Do you have any idea how hard it is to be me? Seriously. Yeah, I know, everyone is fourteen once, even your parents, but it's so much harder now than it was for them. Right? Everyone says that. Well, I've got news. Even if you're fourteen and reading this, you don't know anything about how hard it is to be me. And I know you're rolling your eyes and just gearing up to tell me your sob-story of a tough life.
Well before you go and embarrass yourself, let me tell you my story first. I am Jessica Lee Stark. And my older brother is Iron man.
You think your family are weird? They've got nothing on mine. Ever heard of the avengers? My point exactly! It's a group of special ex forces agents/superheros who go on top secrets missions all the time, save the world before dinner that type of thing. You heard me. Special Forces, CIA, FBI, and ASS, Now normally growing up with superheros isn't too bad because there are civilians and officers nearby. Not with the avengers. Every single person in the mansion I live in is a part of the Avengers one way or another. And did I mention our mansion is practically a military base? Yeah. My brother is, like, G.I. Joe. Serious. All special ops and disappearing in the middle of the night to go save the world from the bad guys. You've heard of them, right? The Avengers. No, my point exactly. How's that for 'career day' at school? "My daddy and mummy's dead but my brother looks after me, and he could tell us what he does every day, but then he'd have to kill us." Of course, there were only, like, a couple of hundred and twenty other kids in my school, No, not my grade but my entire K-12 school. And I'm not allowed to make close attachments because they get you killed. You think you've got cliques and social ladders at your school? Well, I was born into it. I wasn't the popular one, I was the one everyone was respectful to, because, well, everybody was afraid of a billionaire with flashy cars, and so their kids were taught to respect and fear them, too. So I kind of got promoted by association. I never got invited to sleepovers, because normal people don't hang out with us like that. It would be disrespectful.
Raise your hand if you can one-up me still.
As you can imagine, I grew up in a very adult world. Before they died from an explosion my parents tried to shelter me from the fact that my brother was paid to save the world, and when I was little, I never would have guessed. My brother and I were best friends. When he was home, he'd read books to me and help me build forts in the living room. We'd go swimming in the ocean or ride a bright-red motorcycle to the shops for ice cream. I always thought it was so cool that my brother gave me rides on a red motorcycle. But the first and only time I swore at my mom, I saw the G.I. Joe side of my brother. It wasn't pretty. In fact, I'm kind of surprised the bad guys had the balls to take another shot at him after having seen my brother in battle. But I'm wandering way off topic.
My best friends were all grown-ups. There were my big brother, of course, and then a few friends of my brothers who were let's just say co-workers and practically my brothers. When I was eleven, I asked everyone about their names. "How come you guys have weird names like Hawkeye and Cap?"
Captain America decided that as leader he should take this question. "Because," he said with a smirk. "There not our real names."
But yeah, that's my messed up childhood. Nothing too traumatic, just…messed up. No kids my own age to play with, and the world's best goofballs for best friends. I hadn't realized how lucky I was until my brother went and traumatized my adolescence. You see, I turned fourteen a week ago. Apparently, Tony and Cap thought that fourteen was old enough to be entrusted with matters of global security and death so my whole world got turned on its ear. I'm still wondering if they're right.