Prologue

It had started out innocently enough, I swear. I was just trying to be the best little sister, sorry, little half-sister I could be, while hiding the fact that I was actually going to school with my older brother.

Who hadn't seen me in around nine or eight years, and who wasn't privy to the fact that I was living in the same town as he was, going to the same school as he was, and was living right next door to him.

Sorry that's confusing and complicated. (Like everything about my family). Let me simplify this.

My mother is a nut case. A fruitcake. A self-proclaimed artist, who actually is a damn good one and has it rolling in (said money all goes to my college fund though). She also hates my birth father with the vengeance of all the fiery pits of hell, and could probably give Nemesis, the Greek goddess of revenge, a run for her money with the way that she talks about good old dad. So since Mom hates Dad, she has kept him (and his family) out of my life since she won full custody on me. Legally, that's where it ended. But in reality did she stop there? No. Of course not. When we shipped up and shipped out, Mom drilled it into me that: 1) I would not be seeing that man and that man's family if she had any say in it, 2) that man and that man's family would not be seeing me, through pictures, through videos, whatever, and 3) that man and that woman were shitty people who deserved each other, however the child wasn't to blame and I could continue to communicate with him.

Just that he wasn't allowed to see what I looked like.

So that answers the question of why my older brother didn't know what I looked like, and thusly didn't know that I was living in the same town as he was, going to the same school as he was, and was living right next door to him.

But you've got to have other questions right?

Like, why in the hell are you even living near him? 'Him', being my brother.

Easy.

For starters, we might be neighbors, but we're not in any way, shape, or form, close to each other. Mom and I live on a good piece of property, surrounded and encased in three directions, by thick trees. The fourth direction is the vineyard that Mom bought three years ago when we moved back into town after living in San Francisco for the past nine or eight years. The reason we moved back down south, was that the place used to be owned by Mom's best male friend and his partner. But when they broke up, Mom's friend practically shoved it in her hands, selling it dirt cheap to her. So here we were, back in Southern California, living right next to my old man, my brother, and the complication of the stepmother. All of which, had no idea we were living next to them because Mom never left the vineyard, or she went out of her way to avoid Dad & Co., while since they had no idea what I looked like, went around free as a bird, with the exception of the before mentioned golden three rules.

The second question you might be asking, is why is this so damn complicated, when, if your parents just talked to each other everything might cool down?

Also easy.

Because everything, and I mean, everything was complicated when it came to my family. I was not lying before. And the reason why my parents wouldn't talk to each other, was because of a single person. The Stepmom.

You see, my wonderful partner, my stepmother was actually Dad's first wife. They split up because her parents hated Dad, and through a lot of drama, got them to divorce. My mom was the one who got Dad out of the funk after becoming the nanny for his son who was only a couple months old. They had been a nice couple for some time, and a year and a couple months after my brother had been born, I came along. The next couple of years of their quaint marriage would then come crashing down, when Dad's ex-wife came along with her heart still shattered and her needing Dad. Dad out of guilt and the love he had for her, had an affair.

Mom hated cheating, she found out about the affair and promptly divorced Dad. Dad, however, was left with a total mess on his hands because a) his first wife's parents pressured them to get married again because they were poor now, when Dad was rich, and b) see the description of my mom above, because let me tell you, Dad is still madly in love with her.

So to answer your second question, my family situation has and continues to be, royally fucked up.

Your third question, would be how does your brother not recognize you by your name if you go to the same school?

Well, after the messy divorce, Mom being the nutcase she is, decided to change my name—without telling my Dad, my Stepmom, or my brother. So they all think that my name is still my original name, which it hasn't been for years. My original name was now a middle name (which I didn't have before), and my new first name was changed to Mercury. In addition to this name change, Mom changed our last name back to my maternal grandmother's maiden name.

I rest my case that my mom is insane, and that my family situation is, again, royally fucked up.

And it gets worse.

But you should already understand how it gets worse, in case you don't though, then a fourth question should arise at the previous statement. How in the hell could this get worse?

Well, to be straight with you, my older brother both hates and loves me.

To explain: my older brother is the most overprotective older brother I have ever known, even though he only interacted with me via text or email. He adores me, I am to quote him: "The best damn little sister a guy could have". He makes sure to text me every day, even during school, whenever he can. I know because not only do I get the text messages, but I also see my brother texting me every day whenever he can. Which, has caused a lot of break ups for him, and a whole lot of tears for the female population at school.

Okay, we've established that my older brother loves me as his little sister, the thing is though, is that he hates me as a person that he goes to school with.

But, you already knew that, since he's your best fucking friend. Your bro. Your wing man. You already knew that my brother, Marcus J. Walker, hates me, Mercury M. Itou, as a person, because I slapped one of his many girlfriends at the beginning of last year, after she pulled the 'single mother' card on me.

So to sum it up, I'm hiding in plain sight. Which starts innocently enough, I'm just trying to be the best half-sister I can be, without letting my brother in on the secret, and as you can see, it just goes downhill from there.

.

"So there you have it, the big secret, the shitfest that is my life," I said while looking him in the eye.

The only thing that Casper could say in response was, "Holy fuck."

And what an appropriate response it was.