You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home. Chapter 1, Part 1 and 2 of Eight

Hello everyone! This is an original piece I started writing over five years ago. I have never published the piece before now. Please let me know what you think. I would love feedback about the writing and also the formatting here on Steemit. Thanks for reading and enjoy!

Chapter 1, Part 1

Most teenagers dream of standing out, of being noticed, of being something other than just a face in the crowd. For them, the thing they want more than anything in the world during high school, except a nice new sports car, the hottest girl/guy in school to notice them, ace all their finals…okay, one of the things they want more than anything in the world is to be noticed. Most high school students don’t wish for anonymity every night before they pray to ace an algebra exam. Most high school students don’t have a twin sister who happens to be the most famous and well-known pop stars in the world.

My sister’s face…my face…happens to be one of the most recognizable faces to ever grace the nightly news, the cover of a magazine, or a shampoo commercial. Unfortunately for me, my sister and I aren’t fraternal twins, we’re identical, right down to a beauty mark under each eye. We’re like mirror images of one another, especially because that mark happens to be under a different eye, but that’s the last thing you would notice if you saw my face and the face of Emilia Thompson. You’d probably think Holy crap, they look exactly alike! Which is what everyone thinks every time they see me, no matter how familiar my face is.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: most teenagers wouldn’t mind having a famous sibling, especially one so well known, so infamous, and especially not one they looked just like. I mean, think of the perks: everywhere you went, people would mistake you for that famous sibling and would be at your beck and call. I might not be wishing to have my own features if I had ever actually met Emilia.

Remember that movie The Parent Trap, where those cute as a button twins had been separated since birth because of their parents divorce and they grew up not knowing the other one existed? Well, it’s not just a cute Disney movie, at least not as far as I’m concerned. When my parents met, my mother was the drummer of a moderately popular all-girl band attempting to channel the sound and success of Heart, but without the same results. My father was a roadie one night and after a few stops on the good ole tour bus, they decided they were madly in love and got married by Elvis in Vegas (I kid you not, I couldn’t make this story up) and my mother decided to hang up her drumsticks for domestic life. Seven and a half months later, along came two adorable, identical twin girls fit for any diaper commercial. Around that time, my mother decided that the rock star life was still singing her name and was tempting her back onto the road. My father, who had decided to settle into a stable job as a construction foreman, assured my mother that life on the road wasn’t a good life for two children and that they should stay settled in the small, hardly on any maps, town of Little Paris, Georgia. But for my mother, the siren song of the stage was too strong and she opted for a divorce, but wanted to be a mother and a rock star, but decided that two girls was too many and so she took Emilia and I stayed with my father. Strange, but true.

Do I resent my mother, you might ask? Do I wish that I was the one that had been chosen for life on the road, the life as a rock star’s daughter and eventually that of a mega pop star? If I do resent my mother, it isn’t for those reasons. I couldn’t carry a tune in an incredibly light bucket and have never longed for the spotlight they way that she has. I love my life in Independence and the life my father has provided me with. The only time I really envy Emilia is when I figure she could probably get out of a trig test by waving some back stage passes at her tutor.

It seems that Emilia is far more oblivious of my existence than I am of hers. After all, how could I be kept in the dark about having a twin sister when she’s on the cover of every magazine between me and the check out counter at the store? My father offered to contact my mother when Emilia shot to fame and try and reconnect but I declined his offer, trying to digest the idea of having a twin sister. Plus, I’m not exactly a life in the spot-light sort of girl, I’ve got quite the case of stage fright, to say the least. But it seems that my mother had never mentioned my existence to Emilia or if she did, she never made the effort to find me either.

After Emilia was first splashed across the front page of every teen and tween magazine, everyone in town was convinced I was leading a double life. Being begged into giving an impromptu performance at a school assembly shot down that idea. My dad came clean and explained the truth to everyone; thankfully, Independence is a pretty small, close knit place. My dad asked them for privacy and since no reporters even know of my existence, no one has been tempted to come forward with the story of Emilia’s twin sister. But that doesn’t stop my classmates from studying me when they should be paying attention in class, or trying to get into my good graces to ensure a meeting with the famous pop-star herself. Apparently some people just aren’t willing to believe that I’ve truly never met my sister. And I doubt I ever will. Emilia doesn’t come to Independence, Georgia very often.

