USA

"A little to the left. No, my left!" Gracelyn put her hands on her hips as she observed the Welcome Home banner that was strung from one side of the room to the other. Gracelyn sighed, plopping down on the plush couch. "Good enough, I guess," She muttered as she calmed herself down. Gracelyn got back up and looked around.

Rita and Chase (She refused to call them mom and dad) were coming home from a long trip. Gracelyn figured it would be awesome to throw them a party, but now, she was freaking out for no real reason. The living room had been decorated with streamers and balloons, and some bottles of soda and plates of shrimp was on a table. Gracelyn sighed, her head swiveling as someone came down the stairs.


Nick walked down the stairs, but when he saw the party set up, he tried running the other direction, but he was no match for his little sister's speed. She caught him by the arm and pulled him back down the stairs. "Dammit! I almost got away..." He muttered, then flopped on the couch. "C'mon! Help meeeee!" Gracelyn whined, pulling on his arm. "No, we have maids for a reason! I don't like to do things!" He groaned, wrenching his arm free. "Fine, just go get Danielle and Jayden to come down here. Rita and Chase could be here any time, and I want all four of us down there when they get here!" "Will you ever give up?" Nick groaned

"Upstairs," Gracelyn demanded. "Fine," Nick grumbled as sat up. "JAYDEN! DANIELLE! DON'T LET ME SUFFER ALONE!" "I meant go upstairs and get them!" "But I don't wanna," Nick protested. Gracelyn pouted. "FINE!" Nick sulked up the stairs before he yelled again. "C'MON! Gracelyn will kill you otherwise!"

Danielle was up in her bedroom filing her nails to keep them perfectly shaped. Once done, she examined her light pink nails. Perfection. She was in the mood to entertain guests only for the benefit of showing off her perfectly put together self. Her nails were filed and painted, her hair looked good as usual with its long and soft curls, the light pink dress she wore went perfectly with her rose bud earrings, and everything was just put together so well.

"JAYDEN! DANIELLE! DON'T LET ME SUFFER ALONE!" It had to be her little brother, Nick. Danielle sighed. Perhaps it wasn't all that bad to greet their parents when they came home. After all, Danielle really liked them. They gave her everything she needed to be who she was today. She walked down the stairs and shook her head at her brother. "So lazy... You couldn't bother to actually come up the stairs and quietly inform us that our presence is requested?"

Jayden was playing on his guitar as usual, trying out different chords. He hummed a little along with the instrument and sighed contentedly, lying down on the carpet floor. His room was filled to the brim with music sheets stuffed into tall bookshelves, some of them flying around due to the open window. He didn't mind; after all, later he would organize everything again anyway. He was so into his music playing that he almost didn't hear Nick call him and Danielle.
Jayden startled out of his trance and frowned at the closed door of his room. They should know better than to disturb me while I'm playing music, he thought, frowning irritatingly. He debated whether or not to ignore the calling, wanting to finish playing the piece, but then decided to go downstairs. He carefully placed his guitar on the floor and opened his locked door.
"I thought I told you to not bother me when I'm playing my guitar!" he yelled down the stairs. He saw that his sister Danielle was already down and sighed. I should probably go downstairs, too. The party's for them, after all, he thought, smiling a little to himself. His parents were going to arrive home soon anytime now, and he knows that Gracelyn had worked hard to prepare for their welcome home party. With that thought, he walked down the stairs and tapped Nick on the shoulder. "Next time, don't be so loud," he grumbled.

"No damn way. If I wasn't I would have to walk up the stairs and tell you to come downstairs! Do you KNOW how much work that it?" Nick smirked as one of the servers handed him an iced tea. "Thank you!" He smiled, sipping it down. Gracelyn rolled her eyes.


"Do you even know her name?" "Nope, I don't associate with people who serve and worship me," Nick repiled with a smirk. Gracelyn snorted. "They only put up with you because of their paycheck. How self-centered are you?" "I'm not self-centered, just awesome!" He replied. "What an ego case," She muttered, adjusting a ballon. "I don't know what that means, but HEY!" "An idiot too. GOod thing you were born rich!"

