Hello everyone, It's me, Allison Shorecoat. Now, I feel the need explain what I'm doing here. It has been a good few years since I started writing I'm The All Spark, and my writing has come on a very long way since then, mostly thanks to the help of my friend. As such, I was reading over this story, and I must say, I love it to pieces, but I feel the need to go through and boost the standard of it a bit, to make it a lot better.

So basically, I'll be going through, chapter by chapter, whenever I manage to find the time, improving my chapters. The plot line will not change, everything will happen the exact same way...with some mild alterations. This just a quick warning for all you people who may have read it before and go back through again at some point in your lives. I didn't want to delete it because I love it too much, I just want to make it better.

Please enjoy.

Ally :)

Chapter 1: Define normality

There are things in your life that you will always remember, and mostly, you remember the bad stuff. That was why I knew that I would always remember this day. The rain, the cold, they were one thing, but I knew what would always be engrained in my mind, would be the smell of smoke, that acrid scent that burns your nose and almost triggers your gag reflex and that black body bag, right beside the mangled remains of what used to be a car. Yes, I knew, then and there, that this day would always be engrained in my mind and nothing I could do would erase it.

'Mrs Shorecoat, we're very sorry, but there is nothing that anyone can do for him.'

The young man at the scene said that slowly to my mother, and I had to grip her hand just that bit tighter. I knew what it meant; I knew alright what all of this meant. No one had told me anything, they all assumed for some reason, that just because I was thirteen years old, that meant that I couldn't understand what was going on.

My father was dead, gone forever.

Beep-beep, beeep, beep-beep, beeep.

My eyes snapped open at the most unwelcome sound of my alarm and I glared at the piece of machinery on my bed side table.

'Worst purchase of my life!' I groaned as I reached out to slam the button.

Sitting up slowly I pushed the covers off my chest as I rubbed my dark blonde hair out of my brown eyes with a deep sigh. At some point I was going to have to bring up with someone that school should start at a later time, then we wouldn't have to get up at six thirty in the morning.

'Allison, are you awake?' My door opened a crack and my mother stuck her head around the door way to look at me.

'Nope, I'm sound asleep,' I yawned widely.

'Just because you're seventeen, doesn't mean that you can be sarcastic with me young lady' my mother frowned at me harshly and I just smiled innocently.

'Sorry mum.'

She just smiled slightly and closed the door, calling through it, 'Hurry and get changed. If you're ready before seven fifteen I can drive you instead of you catching the bus.'

I waited until I heard her walking away down the stairs before I moved and even then it was very unwillingly. Sure, I was better morning person than most people, but I didn't have the will power this morning to be my normal energetic self.

Dressing didn't take me long in the mornings, something my mum was very grateful for, although she did spend an awful lot of the time commenting that I was very abnormal teenager. I would always respond though by asking her if she wanted me to be normal and slam doors and shout and swear. There would always be a pause before she would tell me to keep in being abnormal.

Of course, when I say abnormal, please do not start to get the impression that I'm some great genius, or I'm super dooper beautiful or anything special like that. I was, still am and always will be very average in those respects. What was abnormal about me, was that I didn't try to change, I didn't follow conformity and I didn't bother to try to hide who I was and what I liked. Now, you tell me how far that got me friends wise. For all of you who are thinking not very far, you're absolutely right.

I pulled my hair up into a tight pony tail as per usual, it was just too fluffy and crazy to leave out, and if I tried cutting it, it ended up frizzing up into a triangle shape, so I didn't bother with that as I blindly tried to shove my feet into my trainers.

Satisfied that I looked vaguely like a human being, although a few people would stress otherwise, I clattered down stairs, with a grand total of three minutes to spare.

'I seem to recall a conversation about not owning an elephant Allison,' my mother commented.

'When did I say I wanted an elephant? I thought I stressed I wanted a Velociraptor so it could eat my maths teacher,' I quipped and she just looked at me with her world weary look of, "how can I have raised this child?" as I just smiled at her.

'And how many times have I asked you to wear something a bit more appropriate to school?' she asked, gesturing to my rather scruffy attire.

I shrugged, 'You want me to wear a miniskirt and stilettos or something? Because that's what most people wear.'

'I mean I would like you to look smarter.'

'But smart isn't comfortable.'

'Stop sounding like your father!'

'Well I have inherited at least half of his genes, I would hope I sound a bit like him,' I said and she just groaned slightly.

'Is your bag packed?'

'Of course it is.'

'Then go and get it. I have a late night tonight so you need your key ready. Make a start on dinner; I won't be back until around seven or so.'

'Aye, aye captain!' I saluted her as I walked backwards up the stairs.

However, as I picked up my bag, my fingers brushed the key ring on it and I held it up so I could see it, a small smile tilting my lips up again. It was the last family picture we had gotten, I was thirteen and my parents looked so happy. It had been taken quite literally the day before my father crashed his car and died.

I sighed as I looked away, letting the photo fall from my hands. I still didn't know why he had crashed, no one had ever told me, they had all said that I was too young. All I remembered was that dad had come back from a scientific expedition to Antarctica and he had been suffering from seizures and panic attacks, babbling out nonsense. But that was all I knew, and that was all I would ever know, because every time I asked mum, she clammed up and refused to speak until I changed the subject.

It infuriated me to no end, I had the right to know, four years down the track, I had the right, I was seventeen. I hadn't even been allowed to see my dad's body, mum had refused, she had told me that it was too badly damaged or whatever. All I was allowed to know was that my dad was dead, gone and he was never, ever coming back.

'Allison, are you coming or what?'

I jolted as my mum called from the bottom of the stairs, and I at once grabbed my bag and raced down. After dad had died, mum had changed, she had gone from being fun loving and relaxed to being very serious and tight, everything had a rule to accompany it to make sure that I was safe as could be. And, whilst I understood, I wasn't too happy about it. I missed my old mother, I missed being able to laugh with her, and I missed our old happy relationship, were we would both be ourselves and not care about what anyone thought. I longed for something to change, so we could return to our old lives, I longed to know what was so bad about my dad's death that I couldn't know about. I wished that something would happen, something that could make my life more exciting and allow me to be really me again.

Now I think I should have been a bit more careful about what I wished for.