Your Life Is A Dream. Mine Is A Nightmare.

~Chapter 1~

A Hauntingly Sad Beginning

I'm Chesa Heart. My life was never normal, in fact it was merely a nightmare that I could never awake from. Though it terrified me in many ways, I fought with everything I had. Everything went completely wrong from friends to family to love. I had always dreamed of an adventurous and fun life. You know what they say, be careful what you wish for. I surprisingly got exactly that. On my thirteenth birthday my mother had died. My family and friends were at our white cottage-like house celebrating my joyous first teenager birthday. About twenty people were there to happily party with my family. My mother noticed that she had forgotten to get the cake from the bakery in town.

"Oh, crap!" my mother exclaimed. "Sorry dear let me go get it." She grabbed her keys, which always had a strange metal ring on the key chain, and hopped into her aqua blue Hybrid. That was the last glimpse I saw of my mother alive. She and I looked fairly alike. She had a skinny figure, deep brown eyes, a heart shaped face, and shiny long black hair. I had a petite yet athletic figure, a heart shaped face, and shiny long black hair. The only physical thing I had from my father was his bright turquoise-blue eyes. We were in the middle of watching a cheap clown trying to make a balloon giraffe for my best friend Summer Santos. I know what your thinking A clown at a thirteen-year-old's party?! Wow?! I really didn't care about this small party. My parents promised me a better party with all my school friends the next day. Summer had a petite figure, deep big green eyes, shiny long black hair, and a heart shaped face. She lived next door to us in a cottage like home. She and I had very close birthdays. Mine was June 13 and hers was June 12. She was always glad to be the older one and I really didn't think it mattered. Summer was an only child just like me. We did everything together and were practically twins inside and out. I was Filipino and so was she. We both loved the sunset, ocean, and almost everything else. We both have American fathers, but we have Filipino mothers. Both of our mothers went to the same grade school, high school, and college. They went to America together at about age seven, which I think must've been hard. A high class school had accepted both of them and all their siblings. Tala, (my mother) meaning morning star in Tagalog (the Philippines' language), and Marisol (Summer's mother) met their husbands the same time also. They were so alike like Summer and me, just like twins.

The clown somehow successfully made a giraffe for Summer. Though it looked slightly like a dog Summer accepted it. She gladly, with a giddy smile, skipped over to me.

"Chesa I have something for you," she signaled me to stay where I was perfectly and comfortably seated. I watched her rush, more like sprint, over to her mom who handed her a white cubed box which had a lavender creamy colored ribbon delicately tied into a bow. "For you," she handed it to me. I thanked her and slowly, but curiously unraveled the beautiful ribbon. I slowly opened the lid and was blasted with the mouth-watering scent of chocolate cake with a hint of cherry. I looked inside and gazed at the beautifully decorated cupcake which had a small purple candle placed on top of it. The cupcake had sky blue icing on it with little pink roses making a circle. In the middle of the rose garden was the number thirteen in neon pink, followed by the candle right in the middle.

"You know how I always stunk and cooking?" I nodded. "Well I decided to take a cooking class and they taught me how to make a mouth-watering chocolate cupcake with a sweet cherry filling," she smiled proudly at her wonderful creation. She grabbed some matches which were placed on the table for we were going to sing happy birthday until my forgetful yet loving mother had forgotten to get my cake before the party. Summer had lit the match which flickered in many warm colors, rose red, sunlight yellow, and bright orange.

"Make a wish Chesa," I closed my eyes tightly as if I was about to jump of an airplane. I took a long deep breath and blew out the candle. I wish for my life to be adventurous. For this birthday to be a new beginning. From the horizon we suddenly heard a loud gunshot which caused many of the guests to jump. My father, Summer, and I quickly tumbled into his forest green Hummer and headed toward the restless town. As we drove on we gazed at everyone scrambling and panicking. No one was the least bit calm. We saw an ambulance which was blaring its alarm and police cars surrounded the bakery/cake shop. I swiftly jumped out of the car and ran to the scene of the crime. Summer and my father followed. We pushed through the busy crowd, dodged the running screaming people, and entered the shop to see my mother's lifeless bleeding body on the floor with the cake box in her hands. I noticed that she had been shot through the heart. Her face will forever haunt me. The shot was unexpected and she was ghost white pale in the face with her brown eyes staring right at me. I was devastated and before I could stop myself I was running to her like I was bing pulled by a magnet, but my father and the police stopped me. I collapsed to the cold tiled ground for my lifeless knees couldn't stand it any longer and I sobbed like I was an infant again. Summer finally finished pushing through the crowd, saw the body, and screamed. It took her a while, but she snapped back down to earth. She glanced over in my direction and noticed that I was crying, wait scratch that sobbing, and came to comfort me though she was obviously really freaked out by my mom's body just lying there, never to smile or hug us again. The police talked seriously to my father while I sat on the tiled floor crying. It began to harshly rain and thundered loudly outside like the world was ending. This incident started the end of the world for me at the moment.