Just My Luck

Chapter One • She Loved Him

It was the same ringing of a bicycle bell that she had heard every single morning for the past ten years, but it still jolted her awake and she somehow still managed to fall off her hammock and onto the ground every time it sounded. She waited until she saw the familiar long dark locks of hair flying as her best friend and his blue bike turned the corner into Revoir Street, before she got up and dusted herself off the ground. It wasn't that she was embarrassed, but more that she would be teased for the next sixteen years of her life if Beau found her sprawled on the concrete again.

Chance couldn't remember a time in which she didn't know the brilliant troublemaker who was Beaumont Daniels. Her life had revolved around him ever since that scorching day in March, 1991, when a 10 year Beau gave her his water bottle when she had nothing to drink. Afterwards, his nanny had flashed a disgusted look at Chance's dirty clothes before marching Beau out of the park. Every day since then, Beau had played with Chance and stood up for her when people were rude and inconsiderate.

Beau's brakes screeched as he skidded to a stop right in front of the dumpster - a few millimetres short of hitting it. His browned knuckles turning a few shades lighter as he clenched tightly at the brakes for a few more seconds before turning to Chance and offering a dimpled smile. Chance could only laugh as Beau straightened his bike and walked towards Chance, as his pants were halfway down and his smiley-face underwear was very clearly visible. Beau looked agitated, as if he was going to explode, his face was flushed and sweat seemed to be dripping off his hair.

"Chance!" He yelled, his voice was so loud that several people walking passed stopped to turn around. Chance was surprised, he had never yelled this loud before, or seemed so excited about anything in his life. "You'll never guess what I just found!" Chance rolled her eyes, if he was yelling to tell her about how he had found his BlackBerry, she didn't want to hear it. "It's about your family." Beau was quiet and serious, so quiet and serious that Chance stopped. She stopped breathing, and she could feel her heart stop too. She felt the world spin for a moment before her breath caught in her throat and she almost choked. She felt Beau's hands patting her back, to calm her coughing, before he produced a drink bottle and gave it to her to drink. After she had calmed down, he proceeded to tell her the story.

"Brooks put me on sorting duty again" Beau started, his face looking strained. Sorting duty was a job that Chance swore that Jedidiah Brooks had made up exclusively for Beau. The town they all lived in - Wentworth was a small town, with only about 350 people. The poorer part of town was the best place to live and it was where Beau and Chance lived. Beau wasn't poor, but he lived there to get away from the discrimination and snarky remarks about his skin colour, as he was African-American and outside of South Wentworth, everything he did caused unwanted comments and racial slurs. Chance didn't understand why - it was just skin, underneath it there was blood, and Beau's blood was just as red as anybody else's.

Beau worked as a paperboy and delivered newspapers from the Wentworth Herald to the entire town. The Wentworth Herald headquarters were located on the Upper Side of Wentworth, the  part of town that was discriminatory and racist. The part of town in which everybody had to be the same, because being different supposedly meant that there was something "wrong" with you. Brooks who was most certainly a racist, made Beau sort out the newspapers by year, and then after Beau had finished, he had to organise the years into months, and the months by days. It was an overly unnecessary process, but Beau did end up reading most of the newspapers which had been published, which meant that he knew nearly everything that was happening or had happened in town.

"And I was reading the papers from 1985 about all the kids who had been born that year," Beau continued, his voice rising and Chance's hope growing with every word that was uttered through his lips. "I found your name and the name of your mother. Chance I found your Mom!"

It was as if all the air had been sucked out of the alleyway, the world stopped as those last words escaped his lips, and so did Chance. She had waited her entire life to know the woman who had left her by the dumpster. Estelle Dubois, who had found her by the dumpster had told Chance about a thousand times how Chance's mother had looked like that day, "The most gorgeous brown eyes, and dark hair the exact same shade as yours, her nose looked a bit like your nose too!" Estelle had said in barely distinguishable English. Estelle had been 45 when she had found Chance, and now she was 61. She still lived in the same house she had brought Chance into nearly 17 years ago on the 13th of March 1985. It was the same house that she had raised Chance in, the same house where she had learned to care for her and love her, as her husband had left her because she could bear no children of her own.

"Your mother's name is Isla Morgan." Beau's words had barely registered in her ears before she began to sob. Finally, after all these years she would find her Mom. She would leap into her mother's arms and hug her and then kiss her all over her face. Chance was going to find her mother. The one who had accidentally left her beside the dumpster when she was only a few days old. She knew her Mom would definitely be happy to see her, her lost daughter. She now knew the name of the woman who gave birth to her, the woman who should have loved her and never let her go, but somehow did. Beau consoled her, he put his arms around her as she cried and buried her face into his shoulder, and each one of her salty tears became embedded into his blue shirt, which was a shirt he wore so often that Chance had forgotten how he looked in other shirts.

When Chance's breathing had slowed, and her happy tears stopped falling, Beau proceeded with his tale. "A newspaper in 1985 said that the Morgan siblings, Isla and Samuel left Wentworth for Australia on the 15th of May, after their father who lived in Sydney, Australia, died." Beau handed Chance the black and white newspaper that looked like it had been folded many times and also used to wipe spilled coffee. It had a picture of an old man curling his moustache on the front, Chance presumed this was her grandfather, whose name was Earl Morgan, according to the paper. Chance's heart dropped into her stomach. She would never find her mother now. Who knew if she still lived in Sydney?

"A letter came yesterday," Beau cut into her thoughts, and she didn't dare to hope that her mother could be found, because she knew hope was a dangerous feeling. "The letter was from Samuel Morgan, to Jaxon Brooks, Jedidiah Brooks' Dad." Beau paused to take a sip of water and Chance almost strangled him. "How can you drink water knowing that this letter could change my life?" she questioned, crossing her arms. Beau put his arms up in mock surrender as he took the letter out from his bag. "Here, then." Beau tossed Chance the letter, which he had somehow acquired from Jedidiah Brooks' desk.

Chance ripped the letter open with shaking hands, before carefully taking the letter out, unfolding it and reading it aloud. .

Jaxon.

I know.

I will not rest until I see you behind bars. I will tear your name and reputation to pieces. I heard you have a son. What will he think?

If you didn't know by now, this is from the guy you called a loser back in high school.

Isla's brother. Samuel Morgan.

"It has an address on the back!" Chance cheered, excitedly. "Beau can you believe it? My Uncle wrote this!" Beau was frowning as he looked at the letter in Chance's hands. "Chance, don't you think this is a little weird? Your Uncle wants Jaxon Brooks "behind bars" - he wants him in jail! They don't send people to jail for no reason you know." Beau was worried and afraid he had gotten themselves into something that was bigger than they were. It was now that he regretted stealing that letter from Brooks' desk. Chance would take them all the way to Australia if she wanted to, and he knew that finding her mother was the one thing Chance lived for, so they were going to Australia - no questions asked.