Danielle nodded at her siblings to acknowledge their presence. She glanced at the server who had handed Nick an iced tea. "I would like a peach tea please." she said. The server nodded and headed toward the kitchen. Danielle began watching the front door. I do not recall mom and dad ever telling us what time they would be here. She looked at Gracelyn. "Gracelyn, do you know what time they are supposed to arrive at?" She did not want to stand there if her parents would be a while. She would rather sit and enjoy some music for a bit.

Danielle rolled her eyes at Nick. "We are grateful to have servers who are willing to put up with all of our silly demands even for the money they receive for their service." Her expression changed and she had a slight frown on her face. Something was disappointing her, but she could not figure out what it was. It was then that the server returned with her peach tea and handed it to her. "Thank you." Danielle said with a kind smile. She always made it a point to ask nicely and thank the servers for giving her what she wanted.

Jayden rolled his eyes at Nick's laziness. "Not that hard to just go up a flight of stairs," he said to Nick. He looked around the room, nodding his head at the decoration. "Good job with the decorating, Gracelyn," he said. He went into the kitchen to get himself a drink of water, as he doesn't really like to drink soda much. A server had offered to get it for him, but he declined, thinking that it's not very tiresome to just walk into the kitchen and grab a glass of water. Unlike someone here, who's as lazy as a bum, he thought, glancing at Nick.

Jayden walked back into the living room and sat down on a plush couch. His fingers itched to play something, anything, and he started to tap a beat out with his fingers, nodding his head all the while. "I hope they get here quickly," he mumbled to no one in particular. "I want to get back to my practice," he added.

Gracelyn glowed at the compliment, like she usually did. She rolled her eyes at Nick and offered a smile to Danielle and Jayden. "They should be here any minute now, Rita texted me about fifteen minutes ago saying that they were about seventeen minutes away," Gracelyn reported, adjusting her bright blue high heel. She smiled.


Nick stomped his foot like a two year old. "Is too, well it is if you were at football for like six hours!" He complained. He rolled his eyes at Gracelyn. "Why can't you just call them mom and dad like a normal person? And what's up with the clothes and high heels? You look like a punk version of Danielle,"
(OCC: Remember to tag!)

Danielle nodded. "They should be here in a few minutes in that case." she said and returned the smile. It was funny how Jayden seemed bothered by Nick's laziness. His impatience bothered Danielle. I guess we all have our flaws. At least Jayden was not the type to take advantage of having servers, though she liked to think they hired them for a reason.

"Why can't you just call them mom and dad like a normal person? And what's up with the clothes and high heels? You look like a punk version of Danielle," Danielle cast a quick glare at Nick. "There are a couple things wrong with that you just said. First, there's a reason she doesn't call them 'mom' and 'dad'. You should try asking in a more polite manner. Second, are you saying that being any version of me is a bad thing?"

"Geez woman. And to answer your question, yes, any version of you is bad. The original is horrible!" He declared. He drank more of his tea, glaring at Danielle, an evil smirk on his face. "Why even bother speaking like that? This is not one of those Jane Austen books!" Nick cried.

Gracelyn's face turned a sickly pale. Her eyes dimmed. Her lip started to quiver as she remembered everything. She froze, seeing all the blood, the knife, the kid, everything. Suddenly, she stormed forward, tears streaming down. She knocked Nick's glass of tea over, spilling it on himself. "Hey! What the hell is up with that?"

Gracelyn didn't answer, but only ran to her room. She tugged at her hair, closing her eyes. The part telling her to calm down lost to the bigger area, telling her to scream out everything she ever felt. It was a raging battle in her head. Her ears rang as she panicked, letting out desperate gasps as if she was drowning.

"Gracelyn! What's wrong?" Jayden shouted after her as she suddenly ran upstairs. He had almost been dozing off, listening to the chatter of his siblings. They were all adopted by the Bermudas, meaning that they weren't really actually related, except for Gracelyn and himself. They were twins, orphaned at a young age due to a horrible incident that had scarred both him and his sister for life. He shuddered at the memory, frowning at the thought. Maybe Gracelyn's hurt by Nick's words, he thought to himself as he got up from the couch he was sitting on. He started walking towards the staircase, only to whip his head around to glare at Nick.

