Hello everyone and welcome to Chapter 2, I can't believe the amazing response I got to this.
Thank you thetigerlilly for following, reviewing and adding to favourites (oh and welcome to the world of Tracy Beaker/The Dumping Ground)
Thank you Linneagb for reviewing
Thank you Zebralover4578 for adding to favourites, following and commenting
Thank you LozziepopBabyXxX
Thank you PurpleSkiesandRainbows for commenting and following
I have taken in all the advice, thank you it was very helpful for a first time author, sorry that this chapter is in first person instead of third. But please tell me either by PM or review if you prefer it in 1st or 3rd. Anyway on with the story.
I sat on the bus on my way home from school, my younger sister Beta who was in the same school year as me was at a friends house. I however wasn't, probably because I didn't have any friends. I stared out of the window, staring wistfully at the pedestrians. Nearly all of them were children or teenagers, all in small groups, laughing together, chatting, smiling, having fun. Then there were the families, the usual. A Mother with a girl and a boy holding her hands and they were all smiling. But there wasn't just one family, there were so many and they all looked so happy. They lived a life I didn't have. Friends, I had none and family, well... I did, until a week ago. I was only 11 but my sisters had already started cutting me out of their life, to my parents I was a disappointment, not as clever, or talented, or musical, or as good as Verus. None of them wanted me.
When they told us, the truth, the truth about... me, it upset Verus just as much as it did me. Only 12 years old she walked out of the house and when she returned she was a different person. She had bought new clothes, so our clothes weren't the same, she had had her hair cut, there was purple hair extensions in it, she was wearing makeup, and she wasn't wearing our best friend/sister friendship bracelet. Verus and I were so close, we were best friends, we were sisters, we were the same person. But then Verus left me, when she found out how similar we were, and she replaced me with Beta. It hurts when your family kick you out, and they were all I ever had, now they were leaving I had nothing.
"Imitari, what are you doing here?" the voice asked, a voice that sent shivers down my spine.
"Yeah why are you on a bus?" another voice asked, I still couldn't bring myself to look.
"I didn't think your family could afford to travel on a bus," the first voice said.
"How can you afford to go on a bus, when you can't afford clothes from Primark," she said again.
I blushed furiously, it was the truth, all my clothes did come from the charity shop. I ignored them and kept looking out of the window waiting for her to walk past. I kept looking, "ignoring us are you Imitari," the head girl said, I looked up into her cold brown eyes, they were full of anger.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," then suddenly she grabbed my hair and pulled me forward making sure that I banged my head hard against the stop button.
The bus ground to a halt and the group of girls grabbed me, walked me over to the doors and pushed me off the coach onto the hard ground, apart from I didn't hit the ground, I hit her. The bus drove away and I stood up, "I'm so sorry," I began.
"No, no, it wasn't your fault." the girl said, I looked around, I was in the bad part of town. This is where I lived, "what's your name?" she asked.
"Imitari," I said,
"cool name, I'm Shayla," she told me, I nodded.
"But most people call me Shay, so yeah cool me Shay,"
"Most people call me Immy," I told her.
"Shay and Immy, I like it," she tells me.
I nod, stunned, she is talking to me in a friendly way, acting like we are... friends?
"How old are you Immy?" she asked,
"14? 15?"
"11," I told her, she looked surprised but to be honest I was used to it. I don't know why but I looked much older than I really was, I looked the same age as Verus, many people had mistaken us as twins in the past.
"I'm 16," she said, I looked down embarrassed.
"That doesn't mean that we can't be friends," she told me.
So that's how I became friends with Shay, she was the most amazing person I had ever met, for years she had been my idol. Long blonde hair, tanned skin, green eyes. Gorgeous. For years I had imagined her as my best friend, or simply being her. Everyday she walked, no, she strutted like a model down a catwalk, the crowd separated for her and she never stopped to thank them. She was a Goddess, she had perfect hair, she wore posh designer clothes and she was always alone. I guess she must have seen me as an apprentice.
After a couple of days of being friends she turned up at the school gates and we walked home together, then it was the weekend and she turned up at the flat. I was cautious at first, refusing to undo the locks until she proved it was her. She found it funny, me refusing to open the door that is. Then she took me shopping, she bought me a new wardrobe of clothes, when I saw the price of the one of the t-shirts I was horrified. That amount of money could feed my family for a week. But Shay didn't care, she handed over her credit card and bought me loads. It must have cost her hundreds of pounds but she didn't mind, she encouraged me to spend the money. I guess those shopping trips were how it all started, the start of my life falling apart. You may wonder how a shopping trip wrecked my life, and even now it still sounds stupid. But how was I to know? I was 11, young and naive. I was also curious, and as they say. Curiosity killed the cat, shame I didn't know that till it was too late.