-I know that I shouldn't be starting another story right now, I mean, there are like three that I haven't finished yet. But I really want to write this story, so I'm going to. I can't tell you if my other stories will ever be completed or not. But I'm going to really try to get this one finished. So I hope you enjoy it!-

"Clare Bear, could you get me a can of chicken broth from the pantry?"

Clare sighed, she hated the nickname that her mom gave her. She went to the pantry and looked. There was no chicken broth.

"There isn't any Mom."

"Well I'll go to the store real quick and get some."

"Seriously Mom, you don't have to, we can have soup tomorrow night."

"You want soup tonight though. I'll be back in a little bit."

Clare sighed again as her mother left. She looked a lot like her mom. At fifteen, she was tall, with dark brown hair and olive skin. Her eyes were a deep dark brown, a shade that could tell you more about her than she actually knew about herself. She didn't know who her dad was; she didn't think her mom knew either. It was just the two of them, Katie and Clare, sharing a tiny two bedroom apartment.

They didn't have a lot of money, but they weren't poor. Clare had nice clothes and Katie had a good job. Things were going great, in Clare's opinion. She sat down on the small sofa in the small living room and switched on the TV. Nothing was on, and she got bored quickly. She flipped through a magazine. Her mom wasn't back yet, and it had already been twenty minutes. Maybe she got caught in traffic, Clare thought.

Or maybe she saw a street market or something. Her mom was always stopping at little markets and buying things. But markets wouldn't be open this late. Clare was getting a little bit worried. She dialed her mom's cell phone. It rang four times, and the machine picked up. Clare hung up.

Her mom always answered her cell phone. Always. Clare was really worried now. The phone rang, and she picked it up quickly, hoping that it was her mom. It wasn't.

"Is Miss Clare Brown there?"

"This is she."

"Miss Brown, I'm very sorry to inform you that your mother, Miss Katie Brown, has been killed in a car accident."

Clare nearly stopped breathing. It wasn't real, none it was real. It couldn't be real! She pulled herself together, but she could feel tears coming on. She wanted to get off the phone, but the man on the other line was saying something.

"We need you to identify the body. I can send a police car to your house to pick you up. What is your address?"

She told him in a quiet voice her address and hung up. She slumped onto the sofa and started to cry. Clare sat and cried until she heard a knock at her door. She wiped her face and her nose with a tissue and sucked it up. A policeman at the door took her to the crash site, just a few miles from her apartment. There was a stretcher with a white sheet on it. The policeman pulled back the sheet, and Clare began to sob. She managed to choke out, "It's my mom."

A different policeman took her back to her house. She sat on the couch again and cried and cried. She didn't stop crying until she fell asleep.

The funeral was only three days later. Clare's aunt, the one that she hated most, had come to town and was taking care of her. Aunt Grace dropped Clare off in front of the cathedral and went to park. Feeling very alone, Clare entered the church. She took a seat near the back and started to look around her. She didn't recognize most of the people.

There was a large group of people sitting a few rows in front of her, all of them talking, a few of them crying. Some of them had kids with them. Some looked Clare's age, others looked way younger. She wondered how this group was connected to her mom. Maybe she would never know.

Her Aunt Grace sat down next to her then, and the funeral started. It was surprisingly short, but Clare didn't notice. She was quietly crying and wiping the tears away.

There was no after party, just a reading of the will for those whom it concerned. As she sat down at a long table, Clare recognized a few of the people who she had been looking at before. The lawyer came in, and he appeared flustered and ready to get this thing over with. He read the will quickly, but it said nothing about Clare until the very end.

Some jewelry was given to a Ms. Summer Hathaway. Mr. Dewey Finn received a bass guitar. Bass guitar? Clare thought. Why would her mom have a bass guitar? Her mom didn't even really like music that much.

Finally the lawyer got to Clare.

"To my daughter Clare, I give everything in the house that I haven't already given away. As for the custody of Clare, I give it solely to Zack Mooneyham."

"Who?"

"What?"

The lawyer appeared to get more flustered, but had something else to say. "To explain her choices, Miss Brown left each of you a letter." (a/n sorry if this is a little bit too much like the movie Raising Helen, but it won't be, I promise)

Clare began to read her letter, and Zack did the same thing.

-Do you love it or hate it? Please review!-