Five years later.

Five years later.

"Momma!"

Anna's shoulders slumped at the scream that pierced through the entire building. The twins were at it again. Hell, she could imagine her neighbors rushing out of their rooms just so they could glare at her. The British were polite as hell, but that didn't mean they couldn't be condescending when they intended to be. But it didn't matter. After five solid years of living with them, she was used to them glaring at her from the tip of their nose.

She dropped the clothes she had been folding into the suitcase that way, exhausted from staying up all night to take care of her daughter, Andrea. Rapidly, her feet hit the ground, carrying her to the living room.

"No." She moaned in anguish at the sight before her. Andrew had his sister's hair in a knot. No scratch that, he had his sister's hair tangled in many knots. Anna closed her eyes, fighting the tears that threatened to spill. She had spent hours brushing that hair! She had no idea where Andrea got her springy black curls from, but they were a pain to straighten. Andrew looked a bit like her. Aside from the green eyes, of course. He got her voluminous red hair and freckles and she really could see him growing into an obnoxious teenager who would most likely detest his freckles.

She had been there before.

"What is this mess?!" Anna asked tiredly, placing a hand on her hips. Perhaps she should cancel her trip. What was the need to go back to America anyways? She had a perfect job here. Her studies, despite the unexpected pregnancy and children that had come along the line, had turned out successful. After working for a full year, Anna yearned for home.

But now as she stared at her children and their disheveled state, she was starting to think moving was a bad idea.

"I tried to give her braids!" Her four-year-old son stated, his green eyes looking up at her innocently. He had acquired a strong British accent that Anna felt would be a pain when they reached America. Her family would tease the hell out of her about it. "But she would not sit still!"

"It hurts!" Andrea cried. Unlike the vibrancy of her brother, she was quite demure. Though they looked identical in some way, Andrea was a far cry off from her brother. Her hair was a shiny black mass - well it used to be a shiny black mass, but now its short length was all tangled up. Her skin was pale, and her eyes looked like a watered-down version of her mother's hazel eyes. She had been born sickly, and Anna had obsessed over her far more than she had hoped.

Somehow, she felt it was her fault that Andrea was born sickly. If she hadn't been so focused on school, if she had tried to eat right, perhaps it wouldn't have happened.

She sighed and crouched on her knees. "Come here, Andrea." She called. "Andrew, go pack your bag yourself! It'll take God knows how long it'll take to get rid of this mess you made, and our flight is in two hours!"

Andrew's lips pulled in a pout because he had been scolded and he trudged toward his mother's room slowly. "She can wear a hat!" He yelled from the room.

Of course, she can, Anna thought, slapping a palm over her face. Why hadn't she thought of that?

"That naughty genius of a child." She said with a tired smile on her face. Sickly or stubborn, she loved her kids. And she was fairly certain her family would love them.

****

"I had hoped you would stay with us," Benjamin Clandestine commented as he drove his daughter and grandkids to the mall. After seeing Anna for the first time in five years, he had been overjoyed. Of course, there was an elephant in the room concerning who the father of the twins was. But he was willing to overlook it, for now at least.

It had been a week since Anna arrived and settling in had been harder than she thought. Perhaps it was because she had spent five years in a foreign land, everything felt new again. She watched the awe on her children's faces as her father parked the car in Mall's car park.

"It is so big!" Andrea whispered, and her brother nodded eagerly before looking back at his mom.

"Can we go? Can we?"

Benjamin chuckled at their antics. "Calm down kids, we'll go together. What do you say?!"

"Huzzah!" They both cried in glee. Anna stifled a laugh at the weird look on her dad's face.

As they walked into the mall, her phone vibrated with an email notification. Her eyes widened, going over each word over and over again.

"Dad!" She called, holding up her phone in relief. "Hayes accepted my application! I got the job as the CEO's secretary!"

"Oh my pumpkin, that's great!" He replied, pulling her in for a hug. Hayes was the largest production company in the whole United States. With a salary like that, she was set for life. "We need to celebrate. I'll call your mom and Sophie–"

Anna swallowed the groan of frustration that threatened to spill from her lips at the sound of Sophie's name. She pulled away from the hug, gave her father a stern look, and quickly caught up to the twins. They had a knack for disappearing out of her sight if she wasn't paying attention.

If she had hoped that five years would have changed her sister for the better, she had hoped wrong. And as always, her mother was always on Sophie's side. It was the main reason why she could never agree to stay with her parents. Sophie would make her babies' lives miserable.

"Anna Clandestine?" A voice called while they browsed the candy section of the mall.

Anna turned around to see familiar brown eyes looking at her. Dylan Mcflurry. The star quarterback from her high school and the crush of literally every girl then, when she was sixteen. His blonde hair was combed neatly behind him and he looked every bit as handsome as he did back then.

"Dylan, hi!" She called with a friendly smile, feeling shy with each passing minute.

"Hi! Man, it's been a while. How have you been?" He asked.

"Good, good." She replied, nodding her head. "Just here and there."

"Heard you went to the UK," Dylan said, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

Anna felt her face flush. How had he known? She hadn't told many people about it. She glanced behind her to see her father at the end of the aisle, picking out all the candy that Andrew pointed at. He must have gone around telling people. Shaking her head, she turned to face Dylan. "Yeah, I did,"

Dylan grinned wider. "Awesome! How was it? Those stuck you Jimmys didn't try anything funny, did they?"

Anna snickered. "They didn't stand a chance!"

They both laughed at the comment for a while and when things died down, she watched Dylan's playful eyes turn serious. "Anna, we could ... Catch up if you want. I know a place where they cook the most amazing steak in NY."

She blinked surreptitiously. "If I didn't know better, I would say you were asking me on a date, Dylan."

"I am, Anna." He replied. "I am."