Grace remembered the day her father left both her and her mother, as if it happened yesterday but more vividly, she remembered the pain that it brought afterwards. Because of what her father did her mother was never there for Grace but instead she was constantly working, without much of a break leaving Grace in a big empty house.

The work paid off because her mom was right number one fashion designer in Texas, but there was always a hole in Grace's heart and because Grace wasn't zoned for the buses to go to public school and her mom couldn't afford to drive her or home school her grace was forced to take an online program for school which made Grace incredibly bored, however she was thankful for the fact that her mom let her do boxing that her neighbor was paid to take her there.

The people at boxing or sadly her only friends besides Amelia, her driver. But Grace Was not going to let that ruin her sweet 16, that she was celebrating by herself, Grace didn't mind it though she was used to not being noticed and living in her mom's shadow, and apparently that meant her mom not noticing her either.

She had just gotten back from boxing and Amelia had wished her a happy birthday and everything, so she went upstairs, to her room to take a shower. She took a quick glance of herself in the mirror and said a little taller as she began to feel the pride of being 16. As she looked at herself in the mirror she started to really notice her long brunette hair with Rich blonde streaks, that she got died through one of her mother's friends, her eyes were dark blue and she had thick long eyelashes, and she had a somewhat naturally contoured face. Her body however was mainly just muscle from all the boxing and work outs she did, but Grace didn't really care what she looked like, she didn't have anyone to impress but herself, so to impress herself she took a shower to get rid of the smell that came with boxing.

As she turned the water off, finishing her shower she heard the front door closed. She quickly got dressed and dried off her hair with her towel she walked down calmly but not letting her guard down to find a present on the table in the lobby. As Grace walks over to the mystery gift on the table she notices her mother's Heels by the front door and had no doubt about it that her mother had come home early to wish her a happy birthday.

Opening the present she noticed there were two little boxes and the card, she decided to read the card first and attempted to open it humanely without tearing it, but quickly decided that wasn't going to work after the top flap torn half as she was opening it, so she tore the rest of the half off.

Grace begin to read it quietly to herself,”dear Grace, happy 16th birthday, I hope you had a great sweet 16. Anyways, there's been something I've been meaning to tell you for a couple weeks now, I've received a huge opportunity to go to work for the top fashion design company in La, I've already picked out a house and it's a by a public high school called Bayside High, within walking distance of the house which is a gorgeous beach house off the coast of Long Beach, why don't you head to the table and the gazebo so we can talk more about this while eating your favorite dish, burgers, onion rings and Texas toast, but open the presents I got you first. Love Mom.”

Grace sat there frozen unable to comprehend everything her mother just spilled out in front of her. It'll happen so quickly Grace didn't even know this was real, she quickly pinched her shoulder to check if she was dreaming or not, she only felt the quick pain it brought and after a few minutes she finally came to the obvious conclusion that it was no dream, this was real and it was really happening.

She decided to open the first box which had a golden cross necklace with a diamond in the middle of it and a small note left there from her mother, saying “Grace, this necklace belonged to your father during the years we were married, he left it with me to give to you and I guess I was just waiting for the right opportunity which I guess would be now, your sweet 16. I guess what I'm trying to say is I know he isn't the father you deserve, and I'm not the mother you deserve either but I hope California can be a fresh start for the both of us. I love you my sunshine.”

Tears start to form in Greece's eyes as she puts on her father's necklace, knowing that her mother had this whole time and decided not to give this to her, even though her father had wished it. Wiping her eyes and with a deep sigh Grace moved on to the second box.

She opened it and to her surprise, she found found car keys with another little note from her mother which said, “ if you decide that moving to California is the right idea there is an Audi R8 Spyder with your name on it. Love Mom.” it was hard for Grace to be mad at her mom when she had given her a gift such as this.

Without further hesitation Grace sets the keys back down on the table in heads outside to the condo over the lake, where her mother sits, waiting for her. As Grace gets closer to the gazebo she can already begin to smell the delicious burgers, the crunching onion rings and The Buttery Texas toast and not to mention she can already begin to hear the lovely sound of her favorite music artists voice, Shawn Mendes her mother was playing her favorite song of his there's nothing holding me back. It all seems so perfectly normal to Grace, as if she had imagined what she read earlier, her mother seemed calm not tense it all, so Grace felt more welcome to sit down.

Her and her mother made small talk like they normally do except this time Grace felt a little more mature when she was talking to her mother as if she was an adult herself, but after awhile Grace couldn't help but start to feel hunger spreading through her stomach so she gave in and began eating her delicious birthday meal, her mother joined in as well.

