ULTRA-VIOLET

AKA Avatar-Cinderella. He…is the school's most popular boy, with everything except a girlfriend. She…just transferred, and has a difficult life complete with a foster family. They slowly find themselves drawn to one another, but he has a scheming sister who plans to ruin everything…ZUTARA.

CHAPTER ONE

Prologue

Eleven years ago…

Once upon a time, in a faraway kingdom, there lived a beautiful little girl. She lived with her Mum, her Dad, her Grandma and her older brother, and they were very happy together. They lived in one of the snowiest parts of the world, where food was scarce, and there wasn't a lot of money, but they were happy together and lived good lives. Okay, so the snow was what made it seem faraway, because you could barely see anything through the blinding blizzards.

How do I know? Because I was the 'beautiful' little girl who grew up there, in the village with only twenty-five people living in it.

But, to me, that was home, and it was my kingdom. I didn't feel like I missed out on anything. I was the luckiest girl in the world.

Since there were only a handful of people in our village, everyone knew each other, and everyone felt like family. Since we didn't see much of our cousins up north, we depended on our immediate family most of all. Even though Dad had to work away a lot, he always made sure to find time for his family when he came home. Mum always said that he was working hard to make our lives nice, and I appreciated all that he did for us. My brother, Gran-Gran, Mother and Father were the best people in the whole world, and I loved them a lot.

Notice I said love'd'. That's past tense there, peoples…

It all started when Mum got sick. It was cancer. A melanoma, to be exact, which didn't make much sense, since you're supposed to get it from the sun, and we didn't see much sun in our village. It didn't matter because, the next thing we knew, Mum was gone, and it was just the boys, Gran-Gran and I. We did okay, until dad was called away to work again. He left us with Gran-Gran, promising to be back within a week.

We never saw him again.

Not long after that, Gran-Gran fell and broke her hip, and had to be taken away for specialist medical treatment in a nearby town. My brother and I got by as best we could for a short while but, all too soon, the Child Protection Agency decided that we were in over our heads, and that it was time to step in.

I still remember the day they came and took us away, separating us. My brother was yelling to me that he would find me again, that we would be together before too long, and that he'd think about me every day. I was in tears, and couldn't even say anything back to him, as the people in suits bundled us into separate cars and drove us away.

I don't remember much about the plane ride, but my next memory was pretty bad.

The foster family.

Apparently, the Child Protection Agency has to take on whoever they can find because, believe me, the family I was given to – and still live with – aren't the ideal family. I can't complain – because, to complain means going without supper. That's happened all too often for me.

But, I haven't lost faith…I believe that my brother is still out there and, as I'm sitting here on a train, heading towards my new home with my foster family, I have this strong feeling that I'll find my true place soon…

My name is Katara Shuĭ, and this is my story…