You know when you've had a really good night of sleep and when you wake up you stretch your arms and give yourself a smile? Well that's what happened when I woke up the next morning. The blankets covering my body were tangled and I could only imagine what my hair looked like, but I didn't care. For once I wasn't afraid to walk out of my room and go into the kitchen. I actually wanted to go downstairs and see my 'parents'. I wanted to see there smiling faces as Rose made breakfast and David, his arms wrapped around Rose kissed her cheek and hugged her tight. It was a scene I would never get sick of seeing.

Smiling I hopped out of bed, brushed through my hair quickly, grabbed my empty cup of hot chocolate, and walked downstairs, still in my pajamas.

Just as I suspected Rose was again making breakfast in the kitchen and David was standing beside her helping her, leaning sideways every once and a while to kiss her temple. When they saw me they gave me a smile before I put my empty cup in the sink and sat at the kitchen table.

"Good morning Maxine," David greeted me, sitting beside me, "I hope you slept well?"

"Yes I did, thank you. I hope you slept well too?"

"Very well" He responded with a smile.

"I hope you slept well to Rose" I asked her while she set my plate at the table pouring me a glass of orange juice.

"Very well," she responded with a smile, "Now, I don't want to pressure you but hurry up and finish eating because we have to head over to the adoption center today."

I nodded with food in my mouth and continued to eat until my plate was clean. Rose said she would clean everything up while I got dressed and I thanked her and ran upstairs. I showered got dressed in my favorite pair of jeans and a warm sweater, and let my blondish brownish hair loose. That's the thing about my hair is that I never knew what to call the color of it. Shrugging I grabbed my locket from my backpack and put it on faceting the clasp. I tucked it into my sweater so no one could see it and pulled my hair over my shoulders. I didn't put on any makeup because I didn't have anything now to hide and that made me smile. Still with the idiotic grin on my face I went downstairs. Rose looked at me and commented right away, "You look pretty Maxine."

I flinched and Rose must have noticed it because she came over to me and wrapped her arms around me, hugging me close. I buried my head into her shoulder and she started to apologize quickly, "I'm sorry Maxine but you're just such a beautiful girl. I know you haven't heard that in a while but I want you to know that its 100% true."

I didn't know if I believed her. I spent my whole life thinking I was ugly and worthless. How can I go from thinking that to thinking that I was beautiful? My long dirty blonde hair never stayed the way I wished it would, my light blue eyes made my face look bigger and fuller than it really was, and I was not really the skinniest girl alive. I had a weight problem once and I went through a lot of crash dieting to make myself lose weight that obviously didn't work. All that happened from that experience was that I lost a humongous amount of weight but then gained it all back within weeks. It wasn't the healthiest way but it was the only way for me to feel somewhat beautiful again. It would take some time. I didn't want to tell her about my problems with my so I just nodded and hugged her back.

I remember after that David, Rose, and I drove to the adoption clinic and sat down with the adoption lady to sign papers. She asked me a few questions, most of them concerning my dad, and then she handed me a few papers to sign. I read them over quickly scanning the document.

In a nutshell the document said that David and Rose would become my legal guardians, and I would have to follow there rules and regulations until I turned 18. I signed the papers and handed them back to the lady. David and Rose also signed the papers they were given, huge smiles on both there faces. She shook our hands and congratulated us all. It went faster than most adoption processes because I was older and they understood my last home conditions.

After that I remember Rose and David came and gave me a big hug and told me welcome to the family. They told me I would either be attending the local high school I was used to going to or they said they could open enroll me in the private high school nearby. All I know about the private high school is that there all really uptight. A girl in my Civics used to go there and said they had more bomb threats and suicides than all the high schools in the state combined. Also they treated you as if you were 'God's children'. Not really my type of place so I said I wanted to continue attending the public high school because that's what I was used to and that's were I fit in the most.

The next day the movers dropped off the furniture from my old house that I wanted and Rose and David helped me set up my room. Over the summer we painted the walls light blue, and we painted the ceiling to look like clouds in the sky. Without telling Rose or David I painted two birds in the corning flying away, representing my mom and dad and the life I left.

Rose took me to some really high fashion stores to get overly priced clothes and shoes for the new school year and then she took me to get a haircut. I remember the guy telling me that I had beautiful hair and when I cringed and he asked why I said I got a chill and he laughed like it was no big deal.

He cut my hair so that it was lined to my chest area and he layered it a lot because my hair is thick. He also cut side bangs in it that I asked for and made them look really nice, better than my old haircut. I'd have to admit the guy did a damn good job cutting my hair. It was soft, not so thick, and almost brighter. The first day of school was tomorrow so I had to make a new impression.

"What if the kids make fun of me for what happened?" I asked Rose on the ride home from the salon.

"Why would they make fun?" she asked while keeping her eyes on the road, "I would have thought they would bow down to you in your bravery and courage."

I snickered, "Yea, well some people aren't like that."

"If they make fun of you just ignore them and continue on with your life. Your better than them and you've been through too much to just sit there and take it. Also I want you to make a few friends this year. I think it will be good for you."

"I don't know how many kids will want to be my friend after they heard what happened to me. They'll probably just see me as a basket case," I said resting my chin on my fist, looking out the window.

"Anyone would be grateful to be friends with you. Will you at least try?"

I sighed, looking at her, "I'll try, but I'm not making any promises."

I remember getting home late, having dinner, and going to bed. I sat in my bed that night and thought to myself how difficult this year would be. I didn't know what the kids would think of me or how many stares I would get, but I did know that I wouldn't try to let it get to me. Deep down inside though I know it would. Caring way to much about what people thought of me was always a curse of mine.