I do not own Ratchet and Clank (no matter how much I want to). They belong to Insomniac. I do, however, own CeCe. No stealy my character.

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Things in my life were never easy. They have never been easy- and as far as I know they never will be

Chapter One

I sighed and rolled over on my bed, plopping my copy of New Moon on my nightstand. The minutes seemed like hours as I waited for this day to end. I checked the time on my alarm clock: 6:15. I sighed.

Might as well introduce myself. My name is CeCelia Marie Celanta-Ana... But people just call me CeCe. I am 15 years old. I have semi-long, curly dark brown hair with blond highlights and bright, light blue eyes. I like Classic Rock, Emo, and Punk Rock music and pretty much wish I owned Hot Topic. When I'm spending my time in Hot Topic or playing DDR at arcades, I'm lazy- pretty much like I am right now.

I mean, at least I had something to do eight hours a weekday when it came to school. Now that summer was here I was forced to find something to keep me busy and my mind from wandering too far- that is, unless my friend Sam makes me come outside for a few hours. School time was also the time I was away from my family; with two brats following you everywhere around the house and a mother that constantly hovers, it's nice to have some periods of time to myself- even if they were sometimes short.

Only two weeks of summer vacation have gone by and I was wishing that school would just come back already.

I looked at my clock again: 6:20.

Guess I'll take a small nap, I decided as I rolled onto my stomach and laid my head onto my pillow. My dreams are always useless and stupid anyway- plus, I need to escape reality for a little bit.

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'Run, run, run, jump!' I ordered myself as I ran down an alleyway, dodging a trash can as I heard gunshots behind me. Adrenaline ran through my veins and sweat trickled down my face.

I couldn't make out what the apocalyptic city was, or the name red desert that surrounded it. It was chaos here, though; robots were running everywhere, shooting everyone and everything in their path. Dead bodies were sprawled on the ground and building were broken and ruined.

I was the robots' next target.

As a bullet passed my ear, I tried to remember how I'd gotten here. If I had a choice of coming here, I wouldn't have. 'I'm starting to have a strange feeling that I had to finish something that I had started,' I thought as I managed to climb up a chain-link fence. 'Huh…weird.'

After about a minute I flung myself onto the top of a large building, hoping my enemies couldn't aim well while I was up here. My hopes were short-lived, though, when I heard metallic footsteps making their way towards me. A deafening mixture of a 'bang' and a 'pop' later and searing pain ran through my right shoulder and blood trailed behind me.

'Those freaking idiots actually got me!'

Time seemed to move quickly, and I soon found myself running towards the edge of the rooftop I was running on; it was facing the side of a semi-ruined building that looked like it was made of mirrors. I saw my reflection and saw just how much blood was coming out of my shoulder. The sight of it made me want to gag- and I realized something I hadn't been thinking of because of the adrenaline and I suddenly felt sick: I was going to have to jump was I? Oh, God. This rooftop was, what, ten stories high? I skidded to a stop at the very edge and tried to think of better options. Their metallic footsteps were coming closer.

'Jump!' I tried to command my body. I started to sweat and looked around. No railings, no flag poles, no pipes- oh, God. Please no. 'Jump, you idiot! They're coming closer!!' My feet wouldn't move. 'Jump!' I can't do it- I won't. There must be some other way- I heard a click. 'JUMP!!!!!'

And I did. I jumped just before they shot the bullet. As I free-falled, I heard the glass of the building break from the force of the bullet and some of the shattered pieces hit my head, giving one of the biggest headaches of my life. Strangely enough, I felt free- as free as while about to face death was, anyway. Just for the hell of it, I did a couple of back flips and smiled to myself. 'Certain death, here I come.' I thought cheerily, opening my eyes a little bit so I could see the black street below me.

Just as I was counting the seconds it would take to go 'splat' on the blacktop in my head, I saw the reflection of a gloved hand reaching for my dark brown, wind-blown hair on the side of the building. Something that looked like gold fur was on the person's arm and it ruffled in the wind as it reached toward me. I turned to see the person's face-

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"CeCe! CeCe!"

I slowly opened my eyes and groaned. The hell? My eyes widened a bit. My dream! What happened in my dream? The person- it was reaching for me and I was trying to see it's face. Anger boiled in my stomach. The one dream I wanted to see the rest of and I just had to wake up! Damn. Would it come back if I went to sleep again?

"CeCe, get up!"

