I was awoken by an obnoxiously repetitive knocking sound. Groaning, I looked at the cable box, squinting my eyes to see without my glasses. 8:45 the green letters mocked from atop the muted TV. I must have fallen asleep on the couch again. I looked down at myself. Well at least I had remember to change into my pajamas before grabbing my book and heading to the living room where I usually fell unconscious at about two thirty in the morning. Forcing myself to wake up, I stretched my arms, satisfied only when I heard the joints crack, and then my legs. I stifled a yawn with one hand and felt around for phone with the other… maybe I had some messages from Steph.

No texts. No messages. No ims. I glared at the screen. No one loved me.

Then the knocking came again. I sighed, I knew there was a reason I got up, and walked over to the front door, moving my ridiculously long brown hair away from my face as I grumbled. Maybe dad had forgotten his keys. He was prone to doing things like this as his head was always up in the clouds - romance novelists were like that - and would sometimes obnoxiously try to wake me up before twelve which was unheard of as no one was to wake me up unless I’d had at least hours of sleep.

When I felt mean enough, I’d make him wait ten minutes while I lounged in bed, urging myself to take those few steps towards the door. On days like these though, I’d turn on my laptop, go to my recent documents and open up my latest project before walking over, opening the door a fraction of a centimeter wordlessly and shuffling back to my couch, my favorite covers, and my laptop.

Usually he’d walk in with insufferable glee, carrying the box of donuts he usually bought for us on the weekends when he went on his run, half singing, “Good morning Wren! The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and it’s a brand new day.” My dad was a bit high strung like that but for a few seconds nothing happened.

At the time it didn’t even occur to me that he never woke up before ten.

“Hello?” an unsure voice called from behind the door. This was getting to be ridiculous. What kind of door salesman bothered someone this early in the morning? It was just rude. I sighed and walked back over to the door, convincing myself to be polite to whom ever it was.

“I’m sorry but…” the words died on my lips as I was met with the blinding glare of a flash. I squinted but bright camera lights continued to go off in my face. I blinked, maybe Snoopy pajamas weren’t such a good idea at all. I slammed the door immediately.

“DAD!” This was NOT normal. “Dad wake the hell up right now!” I collapsed on the couch and waited. No response, no reaction. I glared at the cable box again, 8:59.

I’d had to put up with my dad’s stupidity before but this was more than I could handle. I stomped towards his room down the hall from the living room, third door to the left before hitting the back end of the house and hitting the back yard. I opened the door.

Dad was only thirty one which was pretty young for someone with a sixteen year old daughter. He ended up having me when he was fifteen years old, which was probably the first thing about him that gave away the fact that he was completely irresponsible - for the most part - as he was still responsible to raise me despite the fact that my mom left him, that my grandparents were really pissed, and that he’d have to change my diapers until I was three.

Sometimes I kind of resented having him around. He was harder to take care of than I was when I was just a baby, having to feed him, clothe him, make sure he did his work, and all that. But still, I guess things could have been worse. He was more like an older brother really than my father, an older brother who needed constant looking after.

“Wake up,” I ordered with a glare, pulling the covers he was bundled up in.

“Wren?” he was annoyed but still half asleep.

“Why are there photographers outside the house?” I tried to keep my tone patient.

Well one thing was for certain, that definitely woke him up. He was sitting on the edge of his bed, looking at me sheepishly. From the way he was looking at me, I could tell this was probably worse than I’d first thought. My father was a very well known writer, he mad the top of the list when it came to his genre, and had it not been for that fact that he wrote under a female penname, I wouldn’t have thought twice about some reporters coming over for a surprise interview about his latest novel or enquiries about his own love life.

“Well Wren, there’s a VERY good explanation for that…” he began but didn’t continue. I sat on the bed, trying to remain patient with my father, though the idea of a gaggle of reporters parking outside of my unkempt lawn only made me more irritated. Bridgepoint was a pretty small town in Washington. There was a pretty good chance that the neighbors were already looking over from across the street gossiping about us. I probably wouldn’t hear the end of this at school for a month.

Sometimes I really hated being the adult.

“And that would be?”

“Well… there was this girl…” I rolled my eyes. With my father there usually was. This wasn’t a surprise. “You remember that meeting I had in New York? You packed my suitcase and made sure John picked me up at the airport? Well I ended up going to a bar after the meeting. It was a pretty snazzy place Wren you should’ve seen it. But anyway, so there was this woman there and we got to talking… and you remember how I called you and said I was gonna be there a while longer? Well, I got to know said woman really well and we kinda clicked and then I got engaged and came home.” The last sentence was said so quickly I almost didn’t catch it.

I just stared.

WHAT?!

I mean, I was a logical personal. I followed reason you know? He was only there for a total of four days and he got ENGAGED?! What kind of normal person can’t go off on a business trip without doing something so royally stupid as getting engaged to some random freaking woman he never met before in his life other than on a four day business trip!?

I gulped. As far as that went that was probably not the way a father should have told his daughter her had gotten engaged. In fact the way he described it seemed like something Steph might have told my well… minus all of the actual progress my father made with the random floozy woman. Steph wasn’t the kind of girl to do anything about the crushes she got at school. She was worse, she was the kind of girl who half stalked a guy she liked and never said a word to them. At times when she’d feel really courageous she’d send me over to spark a conversation and then interview me on every word we’d spoken.

I was horrified but I guess at least now I knew… two whole days after he’d come home from said business trip. Still, there was something missing…

“I’m really glad you’ve let me in on all of this but what’s that got to do with the paparazzi?”

