Poughkeepsie, New York

The air was crisp, the leaves were crunchy, the brick buildings were stately and beautiful, the undergrads appeared friendly and happy, and from what she'd observed, the academics were challenging and engaging. In theory, everything was perfect, but in reality, on what was supposed to be an important day for her her thoughts were miles away.

She was Katherine Wentworth, nothing was out of her reach, or so she'd always been told, not even a competitive college, but time after time her mother continued to evade her questions and now she had JR Ewing conveniently taking back-to-back meetings, Cliff Barnes seemingly never in his own office, and Bobby Ewing unable to be located.

She was an only child, but she wasn't, and she had nobody to talk to about how that made her feel. She'd imagined over and over how Cliff might react but there was no substitute for a real experience. If she were in his shoes and he'd come to her with the information she had she wasn't sure she'd be receptive to it, it already upset her to know her mother was hiding so much about her past from her, but she hoped that being a good bit older than her he was also more mature than her. She barely knew anything about Cliff's life other than that he was a lawyer, he worked out-of-town sometimes, and he'd lost his sister and father recently, she couldn't even begin to guess what his temperament was like to truly know how he'd react to the news that he had a sister he'd never known. She was certainly finding it difficult to wrap her head around, but she was more curious about the entire thing than anything else. She was disappointed and confused, but she desperately wanted to know how and why everything that had happened had happened.

Her, or their, mother had a lot to answer for and she truly wanted to hear the explanation for all that had gone on, but before she could ask her any pointed questions, she felt like she should really have a grasp on the details of the situation herself. JR Ewing was supposed to be assisting her with understanding those details but so far he'd failed to contact her to follow-up. She wouldn't allow him to leave her in the dark forever though, she would be seeing him in person later in the week whether he liked it or not.

She'd like to meet Bobby Ewing if she could too because besides Cliff, he was the closest connection she had to Pam, the sister she'd never known and would never know now. JR hadn't been at all helpful in assisting her with contacting Bobby, citing his emotional state and physical absence from their family ranch, however it had been a month since he'd told her that and things were potentially different now.

She had no expectation of what her life was supposed to look like if Bobby or Cliff did know of and acknowledge her existence, but she wanted the opportunity to find out. She wanted to meet her brother if only to see how similar or different they were, how much he resembled their mother, how much she resembled Pam, and hear what he remembered of a time before she existed. She wanted to meet Bobby for much the same reasons, out of curiosity and to hear about how much of who she was could be attributed to her maternal genetics, how much she and Pam were alike, if they were at all.

She'd always felt she was far more like her father than her mother, but seeing as it turned out she didn't really know her mother, a lot felt uncertain now. If her mother wasn't who she'd always said she was, then was she who she thought she was? She knew, but she didn't.

She could answer questions about herself easily enough; she spoke several languages, wrote a column for her school newspaper, played varsity field hockey and lacrosse, intended to major in English with a focus on journalism and a minor in business and one day she'd lead Wentworth Industries just as her father did now.

On paper, she sold herself as a well-rounded candidate as far as extracurricular and academic achievements went, but in her head she felt as if well-rounded was the last phrase she'd use to describe her present situation. She wanted to be well-rounded, she wanted the perfect home life she'd always thought she'd had to be true, she wanted to feel like she understood who she was and where she'd come from, but she didn't.

"Sorry", hearing the apology the moment a man bumped into her as he brushed past her on the footpath, she noticed for the first time that the campus was busy.

Glancing at her watch, she realised she'd been wandering the grounds for a little longer than she'd realised, lost in her thoughts, which was not what she needed right now. She had an interview with the director of admissions in 15 minutes and although she'd spent the flight from Houston to New York running through exactly how to approach the situation, suddenly she didn't feel the least bit prepared.

The advice she constantly received from those she trusted was to be herself because she was already exactly what colleges were looking for, without having to pretend or exaggerate, and that was probably true, she expected to have her pick of colleges come March, that is, if her identity crisis didn't ruin her chance at making a good impression first.

Heading down the path to the admissions office, she knew that now really wasn't the time to be getting caught up in mysteries of the past, she had her own future to focus on, but she truly was very distracted. Thoughts of her mother, Cliff, JR, Bobby and Pamela all needed to be set aside, but to do so was not easy. She'd stumbled upon something far greater than she could have ever imagined existing and she was too deep into her investigation now to separate the issues.

To be continued…