Chapter 1

Hi. My name is Somaya. Most people prefer to call me Maya though. I live in Springs with my parents and my younger brother Charles and I am basically the black sheep in my family.

My mother was the "It Girl" in high school she entered pageants and won all of them. She was beautiful, had a great body and was envied by all the girls in her school. In her final year of high school, she decided to work in the local bar and with her savings she would travel the world after she had graduated from high school. And that's how she met Dan Purple, my dad.

My father was pretty good looking himself. He was intelligent and when he met my mother, he was doing his final year of his law degree. My mother fell for his charms, he knocked her up, she fell pregnant and all my mother's plans of travelling the world were history.

My father graduated and got a job in Springs, bought us a new house and we have been living here for as long as I can remember.

Two years after I was born, my little brother Charles came into the picture. He was just perfect, you could see the pride in my father's eyes every time he looked at him. He was everything my father imagined his first child to be, and I was nothing close to it.

I never felt like my father loved me, so when I was five I asked my mother,

"Does daddy love me?"

"Of course he does honey,"

"Does he love Charles more?"

"Your father loves you both equally"

"Then why does he always play with Charles and never plays with me?"

"Well that's because daddy and Charles are boys, and boys like to play together. I'll play with you honey."

My mother is a sweet woman and has never fallen short of her duties as a mother. Since my father is bringing in enough income to give us all a pretty comfortable life, she stays at home and has enough time to do all the 'mother duties'.

When I was a little child, my father would come home around 7 pm, and on some nights he would come home after we had gone to bed. One night (I was about 6 at that time), I was awake when he came home. I listened as he got out of his car and went upstairs. I heard him open Charles' bedroom and about a minute later, he closed it gently and went to the bedroom he shared with my mother. My parents must've gotten into an argument because for a few minutes, all I could hear were thuds, as if something was hitting the wall, repeatedly. The house went dead quiet and soon afterwards, my mother left their room and came to mine. She gently lifted the bed covers, assuming that I was asleep. She lay next me and wrapped her arms around me. I turned around to face her and from the moonlight coming through my bedroom window, I could see tears streaming down her face.

"Did he hurt you?"

"No honey, daddy would never hurt me, he loves me, he loves us. We just had a little argument. He had a bad day at work and he is a little upset. Go to sleep honey."

The following morning when I woke up, my mother was in the kitchen making breakfast for everyone. And on the pillow where she had slept the night before, there was a blood stain.

I grew to love reading. I loved the idea of someone creating a world in their head, transferring it into writing and me being able to use the very same idea, to create a different world in my mind. The characters would differ, our towns wouldn't look the same, two people would never have the same image in their head. And that's kind of how people operate too; we all have a single story, we are born, we live and we die, but the way our story plays out is different for everyone.

When I turned 14 I started going to a school called Workwood High. Workwood was like the schools you saw in movies, you had the jocks, the cheerleaders who threw themselves at the jocks and the nerds who were teased for not being the jocks. And then you had us, the invisible ones. I spent most of my spare time at school in the library. By the end of my high school career at Workwood, I had read at least 70% of all the books in the school library. The remaining 30% were all the dictionaries and encyclopedias.

When Charles was old enough to enter high school, he also joined me at Workwood. And he nailed high school. Charles played for the first soccer team at the age of 15. He was also a part of the school's chess team and had a collection of all the medals he had won from his tournaments. He was set for college from the moment he entered high school with scholarships being thrown at him from every direction.

On some mornings we would drive to school together, but sometimes we preferred to take walks. You'd think a high school boy with all that talent ,receiving all that attention would be an absolute ass, but not my brother. Charles was beautiful on the inside just as he was outside. Once he was at the age where he could start making sense of the things that happened around the house, I started to feel less alone. I finally had a companion. Our walks to school were the perfect time for us to catch up.

"Why weren't you at supper last night?"

"I wasn't hungry."

"You can talk to me Maya, I know I'm younger than you, but I'm here for you."

"You're a sweet one little Charlie, aren't yah?" I said as I ruffled his hair playfully.

"Don't touch my hair, a star has gotta look good at all times Maya, but you wouldn't know anything about the life of a star" he smirked.

"Idiot."

"Calm down, it's okay I'll dedicate one of my goals in today's game to you sis."

"I hate you."

"You wish you did."

***

I go back home alone after school. If my brother doesn't have games, he goes out with his friend's doing whatever it is that 16 year old boys do.

When I get home, mom is watching TV.

"Hi mom."

"Hi Maya, you're home early"

"I'm always home at 3 pm."

"Well I just thought that maybe, you'd hang out with some friends today."

My mom knows that I don't have any friends at school. But she remains hopeful nevertheless. That maybe one day I'll bring home a friend or at least some tales about a cute boy.

I go upstairs to my bedroom. It's been a tiring day so I decide to lie down. I throw myself on the bed and close my eyes.

***

I wake up feeling more tired than before I took the nap. My mother has already prepared supper and the table is ready for when my father gets home.

"Is Charlie home?"

"Daddy's fetching him from Scott's house, you can help me set the table while we wait for them?"

Sometimes I ditch suppertime. It's mentally draining having to listen to your parents talk about your brother half the time, with no achievements of your own.

My father and Charles arrive as soon as we finish setting up.

"I have an announcement" dad says as he walks through the door, "You are looking at the new partner at CH attorneys."

My father fist pumps my brother while my mother walks up to him and kisses him on the cheek.

"That's amazing dad" I say.

"This weekend, my associates are planning on having a party to honour my achievement."

"We'd love to have them here Dan." I can't tell if she's really happy.

Over the years I've seen a pattern with my father. A promotion means higher irritability levels, he gets home later, and well, more late night 'arguments' for my mother.

"Wear that red dress I bought you Wanda, and tie your hair up in a bun, you face looks slimmer with a bun." He reaches for my mother's hair and tucks a few strands behind her ear.

My mom smiles, and this time I can tell it's not genuine.

"How was the game today big Charl?" he asks my brother as they sit down to eat.