18

7.

"Sammie!" Niall opened up his arms to the little brunette five year old waiting next to me. Once Niall answered the door for Liam his bright blue eyes lit up while picking up little Sammie and throwing her up into the air like he always did. "Where have you been?" Niall asked Sammie while positioning her on his hip.

"Mostly school. I learned a new song on the piano!" Sammie began talking to Niall while Blair and I waltzed inside to see Liam's parents in the open concept living room.

"Blair! Kendall! I didn't know you girls were coming over." His mother waved from the couch greeting us upon arrival.

"It sounds like Liam to forget to tell people things!" Blair rolled her eyes playfully laughing with Karen and Geoff.

"Well you guys have fun, try to keep things a bit quiet Ruth is trying to sleep. She's feeling a bit under the weather." Karen informed as we all nodded and ran up the stairs to Liam's room.

"You guys made it!" Liam started in when he saw me walk in after Niall with Blair right behind me. Sammie still sat chatting Niall's ear off while they sat down with Sammie on his lap. Niall took a seat on one of Liam's bean sacks while Blair sat on the computer chair and I on the floor with my legs crossed.

"You seem suprised." I noted waiting for Liam to elaborate on the fact that he seemed genuinely surprised I made it here.

"I thought for sure you would be grounded from last night and after seeing the post on Gigi I thought your mum would set you on fire." Liam laughed thinking my mother's raging emotion was funny. Everyone thought it was funny when my mother went completely mental but dealing with it was a whole other matter. It wasn't as funny when you were on the other side of things and have to deal with her raging temper.

"Actually I told her what Kayla did and she went ape s**t on her, both my parents did after seeing the video all over Gigi." I explained thinking back to before I left the war that was about to rage on. I left Kayla in the battleground hoping that now she knew what it was like to be constantly attacked.

"Kayla released the video?!" Liam asked almost shocked which I found funny since that was exactly something Kayla would do. In simple terms Kayla was a basic social climbing b***h. She thrived like I said on making me look bad and tear me down any chance she got. Kayla tried to tear me down behind the scenes for her own benefit, she wanted to look put together in front of everyone while I looked like the hot mess people knew as Kendall Ramsey. Despite her efforts however, she never lived up to what I was. No one cared much about Kayla Ramsey as much as they cared for Kendall Ramsey. I had made a name for myself without even trying and Kayla, she tried too hard for people to see her.

Yes, why is that surprising? She takes any shot at me she can." I say to Liam who shrugs realizing that after explaining this to him it made sense.

"So what should we do?" Liam asked the whole group while Niall bounced Sammie up and down on his knee while slumping into the bean bag that was engulfing him. "We do have that science project."

"I thought we were going to do something fun! I didn't come over here to watch you three do a project." Niall interjected to Liam's idea not changing his position.

"We could go a scare Harry!" Blair's eyes widened and posture straightened smiling as she said it.

"NO!" Liam and Niall said in unison and all too quickly making me wonder why they were so against Blair's idea.

"Why not?" I asked both of he boys who made their opinions very clear.

"Because we want to play Candyland!" Sammie spoke leaning into Niall's chest to lay on her back. Niall smiled and laughed at Sammie's attempt to get what she wanted when blurting out her answer.

"Yeah because we want to play Candyland!" Liam answered looking over at Sammie and then furrowing his brow at me like it was completely obvious.

"You guys are so weird." I shook my head grinning at Sammie giggling while Niall whispered into her ear. Her dark brown eyes lit up while she laughed in my direction.

"What? Niall what are you telling her?" I chuckled at Sammie's little squeal and laugh her lungs produced.

"Just a joke." Niall says with a shrug of the shoulders, Sammie mimicking him and agreeing.

"Yeah just a joke." Sammie repeated mimicking Niall's shoulder shrug.

"So are weren't playing Candy Land?" I asked the boys giving them a look to convey a "are we seriously playing this game" look.

"Yes we are." Liam walked out to the hallway where there was a closet that held all types of games. Boxes of all shapes and sizes lined the shelves with various colors and titles from all the game options we had. Liam's eyes searched around until he found Candy Land and pulled it up causing Sammie's eyes to light up at the sight of her favorite game.

"I get to be red!" She called when Liam placed the box on the floor and began to set up the colorful children's game.

Once we all picked out our game pieces that resembled gingerbread men that were various colors the game began. Sammie of course doing the honors of drawing first while the rest of us decided to make this game a little more interesting.

"I say every time you land on a red space you have to tell a truth none of us know." Blair said crossing her legs Indian style in preparation to play the game at hand.

"Okay, I like it." Niall nodded sitting cross legged alike Blair so that Sammie could sit in his lap. She was attached to Niall's hip whenever she was around him, Sammie absolutely loved to be around Niall. Who wouldn't in all honesty? Niall was always up for a good time and his laugh was one that made you laugh just by the sound of it.

