i'm sitting pretty on the throne

The first time Sophia really notices Zebediah is on their first day of freshman year. He's always been sort of there, and they'd been in the same class for years. They had the weird relationship of being more than acquaintances but not being friends either, and Sophia never payed a whole lot of attention to him.

But she's in high school now, and she's interested in boys and Zebediah's always been cute, plus the previous summer had been good to him. She walked past him on that very first day, arms linked with Gabriella and a tight blue skirt on her waist. Zebediah had been sitting on the steps leading up to the school, and he grinned at the girls when they walked past.

"Looking good, Blake."

Sophia had rolled her eyes and Gabriella had laughed in her ear, and the redhead walked into high school with her best friend on her arm, leaving Zebediah behind, although he never quite left her thoughts.

...

They flirt from that very first day, to such an extent where Gabriella has started smirking and going off whenever Sophia and Zebediah are in the same room. They don't do much about  it though, because they're only young, and Sophia really doubts Zebediah will be the only boy she's interested in.

Besides, they only ever see each other in school or on group outings, and he's not the only boy who flirts with her. Granted, he's the only boy she flirts with, but it doesn't mean she has feelings for him or anything. No, nothing like that.

But the week before winter formal, Sophia finds herself in a tough spot. Gabriella walks up to her, cheeks pink and eyes glinting with excitement.

"Anthony asked me to winter formal."

Sophia's eyes narrow, because Anthony is two years older than Gabriella, and besides, Gabriella is her best friend. They were planning to spend winter formal drinking the spiked punch and watching the senior boys. It's what they did at homecoming, and it's something Sophia figured would be their tradition until they both got boyfriends.

A disgusting thought enters the redhead's mind, and she folds her arms across her chest "You're not dating my brother, are you?"

Gabriella shakes her head, looking a tad confused at the thought "No. It's just one night." She pouts a little then, and Sophia knows how this is going to end right in that moment "You're not going to say no, are you?"

It's a pointless question, because Sophia doesn't control Gabriella or her brother, but she shakes her head. "Fine. Go to winter formal with my brother. Just note that he's a terrible dancer."

Gabriella laughs, before tilting her head to one side "Who are you going to ask?"

It's then that Zebediah exits a classroom behind Gabriella, and Sophia finds herself smiling a little "I've got someone in mind."

The night of winter formal, Lacey does Sophia's hair, and she wears a champagne coloured dress and golden heels.

"So" her mother begins as she runs a brush through Sophia's hair "Who is this boy exactly?"

Sophia rolls her eyes but still smiles a little. When it came to situations like these, her mother never bothered to be subtle. "His name is Zebediah."

Lacey pauses, before adjusting her position so she's eye to eye with her daughter "Isn't that Zane and Zooey's son?"

Sophia isn't quite sure of her parent's history with Zebediah's mum and dad, and she's not sure she wants to know. But she does know her dad isn't fond of Zebediah's dad, and her mum and Mila seem to share a look whenever Zebediah's mother is mentioned.

"Is that a problem?"

Lacey smiles and shakes her head, tucking one of Sophia's stray curls behind her ear. She leans in quickly then and whispers "I wouldn't tell your father, though."

Zebediah's unable to pick her up, so an annoyed Anthony drives both Gabriella and his little sister to formal. The two spend the entire drive giggling in the backseat, and when they pull up at the school, Anthony looks tense. Truthfully, Sophia doesn't understand what Gabriella sees in him, but she doesn't really want to know anyway.

Sophia ditches them the second she finds Zebediah, who's looking handsome in a suit (no tie.) He grins when he sees her, and Sophia can't help but smile back. He hands her a single white rose when she gets to him, and she takes it, still smiling, before tilting her head to one side.

"You do know that the white rose signifies purity and innocence, silence or secrecy, not to mention reverence and humility, right?"

Zebediah shrugs "I didn't know the colour of your dress and I didn't want it to clash. White and black tend to go with everything, but I didn't think a black rose would be fitting."

She rolls her eyes and he grins again, before taking her hand. They dance, his arms on her waist and her arms around his neck (which is awkward, considering their height difference and the rose in her hands), and they sway. They don't talk much, but Sophia's content, and when Zebediah kisses her cheek at the end of the night, she knows he enjoyed it too.

