SOME FAIRYTALES HAVE EXPIRATION DATES

Lily

It's not easy to start a new life, when your last one was awesome. But when my dad got the "fresh start" idea, it was impossible to convince him not to. So the summer before grade twelve, when I should've been going on a road trip or hanging at the lake with my besties, I was packing all my childhood memories into boxes instead. Not exactly the fun freedom-filled summer that I had been hoping for.
It had been hard for me too, when mom and dad divorced three years ago, but I got over it. It had been especially hard for me when mom told me via a phone call that she'd rather not see me for a while because her new partner, Phillip, was taking up all her time. I got over it all, eventually.
But it was ten times harder for dad, especially since his sister Kate is her best friend and they are inseparable.
He had retreated inside himself, becoming an empty shell of what he used to be. When I was little, when my parents were still happy, anytime I had nightmares dad would tell me the story of how he and my mother met. "It was very romantic, really," he told me. "I had no idea that I would meet Cassandra that night, it was so random."

I wonder what the "fresh start" he's anticipating will involve. I know that there will be a new house, a new school, new friends. But for him, is he wanting a new relationship? Maybe that's part of it. He wants to move on.
I bite my lip to keep from crying. I love both my parents. I love my mom, Cassandra, despite everything; and I love my dad, Hunter.
Parents should be together, not living on opposite sides of the country with new romances. Will there be room for me in dads new life? In his "fresh start"?
Mom doesn't have room for me anymore: I don't get along with my step siblings, because they make me feel replaced. Nancy is much more well-behaved than I am, and gets better grades. Why would mom need me too? I'm prettier, but I know that mom doesn't care about that. Every time we talk (which is about once or twice a month) she tells me about Nancy's latest achievements. "Oh, Lily, guess what? Nancy got a summer internship at that high-end accounting business I was telling you about. Isn't that awesome?"
"Nancy was invited to perform a violin solo for the 20th anniversary of the mayor and his wife. It was a huge honour."
"So, Nancy has been volunteering at...."

As I struggle to push these pessimistic thoughts from my mind, a piece of dad's fairytale comes to mind. He would whisper it to me so many times, so many nights. Every single time I had a nightmare about vampires or werewolves or evil mermaids, he was there. While mom slept, dad told me their story. It seemed perfect at the time, and I would lay in bed and wish that I'd be so lucky as to have my own fairytale to tell someday.
I guess that I was wrong: real-life fairytales don't exist.

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CASSANDRA , twenty-five years earlier.

I feel kind of out-of-place in this town, even though I call it home.

At least I have Kate now, she's the best friend I could ever ask for, even though we only met last month, in September. I hadn't wanted to transfer schools for grade eleven, but my mom had a promotional offer at work that she couldn't refuse.

I was super mad for a while...until I met Kate. I don't have some awesome story about how she saved me from bullies and sparked a friendship or something: we just met in class, Mr. Parker paired us up for a science experiment. We got talking, and I was surprised at how instantly comfortable it
felt to talk to her. I was, aptly, reminded of how in Anne of Green Gables calls Diana Barry a "kindred spirit" because they were instant friends.
That's how it is for Kate and I.

She lives literally like three houses down from us, in a big brownstone, with her mom and stepdad and stepbrother. They seem like a pretty happy family, from what I've gathered.
Her brother's name is Hunter, I've only seen him once, and it was only for a second and I wasn't really paying attention because was distracted by something else at the time.
He seemed nice; easy going, attractive, sense of humour, good dresser, likes gaming. I'm pretty sure that Kate has said that he's an aspiring photographer, and is taking an advanced photography class in college right now. He won some type of big video/film competition last year.