Prologue

                I guess every story has to start off somewhere or at least with someone. So for this little story let’s start off with my cousin in the little town of Cider Creek. His name is Jasper, but his friends prefer to call him Jay. Jay Nevin. Apparently Jay sounds better than Jasper. To me I like Jasper better, but maybe it’s because Jasper rhymes with Casper, you know, the friendly ghost.

                Okay, so where were we? Ah, Casper- I mean Jasper, was the star receiver of his high school football team which meant that everywhere he went in the little measly town the crowd of people would part like the Red Sea did for Moses and allow him and his cronies the path to walk freely. Besides that, he dated the captain of the cheerleading squad, a girl I like to call, blonde bimbo bitch. Or rather the 3B’s for short. Don’t get me wrong, the girl is perfectly nice, if you like the brainless yet not boobless type. And my only guess for why Jasper was dating her went down to the fact that the girl was as easy as an easy bake oven.

                But Jasper isn’t all that and a bunch of jazz either. Nope, my dear, dear cousin is nothing short of ordinary. He’s not the hottest cookie in the oven nor was he the brightest among the brain cell killing teenagers he hung around with. To be honest, he was merely an average Joe who just happened to be blessed with arms that caught pigskin easily and legs that took him dozens of yards in a few short seconds.

                There was never anything particularly great about him. He was tall, which was unusual for his family considering most of them fell just short of average height, but he wasn’t extraordinarily tall like that one Chinese basketball player dude, Yao Ming. His parents said he took after my dad’s side of the family and not his parents. I’ll explain that comment later, it’s one hell of a dozer. And he had muscles, well, he called them muscles, I think they’re just little aliens hibernating under his skin getting ready to pop out one day like those b-rated horror flicks. Not that it really matters if he had muscles or not, his lanky form isn’t really much comparing to the Rock or anything.

                Okay, so about the whole he looks like my family and not like his own, well it goes to this fact. He and I aren’t exactly cousins. We’re more like… distant relatives with such a complicated connection that we would rather call each other cousins than give the hour long speech of how we came to be related.

                The dark curly mat on his head that he calls hair was just like my dad when he was younger and exactly like mine as I stand today. He also has dark eyes that are just a shade lighter than black, which is what mine is like as well. So you can see why when we were younger folks used to mistake us as twins. Yeah, didn’t help that we were born just a few weeks apart either. We just tell people the crap about being cousins and they accept it with a smile and a nod.

                Insert a very sad sigh here, I think I’m straying a bit off topic. Maybe, sort of… I think. Well, you’re probably wondering why I would be talking about my “cousin” if he wasn’t so great or handsome or anything remotely like that of Orlando Bloom. Now insert the wiping of drool. You see, my “cousin” is where the story started. My life was going along pretty well considering everything. I had very little drama in my life, it was quite productive. I worked part time at my mother’s café after school each day and full time during the summers, went to school where I got straight A’s, was a writer for the school’s newspaper and hung out with my friends the rest of the time. Nothing spectacular but at least it was drama free. That was until he came along. Yeah, he busted through the front doors and my life went down the drain straight into hell. Okay, so maybe it was a blessing in disguise, but I didn’t know it then and it sure seemed like hell while I was living through it.

                Jasper’s life, as much as I hated to admit it, wasn’t as great as it had appeared to people. Sure he ruled the school with his jock buddies and ditzy chicks, but at home, away from the games and the girls, his life was by far a living nightmare. His parents were barely home; his younger sister was a Goth who found it fun beating up his girl “friends” and getting suspended while his other younger sister was home as often as her parents were. His mom was an addict and I’m not talking about drinking or drugs. No, his mom had a gambling problem and it didn’t help that she worked at a casino either. The money she made there went right back. But that wasn’t enough; she even took from her husband who worked long difficult hours running a restaurant.

                Owning and running a restaurant that had business all hours of the day for seven days a week should have been more than enough, but it wasn’t. So I guess my “uncle” got tired of having to deal with seeing his hard earned money go to the casinos and finally sat down with his wife to discuss their divorce. I don’t know how that went, but I’m sure it went well, considering they both walked out of the house alive and agreeing that they couldn’t handle taking care of their children. They couldn’t do it while they were together and being separated didn’t help matters. Especially not while my “aunt” was an addict to gambling and my “uncle” was trying to make ends meet and pay off debts she had accumulated.

                Now this is where my parents stepped in. If I knew they were going to offer what they were going to offer, I would have slammed the door on their feet before they could, but I didn’t. My parents are two of the kindest, yet strangest people you’ll ever meet. They overlooked the fact that Jasper’s mom owed them thousands of dollars and told his parents that they were more than willing to take in the three teenagers for however long the parents needed to get back on their feet. It was an offer that couldn’t be refused.

                Though the two younger kids, both of whom were girls, one in eighth grade while the other was a sophomore, declined the offer and took refuge with their eldest sibling, another sister, Jasper was never given that option. He was sent to live with us. I figured his parents knew about his life style, the one that slowly came to be while both parents were out of the house the entire day, every day of the week. Guidance was what he needed and my parents were the best candidates in their opinion. I guess you can’t really blame them for a moment of lapse in judgment.

                Maybe they just forgot momentarily that my parents were a little off of center. They’re not crazy or anything, or so I think. My parents are just, different from the norm. They’re… themselves in a world of fake, of plastic surgery and false sweetness. You’ll see for yourselves how they are.

                Now, let’s start the actual story. Hmmm… where should we begin? How about when Jay was told he was moving halfway across the country to live with relatives he hadn’t seen in years? Nah, that scene was a little bit too x-rated. Yeah, Jasper’s parents walking in on him and blond bimbo bitch doing it isn’t exactly the best start, though amusing considering the Britney wannabe made a mad dash out the door buck naked with her “clothes” in hand. What followed was a bit too angry and a little violent. Let’s start with him walking through the doors of my parents’ house, yeah, that’ll do. The moment that my life went to the dogs.

                Oh, by the way I’m Bella. Bella Ziera. And this is the story of the roller coaster called Jay.