Chapter One

Meet 17 year old Rebecca. Shes the new comer in town only 8 months ago, but that hasn't stopped her from making an impression. Try as she might though, she still can't forget her disturbing past.

Happiness is only a myth. Becca thought as she got her books out of her locker, and walked over to sit at the table with Rae and Koda. A myth designed to make people believe there is a point to everything. To make people believe there's something worth something...  

   “Hey Tanner,” Becca said as she sat down next to RaeLynn in the grass. She knew she was blushing even as she looked up at him.
   “Hey Becca. Oh, did you finish your Bio homework? I would love you forever if you let me copy…I completely spaced it last night.”
   RaeLynn rolled her eyes, as Becca handed Koda her homework. “Yeah, sure, here ya go. Just give it back by 4^th period…I can’t hand in another late assignment or my GPA will go down.”
   “Becca…you have the highest GPA of all the seniors. I don’t think anything bad is going to happen because you turn in one late assignment.” Koda told her jokingly. “But fine...you’ll have it back by 4^th. Well, see ya guys…gotta go to class. Thanks for the help Becca.”
  
   Lavender eyes sparkled with laughter, as Becca got her four year old little sister ready to go for their walk. “Is that so? Well if shoes don’t eat feet, why do they have tongues?”
   “Because…well, I don’t know. But Tucker said that shoes don’t eat feet. He said that they just keep your feet safe.” Lily was trying to explain. “He said that if I don’t wear shoes outside, I’ll get owwies on my feet, and he won’t do nothin’ to fix it.”
   “Well, I don’t wear shoes and do I have owwies on my feet?” Becca could kill her step dad for telling Lily that…who wanted their feet shoved in pieces of fabric that ended up hurting their feet more than the ground? No one. “I didn’t think so. We’ll be careful so you don’t get hurt. Now come on before all the puppies leave the park.” She smiled down as her sister’s big brown eyes got full of excitement at the thought of seeing the animals.
   “Becca…why don’t you and Tucker get along?” Lily asked in pure innocence.
   Becca couldn’t bring herself to tell her little sister what their step father had done to her…she tried to block that out. So she told a fib, “I’m not really sure, Sweetie.” Even though it was 75 degrees outside, she shivered with the memories of his hands on her.
   Will this woman stop calling me “Poochie” already and call me by my name. I much prefer “Bud” to Poochi. Becca “heard” a collie whine.
   “Umm, excuse me…ma’am? This may just be me, but if you name an animal, you should use that name…not some “pet name” for him. It just confuses the poor animal.”
   “You may be right child…but Bud knows I’m talking to him.” The woman squatted down, and talked gibberish to the dog. “Don’t you Poochie? Yes you do!”
   You can hear me?! Finally! A human with some intelligence! Can you tell this beastly woman that either she calls me by my name or I will run away…again! Becca hid her laughter as she relayed the message to the woman.
   “Well I’ve never been so insulted in my life…you think you can care for this dog better than I can?! Fine! Take the filthy mutt. I didn’t like him anyway!” and with that, the woman threw the leash at Becca and left the park.
   Oh no…mom is gonna kill me. Thought Becca as she loved on her new found friend. While Bud sat at Becca’s feet, and licked her hand. My savior!