Chapter 3: Increasing Views

Nessie's POV

When I woke up the next morning and saw that my video had hit 90,000 views I nearly died of shock. I laid there in bed, frozen, as I stared at the screen. I rubbed my eyes a few times thinking that maybe I was imagining the number but I wasn't. I only finally moved when Lucky nudged me with his cold wet nose. Once I came out of my shock my heart started to beating a million times a minute. People from all over the world were seeing my video. Hearing my plight. Only how much longer would it be until my family saw this video? Or would I be so unlucky that this video would never even reach my family?

I eventually got out of bed and started getting ready for the day. I had to pretend that everything was normal so my parents wouldn't get suspicious. I knew that the likelihood of my video coming to their attention was getting higher and higher with every single view that I got but I was still hoping to put that off as long as I could. I walked downstairs where the smell of sausage emanating from the kitchen hit my nose. Figures my mom would already be up and making breakfast. She didn't say a word when I entered the kitchen and started setting up the table.

I guess neither one of us really knew what to say. The argument still fresh on both of our minds. Should I be the one to break the silence? Or should it be her? I decided that I should be the one to break the silence.

"Mom you know that I do love you and dad, right? Nothing could ever change that,"

She didn't say anything at first. I was beginning to think that maybe she hadn't heard me when she said "I know that sweetie but I just wish that you would let the subject drop already,"

"Mom I'm not the only kid in the world that has been adopted. I'm sure I'm not the only adopted kid that just wants to know who my biological parents are or why they gave me up. It doesn't mean that I don't love you or that I'm ungrateful or anything. You will always be my mother,"

My mom didn't say anything but I was certain that my words had an impact on her when I saw the tears forming in her eyes. How my mother, and father for that matter, could ever doubt my love was unreasonable and completely beyond my comprehension.

"I'm sorry mom," I said because I really had no idea what else to say.

"Just don't ever bring it up again to your father or I. Just please let it go already,"

I didn't understand how my mom could believe that I could just let it go. Pretend that I didn't have another set of parents in the world that actually created me. I mean I wasn't exactly a baby either when I was adopted. I had to be at least five years old. That would mean that I lived with my other family for five years. What made them change their minds about me? Was it just that they hated being parents to much that after five years they decided just to rid themselves of the problem?

I guess I'll never know the truth unless my family does see the video and decides to contact me. Or what if they saw the video and still didn't want to contact me? What if they saw it and decided that I wasn't worth the time or the effort? That's a very real possibility. Hopefully though, just hopefully, that would not be the case.

"Just sit down and eat breakfast is ready," she handed me a plate full of eggs and sausage. My stomach growled loudly at the smell. At least mom seemed to have forgiven me. Even dad decided to just pretend that last night didn't happen. I was okay with that myself. I hated fighting with my parents over anything.

My parents had a golf tournament to go to so I was on my own until the Dwyer kids arrived at 11am. Eric was more than happy to play videogames all day while Marie wanted to play fetch with Lucky. While they were playing I decided that I should probably study in hopes of bringing up my grades before I was kicked off the baseball team. Also it wouldn't be long before it was time to apply for colleges and having three Ds would certainly hurt me a lot in that department.

When I checked on my video again the views had jumped to 98,000. My breath got caught in my throat. At the current rate it was going I was going to hit the one million view mark before the day ended. Indeed I surpassed the one million view mark by the end of the day The views only continued to increase each and every day. By Wednesday evening I reached six million views. By Friday that number had ballooned to six million views.

One day, while I was out on an errand, a total stranger recognized me as "that girl from the video,". This only served to make the number of views more real for me. These weren't just numbers. These were actual people watching my video. It wasn't just strangers either. Once word had gotten out about my video it spread like wildfire throughout the student body at my school. The popular girls like Leslie, Britany, and Sophie tormented me relentlessly about it. They bullied all the girls in eleventh grade though. Basically every girl outside of their little clique.

My parents were the only ones that didn't appeared to have seen the video. They didn't go online much though and when they did it was mostly for work related reasons. Hopefully that would be enough to keep them in the dark for awhile longer as I didn't feel like getting into another massive argument with them though.

When I glanced down at the number of views again I was still in shock. Six million people from all over the world. I went to bed that Friday night with that number stuck in my head. Wondering what number I would see when I woke up again.

I was dreaming. I knew that was dreaming because I've had this dream a million times, possibly more, in my life. It was one of those dreams where you knew where you were dreaming but you couldn't do anything about it. I hoped that I could possibly change the course of the dream this time but knew that was unlikely. I had tried many times before and failed.

I was back in Washington state. I was physically five years old. My family was gone and I had been left alone with my uncle. I couldn't remember his name. I just remembered that he was very big and burly. He was the biggest person in my family. Also one of the most goofy and lovable. What was his name? I think it started with an Em but I wasn't sure. The only thing I knew was that he had dropped me off at this park by myself because I had been annoying him all day about coming to the park so I could play with my new puppy. A chocolate Labrador puppy that my grandparents had gotten me when I asked for one. My uncle Em or whatever his name was didn't want to go the park with me because he wanted to stay home and play video games so he decided that I would be okay on my own.

So I was there by myself with Hershey. I had named my puppy Hershey because he was as chocolate as a chocolate Hershey bar. I stopped playing with him when I saw a man watching me in the distance. I tried to stop myself from walking over there because I knew what would happen when I did. Having had this dream so many times before in my life. I screamed at myself to stop. Of course it was all to no avail.

The man smiled at me when he saw me coming.

"Hi there little girl are you all by yourself?"

"Yes, who are you?"

"Is that you dog?"

"Yeah his name is Hershey,"

"You like Hershey bars? I have some in my car if you want some,"

I woke with a start. My heart pounded in my chest against my ribcage. I awoke with a start. No matter how many times I've had that nightmare it never stopped scaring me. I've told myself a million times that it was just a dream. It wasn't real. Eventually the fear fades until I have the dream again. I've always wondered who Em was to? Uncle Em? Maybe another relative of mine? It didn't make sense but then dreams rarely ever made sense.

Lucky pushed his head into my chest and I rubbed petted him a few times. Immediately I started to calm down. I suddenly stood up though when I heard what sounded like a wolf howling in the distance. Odd because we don't get wolves around here.

I laid back down certain that I had just imagined the sound.

Please Review