Author's Note: About a month ago or so, I had published the story "Something More." But after a little while of rereading my first chapter, I didn't really like the way it turned out, so I decided to delete that one and revise a whole entire new one; something that the audience might find a little more interesting than the first. I will agree with Tess4 that I did use 'I', 'me', and all those first person words way more often than required, so I changed some things up a little bit for this chapter. I still chose to keep this chapter in FP, but here's the thing; other chapters will be in third person. It's kind of confusing to explain it all, but if you've read Plain Truth, by Jodi Picoult, you notice that every other chapter was in FP (narrated by the main character, Ellie). That's the way it's going to be in this one, because the second chapter will be in TP, explaining SVU and stuff (again, it's hard to explain now). But once I get more into the main plot that deals with my character, Tracy, and SVU then you might have a better understanding of how this story is going to turn out. But for now, I hope you can all sit back, relax, and enjoy my revised chapter.
Prologue
Regina and I were the best of friends. Since Day One, we were inseparable. There was just something between us that clicked. However, despite all of our sleepovers, countless games of Truth or Dare, and revealing which guy we crushed on most, everything that was sandwiched between us had stopped one day. We were no longer able to label each other BFFs. It's amazing how one small moment can have such a large impact on the future. That's exactly the way it was between Regina and me.
Nowadays, I find myself walking through the school hallways, being completely ignored by the girl who I formerly defined as a true best friend. But then I realized how much wrong I was, and can't even come to believe that our previous friendship used to be the bond that grew closer between us at the time moved on. But now, Regina never would even communicate with me, ever. If she ever happened to, our conversation would be based on one word, always coming out of her mouth, such as 'Whore' or 'Slut'. Then she'd turn around, pretending that we hadn't made any contact within each other.
Harsh, as it may seem, but there was a reason behind everything that matters led up to. I personally believe that it was my entire fault that a large hatred cultivated among us two. That was because I kept it a secret for so long. I kept the one thing that changed my entire life a secret. The one thing that had everyone viewing me in a different way, whether it meant having people feel a great sorrow or while others took it the wrong way and started a progressing abhorrence.
Nevertheless, I don't care what people think of me now. Yes, it still hurts not to be able to live the life I once had for as long as I could remember. But the only thing that signifies me today is the fact that I had fortunately lived through that one secret, although it was extremely tough for me. And while I was suffering through emotional pain, there was one woman in this world who had me find something that caused me to almost escape what I had been through; the courage to speak up.
One
The resounding sound coming from my pink alarm clock had awoken me on a Saturday morning within a flash. Usually, I liked to sleep late on Saturday and Sunday, since it was the only mornings to take complete advantage of without having to worry about getting up in time to arrive at school. That's what I liked about the weekends; there was some sort of freedom revolving around everything that wasn't involved with school. I honestly don't know what I would do without the weekends.
Yes, I did like school the way it was. I'm in the eighth grade, and luckily, I had what most teenagers would call the "perfect life" there. I had good grades, and was able to maintain a GPA of 4.0, which was very rare in my grade considering the high number of students who didn't give a care for their education. My boyfriend, Ben, was one of the sweetest yet smartest guys I knew. He would always surprise me with something new everyday, and I also greatly appreciated his sense of humor that would always cheer me up. Most important of all, I had the greatest friends. Although there was a large number of them, there was one girl that had always been there for me when I needed her the most; Regina Clark. She was someone everyone would like to hang around with, although she did have a tendency to show off her wild side. But her wild side was actually a good thing, unlike some people I was familiar with.
"Tracy?" I could hear my mom yell from downstairs. I didn't know what she would be doing up so early, bearing in mind that she usually liked to sleep late, or, exactly why she would be calling my name at such an early time. This, if she was shouting my name all the way down from the first floor at this time, obviously meant that my sixteen year-old sister, Amanda, had to be awake.
Amanda and I got along most of the time. Unlike Regina's sister, Rachel, and her, Amanda and I agreed on most things. We had similar interests, and there would be an innumerable number of things to name that we had in common if I had to list them. For instance, the bathroom that Amanda and I shared was filled with everything from pink flower curtains to the scented lavender air freshener (that we both loved to smell), which we had both agreed on to get. Amanda and I loved to go shopping together, especially at the local mall. Since she was almost going to turn sixteen and a half, she would soon be getting her license. And that meant that she could finally take me to the mall and drive me around places, which made me even happier than things were now.
I slowly walked down the staircase that lead to our first floor, and could see my mom cooking French toast on the stove. Since I was about half asleep, the smell from it had drifted near my face, practically fully waking me up itself.
"Mom, why are you up so early? And may I ask why you're cooking French toast at this time?" I asked, hoping I would get a reasonable answer from her.
"I thought we would do something together as a family today, but get an early start." Once she said that, I noticed Amanda sitting down at our table in our dining room, eating a bowl of Banana Nut Crunch. I figured that she would refuse to eat French toast, since it was one of her pet peeves. I think that liking French toast was the only thing that we didn't have in common, and yet our differences would fall under such a small category.
Family. The way she used that term made it sound as if we were like the Brady Bunch. It was just my mother, Amanda, and then me. There was no father involved, at least for me. Amanda's dad had left her and my mother when she was a child of only five years, and a little after that had occurred, my mother had me. She didn't want to have me though; it was an unwanted pregnancy. My dad wasn't Amanda's dad, so technically she was my half sister. My dad was a rapist. He raped my mother, and she ended up pregnant with me. Instead of terminating the pregnancy, she chose to give birth to me. Sometimes I can see her looking at me, remembering that I was the result of something horrible that had took place thirteen years ago. Regardless of that awful tragedy, my mother still, fortunately, loved me deeply no matter whose genes I had half of. But we basically kept to ourselves, instead of bringing up that in our daily conversations. To be genuine, that was the one thing we never talked about. And while we all kept silent about it, it was like we pretended it never happened. And that was the way we chose it to be.
"Okay, well, do you want me to get ready or something? Are we leaving soon? If I want me to, I can also help you around a little bit, so that we can get things quicker around here."
"Oh honey, I'd very much appreciate that. First, you and I can eat these French toasts once their done and then you could go upstairs and get changed and stuff. Does that sound good?"
"If it's fine with you, then I guess so."
Within about a couple of minutes, I was sitting at our table with my mom and Amanda, eating the delicious cinnamon French toast my mom had just cooked. Everything was silent as we were eating away at our breakfast, until Amanda broke the quietness.
"So, Tracy, I heard that Regina and Lucas broke up." she started. Since she was friends with Regina's sister, Rachel, so she knew basically everything that was also happening throughout the Clark family.
"Yeah. He was being a total jerk anyways to begin with. He was so demanding, and she just got sick of it." I replied.
"That's what I heard."
My mom got used to overhearing these sorts of conversations that Amanda and I had at the table, which usually varied from talking about tampons to guys to what shade works best on our skin tone. Since guys was what I mostly brought up around our mother, she realized how much I was desperate to date. Providentially, I was able to convince her that 13 years old wasn't too young to date, and she realized that I was mature enough to have a boyfriend. But with the overprotection from my mother, there were certain things that I was limited to. That's because my mom knows what the world is like these days, filled with certain dangers here and there, especially in where we lived; New York City.
