Sam poked her head out of the window, relishing the cool breeze that flew past her. Turning back to her best friends, she grinned and said, "Wasn't this trip amazing?"

Giselle nodded, a smile on her face ever since they had started on this road trip.

"I wish we could have done this forever," she admitted.

Jake raised an eyebrow. "Same. Plus, this was the first time I saw chipmunk here rant to people who she didn't even know. It was so shocking!"

Giselle blushed as she remembered that instance. She had been so frustrated with the hotel room that they had booked at one of their stops that she went up to hotel manager and told him off for giving them such a lousy service.

Truthfully, she never knew she would be brave enough to tell anyone anything, let alone almost yell at them. It almost gave her hope that she will have the courage to finally confess to Jace, if not anything else.

Giselle shrugged off thoughts of him as her friends continued chatting with her.

That was a topic to think about when she was at home, alone and undisturbed. For now, she was in the company of friends and she was determined to fully enjoy her time with them before school began again after winter break.

-----

Jace bit his lip anxiously. Coach was going to be pissed beyond belief if he asked to be absent from one more training. But he had no choice.

Even though it was break, his team was being called back almost daily to practice for upcoming competition. There would be coaches of some famous colleges at the competition and Coach Xander had no intention of letting his team be known as second best.

Football was part of his life, yes, but his sister was a bigger part of it. He could not abandon his sister, not in a time like this. Taking in a deep breath, he walked across the field and up to his football coach, tapping him on his shoulder as he played with his finger.

"Coach, I-I know that I have already skipped too many trainings but I really don't think I can make it today," he stammered out, his heart racing at, what seemed like, a million miles per hour.

Coach Xander raised an eyebrow, clearly unimpressed. "Why?"

Jace bit his lip again, contemplating whether he should tell. "It-it's personal, Coach. I'm sorry I can't say."

He could tell that Coach was getting more annoyed each second that passed. "Well, I do need a reason if you keep on skipping training, Jace. You are the captain of the team, your teammates look at you for support and imagine them realising that you are hardly there for trainings. What will they think then?"

"I know, Coach," Jace started, pressing his lips together, "but I really can't help it. I have been having lots of family problems in the past few weeks and it's been affecting everything else in my life. I-I know that I should not let it ruin my life but right now, I can't deal with anything but that."

"Are you seeing the school counselor?" Coach asked worriedly.

Jace nodded, embarrassed. He didn't want anyone to find out but it seemed like coach was going to find out the truth anyways, so there was no use hiding it from it.

"Well, you can always talk to them or me if you have any problems. I'll let you off this time but I'm sorry it will be the last training I will allow you to skip. We are training for competition, Jace, this is very important and if you constantly can't make it..." Coach left the sentence hanging, making Jace's eyes widen.

"You'll kick me out of the team?" Jace finished, his face sporting a look of horror.

"I'll be forced to. But let's just hope it doesn't come to that. I need you to keep in mind that everyone has problems, but you only need the strength to face them and solve it, even if it costs you everything. For now, solve whatever problems you have but when school reopens, I want to see you at each training, no excuses," Coach demanded, making Jace nod.

"Thanks, Coach," he said appreciatively before jogging across the field back to school.

It was time to face his problems.

-----

Jace hid Isabella, his precious sister, behind his back as he watched his drunk parents throw things at each other, fighting and screaming.

Like always, he found a way to shield her from everything and persuaded her to go to her room while he tried to handle the situation and stop the fights.

His eyes widened in horror as he saw his mother yelling curses and stalking up the staircase to the only room on the second floor of the house, Isabella's.

That's it! Fighting with each other was one thing but involving his six year old sister was pushing the boundaries. Running up behind his mother, he pushed her to the side as he quickly entered Isabella's room and locked the door behind him.

Both brother and sister shared a fearful look as they heard pounding on the door and Jace knew that in their drunk state, his parents will not hesitate to break open the door and punish them for no good reason.

Without a moment's thought, Jace grabbed Isabella's favourite teddy bear, and shoved a few necessary items into her small backpack before slinging it over his shoulder. Grabbing his sister, he opened the window of the room, biting his lip as he wondered if they could make it to the ground without getting hurt.

He was not necessarily worried about himself, but he was scared that his sister might get injured. Wrapping his arms around her, he jumped, shielding her body with his.

He landed on both feet, thankfully his sister was unharmed. A sharp pain shot up his foot and even though he was nowhere close to a doctor, he could feel his right foot was sprained.

Dismissing the pain, he shot one last look at the house that had never felt like home and took off to the one place where he hoped his sister and him will be accepted: Luke's house.