I look into the mirror, ready to just completely restart on my makeup and hair. It never seems to go the way I want it to. My hair is flat, my smokey eye is too smokey. There's only one night a week I wear makeup and get all dressed up, and it always goes wrong.
"Come on, Annie. We're going to be late for the movies," my mom calls to me. I turn off my curling iron and bound down the stairs.
"Sorry mom, last minute touch-ups." She smiles and kisses my cheek.
"That's alright dear, but you know you're beautiful enough without all that makeup on," she says, and I smile. She always knows how to make me feel good about myself.
"You look beautiful, sis," my brother, Austin, says as he steps out of the kitchen.
"Aw, thanks Aus." He nods, smiling at me.
"Alright, are we all ready?" my dad asks, twirling the key ring around his finger. He presses a button on the remote, and the car starts up in the driveway.
"Ready!" we say in unison, and pile into the car.
——
"That was a great movie," my mom comments on our drive home from the movie theater. I nod in agreement, a smile on my face. I love family night. We all take a break from our individual activities and choose a place we should go.
We go to turn a corner, when this car comes speeding at us. It slams right into the front of our car, and we flip. Once, twice, three times, until we land in a ditch on the side of the road. I grab my head as it begins to throb painfully. When I bring my hand down, it's covered in blood.
Blood. I've never been good with blood. Everything starts to spin, and I can't seem to get this damn seatbelt undone. My hand drops from the seatbelt, and I can feel the blood rushing to my head.
"Miss, can you hear me?" a voice asks. I look over to see a paramedic. When did they get here? "Miss? What's your name?" His voice turns muffled as everything goes black.
——
"She should be awake soon, Mrs. Emerson," a male voice, that I don't recognize, says. My eyes slowly open, and I try to get adjusted to the bright lights above me.
"Oh! Annie, you're awake," a female voice says, and she hugs me. I hesitantly hug her back, not sure who the hell she is.
"Um, who are you?" She breathes a laugh and pulls away from me, tucking a piece of long dirty blonde hair behind her ear.
"I'm Amy Emerson. You know my husband, Derek Emerson?" she says, then it clicked. "Your dad and Derek were best friends growing up."
"Oh, um, hi. I think I've met you before," I mumble, still confused. "Where are we?"
"You're in the hospital dear. Do you remember what happened?" she asks, her cheery face, turning to one of pain. I shake my head, then wince as it starts to pound.
"Can you tell me your first and last name?" a guy, I'm guessing a doctor, asks me with a clipboard in his hand.
"Annabel Cassidy." He nods and writes something on his clipboard.
"Age?"
"Seventeen."
"Middle name?"
"Elizabeth."
"Move your left foot for me?" I look at him with an eyebrow raised, but I move my left foot. "Now your right foot." I do the same with my right foot, and he seems pleased.
"Anything else?" I ask, still completely lost as to what I'm doing here.
"Do you remember what happened tonight?" he asks, taking a seat next to me.
"Um...I went to the movies with my family, and now I'm here."
"You don't remember what happened in between those two?" he asks, jotting something onto that stupid clipboard.
"No, I don't." I furrow my eyebrows, trying to think. But nothing comes to mind. All I remember is being with my family. "Where's my family?"
"Sweetheart, there's something I need to tell you," Mrs. Emerson says, and takes my hands in hers. I look down at our hands, completely confused.
"What's going on?" Her eyes go to the doctor, and he steps out of the room. She straightens up in her seat and clears her throat.
"Annabel, your parents didn't make it," she tells me, her voice slightly breaking.
"They didn't make it? You mean...they're dead?"
"I'm afraid so, dear," Mrs. Emerson says, taking a seat next to me on the hospital bed. A strangled sob escapes my lips. In an instant, Mrs. Emerson has me wrapped up in a hug. I cry onto her shoulder for at least five minutes, before all of my tears stop. My head starts to pound even more.
"W-where am I supposed to go? Where's Austin?" I whisper, more tears welling up in my eyes.
"That's why I'm here, sweetie," Mrs. Emerson says, a sad smile on her face. "Austin is being checked out, but he's okay. You're both moving to California with me."
