1: Sugar pie?

Alyssa Mells POV

The sweet smell of freshly baked muffins and someone gently poking my side woke me. My eye lids fluttered open as my gaze met Amy, mouth wide open and eyes closed, she wasn't the one poking my shoulder. Rolling over slowly I was met with the sight of Axel. His chestnut brown hair, lighter than Amys, was tousled around and his warm tan skin glowed in the morning light. "Good morning." I greeted in a gravely low voice, not sitting up.

"Good morning." He kept his voice low. "I'm giving you time to get at a safe distance before I wake Miss grumpy-pants over there. Muffins downstairs if you want one." He added a wink at the end. Smiling I got out of bed and padded down the stairs of the Allison household. I loved it here.

Smells of food not beer.

Smells of forest air not cigarettes.

Smooth, clean floors and not the disgusting cupboard I had grown up in.

Mr and Mrs Allison had called the police on my parents on numerous occasions but there was never a reason for any "arrests" and if I ever recived any injuries, they resembled common child problems. I tripped in the kitchen. Or I was playing outside and a ball hit me or I jammed my hand somewhere. My parents never really hit me, they hardly paid attention to me. The occasional "Clean this dumbass" or "Go to those people you were living with before" the Allisons. I practically live here.

Smiling, I greeted Mr and Mrs Allison shyly, even after growing up with them, I was shy around all adults. Not Axel, although nineteen doesn't make him an adult, neither does Amy and I walking in on him lip syncing to "Barbie girl" a little while after my fifteenth birthday.

Birthday.

My sixteenth was coming up.

The year I'm able to seek out my mate and know who they are.

Mate.

I don't not want one, but I just don't desperately NEED one like Amy. She hadn't stopped talking about her mate since she was seven. She'd tell me what they'd do, back then it was embarrassing when she said kissing.

But my birthday was coming up whether I liked it or not. And Amy already "guessed" who she thought my mate was.

Dorian Lin from down the road. He hadn't turned sixteen but Amy was desperate to get us an invite to "prove me wrong" and "jump into his arms and run off into the sunset" which is... different.

Unlike the Allisons, no one else has their sixteenths private. I like their tradition, it seems all the more special.

But as I sat down and ate a warm muffin, my mind raced with questions. Would they throw me a sixteenth? They started throwing my birthday parties when I was ten and each year it brought me tears of joy, no matter how old I got.

"I hate you." Amy grumbled to her brother before sitting beside me. Her face was pulled in an unattractive pout and her hair... the only word for it is mess.

"Good morning." I greeted as she took a chocolate chip muffin. Don't get me wrong, I love chocolate, but in the morning? Not really.

"There's nothing good about mornings." She grumbled shoving the cupcake into her face.

"The lights nice, it smells nice." I shrugged smiling, Axel sat across from us smirking at his sister.

"It stinks." Amy scrunched up her face.

"That's just your breath." Axel teased, reaching across the counter to ruffle his sisters hair. "You two cuties ready for school tomorrow?"

"Do you really have to remind us?" I gave him a mix between a smile and a grimace. It was better than the loud noise that came from Amy before she slammed her forehead onto the kitchen counter. Giggling, I finished off my muffin.

"You two want to go for a morning run?" Axel offered, my cheeks warmed slightly when his eyes lingered on me. The cheeky bugger knew I could never really say no to anyone. But Amy...

"How about no? And Liss if you even think - " Amy was cut off from her elder brother.

"Alyssa wants to go for a run, don't you?" My face warmed more. I can't say no, and I really do want to go for a run.

"C'mon Amy, you're really not going to let me go with him alone? Are you?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Pluck your eyebrows." Amy narrowed her eyes.

"Wha - ?" I let out a squeak of surprise, my hands instantly going to my eyebrows.

"Pluck them all off and give them to me." Amy reached out and stroked on of my eyebrows. "Please?"

"Uh - sorry Amy I'm keeping them." I apologized, petting her head.

"You can say no to me but you can't say no to him?" Amy narrowed her eyes at her brother who only smirked in response. "Fiiiine." Amy groaned before sliding slowly off her seat.

"Hurry up eyebrow theif." Axel teased, racing past her up the stairs.

"No running! - thoes two." Mrs Allison sighed heavily. "You're my favorite." Mrs Allison prodded a finger in my direction while she walked past me. Laughing, my shoulders hunched before awkwardly walking up the stairs.

It's not my fault I'm weird around adults, we can thank my parents and the whole other side of my family for that. I never recived "good job" or "I'm proud" I usually just had a string of curse words thrown in my direction and a slap. Which would cause me to cry, I loath crying. Tears of joy, I tolerate. But the sheer vulnerability of a different, more serious emotion? No thank you.

Axels' door was closed and Amys was wide open, waiting for me. I slipped quietly into the room and closed the door behind me.

My sister, my best friend, is beautiful.

So when I walked in on her glaring at her reflection, I paused. I couldn't help but ask. "What are you doing?" She whirled around, black bra and tights on.

"Do I look gross?" She asked skeptically. I raised a brow at her and walked towards her. She gestured towards her body hair which collected under her arms and beneath her belly button.

"Amy, you're not gross." I frowned at my best friend. I didn't see why she should be ashamed of something as natural as body hair.

"But I am gross." She sighed.

"Well, If you're gross, I'm gross." I placed my hands on my hips and angled my chin in the air.

"Now that we've declared we're both not gross, let's hurry it along." I nearly screamed when I heard Axels voice so close to my ear, even when his arms went in between the arms on my hips. "Is that what you really think of me Alyssa? A health maniac?" He pouted,  I turned my head to meet his eyes.

"Trust me Axie-poo, you don't want to know what she thinks about you." Amy glared pulling on a shirt.

"So she does think about me." Axel squeezed me in a hug and sighed dramatically with his eyes closed before pretending to wipe away a fake tear. I could help bur laugh. "Finally, I know she notices me." He let go and sat on Amys bed, in the spot I had earlier been sleeping in. "Go on, get changed." He ushered his hands at me before folding them behind his head with his signature smirk.

"Get out you perv." Amy shoved him, the shove being ineffective but he got up anyway.

"I'll be waiting." He waved before Amy slammed the door behind him.

"What a Sugar pie." I snorted before searching for somthing to change out of my pyjamas that consisted of one of Axels old shirts and one of Amys old pyjama pants, both slightly bigger than my years of neglected frame.

I was still haunted by my past as my collar bone was still to visible for a normal person, along with my hip bones, I could cut someone, which is what Amy is constantly saying whenever me hug. And my arms and legs. My whole body, like a stick, which is what Axel says when Amy complains that he only annoys her, but he doesn't mean it in a bad way after always sending me a wink.

Author note: for anyone wondering about certain changes through the chapter I changed them because I did not agree with what was written.