Secrets

Prolouge & Chapter 1

Prologue

Reagan Kowalski looked at it. Her throat was dry. Her eyes were not. She was in a state of disbelief. Voices called out to her, whispering her name...but maybe they were yelling, she was too shocked to distinguish....and yet she ignored them. "No." she wanted to scream the word, but she could only croak it, croak it in a barely audible way. This couldn't be happening. No. No! And then the world around her collapsed into darkness.

Chapter 1-Reagan

It had been a beautiful spring day in the city of Venice, hardly a day you would think could cause any disturbance to a fourteen year old girl in a faded blue jacket, sitting on the park bench with an ancient-looking book in her hand. This girl happened to be Reagan.

Reagan was not ugly, but neither was she particularly attractive. Reading almost hungrily on the seat, her brown, frizzy hair falling like a curtain over her face, she appeared to be an ordinary sight.

It's time you learn a brief history on Reagan Kowalski. For as long as she could remember, Reagan had been an orphan, as her parents died a few hours after she had been born. How they died, no-one really knew. But Reagan had been told they died in a car crash. Reagan had been discovered howling in her cradle by her neighbours, who rushed in and looked after her for 2 years. Those years had been the happiest of Reagan's life. But at age 2, the father of the family was offered a highly paid job in Los Angeles. The family desperately wanted to bring Reagan with them as they moved house, but the tickets were costly, and they were forced to leave Reagan at an orphanage. Reagan had lived there ever since. While she lived here, the Wane's (Her neighbours) would, every 3 weeks, send her a envelope stuffed with a small amount of money, 1 package that usually contained a new set of clothes or sweets, and a trinket of some sort. A letter from Mr and Mrs Wane's daughter (Who was Reagan's age) , Xa, arrived every other day, and Reagan wrote to her just as often. And once, a BRAND-NEW, amazingly advanced (Or so the leaflet it came with said) Netbook and an equally advanced (This praise also came from a leaflet) MP3 player had arrived on Reagan's 9th Birthday, along with a long letter from Mr. Wane, his wife, Xa, baby Cole and Nila the dog. But the best gift of all came once every 3 months. Xa knew that Reagan loved to read and write, and that she only liked happiness in small bursts.So Xa would use her pocket money to buy 3 books, two would be long, detailed books by Reagan's favourite authors, and the other one would be a blank exercise book for Reagan to write her stories in. The sweets only lasted 3 days, the clothes would be grown out of in a matter of months, the trinket would be stored in a special chest, Xa's letter would be read and replied to with enthusiasm, the MP3 and Netbook would be used on weekends, and the stories would be devoured eagerly.

Then there came the exercise book. Reagan would wake up every morning at 6:00, and write a bit of a story she was thinking about. In the short space of 2 months and a week, a wonderful book was finished, typed up on her Netbook, and then edited while listening to songs on her MP3. The orphanage was all-girls, so every student- and even the adults!- would gather in the main room, and Reagan would sit on a squashy armchair. The girls got a warm cup of cocoa each, and Reagan would tell her story. Whenever this event occurred, everyone was spellbound. They liked to hear the stories, and Reagan liked to tell them, and she was amazing at it. When she spoke, her tone suited her story, her legs swayed, and her hands acted the story out. Reagan was even known more as 'The Story Girl' than her silly nickname-everyone in the orphanage had one- 'Reggie Meggie.'

Back to the present-

Reagan ignored the fact that her stomach had just let out a loud grumble- it's second in a minute- and kept on reading her book. The book she was reading was called 'Wonders above The Sun', (A book about faraway lands) and was not a book she had received from Xa.