We all sat at the dinner table, enojying the nice meal Kelly made for us, and talked about school that was coming up in a couple of weeks, but I was to distracted to focus. I stared at my plate trying to focus on figuring out what happened today near their 'meeting place'. How did that Brent guy see me? Maybe he was hiding! But why were their clothes ripped up? That cant be--

"Victoria, you there?" Daniel was waving his hand in front of my face.

"Sorry I was just thinking of something." I looked back down at my plate and started playing with my broccoli.

"Victoria, are you okay? You don't seem right." I looked up at Kelly, which she had a concerned look on her face.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just...tired." I noticed in the corner of my eye, that Kyle looked up from his plate and gave me a glare, but I ignored it. Kelly's concerned expression wiped off her face, and a her friendly smile appeared.

I looked a Daniel, afraid that he might be thinking the same thing Kyles thinking. But he smiled and asked, "Isn't it your seventeenth birthday tomorrow? Are you going to have a party?"

I froze.

A quick memory flashed through my head of my mother leaving me on my birthday. I haven't celebrated my birthday since then. It's been ten years.

I felt my emotions grow inside of me, and the tears started to form in my eyes. I can't cry in front of them. I just can't. "May I be excused please, I'm not feeling well." I didn't wait for answer and got up from the table. As I walked away I heard them saying, "Did I say something wrong?", "No honey, you didn't. I think something happened on her birthday, that she doesn't like to remember."

I began to run up the stairs, so I couldn't hear them anymore.They don't know anything! And it will stay that way. When I made it to my room, I closed and locked the door, but couldn't make it to my bed. I leaned up against the door, and my legs seemed too weak to hold me up, so I slid down the door, with my fists closed tightly. That's when the tears started to roll down my face, one after the other.

"Hey, open up." It was Daniel. I slowed my crying, but I was still too weak to get up and open the door.

"Please." He added.

"I don't want to talk right now." I muttered.

"Well I don't care what you think. You will feel better when you talk about it. Now open the door." Daniel said sternly.

I got up and opened the door, allowing him in. As he walked in, he had a smile on his face, telling me that he was here to help. I slowly walked over to my bed and sat down on the edge, and tried not to make eye contact. He walked right behind me and sat down in the computer chair, and faced me.

"Now, whats wrong?" He said followed by a sigh. Well hmm, let's see. My mother ditched me on my birthday when I was seven. I have been to three different families. I live near woods that have some sort of bear-wolf things, and well... I'm going crazy...

"Nothing." I lied. Daniel leaned towards me and tucked a piece of my brown wavy hair, behind my ear. I looked up towards him and a smile broke across his face, forcing me to smile back.

"Now tell me the truth, whats wrong?"

I gave in. "I don't like my birthday... because my mother left me on my seventh birthday." I said followed by a sigh.

Daniel's eyes narrowed and muttered, "I'm so sorry." Tears started to form in my eyes, which I could not hold in any longer. I never liked crying in front of people, but for some odd reason, Daniel was different. As I was crying Daniel leaned over and gave me a hug, which was just what I needed. "Thanks for being there for me." He got up, and wiped a tear away that escaped my eye.

"No problem." He muttered.

Daniel walked out of the room and closed the door behind him, and for the first time, I felt better after talking about my problems.

After a couple of hours of being in my room, and an occasional break-down, I decided to go down stairs and be with the family. Today was Thursday which ment board game night. Friday nights were taken up by trips to the town, grandparents house, or just a friends house, so they did it on Thursdays. As I was walking down the stairs, I could hear all of them laughing and joking around, which made me happy. I am so lucky to finally have a wonderful family like this. Memories began to form inside my head of the first family I went to. They had about eight adopted kids and three of their own, and the way they got money was the older kids would sell drugs to people. They would always threaten us, so none of us attempted to call the cops, until the newly adopted kid called the cops. So the whole process of finding a family, started all over again. As I reached the dining room, I was greeted by Abigail, one of the twins.

"Hi, Victoria. I haven't seen you in a while. Are you gunna play with us? If so you can be on my team." A smile stretched from ear to ear, so I couldn't resist.

I smiled. "Yeah sure, I'll be on your team." I looked around, and noticed everyone staring at me, so my cheeks started to get hot, and turn red. I lowered my head, because I was ashamed of the incident that happened earlier.

Abigail grabbed my hand and dragged me towards the table, seating me right next to her and Kyle. I looked at Kyle and smiled, and I got no response back from him, so I looked away quickly.

All right then.

The sun shining through my green curtains was my alarm this morning. I sat on the edge of my bed and stretched, forced a yawn, and recalled what happened last night, which was so much fun. We played until Abigail and Andrew were asleep on the dining room table. I definantly don't feel like getting up today. I searched for my slippers with my feet, but gave up pretty quickly, and got up and walked over to my door and walked out in the hallway. I looked up towards the wall clock and it read, 8:22 am. As I took a deep breath I began to notice something was in the air. Bacon. My stomach started to rumble, telling me that it was time to eat. I walked slowly down the hallway and down the stairs, and heard the family wispering. I was confused because usually they would wake me up, also what was different was that they werent their normal loud selves. I quietly walked towards the dining room, and peaked behind the corner. Andrew looked towards me but quickly turned away. I looked around and everyone had thier head down, eating. I walked in and slowly sat down, giving a confused glance at everyone, but I got no looks from anybody, so I ignored it and pulled off the metal cover that was covering my plate, and something was written on my pancake. It read Happy birthday. As I read it, everyone yelled 'Happy Birthday', and pulled balloons out from under the table. My stomach cringed, but I couldn't help myself from smiling.

