Elle [ON HOLD]

When Everything Changed

Being an only child, I never had any younger brothers to fight with, or any younger sisters to fuss over, or any older siblings to fuss over me. 

I never had an older sister to ask relationship advice from. 

I never had an older brother to ruffle my hair and say he'll always be there to protect me. 

I never had a twin that I would share clothes with and do the switch with...

I had always been an only child, and to be completely honest, I was okay with it. I mean, sometimes, I would think to myself, wouldn't it be nice to have someone at home right now? 

But then my dad came home and he made everything better. We did everything together. Since I didn't have a mom, he was always the person that I turned to when I needed advice, or help with my homework, or just someone to cuddle with. 

It had always been just me and my dad, and we were happy that way. At least, that's what I thought.

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"Elle Grennings to the office, please. Elle Grennings to the office," droned the voice of the office secretary.

I put down my pencil and slid out of my chair. "Excuse me," I said quietly to my English teacher. She nodded and I exit the room, thinking of all the possible reasons I could be called down to the office. 

I had never done anything bad in my life. I was a straight-A student, I stayed with the right crowd in school, I had a job to keep me occupied outside of school and school work. What could it be? Maybe they were offering me an early graduation from high school, I thought. Or maybe some famous director had seen my school play and wanted me to star in a new movie. 

I could see it now. I would walk into the office and there would be a man standing next to my dad, who, of course, would be there. He would tell me, "You're a star," and give me a contract to sign. Then, I would fly out to L.A. the next day and that would be the start of my amazing, legendary acting career. 

When I walked into the office, though, I saw a very different picture. 

My father was still there, but there was no famous man waiting to give me my big break. Instead, it was just my dad.

"Dad?" I asked. "What are you doing here? Is everything okay?"

He had dark brown hair, like mine, and light blue eyes. He had crows feet at the corners of his eyes, and his face was showing hints of wrinkles. "Everything's fine. Better than fine, actually."

I narrowed my eyes. "Dad, what's up?"

"Your mother left us when you were three, you remember?" he began. 

Instantly, I knew something big was up. Dad would never talk about mom unless I asked him about her. And even then, he was very vague. He never told me what she looked like, although I always assumed that she had brown eyes because I had them. 

"Well, yes..."

"A while back, I met a woman. She's very smart, and kind, and she has two daughters your age." 

My eyes widened and it all came to me. "Are... Are you telling me that you want to get married?"

He looked down at his feet for a few moments before looking back up at me. He nodded. "Elle, I love this woman, and I think she loves me. I want to ask her to marry me. But, I wanted to make sure you were okay with it. I know that if I marry her, she would become your mother, and you haven't even met her ye--"

I interrupted him with a giant hug. "Oh, daddy, of course, I'm okay with it! You haven't shown interest in any woman before! I was starting to wonder if you were part robot!"