Thanks to the lovely KaySky for helping me come up with ideas for this. Don't worry, I've not forgotten my other story, in fact, I'm going to go work on that one now.

***

Kaylee Frye Reynolds stood at the bottom of the stairs waiting for her older brother to get downstairs already. She could hardly wait to start high school; it was full of so many new and exciting opportunities. Now if only her damn brother would get ready.

“Mal! Hurry up, would ya?” A form stood at the top of the stairs, towel rubbing his hair dry.

“Mei-mei, we have an hour before we even need to think about going and picking up Jayne, would you calm down?”

“Didn’t Jayne…”

“No.” A small ‘oh’ formed upon pale lips and Kaylee shrugged and went to the kitchen to make breakfast for the two siblings. Their mother had died a few months earlier, and their father was already at work for the day. About ten minutes later, Kaylee placed two plates of strawberry pancakes onto the kitchen table, right as her older brother, Malcolm Reynolds walked into the kitchen.

“Look! I made breakfast.”

“Yes, yes you did” was the chuckled reply as Mal went to the refrigerator to pour two glasses of Passion Orange Guava juice. As the two ate their breakfast, Kaylee kept asking Mal different questions about what high school was like and if she looked fine. Just the typical questions of a young teenaged girl getting ready to embark on the journey into High School. Mal just laughed softly, shaking his head. “You’ll be fine, mei-mei. Let’s wash the dishes and we’ll be on our way, alright?” at the nod, the two siblings got up and went to the sink and washed and dried their dishes before walking to the garage. Mal’s car was a 1988 black Volvo which he called ‘Serenity’.

After picking up Jayne and getting to the high school, Kaylee kissed her brother’s cheek and ran off in search of her best friend, Inara, who was a year older than her and already making waves as the most popular girl at Independent High. Once by themselves, the two seniors went in sear