As the game got rolling Blair was ahead of all of us, crossing into the Licorice Forest. Picking a card on her turn as we went in a circle she groaned when it revealed a red card. Moving her pawn to the nearest red space I arched a brow along with the two boys. She was the first to get a red space which meant it was time to spill a secret none of us knew.

"Alright I don't know if any of you knew this but, before you all knew me my family and I were dirt poor. We could barely afford groceries." Blair opened up. I had never known this about Blair from when I met her long ago. When Blair and I became best friends and our friend group came together Blair's family was wealthy like the rest of our families. I would have never thought that Blair's family struggled financially in the past, but then again I guess there are a lot of things we don't know.

"No way! I would have never guessed, I still remember that day in 6th grade when Ken introduced you to us. You wore a black Chanel backpack!" Liam put a hand on this forehead as if he were baffled by Blair's little secret.

"Looks can be deceiving, my family wasn't always wealthy growing up." Blair shrugged reeling back to the memory of when she became part of our friend group.

As the game progressed I had learned a multitude of things thatI hadn't before about the people that I called my family. I had learned that Liam had his first kiss in 7th grade with Gemma Styles, Harry's older sister. This all brought us to "ooo's" and "Ahh's" upon hearing the truth. He had said that even to this day Harry didn't know and Gemma never told a soul. We were all sworn to secrecy as Liam still didn't want to open up about this to Harry.

On the other hand I learned a few things about Niall since he seemed to land on red spaces left and right. Niall had not only gone to team building camps as a kid in the summers but also was forced to heliport at a nursing home every Thursday in 5th grade. Niall had always told us he was going to the Hamptons in the summers to cover up the fact that his parents would send him to "Team Building Camp". After we had all poked fun at him about his inner camper he soon laughed along with us seeing how funny it actually was.

"Aw look at who's turn it is to spill the beans!" Niall pointed with his little laugh that brought a smile to my face.

"One time Kendall clogged the toilet at Nonna's house!" Sammie spoke up not even giving me time to answer a truth of my choice. Giving an embarrassed and darting my eyes to Sammie who erupted into laughs my cheeks flushed a bright red color I could only imagine feeling the heat rise in them.

Hearing the chorus of laughs from Niall, Blair, and Liam I folded my arms cracking a smile from hearing everyone was so amused by Sammie's short story concerning my toilet issue. I watched as Niall pulled Sammie into his arms and hug her still not able to stop laughing.

"On a different note, when I was four I almost drowned. I fell in the pool and no one noticed for a good 10 seconds, I could've died!" I did what I could to get them off track, distracting them from what Sammie had told them without my consent.

"I think Sammie should win the game for that little story, K." Blair spoke up looking at the game board to see who was currently in the lead. The current standings were as follows, Liam, Blair, Sammie, Niall, and I.

"It didn't happen!" I tried to convince them but knew this was useless as they knew little kids Sammie's age didn't lie about things like that. Little kids had non reason to lie about things like that, it was my word against Sammie's.

"It's okay Ken, it happens sometimes." Liam spoke still giggling slighting making his cheeks more rosy.

"Yeah, one time I was over at Louis' and literally destroyed his toilet! I was so stressed because there was nothing to unclog it, so I left it." Niall confessed sending us all into another round of laughing fits.

"Ew Niall! Why would you ever freely admit that?" Blair asked him her face completely red from all the laughing she had done. I wiped away the mascara that was smearing under my eyes.

"Well since we are putting our deep dark secrets out there I thought I would get it off my chest." Niall confessed moving his game piece and moving on with his life.

The night moved quick from there after Blair slayed the childhood game. Boosting her ego she pressed the winning in Liam's face after he had told her there was no way she could beat him in a game such as this. After messing around until the midnight I looked over to see Sammie breathing evenly on Niall's chest as he went back to sitting in the bean bag that had engulfed him before.

"I better head out, its midnight and Sammie is passed out." I pointed out the obvious while Niall had his hand on her back, looking down at her when I spoke.

"Sammie?" I shook her slightly on Niall's chest before he pushed away my hand. Putting his hand back on her back as if he were guarding her from me.

"Don't wake her up! Look at her, she looks so peaceful." Niall told me as she laid still on Niall's chest, mouth slightly parted and brown hair messily arranged.

"I have to get her home." I stressed to Niall standing up and folding my arms looking at Blair who was adjusting her white t-shirt that showed off her mid drift.

"I'll carry her to your car." Niall offered beginning to readjust her so he could properly carry her to the car.

Noticing all the downstairs lights were off and not a person was seen outside their bedrooms I tip toed wanting to make sure we didn't disturb anyone that may be sleeping in the house. Stepping out into the fall night air a sliver ran umps spine as I rubbed my hands together in attempts to keep warm. I looked back at Niall to see he had successfully kept the little five year old asleep despite the drastic change in temperature.

Laying her in the backseat we all said our goodbyes only to see each other tomorrow at school.