Once again everyone had forgotten it was Rebecca's birthday. She wasn't surprised, it happened a lot. The year before last only one person had wished her a happy birthday and last year she got a card about a week too late which read "happy twelfth birthday", even though she was fourteen, and the name in the card said "Rachel".

This was the worst though. It had now been a month since she turned fifteen, and the closest she'd got was a belated congratulation when she mentioned she'd had her birthday a month ago.

Of course, this was to be expected, Rebecca was to be the forgotten one in her family. Her elder brother had died serving in the war, so there were always photo's of him prominently on display, Rebecca's parents still pretty upset to have lost there eldest, but also proud that he had died a hero, saving another soldiers life by taking a bullet for them.

Meanwhile, Rebecca's younger sister had severe disabilities. Suffering from a debilitating illness, meant her parents spent much time trying to help her lead a normal life, leaving Rebecca as the ignored middle child. She didn't complain about it, she knew she had no right to considering what fates had befallen both her siblings, but it would've been nice if they could remember her, even if she'd never tell them as much.

Her home life wasn't the only place Rebecca wasn't given much attention. At school almost none of the boys looked at her. She blamed herself for this, her bog-standard brown hair, dull eyes, and lack of any sort of prominent, or inherent sexiness, meant the boys overlooked her for the more developed and attractive girls. For the most part Rebecca didn't mind, but she would've loved it if Scott would just look at her once in a while.

Of course he never looked. He never would look. And if he did, he probably wouldn't even remember who she was. Rebecca was just "one of the crowd" "the forgettable face" "The girl in the photo whose name you can't quite remember", and "that girl who you walk past in a crowd and don't give a second thought to", and it was something she had suffered from all her life.

Regularly people would fail to find her, or they would forget things about her. When asked to describe her, most people would just stop short of "average looking" and then fail to find anything specific to pick up on. Once in primary school, Rebecca had got lost on a field trip, and none of the teachers, or other students had even noticed. The bus had even left without her, and it was only when she broke down crying did one of the members of staff even notice her wandering around.

Rebecca sat in her room, absent-mindedly fiddling with an old door key she found while she was supposed to be doing her homework. It was a really boring essay, comparing some old authors to modern works to see how writing had changed, and Rebecca had to be honest that she just couldn't care. She didn't bother with her last essay, and somehow she'd got away with never handing it in, even though Jimmy got detention for the exact same thing. Of course Jimmy was known for never doing his, and was personally asked by Mrs Ormonde, while Rebecca had never been asked about hers.

She was never asked anything actually. She sat in the middle of the class, behind the nerds who knew all the answers, in front of the troublemakers who didn't want to know, and as such was never called upon for anything. She was content to just nod along, doing what work she could, not bothering with the work she didn't know, and nobody seemed to question it.

Rebecca's stomach grumbled, and she suddenly realised she was really hungry. Making her way downstairs, she walked into her living room and asked her mother when dinner was going to be done.

"Oh," her mother replied, slightly surprised to see her, "we've already eaten."

"Why didn't you call me down?" Rebecca asked, only slightly annoyed to have missed her meal.

"I forgot you were here," her mother apologised. Rebecca rolled her eyes, if she ever moved out; her mother would probably forget she ever existed, "And I'm 'fraid to say that's the last of the food 'til your father and I go shopping tomorrow."

"Then I'm off to the chippy," Rebecca sighed, as she grabbed a fiver from inside an old urn on the mantelpiece.

Heading out of there front door, the girl walked relatively quickly up the hill towards the chip shop. A large portion of chips and maybe a battered sausage would do her for now; certainly tastier than leftover pasta would've been either way.

"You promised me fine cuisine," said a red haired girl walking into the chippy.

"What's not fine about some battered cod?" came the reply from the guy she was with. Rebecca smiled overhearing it, clearly someone had grander expectations from there date than they were getting. The three of them were the only three in there, and Rebecca was first.

"Yes mister, what can I getcha?" the guy at the fryer asked.

"A-hem," Rebecca coughed, "I was here first." She said from her position right infront of the mop-haired bloke in the gaudy blazer.

"Oh sorry Ma'am," the man apologised, "Didn't see you there."

Rebecca simply rolled her eyes. Clearly the guy needed stronger glasses She didn't comment on that though, and simply waited for her order. She stared semi-vacantly into middle distance, half-listening to the couple as they argued more and more about what was actually fine dining. The taller red haired girl mentioned lobsters, oysters, and other such overpriced items, while the guy in the bowtie simply said how most of that was just overpriced junk. Rebecca found it slightly amusing to watch this guy defend battered fish so passionately.

"Well, I guess that's what I should expect from the guy who eats fish fingers with custard,"

"Hey you tried it that night too," the guy in the bowtie replied, almost indignant that the redhead found the idea weird. The more Rebecca looked at him, the more she was reminded of her old science teacher, but this guy looked far too young to be wearing such a get-up.

"Who ordered the sausage!" the chip-man shouted, completely oblivious to Rebecca once again. She got up

"How much?" she asked, taking the sausage and chips from him.

"How much for what?"

"Sausage and large chips," she replied angrily. This was beginning to get really old, really fast.

"Sausage and Large chips is £5.20, but it'll be a couple of minutes, as I just cooked the last one."

"I know," she screamed, "I've got the last one here!" she yelled, as she left the money on the counter, and began storming out, brushing angrily past the couple at the front of the store. As she stormed out she heard the guy serving ask whose money it was on the counter. She lost it at this point, and stormed down the road angry, hoping someone would notice her. As she turned around to look at everyone carrying on with there own business, she walked straight into something.

"What kind of idiot leaves a large blue box on the pavement!" she yelled, as she looked puzzled at it. Something about it struck her as wrong, and she couldn't quite understand just what it was doing there anyway.