Chapter 2: The Plan

July 5, 2026, Los Angeles, California

I'm tossing and turing in my bed. I just can't sleep! I've been lying here awake for who knows how long. I wish I could just doze off already!

I think the reason I can't sleep is that I'm afraid I'll have that dream again, the same one I've had the past several nights. This is it:

I'm surprised to find myself in a hospital bed (which is weird, because you'd think I'd remember it after dreaming it a couple times). Just as I'm getting over the shock, someone opens the door. It's my dad. "Dad!" I try to say, but my voice is barely above a whisper.

He walks over to me. "What happened? Why am I here?" I ask. My voice is even more hoarse now.

"You had a severe athsma attack Crystal," he says calmly. I start to panic, but he stokes my hair. That always calms me down. "Don't worry," he continues. "You're going to be just fine. Just get some rest." He kisses me on the head and leaves. Then I wake up.

That dream always seems so real, probably because it was real. That exact scene happened about five years ago, when I was ten (well, almost eleven). I think the reason why I was scared of it was not because of the athsma attack, not because of the fact that I couldn't really talk, but because that was the last time I ever saw my dad. I remember when I first found out he wasn't coming home...

It was the day I came home from the hospital after the athsma attack. Mom had to work, so I has spent the day with godmother. Later, she brought me home.

"Mom!" I cried as I entered our apartment. She gave me a hug and tried to smile, but I could tell something was wrong. "What's worng?" I asked. "Where's Dad?"

She took a deep breath and said "Crystal, sweetie. Your dad... isn't coming home."

At first, I thought he had died, but Mom had promised me that that wasn't the case. "He just had to... go away," she had said.

I aked her more questions, but she dodged them best she could and sent me off to bed. I never asked about my father again after that.

Ever since then, Mom's been really depressed. I've only seen her smile a handful of times, and she's been very... nice to me, too. Not the regular nice that she was before, but creepy nice, like she aims to please me 24/7. I think she's afraid that something will happen to her, like, karma getting back at her if she's not like this. I don't know, really.

What I do know is that whatever happened to Dad didn't affect the fact that Mom loves him. I catch her watching his movies and Mackenzie Falls, the old show he was on back in the day, and crying. I even saw a picture of him with lipstick on it once. If I had one wish, it would be to have them be able to be together again.

Sometimes, like right now, I wonder about my dad. Where is he? Did Mom lie to me? Is he dead? In prison? On the lamb?

I want answers, and I'm gonna find them, no matter what it takes.


July 6, 2026, Los Angeles, California

After Mom leaves for work, I head to the only place where I feel comfortable talking about my father: Apartment 205. That's where my Aunt Tawni (my godmother) Tammi (my BFF) and Conner (her obnoxious twin brother) live.

Tammi and Conner understand how I feel, because they never see their father, either. I think his name was Jamie Conroad or something like that. When thhe found out that Aunt Tawni was pregnant, he dumped her, and she's never seen him since. Whenever I think about that, I realize I guess I should be grateful that I at least met my dad.

I knock on the door. Tammi answers. "Hey Crystal!" she says, and hugs me. "What's wrong?" she asks. "You look a bit sad. Have you been thinking about your dad again?"

"Yeah." I admit.

"Well, how about we Google him?" she suggests. "We'll probably get tons of hits. After all, he was a famous actor, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"Maybe we can find out where he is or what he's doing now!" she squeals. "Come on!" she pulls me inside and into her room.

We log onto Google and type in his name. Tammi was right, a ton of sites came up. After an hour of checking out about twenty of them, we had a lot of information about my dad. It turns out he is still alive, but had quit showbiz and moved to New York City to teach at a performing arts school there. Right now, he's running an arts camp there for the summer.

"Hello ladies," says Conner, trying to sound sexy. He's standing in the doorway to Tammi's room.

"Get out of here, Conner," says Tammi, annoyed. She throws a pillow at him.

"Hey! I just wanted to see what you girls were up to."

"Well, it's none of your business." Tammi is even more annoyed now.

Conner ignores her and walks up to us. "Who's that guy?" he asks, pointing to a photo of Dad.

"No one," I say. I don't know why, but I feel like if I tell him what I'm doing, he'll rat me out to Mom. Not that he would. At least, I don't think he would.

"Hey, is that you're dad, Crystal?"

"How did you know that?"

"You look kinda like him."

"Really? I always thought I looked more like my mom." For some strange reason, it bothered me when he said I had any resemblance to my dad.

"Yeah, but you have his eyes and nose."

I look in Tammi's mirror to see. "No, I don't think so."

"Trust me, Crystal. You do."

"Let me see," says Tammi. I turn around and she studies my face for a moment. "He's right, Crystal. Maybe you don't have quite the same nose, but your eyes are definitely his."

I go back to the screen and study my father's eyes very carefully. They're light blue, and they're sparkly, too. I decide I don't mind after all if I have them. I wonder why it bothered me before when Conner told me I had them? They were very nice, actually.

The front door opens. "I'm home!" calls Aunt Tawni.

"Hi!" we call.

"What are you guys up to?" she asks.

"We're Googling Crystal's dad," says Conner.

"Guess what?" says Tammi. He's teaching at a performing arts school in NYC now!"

"Really?" Aunt Tawni is surprised to hear this. "I never thought him of all people would become a teacher!"

"Why? What was he like?" I ask. Aunt Tawni had known him even longer than Mom had, so she probably knew a lot about him.

"Well, he was like..." she comes over to where Tammi and I are sitting. "Conner at an awards show," she whispers. Tammi and I giggle.

"Hey!" says Conner. Conner was an actor on a tween drama, much like my father had been at our age. He was quite full of himself, and he talked himself up an awful lot, especially in his acceptance speeches at awards shows. I should know. I've been to every single one of them!

"Hey," says Tammi in her "idea voice" "We should go to that school and surprise him with Crystal!"

"What!?" I exclaim.

"Y'know, that's actually not a bad idea," says Aunt Tawni. "We could go this summer!"

"But my mom would never go for that!" I say.

"And you promised us a road trip to Aunt Zora's!" adds Conner.

"Well, I guess we could do both." says Aunt Tawni. "We could take a road trip across the country, and stop at Aunt Zora's on the way to New York."

"Yeah! I'm on board!" says Tammi.

"Me too!" agrees Conner.

"There's still the issue of Mom, though." I point out.

"Oh, that'll be easy to take care of. We'll just say that we booked a trip to a resort for four, but I broke up with the guy we were planning to go with." Aunt Tawni dated a lot of guys. "We'll ask if we can take you instead, and if she says yes, we're all set!" says Aunt Tawni. She seemed proud of her plan. However, there was one little flaw in it.

"What if Mom says no?" I ask.

"We'll deal wit that when it happens, but I highly doubt it will. You've been on vacations with us before."

"She came too, though."

"Yeah, but I bet I can convince her to let you go. Just let me worry about all that, okay Crystal?"

I smile a little. "Okay."

"Great! Now let's put this plan into action!"