𝟬𝟬𝟮,    welcome back.

𝓣he three Kingsley girls sat comfortably in the Gallagher's living room. Fiona decided to throw Carl a welcome back party, and invited everyone over to see him again. Ricky decided to stop by as well as Marcus, who sent the teenage boy as many glares as he could. Ricky would be lying if he were to say that he wasn't threatened by Kehlani's father. The man was quite intimidating when he wanted to be.

"Fourteen and already a convicted drug trafficker. I gotta tell you, son, I couldn't be prouder. I had hopes for Lip, but with him in college now and this one punching a clock, I was afraid none of my sons were gonna follow me into the family business. I love you." Frank spoke out of nowhere, looking right at Carl.

"Ignore him." Ian stated in a firm tone, throwing his arm over Kehlani's shoulders. "No, it's important that you know that I really love you." Frank continued to stare at Carl, hoping his words got through to him.

"Sure, Frank." Carl answered with an eye roll. Frank didn't love anyone really, and if he did, he had a shitty way of showing it.

"Call me dad?" Frank raised his eyebrows a little bit hopefully, though he decided to look away when Carl glared at him instead.

"For he's a jolly good fellow. For he's a jolly good fellow! For he's. ." Fiona and the others walked into the living room with a cake, singing happily, up until they didn't know the rest of the words. "Which nobody can deny!" Frank sighed, helping them finish.

Carl took a look at the cake, sharing a weird look with his sister when he realized it was pink. "It's all they had left." Fiona smiled awkwardly. Carl only shrugged and blew out the candles. "These my eggs?" He asked, looking at the plate that was next to the cake.

"Mm-hm." Fiona nodded swiftly, putting her hands on her hips. Kehlani leaned towards Carl and opened her mouth, smiling as he fed her some of his eggs. "He didn't even make a wish." Liam told the twins and Frank, while both girls shook their heads at Carl.

        "So, Carl, lot of the kids in there having to take it up the ass to survive?" Kevin asked the boy, his hands in his pockets. Kehlani let out a loud laugh at the question, stopping herself as everyone looked at her.

"Kevin!" Veronica hit her husband on the arm. "What? That's what everybody's thinking, right?" The curious man tried to defend himself, looking away as there was a loud bang on the front door.

"That's my sleep-over." Carl stood up, ignoring Kevin. "He didn't answer." Kevin told Veronica, earning another laugh from Kehlani. She found it hilarious that out of all the questions he could've asked, that was the one thing on his mind. That's Kevin Ball.

As soon as the door opened, Carl's friend walked into the house and everyone stared at him in shock. When Carl said he was inviting a kid over, they didn't expect it to be some huge ass kid that could pass as an adult. "This is Nick." Carl introduced him.

"Holy shit." Frank stated in surprise. "All right, I'll show you around the crib later, let's hit up the boys first. Lani, you coming?" Carl ignored the shock that was evident on everyone's faces. "Uh, not this time. I have to watch the twins." Kehlani bluffed, touching both her sisters and pulling them into her arms.

"Cool. We're out." Carl nodded at his best friend, leading Nick back outside. "Carl," Fiona called out. "Oh. Yeah. Thanks for the party. Good seeing you all. Great to be home. Later." Carl closed the door without getting a response, and everyone stood shocked.

"Well, I guess he won't mind if I eat his eggs." Kevin reached for the plate, but was too late because Kehlani was already ahead of him. "You snooze you lose, Kev." She smiled, eating the plate of eggs.

"We can still have our date. Fishing?" Sean gave Fiona a look and she smiled. "Sure." The woman rushed upstairs to grab her jacket. "Fishing?" Veronica shared a look with Kehlani, both weirded out.

𝓣he following morning, Kehlani got up early for school. As always, she was the first one up and ready, then she had to wake up the twins, and force them to get dressed. It was stressful being the oldest, because all the responsibilities were placed onto her. Kehlani didn't complain much though, since she didn't have it nearly as bad as Fiona. She really pitied the woman.

Once the twins were dressed, Kehlani grabbed her phone and her backpack. The three sisters then made their way down the stairs and into the living room to each place a kiss on their father's cheek.

