There are three things a girl never wants to hear…

1) "It's me not you." Let's face it. This is the ultimate worst lie in the world. It's the biggest slap in the face because, regardless of what the speaker says, the issue is clearly you. Why else go to the effort of saying something like that? It's like adding a quick "No offence" to the end of a rude statement – people are going to take offence!

2) "I'm sorry…" When a sentence begins with this it's like an internationally recognised warning sign that whatever is to follow is not going to be beneficial, fun or pleasant. An apology is confrontational at the best of times. It draws attention to that we'd rather ignore.

3) "There's something I have to tell you/you need to know." This phrase usually preludes some ground breaking, life changing, perspective altering information… The worst part? Those exact words were coming from my Mother's lips.

"Jaydan… I'm not your real mother."

Never mind the fact I was currently residing in the universe referred to as reality, my eyes had just popped out of my head and I was 110% sure my jaw had detached itself from my face and had taken up residence on the floor.

"WHAT!" My only thought spilled from my lips.

A moment of silence passed before it was broken by my roaring laughter, "Good one Ma, you got me."

Her laughter didn't join mine. Her face was composed and serious, as though she were an actor, on a stage delivering some kind of practiced speech. Her eyes seemed to shimmer in the warm glow that radiated from the living room's ancient chandelier. They were the only sign that this was real, not a Hollywood scene.

Didn't most adopted children find major differences between themselves and their parents, differences that made it at least a little obvious? My eyes scanned, calculatingly over her face, her body. It was all so similar to mine. For years we had passed as Mother and daughter to everyone, even I had been caught in the façade.

A chill began to seep into my soul, all my life had been a lie. If this person wasn't my mother, than who the hell was?!

I barely recognised my voice as I asked the one question that haunted me, "Then who are you?"

Her lips twitched slightly as though attempting a smile, "I'm…"

'My name is Jaydan "Dannie" Rachel Morgan. I am fifteen years old. I was born, on Saturday, November 19th 1994. My father died when I was very young. I like books and running.'

The mantra had become a large part of my morning routine since I'd found out the truth, the day I began to discover that my life was messed up. My life, as I knew it, was wrong.

I was different, my life was different and that wasn't going to change, nothing was going to be normal ever again. I was lucky that my grandparents had actually been a regular and constant part of my life before and after the truth. I'd lived on their picturesque ranch in Nebraska for most of my life (excluding the months during the holidays when she'd send for me). My Grandparents were the only part of normal I had to hang onto. Them and school (but what's ever normal about school?).

"Danny!" my Granma called from downstairs, "Are you up yet? You'll be late if you don't mind the time."

My printer spluttered and groaned and I prayed it would actually print my English essay without the need for physical recalibration (read brutally bashing in frustration). Pulling on some skinny jeans and a green polo, I tossed my dark honey dirty blonde hair into a ponytail before grabbing my school and gym bags, stepping out my bedroom door.

"Essay!" I cursed, backtracking to grab the 5 page document that I'd spent all night typing, off the printer.

The painting of a small Italian villa seemed out of place on the landing of my Grandparent's steps though I smiled at it all the same as I walked down the creaky old stairs and into the kitchen, ready for yet another day of my senior year. I made myself a cup of tea and grabbed a bowl of cereal for breakfast.

Granma was outside hanging out some washing, though still smiled at me through the window. I smiled back quickly eating my food.

I washed, dried and put away all the breakfast dishes. Collecting my jacket, sneakers and bags I flashed myself a grin as I gave myself one last check in the mirror, my aquamarine eyes scanning over my attire.

"I have cheerleading today Granma, then bowling, so I won't be home until a little later than usual, about 8," I said.

"Okay Danny, do you want me to save you something to eat?" Granma asked.

"No thanks, I'll grab something in town," I replied, giving Granma a hug.

My hand gripped tighter to my bags as I began my walk eastward to the road. Grandpa was beginning work on planting a corn crop over in the northern field. I waved the silver haired man a goodbye which he eagerly returned.

It's exactly a mile to the mailbox from the front door of the house. I've measured.

The school bus sat in its usual spot waiting for me on the side of the road. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a black sedan with Washington plates, though it was cut from my vision as I stepped onto the bus.

"Good morning Brenda," I greeted the tired looking bus driver.

"Good morning honey, hop on," she smiled, closing the door.

The clean bus was filled with the usual morning chatter. Emily, my 17 year old friend, sat on the back seat of the bus with half the football team. She waved for me to sit beside her so I hurried along the aisle taking a seat at the back. The bus pulled onto the road and began forty five minute long drive to school. Emily was clad in a black denim miniskirt with a red blouse that showed way too much cleavage and a black leather jacket. Her wrist was adorned with at least 20 silver bangles all different styles of design.

