Chevrons//Cover made by the hella talented @cresselity

Chapter 1: Before

Before my mom died, I was a good child. I had okay grades and never got into trouble. Cheryl was the devil child. She always pulled pranks, but never did anything serious. My dad was the best dad ever! He was an actor and had starred in many movies. Though the paparazzi were always looking for us, he made sure that Cheryl and I led the lives of normal kids. Well, as normal a kid as you can be with a famous dad. My mom was a stay at home mom and was always there for both me and Cheryl. She came to all my awards ceremonies and all of Cheryl's plays.

However, mom hated the paparazzi more than anything else in the world. She hated all the premiers and cameras. She hated not living a normal life. This is why Cheryl and I were shielded from the paparazzi. Mom didn't want us to suffer by having the paparazzi on our back, watching our every move with their high-tech cameras. Dad never minded the paparazzi, and he only stopped them if they tried to get near any of us. "Being famous has it's disadvantages, Courtney. Don't do anything you will regret or you could be famous for all the WRONG reasons." Dad would always say to me.

Even though we lived in a giant mansion in LA, we had normal family traditions. We had Family Movie Night on Fridays and Family Game Night on Saturdays. We went to Tie Breakers during the summer and went to IHOP for dinner. We didn't have a personal chef or anything fancy like that. We did our own cooking and cleaning and would even foster kids from time to time. See, mom was very generous and always wanted to give back to the community. She thought that one of the best ways to do this was to donate, foster, and nurture. We went to charity balls and donated our money to churches and orphanages. Whenever Cheryl and I got a toy at Christmas, we had to donate one we already had, and the same with clothes.