Brooke lived a double life. At home she was a timid girl, one who was beaten and bullied by her step family. But that didn't stop her shining at school. There she was pretty, popular, bubbly and beautiful. She wasn't a cheerleader, she didn't have time for that- but she might as well have been. Her popularity rivaled that of the head cheerleader, Peyton, who also happened to be her best friend. At school she was queen bee, at home she was a lowly servant.
This isn't a Cinderella story, she already had prince charming. Mr. Lucas Scott, quarterback and basketball captain - making him the most desirable boy in school. And he was hers.
Her mysterious home life and the fact that she rarely attended his games only added the intrigue, and his hectic schedule of practices after school made her always running home after school easier for him, he didn't need some clingy girl disrupting his game. Her school life as Brooke Davis was perfect. Her home life as Brooklyn was far from it.
Her mum was a gold digger, that had always been the case. Brooke no longer cared, partly because her mum had run off as soon as her husband had agreed to open a shared bank account. Although Brooke's step dad had more than enough money in another account, the anger of what had happened was channeled towards the daughter left behind, Brooke. He was determined to make Brooke pay off every cent of what her mum had left with, and that exceeded $1,000,000. So Brooke worked for him, and his children, Gareth, Michelle and Georgie. Gareth, the eldest, was in his 20s and a lazy bum who spent most of his time sitting on the couch, watching TV or playing video games. Leeching off his father's money. Michelle and Georgie were twins, up and coming freshmen. They were your typical spoilt brats. Like their brother they weren't unattractive, but they tried too hard to be pretty. They caked on the make up and dyed their hair to the point where broke thought it might fall out. Marc, Brooke's stepfather, mainly kept to himself, working, However, he was adamant that Brooke be home everyday as soon as school ended and proceeded to cater for every whim of the family, from getting drinks, to braiding hair, doing homework, or whatever Gareth's sick mind had thought of that day. If Brooke refused to comply with any of the requests she was hit, usually a slap or two from the girls, a shove or punch from Marc and a full beating from Gareth. Despite Brooke's mum leaving only a year a go, at the beginning of junior year, she had gotten used to her double life and although not content, she had accepted it. However this was all going to change, as Brooke's stepsisters joined the school- slamming together her home life and her school life into one big mess.
"Brooklyn!" Michelle screamed down the stairs. It was 5am, the morning of the twins first day at school, and Brooke was already up and dressed, making breakfast for everyone and tidying the house.
"Brooklyn!!!!" Michelle screamed again, "you need to do my hair!"
"Brooklyn!!! Sew my skirt!" Georgie joined in.
Brooke put down the cloth she was using to wipe the kitchen table and went to join the girls in the 'dressing room', which consisted of two Walls of mirrors, two closets of clothes and vanity tables with more makeup, then you could imagine. She found Michelle sitting at one of the tables, tugging at her blonde locks and Georgie holding up a skirt to her thighs examining it in the mirror. As soon as she entered both the girls started talking at once.
"I want my hair to be curly..."
"And it's just way too long..."
"... But not like frizzy..."
"... It's going to need at least 3 inches off"
"...I'm going for sultry like Megan fox..."
"...I mean which football players are going to go for me if I look like a Mormon..."
"GUYS!!!! I can't do two things at once. Georgie have a shower while I fix Michelle's hair and then your skirt will be done by the time you get dressed." Brooke reasoned. Michelle gleamed while Georgie walked away in a huff, bumping into Brooke as she went.
"Ok, so you want curls." Brooke said to Michelle, grabbing the curling irons as she spoke.
"Yeah, I hear the head cheerleader has curly hair and I am going to get on the team!"
Brooke suppressed a smile and continued to curl her stepsister's hair. As far as her sisters knew, Brooke was as unpopular at home as she is at school. They didn't know that she didn't go to the games or the parties because she wasn't allowed, not because she wasn't invited and that she never had people round because she didn't want them to meet marc, let alone Gareth.
When the hair was curled and the skirt shortened, until it barely covered Georgie's butt, Brooke returned to the kitchen to cook pancakes for the waking family. First down were the twins, excitedly talking about their first day at school. What hot boys there were, and Brooke was sure Lucas' name came up.
Just as Brooke has filled two plates of pancakes, as per the twin's request the previous night, the two girls wrinkled their noses.
"Brooklyn, what are you trying to do? Are you so jealous of us that you're trying to fatten us up?" Michelle sneered. "We want a fruit platter!"
Brooke looked mournfully at the two plates of pancakes she had spent ages cooking, as they had insisted that they wanted them from scratch, and began cutting up fruit for the fruit platter.
Just then two hands slid around her thin frame and hot, alcohol filled breath was on her neck.
"I need you!" he slurred in her ear.
"Gareth not now" she replied, "I'm trying to cook your sisters breakfast"
At this point Gareth spun her round and pushed her hard against the work surface, trying to unbutton her jeans.
"Stop it" she tried to shout but her voice was just a whisper as all the air was knocked out of her as he punched her, while she was trying to struggle against his forceful grip.
"Michelle, Georgie, go to your bedrooms" he slurred. "NOW!!" he yelled when they hesitated. Although they had never themselves been victims of George's drunken moods, they had seen broke get beaten enough to know to stay away from their brother when he had some drinks in him, and so they hurried out the room, leaving Brooke to Gareth's mercy.
A bit later Brooke came into their rooms, holding two fruit platters complete with fruit cut into star shapes arranged neatly on the plate. As she walked in, Michelle noticed her right hand wrapped in cloth.
"You took your time, I'm starving and we have school in half an hour" Georgie sneered, grabbing the tray off her.
"I hope you didn't get any blood on my food." Michelle noted
"Ewwww!!!" Georgie squealed "I'm not eating that now!" and she pushes her tray away from her.
"Me neither" Michelle copied with an evil glare in her eyes "anyway- no food is better for our figure."
"We should get going anyway." Georgie decided, and both girls brushed past Brooke and headed for the chauffeured car that would take them to school.
The school the girls, and Brooke, attended was expensive but also the best in the area. The only reason Brooke went to that school was because her mum had enrolled her in it before she left. Not out of love or concern for her education, but because 'no daughter of mine was going to a trashy school – how would I look?'. And when she left Marc did not take enough interest to change her schooling, so at St. Mary's she stayed.
Once the girls had left, and Gareth was passed out on the couch, she ate some of the pancakes and fruit, and made coffee for Marc, before getting herself dressed, out of the pancake covered clothes and into something more presentable. She always wore jeans, partly because she felt safer in them and partly to cover the bruises on her upper thigh. Occasionally she would wear a nice dress or a skirt, but only when the weather demanded it, or Lucas had bought her it. Brooke had that innocent kind of beauty, she didn't try hard, wear lots of makeup or low cut tops, she was breathtaking in jeans and a turtleneck. Her long wavy dark hair, and her intense hazel eyes added to her flawless skin and her cute dimples, her mouthed curved naturally into a smile, and her teeth were straight and pearly white. She looked like she spent hours on her appearance, and was careful to avoid anything unhealthy – but in fact she didn't have time to eat junk. She usually ended up eating the left overs of the meals she made for the rest of the family.
By the time she was dressed, her hair brushed and was on her way driving to school the graveness of the situation hit her. She had been able to keep her dreadful home life a secret from her friends for so long now, they had stopped asking questions about why she could never go out, and put it down to part of her quirkiness. Now her friends were sure to find out what really happened, and she was scared as to how they'd react. Would they not want to be her friend once they knew she wasn't a princess, but more a Cinderella? Would they be angry with her for not telling them sooner? What would Peyton think now she knew the real reason Brooke could never sleep round? And what if Lucas found out about Gareth?
Brooke slammed on the brakes, partly due to the red light that was right in front of her, and partly due to the horror of the thought.
No, she wasn't going to let this happen, she had a year, only one year until she would be off to College with her wonderful boyfriend, leaving her past and her "family" back home, never having to worry about them again. She just had to stick it out for a year, one year, 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days and she would be free.
The light changed and she sped off, anxious to get to school so she could do as much damage control as possible. This was her senior year, it was meant to be the best year at high school, she was popular, she had great friends, an even greater boyfriend, she was not going to let that change, she was sure of that.