"Wow, this--this is, awesome. Thank you guys so much." I really did appreciate what they have done for me. Even though I swore to myself that I would never recognize my birthday ever againn, I just totally ignored that thought during this moment.

"Well it was all Daniel's idea. He really thought you deserved a good birthday breakfast." Kelly replied.

I smiled, saying thank you, and everyone got back to eating. This day is going to be a good day.

After breakfast, I went to my room to get out of my pajamas. As I walked into my room I noticed something laying on my bed. So I looked closer, and saw that it was a new shirt and jeans, also some jewelery and flip flops. The shirt was green, with dark green stars and hearts all over it, and the jeans were a dark color. The jewelry that was laying next to it were a pair of green stud earrings and the flip flops were also green, with black hearts on them. I opened up a card that was laying next to the out fit, and it said, 'Happy seventeenth birthday Victoria. We wanted to give you a new outfit for the thing thats going on down stairs. So take a shower and get dressed and hurry down. Love, The Family.' I got excited and quickly ran to the bathroom and took a shower. I put on my make up, light green eye shadow, and black eyeliner, and fixed my dark wavy brown hair. I slipped on my new outfit, and it fit perfectly. As I walked towards the door, I noticed my reflection in the mirror. I look just like her. I stepped towards the long mirror getting a better look at myself. My facial features were the same as my mothers, and my hair was the same dark brown, and wavy. I may look like her, but I will never be like her.

I stood in front of the mirror staring at myself, until I realized that I was supposed to be down stairs. Instant butterflies crept into my stomach, and my heart started to race. I cracked my door and peaked out, afraid of what was down the hallway. When I saw nothing I tiptoed into the hallway and slowly walked towards the stairs. As I got closer I walked up to the banister and peaked down, and there was nothing. Hmm.. I slowly walked down the stairs, straining to hear anything, if something was actually going on, but I heard nothing. I peaked behind the corner, and saw nobody in the dining room. So I walked towards the living room, and nobody was there either.

"Hello!? Is anybody here?" I yelled.

Kelly walked out from behind a corner, "There you are, we're all waiting for you." She grabbed my hand and pulled me around the corner and we stood in front of a closet.

"Close your eyes." I gave her a concerned look, and she sighed and covered my eyes with her hand. We walked a little bit and I heard the sliding glass door being opened, and she lead me outside.

"Now... Look!" She took her hand off of my eyes, and everyone yelled "Happy birthday!" I looked around and the whole family was standing in front of me, with party hats on, and behind them were streamers and balloons tied to chairs, and an enormous cake, which was green.

I couldn't stop from smiling, and my cheeks started to hurt; I was speechless. Abigail walked up to me and she had a gift in her hand.

"Open it." I ripped the wrapping paper and what was hiding behind the paper was a painted green rock with 'Happy birthday Victoria.' on it. I flipped it around and it had on it 'Love Abigail and Andrew.'

"Me and Andrew made it. We remembered your favorite color was green." She said with a smile.

"I love it. Thank you. And thank you everybody for doing this for me." They all muttered 'your welcome' and went off, doing their own things. Kyle and Daniel went inside the house, Abigail and Andrew went and played ball out in the yard. Faith walked over to the Hammock that was in between two huge trees, and Kelly and Chris were talking to each other. So I walked over to the table and sat down, exhausted from last night, and I closed my eyes. But I opened them as I heard the sliding glass door being opened. Kyle and Daniel walked out and three other guys were walking right behind them. It took me a few seconds to realize that it were the same guys that I saw yesterday.

"Mike...Brent...Caleb. I haven't seen you boys in forever!" Kelly walked over to them, and hugged each one.

"Nice to see you Mrs. Blaine." The black haired one said. He looked in my direction and friendly smile appeared on his face. So I smiled back. He walked towards me and my heart started to race.

"You must be Victoria. Daniel and Kyle has talked so much about you."

"Yeah... I am. Well I'm sure everything that Kyle has said are bad things about me" I laughed.

"Haha, yes. By the way, I'm Mike." The red haired one walked over to us, with Kyle right by him.

"Hi Victoria, I'm Brent." He held out his hand, and I shook it. "And him back there, is Caleb." I shook my head to indicate that I understood.

"Nice to meet you." I smiled once again, and I looked down at my feet. I just couldn't look at them straight in the eye, until Caleb came up to us.

"Happy Birthday. We all got you something." He handed me a box, that was small enough to fit in my palm. I opened it pretty quickly knowing they were all watching me, which I didn't like. I pulled the top off of the box, and what was in it was a pretty gold necklace, and attached to it was a green stone in the shape of a heart.

"Hope you like it." said Daniel. "We all chipped in to get this."

"I love it! It so pretty." I looked up towards Mike, Brent and Caleb. "You guys didn't have to get me anything. You didn't even know me."

"Well we felt wrong coming to a birthday party with out a gift. And besides, Daniel and Kyle have talked so much about you, its like we knew you." Mike replied.

I put the necklace on and heard Kelly, "Wow, look at that. Isn't that pretty. You want to blow the candles out now?"

I paused, and soaked up the moment.

This is the best birthday ever

I really wanted to show how close the family is in this chapter.

And hopefully I did it well.

But thank you to the people who are reviewing, it means alot.

So review some more.

:D

I'll be updating pretty soon. I have been camping so I have had alot of time to write.

So get excited.