❝𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒂 𝒌𝒊𝒔𝒔 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒔 𝒒𝒖𝒐?❞
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Rachelle Anderson moved to Massachusetts for two reasons: to pursue her dream of being a cellist and to pursue her childhood friend, Leon Taylor.
Rachelle and Leon had been fri...
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C L A R A (the silence shouts so loudly)
June 2016, Summer Los Angeles (Clara, 17)
"Hey sunshine, come help me with this!" Mike carried a huge crate of beers into the bar. The glass bottles rattled and their necks clanked with each heavy step he took.
"Whoa, Dad! You're going to sprain your back carrying this heavy stuff," I laughed, dropping the tablecloth and ran towards him. My hands shot out to grab on the crate and lifted it into the bar with him.
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Mike's my adoptive father and he's the best and kindest person you could ever ask for, at least, I could ever ask for. You see, everyone's family had their own dirty laundry and that didn't exclude mine. In short, let's just state that my parents were never the parents of the year.
They married out of convenience and never bothered trying to develop the relationship into something amiable. Neither of them also bothered to be part of my life. They could leave the country for years for a business trip without returning once. Even if they did, they wouldn't spend their time with me. I was being thrown around very often, relatives to relatives. They didn't even bother checking which aunt or uncle had taken me in and if I was safe under their care. I was convinced that they would definitely feel better if some random relative accidentally murdered me so that they could take me off their list of burdens.
I ran from home very often. Mostly because I didn't even feel that I had an actual home to return to. During one of my grand escape, I met Mike by the beach. He saw the multiple bruises on my arms and legs and decided to hear me out. Within a month's time, my parents were charged for child neglect and had their parental rights over me terminated. I was only in elementary school then but social workers came to knock on my aunt's door to demand for me. Overwhelmed by panic, I cried so badly for the fear that I was about to be sent into an orphanage or foster home.
Yet, not only was I not sent there, but my name changed from Madison Mitchell to Clara Morgan.
I was dropped at a care centre where Mike picked me up after an hour. That was when I knew that he was the one who caused the hefty fines on my parents, which they got away quickly with their almost unlimited wealth. Of course, I didn't trust Mike immediately and practically raised the entire hell into Morgan's household. But regardless of what I did, he never once got angry. Instead, he said, "Sunshine, just let it out and we'll talk when you're ready."
Mike's a single man but he sure did the 'parent' job better than my actual ones. When he adopted me, he had just recently retired from the marines and was trying to get a hold of his life by settling down in LA. The bar was simply a way for him to earn some while killing time. In order to take care of me, he worked fewer hours in the bar and spent a lot of time with me at home. He can be really clumsy but at least he tried his best and made sure I had all the warmth and familial love he could ever give.
