Queen Of The Castle: Adopted By Six The Musical

Chapter 39: The Mysterious Package

Flash Forward to August 19

Dear Diary,

Wow, I can't believe that I'm about to start Year 10! It's hard to believe that I have a girlfriend, a godmother, and that I'm a Jewish woman! I've cut off all contact with my birth parents...

Or so I thought. I set down my diary and started admiring my new dark blue blazer. Upper secondary kids wear dark blue blazers, unlike primary, which wear brown sweater vests and lower secondary which wear black blazers. I'm starting upper secondary school as a Paris, out as lesbian with a girlfriend and, now, a part of SIX itself. Then my phone buzzed.

Millie: Ugh my mom's making me buy a sweater vest and I look ugly in those.

Acadia: Oof. Not good.

Fiona: Don't say u look ugly

Liz: Will you find a way to spice it up?

Millie: I honestly don't know. And I think she's starting to open her mind up to a love interest again.

Bailey: you're kidding me.

Millie: no I'm not. And the sweater vests aren't even for the Upper secondary kids. They're for the primary kids.

Acadia: Does she want u to wear them in your free time?

Millie: Possibly, idk. Does it give omni vibes though?

Liz: Just as long as you like it. I have a lesbian flag pin on my school backpack and my mom's fine with that.

Fiona: Which I bought you for your bat mitzvah 😝 jk love you Liz

Then my mom walked in. "Hi sweet girl. You doing okay? I got you a new cork board with thumbtacks!"

I had so many photos now. I hadn't gotten my favorite photos from West End Live and the Paris trip printed until three weeks ago after my mom's birthday. Then Mom set down a mysterious-looking package on my bed in addition to the board and thumbtacks. "This came in the post. It's from Toronto." Mom said.

I grabbed the scissors from my desk and opened the box. Inside, there was a note.

Dear Liz,
How are you? I divorced your father in Toronto, and opened a new law office there. How's your new family? Do you like them? How's school? I was cleaning out my apartment a few days ago, and I came across these albums along with some of your most prized possessions.

With love from your birth mama,
Lisa Abrams

I dropped the letter in shock. "MY BIRTH MOM WROTE TO ME? HOW DID SHE GET OUR ADDRESS?"

Mom sat down on my bed. "Look, there's something you need to know."

"What is it, Mama?"

"I...ran into your birth mom when I was in Monaco last month." Mom sighed.

"How did she know?!" I asked frantically.

"She knew about the adoption, and she wanted to send something to you. I didn't expect that this would be it. Should we take a look?"

I slowly removed the packing peanuts from the box when another note surfaced.

I found this shortly after you got adopted. Just wanted you to have this.

I then felt a little stuffed toy in the box. "This was my favorite stuffed animal when I was a kid, Mom. Her name was Snuffles." I said, holding up the raggedy, well-loved bear.

"She's cute, sweetheart."

I then lifted my first ever ballet slippers out of the box. "Mommy, did you know that I danced when I was younger, but then stopped when my bat mitzvah rolled around?"

"And she sent you your pointe shoes too. My parents weren't really on board with the idea of me doing this stuff at first. Just seeing my own daughter do this makes me feel accomplished. I love you so much, sweet girl." She finished, kissing my forehead and hugging me tight.

And then Nat lifted out the album. It read Elizabeth Katherine Abrams. I flipped it open. There were photos of me as a newborn, me in Manchester visiting my aunts, my very first day at Ashbeck as a Year 1 student in my teeny brown sweater vest. There was also a horrible family portrait that I drew when I was five or six. "This drawing I made was horrible as I look back on it. My parents hung it on the fridge when I first brought it home from school that one day. It was up there until they kicked me out and got divorced."

"If you re-drew it now, it'd have way more people now." Nat added, kissing my cheek.

There were pics of me and Millie when I came to her house for Thanksgiving the year I met her. Then eventually came Hanukkah photos. Photos of West End shows I saw. In one was an old playbill from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, my favorite musical when I was ten. I then flipped to the other playbill pages, and I saw an old SIX one. "Look! I found a SIX playbill from the workshop stage!"

"No way!"

"I wish you were doing stage door when I saw you at that performance over in Manchester while I was visiting my aunts then."

"Me too, love bug. Me too. When was it?"

"I think it was sometime in August 2018. I don't exactly remember when."

"Then shortly after, we settled at the Arts Theater, shortly after I found you, my wonderful Liz."

"Mom, you DO know that I was just your not average 13-year-old, theatre obsessed girl, right?"

"Of course, sweetie. You're my daughter, and that will never change. I love you, kiddo."

"Love you too, Mama."

We sat in silence for a bit, then Nat checked her phone. "We gotta get going to the theater. It's Grace's last show tonight, remember?"

I had made Grace a photo collage for tonight. I was really going to miss her. From the time she first called me "Lizzie" to goofing off in the wings at West End Live, and when we watched SIX on the monitor for the first time together. I didn't want Grace to go. "Liz, you okay?" Mom asked as tears started falling down my face.

"I don't want Grace to leave!" I cried.

Nat then wrapped me in a hug and held me right. "Shh shh shh shh. Look at me, Liz. Look at me. It's okay."

"Why does she have to go?"

"You'll get to see her anytime you want, lovely. Are you worried you won't get to see her every day? Is that what you think?"

"Yes." I sniffled, rubbing my eyes with a tissue.

"Oh baby, come here."

Look who's back! I am so sorry I haven't been updating my books as much.
Thanks for reading!