...

A few months later, they're officially dating, and her mum asks when Sophia is planning on bringing him home. They're having dinner when she asks, and her dad drops his fork on the ground at the question.

Both Sophia and her mum roll their eyes, while the younger redhead shrugs and says she'll bring him over for dinner next Friday. At that statement, her dad drops his knife to the ground as well.

The next Friday, Zebediah does come over, and he looks strangely uncomfortable. He's wearing a dress shirt and pants, and Sophia's heart skips a beat when she opens the door to greet him. She herself is in a black dress with spaghetti straps, and she sees Zebediah's lips quirk up in appreciation.

Sophia reaches up to kiss him, but the sound of a throat clearing behind her stops in her tracks and causes her to turn around. Lacey stands behind them, arms folded and eyebrow raised. "Let's hold off on the kissing for everyone's sake."

Zebediah smartly steps away, and Sophia grabs his hand and leads him to the kitchen, following her mother. Anthony's still upstairs and Lacey goes to get him, but Levi's setting the table and her dad is leaning against the counter. He shoots Zebediah a glare, and it throws Sophia off momentarily, because she's used to her mother being the intimidating one in her parents relationship. Even Levi looks confused.

Zebediah clears his throat and drops Sophia's hand, looking rather uncomfortable under Derek's gaze "Good evening Mr Blake."

Sophia's dad just narrows her eyes - at least, until her mum reappears in the doorway, with a warning look in his eyes. "Derek."

And even though Sophia doesn't like saying it, even if Anthony mutters it all the time, her dad is pretty whipped. So Derek continues to glare, and his voice holds a warning tone to it, but he still greets Zebediah nonetheless.

Dinner is an awkward affair, with Derek and Anthony asking Zebediah the kind of questions that make Sophia want to stab a spoon in her eye. But Lacey plays the polite mother, and Zebediah, with a lawyer father and fashion guru mother was basically raised to have smooth replies and keep a poker face, manages to get through the night.

Levi is strangely quiet, until right after dessert is finished, when he looks Zebediah right in the eye and demands to know why he's such an asshole. Lacey, who wasn't as used to Levi's favourite insult as the rest of them, shoots Sophia's other brother a glare and demands to know why her ten year old son knows the word asshole.

Sophia actually reaches for her spoon at this point.

An hour later, after more tension and awkwardness, Sophia walks Zebediah to the door, apologizing once more for both her father and her brothers. Zebediah grins and says it's fine, and Sophia again tries to kiss him, but this time, it's her dad who interrupts.

Later that night, when she's in bed, he comes and apologizes. She hugs him, because she knows he was just being her dad. She plans on holding him to the whole 'being nicer to Zebediah' thing though.

...

They're sixteen when it happens. They're in her room, and he's sitting on her desk chair while she paces around, complaining about The Nightmare on Elm Street remake. She does this a lot - pacing and ranting in general, but the topic of the remake comes up quite a bit too.

Sophia can sense Zebediah grinning at her, but she ignores him, because he grins at her a lot. She knows that if she faces him, she'll smile too, and Sophia doesn't want that.

But she ends up doing it anyway, because of what Zebediah says next.

"I love you."

Sophia pauses mid sentence, and turns to face her boyfriend of nine months. The pair have been dating for a while, but neither ever said the three words before. Sophia stares at him for several moments, but Zebediah's smile never fades.

Finally, she walks over and kisses him, and it frustrates her she's not even that much taller than him when he's sitting down. But he kisses her back, and Sophia realizes that she feels exactly the same way. She tells him this, and he laughs and says he knows, before pulling her onto his lap.

Lacey's always had this kind of...thing when it comes to her children, where she knows exactly when they're hiding something for her. Maybe it's a mother thing, or maybe it's  a Lacey Blake (nee Chamberlain thing), but it's still a thing.

