Cody learns to love

The one chapter where Fox doesn't get a best friend

  Fox has never hated a sibling before, he thought it was impossible to hate a sibling but now there was Emerie and Fox hated her. Because she was dumb and annoying and Bly moved out because of her.

  "Fox!"

  Did Fox mention that the girl followed him everywhere? "Do you need something?" Fox gritted his teeth and didn't snap at her. Because Cody asked him to be nice to her. He could do it for Cody. 

  "Do you want to go outside? Cody said I can go if I go with you."

  "I don't have time, I'm working on a science project," Fox excused himself. He hoped Cody didn't hear him because Cody definitely knew that Fox finished that project two days ago.

  "Can I help you?"

  "I'm fine, thanks." Fox didn't quite manage to soften that but luckily - or maybe the opposite, really - Emerie didn't seem to notice his harsh tone.

  "And can we go out when you are done with the project?"

  "I don't know."

  "Please, Fox! I was in the park with Cody and Jesse and Kix and Fives and Echo and Wooley for a bit and it was so much fun! We gotta go there!"

  Fox has never seen a teenager so excited to go to the park. To be honest, he hasn't seen a younger child this excited either. He knew it wasn't Emerie's fault that she spent her life closed in some medical facility in a basement but it was hard to feel sorry for her when she was so annoying.

  "Fox? Please?" Emerie kept begging.

  Fox sighed. "Fine, but only for half an hour." Maybe if he agreed to take Emerie to the park now, she will understand that no, Fox isn't going to be her best friend and that he was boring as fuck and will bother someone else instead.

  "Yay! When can we go?" Emerie asked. She couldn't be more childish, could she?

  "In fifteen minutes?" Fox proposed. That should be enough time to at least calm down a little so he could stop himself the next time he felt the urge to just turn around and walk away. That was assuming Emerie left his room. "Could you please leave now?"

  "Why?"

  "I need to finish something," Fox all but growled. None of his younger siblings was this annoying.

  "Okay," Emerie agreed. Lucky for her. Fox didn't know what he would've done if she didn't leave in that moment. He should've just told Cody that he wasn't going to be nice to Emerie when Cody asked.

  Fox didn't honestly think his day could get any worse but here he was, fifteen minutes later running down the stairs, and his day did get even worse. Because Echo was showing Emerie his collection of pictures of holo net princesses. And didn't that suck? Echo always annoyed Fox with those pictures. What was going to be next? Will he let Emerie dress him into her color? If that happened, Fox was going to lose it. He had to win Echo back.

  "Hey, Echo. Is that picture new?" Fox asked, picking up a picture of Jenny the fairy princess. It was cheating, kind of, since he heard Echo asking Cody to print him this picture at work in the morning. But it worked the trick.

  "Yeah!" Echo beamed at him. "I think Jenny looks pretty on this picture. What do you think?"

  Fox wondered if 'not my type' was a good enough answer for a child. Probably not. But what was he supposed to say if he didn't want to lie? If you asked him, Jenny was just about the ugliest holo net princess there was. He couldn't tell that to Echo, though, Echo loved her.  "I think her dress looks especially sparky on this picture," he decided on saying in the end.

  "Right?" Apparently, it was the right thing to say because Echo smiled at him and subconsciously leaned into Fox's legs. If Fox was capable of petty things like victorious looks, he would send one to Emerie.

  "Fox, can we go to the park now?" Emerie asked excitedly, completely oblivious to Fox's thoughts. That was probably a good thing because then she couldn't complain to Cody.

  Fox supposed he couldn't really avoid it. "Alright, let's go," he agreed and tried to pretend enthusiasm. He generally wasn't good at expressing emotions. e was even worse in faking them. But as long as Emerie remained oblivious like she was, he was of the hook.

  "For how long are you going?" Cody asked as he emerged from the kitchen. "Do you want me to pack you some snacks?"

  "We will be back in half an hour," Fox answered.

  "Fox needs to work on some science project," Emerie answered at the same time.

  "Oh, really? That's a shame," Cody raised an eyebrow but otherwise didn't comment on it. That was one of the many good things about Cody. He always got your back, even if he didn't approve of your actions. He wouldn't tell Emerie that Fox has already finished the project.

  "Maybe we can go for longer tomorrow," Emerie suggested, helpful as ever. Fox didn't even know it was possible to hate her more but apparently, it was.

  "Maybe," Cody smiled at her, then at Fox. It wasn't a threat per se but Fox knew Cody wasn't happy with him. That was the opposite of what he was trying to achieve. Stupid Emerie, she had to spoil even his efforts on making Cody proud.

  "Fox, can we go now?" Emerie turned to Fox. Why couldn't she just forget about it and gossip with Echo instead? Wait, Fox didn't want that. She should just stay in her room and let them all live their lives in peace. Or, even better, get adopted by someone else. It wasn't like Cody didn't have enough siblings to take care of.

  "Alright," Fox suppressed his urge to just lock himself in his room, have his seizure in peace, then curse Emerie, still in peace, and not leave the room until she was gone. Too bad Cody wouldn't approve of that.

  "I will expect you in half an hour, then." Cody shifted Boba into one arm in favor of pulling Emerie into a hug with the other one. "Have a lot of fun."

  Okay, now Fox was straight up jealous. He wanted a hug too.

  "Remember to be careful outside. And listen to Fox," Cody warned before he let go of Emerie. The girl bounced out of the room like an excited child. Fox was pretty sure this was going to be an interesting afternoon.

  Fox wanted to follow after Emerie but Cody caught him and pulled him close and embraced Fox shortly. Too shortly for Fox's taste. This wasn't fair. Emerie got a much longer hug.

  "You too have fun, Fox."

  As if Fox could have fun with Emerie constantly near him. He just hated her so, so much.

  I'm sorry for the late post, I wanted to publish the chapter yesterday but my day was real crazy and I slept literally two hours so yeah, sleep was more important than writing at the moment. I hope the chapter was worth the wait.