THE UGLY DUCKLING, nate macauley

chapter one: secrets, lies, hidden things

*skip this chapter and go to the authors note*

SECRETS. Everyone has them. Whether they are big or little, important or not. I have never met a person without them. But the thing with secrets is that you are never entirely certain that they won't spill. I mean if you never tell anyone the chance that someone will find out is highly unlikely. Well not with Simon Kelleher around. Oh, definitely not. If you had a secret, Simon would find out whether you like it or not.

In this particular case, there are five major secrets he's going to spill. One for each of the stereotypical kids at the school. Well, the popular ones anyways.No one cares about nobodies. Bronwyn Rojas is the first one. She's your geek out of this group. Straight A's, perfect life, amazing family. She's just perfect. Cooper Clay is our jock - for baseball anyways. He's our star player. Everyone knows and loves him - especially his girlfriend Keely. He moved here from Mississippi about a year ago and look at how wonderful his life is. Now Nate Macauley's life ain't so perfect - to my beliefs. He's the criminal (not the villain though) in this story - literally. He sells drugs to rich kids to earn money and he's well known for sleeping around - well only after his breakup but we'll get to that later. Adelaide or Addy Prentiss. She's the princess. Now she's the cheerleader, homecoming queen girl. Everything is planned in her life down to every second - really odd if you ask me but anyways. Last but definitely not least Malia Kennedy. She's every one of these people. She's a jock (well more like a dancer but same thing). She's a geek (gets straight A's, never misses a class). She's a criminal (went to juvie for assaulting a police officer - what can you say she was pissed). She's a princess (she's someone everyone dreams to be). And just like everyone else I talked about, she has a secret. Malia is who we are focusing on in this story.

I know so exciting. Now remember how I said something about Nate's break-up - well guess who it was with? You guys already know so don't need me to answer it. Because of this break up her life changed a lot. Her mom cut her off (well there was a bigger reason for this but we'll get there in a couple of chapters), her sister, Adaline, ended up adopting her, which caused Adaline to get a divorce. Now I know what you're thinking what the fuck did Nate do right? Well, we'll get to that also in a couple of paragraphs. Another thing you might be wondering is where the hell is Mr Kennedy in this story. In Bayview Cemetary - in slot number 18 in row D.

I know that was blunt and I'm sorry - truly. Michael Kennedy was a good man - just wasn't okay. He passed away about two years ago - an accidental overdose. This caused a major rift in the family. Vivian Kennedy was distraught and ended up getting a job in Sweden and moving there full time. Flash forward two years and now we have the Kennedy sisters with only each other. I know depressing and all that, but it's really not that bad. I mean Malia and her sister could be homeless but they're not so that's always a plus.

Guys take off the board shorts. Girls, pack up those bikinis. Summer's officially over and school is back in session, and you know what that means: So am I.

Malia groaned when her morning alarm decided to go off. She was definitely not ready for school to start again. "Lia. Hurry Up," Adaline called from downstairs. Malia sat up letting out a huff. She looked around her room absentmindedly her gaze settling on her window. It was closed, thank god. The sun would've killed her this early in the morning. She sighed getting out of the soft bed. Malia groaned once again. "Lia, you better be awake when I come up."

"Yeah, yeah," she mumbled knowing full well Adaline wouldn't have heard. She put her arms above her head arching her back slightly, letting everything stretch. She sighed, letting her arms drop to her sides. She slowly and very grumpily trudged over to her window. Malia moved the blinds slightly to look over at the house across the road. It was the house that surprised everyone when you said someone lived there. She looked at the window that was directly across from hers to try and spot one of the tenants but like normal these past few months it had been empty.