So even though her three children are pretty good liars, Lacey knows when they're hiding something from her. Generally, it was Sophia and Anthony who would try to lie to her, and rarely ever Levi. Lacey figured it was because Levi was more like Derek than the other two, and Derek wasn't a big liar, and when it came to Lacey, he didn't like to hide things (besides the whole, "I've been in love with you since forever and I'm only letting you know now even though we're seventeen" thing, but Lacey doesn't like to think that counts.)

So when she notices Levi acting strange, she begins to worry. She even calls Sophia and Anthony, who are off at college, and asks them if Levi's sad anything to them. When they both tell her no, she asks Derek, but he's as clueless as she is, even though he's picked up on their younget son's odd behaviour. She calls Levi's school, but everything seems to be normal there as well.

Lacey even considers asking his friends, but Derek tells her that would be drawing the line.

She stills finds herself picking up the phone a few times though, because Levi is her youngest, the only child still at home, her baby, and her maternal protective instincts tend to kick in a lot more when it's about Levi.

One night, she's lying in bed next to Derek, trying to read her book but not quite manging to get past a single line. She's thinking of Levi, who barely touched his plate tonight at dinner and hasn't spoken much to Lacey or Derek in recent days. She closes her book and sighs, before turning to Derek with narrowed eyes.

Derek feels her gaze, and after putting down the script he was going over he turns to face her.

"Lace" he says slowly, and Lacey falls in love with him a little bit more, like she does everytime he calls her that "Maybe we should just, I don't know, ask him?"

Lacey rolls her eyes, before raising a single red eyebrow. "Derek, what would fifteen year old you have done if your parents asked you what was going on in your life?"

He pauses and considers, and Lacey leans forward and kisses him before he can say anything ridiculous.

"He's not going to answer the question directly" she tells her husband once they've broken apart, her green eyes meeting his brown "Trust me, okay?"

Of course, trusting her is exactly what Derek has been doing all his life.

... It's the next day, actually, when Levi sits them both down and tells them he has something important to tell them. Lacey grabs Derek's hand as a million scenarios run through her head. She feels him squeeze her hand in return, and Lacey finds herself smiling, a real smile, as she pushes hair out of her eyes with her free hand and looks at her youngest son.

Her Levi shares quite a few things with Levi the First, something she owes to Derek, she guesses, and one of them is this look he gets when he's nervous. She wonders if Dereak taught him it, or he saw it in an old video, or it's just by pure chance. Regardless, the look on her son's face right now is scarily similar to the one Levi the First had on his face when Mila went into labour.

"Mum, dad" he begin, not quite meeting their eyes "I've, uh, got something to tell you, and it's...it's pretty big."

Lacey digs her nails into Derek's palm as her mind starts thinking up possibilites. He's addicted to drugs He's dying He killed someone He's divorcing us He got some girl pregnant He's.....

Levi's voice interrupts her train of thought, and she looks at her son and tries to keep her smile on her face, because her son could say just about anything right now. "The thing is, I've discovered that..." he swallows, and Lacey shoots Derek an anxious glance, before turning back to Levi. Levi takes a deep breath and closes his eyes before speaking again, and Lacey almost wants to laugh at what he tells her. Because she was so worried it was something awful, but it's not, her son's fine, and that's all that matters.

"I'm gay."

Levi opens his eyes and looks at them, Lacey and Derek. Lacey sends her husband a small smile, and Derek grins back, and she feels her heart skip a bit. Almost instantly, she starts thinking of the day when Levi meets a boy that makes his heart leap the way Derek makes her heart leap, the day he meets a boy that makes him as happy as his father makes his mother.

"...Mum? Dad?"

"Oh, sweetie" Lacey says, dragging Derek to his feet before wrapping her arms around her youngest, her baby, her Levi "We still love you, you know? The fact that you just happen to like boys..."

Derek interupts her then, wrapping his hands around her torso and grinning at Levi "Isn't going to change that. I mean, if you didn't like Scream, that would be-"

Lacey digs him in the ribs as Levi's eyebrows shoot up "You guys don't care?"

Lacey glances up at her husband, who looks as confused as she feels "No. Why would we?"

Levi grins then, a proper grin, his usual grin, and Lacey is reminded all over again that this is her little boy, even if he's fifteen years old.