Frozen in Time (Haku)

Anne Knows Best

The funeral of my parents was a huge funeral. Widely known aristocrats, they were. There I was, 16-year-old Annabeth Ashwood, orphaned. The repass, oh the repass, that was an event in itself. Many of my parents' 'friends' offered to by the house, moments after the owners had been lowered into the ground. Many of my parents' 'friends offered to take me under their wing... for popularity. Oh popularity, it was a contest. They all came to me with, "Who is your favorite godparent?" My reply? Silence. 

I was indeed the most wanted child within their aristocratic ring... no, scratch that, I had the most wanted inheritance in the aristocratic ring.

There was the Chase family. Two boys, and a little girl they had. My parents would normally take me over to their house for functions and to discuss business and leave me with the two boys, George and Clarence. They would always complain because I had to be in cold and they hated the cold. Their girl was just a baby at the time. Millie was her name. Millie loved me, a lot and she would always smile at me. They wanted to adopt me. They tried to adopt me. They didn't succeed in adopting me. I ran away.

Then there was the Robinsons. They had no children. Mrs. Robinson was bad with babies. The last baby that she kept for a friend, she had left him in a department store, and he was found at closing time. However, I wasn't a baby, I was 16. She pinched my cheeks and spun me around. "I would love to dress you up!" she exclaimed. They wanted to adopt me. They tried to adopt me. They didn't succeed in adopting me. I ran away.

The last family, was the Lake family. Mrs. Lake was a widow. Her husband had died in a boating accident on the coast of Florida in The States. She had two children, Thomas Lake, her birth child, and Avacci Lake, her adopted child. The Lakes were my parent's best friends; however, they weren't included in the Aristocratic Society. Every other family that tried their hand in my adoption were given first preference to me, then when they saw the kind of trouble I caused, the handed me over to The Lake Estates. Mrs. Elizabeth Lake was all too happy for me, the daughter of her best friend. She could have fulfilled the promise that she had made to her best friend. She wanted to adopt me. She tried to adopt me and failed a few times due to her status in the aristocratic world. She succeeded in adopting me. I stayed.

That day my parents died from an icicle suddenly dropping on their car which caused them to spiral out of control and rolling down the cliff of where my home rested. In some twisted way, that accident (whether it was or not) freed me from a life I didn't even want in the first place. I found a place where I wanted to be and a place where I was wanted... and it was always cold.