I stormed out of the room trying to find Clara, she was talking to some teenager with a baby in her arms and wishing her luck, I dragged her out of the hospital and found Jake watching some video, "...so did it go well?" She asked.

"It went shit! I convinced her to FaceTime me and she hung up!" I shouted while storming off.

"It worked!?" jake asked,

"She answered!?" Clara squealed excitedly. I wasn't bothered to reply and asked them for some time alone. Clara went to some old friends house while Jake went clothes shopping, I knew exactly what would solve my anger. I went to the nearest post office and asked for the address for the Merrell's to send them a 'postcard' and surprisingly I was given it. I hopped on a bus in which the driver said there was a stop near by, I remember Clara saying that her family always had a white door with a dove in it to resemble their religion, so that's what I had to look for.

I spent about half an hour searching for houses in the neighborhood that had this certain door and when I was about to give up I spotted it in the corner of my eye, my heart began pacing as I turned around and wobbled towards their driveway. It was a neat clean house with an American flag in their porch. I took a breather at the door and gathered my thoughts, do I really wanna do this? What will it change? Fuck it!

I rang the doorbell continuously until someone came to answer the door, "we don't but cookies and we would never convert to a different religion" a deep voice echoed from the creaked open door. I held in my laughter as much as I could, trying to find a way to get into their house. "The pastor sent me" I made up and before I knew it the door was wide open with my grandparents standing at the foot of the door. "Come on in sweetie, we only ever let family in but you're an exception" she smiled. I walked into their weird smelling house and made my way into the living room, "I'll grab you some coffee" She said quickly leaving the room, leaving me with the man. I tried my hardest to get a smile off of my face and trust me it was close to impossible.

"Is Pastor John ok? Why were you sent here?" He asked, I waited for the lady to return and to sit down.

"He... he found out about your daughter!" I said quickly trying to sound believable,

"Oh forgive us please! We rid her and she rid her children" the wife cried, rid her? What does she mean rid her?

"He's disappointed..." I said, "well tell him that we're not!" He firmly said.

"Ok look Greg, Quinn, I wasn't sent here by the priest-"

"Then get out or we'll call the cops!" He shouted jumping out of his chair.

"No, no, I'm family" I tried telling him but there was no point "Clara's my mom and she did give us away" I said, my voice now trembling,

"She's a disappointment!" Quinn shrieked, "We brought her up differently!"

"Ok listen, she said it was a mistake, my name is Vanessa and you should just get to know me... please?" I practically begged. They took a minute to respond, "Out!" They shouted.

"No! I am family!" I screamed, "Except you never got a chance to even meet me! Even though I lived in this shit hole for almost six months! I was forced to obey stupid people who weren't my parents for 18 fucking years! I was lied to for 16 of them and when I came to finally meet my mother I learn that she was kicked out by her family! So who do I chose? Huh? A family who hate me or a family that don't even know me?" I quieted down, letting out a giving up sigh.

"Do not refer to yourself as part of this family and do not curse in this household" he stated angrily as if ready to pounce,

"Fuck you and your shitty parenting skills" I shouted giving them the finger, "put yourself in Clara's shoes! Or mine, did you even know she had twins!? Sisters that we're separated after she was forced to put up for adoption cause if she hadn't she would starve, that is loyalty and love right there! Putting others before yourself just to make them have a better life! I shouted louder. "I thought I could come here and meet my grandparents for the first time and for once actually understand what a family is! Why can't you love me like your other grandchildren because I know you have some. Just learn to think of others for once in your pathetic lives" I stormed out, ripping the stupid bird of if there door and throwing it across the lawn, "Hope your day is shit!" I shouted before running off.

I didn't turn around to see if they even cared to chase after me, I didn't run back to the bus stop I just continued walking. I ended up walking towards some public high school where a bunch of kids were walking in and out of the building. I awkwardly joined behind a group of what looked like seniors and followed them into the school. "Who are you?" One of the guys asked as the small group came to a stop,

"Um... I'm the new girl" I made up,

"Why are you joining now? It's the end of the year and it's 5th period" another snotty guy spoke up.

"Join us, we have Mr Malloy next and he won't notice" the original guy whispered while the rest of the group walked off, "You're not new" he laughed, "Who are you?"

"I am new" I tried saying but he knew I was lying, "how did you know?" I asked,

"Look around, it's an all boys school" He burst out laughing once again, I felt my face burning red, I glanced around only to see all boys. "Don't worry Mr Malloy won't notice, he's as thick as a board, even thicker" he explained, "so again who are you?"

"I'm Vanessa Anderson" I said,

"And why are you at an all boys school? Do your parents not care?"

"Long story short I'm supposed to be in Green Lake High but I came here to visit my grandparents, well sorta as well as trying to find my sister" I said,

"Where's green lake high?" He asked concerned,

"California" I answered as if it meant nothing.

"Is your sister a run away?" He asked ignoring the fact that I'm in Kansas even though my school is in California,

"Well I'm more of the runaway in all honesty" I finished before we reached the classroom, I noticed a bunch of people staring and whispered to each other. I awkwardly sat in the back of the class next to this guy I just met. "I'm Shawn by the way" he winked.

