The art of lying through your teeth

Chapter 1

What my mum never seems to realise is that mornings would be less painful if I could just have a car. She wouldn't have to wake me up everyday as I've yet again slept through my alarm. I wouldn't have to hassle her to stop hogging the bathroom mirror so that I can at least look a little presentable at school and my step dad wouldn't need to avoid my morning wrath. I've had the argument countless times before but her answer is always the same. She expects me to get the school bus just like all the other regular kids. Emphasis on the word regular. Always the word regular.

That is the one word that I cannot stand. Regular. I don't want to be regular Lexie. I hate regular Lexie. And so do most of the other kids at school. Okay maybe that's a slight exaggeration. But why can't I at least be the Lexie I want to be instead of just flying under the radar? Why do I need to be Lexie at all? I have the same internal debate on the bus every morning. It's the only time I can have it without someone interrupting my trail of thought. The bus always takes the long route to school so I have at least half an hour of sitting on the gum incrusted seat before it pulls up to school. Half an hour of just me, my iPod and my thoughts. The streets we pass are always the same: boring, nondescript, regular streets. Joy. My favourite words.

By the time the bus pulls up at school I've already worked myself into a mood. Apparently listening to Blackbear had done nothing to relax me. My school wasn't huge but it wasn't small either, the classrooms were comfortable sizes. Regular sizes. That was my mum's idea. Everything had to be completely normal. I couldn't stand out. I couldn't attract attention. I had to be boring, forgettable Lexie.

My mum isn't even that paranoid any more. It was worse when we first arrived in Edmonton. She barely ever left the house. She sat inside, curled up on the sofa, drinking gallons of coffee to keep herself awake. But now things have turned around. She has a good job, an alright husband and a super fluffy dog. I think that it was Ned that really helped my mum become herself again. Well, that and all the specialist counselling that the government provided. I didn't really do anything. Mum insists that I did but I don't believe her. Maybe the old me would have helped...but Lexie didn't. Lexie just went to school and came home again. It was Ned the rescue dog that ironically rescued my mother. He gave her a purpose that finally meant that she left the house for walks. And he was the reason that she got out of bed at a respectable time so that she gave him his breakfast. Not me-Lexie-she didn't do anything. Maybe that's just the difference between us. My mum made sure that I would be safe before she shrunk into herself and relied on the safe sanctuary of our government issued home. While I switched to automatic pilot, simply following the instruction to get up, eat, go to school and come home again. That was all my mother asked of me and that was all that I did.

Things finally returned to normal a little while after Ned turned up. She became more herself again and I finally loosened up and opened my mouth to talk to her. It was strained at first but now we're closer than ever. I felt we were a regular family again only a year after we started our new lives as the Hamptons. Okay so maybe it was a little unhealthy that my mum stopped going to therapy and we never spoke about our old lives. But that's how it was and it worked. For a little while. Are relationship is still the same, my mum is still a tad over protective and I still think we're mega close. But I don't tell her everything anymore. I haven't said that I think that we're now 100% completely safe. I've never mentioned that I crave to tell my friends who I really am. And I haven't told her that I hate Lexie Hampton.

So I do what I should do so my mum never finds out what I'm thinking. Lexie Hampton flies completely under the radar. And I fly with her.