You know how most of the human population believes that your soul mate is your one true love? Well, I don't believe that. I think that a soul mate can take the form of anyone, a lover, of course, but also a sibling, cousin, or a friend. I mean after all they're supposed to be the one person in the entire world who is totally designed to be your other half. Well I believe that my soul mate is in the form of my best friend Arielle. I truly believe that she is my other half and I'm hers -But not it the romantic way, that would just be too damn funny, and besides I have a boyfriend. My name is Lily by the way, and I'm seventeen. I was adopted by the Chilton family about a year ago, and this family is amazing. There is definitely a lot of love here. My adopted father Max is a social worker. He's the one who found me, the rest of the family doesn't know this, but when I was thirteen years old I was sent to the foster home of a woman named Sarah and her fiancé Mike. Well the one time that she decided to leave me with the bastard, he raped me. When Sarah found out she shot me in the back, and I still have the scar. After that I contacted Max, he worked on one of those hotlines for troubled teens, and I told him about everything- this was the first, and last time I would mention this in a long while- and he told me that he was a social worker and that he would try to get the paperwork filled out so that I could be transferred to his station.

So not long after that I was being transferred from Savannah, Georgia to Baltimore, Maryland where he would pick me up and take me to the shelter near his work. So I said goodbye to the few friends I had and got on the plane, ready for a new start. He and I had a pretty tight bond, he set me up with a few homes, but none of them ever worked out, so when I was sixteen and about ready to give up on everything, he offered to adopt me. I was shocked. So he went home and talked to his wife, and family, and apparently they all agreed, ‘cause here I am. Though I’m still expecting them to decide that I’m not worth it and send me back, but so far they keep surprising me. My adopted mom, Jessica, is a little over nurturing, with all of us kids, but she’s nice. Then there is their oldest son Ryan who is eighteen, we sort of had a fling when I first arrived, but now we’re just good friends. Tyler is fourteen now, he’s the rebel in the family. Josh is eleven now, he’s been my buddy from the beginning. And last but not least is Jake, who is now five, and a handful.

I was talking about my best friend Arielle earlier. Well she’s sixteen. We met when Ryan’s best friend Daniel wanted me to be their temporary guitarist, and she and I have been inseparable ever since. And my boyfriend Kyle, I met him at a bookstore in the mall, my first week with the Chiltons. We clicked instantly but we didn’t start dating until a few months later, because we had some problems. Firstly, he’s almost twenty-two and I’m seventeen. Secondly, I was kind of crushing on Ryan at the time. And lastly, he thought that Mike and I had been consensual –he found out the truth later- and he thought that he would have to compete for my heart, so he headed back to England (Did I mention his sexy English accent?) and then I finally realized that I liked him a lot. So Arielle and I ran off to England to find him.

Welcome to my seriously hectic life!