When they both had finished they sat there in a few moments, grace enjoying the gorgeous diamond-like stars of awkward silence until her mother broke the chain and brought up the subject at Grace was trying to avoid the whole time, moving to California.

“Hopefully you've had some time to think about it?” Her mother begins. “I understand if you don't want to go I know I haven't exactly been there for you ever since” her voice Trails off and Grace understands what her mother is trying to say.

But hopefully in California I can make it up to you, of course if you decide to come. I think it's a great opportunity and you finally get to go to public school and and make some friends” she starts to go in one of her ramblings again and Grace politely cuts her off. “Mom, I think that the best decision would be to move to California, this isn't just an opportunity that you can pass up and I know that if Dad were still here he'd want you to go through with it.” Grace says a small smile spreading across her face.

Her mother reaches across the table and wraps her in a tight embrace. “ I love you Grace, always have and always will.” Her mother saying this, almost caught Grace by surprise since it had felt like weeks maybe months since the last time she had really heard her mother tell her that she loved her. “I love you too Mom. Always always and forever.” That was something her father used to say to her and her mother, the phrase used to be meaningless until they moved on from that but neither of them had really ever used it again since that happened, her mother knew that too.

Tears begin to feel both of their eyes now and they just sat there in each other's embrace. A week went by and it was the day before they were leaving for California, Grace decided to start with her goodbyes at her boxing place, they gave her hugs and farewells but Grace new that they wouldn't really miss her the way a friend would miss her, there were only acquaintances really.

However, it was talking to Amelia that worried her, in the car ride home from boxing Amelia asked her what was wrong and why the unusual silence, Grace knew she could keep it from her no longer so she explained how she was moving to California for her mom's work, and she apologize for not informing her sooner.

Before Amelia said her last goodbye, she hugged her it wasn't a tight hug like her mother's last night it was a loving soft hug, the one is sister would give to another sister, and Grace would miss her, but would cherish this memory forever. “You've always been like a sister to me and I don't know what I would do without you, but now you're moving away and there's nothing really I can do about it.” Amelia says, getting a little choked up. “You've always been like a sister to me too, but there's nothing I can do about this, besides I can always text you.” And with that Grace begins to get out of the car with one last look at Amelia, she drives off to park her car in her garage, and that was the last time Grace got to see Amelia before she left for California.

That night she dreamed of the time her father abandoned her, she woke up to her talking in her sleep and crying, after that it took her awhile to go back to sleep. The next time that she did wake up was to her mother's soft touch invoice telling her that they had 30 minutes until they had to leave and that breakfast was on the table.

Grace eventually got up out of her bed and went downstairs to see all of her and her mother's luggage by the front door she wandered into the kitchen a little Motionless because of how little sleep she's gotten that night, but immediately felt more alive when she saw what her mother had made for breakfast. They're on the table we're golden chocolatey gifts from heaven, better known as chocolate chip pancakes Grace's all-time favorite. She quickly dug into them without the slightest hesitation.

When every last pancake was gone Grace wiped her face to rid herself of the mess created from her eating it like an animal. She walked the plate over to the sink and washed it off realizing that this would be the last dish she ever washed in this house.

The 30 minutes came sooner than Grace had really wanted but nevertheless it was time for Grace to start a new chapter in her life. As they were waiting to board the plane her mother instructed Grace to sit in one of the waiting chairs while she went and took care of something by the time she came back, it was time for them to start boarding the plane.

Grace didn't pay much attention to really anything around her except her phone, which she was texting Amelia that she was about to board the plane. As they were beginning get on the plane she noticed a little girl following her and her mother into the row of the three seats. The girl was carrying an iPad Mini which looked very similar to the one her mom had.

When the plane took off Grace had to endure many annoying things in this 4 Hour plane ride to California including the annoying flight attendant who kept offering Grace they're stupid, stale pretzels and each and every time Grace politely refused. But that wasn't as bad as the little girl sitting next to her, and heard a loud movie or TV show that she was watching, she was asked several times by many of the people to turn it down.

In that moment Grace envied her mother, peacefully resting sitting in the window seat with headphones on, probably listening to an audiobook or one of her playlists. Becoming bored with her view ways to entertain herself Grace sorted through the movies that they had their on the plane and picked out one of her favorites, me before you and slid it into the disc compartment, as she reached down to pick up the headphones she was provided with.

As much as she loved the movie, her eyelids grew heavy because of how sleep-deprived she was and she slowly drifted off Into a dreamless sleep.

She woke up too the pilot informing the passengers that they would be landing in the next 10 minutes and to be sure to fasten their seat belts. After grace was completely secure and buckled in, her eyes wandered over to the little girl who was having difficulty figuring out how it  worked. Grace thought about letting the little girl figure it out on her own, but couldn't bear to watch her struggle any longer.

