Chapter 1
Jenny Brown's best friend Jennifer describes Jenny as being the unluckiest person she has ever met. The 2 Scottish girls met at the tender age of 3 in 1989, united by their common first names. Jenny had taken to calling herself Jenny as few people could cope with 2 girls, both with brown hair, both best friends, being called Jennifer.
Jennifer had noticed that there was something different about Jenny fairly early on. She would wear special shoes to school, not pretty ones like the other girls would wear, but big ankle boots that looked quite uncomfortable. She had also noticed that Jenny walked funny, favouring her left leg over her right. At the age of 8 Jenny sat out of P.E. class for the first time, they were doing gymnastics. It was in that class that Jennifer learned to perfect her cart wheel. By the time she was 10 she was coming last in every race she tried to run, Jennifer was coming first. When they got to high school at 12 she had stopped running completely, Jennifer joined the athletics team. As they grew together, Jenny continued to deteriorate whist Jennifer grew stronger and healthier – just like any other normal growing teenager.
The families of the 2 girls were also markedly different. Jennifer had a huge family, 2 sisters and a brother, all 4 grandparents alive, multiple aunts and uncles on both sides and cousins coming out of her ears. When they met, Jenny had 3 people she would call family, both of her parents and her Grandma, her only surviving grandparent. Both of her parents were only children.
Her parents were both heavily involved in enormous companies. Her father worked for Stark Industries, he was involved in International sales, particularly sales in the UK. His job required him to travel all over the globe. In 2001, when Jenny was 14, he was spending a few months in the States, doing business deals for Stark Industries' east coast base. He had a meeting at the main Stark headquarters in Los Angeles on the 15th of September, his flight leaving on the 11th from Boston.
He never came home.
Her mum worked for a company that made surgical instruments for hospitals. She was required to travel up and down the country trying to convince hospitals to use their equipment. She was also required to attend many meetings at head office in London. One of these meeting was due to take place on the afternoon of the 7th July 2005. Her mum was getting there via the London Underground, she just happened to be sitting next to a man with a back pack.
She never came home either. Jenny was 18.
After that, she had been required to stay at her Grandma's when she wasn't at University, but the stress of the past few years had been taking its toll on Jenny's only surviving relative. She died of a heart attack in the spring of 2006. It was Jennifer's family that stepped up to the plate, taking her in, giving her a place to stay when she needed it.
By the autumn of 2007, Jenny was at breaking point. She was 21 and now almost completely reliant on a walking stick in order to get around. Her ankles, particularly her right ankle was now so weak that it would sprain at the smallest amount of over exertion. She would get maybe a week or 2, possibly 3 where she would be able to walk independently, but then she would over-do it, re sprain her ankle and be back to the stick. She was living every day one day at a time. She would get up, go to class, eat if she remembered, do course work then go to bed. Repeat. Jenny felt that her mind was starting to numb itself from the pain, both physical and mental. She would push herself every day to try and do normal things, because that's what she thought her parents would want.
But she wasn't coping.
She didn't know how much longer she was going to be able to carry on like this, but she did know that she wanted to see the world a bit more before she left it. So without telling Jennifer, she booked one last epic holiday to the States. She would be spending Christmas in New York before heading out to Los Angeles for New Year, a bloody good way to spend her inheritance money. One last hoorah before her body and mind shut down completely.
She touched down in Newark airport on the 21st December 2007 and slowly hobbled her way to the arrivals lounge. After eventually finding somewhere to sit and taking a couple of pain killers to numb the ache in her ankle, she switched her phone back on and noticed that she had 27 missed calls – all of them from Jennifer.