Inflexible | Fated Four: Book 1

Chapter One

"I can't believe you," Sarah said as she leaned back in her seat and rolled her green eyes at me. She brushed her wet chocolate brown hair out of her eyes, leaving water behind on her face as she did. Sunlight poured into the car through the windshield and highlighted the healthy glow of her skin.

Sarah was my younger sister and while we had the same parents, we looked nothing alike. Though that may have had something to do with the fact that I was adopted. Sarah's parents had adopted me when I was a baby.

I took my light blue eyes off the road for a split second so that I could glare at my sister.

"I'm not going to go," I snapped as I gripped the steering wheel so tightly that my knuckles turned white.

"Come on, Clary, you've got to be curious about these guys," Sarah told me. That was me, Clarissa North.

"It's pointless and stupid, Sarah," I told my sister. "I'm not going to do this." I took one hand off the steering wheel and brushed my blonde hair behind my ear, trying to keep my cool.

"Come on, Clary," Sarah pleaded.

"Sarah, I don't need to do this," I stated, "I don't need to dwell on the past."

"What will Mom say?" Sarah asked.

"I swear, if you tell Mom, you can ride the bus next year," I growled.

Her jaw dropped.

"You wouldn't," she stated as she narrowed her eyes, challenging me.

"Oh, I would," I assured her, daring her to call me on my threat.

Sarah sighed.

"Fine," she relented as she crossed her arms, "I don't get why you're so against it."

"Because it doesn't matter," I told her. Recently my Mom had gotten me my adoption file and it was laying in my room. I'd opened it and discovered that my parents owned a lake house in Moonshell. But I wasn't so sure if I wanted to go there.

Somehow I knew I'd find answers about my past there, but part of me felt like I'd be betraying my adoptive family by going.

"We won't stop being your family just because you go explore the lake house," Sarah told me. She could always tell what was bothering me. She somehow always knew.

"For god's sake!" I growled, "Fine! I'll go!"

"When?" Sarah asked.

I sighed.

"I don't know," I admitted.

I was scared. Scared of what I'd find at that house. Scared that the answers wouldn't be what I thought they were. Terrified of who my birth parents were and why they had given me up.

"What about tonight?" Sarah asked, "Why wait to get answers, right?"

"Okay," I agreed.

"Want me to go with you?" Sarah asked.

"No," I told her, not wanting her to see me in such a vulnerable state. Because that's exactly what I was going to be when I went to the lake house. Vulnerable.

I knew in my heart that I needed to know where I came from. I needed to know who my birth parents were. I needed to know why they'd given me up. I needed to know what happened.

So I guess I was going to that lake house.

I pulled into the parking lot of the high school and let Sarah out of the car. I was thankful that I didn't have to deal with the drama of that place anymore.