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Chapter 1

Bella maneuvered her 2010 Honda Civic into her parking spot on campus, cutting the engine sitting back.

She was about twenty minutes early, which meant Barclay Academy was a ghost town.

Bella took a moment to revel in the silence. In a couple of minutes the other seniors would be pulling up in their shiny new Land Rovers and BMW's, spray painted and decked to the nines in spirited slogans and catch phrases declaring their last year of high school.

It was a tradition that Bella wished she had the energy to partake in. She assumed it would be fun to get together with the rest of her classmates and revel in the beauty of almost being at the end.

But it would have been forced, and insincere, because Bella wasn't sure she was all that happy to become an adult. She wasn't even completely sure what that meant.

When the year was over she would go off to some far away college with a fancy name, leaving behind the very place she loved to hate.

Long Island was suffocating her, yet it was the only home she had ever known. It was a bittersweet revelation that if given the chance, she would leave it all behind. Her father would be upset, she knew, but he would never let her see exactly how upset her leaving would make him.

Charlie had always been the "suffer in silence," type. Sometimes when she was younger, she would find him sitting in his room, eyes glazed over, holding a small, crumpled photograph. The only evidence of distress was the rigid set in his shoulders, the rest of his face blank.

Bella had badgered her father relentlessly, to see the photo she assumed to be of her mother, but her father would just let out a gruff 'it's not worth it, sweetheart,' before tucking it back into an old shoebox and storing it away in his closet.

Of course, as a child, her curiosity had gotten the best her, as she tried on many occasions to locate the elusive 'photograph' with no luck.

When the questions rolling around her little head became too much, she turned to her grandmother Marie.

"Gamma? How come daddy won't let me look at his picture?" She had been sitting on the floor in front of the living room couch, drawing a picture, while her grandmother brushed her hair.

"And what picture would that be, my little love?"

"The one of my momma." Her tone was light and conversational. She might as well have been pointing out that the sky was blue.

"You're momma?" The older woman asked, taken aback by the sureness in her granddaughter's voice.

"Yeah, I think it's of my momma 'cuz Daddy's always sad when he looks at it."

"Hmmm…"

Bella stopped her coloring, lifting the paper to take a look at her handiwork before turning around.

"Why won't he let me see it?"

Marie smiled, her eyes alight with a subtle sadness." He probably is just trying to protect you little love."

"Protect me? From what?"

"From missing someone who doesn't deserve it. You have so many people who love you, Isabella. Never forget that."

Bella had never known her mother, and from that moment on, it ceased to be a constant thought in her mind. Her father and grandmother were right. She wouldn't spare a wish for a mother who obviously didn't love her.

Suddenly, the air was filled with blaring car horns and loud whoops, signaling her moment of peace and quiet was over.

So as Bella unlocked her door to step outside, she promised herself that regardless of a past she didn't understand and a future she couldn't foresee, she would make the most of what she had.

It was time to move forward.

xxx

You've got to grease the pan before you pour the batter in. ;)

xo Sabrina