"Hey Chica!" Emily greeted me in her fake Spanish accent.

"Hey Em," I replied, "Did you remember to bring your essay?" I asked, shoving my bags at my feet.

"Yes, how could I forget?" she replied, "After all, this is the third last week and three days until the end of the semester meaning... SUMMER!"

"I know!" I exclaimed, "I can't believe there are less than three weeks until summer vacation... and less than 72 hours until Saturday."

She laughed, "Yeah, three weeks before YOU ditch me for one of your crazy trips away to see your Mom," she joked.

They didn't know the truth and part of me wanted to keep it that way, so I laughed, "Oh, well what about you? You're the one ditching ME for EUROPE!" I responded.

I pulled my phone out to check if I had any messages… nothing. In the reflection of the dark screen I could see the car from before… it was following us.

"How strange."

"What, you not having any text messages or something else?" a deep voice questioned. I looked up coming face to face with Jack, the most popular guy in school and one of my other best friends.

I shot him a glare and stuck my tongue out at him, "Jerk."

He chuckled, "So Jaydan, who are you taking to prom?"

I smiled, "Well that depends Jack... are you asking?"

He grinned, "Depends Jay, are you accepting?"

I chuckled, "Depends, when will you pick me up?"

He smirked, his cute smirk and took my hand in his, "How's six at your front door sound?"

I smiled, "Perfect."

"Kiss, kiss…" One of the other footballers, Greg, chanted.

Jack shoved him as I rolled my eyes, "Shut up, Greg."

We all laughed as Jack took the seat beside me joining in the conversations that were taking place around us.

Half an hour or so the bus pulled up outside of the High School, we grabbed our stuff and piled off the bus. Jack, Travis, David, Elliot, Emily and I strode into the building.

Mr Morrison our extension trigonometry teacher stood talking to Lucy, my other best friend, "Now Miss Brown I assure you that the only possible way to figure that equation out is by utilising the sine and cosine formulas together."

"No, I have proven it wrong here sir!" Lucy argued. She was the only other 15 year old (actually freshly 16 year old), in our group and school for that matter. As a result, we'd been grouped in with the grade above us. We'd excelled since… well, she did. Luce was older than me by three months and while I had an outstanding IQ level, hers was at least 10 points higher than mine. She was a full blown genius, what's more is she knew it and always tried to push the boundaries with what she could do, create and theorise.

"It states that..." Lucy began.

Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, "For every action there's an equal and opposite reaction," I stated hoping Lucy would get the message. She frowned and stopped talking, a defeated look on her face.

"We'll see you in period four Mr Morrison," I said politely, leading Lucy away to our waiting group.

Jack and Travis stood talking about the upcoming game while Emily and Elliot stood making out in the middle of the hallway. David was talking with Ruby, the final member of our school group, by their lockers.

I sighed, "Lucy you know you can't keep undermining Mr M, he is very sensitive with that sort of stuff. Surely you know that by now, especially after the time you reduced him to tears."

Lucy nodded, "I know. It's just annoying because I know he's wrong. It's so frustrating!"

"Go give your boyfriend a hug or work on that invention you told me about," I suggested as we approached the guys.

She nodded and walked over to Travis hugging him tightly... well as tightly as she could.

I stopped in front of my locker and shoved my bag into it.

Jack walked over to me smiling, "Jay, could you do something huge for me?"

I nodded, "Sure. What?"

"Can you cover for me in Physics, Brittney said there's something urgent she needed to talk to me about," he questioned.

I nodded, "Fine, I'll cover for you. Say hi to Brit for me though."

He chuckled, "Thanks Jay."

"It's nothing that hard to do, especially with Mrs Collins," I smiled.

Brittney was Jack's 'long term' girlfriend and when I say long term I mean on-again off-again. She attended Sullivan Academy, the private school in the next town. Brit was alright, but sadly, due to the inter-school conflict, our school had banned everyone from bringing anyone from the Academy, which left poor ol' Jack with me for the prom.

The bell for first period rang.

"Have fun," I whispered to Jack, grabbing out my books and slamming my locker shut.

He smiled faintly before turning and walking off into the sea of students.

I hurried off to homeroom.

The first periods had flown by and I sat on the grass under our tree by the football field waiting for my friends to arrive.

Jack appeared out of nowhere and took a seat beside me, saying nothing.

"What's wrong?" I asked, as I began to munch on my sandwich, "Did she break it off again?"

My only response was a nod as he snatched my packet of crisps out of my backpack.

