Melanie Jayne Anderson

MJA: Juvenile

I was mainly raised by Nicole's father, a lord from a European region. I never really learned his full name. I grew up only ever calling him "Papa". I never knew my real mother and father. My mother died giving birth to me and my father died being killed in some "war", or so I was told. I cannot really say if there really was a war at all. I knew better that all the biggest war that ever occured in the history of mankind ended years before my parents were ever born. I never knew what he did or how I was ever related to Nicole enough for her father to take me in to be raised as his own. We look nothing alike and I have no family. She and her father were the only family I had for as long as I can remember.

I remember living in a huge house almost like a castle in some huge land where you see nothing but trees and the grass were green. The paths were carved like it had been there hundreds of years before and mostly were made of gravel and cobblestones. I remember playing hide and seek with Nicole when we were kids and we'd usually get lost from ever finding each other because the land was too vast. We spent our childhood doing art in the garden and learning to sit properly at the dining tables because we had to attend numerous dinner parties where we were required to behave and dress our best.

We went to school when I was about 5 years-old and Nicole was about 4. We would have our designated nannies get us ready from the time we wake up to bath time to getting dressed to breakfast. After that, we would get into a limo to school. I spent most of early life in limos not knowing where I was heading to or what was happening. I was just told to get into the car and that was exactly what I did. I never asked questions either because I was too little to understand anything.

School was just school. It was an establishment where we went to learn a variety of things such as literature, art, history, science and mathematics. There was hardly anytime to play because we had too many things to learn. We needed to be prepared for primary school and then secondary school. We had to know what we needed to do before furthering our studies into more advanced establishments. It was just something we were told to do because that was all there ever was to it. Everything else was always taken care of. For Nicole and I, at least.

By the time I was 6, Nicole and her father decided to move west. That was when I first met Jean. I had to be prepared to be left behind a lot because Nicole had to follow her father travel on business trips and I had to prepare myself for proper school. I was moved into my house ever since I was a little girl and I was only given it as inheritance when I was 15 years-old. I know the house inside out because everything that has ever been done to the house was under my supervision.

Jean was always standing in for Nicole's father whenever there was a formal event in school. He was also there every time I got into trouble which was always. Jean knew that I was very prone to getting into trouble ever so often that he decided to have me microchipped just to be safe. It was a very wise thing to do. He also began teaching me self-defense in my backyard after school hours because he anticipated the kind of enemies I might accidentally make as I go along. That was one of the best decisions he had ever made.

I once asked Jean if he ever knew my parents while we had dinner. It was the only time we ever talked about my parents. He said he used to work for my father when my mother was pregnant with me. He was one of the many bodyguards he had. He never specified what business my father was running at the time exactly but whatever it was, it sounded dangerous. He was always in contact with foreign affairs and he was always talking to Nicole's father. One night, he and my mother were at home asleep. The alarm went off and they were woken up because there was a break-in. They were taken to a safe house and that was the beginning of their lives being on the run. Nicole's father gave them sanctuary and eventually I was born. My mother died and my father had to leave not long after that. Jean and the rest of the bodyguards followed him and they never returned. I was told that he died when I was old enough to understand. Jean never said what really happened because he didn't want to remember it.