"Wait, what? California? I can't leave!" She frowns and kisses my forehead.
"When you're both released, we will be leaving for California. I'm so sorry sweetie," she says softly.
"What about all of my stuff? And my parents' stuff?"
"You will pack up all of your most prized possessions and clothes, and your furniture will be flown out to California in a storage unit, and your family's stuff will be put in a storage unit and sent to California as well, so you always have them with you," she replies, a sad smile on her face.
"I want to go through some of their stuff first, to find the most important things." She nods and pulls a little blue velvet pouch out of her purse. She hands it to me, hesitantly.
"You deserve to have these," she whispers. I slowly open the pouch and dump its contents into my opened hand. My mom and dad's wedding rings. A lump rises in my throat and tears well up in my eyes.
"Thank you." She smiles and nods. I slide the rings onto my right hand's fingers and stare down at them.
The doctor walks back into the room. "You need to stay overnight for observation, and make sure you get plenty of rest. I'm so sorry for your loss."
——
The next morning, Austin and I are released from the hospital. We go to our house, and we finish packing up all of our belongings. I even packed up all of my family photos from my parent's room. Austin's packed up his room, and the living room.
Then I grab my mom's favorite dress and her wedding dress, and my dad's Purdue jersey from when he was in college and played for their football team. Austin grabs a couple of their things as well.
"Are you ready?" Mrs. Emerson asks, poking her head in my room.
"Here Annie," Austin says, handing me his hoodie, before nodding to Mrs. Emerson. "I think we've got everything."
I nod and pull Austin's hoodie over my head and grab my cheerleading duffel bag that I'm going to use as a carry on.
With a shaky hand, I pull my keys out of my pocket, and take my house key off of its key ring. Tears stream down my face, as I place my key next to my parents' and Austin's on the kitchen island, and we leave the house for the last time.
We make it to the airport within fifteen minutes, and it takes about an hour to get through security and everything else. Then we take our seats in first class. Yeah, she got us first class tickets. Apparently, they're rich, or something. She explained more that apparently, my parents had a will written up, and left Amy and Derek as our sole guardians, if anything happened to them. They aren't adopting us, they're just our legal guardians now. So even though we will be living with them, we aren't their kids.
"How are you doing, honey?" Mrs. Emerson asks, pulling me from my thoughts. I turn my head away from the airplane window to look at her.
"I feel numb," I reply honestly. She gives me a sad smile and pats my arm.
"I'm right here for you, sweetie. So are Derek, and my kids," she says.
I raise an eyebrow at her. I look over at Austin who is fast asleep in the seat across from me.
"You have kids?"
She nods and takes her wallet out of her purse. "Yes, seven boys," she says, showing me a picture. My jaw drops. Seven boys? What the hell.
She starts to point them out to me and tells me their names and ages. There's Nick, who is 20 and in college. He has longish brown hair and brown eyes. Then there's Ryder, who is 18, and has short brown hair and brown eyes. Next is Carter, who is 17 like me and Austin, and has short blonde hair and blue eyes. After Carter is Tyler, who is 16, and is almost identical to Ryder. Next is Bradley, who is 15, and has longish dirty blonde hair and blue green eyes. Then it's Randy, who is 12, and also looks like Ryder's mini-me. And finally, it's Charlie. He's 6 and has dirty blonde hair and big blue eyes. So adorable.
We finally get through the crowded LAX airport and find our luggage easily. Mrs. Emerson looks around, until she spots Derek. She grabs my hand and I grab Austin's, and we walk over to him. He spots us and a sad smile forms on his face. He kisses his wife, then pulls me and Austin into a hug.
"It's good to see you again, kiddos. You've both grown so much," he says, and I give a small smile.
"Well, let's go," Mrs. Emerson says with a smile.
Mr. Emerson grabs our luggage and we follow him out to a midnight blue Camaro. He pops the trunk and places our things in. I slide into the backseat, Austin next to me, and we pull out of the airport parking lot. My stomach erupts with butterflies, completely nervous to be living with a completely different family, and seven boys, not including Austin.