Hey guys! I'm really glad you took the time to read this story, as most of you probably know this is the sequel to 'Night & Day' which mostly wrapped around Ace, just an average poor-ish university boy, and Mari, a rich abused girl who ran away from her family. If you haven't read that story I recommend at least reading the last 2 chapters so you understand what this story is about. This story takes place 16 years later (so the characters are all like late-ish 30's other than Julius who's early 40's) and we'll be introducing Mari's daughter now. Carrera. Shall we begin then?

Copyright Death Scented Roses 2012. Copy and die morons.

Chapter 1-

"Mommy…" A 6-year old girl said, tugging on the skirt of a young woman. This little girl was named Carrera her hair was a beautiful dirty blond with intense onyx accents, her eyes were a soft violet and she was scared.

"Yes Carrera?" The woman said, giving her a weak smile, this woman is called Mari Mason, she used to be called Mari Mizumi…but that's in the past. Mari was Carrera's mother, her hair was the same dirty blond and her eyes were a deep emerald; she was more broken then scared.

"When I went to school today…I saw that most people got dropped off by their daddies…where's daddy?" Carrera asked Mari.

"…I don't know." Mari admitted, letting the tears fall from her pale face.

-XxXxXxX-

"C.C!" A voice called. I looked behind me to see a boy my age 16, waving at me; I knew him well.

What's up? Names Carrera, but most people prefer to call me C.C since my name can be a mouthful sometimes. I turned 16 a few months ago and right now I'm at school, the boy who's waving at me is called Jace, and…I guess you could say he's my crush but more like my friend. He has pretty brown hair that's leaning towards him being a blackhead but it's so gently tussled and scruffy that you still know its brown, his eyes are the most gentle yellow color, they look almost clear! He's pretty tall for a 16-year-old; 6 foot 1.

"What are you doing?" I gasped as he pulled me into a choke-hold, he liked playing around with me like this, mostly because he knew I wasn't one of those prissies that'll scream.

"I wanted to say bye, is your uncle picking you up again?" He asked me.

"Yeah! Uncle Julius said he would take me to the pool, you wanna come with I doubt he'd mind." I told him.

Maybe I should explain why my uncle is picking me up…I…don't have a dad. I mean I did or else how would I have been born right? But he's long gone, apparently he left when my mom found out she was pregnant with me; just disappeared into thin air. Speaking of my mom…SHE MY WORST ENEMY! SHE'S JUST A STUPID OLD HAG WHO DOESN'T KNOW HER PLACE! God I hate her so much! When I was a kid she didn't do anything for me, all she did was sit by a window and cry! It was my uncle and her friends that had taken care of me! So now I hate her, but she still acts like I'm her daughter. I mean, bitch please!

The old hag's friends include Sisi who's always so calm and cool; I've honestly never seen her flinch. Since my nickname and her name are basically the same thing with different spellings it's hard to call on one of us without getting the other, but we're totally different, I guess I could take something from her book and try calming down once in a while, but that just wouldn't seem like…well like me. I don't get to see Sisi as often though, she's a tennis player so she's constantly moving about.

Anon is just…well he kinda reminds me of an albino rabbit, but he's really kind and sweet like a best friend who turns out to like you type of person, average other than the fact that he wears NOTHING BUT WHITE, yet somehow they never get stained…so strange. I don't know him as well as most of them but he seems to really pity the old hag. Apparently he's an engineer or something of the sort.

I love Elliot mostly because he's the perfect person to practice wrestling and tackling on, it's a lot of fun to be around him treating me like his niece or something, he's also really attached to the old hag, but he admits that she was really different before my dad left and that these days she just didn't seem like…well like her. All and all Elliot's a really fun person, not only that but he's a doctor so most of the time he does our check-ups and stuff.

Cordie's a lady, there's no other word to describe her better, she used to talk in an accent but apparently she dropped that a few years now she talks normally. I love it when she comes over to serve tea mostly because she taught me so much about manners and how important it is to be polite to people. I love her pretty outfits, even if they may seem a little over the top at times. She owns a little antique shop in town.