In spite of myself, I catch myself reading up on Emilia’s exploits every so often, which was exactly what I was doing that afternoon during lunch period, flipping through my friend Jordan’s copy of Teen Spot. Not surprisingly, Emilia was on the cover, under the teasing headline “Emilia Spills Her Secrets!” Teen Spot was one of those silly magazines filled with quizzes, posters and blurbs of stories about how stars were just like us. As I read through the magazine, I couldn’t help but think that Emilia really wasn’t anything like me at all. Though Teen Spot might try and paint her as the innocent, fun-loving girl next door, there were some other magazines that weren’t quite as flattering. Their pictures were a little more candid than the pictures of Emilia playing with puppies or grinning for the camera.

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Chapter 1, Part 2

As I read through the magazine, I couldn’t help but think that Emilia really wasn’t anything like me at all. Though Teen Spot might try and paint her as the innocent, fun-loving girl next door, there were some other magazines that weren’t quite as flattering. Their pictures were a little more candid than the pictures of Emilia playing with puppies or grinning for the camera.

Emilia’s secrets were certainly contrived by the Teen Spot publisher and proved to be even less interesting than the attention-catching headline suggested. I flipped the magazine closed and slid it across the table back to Jordan, who quickly flipped it open once more, no doubt to see who her celebrity soul mate happened to be.

“Don’t you want to take the quizzes Scout?” Questioned my half-brother Zach as he slid into the seat next to mine. “Find out who your soul mate is?” He gave Jordan a teasing smile.

“No thank you.” I assured him with finality. “I doubt my chances of actually meeting Sterling Knight are very high.” Zach rolled his eyes.

Jordan looked up with an excited smile. “That’s who my soul mate is too!” She pointed to the result on the page. “I knew we were meant for each other.”

Philip, Jordan’s boyfriend, pulled the magazine away from her. “I gotta see who my competition is.” He remarked, studying a picture of the actor. He shook his head. “Kinda looks like a tool.”

Jordan quickly snatched the magazine back. “Don’t say that about Sterling!” She looked at the picture of the blond-headed celebrity. “You’re just jealous.” Philip scoffed.

Before Philip could further rag on the actor, Jordan had changed the page and was holding up an article for me to see. “Is Joshua Crushing on Emilia?” She read in a tone that was often used for the announcement of big, important or suspenseful news. I raised an eyebrow, glancing down at the obliviously photo-shopped picture of Joshua Beckett and my sister.

Joshua was the drummer in one of the hottest groups The Retrievers. Why anyone would know themselves after a dog was beyond me, but the name didn’t seem to have anything to do with the success of the group, because they were continuously burning up the charts, selling CDs, tee-shirts, accessories and concert tickets like crazy and at least one member happened to be in the locker of almost every female student in school. I say almost because I happen to have Sterling Knight in my locker, thank you very much. It seemed only natural that a member of the hottest musical group of the moment would be linked with the most successful and popular pop star. I doubted there was much truth to the rumor, but it was sure to sell a lot of magazines.

“It says here that Joshua was seen walking Emilia to her car the other day, after she had been shopping on Rodeo Drive.” Jordan informed our lunch table. “He even opened the door for her.”

Zach snorted, taking a bite of apple. “It’s love at first sight.” He scoffed. “A guy being a gentleman, let me get my tux from the cleaners.”

Jordan glared at him over the magazine. “Like you’d even be invited to the wedding.” She remarked, snapping the magazine closed. “Scout, you could be a bridesmaid.”

I laughed. “You’re right. There’s nothing like a wedding to reunite long lost sisters.”

“And don’t forget, Emilia is my sister too.” Zach pointed out, not that he usually had much interest in claiming her. The stories from Teen Spot might not hold much truth, but the ones to grace the covers of People and US Weekly seemed to have a little bit more photo evidence to back them up. Zach was a practical, no nonsense sort of guy and someone of Emilia’s shaky character would have use in his straight-edged life.

Not long after my mother left for life on the road, my father remarried an old girlfriend from high school, the one he’d seemed to have forgotten about when working as a roadie and blinded by the glamour of the rock stars. Not long after their marriage, she’d gotten pregnant with Zach, so we were pretty close in age. A few years later came my youngest brother Luke, who had once made quite the pretty penny convincing his young classmates that I was Emilia and was charging them money to come to the house and see me, something that his mother, Beverly, who was like a mother to me as well, quickly put a stop to, forcing him to return most of the money. What hadn’t gone back had gone toward replacing our dish washer, something I’m sure Luke remembers every time he puts a dish inside. Luke is quite the schemer and his ideas usually lead to trouble.