Prologue - Dear Mum...

The fourth young woman, April, is a chronic book lover, clever as Einstein, teenage recluse, and impressionable as hell; qualities her mother does not approve of.

  It was only a bookcase. A bookcase. April Garland's mum had flipped out the second April had requested an innocent bookcase for her bedroom. At the moment all her many books were stacked against one wall creating a huge barrier beside her bed. Whenever she chose to read one that was stacked right in the centre, she'd have to spend precious time unstacking until she could pry it free. She'd come to stack them in order, rearranging them occasionally, so the best ones were near the top and most accessible. It had become such a task that April decided it was time to reluctantly ask her mum for a bookcase.

'Why, sweetheart? Why a bookcase?'

April was perched on a kitchen stool watching her mum make dinner. She'd stopped now though. Once she heard April wanted to fuel her studious nature with a bookcase, she found herself unable to continue chopping carrots until the situation was resolved.

'I have so many books Mum, they're all cramped up in my room and in the way. I just need a cheap one. Just someplace to store them.'

'I know where you can store those things, and it's not inside this house,' Leonie snorted.

April felt her eyes prickling. It was either anger or disappointment. Probably a bit of both.

'Fine. You know what, just because you don't have the intelligence to sit down with a book doesn't mean I can't.' April kept her voice low and strong. As much as she hated the thought of her words hurting her mum, she kind of felt compelled to throw a few stingers her way.

Leonie looked away. 'That's not how it is April.'

'Then what's it like? Why are you so opposed to everything I enjoy? You never care if I get an A on an assignment or if I excel at anything at school. You don't even bat an eye! So tell me Mum, what's it like?' April crossed her arms over her chest to stop her hands from shaking. She'd never had an argument about this before. She'd never been game enough to find out the truth behind her mum's attitude.

Leonie placed the knife down and swiped her hair from her fringe. Tiny sweat beads gathered at her hairline.

'You're sixteen, darling. Sixteen! And you're beautiful. You have so much to offer with your looks and your personality. Join in cheerleading, or a sports club, go out with the girls in your class, go to parties, get in trouble, go and enjoy yourself!' Leonie came around the bench and cupped April's face in her hands. 'You're gorgeous. You could have your choice of any guy at your school if you just give them a chance to woo you.'

April nearly burst out in laughter. She wormed her way out of her mum's grasp and slid off the stool. 'You want me to be popular, don't you? You want me to throw away my books, dumb myself down and bring around all the bimbos from my class so you can fuss over them and be the cool mum you fear you'll never be. Is that how it is? You want me to be a stupid bimbo?'

'No! No, honey, of course not! I just want you to know there's a whole other world out there. When you're sixteen you're meant to be experiencing all that.' Leonie tried to take April's hand. 'I'm not telling you what to do, I'm just worried that you're locking yourself up in your room with your books and not giving yourself the chance to be a teenager.'

April felt breathless for a moment. Any other parent would be thrilled to have a child who wanted to stay home and away from trouble. She was shocked at her mum's confession and shocked that who she wanted to be would never be acceptable to her mum.

Without another word, April retreated back to the place she felt safest. She closed the door softly, wanting so desperately to leave the conflict outside where it belonged. She collapsed on her bed and let her face sink into the pillow.

It was true at her school that looks were power. The girls who were slaves to their image got everything they wanted and if they didn't they always knew how to manipulate people into getting it. They paid no attention in class, flirted with every guy that moved, teased the geeky guys who would revel in the attention they received even if it was for a joke, spent most of lunchtime in the bathroom preening themselves, had their smart phones with them at all times, put people down for laughs and made sure everyone knew who they were. They were ridiculous, the lot of them. April knew that if she became one of them, her mum would be proud. She would be living, as her mum put it. But the one thing April knew was that none of that would last. Life was unfair like that. She knew she could always rely on her smarts; her looks weren't always going to be there for her. She just wished her mum knew that too. Her mum would never see what was going on inside her. She'd never find the desire to even look.