The last one isn't really a friend, Uncle Julius is my mother's older brother and he's like the dad I never had. He takes me everywhere and shows me a lot of cool things, I get most of my traits from him apparently and I just…I love him a lot, a lot more than my mother anyway! He's really skilled with computers and every moment he's not with me or the old hag, he's sitting in front of a computer scrawling away. Apparently he's some sort of hacker, but the old hag won't' tell me for certain.

"Sorry! I've got basketball practice." Jace told me with a sheepish smile. I gave him a short giggle and smiled.

"It's fine! I'm not even sure what car my uncle's going to drive in anyway; his corvette only has two seats anyway!" We both laughed at my comment and I gave Jace a goodbye hug before I walked to the pick-up zone in search for one of Uncle Julius's many cars. He normally drove his Toyota though, he has a van too but he loans it to the old hag. You see she owns a bakery in town and does catering for a lot of stuff like weddings, special events and blah blah blah…so yeah she has to use the van to transport those massive cakes.

"C.C!" Rang the familiar voice of my uncle and turned to see his Toyota, like normal only today he had a few extra people with him.

"Uncle Julius! And…extras…" I mumbled and looked at Elliot who was in the passenger seat and Anon who was residing in the backseat.

"So nice…" Anon said with a roll of the eyes, but I could hear the tiny chuckle he made.

"It's not every day you guys come to pick me up you know?" I told them and tossed my backpack at Anon before sliding into the backseat with him. "What's the occasion?"

"We're going to have a drinking contest!" Elliot shouted happily.

"No." Uncle sighed and started driving towards the old hag's bakery. "These two ordered a cake yesterday from Mari and they're going to have a no-hands cake eating contest at the bakery, I figured you might want to watch it or videotape it and put it on your YouTube channel." I laughed hysterically, my YouTube channel was an absolute HIT some of my videos had more than a few million views just because of the dumb stuff we like to do. This was so going on it.

"YES! DRIVE UNCLE!" I shouted.

"WHOO!" The two other boys yelled as Uncle Julius started his usual maniac driving, how maniac you may ask. Well let's just say the whole way to the bakery the speedometer never dipped below 100km/h.

-XxXxXxX- Mari's POV

"Thank you so much Mari." Said the old lady as I handed her the cake. Her name was Shirley and she loved coming to the bakery, and I liked her a lot. She also likes Carrera a lot and gives her a lot of clothes or little heirlooms to wear I think it's because her daughter and granddaughter died in a car accident.

"No problem. Be back soon?" I asked her and pushed some of my blonde hair out of the way of my emerald eyes.

"Oh of course!" She laughed. "By the way, where's Carrera?" She asked.

"I wouldn't know…she doesn't really tell me, but I think she's with Julius." I admitted, I never talked about Carrera around other people if she was my daughter or not. It wasn't because I resented her for hating me, or felt disrespected by the way she insults me and stuff. She has every right to say those things about me I gave her a terrible childhood and I haven't done anything to try and fix it for her…not that I would be able to anyway. I don't' talk about her because she tells me not to, I'm not even capable of carrying her own fathers name without shedding tears so why should I be allowed to carry hers? I sighed to myself and went to the back to work on some more cakes, I never finished my education but I guess my cooking skills came in useful for me in the end.

"CAKE TIME!"

I turned and laughed, I'd forgotten that Elliot and Anon were having a cake-eating contest today. The two were so strange but I liked it, but behind them came Julius and Carrera to my surprise.

"Julius? I thought you were taking Carrera to the swimming pool today." I told him before he gave me a hello hug.

"What's it to you?" Carrera asked me coldly, I flinched back, not wanting to anger her even more.

"Ah…she wanted to see Anon and Elliot's cake-eating contest." Julius said, whispering into my ear.

