Chapter 1

Great. Alone for the summer. Alone forever, more like.

My parents had decided to go all summer for a little 'us time' retreat to the Bahamas. They thought that they just needed some time "for us". We'd begged and pleaded to be included, then fumed and had temper tantrums when they wouldn't let us come. It turns out that that was the best thing for us kids. Mom and Dad hadn't even made it to the Bahamas. Their cruise ship (they were taking it slowly; in a very lavish way) had sank in the middle of the ocean, and their lifeboat had just happened to be the one that had a leak. No one else had bothered to go back for the screaming people on that boat. They were too busy trying to save their own sorry skins.

When I'd gotten the news, I suppose that I should've been sad. I suppose I could've cried. But something kept stopping me. I had been going through a rough spell with them, being the angsty fifteen-year-old that I was. As a matter of fact, far from being sad, I was angry. How could they leave me and my twins sister as sole heads of our family? None of our relatives could take all of us. We would rather die than possibly be separated in the adoption program. And friends? We had none. Lupe and I would have to quit school. We'd have to give up our futures to protect the futures of our little brothers and sisters. We'd have to lie to others, saying that we had someone taking care of us. Otherwise, they'd force us to the orphanage.

Fortunately, however, at the time of my parents' deaths, it was the last week of school. Meaning we had exams. Also meaning school was just about to end. Further meaning that we might be able to get jobs. I wasn't sure if fifteen was old enough, but we had to try. Lupe could definitely lie about her age and get a job. Despite being the younger twin, she was completely more capable. We weren't even in the same ballpark. She amazed me with her bravado, her charisma, and her smooth talking skills. So did my next-youngest sibling, Luke. Despite being only fourteen, he was strong as an ox, smart as a Harvard Graduate, and with a heart of a saint. If people didn't hire him, I'd be shocked. And I? I suppose I could get a job.

Lupe, Luke, and I had a little meeting as soon as we finished our dreaded math exams. We agreed to find jobs. We'd take turns, try to work hours out so that there'd be one of us home with our little brothers and sisters at all times. We also agreed that we' d tell no one about our predicament, even if that would get us pity. We couldn't afford to take that risk. Finally, we agreed that our nice house and large grounds couldn't be sold. We were too attached to the place.

At least, they were. I wasn't. I felt so… detached, so lonely. I felt nothing inside. I couldn't care less what would happen to anyone. Lupe and Luke might've, but I can honestly say that I didn't. I was, as afore mentioned, going through a rough period. I couldn't care less about anything. I suppose I was depressed. I suppose I was bored. I suppose I should've gone to a doctor for my suicidal feelings that I'd been having. But no. On the outside looking in, nothing was wrong with me. I kept my feelings that well sheltered. One thing I was proud of.

That didn't stop me from venturing out with the others to get a job. Rough period or no, I managed to not only drag myself out of the house, but to get a job picking up litter in a park. The pay wasn't very good, but then again, the work wasn't that rough either. Lupe, attractive and charming as she was, got to work at a cashier at Nordstrom. The customers loved her wit, her charming attitude, her attractiveness, her kindness, and besides her pay she got a huge amount of tips. Luke, meanwhile, became a caddy at a golf course. Again, people loved him.

For about a week into summer, things went like this. We'd alternate between jobs and our younger siblings, and we'd try to at least seem normal and happy. I continued my bad habit of cutting, though neither Lupe nor Luke noticed. I also wrote in my diary of thoughts of suicide, but I was too scared. However, on June 7th, I decided that I was sick of life in general. I'd had a bad day at work the day before, and my depressing was taking a swing for the worse. I told neither Luke or Lupe that that day that I went to the park, I'd taken stones in my pockets to weigh me down when I jumped in the lake next to it. I didn't bid them goodbye, figuring at the time that they were too preoccupied to care about me. After I finished my work for the day, I walked to the dock, prepared to leap. I thought of death in general for a moment or two, then added a few stones into my pocket and prepared to jump.

I wasn't scared. Rather, I felt great. This death would be painless and quiet. No one could interrupt me. Or so I thought. Just then, I heard a low moan of pain.

If there's one thing that I am proud of, it's the way that I'll stop whatever I'm doing to help someone in pain. I dropped the stones and ran to the thicket, where the moan was coming from. I pushed the thick brambles aside, earning me more cuts than usually adorn my arms, and suddenly, he was there.

It was a boy who was maybe a year or two older than I was. He was very slender, even more so than I, his little bulk probably pure muscle. His skin was very pale, as pale as the moon, though I could tell he'd been left out here a long time, his cracked lips, scabs and cuts (some still bleeding, some from the brambles, and some that I didn't want to know why they were there), his ripped clothing, and the dirt, sweat, and blood caked so thickly through his hair that I couldn't in a million years tell what the color was.

Something told me that I had to help him. I gathered him up in my arms as best as I could, noticing how much my fingers could feel his bones and weak muscles, and holding this complete stranger in my arms as carefully as I would a small child, I started for home.

Just then, he spoke in a very hoarse, quiet voice.

"Where am I? Who are you?" Were his questions.

"Shh. If anyone sees us, I'll feel funny. Oh yeah, my name's Mae," I replied quietly and swiftly home. Thankfully, no one, not even my siblings, saw us.