Doctors enter our home. My mother, still lying in her bed, looks serene and beautiful. But I know that her appearance was fake. Plastic surgery was a main culprit of her counterfeited look. Magazines with beautiful models inspired it. Mom never understood true beauty. I wait for the nurses and doctors to announce the cause of her death.

"She died in her sleep," a doctor says. Obviously. He continues, "All of her surgeries led up to this, I'm sorry."

I try to keep back the waterworks, but I can't. Lillyanne and I sob incessantly. I've always tried to convince Mom to stop "fixing" herself. But she wouldn't listen to me. My mother told me that before I was born, when my grandmother was still alive, that she would say the same thing. Sadly, I never got to meet my grandma, as she died when I wasn't brought into this world. I look around at all the doctors, who look quite awkward, just standing there, watching us cry. A nurse bounces on her feet, probably waiting for us to shut up.

I stop crying and say, "Um, thank you. Er, you can leave now." They start to exit. The doctor who announced why Mom died stays and asks what we are going to do with the body. Lillyanne tells him and I wave him off.

"What are we going to do?" Lilly asks me. I realize that she will rely on me, since I'm older. Lilly is 12, but she's still brave.

"I'm going to call Jordan," I reply. Jordan is my best friend, and she babysat Lilly with me when she was younger.

After explaining to Jordan what happened, I tell Lilly to pack her favorite things. I grab some clothes, that haven't changed like my pajamas did last night. As my eyes scan my room, I notice the jewelry box my mother gave me from grandma. When I open it, nothing is different, but it radiates a strange aura. I decide to ignore it and place it in my bag. I can still feel it though, it seems to be radiating a type of magical heat. It makes me think of Dad, but I have more pressing matters to deal with than a mysterious jewelry box.

When I arrive at Jo's house- which is only a walk away- I realize that Lilly is staring at me. Crap! I still look like some Victoria's Secret model!

"Hey, Bells? You look really, really different." Lilly speaks with an adorable, confused look that puckers her young features. "I mean, you look... hot! Oh my God! Please tell me you didn't get plastc surgery! You know what happened to Mom!" Lilly rambles with some renegade tears that pool in her eyes.

"Lillyanne!" I yell. She stops and looks at me. "I did NOT get beauty enhancing surgery! I am not sure what happened but I just...I woke up this morning to find myself like this, and our mother like... that. It is like-" I was going to say magic, but then the jewelry box weighing down my bag lets out a wave of heat that kind of hurt. It obviously had something against the word magic. God, could my birthday get any weirder?

The door opens and Jordan looks at Lilly, who is looking at me.

"Hey Lills, who is this...?" Jo trails off and blatantly stares at me.

" God, Jo I do not need this on the morning of my royally screwed birthday. Let us in," I say flatly. She shakes out of her daze and lets us in.

"Well. I can recognize you now that you've used the famous Bella Brattiness," Jordan jokes with a giggling Lilly. I maybe would have laughed if this day had not tired me out.

I settle into Jo's guest room and fall back on the bed dramatically. Right in my line of sight is the jewelry box that is on the green dresser. I will miss my old blue dresser, but I can't stay in the same house Mom died in. Suddenly, the box is glowing and careening towards me. I dodge it but it still lands on the bed right where my head was.

"What the heck?" is all i can think before my room is engulfed in light.