~Prologue~
Tears started trickling down her face as she remembered that horrible day 9 years ago... Wait, 10 years ago today. She suddenly bolted out of her room. She was looking for something to ease the pain. Nails, razors, blades, knives; anything sharp would do. She grabbed a long, thin blade from her parents' bathroom. The tears were coming faster; she had to hurry. She ran out the back door into the pouring rain, heading for the dock. She stood on the very edge, with her toes just over the wooden plank's edge. Slowly, she extended her left arm out. The wind was whipping her face and spraying salt water into her eyes, causing her to cry more. She raised the blade and placed the sharp edge on her wrist. Slash! Blood oozed out of the long, stinging gash and dripped off her cold arm into the stormy ocean. The searing pain she felt was nearly unbearable. "Is this what you wanted?!" she screamed. She took another slash to the wrist. "It should have been me!!!" she roared. She took the blade and dragged it all the way down her forearm. She toppled over, landing in a heap on the cold dock. Then, it was black.
~Chapter One~
Hope stared at the quiz in her math teacher's hand. "An F?! You gave me an F?!?" Her teacher put the quiz back into the folder and smiled. "I don't give out grades, you earn them. I'll be calling your parents and having a conference with them after school, so I'll make sure to give them this. Have a nice afternoon, Hope". Hope let out a frustrated grunt and muttered to herself as she walked down the school hallway towards her locker. She kept her head low and ignored the taunts from passing students. She wasn't very popular in her school. Wait, let's rephrase that; she was kicked around endlessly all day because she was "different". Of course, you can't tell from the outside. Platinum blonde hair that just barely hit her shoulders with bangs that fell over one eye and deep blue eyes that could see right into your soul. Sounds like a normal teenage girl, right? Well, Hope was far from that. She never loved, never cared, and never even tried to make friends with people. People would say that she's crazy, but she liked it that way. She was a loner at heart.
~
Like always, Hope's parents ended up taking away her iPod for a week. But that didn't matter to her; she rarely listened to music. Whenever her parents were fighting, she'd climb out her window and onto the rooftop to watch the sun set over the deep blue water of the ocean, while listening to the lapping of waves on the sandy beach and the soft calls of the birds as day turned into night. Since she was an insomniac, she would lay up there and watch the moon travel across the sky until early morning. The stars were pretty too, but they were barely visible due to the light from the city. The roof was always her sister's place, but ever since she'd died, Hope has always come up here. It was hers now. But she'd give it all away just to have Olivia back.
It was such a beautiful day; little did her family know that it was Olivia's last day living. They were on the beach when 4 year old Hope's inflatable turtle floated a little too far out. 15 year old Olivia was lying down in the sand listening to her radio. Hope thought that she could swim out to get Mr. Turtle. She walked down to the edge of the small dock and jumped in. The water was too deep, and she could not swim. She wildly flailed her arms about and kicked as hard as she could and tried to scream, but salty water filled her mouth. Olivia soon spotted her and ran to the dock as fast as possible and jumped in. Olivia couldn't swim either. She paddled hard and wildly trying to reach her baby sister. After what seemed to be an eternity, Hope was in Olivia's arms. She tried to paddle them both back to safety, but she wasn't strong enough. She took her last breath of air and pushed Hope to the edge of the small ladder off the dock. After a few more splashes, Olivia was gone. Hope collapsed onto the deck coughing and sputtering; she had swallowed a lot of water. "Olivia? Olivia?!" She called for her sister, with desperation in her voice. But Olivia never appeared.