"Lay it off, Nick. Stop being such a jerk to everybody. Gracelyn can call Mom and Dad whatever she wants. And stop bothering Danielle," he said. He rolled his eyes at Nick and continued climbing the stairs. How immature, even though he's older than me, Jayden silently mused. He knocked on Gracelyn's bedroom door softly, feeling a bit weirded out. "Gracelyn, is everything okay?" he asked. "Is it about what happened that day?"

Danielle narrowed her eyes at Nick. What an inconsiderate jerk. She was about to go check on Gracelyn, but Jayden was already on it. Instead, she turned to Nick and took a deep breath. Maybe I should just talk to Nick in a calm tone and help him understand what he has done.

"Nick," she began calmly, "Maybe you should think about what you are going to say before you actually say it. You know that every single one of us have a different story about our lives before we were adopted. Some contain bits and pieces that we do not want to remember." Danielle had crossed the room to stand near Nick as she spoke to him. She kept her tone even and hoped that he would listen to her.

Gracelyn only responded with a whimper. Only Jayden really understood what was going on, and besides him, Rita and Chase were the only ones that knew about her past. Her lip quivered. She felt like a baby. Gracelyn shuddered, thinking about everything. Nothing was going right. She cried some more, her whole body shaking.



Nick crossed his arms. "Yeah yeah yeah. Just because I don't have a tragic backstory, or that I was actually born into a good home doesn't mean you get to treat me like a two year old. If I recall, I was actually going to be the oldest sibling, until you came along. Now every time my parents see me, they ignore me. So lay the hell off,"

Danielle tried to keep her expression neutral, but felt her face grow hot. She bit her lower lip and inhaled deeply. A warm drop slid down her cheek. Danielle looked away from Nick hoping that he didn't notice. She shook her head. "I don't have anything to say to you right now. Sorry I brought it up. I must have not been thinking too clearly." she said and quickly walked out of the room, trying her best to hide that she was hurt. Danielle never liked to show anyone when she was hurt. She blinked the tears away as much as she possibly could and took deep breaths to lessen the amount of tears. She would have to fix her makeup to hide that she was crying if no one noticed by then.

Nick rolled his eyes. It was her fault for bringing it up, and he didn't have to take any responsibility. "Yep. One big happy family," He said. He plopped down on the couch. Five minutes passed. Then ten. Then twenty. When it had been thirty minutes, Nick observed as Gracelyn descended down the stairs. "Hey! You're back from your cave!" Glaring at him, she sat down beside him.



Gracelyn looked down, feeling stupid. She had tried to do something nice, but now Rita and Chase still hadn't come. She didn't feel like she belonged. She wanted to go home. Gracelyn flipped through channels before she landed on a news channel.

"Breaking news, apparently there's been a car crash on I 57. This car was a head-on collision, which killed everyone in both cars," Nick whistled. "I'd hate to be those people," The news lady went on. "Apparently, the other car was filled with drunk teenagers, and get this, the other car had Rita Bermuda, the former singer, and her husband, Chase Bermuda," Gracelyn couldn't hear the rest of the report. The words rang in her head. THe glass she had held moments before was in a million pieces on the ground. Nick's mouth gaped open. Gracelyn couldn't hear anything but a scream, which was hers.

Danielle remained in her room. She was able to get herself to stop crying. However, her makeup would need some fixing. With a small sigh, she rose from her bed and calmly walked to her bathroom. Her bathroom mirror displayed a young girl with runny eyeliner, wet and slightly clumpy eyelashes, red eyes, and puffy underneath her eyes. "Crying is a terrible thing." She looked at herself a bit longer and noted that her eyes look a bit brighter than they normally did. That usually happened when she cried.

One more deep breath and she had her concealer in her hand. She was slow to start the process of covering up that she was crying, but finished faster than she had expected. Once she finished, she looked a little bit worn, but it wasn't as easy to notice as before. She smiled at her work and headed back down the stairs. As she neared the bottom, she saw that Gracelyn was back out. She was about to make a comment when-" the other car had Rita Bermuda, the former singer, and her husband, Chase Bermuda," That was all she heard from the news report. Then a glass shattered and a girl's voice was heard screaming in the room. Danielle didn't bother to look. She didn't bother to think. She was frozen. Her entire world was shattered and she felt like it was all over for her.