I sighed, "I dunno what to say… don't let her get you down, she's probably just being hormonal?" I offered.

He chuckled, "Thank god I've still got you."

"Yeah, who else would let you steal their crisps?"

He chuckled and offered me one of my own crisps, shuffling closer towards me to allow the others to take a seat in the shade.

"What did we miss?" Emily questioned, eyebrow quirked as if seeing something interesting.

I smiled, "Nothing." I cast a look at Lucy who was trying to hide the fact her hands were currently deep blue.

"Lucy, you've been caught red handed or well blue handed, spill because I'm sure we all want to know how you managed to do that."

Lucy shot me a glare, "You're very punny."

"I try," I grinned, watching as she blushed and began to tell us how she'd wreaked havoc in Art.

The day had passed by like any other. Our group all sat at our favourite lane at the local bowling alley after an hour of hard training, the boys in sports and all of us girls in cheerleading. It was getting rather late and I knew my dead-line (with Grandpa) was 7 pm, though Gran knew I may have been late and on top of the current time it was nearly an hour's drive home from here.

"Guy's I'm going to head home," I began.

"Awe, party pooper," Emily whined.

"I'll give you a lift, besides I have chores I still have to do," Jack offered.

"Thanks Jack," I smiled, gathering all my things up.

"See ya'!" our group called after us.

"Bye!" we replied, walking over to the desk.

"Hey Jack and Miss Jay," the old owner of the bowling alley greeted us.

"Hey Harry, thanks for the lane," I thanked him.

We handed back our shoes and pulled on our actual shoes.

"No problem, it's your lane, always has been and now officially always will be, it's got your names on it," he chuckled, pointing to the screen of records. On the top was Jack and my own names in rainbow font colouring.

We'd spent an entire long weekend at the bowling alley trying to perfect our bowling and achieve a perfect game. To say the least, that had been one of the best memories I'd ever made.

Jack and I laughed along, "Thanks Harry."

"It's raining out so drive safe," he warned.

I smiled, "We will," Jack replied.

Harry nodded, disappearing out the back.

We grabbed our bags before running out to the car being extra careful not to slip.

Out of the corner of my eyes I caught sight of a familiar black sedan. I shrugged off the eerie feeling I got with it and pulled my seat belt on.

I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew, Jack was carrying me up to my room along with my bags. I heard him mumble a "goodnight" and "see you tomorrow" though I was too tired to respond.

The next morning had been much the same the one before except today I had a pounding headache that wasn't leaving me at all. My night had been filled with crazy, haunting dreams that had left me exhausted.

I stepped off the bus quietly, rubbing my head frustratingly.

The school building looked deserted. I ran up to the main door where a group of students were congregated. A chain and a lock were placed on the doors and a note saying CLOSED. I groaned silently in frustration, only in this town would no one let us know the school was closed. I turned searching for my friends, in my peripheral vision I spotted the same black sedan I'd been noticing a lot lately.

Emily bounced up to me, "So Chica, want to go do something?"

I shrugged, "The bus has gone and since Jack only asked me to Prom yesterday I haven't got a dress… feel like shopping?"

"Did someone say shopping?" Ruby quizzed, materialising from nowhere and causing me to jump a foot in the air.

There were really only two women's clothing shops in town. So with a wave to the boys the four of us were off.

Emily began to tell me all about her holiday to Europe in finer detail while I browsed.

"So mother said we would be going to Greece to see the family. Oh I'm so excited, I'll hopefully get some time on the beach so I can tan up..." she rattled on.

My eyes landed upon a bright red gown.

Laughter, music and the distinct smell of cotton candy filled the air. I cast my gaze towards a bunch of balloons, out of the entire bunch there was a single red balloon. It stood out like a sore thumb amongst the white and yellow. A tug on my tiny hand drew my attention towards a man. He was tall though I could not clearly see his face. The music grew louder, enchanting me as I swayed along to it, my tiny hand clutched tightly in a much larger one.

"Jaydan, are you even listening to me?" Emily's voice felt like a knife, cutting through whatever thought or memory I'd been lost in.

"France sounds amazing!" I gushed, trying to guess the country Em had just been talking about.

"I know right! Gosh I hope I meet some gorgeous European boy and fall in love," Emily sighed.

I chuckled, "Bring me home one too then." Emily sat on an antique looking bench, looking out the window with a dreamy smile.

I turned back to the rack of dresses, trying to recall where that memory was from, or if it was a memory at all.

"Oh that white one is nice," Lucy's voice piped up, "It's perfect for you!"

Some part of me heard her even though I was a lifetime away.