEEDBACK AND MAY YOU ALL BE BLESSED WITH REALLY GOOD HUGS FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE WEEK. I had to update in celebration!