"See you later, dad." Kehlani called out from the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water and a few snacks to stuff into her bag for later on.

           "See you later. I love you girls." Marcus stated, messing up the twins hair, as they shared annoyed looks with each other before heading out the door.

"Love you too. Is it okay if the girls come over after practice? Don't forget we all made the team." The oldest Kingsley spoke with enthusiasm. It was true, now that her, Cleo, and Marilyn were no longer freshman's they were allowed on the cheer team.

"I didn't forget. I'm not that old. Of course they can come over. Cleo and Marilyn, right? Or was it Courtney, and Maya?" Marcus Kingsley asked jokingly. He knew all of Kehlani's friends. She didn't have many real ones growing up, so it was hard not to get to know the kids that invaded his home all the time.

Kehlani shook her head at her dad with a smile, flinching when a pillow hit her in the back of the head. She rolled her eyes, and walked out of the house to see that her sister's had left her.

Kehlani walked into her neighbors house, spotting her sister's in the kitchen. Debbie and Liam sat at the table, as well as Carl and his friend Nick. Kehlani spared a quick glance at her best friend, which caused him to look away and start whistling.

"Good morning!" Fiona walked into the kitchen right after the girl, patting her shoulders. Kehlani smiled and gave the oldest Gallagher a side hug. The twins sent small smiles her way, then put their attention back onto their phones. Everyone that was sat at the table seemed to ignore the woman, not responding.

"Good morning to you, too, Fiona." She replied to herself, sighing. Kehlani took a seat at the table next to Nick, waiting for them to finish eating so that they could all walk together. Usually, Kehlani walked to school with Cleo and Ricky, sometimes Debbie too.

"Hey, Lani, is your boyfriend walking with us today?" Debbie suddenly asked the girl. Carl dropped his fork, food falling out of his mouth as he stared at the girl with curly hair. She didn't tell him anything about a boyfriend. He was disappointed and jealous.

"Okay, drop the term 'boyfriend'. And yes, Ricky is walking with us today. Well, he won't be walking. He saved up and got a new skateboard." Kehlani answered nonchalantly, not noticing the look of relief that crossed Carl's face at her explanation.

"Ricky from across the street? What, is he your boy toy, or something?" The Gallagher boy asked, his curiosity getting the best of him.

"You could say that. But I really like him. And he's cool, so be nice to him." Kehlani eyed Carl at the last part, letting him know that she was being serious about the situation. She knew how Carl got, and it was best to avoid that around the boy she liked.

          "I like Ricky. He seems nice." Debbie finished her food, turning to look at Kehlani. The girl with curly hair could only nod and give a small smile.

          "He's a white boy. Look, all I'm saying is, everyone needs a little chocolate in their life." Carl stated with a smug grin on his face. Kehlani wondered if his time in Juvenile made him forget that he was white as well. He was acting like the stereotype placed on black men, and it wasn't a good look on him.

            "Carl, you're also white," Kehlani sent the boy across from her a weird look. "I'm white chocolate. There's a difference. Feel me?" Carl raised his eyebrows, earning a scoff from his best friend. "Never refer to black people as 'chocolate' ever again." The brown skinned girl stated, her eyebrows furrowing. Carl's smirk faltered for a split second, and he hoped he didn't say the wrong thing to make her mad at him.

Kehlani looked away from Carl, paying more attention to her phone as Fiona began to question Nick about how long he was staying. Carl ended up being the one to answer all her questions.

"So, uh, hey, Debbie." Fiona began to walk towards her younger sister, pouring the girl a cup of coffee. "Yeah?" Debbie looked at Fiona, her mood dampening since she knew what the conversation was going to be about. Everyone has recently found out that Debbie is pregnant with Derek's child.

"I made an appointment for you on Friday, for an abortion. They want us there this afternoon for your prescreening. I'll pick you up after school." Fiona smiled, taking a seat next to Kehlani at the table. "Not part of my plan." Debbie scoffed, shaking her head.

