Life Points Onwards[Re-Writing]

Chapter 19

"It's blank." My sister stated. I furrowed my eyebrows.

"It can't be!" I grabbed the photo out of her hand. When I turned it over, three names were scratched on the back. Janice grinned at me.

"Jokes on you, names are there!" I playfully punched her in the shoulder. She clutched her shoulder, pretending that she was hurt.

"Megan.... Janice.... Cassandra..." I read aloud. "Who's Cassandra?"

"Who knows?"

___

Discussing through the whole evening, my mother finally came home. She saw the light on in my room and quickly entered.

"What are you guys doing? It's eleven o' clock!" My mother shouted at us, but her voice faltered when she saw the photo we were looking at. "Who's that?"

"We don't know. Mom, who's Cassandra?" My mother picked up the photo.

"Cassandra? Not sure. You must have known her pretty well back then." She pointed out the fact that we were holding hands. That's right. Why did we miss that detail? I glanced over at Janice, but she seemed to be absorbed in other photos.

"You don't know her?"

"Nope. But who's that girl with Janice in the back?" My mother picked up her glasses.

"No idea."

"Janice must know her, right?" My mother looked over at Janice. I could've swore that Janice flinched, but everything was back to normal so quickly I didn't notice.

"I don't." My sister stated with a sharp tone. My mother opened her mouth, but immediately closed it. "I'm going to bed."

When Janice left the room, my mother turned to me. I looked at her with expectant eyes. She didn't look at me, and followed Janice out.

___

That night, the thought of Cassandra was stuck in my head. She was so different from everyone I know, so I felt that it would have been highly unlikely that we were friends. I closed my eyes.

As a kid, rich kids like Cassandra didn't want to be friends with me. I couldn't afford new clothes nor shoes, and I ended up wearing the same clothes for years. Of course, little kids were unable to hide their disgust and couldn't keep their mouths shut. When you're little, you don't know what words hurt someone and which don't. But I received a lot of criticism when I was a child. It was a lot of pain to go through as a kid. I never told anyone, because there was no one to tell. Telling my siblings would result in my parents finding out, and my parents were having a hard time already.

I opened my eyes to see that I had stayed awake for six hours. It was only a couple hours before I had to get up. Luckily, I was on winter break. The sun had not risen yet. Suddenly, a thought wiggled its way into my head. I jumped up and retrieved my phone.

"Terry.... Terry... Terry...." I mumbled the name over and over as I scrolled through instagram. There was Terry Bradshaw, Terry Crews, Terry Gilliam, but not the Terry I was looking for.

Finally, when the sun was up, I finally found some sort of account. It said, Terry Girl, as the name. Her user name was @tercassgirl2, and it seemed like the right person. The location of the photos was mostly the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, and you know, New York City. What really caught my attention was that in her user, she had the words 'cass'. The name Cassandra could easily be shortened to 'cass', so I wanted to check out the account.

My thoughts were correct. It may be a twin, a cousin, a distant relative, but the photos were an exact resemblance of the little girl in the picture. She didn't have curly hair anymore, and she had straightened it out. She grew a lot, but still wore designer clothes.

New York City, I thought. I would have to make another trip, wouldn't I? I rolled over on my stomach. But I knew nothing about this Terry person, except for her user and a picture from the past. I couldn't just storm up to her and ask her. What if she yelled at me? What if she was the wrong person? All of a sudden, my mind filled with negative thoughts of the possibilities.

Outside my room, I heard the stairs creak, which meant that someone in the house was awake. Slowly, I crept up to my door and fiddled with the door knob. I opened the door, making sure not to make a sound. I tiptoed outside, and bent over the railing. Not too much, so that I'm not seen, but not too little, either.

My sister and mother were furiously discussing something in whispers. They weren't exactly the quietest people ever, though.

"How did she find out?"

"She asked about a Terry. How could I have known that Terry's name was legally changed?" My sister made motions with her hands.

"You could've asked me." My mother's voice had a hard edge.

"You weren't there, and I couldn't hesitate for too long. Megan would know that something's up." My sister breathed heavily, and she stared at my mother with tearful eyes.

"Whatever. I'm going to work." My mother picked up her handbag and left the room. My sister stood for a few minutes, and then headed out the same way my mother had gone. I exhaled. I slumped against the railing, and buried my face into my hands.

"How do they know Terry?" I weakly asked myself. "How...?" I whimpered.

If I had one wish, it would be to learn everything in this world. And that was to uncover the truth about everyone around me. Without this power, it seemed impossible to even fly to New York, which was over hundreds of miles away from me.

___

I didn't sleep after the argument I had witnessed an hour earlier. I just tossed and turned in my bed, until I heard my sister call me down for breakfast. I used the banister to help my way down, because I felt like my legs were shaking.

When I got to the dining room, Janice was still placing cups. She looked up at me with a tired smile and greeted me.

"Good morning, Megan!" She was awfully cheerful for a person who had an argument with mom at five am. I carefully said my greetings and then sat down. "Is something wrong?" She asked. Should I tell her? I chewed on my food.

"Janice," I said in a serious tone. She looked up from the toast.

"Yes?"

"I found the Terry girl."