Just Another Cinderella Story

Usually on a beautiful day like this, a normal teenage girl would be out and about with her best friend.

But I'm no ordianry teenage girl.

Well, I am but I don't have your average family. I don't even know whether or not to even call them 'family'.

My dad was a Marine. I remember I'd be home, looking out the window all day long, waiting for him to come home. As I looked out the window, I'd see the other dads getting home, so I'd get excited, thinking he was on his way. But he didn't come.

I would ask my mom what took dad so long to come home and she'd just say " Your dad is a very special type of man. He has a lot of work to do."

I was only like 4, so I didn't really understand. And mom never told me that his 'work' was protecting our country from other countries.

My mom told me his job when I was about 6. She had noticed how I'd gotten suspicious when he didn't come home at all for at least 4 months.

I already knew how to write, so I wrote my dad letters every few days. I'd recieve letters and emails from him. He wrote whenever he could, which wasn't very much, but he always told me that he was still alive and well.

But just in case, I always went to the website. It told us who died. I respected every person that I saw when I went online. But I was relieved that I didn't see my dad on the list.

A few months later, my dad sent an email that he was going to come for my 7th birthday. Once my mom read it to me, I leaped across the room and hugged her.

"Daddy's coming home!" I squealed.

"When's he coming?" I ask.

"In two days, sweetie," mom told me. I was so excited I wasn't able to sleep.

My daddy's coming home. My daddy's coming home.

He didn't come home.

The next day, my mom recieved a phone call. After the phone call, she didn't say a word to me. She didn't do anything. She just took some medication and went back to bed.

I went online, to see if any of dad's friends had died. My mother got a bit emotional when they died also. This must have been a very close friend, because mom never shut herself into the room.

But then I knew why.

The most recent deaths were put at the top of the list. The time they died was put next to their names.

My dad was number one on the list. He had died a few hours ago.

At first I couldn't believe what I was seeing. But then I looked back at my mom's door and back at the screen.

He was gone.

He wasn't coming home.

My house was silent for days.

At school, I met a girl who knew what it was like having her dad in the military. Her father wasn't dead though. He was still running around carrying a gun. He was still sending her letters and emails. He was probably coming to her birthday.

But she sympathized for me. And to this day, Amy is still my best friend. She's the sweet innocent type. Well, to strangers.

But to her best friend, me, she's crazy. And loud. But still, sweet, kind, innocent.

Amy was my haven for those few years. She's the one who helped me through. My mom didn't want someone to help her through. As I grew older, I tried to help her, convince her that things were ok, even if he wasn't with us. But she didn't listen.