"But now that Derek's gone—" Fiona began, only to be interrupted. "He's coming back. His parents are assholes." Debbie stated harshly, getting up from her seat and putting her dishes in the sink. Kehlani rolled her eyes at Debbie's stupidity. Anyone with a brain could tell that Derek did not want that baby, and Debbie basically lied to trap him into being a parent at fifteen.

"Did you talk to him?" Fiona asked, following her sister into the kitchen. "We love each other." Debbie smiled. "Debs, come on. You're fifteen." Fiona sighed, fed up with her sister thinking that she's grown.

"Yeah? Please. You're always bragging about how you had to raise us when you were sixteen." The younger sister explained. "Debbie, I don't think any sane person would ever brag about that." Kehlani spoke up, sending the ginger a bored look with her eyes.

"Kehlani's right. It was forced on me. I didn't have a choice. You have a choice, Debbie." Fiona tried to convince the stubborn girl once more. "Yeah, and I choose to have a baby." The teenage girl shook her head, looking anywhere but her older sister.

"You have your whole life ahead of you." Fiona tilted her head to the side. She continued trying to convince her sister to have an abortion, up until Debbie pulled out her phone, showing how much her baby has grown and how she didn't want to kill it.

"This website says that my baby's the size of an orange right now." Debbie explained, holding out her phone for everyone to see.

           "It totally looks like you just fucked a tadpole." Carl stated which almost caused Kehlani to crack a small smile. The twins had to cover their mouths in order to conceal their laughter.

As his sisters continued to argue about whether Debbie should have a child or not, Carl had enough of listening to it. "Knives are in the drawer if you wanna do a home abortion." He suggested, wincing when Fiona shouted his name in annoyance.

"We're leaving." Carl quickly stood up, grabbing his backpack. "Finally, if I had to listen to anymore of that baby talk I would've killed myself." One of the twins whispered to the other. Kehlani didn't care enough to see who had said it. But, in all honesty, she agreed.

"Here's a couple hundies for her abortion, and Nick's room and board." Carl handed his sister some cash. "Where'd you get this?" Fiona asked, not wanting to take the hundies. "Earned it." Carl shoved the money in Fiona's hand before throwing his arm over Kehlani's shoulders, and heading out the door.

"Let's go, Nick." The boy called out. Kehlani looked across the street as soon as they made it out the house. When she spotted Ricky on his porch with headphones in his ear, probably waiting for her, she called out his name loudly, enough for him to hear.

Ricky Bowen pulled out his headphones at the sound of Kehlani's voice, smiling in anticipation. When he spotted her standing closely with Carl Gallagher, his smile almost faded into a frown. He recovered quickly though, waving and smiling at the two, as he dropped his skateboard onto the ground and rode to them.

"Hey, Lani. Sup, Gallagher." Ricky greeted the two, then hugged the twins, waving awkwardly when he noticed Nick was staring at him.

  "Where's Cleo?" Kehlani moved away from Carl, causing his mouth to drop open. She stepped forward and gave Ricky a tight hug, him smiling at the familiar smell of her blossom scented shampoo. He pushed her curls out of his face, twirling a few.

"She left. Marilyn picked her up. They wanted to wait for you, but I told them you'd probably want to walk with Carl. You know, catch up." Ricky pointed at the boy behind Kehlani, who was undoubtedly glaring at him, and giving him dirty looks that could kill.

Kehlani looked behind her at Carl, scoffing when she saw the look he directed. Carl shrugged and turned to Nick, pretending as if he hadn't been glaring at Ricky. The twins watched and began laughing. They found everything that happened hilarious. It was amusing to them that Kehlani's boyfriends (they liked to call them that) weren't getting along at the moment.

   "Yo, hurry up. We don't got all day." Carl suddenly called out. Kehlani was about to tell him to shut up, but realized he was talking to Debbie.

           Debbie dressed a bag of flower into a pink onesie that was meant for babies. Everyone began to laugh at the girl, she looked ridiculous.

𝓢𝙸𝙴𝚁𝚁𝙰 𝓢𝙿𝙴𝙰𝙺𝚂!

this chapter was finished a week ago, but i honestly forgot to publish it. it's not much, i know lol. anyways let me know if you like it so far<3.