Reinventing Camila *Discontinued*

Chapter 1

This story conversion has been made upon request from @Miwp00 and as such, this is dedicated to them!

--caution-- There are brief mentions of substance abuse and sexual assault during this chapter.

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You hear stories of people who walk away from their lives and start over. I was sixteen when I realized that's what I wanted to do. The only problem was where could I go? Sure, other sixteen year olds had run away from their lives in the past, but statistically things don't work out well for most of them, especially the girls. I had reason to know. My grandfather was a minister and had helped more than one runaway over the years. The stories these kids shared were never good. Frankly, many were downright horrifying.

No, as bad as things were, they weren't bad enough for me to run away from home and chance facing that kind of life. I mean, it's not like my parents didn't love me. They did. I knew that. The fact that they were so clueless wasn't even that odd. Aren't most parents that way when it comes to their kids?

Okay, maybe mine were a little more oblivious than most, but they came by it honestly. They were good people brought up by good families. They weren't exposed to the darker side of life. I think to some degree it was by choice, at least in my father's case. Dad never really wanted to follow in his own father's footsteps. If he had he might have had some idea of how to help me.

My father graduated college with a degree in architecture. He joined the Peace Corp at his father's insistence. I think it was part of deal they made before grandfather agreed to pay for dad's education. It sounded like something he would do. Knowing Grandfather, he probably figured that not only would the Peace Corp, a worthy institution in his opinion, gain from father's skills, but that my father would also gain from the experience. I don't think either of them expected daddy to meet the woman he was going to marry while overseas, although I wouldn't put it past my grandfather.

Mother was also a volunteer. My parents quickly fell in love and decided to get married when they returned to the states. Mom was a housewife, but spent most of her time working on one committee or another after they settled near my father's family. It was a small town where dad's father was the local minister and had been since before my father was born. I spent a lot of time with my grandfather growing up. In many ways, he was my hero.

For the first fourteen years of my life we lived in our small town and I was happy being the minister's granddaughter. I knew everyone in town. I had a good group of friends. We had fun together without getting into any serious trouble. In short, I lived an idyllic life.

All that changed, at least for me, when we moved. My father had done well for himself as an architect and received more than one job offer over the years from big companies. I'm not sure what was so special about the one he decided to take. It entailed us moving to the big city which I think was a plus for my parents. They jokingly called the move their midlife crisis.

Me? I was just as excited to go. Sure, I'd miss my friends, but I could always talk to them on-line. It's not like we lived in the Stone Age. Besides, I fully planned on following in my grandfather's footsteps when I grew up and what better place than the big city to get experience helping people? Yeah, I guess my parents weren't the only clueless ones. Of course, my naiveté disappeared not long after I started high school.

Some days when I look in the mirror I can still almost make out the girl who left our small town staring back at me, but it was an illusion. She was gone. I knew that.

I won't bore you with the gory detail on what happened. Let's just say that the high school I went to had more than enough people who could have used my help. Unfortunately, most of them didn't want it. There was one particular senior boy who took offense at my attempts to help him. I should have backed off. He gave me more than enough warning. I never should have accosted him at that party. He was drunk, but I just knew that given the chance I could help him.