Enduring [EDITING SLOWLY].

Chapter 1

Chapter 1.

In the vast city of New York, my family lived in No 4, Franklin Street.

We are the Keens. My mom is Elizabeth Keene, a housewife , Dad is Tom, a well known archaeologist. My dad is the kind of person who'd be calm even when all of us are freaking out because of an earthquake. He doesn't get excited much. Mom says I've taken after dad. Lily is the bratty 15 year old sister who always gets what she wants & is the hottest in her class. Or at least that's what I last heard. Sid was the brother I had & would have talked about if I had ever met him. Last I heard, he died in a car accident, driving to come meet mom & me at home. Mom said that I was very stubborn when I was a kid & got really angry when he didn't come home for thanksgiving & started asking for him. So, he left summer school in Penn State to come meet mom & me. I was quite happy when I heard that. I rarely met him & I hardly knew anything about him which was why the loss, I guess, didn't hurt me much. His car got crushed by a truck or something. Yeah, I know. Pitiful & all. It was very late by the time they took him to the hospital. So, he died.

I was fine but later I felt it was my fault. I dreamt about it & could hear him screaming 'It was for you! You did this to me!' & it hurt me. I wish I'd known him.

Sorry, forgot to introduce myself in the process of telling you my family history. If I have to tell you everything, it'll take the whole night. So I am Emily Keene & I live with my family a street on Franklin Street. I'm 18 years & go to Radcliffe East High School. I don't feel so bad about my brother anymore because I have Ted. He's always there for me & is protective & a really good brother.

"Look who decided to finally show up! Didn't think you'd ever come back after what happened!" Ted said. He was walking beside me.

Last week, my boyfriend broke up with me. Again. He feels I'm too boring & old fashioned. "Of course, I came. I'm not going to sit & cry watching love stories & eat ice cream all the time! I mean, you know me better than that Ted!" I told him. But that is exactly what I did. I'd bunked 2 days of school. "Yes, I do! How much ice cream have you eaten in the past few days??" He asked laughing. I ignored his comment & asked "Where're Pauline & Faye?? I've been calling them forever but they didn't pick up. I even texted them. I didn't get a reply. What's going on?!" I asked him. Pauline, Faye, Ted & I had known each other for as long as I can remember. And that's a verrry long time. "Pauline went to class. Faye must be in the gym, you know, doing the usual!" He said & laughed. Pauline Mckenzie was the nerd of our class & Faye Summers was the total opposite. Faye was the hottest chic in school so I assumed that she was doing some random guy in the gym right now because that's what she usually does or cheerleading practice. All the time. She's the 'One-night stand queen'. Wow. I sometimes wish all the guys would run behind me asking for a date & it rarely happens.

You might be wondering how we became friends. They saved me from the neighborhood bully once & since then we've stuck together. Always been there for each other. In a way, I owed them. So we became best of friends.

By the way, Pauline wasn't a total nerd before. She was the fun loving type & still is. She had to support her family so she became a nerd. It's just hidden behind the mask. And Faye - she'd had 1 serious boyfriend till now & that guy turned out to be a total douche so she shut off her emotions. I'm sure we can find that old Faye somewhere. Her family loves her but there's something she's missing. Feels like there's some spark missing in her life. Her dad is rich & have always spoilt her so she needs someone to actually spend time with her & she had a traumatic childhood. Her dad passed away & her mother stopped taking care of her family so she wanted to make a good name for her family. She wants to be seen for who she is, not for who she pretends to be. She was always invisible.