She reached over and helped her buckle her seatbelt. When she returned to her normal sitting position after she been a helping the girl she noticed her mother with staring at her and a little girl with the look on her face that was deep in thought. “Mom, whatever you're thinking stop thinking it.” Great says.

Her mother shakes that of her daydream and it's as if her mother didn't hear a word Grace had just said. “How would you feel about me adopting a sibling for you?” She says bluntly. “Mom, I'd rather have a dog” grace begins to say. “Why, what do you hiding from me?” Grace questions.

Her mother takes add deep sigh. “The little girl sitting next to you, well I should have told you earlier but I'm fostering her and hopes of adopting her in the future. Her name is Celia and she is four years old, and I found her back in Dallas and decided there was no way I could ever leave a precious face like that.” Mother transfers into her baby voice turning her attention to Celia, grace does the same only she glares at the little brat.

She turns to her mother a hard gaze across her face. “You must be joking. Please tell me now if you're joking, so I can go ahead and jump off this plane right now.” Grace says. “Now don't be ridiculous grace, you won't jump off this plane, and I'm not joking one bit about Celia being your soon to be adopted younger sister.” Almost as if it was on cue the plane landed and a couple minutes later people began to exit the plane.

After they acquired their luggage, they got into the Uber mother had ordered, and she drove us to our new home. It was about 12:30 by now and grace was even more anxious now than ever before about getting to see her new house and what felt like hours later but what really turned out to be more like 15 minutes they finally arrived to Grace's new house it was a beautiful sandstone house with red tile roof and the house was at least two stories and stretched wider than her last house. Her mother paid the driver and thanked her for driving us.

They walked in and Grace immediately notices the courtyard in the middle of the house and how it has a gorgeous fountain in the middle of it. She walks up stairs to claim a room and ends up claiming one of the upstairs rooms and Celia chooses the room closest to Grace's, which annoyed her. Grace decides to go explore the rest of the house and all of it's wonders.

The one thing that Grace loved the most was the beautiful pool and how it had many little different waterfalls leading into it, grace could hardly resist herself so all she had to do really was unpack all of her clothes and put them into her closet which was huge and it needed to be with all of the clothes her mother gave her. She picked out a swimsuit and put it on, it was one of her favorite two pieces that her mother had designed.

She walked out of her room to find Celia waiting just outside of her door. “Whatcha doin” Celia asks rocking back and forth on her heels. “Going swimming” Grace that as if it were obvious. “Can I go swimming with you?” She asks as if it were up to grace to decide. “Do you have a swimsuit?” grace asks uninterested in whatever answer she received. “Yup.” Celia replied. “oh, well in that case no.” Says grace walking past Celia.

“Why?” Celia asks on the verge of tears. “Do you even know how to swim?” Grace asks rudely. “Wells.. I was kinda hopin you'd help me with that sissy!” Celia says enthusiastically. “Well I might of considered it if you would have batted your eyes any longer but one I'm not your sissy and I'm not going to be swimming all that much, I'll be tanning.” Grace says, hands on her hips. Once Celia doesn't reply Grace continues down the spiral stairs and outside to the pool.

She begins to spray herself with sunscreen and is joined by Celia a couple minutes later who hold her arms out horizontally and put a big bubble in her mouth and squinted her eyes. Grace stood there and stared at her knowing that she wanted Grace spray her with the sunscreen but Grace, feeling bitter about how Celia was stealing the last attention she got from her mom, and how she kept following her around everywhere and copying everything she did just really made Grace want to jump in the water and not come back up, but because that was unrealistic grace obviously didn't do that.

“I don't know what you're doing but you sure do look like and idiot doing it.” Grace says throwing the sunscreen on the couch that was surrounding a table. “This is what Mrs.ashley told us to do at the orphange when we needs to get sunscreened.” Celia said, all proud of herself for remembering how to look like a drunk walrus holding out his flippers. Grace sighed, can't you do it yourself?

“No Gwacie, I needs help.” She says going back into her walrus pose. Grace rolls her eyes and she sprays her, it didn't take long since she didn't even come up to her waist yet. “Thanks Sissy! Now let's wearn how to swims!” She says pointing her little sausage finger at the huge pool. “No, I already told you I'm going to tan.” Grace explains.

Pwease Gwacie?” Celia begs. “No.” Grace replies without giving another thought to the subject. She bats her eyes looking adorable, “pwetty pwetty pwease?” she says jumping up and down while saying “pwetty”. “Mmmmmmmm fine, but only for a little bit, and then I'm going to tan.”  They head towards the pool box and grace grabbed little floatie things you put over their arms. Grace puts them on Celia and they both walk into the pool together