Camryn's POV

Finally! I am finally driving myself to school this fine Monday morning! Yesterday my dad took me to pick up a new car that the insurance covered. It was the first time I've seen him since the day my mom and I caught him with another woman.

We hardly spoke. All I said was "hi," and "that one." He wanted to go out to dinner but I told him I had plans with Colton, but that was a lie. Colton and I stayed up all night on the phone on Saturday while he was at the party. I was asleep by the time he got home, and we didn't speak all day yesterday.

I'm already tired of this 'space' thing.

I pull up into the school's parking lot and see Colton leaning up against his bike in its usual spot. He looks extra beautiful today. Or maybe I just miss him. He's wearing a gray long sleeved shirt and dark washed jeans and his hair is combed with gel. Handsome.

I park a few spaces down from him and by the time I turn off the car and get out, he's at my door.

"Hey you got your new wheels," he smiles, kissing my cheek.

"You like?" I ask, making a grand gesture towards the car. "It's a 2009 Altima," I say dramatically, as if I'm trying to sell him the car.

"Anything is better than that Camry," he laughs, taking my hand in his as we walk towards the building.

"Hey!" I smack his arm, "That was a great car." He laughs and pretends to be injured.

I'm about to ask him what he did yesterday when something hits the back of my head. I turn around and so does Colton. Walking behind us is a group of girls, one of them eating grapes.

I guess since I'm completely healed, its back to being mistreated. I could sense Colton tensing up but it's honestly not worth it.

"Just ignore them," I tell him. I squeeze his hand a pull him towards my class.

"How do you do it Cam, how do you just let them treat you like that?" he asks. I sigh and lean against the wall outside of my classroom. Colton leans next to me and stares into my eyes, waiting for my answer.

"My life would be miserable if I focused on being bothered by these people, Colton," I sigh. "I know I'm not what they call me, they don't know me, so why cry over some stupid words and thrown grapes."

Colton shakes his head and sighs. "Well I guess you're just a lot stronger than I am."

The bell rings before I respond so I just kiss his cheek goodbye and he says he'll see me in third period. I walk into my math class and try not to fall asleep.

***

Before anatomy I stop by my locker to grab my text book and I see Colton doing the same. I shut my locker and walk over to him.

"Shit!" he huffs, shaking his head.

"What's wrong," I ask once I reach him. He's searching through both his locker and the backpack I got him last week. When he told me he didn't have one I thought he was joking, but turns out he just really didn't care for school.

"Did I leave the anatomy homework at your place in Friday?" he asks, looking frustrated.

"Yea you had to go to work remember," I tell him.

"Shit," he repeats. "Isn't it due today? My grade can't take another hit," he sighs. I smile and he looks at me confused.

"Well I guess it's a good thing you have an awesome girlfriend," I say, opening my bag and pulling out his packet of work. "I finished it for you, but that doesn't mean you're getting out of studying later."

The night he left for work I had nothing else to do so I decided to do my homework and since ours is the same, I thought why not just do his too.

"Babe, you're the best," he sighs in relief, giving me a kiss. "I really have been trying with school, I just... forgot," he says, scratching his head.

He has been doing so much better. He's been making an effort in school and I can tell he likes it too. He's a smart boy, he's just been lazy.

"I know you have, that's why we're going to study our butts off after school to make up for this," I warn. He makes an 'oops' face. "What?"

"I have work right after school, but tomorrow I promise I'm all yours," he says. I nod and we start walking to class.

I love the fact that he works. I feel like it helps him feel less dependent on his father. I can tell it's having a positive effect on him and I just love it.

***

After school, Colton kisses me goodbye before riding off to work. I decide to stop at Starbucks and get myself an iced coffee, even though it's pretty cold out. I pull into the parking lot and decide to take my laptop with me to get some school work done.

I walk inside and luckily it's not too busy so I'd be able to concentrate. After ordering my coffee, I sit at one of the tables and fire up my laptop. I should probably start on my history paper that's due this Friday. My teacher assigned it to us lay Monday and I haven't even chose a topic to write about.

I start googling a bunch of stuff on World War II when I notice a little girl run into the shop.

"Hurry mommy! I don't want them to run out of hot chocolate!" the little girl shouts. She's maybe 6 or 7 and has a big jacket, a beanie, and a scarf protecting her from the cold.

"They're not going to run out of hot chocolate," her mother laughs, walking inside.

"Oh I hope not," says the little girl. She runs up to the counter, pulling on her mother's hand. "Please, oh please tell me you guys still have hot chocolate," she begs the barista.

The barista smiles and says, "Hmmm, let me check if we still have some," teasing the little girl. She looks around her and then says, "Lucky for you, we do," she smiles.

"Yay! Mommy did you hear that?"

"Yes, I did," she laughs. "We'll have a tall hot chocolate and a venti pumpkin spice latte," she tells the barista.

A minute later, the little girl has her hot chocolate and she can't stop smiling. "Thank you so much mommy, I love you," she cheers as they walk towards the door.

Seeing that makes my heart swell. The love between mother and daughter. It makes me wonder about my own mother. My birth mother. I want to know her. I want to know why we couldn't have moments like these. I want to know why she gave me up. I want to know her.

Before I know it, I find myself googling adoptions that took place around December 1997 in my area since my parents have lived here their whole lives.

A list of names pop up on this adoption agency site, but I'm able to cancel them all out by their gender or race. This is odd.

My phone rings, pulling me from my research. It's Colton.

"Hey," I say.

"Hey, what are you doing?" he asks.

"I'm at Starbucks, um studying, are you on your break?" I ask. He's only been at work for an hour or so now, it's pretty early for a break.

"Yea, well not really, it's just really slow," he sighs. "What class are you studying for?" he asks.

"Well, I'm not actually studying, I'm actually doing research, looking for my birth parents," I tell him. "But it's weird, I can't find anything from around the time I was adopted, nothing's coming up."

"Oh, well, um," he stutters. "You know it takes a while for documents to be filed, so why not search adoptions maybe a month or three after you were born," he says.

"Hm, I didn't think of that, thanks babe," I say.

"Anything for you," he laughs shakily.

"Are you okay? You seem a little off."

"Oh, I'm fine, I just have to get back to work, love you," he says quickly before hanging up. That was weird.

I take his advice and widen the time frame of adoptions. A longer list of names pop up and I start searching through each.

After clicking on a name and making sure it's a girl, I then go on to check its race, and if that doesn't check out, it's on to the next name. The information is only on the birth parents who gave a child up, it doesn't have the child's name or the adoptive parents name.

After going through the whole list of names between December 1997 to April 1998, I'm left with six couples who put a Caucasian baby girl up for adoption.

This is all getting too real to me. In this list of six couples lies my birth parents. I'm one step closer to finding them.

****

(Hey guys! Sorry it took so long to update:( this week has been busy but come Saturday I'll get back to regular updates! Don't forget to vote and comment!!!)