Losing my real self

Prologue

12 years ago...

It was a bright beautiful day, I was just six years old, tiny and pretty. I have so much resemblance to my mom, long thick hair which was as black as the night sky, wide curvy eyes, pointed nose, and round cute lips, I had this baby face that never seemed to disappear, and my mom and I just clicked a lot
unlike my dad,

I remember running down the stairs that very day with so much bubbling and sparkles of happiness making me glow. My hair kept bouncing at my back, as I raced towards the kitchen.

"Good morning mama". I greeted.

"Morning damsel, how are you, hope you slept well, ".she asked.

"Yep like a baby ", I said rocking my arms to show more emphasis.

"I can see that".Mom says laughing.

I sniffed in the nice aroma of a toasted sandwich, I tapped the table silently showing my impatience, soon dad enters and greets us with his deep voice which almost made me fall off from my dining chair, his voice always jolted me, not that I was scared of him, but it always did when I wasn't expecting him around.
He looks at his watch and tells mom to pack our breakfast as we would be running late, mom does that in a jiffy and soon both dad and I hit the highway, praying not to meet heavy traffic that day.

I made it to school successfully, and it was my happiest day when I got to know that, it was a day off from school activities and that we had fun games, I never paid attention to school announcements, I Sometimes went to school and met an empty building only to get the information from the security men, that there was no school, this weird school that always failed to email our parents or maybe my parents were just oblivious to the mails if they ever sent any.

I had a best friend, Catherine. She shared my mom's name and that's how we became friends. We were halfway through the games, cheering our friends and shouting our lungs out, we sat in a group, I had a group of friends as well, girls. We all snaked our way through the crowd and made it to the washroom. At six years I always wonder what got me into this cycle of wild and experimental kids, I saw as Fredy, one of the girls brought out a makeup kit, the others were giggling, I slowly slipped away into the school's cafeteria. I bought myself some snacks, Catherine came running to me.

"I looked for you everywhere", she said collapsing into a seat next to me. I gave her some of my snacks and she mouthed a thank you.

"Hey, why did you leave?"Catherine asked.

"I don't wanna look like a zombie ", I said and she burst out laughing and I joined in the laughter.

"Why don't we go in for ice cream and some face painting then, I have little coins on me ", she said and I smiled widely.

We bought ice cream and had face paint from there we headed to a bouncy castle and jump till we could jump no more, coming out from the bouncy castle we noticed that a group of our classmates had gathered and our class mistress stood in front of them with an angry look on her face, we run towards the group to find out what was happening, I saw Elizabeth crying and clutched to her school bag tightly.

"An amount of money has been stolen from Liz's bag, a search is ongoing right now, whoever is found capable, would be punished severely ", the class mistress says.

I looked over to Catherine and I whispered to her

"Who could that be?", I said and she shrugged.

We stood there for a few minutes and then a male teacher came out holding a bag, I looked at it closely and shook my head.
Maybe I wasn't the only one having this similar bag, someone else could. I saw him bringing out a book, it looked similar to mine, my heart kept thumping in my chest that I felt dizzy.

"Jane Thompson", I heard him mention my name, suddenly everything went blare, my palms became sweaty and my legs shook vehemently. Everyone turned to stare at me, some couldn't believe I could do that and some still held the hope that it was a misunderstanding.

I went forward with my head bowed.

"We found an envelope of money in your bag, the same description as the owner of the supposed missed money had given, what do you have to say about that, I was speechless and dumbfounded I only kept my head down unable to stare at anyone.

I was sent to the principal's office and was given a three weeks sanction of which I was to pay thrice the money that was stolen. I had no tears in my eyes, I was too shocked to know what was happening.

My mom suddenly fell ill upon hearing what I had done at school, her health was already failing her before this, worsened her case, I always cried myself to sleep and mostly rejected food, in the last weeks of which I should return to school, my mom passed away. It was hard for me, my father developed a hatred for me and I was left all alone, the time for burial arrived, on this day I felt numb, I couldn't shed any tear, I was too young to even know what was happening to me, I had no one to speak to or cry with, at the funeral, Catherine came, seeing her and her mom's presence gave me a little hope, but I was shattered when Catherine confessed to me that she stole the money and the fear of being caught,  kept the money in my bag...

Hi, thanks for showing me love by reading this book, if you like what you read please vote and critics are appreciated, so please comment below, thanks.