A fresh start is exactly what London McLaren needs in order to forget the demons of her past. A new last name, a new town and a new school.
She's about to start her final year of high school, ready to obey her parent's orders to keep her head down a...
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Tuesday, June 2nd, 2020
I'm awoken by my parents shouting. It drifts in through my closed door, growing in intensity.
I check the time on my phone to find that it's almost eight in the morning. I'd been asleep since noon yesterday. I guess my exhaustion was bound to catch up with me.
I rub my tired eyes, stepping out of bed and padding out of my room towards the kitchen. My mum was doing most of the yelling at this point, her voice high pitched and raw, like she'd been crying.
"How? How is this possible? We were so careful," mum quivers.
"I don't know, Luce. I don't know."
I enter the kitchen and their conversation ceases. They both look at me, tired and worried.
"Honey," mum breathes. "You've been asleep for a while. I saw you sleeping last night, so I didn't want to disturb you for dinner."
"What's going on?" I ask, walking towards them.
Mum was trying to distract me, talking aimlessly about things that didn't matter. Dad sighs, scrubbing his face. He's holding something in his hand. A newspaper.
"What is it?" I whisper, panicked.
He throws it down against the counter. The front page gives everything away.
TEEN KILLER'S FAMILY HIDING IN BAKLEY
By Laurel Bishop
"Of course," I waver. "Of course this would happen."
I tried not to let it hurt me that Laurel had written this article too. But it was hard knowing that Kennedy had probably told her.
"Did you know about this?" dad jabs, leaning against the counter, his arms crossed.
This picture of Nix wasn't his school photo for once. It was him in his footy uniform, the picture of him scowling at the camera with a bruised eye. It had been a rough game that day. His best friend had taken the photo.
It was perfect for the front page. He looked even more like the monster everyone knew him as.
"No— I mean, I didn't think the media would be alerted."
"So you did know? You knew that someone had found out? God, Lonnie, we asked you for one thing! Anonymity!" dad shouts.
"I'm sorry," I cower, tears gathering in my eyes. "But I promise I didn't tell anyone at school. It was this girl, Aubrey Steinfeld. Do you remember her? Nix killed her brother."
They're both silent as they wait for me to explain. As they wait for me to ruin everything.
"She moved to Bakley after we arrived. She threatened me when she remembered who I was. She— she stuck up all these posted yesterday at school. Posters of Nix, telling people that I was his sister," I whisper, staring at the ground.
