Amazement

Chapter One

Chapter One

***

Madelyn Rainy Parker rolled over in bed, ignoring the incessant beeping of her alarm clock.

"Maddie! Wake up!"

April Parker, Maddie's mother, was already dressed and ready for work.

Maddie sighed and unwillingly pushed the warm comforter off. She was instantly chilled.

Stumbling half-blindly into her en suite, Maddie didn't bother looking into the mirror. Instead she hopped into the shower. She lazily massaged her Aveeno conditioner into her blond hair.

Maddie knew just as well as anyone that if she didn't spend as much time outside as she did, her sun bleached blond hair would be mud brown.

Twenty minutes later, Maddie was ready for her first day of senior year. She wore a white lace sundress that cinched at the waist and black flats.

As a baby born four months premature, Maddie had weighed 1 lb. 3 oz, and had been just eight inches long. Her eyes had still been fused shut, and her arms and legs were underdeveloped to the point where doctors feared that she would be paralyzed for life. Maddie's respiratory system hadn't fully developed, and because she couldn't breathe properly, she was put on oxygen for the first six months of her life. The first eight weeks of her life were spent in NICU, and she hadn't been able to sit up by herself until she was fifteen months old. At age five, Maddie had gone to her first physical therapy where she would learn how to properly walk. When she was nine, most people mistook her for a six year old because of her odd height. Her best friends since birth, Penelope and Carlo, had been the only kids to talk to her.

Now at seventeen, the only sign of Maddie's previous struggle was her height and her weight. She was underweight for her age, she knew, but as a dancer, her muscle made up for some of it.

Maddie's hair seemed to have outgrown the rest of her. The loose blond curls had reached Maddie's belly button before she had gone for a trim and the hairdresser chopped off three inches of her beloved hair. It had grown out a little more, and was still abnormally long, much to the envy of her best friend, Penelope.

Penelope Gregory was beautiful in every way that Maddie wasn't. She had a Brazilian mother and an American father. She was the mirror image of her mother; the pair shared the same chocolate brown eyes, olive skin, and luscious dark brown mane. Penelope's hair was long, too, but it was still no match for Maddie's hair. Penelope's hair reached the bottom of her shoulder blades and no farther.

In the kitchen, Maddie's three year old brother, Michael, sat in his booster seat, stuffing handfuls of Cheerios into his little mouth. April sat beside him in a navy skirt suit, checking her email on her Mac.

"Maddie!" Mickey squealed, his voice shrill with excitement.

Maddie dropped her backpack into an empty kitchen chair and scooped him up as he shrieked with delight.

Kissing one of his chubby cheeks, Maddie set him down in his high chair once again.

"Bye, Mom."

April stood up and hugged her daughter. "Bye, Mads. Have a wonderful day."

Exiting through the kitchen door, Maddie walked around to the front, where her bicycle was parked.

Matt Parker, Maddie's father, had died three weeks after Mickey was born, in a car accident. Maddie treasured this bicycle because her beloved father had given it to her for her fifteenth birthday. Maddie ran her hands over it. The flowered bicycle was retro; it had a white leather seat and a white basket in the front, and the design was pink and green flowers.