13 years in the future

Alexis turned in her sleep feeling quite restless. The past couple of nights she'd been having the same dream over and over again. In it, there was only one man, a virtual stranger and her mother. She never saw his face but her mother was obviously distraught. It never lasted for very long but she couldn't figure out why it was reoccurring. She didn't know where she would have conjured this mystery man. She didn't have time to ponder it because her mother's yelling interrupted her thoughts.

"Alexis, this is the last time I'm telling you to get up."

Alexis moaned and threw off her blankets. Crap, now I'm running late. She got dressed quickly and hurried downstairs where her mother was waiting for her.

"Glad to see you finally decided to wake up."

"It's not like I had really choice." Alexis grabbed a bowl from the cabinet and a box of cereal to eat fast before leaving. "I'm sure you weren't planning on letting me stay home from school" Alexis managed between bites of her cereal.

"Your father left early for work so you're going to have to take the bus today."

"Why can't you take me?" Alexis complained. She hated the bus. "And I don't know why you insist on calling him my father." Alexis answered back bitterly.

Here Lisa thought Alexis attitude and stubbornness would only get better as she got older. In reality it had only gotten worse since she entered the dreaded teen years. Alexis thought she knew everything and couldn't be told differently. Lisa had started letting Alexis make her own mistakes and hopefully learn something from them.

"See this is exactly why we waited to tell you. We thought once you were older you would understand."

"All that you've told me so far Mother, was that Landon isn't my real father."

"Technically that's true. But does it really matter if he shares DNA with you. He's the person that gotten up with you when you were sick, he was there for all your birthdays and celebrations and he really loves you."

"I just want to know more. I don't know his name or even what he looks like. Maybe he also would have been there for me growing up if you would have let him." Alexis paused to let her argument sink in and then slammed her empty bowl into the sink "I bet you didn't even tell him about me."

"We've been through this before Alexis." Lisa calmly stated having gone over this many times since telling her daughter. She understood her daughter was upset but there was no way she was telling her daughter about Jackson "Your biological father is a very dangerous man. You're better off not knowing anything about him. I just wish you could understand that."

"All I understand right now is that you've been lying to me for my whole life." Alexis stated before running off to find her book bag." "And Mom, If he's so dangerous, then why were you even with him? She asked as she grabbing her book bag off the floor and heading for the door.

"Landon loves you. Doesn't that matter to you at all?" Lisa demanded quickly changing the subject. She couldn't exactly tell her thirteen year old that she wasn't really with him and actually didn't have much choice in the matter but that would bring up even more unwanted questions.

"I guess but that doesn't change the fact that I still want to meet my real father." Alexis yelled back to her mother before opening the door to leave.

"Sorry, Alexis but that's will never happen. You can be angry all you want but your father and I are just trying to protect you."

"He's not my father. I don't even know anything about my father thanks to you." She said, hurrying towards the bus stop and slamming the door behind her.

Lisa wished she could get Alexis to understand. She thought, as she got older it would get better but she seemed to only be getting more and more rebellious. Because of this new revelation see could see Alexis' relationship with Landon becoming strained.

Alexis walked away from the house feeling angry and confused. She hated fighting with her mother but it was beginning to turn into a regular occurrence. Everything had been fine until her mom had to go and ruin it by telling her the truth about her secret past. But on the other hand she felt like her mother was being unfair by keeping the knowledge of who her father was from her.

Wiping the tears away that had formed in her eyes she looked down at her watch. Shit All that fighting with her mother this morning had made her miss the bus. Pride determined her next course of action and she decided to walk the rest of the rest of the way rather than turn around and ask her mother for a ride. She'd rather be late than let her mother know she needed her for anything.

By the time she finally arrived at school first period had already started. Alexis threw her backpack and coat inside and quickly grabbed her necessary books and hurried down the hall to her classroom.

Her teacher was in the middle of a lecture when she walked inside.

"Miss Foster, I'm so glad you finally decided to grace us with your presence." Her teacher turned from the chalkboard to face her.

Alexis had hoped to be able to slide into the classroom unnoticed. How exactly had he know it was her with his back turned.

"I'm sorry." she said, taking her seat near the back of the room. "I won't be late again."

"You better make sure of that. Next time it will be a detention."

"Yes, sir" Alexis slouched in her seat feeling embarrassed to have been singled out in front of the whole class.

After an uneventful lesson the bell rang and Alexis felt relieved to finally be able to leave the classroom.

"We'll continue onto chapter five tomorrow. Class dismissed except for Miss Foster." Alexis hesitated at the door, her body tensing knowing that she was going to be in some kind of trouble. At least he waited until everyone left to talk to her. When he approached her he had his arms folding across his chest. Nothing good was going to come from this conversation she could tell.

"This is the second time we've had this discussion. Your tardiness is becoming a problem. "

Alexis adjusted the books in her arms that had suddenly become very heavy "I swear it won't happen again Mr. Carter."

"I'm certain you have a reason as to why you were late? Care to explain what's so much more important than my class?"

"It had a fight with my mom over something stupid and I ended up missing the bus because of it. I'm sure you don't want to hear it about it." Alexis looked down towards her shoes while talking to avoid having to make eye contact. There was something she found unnerving about her psychology teacher. Perhaps it was his eyes. So stunningly blue though quite similar to hers.

"I…um… have to get to my next class" Alexis managed to get out as she summoned the courage to speak up once more.

"Fine, we're done here." He said as he opened the classroom door for her.

Alexis started walking down the hallway and turned back when she heard her Mr. Carter's voice yet again.

"Oh and Miss Foster, I expect you on time for my class from now on."

"I know!" Alexis said without turning back and hurried down the hallway towards her next class.