The Dunhams (Sequel to Better or Bad - Lizzy Walker)

Story of Me

Bella POV
The last week of school before Christmas break turned into excitement all through the household. Jace and Breanna focused on their homework than ever. I only had one important project to do before the break. Mom had to finish her time on set the same week because everyone's got their holiday plans. Dad finished his schedule and enjoying his freeness at home. As for me, this project is nonetheless mentally hard to finish. An online presentation about my whole life. Granted by my history teacher. I've never once done a project like this. None that's about me. It's not even the work I'm concerned about. Explaining how my life been before Mom and Dad adopted me....help me. I inhaled a deep breath while deleting another dumb title I made up on the PowerPoint. I sighed and flunked myself against the pillows. It's either get this done or finish it over break. A few knocks on my closed door erupted. "Come in!" I called. "Bella! Dad made breakfast." Breanna said, opening the door. My attention was still glued to the screen. "Are they chicken biscuits?" I asked. The smell was beginning to linger my nostrils. "Yes! If you ask, he didn't burn them. He only burnt the eggs so all that's left is orange juice and chicken biscuits." She told me. I nodded in understanding. Perhaps having breakfast could take my mind off this. "K! I'll be down." I said. She nodded, walking out. I saved my PowerPoint on my hard drive folder and closed the laptop. I stretched before rolling out of bed to go downstairs. Jace and Breanna were seated on the counter eating. Dad smiled. "Good morning princess." He spoke. I returned the gesture. "Morning Daddy." I said. "Here is your breakfast sweet. There's more biscuits left for lunch by the way." He continued. I let out a long breath I didn't know I was holding. "If it's ok with you, I'll eat upstairs." I said. He looked at me in awe. "Are you ok? Anything wrong?" He asked. I nodded my head no and grabbed my plate. "Just a project I'd like to be done with." I spoke tiredly. Dad smiled sweetly, rubbing my shoulder. "Need any help?" He asked. I smirked. "Dad, I've done projects before. This one just seems new to me I'm fine." I assured. He hummed and kissed my forehead. "Alright. Let me know if anything's too much." He told me. I nodded, rushing myself to the stairs.

Even after food, I still hadn't finished even slide two of my project. Why? Just why this homework before Christmas got to be frustrating? I huffed and leaned back against the headboard. Hopeless. The worse coming out of it is either my school hearing my adoption story or doing this on Christmas Eve. I've already had some mean comments about me last week. I can just imagine it'll get crazier once I show my whole life before this. Tears were threatening to escape so I covered my face with one hand. My phone buzzed behind my pillow. I sniffled, taking a deep breath and pulled it to see Mom asking for FaceTime. Thank God! I really want her advice or help right now. I wiped my eyes and answered. Her face appeared on the screen. "Hi babygirl!" Mom beamed, smiling. I smiled softly. "Hey Mommy. Miss you so much." I spoke. She looked at me in awe. "Miss you more baby. How are you?" She asked. Tears were still fighting to escape. I cleared my throat while looking down. "Bella? Is everything ok? What's wrong?" She asked worriedly. I looked up and one tear instantly fell. "This project for school...needs to be about my whole life. Even before you and Dad got me. I don't know, I just...feel...ashamed or embarrassed because it's even crazier being a 'teen sensation' that if kids know, they'd laugh, tease or joke about it on Instagram or Twitter. Somehow it feels kinda scary for me. I've already read awful comments about me last week. This entire thing feels pressuring." I explained, wiping more tears. Mom smiled warmly. "Bella, have you forgotten what I said? Just because you're in this position doesn't make you important than everybody else nor have to be. You should never feel pressured to be this huge person everyone adores. You're not perfect, only human. Only a kid and should still be one. I felt the same way after telling my story of having Jace so young. But the truth is it's a part of it, that'll always be part of my life story forever. Your story could inspire so many kids or girls. What if half of them are kids from adoption? What if one of them's ill? What if a few girls say they happened to me too? You can't be afraid of having your voice be heard. You always say you want people to see you as just Bella, then show them. Tell them the whole truth. From beginning to end. If anyone don't like it, who cares? It's your story! Not theirs!" She advised. I wiped another tear and inhaled a deep breath. "Seems like I did forgotten that. It all went insane after the VMAs." I muttered. She nodded and sighed. "All of it comes with a price baby. I'm not justifying the bad parts. You know that's how it is. It's all hype! It's like a cloud. It clouds over and disappears. That's why we protect you from this destroying your well-being or physical health. Same for Jace and Bri. We don't want this craziness to disrupt your lives." She continued. And I'm truly grateful they do. Even wearing polarized glasses wherever we go if there's cameras. I sighed. "Wish you would be here...to watch me in class." I said. Mom scoffed and giggled. "That's ok! I'll be coming home at the end of the week anyway. You can show me afterwards and tell me how it went. Ok?" She assured. I smiled warmly. "K! I love you. Miss you." I said. She blew a kiss and returned the gesture. "Love and miss you more Bels. I'll be home soon." She said. I waved before hanging up. I dropped my phone and thought about this for a minute. My brain clicked. Inspire. That's it! I sat upwards and opened my laptop to begin working.

