Paradise

Chapter 1 - The Lancaster Household

You wouldn't get in the car with some stranger, now, would you? Ever since we can all remember, our parents have been filling our heads with the same old bit: never get in the car with strangers. And just like that we were supposed to obey them; after all they are our parents, figures we are supposed to trust our lives with yet what happens when these god-like facades break a bond which held the trust between them and their child? Does that allow the child to then be able to turn against their parents since it's only fair? Well, I saw it that way and I took it upon myself to take the measures I needed to take which lead me to cross the line with the whole "never get in the car with strangers" act. With the wind blowing through my hair and the unsettling knot twisted in my stomach, I turned to my left to get a better look at the driver, or the "stranger," since we had been in the car for over twenty minutes and hadn't said a word to one another, trying to run away from the idea of what we had just done. I could see the worried, afraid expression resting on his soft face and big, brown eyes. He couldn't wrap the last hour around his head either. I began to wonder if I showed such sign on my face as well.

As I began to rub my temples and breathe more slowly, he took his eyes off the road and looked at me,"Are you okay?"

How could he possibly classify me as "okay?" Nothing had been"okay" for over three months now and he was barely getting the gesture of that after it was too late, "I don't know. I don't know about anything anymore...I...I just want to go away..."

"And that's what we are doing," he attempted to hide his doubt on his face too, for my sake, "Don't worry."
I hardly knew the guy yet I was with him, in the wee hours of the night going God knows where. But for the first time in what seemed like forever, I actually trusted someone. Deep down, I knew it was going to be okay.

*3 months prior*

Extreme perfectionists. That is how I would describe my family. Everyone in my family will give their all in order to succeed and be the best of the best. For generations, as far back as the nineteenth century, the Lancaster's have been elite doctors, exceptional judges, superb lawyers, amazing professors, intelligent scientists, and any other choice of careers that involved working hard their entire lives. My mom and dad were no different.

Luckily for my dad, my mom was also a perfectionist junkie and I have reason to believe that that was a major factor in why they got married. My mom had worked for almost all her life to be the well respected lawyer she is now. Everywhere you drive in San Diego, you could see my mom's face plastered on every bus bench, bus, billboard, and post office window with the message "BEST LAWYER IN TOWN! SAN DIEGO'S VERY OWN, LINDA LANCASTER CALL (619) 432-5435"
My dad on the other hand had chosen a less demanding profession and stuck to educating young minds, "showing them the path to wisdom" as he would put it. My dad is considered the big man on campus at USD. He is an English professor and he absolutely loves his job. His love for literature, writing, reading, and grammar is apparent to his students for they love him right back.My dad is one of those guys who know when it's time to play and when it's time to work and he would much rather indulge himself in his study reading classical pieces than spend a beautiful day with his family.

My parents have both me and my sister trained to get our lives on the same track, to lead wondrous lives, even if that is not necessarily what we want. Ever since I could remember, my parents have always been there to push me and Brooke when it came to academics, accepting nothing less than a 98%, anything less than a 96%was considered slacking. As if keeping up at least a 3.9 GPA wasn't enough, my parents insisted that we get involved in a minimum of 3 extracurricular activities to polish up our image when it came to apply to the top notch universities. Since my dad was a professor, he would constantly be annoyingly aware of mine and my sister's schedules knowing exactly what we would have to get done and how much time we had to get it done. He made sure I was at softball practice every day at promptly 3:40, exactly 20 minutes before practice because any time later than 3:40 was considered late to him and why bother showing up? He wanted me to get used to always being early for things so I could be ready for the real word even though my junior year had just started.He made sure I was at debate practice every Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays before practice was scheduled. Aside from softball and debate, I was responsible for organizing school activities and keeping the student body happy considering Iwas Vice President only falling short to my sister who was President. My sister shared the same stress since she was captain of her volleyball team whom she had taken to championships her sophomore and junior year and was determined to do it again for her senior year; she had a job to keep at the local mall at Hollister Co. since she had been the manager for 3 months running now; and she belonged to the French club which she is, to no surprise, the president of.
Both I and my sister had busy days and we both love a good competition here and there but no matter how hard I tried, she would always come out victorious. She would always be a couple steps ahead of me, fooling me in to thinking I was finally going to one up her. If we ran for student council, she would get President leaving me with Vice President, winning with a handful of votes; if we had an exam whether it be in Calculus or AP Calculus, she would pull a 102% sure enough assuring me with a 100%; if we had scouts coming to watch our games, she would get 3 more scouts to come out and watch her.