A girl loses her mom to cancer. Her, her brother, and her father are devastated.
Years later, her father remarries to a woman with seven boys. They are such pigs!
The girl has a hard time adjusting to her new life, but she eventually learns to love...
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My mom and I just moved here a few weeks ago. She and I thought it would be best if we moved somewhere where she could get a better paying job.... Okay, I'll say it. We were on the verge of poverty. And it's all my father's fault. I never knew my father. He ditched my mom before she could give birth to me, and took almost every last penny out of their savings account. Since then, my mom has been working her butt off to support the both of us. I, too, have been taking jobs and working my butt off, but Mom told me not to worry about our money problems. Now we live in the sweet state of Oregon, in the town near Portland. I knew the moment we moved to this town, the moment I walked into Raven High School for the first time, I wasn't going to make it the first day, let alone the whole year. But I just held my head up high, and put on the persona I've been working on all morning: The Benjamin Look. It's basically a normal 'I don't care what you say, and I don't care what happens' look, mixed with 'I'm cool, I'm awesome, and I'm chill' look, but I call The Benjamin Look because...well, I'm not usually cool, awesome, or chill. And I DEFINITELY care what people say and what happens...but that's why it's called a persona. I go to the front desk, my backpack hanging on me by one strap. "Hi, I'm new here. Can you tell me where Mrs. Bend is?" I ask a cheerful-looking old woman. "That's me dear," she replies, adjusting her purple rimmed glasses. "And are you Benjamin Benson? Here is the paper that tells you what classes you're taking!" "Oh, okay." I say, taking the paper. "And your locker number," Mrs. Bend says quickly before I could leave. "I wrote on the bottom right of the paper. Okay, dear?" I look down at the right corner of the paper and find my locker number. "Okay, thanks." "Your welcome, dear." Mrs. Bend says as she smiles, her warm brown eyes also smiling.
I walked down multiple halls, confused on where to go, when I slammed right into a kid my age. "Sorry about that, dude," he said, helping me up off the ground. "Didn't see you there." "No problem." I mumble, realizing that there were tons of eyes on us. Great, just what I needed. All eyes on the new kid who just moved here and has no father. I feel like I'm put in a spotlight, my body doesn't want to move. "Hey, your locker is next to mine, new kid." The kid said to me, making my head snap back to him. "What's your name, new kid?" "Uh, my name is Benjamin Benson." I reply, my voice getting less low and mumbly and more normal-sounding. "Nickson Barlowe. Nice to meet you, Benjamin! Can I call you Ben for short?" He asked, starting to walk down the hall. He seems to know where he's going, so I follow him. "Um, sure! Could-could I call you Nick?" I ask him nervously. "You can call me Nick or Barlowe. I go by both. Mainly Nick, though," he says. "So, have you figured out where everything is yet?" I shake my head. "Not even close, man." He laughs. "Ya, my first day wasn't fun either. I had no one to help me figure everything out." He claps a hand on my shoulder. "But I'm here to help you." "Thanks," I say, smiling. Maybe I was going to make it after all....
