This is just a short introduction to the story, but the proceeding chapters will be longer I think. I hope you like it and I would really love feedback!
Do you ever feel like you just don't belong? And I know. My life sounds like a bad movie cliché. But the reality is, that that one bad movie cliché originally sprung from one bad life and that bad life somehow surfaced to me. Maybe a great-great-great twice-removed uncle was the first to produce the idea for what once would become a film about somebody that didn't belong.
But in all seriousness, I truly felt like the gods had made a mistake when they dropped my soul here. Who knows? I could have fallen out of the sun-glowed over-the-shoulder tote carrying all of the tiny baby souls into somewhere that I wasn't supposed to be. But that of course is just one of the many theories. Switched at birth, adopted, brought here by aliens: these could all very-well be likely prospects.
Although my life felt wrong, it wasn't terrible I guess. I'm one of five, the third of those five. First is my older brother whom my parents adored (they say they don't have a favorite and love all of us equally, but I see through it). Every time he came home from college it was all "Max, I made your bed and did your laundry for you. Want me to make you a cake and while I'm at it, crème brûlée torched to perfection while I put on a smile I only have when guests come over?" Then there's Courtney, my older sister who's a senior in high school. She was always either in her room with the door shut or out with her friends. She doesn't drive so Dad takes her everywhere because even after eighteen years, of course she was still Daddy's little princess. And Court being Court, ate that shit up as if it were edible money. Then there are the two youngest in eight grade: Conrad and Madison. Twins as they are, you could not pick two people from their entire school who were more different. Conrad and I are really close. He hangs out in my room with me and we talk about girls and play basketball on the driveway. Madison on the other hand wasn't so chill. Even though she only seemed to care about her appearance, she was pretty cool too (when she wasn't dramatizing every tiny detail of her oh-so awful life). She looked up to me as a big sister, but I think the only reason for that was my ability to chauffeur her anywhere she wanted to go because my mom made me. "You'll look back one day and be happy you did these things," she says to me as my eyes strain to roll back as they had done countless times before.
Oh sorry, I skipped somebody from the list of kids, didn't I? Hmm no, no wait I don't think so. Ohhhhh okay yeah sorry my bad, I forgot me. But don't worry. It happens all the time.
First off, my parents named me Brittany. Brittany! My mom's name is Monica, my dad's name is Clinton, my sisters' names are Madison and Courtney, and my brother's names are Max and Conrad. I could have been any "C" name they wanted, or possibly even an "M" name! But no, they thought Brittany had a nice ring to it.
Apart from this tiny detail, I'm also the only one in my family with blue eyes. (This only strengthens my argument that I could by switched at birth and/or adopted and/or brought here by aliens.) Okay, I get that it's a recessive trait and that they both had one recessive gene but what are the odds! Everyone else had brown eyes.
Oh, and also, I'm gay: little known fact to no one except myself and Conrad, and I would really like to keep it that way.
Sure I thought it was normal to have a crush on another girl in third grade, until I learned that it wasn't. Okay maybe "not normal" isn't the right word. It is normal. It's just not too common. At least not here in this white-dominated, privileged, heteronormative, suburban, southern town. But try telling that to my parents or the kids at school.