I realized that whoever was calling my name had caused me to wake up. I put a pillow over my head, causing the person's voice to sound muffled, and tried to force myself back to sleep. Whoever was telling me to get up didn't stop; in fact it sounded like that it was yelling now. "Just let me sleep, dammit," I muttered. I wanted to punch this person in the face. Why wouldn't it just leave me alone?

And then the pillow was thrown off my head and I felt some weight on my back. Strands of blond hair brushed against my cheek. I bared my teeth. "Leia, I swear to God," I began to warn the blond girl who was now straddling my back and giggling at me. "If you don't get off me-"

She cut me off with a tsking sound. "Threats? Is that really how you treat people, CeCe?" This was one of the two brats I had mentioned before, with Leia being the older of the two. The other one was Lacy. Unlike me, they were natural blonds while I was born with dark brown, curly hair (I had wanted to dye it black, but Mom wouldn't let me.) that was a pain in the ass to brush. They were outgoing while I preferred sitting in my room drawing and playing Guitar Hero or going on the computer and reading fanfictions or online manga. The only thing I had in common with them was the fact that all three of us had light blue eyes.

Leia cocked an eyebrow and gave a teasing smile that seemed to annoy the hell out of me. "And were you baring your teeth at me? You're not a werewolf." She muttered something along the lines of "no matter how much you want to be one." I sighed.

"Just get off my back." I told her firmly, anxious to see the rest of my dream. "I'm trying to sleep."

"I don't think I will," she said in a sing-song voice. "Mom wants you to come with us to go shopping." I gave a "hell, no" face. Shopping with Mom was the worst; our last shopping trip involved with her telling me about how much I wear too much black and neon colors- after she told me I should wear brighter colors. Meanwhile, Lacy was screaming at Mom because she couldn't buy a game she liked, causing everyone in the store to stare.

Leia frowned. "She said to either come downstairs, or to be grounded from your drums for a week." My eyes widened. Mom had gotten me a drum set for my 11th birthday. I practiced nearly 24/7 on them and had actually gotten really good at playing them; I was hoping in starting a band soon. Remembering this, I gave in.

"Fine, I'll go."

"Can you hold this for me? CeCe? CeCe!"

I turned down my black iPod as I realized that Mom was talking to me. For the fifth time I gave Leia a glare. She smiled.

"It was either this or not playing your drums," she reminded me. "Besides, I didn't tell you where we were going." I hated it when she was right.

When I gave in and went shopping, I thought that maybe we were going to Super Wal-Mart or something to get clothes or maybe grab a bite to eat at Subway or something. Turns out that our 'shopping trip' was to the supermarket, where I as usual had to carry bags of apples, and bottles of soda and sometimes a pound of meat. The only way I could survive a trip like this was by listening to my music and daydream and not pay attention- which, to my liking, annoyed the hell out of my mom.

I took hold of the head of lettuce Mom had been asking me to carry for about five minutes and turned my music back up. I didn't make eye contact with her though. Since it would end up being more about criticizing something about me- how my dad just oh so happened to make me like rock music and forced me to listen to it (even though he didn't; I grew to like it overtime), my taste in semi-Gothic/Emo/punk rock clothes, etc.- we wouldn't make conversation. I had to admit that I did feel guilty when I saw her sad face, but I just can't take the criticism and insults; I got enough of them from girls in my school who wore tight jeans that always seem up their ass. Newsflash: it doesn't make you look cute, it makes you look like a slut.

Walking down the aisle with the magazines and books (my favorite aisle, by the way) and heading towards the frozen goods with my mom, a certain article on the front page of a magazine caught my eye:

NEW ASTRONOMICAL EVENT: LEGENDARY STAR SHOOTING THAT HASN'T HAPPENED IN ABOUT 90YEARS TAKES PLACE TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT.

Huh. That was happening tonight? It wasn't that I really cared. It was just that I usually don't have anything to do at night. Getting closer to the frozens, I realized I should've checked the article to see where it was taking place.

"It's taking place at the park near our house."

I jumped at the voice and turned to see Leia. I raised an eyebrow and she shrugged. "It was on the news this morning. You know, I never saw shooting stars before. I bet they're really pretty. It has always been my dream-" I sighed as she continued to talk about how she had always wanted to see shooting stars and study astronomy (even though it's a bunch of crap- just look at her grades in Science).

"You want to sneak out with me to see them, don't you?" I cut her off, asking the obvious. She gave a sheepish smile. I sighed. "Tell Mom, and you're dead. Got it?"

She nodded and we ran to catch up with Mom and Lacy. Sneaking out with Leia. This should be interesting.

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