"Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it."

Charles R. Swindoll

•••

We were packed and sitting in my grandmother's fancy, black limo in no time.

My eyes widened and jaw dropped when I first saw our expensive way of transportation. My initial thoughts were the same as any other seventeen year old in my situation;

My grandmother is rich. Ridiculously rich.

She had to be.

What other woman, in her late sixties, had security guards trailing after her and travelling in limos?

No sixty year old in this neighborhood, thats for sure. I was half-expecting the tires to be punctured and the doors scratched but I guess the boys who usually lounged about in the street decided against it. It might have had something to do with Anthony and Louis, my grandmother's ever so reliable security guards. It seemed like they made a habit out of scowling like spoilt, aggressive teenagers. It was enough to put even the most rebellious of people off.

"Woah! This is sooo cool. I can't wait to tell Maria that I sat in an actual limo. Is this how famous people feel?"

Lucy's excitement over everything and anything was really beginning to rub me the wrong way.

"Well that's if you're ever going to see Maria again. We're moving away, if you hadn't already noticed. That means new school, new town, new friends." My tone is bitter and I can feel Lucy stare at me, her eyes wide and her expression shocked. My grandmother is mirroring Lucy's expression perfectly.

I wait for a witty response, from either one of them but they don't speak.

In fact they don't speak to me for the rest of the journey.

********

"We're here! Home sweet home!" My grandmother says with a huge smile on her face.

I roll my eyes.

I kind of guessed we'd arrived when the limo turned into a gated driveway. Through the tinted windows I could see the house I'd be calling home for the next year. Well, until I turned eighteen and finished my senior year.

The house is big. But I wasn't expecting to see anything less. Anyone driving in limos would have a house to match.

And boy it did.

I have to physically restrain my face from showing any sign of shock, wonder or awe. Lucy was doing it all for me.

"This is your house? This is where we're going to live?" Lucy can barely contain herself.

My grandmother smiles again , "Yes, this is where you're going to live and you better get used to it because this is now your home too."

Lucy skips towards the house and spins round the white pillars built outside the grand doorway.

"It's not going to hurt you to smile." My grandmother watches me carefully, in the same annoyingly observant way she had been since the moment we met.

"It's seven thirty in the morning. What do you want me to do? Jump up and down?"

"No not that." She replies with a sigh, "but a little enthusiasm won't do you any harm."

"I'll work on it." I tell her just to close the subject.

We walk towards the two-door entrance. My eyes narrow when I see Lucy converse with a middle-aged man stood on the porch.

The man turns to me as if noticing my glaring, "You look exactly like your father." He claims out loud, astonished.

"I do share DNA with the man so what else did you expect?" I answer abrubtly, my dislike for the man stood before me is clearly expressed by my irritated expression.

The man grins and I have to reign in my surprise. Something about this man, his mousey blonde hair and bright blue eyes, reminded me of someone...

"This is your Uncle," My grandmother declares proudly, confirming my thoughts, "my son Elijah. Your mother and Elijah were really close when they were kids."

"That's amazing!" Lucy beams with pride and I simply nod at the new peice of information.

Uncle Elijah asks us to come in. We follow him inside. Lucy continues her excited skipping whereas I stomp. I didn't want to be here and I was putting on quite the show to make it known.

I continued to frown and huff under my breath whilst Lucy fawned over the spiral staircase, marble floors and the ginormous chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

"I have a daughter your age. Her name is Madison." Uncle Elijah whispers behind me as we step through another set of double doors.

The woman and girl eating their breakfast on the dining table look up when we walk in. The woman is absolutely beautiful . She has long, dark hair, curled loosely on the ends. Her skin is a glowing transulucent which contradicts her dark eyebrows and hair but makes her beauty even more unique. The girl who I guess is Madison shares her mother's features. However, her hair is shorter and her face is scrunched into a disgusted scowl. I want to squirm when her eyes rake over my black dress.

She's wearing a white buttoned top, a navy shield shaped logo sewn on the flimsy material. The skirt she's wearing, also navy, is pulled so high that you could probably see her underwear from where I was standing.

I still looked like a skank compared to her and judging by her snobby expression she thought the same.

"Oh my gosh! Aren't they beautiful, Elijah?" Elijah's wife, I had taken upon myself to assume, nears us, her heels tapping against the tiled floors.

Seriously, who dressed like this at half seven in the morning?

My dress was an exception. I didn't have time to change.

"Yes they are more beautiful than I could have ever imagined!" It's my grandmother who answers with a large smile.

The woman's grin widens as she takes my face in her hand. I try not to flinch when her long fingernails dig into my cheeks.

"You look exactly like your father. Truly stunning." I pull away from her grip and look away, feeling uncomfortable all of a sudden.

The woman, thankfully, turns her attention on Lucy, "and you young lady are a spitting image of your mother. Both so beautiful. You girls are going to be chasing the boys off at school!"

For some strange reason I turn red. Something I never did.

"Leave the poor girls alone, Eleonor. They've been up all night." Uncle Elijah cuts in, saving us from Eleonor's intense inspection.

"Madison, do you need a ride to school?" He asks his daughter.

Madison doesn't look up from her phone, "I'm going with Isaac," she mutters casually.

"Isaac lives next door," Eleonor informs Lucy and I as if the very statement is a monumental secret, " and our Madison has a crush on him."

"Mom!" Madison looks up long enough to groan. When she see's my smirk she glares.

I grin wider.

Madison clearly didn't want this Isaac guy knowing that she liked him. I could use this piece of information to my advantage.

I snap out of my scheming thoughts when I hear laughter and footsteps nearing the room we're currently stood in. A few seconds later the double doors swing open.

I have to stop myself from dropping my jaw.

Two of the most gorgeous boys I have ever laid eyes on step into the room.

Authors Note:

What are your thoughts on this chapter and the new characters?

Love,