Ack. I would just like to apologize for that last chapter. I will try to make this one better. Also, from now on, all chapters will be in the first-person point-of-view, and each chapter will be in the present-tense. Just to warn you guys. Oh, and each chapter, unless otherwise stated, will be from Lexi's point-of-view. So if you're wondering why the writing is all weird, it's because it's from a ten-year-old's point-of-view. This chapter also uses the stream-of-consciousness technique.

Cold. Cold. So cold. Why is it so cold? I shiver. Suddenly, it's not so cold. It's actually … warm. Is that the right word? The opposite of cold. I'm confused. My head is heavy, but it doesn't hurt. I remember it hurting. There's something else there, that I know I should remember, but … I can't. Why can't I remember?

I hear something, a door opening. I want to open my eyes, but I'm still so tired. I can hear breathing. There's at least four other people in the room with me. Suddenly, I feel something rubbing against my hand. My fingers twitch, and the something wraps itself around my hand. It's another hand. Whose is it? I can't tell.

The other hand keeps rubbing my hand. My eyes suddenly snap open, without my even realizing it. I look around the room. There are two people right near me, both bigger than I am, so probably older than me, too. They look a lot alike, but also completely different (and not just 'cause one of them's a girl and the other one's a boy): blond hair, same basic face shape. But one, the boy, has wavy hair almost to his shoulders and purple eyes. The other, the girl, has long-ish, as in, slightly longer than the boy's, spiky hair and dark green eyes. She's wearing a tank top that almost matches her eyes, and a dark skirt. There are two other girls. One of them seems to be around my age (what is my age again? I don't know), and she looks nothing like the first two. She has tan skin and dark brown hair and eyes. She's wearing a pink T-shirt and purple-pink skirt. The fourth person in the room is a woman, a lot older than everyone else, with silvery hair and light blue eyes.

The girl with the spiky hair and green eyes smiles. "How are you feeling, love?" she asks.

Love? Why is she calling me "love"? I'm confused again. "Wh-who are you?"

The girl frowns. "I'm Alice. Don't you remember? I'm your older sister. I've been taking care of you for the past year, and …" here she looks at the older woman, "I adopted you a few months ago."

The boy speaks up. "Do you remember me?"

I shake my head. I feel really bad, but I just … don't remember any of these people.

The boy sighs. "I'm your brother. Matthew." He points at the younger girl. "And this is your cousin. Her name is Victoria." Victoria smiles slightly and waves.

"Is any of this coming back to you now, love?" Alice asks me.

"No. I'm sorry. Can you tell me what happened? You all look really worried. Is something wrong? Why can't I remember any of you?"

Alice smiles. "Of course. You see, you gave us quite a scare. You woke up this morning with a high fever. No matter what we did, it just kept going up. Finally, we brought you here, to the hospital. The doctors," here she points at the older woman, "brought your temperature down, but they said you might have amnesia. That means you've lost your memories."

I scowl. "I remember what that means, Alice." Alice's eyes widen. "Now what's wrong?"

She smirks. "Sorry. It just comes as a shock to hear you call me Alice. You usually only call me Iggy or Ally. So … do you remember your name?"

I nod my head. "My name is Alexandra Marie Kirkland."

Everyone looks shocked. Alice replies, "That's good. And … are you sure you don't remember anything else, besides that and what we have already told you?"

I tilt my head to the side. "Well … I remember some stuff. But it's all school stuff."

Alice's eyes grow serious. "Do you know who the first president of the United States was?"

I nod again. "George Washington."

"What's 7x7?"

I think for a moment, then answer, "49."

"And do you know what the date is?"

"July 19th."

Matthew and Alice look at each other and then walk over to the side of the room with Victoria. They start talking about something that I can't hear. Meanwhile, the person that I'm guessing is the doctor walks over and wraps a cuff around my arm. She smiles at me and says, "I need to check your blood pressure and your temperature. If both are at normal levels, you'll be able to leave as early as tomorrow. You're doing better, but we need to keep you overnight for observation purposes."

I nod. The doctor presses something, and the cuff slowly starts tightening. It gets tighter and tighter until I think my arm is going to pop off, and then suddenly it relaxes. The doctor looks at the clock thing on the cuff and writes down something.

She then brings over a thermometer and tells me to put it in under my tongue. I do what she asks. It beeps, and the doctor takes it back. She looks at the display and then writes something on her pad. Then she looks up, catches me staring at her, and smiles. "It looks like you'll be able to leave tomorrow, Lexi." Then she walks out of the room.

Okay, we're going to skip forward a bit again. But just until the next day. I never realized how hard it would be to try to describe everything from an amnesiac's perspective…

My eyes open to bright sunlight. There is a large window near my bed, with light streaming in through the curtains. Mama is sitting by my bed, looking through a magazine. (She had asked me to call her that yesterday.) When she catches me looking, she smiles. "Good morning, love. Are you ready to go home today?"

I nod as a nurse comes in carrying a breakfast tray. She puts it across the rungs on either side of my bed. I look at the cereal. I'm really not very hungry. Mama looks at me worriedly, so I pick up the spoon and start eating. When I'm done, another nurse comes and takes the tray away.

Then Mama starts talking again. "I know you don't remember much, but since we're alone, I'll tell you. Our parents were British, and your brothers and I grew up in England."

"Wait, you said 'brothers'. You mean, Matthew isn't the only one? Where's the other one? Is there more than one? What are they like?"

"Your other brother is Matthew's twin. He is currently … serving overseas, I believe. He might not be back for a while, or at all. His name is Alfred. I can show you pictures of him once we get home. May I please continue?" I nod. "Thank you. As I was saying, your brothers and I grew up in England. Then Mum got pregnant again. Dad didn't want any more children, so he left us. We didn't find out this 'til later, but he died shortly afterwards. Anyway, Mum had you, and we grew up as a pretty happy family for another four years or so. Then, there was an … accident, and Mum died as well.

"Then, our family was split up. I was about seventeen at the time, a senior in high school, so I went to live with some friends so I could finish high school before going off to Oxford University. The twins, who were thirteen, were split up – Matthew went to stay with some old family friends in Canada. You and Alfred went to stay with an aunt and uncle, who lived here in the United States. They were Victoria's parents.

"I'm not quite sure what happened after that, but after I finished college last year, I came back to find the three of you. I found Matthew first, and then we went together to find you and Al. But when we got there, it was just you and Victoria. Alfred had left for service – he had just turned eighteen – and the aunt and uncle were nowhere to be found. We later discovered that a neighbor had been taking care of the both of you ever since Alfred had left a month before. We're still not completely sure what happened, as neither of you would talk about it.

"Anyway, I formally adopted you, and I'm in the process of adopting Victoria, as well. Matthew is staying with us, as well, to help me the raise the two of you. And now, here we are."

Whoa, this is a lot of information to take in. Luckily, at that moment, Victoria and Matthew come in, followed by the doctor from yesterday. "Hello," she says brightly. "How are you feeling today?"

I smile. "Much better."

The doctor says, "Good to hear it. From the looks of it, you can go home now."

Mama smiles. "Thank you very much, Doctor." She stands up and shakes the doctor's hand, and then the doctor leaves. Mama turns around to look at us. "Let's go." She looks directly at me. "Can you walk?"

I nod and stand up, slightly wobbly. Both Matthew and Mama reach out to grab me if I fall, but I don't. I walk past Mama and smile. "See? I told you, I'm fine." Then we all walk out of the hospital together, so we can go home. Not that I remember what home looks like, or anything, but still. It'll be nice to be somewhere that is not a hospital.