'Mr Malloy' began speaking about something, what subject even is this? He stopped for a moment and looked at me confused, "and who are you?" He asked in a strange accent that I'd never heard, "Oh She's Vanessa" Shawn answered for me. "Why are you in here?" He asked again but more bluntly,

"She's exchange student!" Shawn practically shouted,

"Replacing whom?" He continued asking.

"Blake" He answered, looking very proud of his answer. "I was talking to Blake last period" he said smugly. "He left only a few minutes ago whereas Vanessa was already here" Shawn shouted again.

"Well 'Vanessa' where are you from?" I panicked as Shawn again spoke up for me and said I was from France, I glared at him seeing that he was struggling to not laugh, "Well if you're from France go ahead and prove it" I didn't know any French or any other language other than English and... there was my answer! I used my limited sign language to try to convince him that I was deaf or mute. "Does anyone here know sign language?"

"I do" Shawn spoke up yet again, by now everyone was staring at me and I had to pretend I was French and couldn't hear anything or say anything. "She's saying that she's... she's really enjoying this geography class" he said pretending to read my hands.

"Oh well... can you tell her that this is a language class and she might have the wrong place" he said, I almost hit my head off the table I felt so dumb. Shawn started messing with his hands pretending it was sign language, he ended up actually saying happy. He told the teacher that he'd direct me to my class.

"Why would you do that?" I laughed as soon as the door closed, "I don't even know you and yet you still embarrassed me"

"I'll direct you out" he said ignoring my question. "I'm gonna be brutally honest that was fucking hilarious" he chuckled, he guided me away from the exit, "where are you taking me?" I asked, "I wanna show you around"

I have skipped plenty of classes in my time but for some reason I felt a tinge of guilt and I didn't even attend this school, he showed me around multiple free classes which began to get really boring, I sent a text to Jake asking him to pick me up or call an Uber cause I didn't want Shawn to think I was ignoring him or growing bored of him. "And this is the gym" he shouted loud enough for the whole school to hear,

"Why do you shout so much?" I laughed,

"Why are you here?" He asked, ignoring my question yet again. "Why do you keep doing that?" I asked on a serious nota, "doing what?"

"Ignoring my questions" I said,

"So are you, Why are you here? I'm just as curious" He answered sitting on a bench as I sat next to him. "Let's make a deal, I'll answer your question if you answer mine" he agreed and told me to go first.

"I'm here to find out about my sister who I was separated from at birth, I'm here with my birth mom which I met a few days ago and after finding out stuff about my sister I went to my 'grandparents' house and they basically kicked me out and disowned me" I laughed nervously,

"I shout lot because I can't help it" he smiled, "no that was not the deal!" I stated beginning to smile.

"When I was younger my dad told me never to play with guns even though he had one of his own and one night when he fell asleep I stole the gun and went outside, I thought it was fake cause I was only 9 but I turned the gun around and shot my ear" he confessed, turning his head and bending his plastic but realistic ear, "I lost my hearing in one ear and I was born partially deaf anyways so I have this but it's not very good" he said taking a hearing aid out of his real ear. "So yeah that's why I shout" he finished,

"Is there anymore places you can show me? Before I get picked up" I asked hoping I could see as much as possible to know some facts about where I was born.

He brought me to the back of the school and showed me the outdoor courts, he introduced me to sports I've never heard of that were from different countries like, hurling, cricket and bowls, bowls was easy enough cause you only needed a few metal balls, cricket looked impossible with the pole thingies and hurling well I don't even know, he said because I was a girl it was called camogaí but it was impossible, you had to wear a helmet and use a stick to hit a hard ball. "Why do you have so many strange sports?"

"It's mostly a language school so all the teachers are from different parts of the world and to make them feel welcome we learn one of their native sports" he explained, "Mr Malloy teaches Irish, Miss Smith teaches us welsh, Mrs Cabello teaches us Spanish, Ms Clark teaches us English and Mr Yeni teaches us Korean" he said without hesitation.

"I can barely speak English let alone any other language" I replied shocked, "and you can speak all of those languages?"

"Hola! Soy Shawn, jeoneun 18 sal-ibnida, Rwy'n mynd i'r ysgol yma, ait breá álainn é nach bhfuil? It's called 'Kansas Brothers School' dopo il fratello John" he said in words that made no sense to me whatsoever except for the English part, "That's a bit of all of them, it's kinda rough but at least I know something" he smiled.

There was an awkward pause in our conversation but luckily my phone chimes with a text before it would get to weird, it was Jake 'I'm outside where are you xx?'

'Behind the school' I replied, "well I gotta go" I said before looking up to see his face close to mine, "someone's waiting for me" I whispered awkwardly,

"Ok" he answered. Our faces stayed close for about 10 seconds more and it was 10 seconds to long cause before I knew it there was a shout from across the yard. "Hey! That's my girlfriend!" Jake shouted running towards us, I backed away immediately making sure I looked innocent. "Vanessa go wait in the car" He gritted his teeth,

"It's not what it looked-" "I don't give a shit" Jake interrupted him.

(Thank you so so so much for reading!<3 Sorry if the updates get more slow, my mocks are coming up which are basically these fake exams that 'help' prepare me for the real tests I have at the end of the year, Junior cert, which is another mock of my leaving cert in 3 years that basically decides my future! yay?...)