The past! Here's the first of three chapters of this story. It's probably going to be short thanks to us not having any real knowledge of Jade's home life. But let's see how this turns out, shall we?


Letting go is hard, but sometimes moving on is harder.- Unkown


We landed, but this time in front of the house. "Welcome to Christmas of '09." Angel-Vega tells me cheerily.

I jump when she says the year. "'09?! That was the year-"

"You started Hollywood Arts, yes." She confirmed, nodding excitedly. She grabs my hand and pulls me towards the front window. I watch as the fourteen year old me walks over expectantly towards the tree and picks up a big long white box tied with blue ribbon.

"What's this?" I hear me ask.

My father and mother looked at me excitedly, watching me, almost praying that I would like what was in the box. I gave them my famous eyebrow arch, and slowly opened the box.

The screams that were to come next were not anything I remember, and definitely not anything I do now. They were too...girly. And then I realized this was two months before my parents divorced. That gift... That wicked guitar I just unwrapped was a peace offering so to speak, a way to say, "No hard feelings, right?"

I felt sick. If only I knew what the next few months would be like, I would have prepared myself. But I didn't know, and now here I am, looking into the past with one of the most annoying angels I've ever met.

Angel-Vega saw the look of disdain on my gave and gave me a concerned glance. She didn't say anything at all, but I knew she was asking if I was ok. Her eyes said it all."No, its ok. I'm fine." I give her a wry smile, trying to back up my words.

She shook her head, sighing. "Jade, the whole point of this journey is for you to let go of the past and look towards the future. You can't look towards the future with the weight of your past holding you back." She tries to hug me but I step back.

"I don't need you telling me this." I growled.

Angel-Vega snorted. "I've watched you these past two Christmases. You went from that," she pointed into the window where I saw me hugging my parents gratefully, "To this," she said, pointing back to me and I self consciously twirled a strand of black brown hair.

"You used to care about your brother." She told me, steering me square in front of the window. I watched as he went for the present I had gotten him, a Nerf dart gun he wouldn't stop bugging me for. I actually almost smiled watching him climb all over me like that.

"I can't just let this go, Vega." I tell her.

She nods understandingly. "Sometimes its easy to forget, but it's hard to forgive." She takes my hand and leads me to where we jumped. "C'mon. Let's see what the present looks like."

And we disappeared once again.


A/N: I know, this was short but I promise present will be a lot longer! Future too! And you guys will NEVER guess the plot twist in the epilogue heheh! I'm not giving it away so you're just gonna have to read to find out! ;)