The Change

Chapter One

“It will get better, peanut.” My mother told me as she wiped away my tears with the collar of her sundress. It was one of the rare times that she was sober and sweet to me. I knew that by tomorrow it would be gone and I would be back to taking care of myself.

“But how do you know? Ziggy was so angry.” I wailed.

            Ziggy was my best friend and for the first time in six years, we had gotten into a fight. All because of stupid Justin Denver. So what if I had a crush on Justin? Ziggy was just my best friend! He should have kept his mouth shut. My mother stared at me a moment.

“Have you ever thought that perhaps Ziggy likes you and doesn’t want you to like Justin?”

            I pouted and shook my head. My mother sighed as she scooted me off her lap. I knew the motherly moment was over.

“God how you look like your father…” My mother got up and walked to her room, slammed the door with her foot.

            I woke up with a cold sweat all over my body. I shivered and felt a pair of warm arms go around me. I welcomed them as I smelt the familiar scent of ginger and cinnamon. Ziggy. I knew he was only half asleep, but he still felt me wake up. I lifted my head and looked over to the crib and noticed that Jolie was still fast asleep. Good, I sighed to myself. The clock on my nightstand read 3:30 AM and I was glad to get a few extra hours. So I laid my head back down on my pillow, welcoming sleep, and it was more than happy to embrace me.

            The next time I woke was to giggling in my ear. I groaned and turned over only to hear more giggling and a few hushes. There was no way I was going back to sleep now. I groaned and slightly opened my eyes to see Jolie staring at me with wide blue-green eyes identical to my own. A wide grin broke out on my face as I remembered where I was. I focused my attention behind Jolie and saw a flash of red hair coming straight for me. Ziggy snatched up Jolie, tossing her small two year old frame in the air while she giggled incessantly. This was a good way to wake up on a Friday. Then I sat up. It’s Friday?! Oh no, oh no, no, no. I yelled in my head as I shot up out of bed.

“Ziggy! School, daycare!” I yelled, looking for my bag and keys.

            Ziggy lay in bed in his shirtless glory, smirking at me. He pointed at the clock. It was only 7:30? I sighed in relief before crawling back into bed.

“Thank god.” I said as I snuggled up to Ziggy.

            Now, before you jump to conclusions, I should probably explain myself. My name is Delanie Olesia. I didn’t grow up your average teenager. I come from a broken home where my mother is too lost in her own world of alcohol and men to remember her offspring. Which is what we were? I didn’t claim her and she was too blitz out of her mind to even remember me. My father was pretty much nonexistent. I don’t remember him and with the men my mom brings home every night, I would be surprised if she did either. My mom and I looked nothing alike. She was a typical blonde hair, blue eyed, ditzy, big breasted woman who used her body to get what she wanted. I was a quiet, light brown haired, blue green eyed, young lady who preferred her family to men.

            That’s where Jolie comes in. Despite popular belief and rumor, Jolie was actually my sister. My mother couldn’t be bothered to raise me, so when she turned up pregnant and Jolie made it through the whole nine months; I was surprised to wake up in the middle of the night to an empty house and a screaming baby. The responsibility to raise a child at fifteen took a toll on my and I would often miss a lot of school. But now I had a stable job and I could afford to put Jolie in daycare and still go to school. People would often mistake her as mine because; she looked so much like me at the ripe age of two. She had the same slim figure as I did, and that was a worry to her teacher at daycare. They thought I wasn’t feeding her. But she was in perfect health.  She had the same big blue-green eyes I did with a small angular nose. Puffy cheeks and full lips were something I knew she would get. Our only difference was her hair was strawberry blonde color. This is where Ziggy comes in.