PROLOGUE

This isn't your typical high school tale...

"The 'Divas' messed with the wrong Bitch"

St. Nicholas High-'The Column'

Annabel Mace just turned sixteen, five years after "acute lymphoblastic leukemia" ALL for short took her mom away. Turning sixteen is supposed to be sweet but to Anna, without her mom it was anything but. Having no friends, dad always away, stepmom- a bitch, stepbrother - a pain in the ass, she chose to confide in her long lost confidante, Dia whom she stopped speaking to after her mom's demise. Entry after entry she poured out the emotions that came with this new age to Dia who never judged her, whom she trusted with her dirtiest and ugliest secrets, including her crush on Liam Denvers, the hottest boy in school. A modern Greek god. St. Nicholas High- all time sweetheart, captain of the football squad. The boy who makes her heart race. And her hate for Felicia Burner, a single divorcée, her father's former secretary, Henry's mom and the gold digger her dad had married three years after her mom died. Even her disdain for Henry Burner, the stupid stepbrother she got from the wedlock. And her adventures as she crosses items from her 'Sixteen-to-do-list'. But when the notorious 'Divas' of St. Nicholas High (Mia Hover, Susan Sams and Alicia Stones) gets wind of their deepest secrets, sixteen became an age she would never forget.

What will beget of Annabel Mace, will the pain forever mar her, will she be able to rise above the pangs, will Dia become a memory of the past, will she forge ahead with their friendship, will Liam Denvers keep his promise of being her prom date after realizing her infatuation towards him, will Felicia Burner ever forgive her, will Henry Burner ever speak to her again, will Daddy be able to look at her again, will she be able to face the school again and will her life ever know happiness once more?

Find out in the book "Dear Dia; My Sweet Sixteenth Diary".

Josephine Boldface,

St. Nicholas High,

The Column Correspondent.

Sometime after it happened…

{29th September, 20??

The day it all crumbled}

Dear Dia,

I remember it like it was just yesterday even though it's been months. Such a memory isn't exactly easy to forget, it remains fresh like a newly acquired gash and that’s exactly how it feels now. Painful. Searing. I even had to wince as the memories came crashing down. It was the very day, everything changed. The day things spiralled out of control.

It was supposed to be the happiest day of my life, finally things were beginning to make sense. All was falling into place. For the longest time in a while, happiness was making it's way to my melancholic heart. My new school no longer sucked, I’ve made some friends or I thought I had. I was learning to forgive dad, finally accepting mom's demise and creating a space in my heart for my new mom.

Items have been crossed out in my sweet sixteen 'to-do list'. I have gotten over Dylan and I was building something with Liam Denvers, the hottest boy in school. St. Nicholas High-all time sweetheart, captain of the football squad and my soon to be boyfriend… or so I had thought.

It was on a Monday after what was an exhilarating weekend, I was wearing one of the clothes the Divas had recommended when we had gone for shopping, days earlier. It was a cropped blue top that showed off my perfect tanned midriff with a plaid skirt that ended inches above my knees. My raven shoulder length hair was in curls, my lips- glossed red, my brown leather bag- propped over my shoulder and my heeled boots clicked as I made my way towards my locker.

I think I was smiling, the kind that Liam says "takes my beauty to a whole new level". Paces away from my locker, that was when I noticed the stares, it wasn't like those the Divas received, this was the kind that screams "shame, disgust and hate". I should have known that something was fishy when the Divas told me that we won't be making an entrance as they had promised. Should have noticed how suspicious it was when they suddenly had other things to do after our shopping trip and the way they dashed out of our house when I returned with snacks. I was stupid to ever think those girls could like me and now I was paying the price.

Everyone was holding a printed copy of what I was soon to discover was the private and deepest secrets I confided in you, Dia. They stole our conversations and now the whole school knows. Laughter echoed in the halls, hands pointed straight at me and more laughter ensued. I wanted the earth underneath my heels right there and then to open up and swallow me whole. I begged for mom to come take me to where she was. My heart raced, rivulets of sweat followed down my face, my pits were soaked and my ears rang with reverberation of their laughter.

I felt so exposed, standing there with all eyes on me, suddenly I couldn't stand anymore, I had to back into my locker before my knees buckled. And just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, I saw you, Dia, in all your pinkness gripped in the claws of our supposed-to-be-turned-enemy-friend, Mia Hover, the darling of St. Nicholas High, daughter of the Mayor, leader of the cheerleading squad, Liam's ex-girlfriend and queen of the Divas.

Standing beside her was Liam, looking as hot as beach day in summer with that devilish smirk that can charm even the heart of Artemis, looking at me with those dark eyes I stupidly fell in. It was then that my dams broke and the tears flowed… all this would have been avoided if only I continued to live without you, Dia. If only I hadn't written on you on the eve of my sixteenth birthday.