Balance of Light

Richard

Richard did not like her stepmom.

First of all, she had to get this out of the way: Richard is not just a boys name. She can have whatever name she damn pleased, and dumb name stereotypes aren't going to stop her. And her dads new wife didn't seem to get that.

Not to mention that instead of calling her Richard, she called her stepdaughter Riley.

   Now can you begin to see why Richard doesn't like her?

   Richards father apparently couldn't see anything.

   "You just have to adjust, Richie." He would say, rubbing her head affectionately.

"Everybody goes through that phase when their parent gets remarried."

   Cue Richard's complaining about how the marriage has been official for months, and they should adjusted a long time ago.

   "Is this about her replacing your mother?" He would then say.

   Cue Richard feeling bad about bringing up that sore subject, and defending herself and saying the two topics were nothing alike.

   Enter her stepmother, crying about how she was 'so nervous' about being Riley's mother and 'just wanted to be there for Riley' and then her father would start crying too, and then Richard would feel bad and drop her case for a week or two, when the whole cycle would start over.

   It's not that Richard had a vendetta against step parents, not at all. In fact, Richard thought the evil stepmother cliché was unfair. It's not their fault they fell in love with someone who just happened to already have kids (unless the said lovers are already married, and it turns into an affair... Then it turns into a bit of problem).

   But when the stepmother didn't even bother to learn the said child's name, then it was no longer just an opinion based on cliché.

   However, what really pissed off Richard was the fact that her father didn't even care. When he first started dating again, he had promised his daughter that no matter what, he would not marry a woman that didn't love Richard like a daughter.

   Last Richard checked, mothers knew their own kids name.

And whenever she was around, her dad always seemed to make bad decisions or make choices without a second thought, which was alarming. Her father was a cautious man, always thinking out the consequences of every course of action and consulting his daughter, whom he always made sure was okay with big choices, but lately that system seemed to be crumbling.

A rough timeline of her fathers relationship with his now wife included:

1) Meeting

2) Three (and a half) dates over the course of two weeks

3) One half hour dinner where Richard met her fathers fiancé

4) Vegas style wedding

And that was it. Two weeks of dating, a week preparation for the wedding, and marriage. They hadn't even had a meet in greet with the families. Her fathers family met her at the wedding (who, although they his it quite well, agreed the whole thing was a little rushed), and forget about the wife's family.

According to her, they lived in France and she was the first American resident. Apparently nobody liked her in her family (hard to believe, she probably just wanted people fawning over her and saying how sad it was), and she didn't even bother sending them invitations.

Her father didn't think twice about it, but Richard had her own theories. Her favorite of which was that she was running from an insane asylum, or that she was possibly a serial killer.

Richard couldn't wait to watch her get driven back to the loony bin.

Until then, however, she was stuck.

   On the bright side of things, ice cream! Vanilla ice cream slathered in chocolate syrup and drizzled in rainbow sprinkles and, for good measures, a toppling tower of whipped cream. Yes, definitely on the bright side of things. 

   On this particular day Richard, who had a surprising amount of freedom, even for a sixteen year old, was out at the local ice cream parlor. It was small, and there were a million other places she could go, but Richard's mother had taken her here as a child because she knew the owners. 

   Richard couldn't resist the nostalgia dose when she was looking for ice cream.

   This day in itself was nothing in particular, but then again nothing presents itself as extraordinary at first sight. But it just so happened that as Richard, a fairly ordinary girl, was tied into a battle carried throughout centuries.

   How was she brought into this battle?

   Well, it all started with a bird.