Acceptance

CHAPTER 1

"MELODY!" My eyes spring open, and I sit up in bed so fast that I bang my head on the low ceiling.

My mom is calling me, and, judging by her tone of voice, this is not the first time she's called. If I don't get up now, I'll be in big trouble.

"COMING!" I yell back, already getting dressed. I tie my boots in record time, and I hurry to our main living space, where we eat, cook, and relax.

Mom is waiting for me by the dining room table, a glare on her face. Shit.

"Good morning." I say, trying to sound perky and awake. Her glare doesn't soften. Not a good sign.

"Why didn't you get up when I called?" She asks, managing to sound both mildly annoyed and highly dangerous at the same time.

"I was sleeping." I feel like adding "duh", but decide I value my life.

"Don't take that tone, Melody. We have a busy day, and you can't sleep the morning away." Mom says, and I can tell she's fighting to control her temper.

What busy day? You make me stay here while you go play with your guinea pigs. I think bitterly.

"What am I doing that's so busy?" I ask, fighting to keep my voice light.

"You will be helping me today." Mom says, and I shake my head.

"No, I won't. I'm not going to help you mentally torture people." I say, moving towards the kitchen part of the room.

"Why not? It's tradition. And you should be proud to be a Forrester!" Mom adds, and I know I'm treading on thin ice.

But I don't care.

"Well, I'm not! Why should I be proud to be a part of such a despicable family? I have no interest in your so-called 'research'. It's horrible. And, I'm sorry, but I'm NEVER going to be like you, so stop trying to force me to be something I'm not!" I'm practically shouting at this point, and I'm past the point of caring what my mom thinks.

"Do not talk to me that way. You are nothing but a disappointment to the family, and you need to learn to hold your tongue. You will help me today, and I will show you what it is like to be a Forrester." Mom's voice is soft, which is almost as bad as her yelling. It means she can turn dangerous any second.

I consider arguing, but decide it's not going to help me at all. "Fine. I'll help - Kinga." I snap, using my mom's name to show how mad I am at her.

For a second, she glares at me, and I get ready to run if I have to. But then she says, rather stiffly, "good. Grab some food and follow me." She stalks out of the room, probably to put those weird bone-shaped pins of hers in her hair.

As I eat my apple, a tiny shred of curiosity comes over me, despite my best efforts to push it away.

I've never been inside of mom's control center, or wherever she works. I've avoided it as long as I can. But I am a little curious about what it looks like.

"Let's go." Mom says, coming back into the room. Sure enough, her bone-shaped hair pins are stuck in her bun. Those things are so weird.

"Where are we going?" I ask, in spite of myself. "To my work station." Mom says shortly, going over to a seemingly innocent stretch of wall.

I know better, though. I've seen her go to work before, and this 'wall' opens to reveal a secret elevator, which I'm guessing leads to her lab or wherever it is that she works.

"How far underground is your lab?" I ask in spite of myself, and then mentally beat myself up because Mom is looking at me with a 'you're finally interested in the family tradition!' look.

"Not too far. But far enough." Is all she says as we continue to zoom downwards. I nod, careful to not display any more interest.

When the elevator stops moving, we step through the doors, and I get a look at my mom's workspace for the first time in my life. (Well, I suppose she might have brought me here when I was a baby, but I don't remember that.)

The room we're standing in is huge - and ugly. There's nothing but gray, concrete, and more gray and more concrete. The floor, the walls, the ceiling...all gray and concrete.

There's a big screen on one of the walls, like a big TV, except that it's blank. I wonder briefly what it's for, but decide not to ask. The less curiosity I show, the better.

There's also some buttons, a control panel, three chairs, and a small kitchenette area close by. That explains why I eat my meals alone all the time.

"What do you think?" Mom asks, pushing a button on the screen, which lights up.

"It's very you." I say, hiding an insult in those three words. She shoots me a glare but says nothing.

"Sit here, and do whatever I tell you, no questions asked. Got it?" She says, nodding to one of the chairs. I resist the urge to flip her off, and go sit down. "Got it." I say stonily. Your evil-ness. I silently add.

As soon as I'm taken care of, Mom starts muttering things like, "where is he?" And "I swear, if that man..."

Suddenly, without warning, she yells, "MAX!" At the top of her voice, making me jump. What the-?

A door I hadn't noticed before swings open, and Mom's assistant, who I've met exactly once, when he was in our apartment for some reason, runs into the room. (He's never met me, so this could get interesting.)

I don't like him. Despite the fact that, from what I've seen, (I spy, okay?) he's sort of dumb, he also creeps me out, and I don't know why. It's pretty obvious - to me, at least - that he's madly in love with Mom. Gross.

"Where were you?! We are on a tight schedule, and I do not have time to wait for slow assistants to decide that it's okay to be late!" Mom yells at him. I carefully look away, in case I start laughing.

Max is actually frightened (I don't blame him), but the scene is kind of funny. He's cowering as Mom towers over him, screaming in his face. I don't know why I find that funny, but I just do.

"I-I'm sorry, your she evil-ness. I lost track of time." Max stammers. I hear the sound of a slap, and I see Mom stalking away from Max, who is rubbing his face. Yikes.

Suddenly, Max catches sight of me, and he asks, "Who is this?" I feel a weird urge to slap him, but I decide I want to be as little like my mother as I can, and instead I say, "I'm Kinga's daughter."

His reaction is priceless. His jaw drops, and he looks back and forth between mom and me, his eyes round.

"You-her-what?" He stammers. "Max, this is my daughter, Melody Kinga Forrester. She's going to help us today, if needed." Mom says, ignoring me and pressing a button on the control panel.

Max makes an attempt to collect himself. "Well, I was not aware of the fact that you have a daughter. She looks just like you." He says.

Oh, please no. I hate it when this happens. I do not look just like my mom, and I have no interest in looking like her!

"Does she? I haven't noticed." Mom says, not even looking at Max. "But you must have noticed - she's your kid!" Max says.

I don't get why he's so surprised. This is Kinga Forrester we're talking about, after all. Pain-loving, evil mad scientist.

"Well, I haven't. Drop it." Mom doesn't add "or else" but her meaning is clear. Drop it, or I'll hurt you.

Max drops it. A smart choice, although I wouldn't have been too mad if Mom had hit him or something.

"Melody, are you ready?" Mom turns away from the screen, her face alight. Uh-oh. Something that makes Mom happy is NEVER good news.

"Ready for what?" I ask, trying to keep the caution out of my voice.

Mom presses a large purple button. "To meet my test subject."

A/N: Thank you for reading the first chapter! Please vote, comment, share, and recommend this book to others, if you liked it.
Love y'all!!
~Lola