Author's Notes: I asked, you voted, you decided! It's official! You guys decided on sequel, you'll get a sequel! Just, as I warned you before, Rachel and Adam's Road to a Happily Ever After will be excruciatingly long and painful. Well, not that bad, I'm exaggerating. But it won't be all lovey-dovey any time soon; I know, it hurts me, too! I want Rachel and Adam to be together already just as much as you do. I created them, after all! But, in the long run, it'll all turn out okay! ~~Alex

First Place: "WTF? I practically NAME the CHILD and then you kill him?!?!?!?! But he's my little Pattie, he can't be dead. :( Oh yay, Ricky died! But still... WTF? Patrick can't be deeeeeeeeeeead. If he really is dead, I will eternally hate you. Well... Not really. But you get what I'm saying. RESSURECT (is that how you spell it?) PATRICK!!!" -surahh

Second Place: "Oh... not as gruesome a death as I planned for Ricky *insert pouty face here* I actually planned for him to get shot in the head 5 times, 7 times in the torso, once in the leg, another time in the head, stabbed in the chest about 4 1/2 times, kicked, punched, run over by a car twice, put in a garbage bag secured with duct tape, left in the ocean for 5 weeks, taken out, and stuck through a woodchipper and fed to my mutated tiger named Killer. Oh, and I don't believe Patrick actually died. I personally believe he was kidnapped by Ricky and left in an orphanage, and the doctors were either friend's of Ricky's and agreed to announce him stillborn, or they were paid to. One day Patrick will find his mom and they will live Happily Ever After after Adam comes and sweeps her off her feet and it'll be just like those movies my boyfriend hates so much.... You know the ones where I always cry." -longtime321

Third Place: "*stares at screen blankly*  

*one eye starts twitching*  

well................that was...........ummmmmm................................  

U KILLED THE BBY..... WTF IS WRONG WIT U!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND THATS HOW U HAVE BEEN PLANING TO KILL RICKY??????!!!!!!................................. LOL" -brittni27

..........................................................................................

I slept through my birthday. Again. I know what you're going to say. But the truth is, I'm not sure how I managed to do that twice. Oh, that's right. All of my past birthdays I've had either Adam or Kia there, and they made sure I was up and at it by eight a.m. on my birthdays.

It's February 14 today. Couldn't I have slept through Valentines Day? I mean, is this meant to torture me or what? I can't face Adam now. I mean, how could I? Not only did I get pregnant and didn't inform him, but the baby died and he doesn't have a clue there ever was a baby in the first place. He can never know of Patrick. After all, ignorance is bliss. What he doesn't know can't hurt him.

I want to tell him, I really do. It's just... I couldn't bear to see his heartbroken face when I told him that he was a father, and... just as soon he wasn't.

How could I face him after all that's happened?

I couldn't. I wouldn't even be able to talk, much less look him in the eyes and talk... his beautiful, light blue eyes...

So, that's it. That sucks. I find true love, and life jerks him away from me.

Why has my life been so damned? What did I ever do that was so horrific I would deserve this?

Yes, I'll admit it, I stole that cookie from Lizzie in first grade and I lied about it, but that wasn't so bad, was it?

I mean, she didn't need that cookie! She wouldn't have enjoyed it as much as I did! That couldn't be it! I know I'm not perfect; I'm not even close to it, actually. But I don't think I ever did anything so bad as to deserve all of this that's happened to me.

Everything good ends badly for me.

Like, my ballet recital when I was seven; I was in the middle of my dance, when this... thick, red cable appeared out of nowhere, and I stumbled over it and fell.

My basketball game, it was a crucial game. It was the game that would decide if we were the winners of the tournament. It was all up to me, and somebody broke my wrist. I don't even know how! We lost, and it was my entire fault.

My volleyball tourney? Ruined.

I completely messed up my lead role in my middle school play, Romeo and Juliet.

My "Romeo" said some pretty un-Romeo-like things to me that day.

My dad died, and I was convinced Adam had died, too.

A good thing was I met Kia. Then, I discovered Adam wasn't truly dead.

But then Ricky comes into the picture and stalks me. He tries to rape me, and then he tries to kill me. He ended up almost killing Adam, instead.

He killed my mom, then kidnapped me, separating me from Adam, Kia and Drew.

He took me away from Adam when I needed Adam the most.

He didn't even let me see what Patrick looked like.

My life has been pretty horrible. It's like there's someone out there who's assured that...

What am I saying? I'm trying to blame some innocent person for all of this. Maybe I do deserve everything that's happened to me. Well, not everything. That'd be a lot of badness.

.......................................................................................

I turned eighteen two months ago. I did the one thing Adam and I both swore we'd do the minute we turned eighteen. I went in the "You must be 18 or older to enter" place in Family Video. Boy, did I regret that. I'm scarred for life. I will never be able to look at a pineapple the same way ever again.

"Rachel, honey, we need to talk," Tina told me, entering my bright orange room.

"Yeah?"

"I think... I think it's time for you to move on. You're eighteen. I know that Adam is the love of your life, and maybe you'll never find love like that ever again. But I think it'd be good if you at least considered the guys who ask you out constantly."

Maybe she's right.

"...You're right. I'll think about it."

.................................................................................................

My album was a hit. And I was offered to go on tour, but I think I'll do that next year instead. Over the summer, maybe. For now, I'll just be doing some random concerts here and there.

I started these two months ago. Today I have to go to Boston.

"Miss Anderson, we've arrived." My chauffer told me.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that. I have a chauffer!

I thanked him and got out.

I walked backstage and started setting up.

...

"You're on in thirty seconds!"

Already?

I got ready, and...

"I will not make the same mistakes that you did 

I will not let myself 

Cause my heart so much misery 

I will not break the way you did, 

You fell so hard 

I've learned the hard way 

To never let it get that far

"Because of you 

I never stray too far from the sidewalk 

Because of you 

I learned to play on the safe side so I don't get hurt 

Because of you 

I find it hard to trust not only me, but everyone around me 

Because of you 

I am afraid

"I lose my way 

And it's not too long before you point it out 

I cannot cry 

Because I know that's weakness in your eyes 

I'm forced to fake 

A smile, a laugh everyday of my life 

My heart can't possibly break 

When it wasn't even whole to start with

"Because of you 

I never stray too far from the sidewalk 

Because of you 

I learned to play on the safe side so I don't get hurt 

Because of you 

I find it hard to trust not only me, but everyone around me 

Because of you 

I am afraid

"I watched you die 

I heard you cry every night in your sleep 

I was so young 

You should have known better than to lean on me 

You never thought of anyone else 

You just saw your pain 

And now I cry in the middle of the night 

For the same damn thing

"Because of you 

I never stray too far from the sidewalk 

Because of you 

I learned to play on the safe side so I don't get hurt 

Because of you 

I try my hardest just to forget everything 

Because of you 

I don't know how to let anyone else in 

Because of you 

I'm ashamed of my life because it's empty 

Because of you 

I am afraid

Because of you 

Because of you"

.........................................................................

After the concert, I froze. No freaking way.

But actually, it wasn't because the person I saw was the one I dreaded seeing every single day of my life since "the incident".

It was because of the girl chomping on his face.

And guess what? He was chomping right back.