“Hell if I know. But she WAS supposed to come here with her son so they could both meet you. That kind of needs to happen if we’re gonna be one big happy family.”

I sighed. Of course this all made sense in my father’s head. Meet some woman, get married seven days later, and we would all live happily ever after like the Brady Bunch or something. Seriously, how did a sixteen year old girl explain to her father that he couldn’t just go marrying strange women?

“Dad,” I almost whined. I was almost ashamed of it. I was usually more in control of the situation but this kind of thing was just so over my head I didn’t know what else to do. There was a knock on the door again. This time I didn’t bother to get up.

“Come on Wren. That could be her.” his hands encircled my wrists and next thing I knew I was being pulled toward the door.

The door was opened and closed with literally with a flash and the three of us stood in the front of the living room, looking at each other. Dad looking at her, her looking at dad, and me looking at the both of them. I guess her son didn’t come. Still, the woman who stood before me wasn’t what I thought she’d be. I was thinking she would be some chick my dad had picked up at a bar or a kindergarten teacher who didn’t know any better than to fall in love with the first shmuck who crossed her path. She was neither. She wore expensive clothing, wore strong perfume, and looked like she’d just gotten out of a movie set. Of course it wasn’t till later that I found out that yeah, that had pretty much been the case because Eleanor Krimsy was famous and lived in a huge mansion with her even more famous son and just happened to be one of my father’s BIGGEST fans, well, once he’d gotten drunk and admitted to her what he did for a living. Or at least that was the version of the story they gave me while I sat on my couch staring at the two of them in shear and utter confusion.

“Wren dear I’m so glad I could finally meet you. I’m so nervous right now my heart just won’t stop beating,” the woman gushed. It sounded honest and she seemed like a genuinely nice person. I tried to return the wide smile she was giving me but couldn’t bring myself to do it. My brain had stopped functioning. I felt like I was four years old again, catching my father making out with someone woman in his room when I’d woken up to make sure he was sleeping for the next day of work.

“Come on Wren say something. Don’t make Elli think you’re rude.” Dad was pushing. He almost never pushed. If anything it was I who pushed HIM. I didn’t appreciate him trying to take over the situation, feigning adulthood over me. I was the one who cooked the meals, paid the bills, with him money of course, took out the trash, and fixed the sink. I never thought someone could wake up and just have their lives completely change from right under them.

Then again with a father like mine, I should have seen this coming.

“Hi,” was all I could bring myself to say, my brain suddenly catching up to all of the imperfections of my house keeping, not that it’d ever been a problem before. I never really had people over and dad only had people over when it was dark and her thought I was sleeping so I made it not a point to clean for an of his guests. “So… you’re getting married?”

They nodded at me with big smiles.

“Where are we all going to fit? I mean, I know the house isn’t small or anything but…” They were giving me weird looks. I not like this. I love how the only sane person in this situation is the one who’s made to look like they’re retarded.

“Well Wren we were kind of thinking that maybe we could all move into Elli’s family house. It’s got a tone of space for you and she’s already gotten you a room on the second floor. And when we get there you can get to know Chase better. I’m sure you guys are gonna love being brother and sister and it’ll be great.”

I forced myself to take deep breaths. I glared at dad. He knew I had asthma and sometimes when I got too stressed out, usually before a test or a final, I would have these attacks I guess you could say when I would hyperventilate and pass out. Talking about it, it sounds really bad, and I always felt like a loser when it happened but luckily this only ever happened at home.

“Move?” I forced the words out in between breaths.

Now I know what you’re thinking, I should have seen this coming the first time I saw her. It was pretty obvious that some famous woman wouldn’t want to live in Washington while she could probably afford to live in Italy or something but I had to say the thought of moving had never even occurred to me.

You have to understand… If there was anything anybody knew about Wren Maddock, other than the fact that she sometimes talked about herself in the third person, was that she was a small town girl, that she went to a public school where no one really liked her, bookworm that she was, that even though her father was secretly famous that they couldn’t afford to keep the cable up at the same time as the other electricity and the other bills for the house that she did herself while her father was busy trying to find inspiration for his newest novel.

I’d never even left town. So the idea of being forced to move into some upscale house in an upscale neighborhood, suddenly the stepsister and stepdaughter of two of the most famous celebrities in the world right now, I was going to have a complete breakdown any second. I knew I would. I probably should have except that more than anything, I liked to be in control and having a breakdown was NOT in control.

“Oh dear, she looks like she’s about to faint Johnny.” She looked from me to my father worriedly. Johnny? The gross pet name only fueled my alarm.

“This happens all the time Elli don’t worry about. Give her a minute and she’ll be okay.” I glare at my father. I knew she was annoying and irresponsible sometimes but… I hoped someday I would forgive him for dropping this kind of bomb on me. “Calm down Wren and breathe.” He soothed rubbing his hand on my back which I admit, helped to calm me down a little. “There go you.”

“School?” I asked again.

“We enrolled you at Urban Academy. Chase goes there and his friends are lovely. I’m sure this is all a little fast for you dear but I know Chase will be more than happy to help you with the transition,” Elli sympathized.

I nodded. If there was one thing I’d learned about living with my father it was that no matter how much more of an adult I was than my father or this random but not so random woman, I pretty much had to do what they told me anyways because that’s just the way life worked, before you turned 18 anyways. I heaved a tremendous sigh.

Most people have very few life-altering moments in their lives. Usually it’s when they have a baby or meet the love of their life. It also usually happened when people were old enough to understand it. Me? I was a sixteen year old girl hoping to wake up from a bad dream.