Chapter One: Preview

Meet Charlie Alexander.

Charlie Alexander is a white, thirteen year old female, with eyeballs and hair.

Charlie Alexander has deep brown eyes, and lower-back length, curly, light brown, dirty blond hair that turns blonder in the sunlight, with just a slight, confusing, hint of the faintest shade of light ginger. Charlie insists on it being so confusingly specific.

Charlie Alexander has ADHD and Dyslexia. But yet she always tries to do her best in school. But to her, her best is never good enough.

Charlie Alexander also has three pairs of shoes- boots for the winter, sandals for the summer, and sneakers for when she needs them for PE class, or when she just can't find the other shoe that she is looking for.

Charlie Alexander is also one of those people who likes to yell something random at the top of their lungs in the middle of an empty street and then run for their life. In her case, the random thing she yells is usually- "down with the patriarchy!" She just thinks it sounds cool.

Charlie Alexander enjoys many things, including thinking, reading, and silence.

Oh, and savoring those rare, sweet moments when she is not crying, yelling, screaming, being teased, throwing things against the wall in rage, or just on the verge of an outburst, knowing that something bad is going to happen, and wanting to stop herself, but also not wanting to at the same time, and then remembering exactly why she has precisely one and a half friends.

Well, that escalated quickly, didn't it? How about we talk about something lighter, shall we?

Charlie Alexander is part of a family of five, which consists of her stepfather, Derek Miller. Her elder stepsister, Kristen Lawrence. Her half brother, Andrew Mortimer Miller. Her mother, Helen Mary Alexander. And herself, Charlie Lana Alexander.

Derek had married Helen while she was pregnant with Charlie. It was his second marriage, and her first. Ever since Charlie was old enough to comprehend the situation, Helen would tell her stories about her father. Charlie was so fascinated by the stories of her wonderful father, that Derek grew jealous.

He started to develop an immense dislike towards Charlie. When Helen wasn't around, he would sit Charlie down and tell her everything she was doing wrong, and what she had to do right. He seldom gave Kristen any chores, and only when Charlie wasn't around to do them.

He would give her punishments for things she had no control over, like not going to school, even if she was ill. He kept reminding her that she wasn't even his real daughter, so she was lucky that he was treating her with such kindness.

Just like a gender swapped evil stepmother from Cinderella.

Kristen was the product of an affair Derek had while he was with his first wife. When his wife found out, they divorced. Later, he gained custody of Kristen because her mother had developed a drinking problem, and was declared unfit to care for her.

Kristen is now seventeen, and making sure that Charlie was aware that she was not as beautiful as her. That she was not as popular as her. That she was not as smart as her. And that she was not as great as her. And that she never will be.

Charlie agrees with all of those things, except for one. Charlie knows she's smarter than Kristen. As far as Charlie is concerned, Kristen has the IQ level of a plastic house plant.

Andrew is Derek and Helen's child together. They had him when Charlie was five years old, and Kristen was nine. Andrew usually likes Charlie, but he definitely likes Kristen more. Andrew is probably one of the cutest children Charlie has ever met, but boy was he a handful.

Charlie can't help but love Andrew, even though he usually gets on her nerves way too easily. When they weren't arguing, Charlie just wants to wrap her arms around him and kiss him all over his adorable head.

But, the thing is, Andrew doesn't really like that. Only when he is in a really good mood does he let Charlie hug and kiss him. But he lets Kristen smother him with love at any time. This makes Charlie feel left out, and alone. She feels like she's less important, and less likeable.

Helen is the only one who truly loved Charlie for who she is. Although she would get mad at her frequently, she never stopped loving and caring for her. Past tense.

When Andrew was born, Derek's job as a software architect was no longer enough for the family. Helen immediately noticed the problem and took matters into her own hands. She decided to get a job.

When she got a job as a secretary for a highly ranked employee at some company, Helen was barely home anymore. Andrew would go to a daycare during the day, Kristen to school, and after school, Charlie would go to a friend's house until she could be picked up.

When Derek had days off of work, and Charlie was home after school, Charlie would hide in her room and read unless she had to come out for one reason or another. For example, use the bathroom, eat, or be called down by Derek to do a chore, like hand Kristen the television remote that was laying exactly a meter away from her on the other side of the couch she was sitting on.

Then, one day, Helen went to work, but she never came back home.

They never found a body. The police had taken into account evidence that they had found on her car, and concluded that she had been somehow electrocuted while driving home, most likely struck by lightning. They couldn't explain her missing body, though.

After years without Helen to keep him in check, Derek just became worse and worse. He always took Andrew's and Kristen's sides of the arguments. He always yelled at Charlie for little things. He always made Charlie feel like nothing.

He would lower her self esteem with insults, complaints, and claims. He would tell she was stupid, ugly, and unlikable. He would say she was too lazy, too annoying, too dumb. He would claim she was worthless, an idiot, an embarrassment.

It got so bad that by sixth grade Charlie had developed a severe case of anxiety. She didn't talk to people anymore, only her closest friend. When seventh grade rolled around, Charlie still didn't know over half of the people in her class by the end of the first semester, five months into the school year, and she still didn't for a long time after.

If someone did something that upset her, she would only say anything to them if, A. she would never need to speak to them ever again. Or B. she already knew them closely enough. She was too scared that they would actually say something back.

She just hated it when she would gently point out to someone that they're doing something generally very rude, and then they would reply with either, "okay, gosh. No need to be so angry and in my face," or, "oh my God. What's your problem? You have issues. No need to scream."

Sometimes, when Derek spontaneously lost his temper, and got very mad, very fast, he would grab the thing closest to him that was guaranteed not to actually kill Charlie, and chuck it at her. But Charlie doesn't like to think about those times. They're so rare that they're barely significant, right?

Well, that escalated again. How about we move on. Let's talk about the day when Charlie's life changed for good.

So? What did you think?

I know, I know. I'm not the best writer. I swear it all sounded so much better in my head.

Do you think it's bad to give out all the information about Charlie in the first "Pilot Preview Backstory" chapter? Because, I think I literally already ran out of information about her, besides the things that you're going to find out later on in the story on your own. Oops.

If any of you are pretty confident in your answers to my following question, please be the ones to answer. Okay, the question is, how many words approximately are a short chapter, and approximately how many in a long one, and, how many in one with a perfect length? Thanks.

I sincerely hope you enjoyed this First Chapter, and aren't too upset about the hiatus on Solangelo Magic. My bad.

Thank you for reading.

- Pandemonium