******the Next Day******

Today was Thursday. One more day and I'm free. It took nearly two hours until I finished my PowerPoint project. I did my morning routine, shower and got dressed. My hard drive which saved my project was in my backpack. I walked downstairs and found a plate of leftover chicken biscuits. They smelled quite warm and delicious. Dad smiled cheerily. "Good morning princess! Where's the other two?" He said, smirking at the last part. A herd of footsteps was heard as they walked to the kitchen. Jace cheered with his hands up. "Yes! Yes! Christmas break!" He cheered excitingly. Breanna returned the gesture while playfully twirling around. Dad laughed. "Yeah! Tomorrow's all your last day! We can make hot chocolate and s'mores, make gingerbread houses, watch movies, go ice skating. Anything once Mommy comes home." He said, giving us plates. We sat on the counter to eat. "When's Mom coming back?" Jace asked. "The weekend. Probably the late morning." He answered. I nodded and tried keeping my excitement down. I'm rather psyched about showing my project to the class including her mostly. Fortunately, a happy smile didn't leave my face. "Bella, how was your project?" Dad asked. I snapped out of my thoughts. "Perfect! Just great!" I beamed, smiling. He looked at me in awe. "That's smart girl." He spoke. Breanna pouted. "Daddy, what about me? I'm your babygirl!" She whined. Jace rolled his eyes. Dad chuckled and rubbed her head. "Is that even a question? Of course!" He said. Once I ate, I took my pill before drinking water. James arrived and drove us to school.

In the classroom, kids was showing their PowerPoint presentations. "Ok! Who else wanna go next?" Mr. Anderson asked. I exhaled a deep breath and raised my hand. He smiled. "Ok Bella." He said. I got up and handed him my hard drive. He plugged it to his laptop where the projector shown my file folder. He clicked on 'My Life.' file and it appeared on the screen. I stood in front of my classmates. "Whenever you're ready." He encouraged. I nodded confidently. Slide 1 shown a purple-white background with a photo of myself holding Brian. The title 'My Life' by Isabella Dunham beside it. I cleared my throat. "Ok. First off I wanna say I'm aware most of you...or all of you know I'm the daughter of Lizzy and Bryce Dunham. Means my life is absolute 'perfect' or just so 'better'. That was honestly never the truth. Truthfully, I never been anyone except Bella." I said, motioning him to continue. Slide 2 appeared with a photo of myself as an infant and the paragraph. "I was born on July 2nd, 2006. I was an only child. When I was two, I was sent to foster care because my birth parents were awfully ill." I read. A few kids's eyes widened. Mr. Anderson changed to Slide 3. Photo of a Epilepsy support logo. "I was diagnosed with epilepsy when I was eight. I had my first seizure when I was five from low blood pressure and suffered two more from stress and abuse from my foster parents. Every morning, I take my medicine after breakfast. It stopped me from doing active things except one...." I read, letting him change the slide. Slide 4 revealed two photos of myself dancing and singing at ten. "Music became my escape route from my foster life. It makes me feel more myself and separates me from difficulties in my life including epilepsy. Dancing made me feel good when I was badly bullied. Singing was practically voicing what's in my heart." I continued. Slide 5 shown a photo of myself and my family. "Months ago, my parents came to adopt me. Like anyone else, I was surprised two celebrities were thinking of adopting a kid. I've never thought of them as 'The Lizzy and Bryce Dunham'. Only as my parents who actually wanted me and love me so much. They were there every single time. My Mom taught me to not feel like a burden, my Dad taught me how to earn respect and love my flaws. My siblings are the weirdest but that's why I love them. They're also very supportive of my dreams and ambitions. They shown me it's not impossible to succeed because of your disability or whether you grew up differently than others..." I trailed off blinking away tears. The whole classroom was sympathetically silent. I managed to breathe and exhaled confidently. Slide 6 revealed the ending. A photo of myself smiling with a yellow sundress on. 'Thanks for listening, bye!' It shown. What I didn't realize was the whole room applauding. My eyes slowly widened. Mr. Anderson smiled warmly. "Good job Bella. Good job." He complimented. I returned the gesture while taking the hard drive after he closed it. Three kids whistled proudly. Gosh, this turned out amazing than I thought.