Chapter 2: Kylie
I asked Kevin that day if he lost his feelings,
he just smiled and said he ain't got any.
It didn't bother me as much as it hurt mama, so now, I make sure to have them for him. Whenever I'm around him, I help him out when he doesn't know what to do.
We have eye signals and hand signs. I even spent three hours last month teaching him to laugh and frown.
My stomach pained at how much laughing I did.
My mama walked into the game room and looked at us like we were crazy, maybe we were but I didn't mind, and neither did Kevin.
My Kevin is special but also dangerous, he has a dark side to him that I sometimes see when he thinks no one is paying attention, but he is also my protector.
And then there is my baby half-brother, Jace, he's eighteen months younger than me. He, well I'm not sure how he will turn out and what place he’ll fit in the family, but from the day he was born he always had a piece of me.
He looks just like my mama, with the biggest and brightest blue eyes and blonde golden hair.
David said Jace was going to break lots of hearts when he got bigger, but I just worry about people breaking his. Jace seems more mellow, and softer, but maybe it's just because he's still so young.
But what do I know, I'm eight.
He is after all a Stone, the last of the Stone brothers.
They ARE all the children of my mama s husband, Hector Stone, owner of Stone Fort International and the 7th richest man in the world.
Except for me, I am the only girl in the family, but I'm not a Stone.
I am a Bray, Kylie Bray.
Daughter of billionaire extraordinaire Marcus Bray and Heiress Hunter Orniel.
My papa has two children from his ex-wife Janice, Mason who is a few months younger than Jace, and baby Natasha, she's like four or five. My papa doesn't see them too often but Janice apparently isn't too well so that is gonna change soon.
I can't wait for that to happen, it might be nice being the eldest for a while.
At Stone’s Estate, they are always trying to boss me around.
Jace is too young so he doesn't count.
My mama did count, big time.
She likes making me stand by the wall. She says it's good thinking time, apparently having an answer for everything isn't ‘good behavior’.
I don't get it, I'm not even that naughty.
My papa lets me say what I want, why couldn't my mama just do the same.
I’d always stayed between my mama and papa. They both love me equally, but mama says, my papa doesn't know how to tell me no and it's important I learned it from her.
I asked her why did he have to tell me no, when it was so easy to just say yes.
My papa only wants me to be happy, what is so wrong with that. My mama said it was for the same reason I was asking.
I didn't understand that, so I asked my brother David. He is no genius but I like the way he explains stuff to me, and boy did he explain it. Apparently when I grow up happiness is going to mean ‘shit’, because big people like the word NO.
So it is torture to say I'm stuck with mama this holiday and that means my three older brothers. I love my brothers, step and real, but boy are they bossy.
The one holding me over his shoulder, while I scream and drum my small fist on his huge back, him, I love the most and that is only because David yells at me when I'm naughty and I don't spend much time with the others as I do my two older brothers, David and Michael.
Jace is my favorite brother because he is cute, but he is also young and my mama's baby, so he stays with mama a lot, and I don't like staying around mama too much.
Kevin spends most of his time with his friends in the forest or climbing trees. I only join when I don't have anything else to do or he asks me to.
And me, well I spend most of my time with Michael and his girlfriend, Willow, they’d been dating for two years now.
They always let me hang out with them when they are at home, or going out to football games.
This is cool because when David is with any girl he says it's adult time and leaves me behind but he does take me out a lot.
Last weekend he took Kevin and me to Disney land for the entire weekend and we all bunked in the same suite, the best weekend ever.
“I can't breathe Stone,” I whine lifting up my head, readying myself to do some serious damage to his back by ramming my head into it.
I’d seen how the Bulls do it, there is no better time to try it out.
I stop short when I see a small girl waiting by a motorbike, looking like she's upside down.
She must be about Jace's age, but I can't be sure with her face all blotchy.
Michael puts me on the ground and spins me around by my shoulders, forcing me to look at him as he kneels in front of me.
I smile and he laughs.
I know what's funny, I have a crooked tooth in the front. Pushing his black-rimmed glasses up his nose he shakes his head like he doesn't know what he is going to do with me. My papa does it too.
I always looked up to my brother Michael the most. He doesn't have blue or brown eyes like the others in the Stone family, his is green like Uncle Hector.
Most people find him scary because he towers over everyone and he is all bulky and strong, but he is cool, like so cool. How could I not like him?
"Kylie meet Dakota Larken." He moves back, slightly to the left and all my attention focuses on the small girl.
I smile at her as she sniffles, it's obvious to me that she's crying. Michael stands up and ruffles my hair.
I smack his hand away. He knows I hate it when he does that, I'm no boy.
"You two talk,” he says, “Make friends, I'll keep Aunt Milda busy."
I giggle when he walks toward the mansion flaying his hands in the air and so does Dakota.
"I'm Kylie, Kylie Bray, whatcha doin’ here?"
Taking a small step towards me, she sniffs and wipes her nose with a tissue. I would've done it with my floral dress.
"Michaels helping me with biochemistry."
Giggling because she sounds funny, I ask,
"You a genius like my Michael?"
"Your Michael got nothing on me, I'm smarter than him."
Hands on my hips, my head tilts to the side,
"Is that so."
She put her hands on hers as well, "It is."
I shake my head, the heat from the sun making me squint my eyes. I'm getting thirsty, but I'm also curious about this young girl.
"How old are ya" I drawl in my coolest southern twang.
My mama would've shouted at me by now, she hates when I do that. I don’t get it.
"Five, you?"
"Eight, you live ‘round here."
"Aha, we just moved to Liston Hills."
She stuffs her hands into the pockets of her yellow dirty shorts obviously nervous.
I watch her do it, and my eyes catch on her blue converse lace-ups. I have one in every color, hers look worn and I love it, that is the trend now at our school, but my mama always throws mine out and replaces them the moment it starts fading, maybe this girl would swap with me.
"Cool, why ya crying."
Wiping her light brown eyes, she explains, "My cousin keeps teasing me. My dad's the President of The Sin Riders Motorcycle Club and they all have nicknames, I didn't let it bother me before but my cousin keeps calling me nameless geek."
I frown, that’s just mean, I hate it when Kevin teases me.
He always picks on me, calling me ‘skinny bones’ or ‘rat face,’ it just makes me so mad and we end up fighting.
Well I would, he’ll just sit there and watch me until I get tired. Then he would ask me am I done.
I always smack his head before I answer yes, and he smacks mine right back.
Why I do it, well I am a Bray.
My papa says a Bray never gives up, so I guess it's just in my blood.
"I can get you a nickname. Will ya feel better? my papas good at naming things." Obviously, I'm hoping she'll give me her shoes if I help her out but I don't say a thing.
Her face scrunches up like she's thinking.
What is there to think about?
Finally, she nods her head with a big smile, I smile back. I like smiling even though my tooth is crooked. My mama said I should wear it as an achievement, it's part of life.
"Come on,” I tell Dakota, “let's go call my papa."
We sneak in through the back door of the kitchen.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone