Chapter One:
I Dream of Falling Rain
"I dream of falling rain."
Becky Malone stood in front of her class reading aloud her poem.
"Because if rain had fell from the midnight sky,
My parents would be still alive,
This poem would be far from mind,
And I wouldn't have to live a lie.
I fear the fires of day and night,
But pretend that everything's all right.
In order to take away the pain,
I have to dream of falling rain."
The entire class went quiet. Becky bowed her head, now everyone would think she was a depressed psychopath, great! Not. She headed back to her seat thinking of how she should have stuck with her other poem. A happier one, about her new life, and everything that went right.
Becky's parents were killed in a fire six months ago, now she lived with her Aunt Mary, Uncle Donnie, and their boys Cris and Kory. Cris was the oldest of the two, he was eleven to Kory's nine. Becky was twelve. Her Aunt and Uncle lived in a mansion in the mountains of West Virginia. They also own a farm. Becky lived good here compared to her family's tiny apartment in Sacramento, California; where the walls were covered in gray smoke stains from her father's bad smoking habit. That was how her family died. The cigarette was left lit over night and a curtain caught fire. Becky escaped with her gerbil, Charley.
Before they died, her parents had been discussing sending Becky to a boarding school in Westchester, New York. The Xavier Institute for the Gifted Youth, it was called. Becky's parents wanted her to attend that school, but now Becky felt as if she would never have the chance. If she went that would mean leaving the only known family she had left, except for someone her parents called Jean.
"I dream of falling rain."
Becky Malone stood in front of her class reading aloud her poem.
"Because if rain had fell from the midnight sky,
My parents would be still alive,
This poem would be far from mind,
And I wouldn't have to live a lie.
I fear the fires of day and night,
But pretend that everything's all right.
In order to take away the pain,
I have to dream of falling rain."
The entire class went quiet. Becky bowed her head, now everyone would think she was a depressed psychopath, great! Not. She headed back to her seat thinking of how she should have stuck with her other poem. A happier one, about her new life, and everything that went right.
Becky's parents were killed in a fire six months ago, now she lived with her Aunt Mary, Uncle Donnie, and their boys Cris and Kory. Cris was the oldest of the two, he was eleven to Kory's nine. Becky was twelve. Her Aunt and Uncle lived in a mansion in the mountains of West Virginia. They also own a farm. Becky lived good here compared to her family's tiny apartment in Sacramento, California; where the walls were covered in gray smoke stains from her father's bad smoking habit. That was how her family died. The cigarette was left lit over night and a curtain caught fire. Becky escaped with her gerbil, Charley.
Before they died, her parents had been discussing sending Becky to a boarding school in Westchester, New York. The Xavier Institute for the Gifted Youth, it was called. Becky's parents wanted her to attend that school, but now Becky felt as if she would never have the chance. If she went that would mean leaving the only known family she had left, except for someone her parents called Jean.