I nodded in understanding and gave him the thumbs-up, Carrera like Julius a lot which was really lucky, at least she had SOME good influence. A few of the patrons in the bakery turned to face the group as I brought out the cake I'd made for Anon and Elliot's contest. It was a pretty average sized cake with white frosting, blue flowers and I'd made little figures of Anon and Elliot facing off.

"Aww…Mari I almost don't' wanna eat it anymore because it's so nice." Anon said.

"If you don't eat it I'll feel like it doesn't taste good then…" I whined.

"I'm over it." Anon laughed.

I sliced the cake in half right where mini Anon and Elliot were. "Here we go, Anon can eat Elliot and Elliot can eat Anon." I laughed and placed the two halves on plates in front of the two as Julius tied their hands behind their backs I could see Carrera with the video camera smiling. I was glad that she was happy, as long as she was smiling I would smile…even if he wasn't here. She looked up and glared. I pointed at myself and she sighed with a nod.

"YOUR IN THE FRIGIN SHOT!" She complained and I stepped out with a sheepish look on my face.

"You shouldn't let her bully you like that, she's still your daughter you know." Julius told me and held my hand tightly. I sighed.

"I know…but she has every right to bully me." I told him. Julius stared at me for a little bit before nodding, he knew I was stubborn especially when it came to Carrera.

"AND! BEGIN!" He called as Anon and Elliot attacked the cake, bits of frosting was everywhere and everyone in the bakery was cheering. I couldn't stay though, I had to work, so I went to the back and let the group have their fun, not soon after thought Cordie and Sisi arrived.

"What's with the guy fest? I thought this was a bakery, not a war-zone." Sisi said and Cordie let out a tiny giggle at the comment.

"Anon and Elliot are having a no-hands cake-eating contest." I laughed.

"Seriously?" Cordie sighed. "Men, I will NEVER understand them…"

"Why are you guys here anyway? I thought you were having afternoon tea at Cordie's antique store." I told them, I liked being able to still talk to my friends even if I had to work, it also took my mind of Carrera.

"Today's Wednesday remember? I'm not open on Wednesdays." Cordie laughed giving my forehead a soft poke.

"You should close up for a day too you know? It's hard enough being a single mom, but running a bakery too?" Sisi told me.

"Single mom? You've got to be kidding me, Carrera doesn't like to be around me remember? Julius is like her dad." I said with a giggle, the two laughed with me and Sisi handed me an envelope.

"It's from Shuhong, apparently it's some old C.D she found of us doing stupid stuff. She said that you might want it." She told me.

"I'll watch it later, but for now let's watch this shall we?" I said and pointed at the cake that was currently being devoured by two boys with no hands.

"GO! GO! GO! GO! GO!" Chanted the crowd, these kind of events were fun and I usually posted them on my bakery's door or on the website, it attracted a crowd of women and me.

"DONE!" Anon gasped, cake smearing his face.

"CHEATER! YOU STILL HAVE A HUGE CHUNK OF CAKE ON YOUR CHEEK!" Elliot screamed.

"I CAN'T GET IT I HAVE NO HANDS SMART ONE!" Anon screamed right back.

"YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO EAT THE WHOLE CAKE!"

"WELL YOU'RE COVERED IN THE ICING!"

"SHUT UP!"

"GO TO HELL!"

"GET BACK TO EATTING!" Carrera screamed, putting them both back on task. She got a lot of her traits from the people around her, luckily Cordie and Sisi were there to give her a calm side or else I don't know what I would do with her. Honestly…

These days were peaceful and by now I was used to my hectic but fun life, too bad it was about to get a hell of a lot more hectic…

Well that's the end of the chapter, it's more like a prologue if you will, it was just something to introduce the characters and to kinda recap what Mari and Carrera's life is like right now, I guess you guys can see that there is romance in the story dispite the family aspect of it, I mean Carrera and Jace and Mari and Ace. LOL I just noticed when writing that. JACE and ACE. Do you see it? They rhyme! OMG. I'm so easily amused, anyway I hope you guys liked this sequel as much as the original, and I hope that new readers will like both stories! Bai for now and remember to review!

-Death Scented Roses