I inched towards the opening of the cave and cautiously peeked out. As footsteps and voices approached, I held my breath as I pressed myself into the dampness of the cave.

“I think she ran into this one,” He stood at the entrance of the cave and peered into its shadows.

“Hey, there he goes!” Another voice shouted, a little way off.

As the footsteps ran away from the cave, I sank to the cave floor to catch my breath.

Hi, my name is Vanessa.

As far back as I could remember my father was always a con man. From selling fake jewellery, other people’s cars and even expired goods. One time he even sold a house and land that wasn’t even his. His boss went away for a few weeks and when we returned another family was living in his house! By that time, Dad and I had new identities and were living in another country.

I never knew my Mom and he was the only family that I knew about. I stayed with him until I was twenty.

After I struck a record deal and became a famous singer, I moved from Dad’s house even though I stayed in the same country. From time to time, I would send money to Dad hoping he would refrain from scamming others, but I guess you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

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Hey there! My name is Kyleigh and when I was fifteen years old, my life totally transformed. I was a really happy kid. I loved roller skating and anything to do with fashion. It was my deepest wish to someday become a fashion designer. I bought tons of magazines and cut out pictures of designer clothes to stick all over my room.

I had to stick pictures of clothes on the walls because I’d never be able to afford them. I lived alone with my mom and we didn’t have much money. She was a nurse and my dad left us when I was about five years old. I haven’t seen him since and he doesn’t check up on me at all. The last I heard is that he moved to Spain with his new wife. That didn’t bother me much though because I had a really good relationship with my mom. She was fun and never bossy or annoying. She let me do whatever I wanted most of the time – but money was tight. I wasn’t even sure how we’d pay for college but I just remained hopeful that things would work out anyway.

I had to stick pictures of clothes on the walls because I’d never be able to afford them. I lived alone with my mom and we didn’t have much money. She was a nurse and my dad left us when I was about five years old. I haven’t seen him since and he doesn’t check up on me at all. The last I heard is that he moved to Spain with his new wife. That didn’t bother me much though because I had a really good relationship with my mom. She was fun and never bossy or annoying. She let me do whatever I wanted most of the time – but money was tight. I wasn’t even sure how we’d pay for college but I just remained hopeful that things would work out anyway.

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It was the end of the first day back at school after the long summer holidays and I couldn’t wait for it to be over.

The holidays had been so much fun, we had spent most of the time at the beach and it was all I could think about.

As I walked home my mind was full of wonderful memories.

Suddenly out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a homeless family on the other side of the street. I was about to keep on walking, but something made me stop. In that moment I realised just how lucky I was. I had a fabulous life compared to that poor family.

I crossed the street and went over to where they were standing. I put my hand into my pocket and pulled out a $20 bill. They had a son,about my age, I handed the money to him and as he took it out of my hand he looked up and smiled at me.

I nearly gasped out loud, he had the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen.

“Thank you, Miss.”

“You’re welcome! I haven’t seen you here before, do you live around here?”

“We recently moved to this area, we used to live on the other side of town.”

“Oh, well that’s why I wouldn’t have seen you then. Will you be here tomorrow? I might see you again on my way home from school.”

He seemed a little bit embarrassed, especially when the man beside him started speaking to me.

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As I crossed off the day on my calendar I couldn't believe it was already six months since I'd been in the witness protection programme. I was given a new look and a new name but I wasn't allowed to live on my own yet.

I didn't have access to a television, phone or any device that I could interact with the outside world through.

I must admit though that it was nice being this close to Ryan again and fully understanding what he did for a living. Even though he tried to make my transition into my new life as easy as possible, not a day went by without me thinking about Jelani and the revenge I planned to wreak on his sorry life.

After six months of obeying every rule that Ryan gave me, he now trusted me to go out on my own. I took full advantage of this and the first place I went...you guessed it… was to Jelani's house with his little family to tell his wife that her husband was a cheat and a very horrible person. Well not exactly in those PG 13 words but you get the idea.

I pounded on the door, "Jelani, you better open this door you little piece of sh…."

"Hey," someone called from behind me. I turned to see an elderly man with a friendly face holding a bag of groceries in his hands.

"Can I help you?" he asked as he walked towards me.

I cleared my throat, "Ummm yes, I'm looking for a friend of mine. His name is Jelani."

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"I didn't know I had a sister."

"Well you do, she was away at school."

My brother walked up to me, "Hi, my name is Tyler, what's yours?"

"My name is Cassidy."

"That's a very pretty name. Thank you for the gift."

He threw his arms around my waist and I hugged him back as I struggled to hold back my tears.

Hi there! My name is Cassidy.

For many years my parents tried having children but were unsuccessful. They depleted their nest egg by visiting a variety of doctors, doing numerous tests and doing multiple fertility implants.

When they finally got the great news that Mom was pregnant they were so excited. They both wanted a boy and when the ultrasound indicated that wish might come true my parents took great care to make sure Mom and the baby were safe.

On the day that my mother was rushed to the delivery room, my parents were so excited… until I was born. Yup, you guessed it, I wasn't a boy and their disappointment in me was never hidden and continued throughout my entire life.

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Rebecca and I stood there looking at each other,

“Mmm, move back to Golivia? My real parents? What about my parents back home?”

I was still processing the fact that I was a princess and I was about to respond to Rebecca when suddenly another loud boom sounded and everything went black.

I blinked my eyes,

“What just happened? I must have passed out for a few seconds.”

I looked up and was shocked to see my parents standing there.

“Mom! Dad!”

“Get away from Rebecca.”

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“She’s not who you think she is. She is actually someone who is trying to hurt you.”

“No, you’re wrong, she actually just saved me from a bunch of attackers.”

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Hey there! Thanks for clicking on my story! I promise to make this an interesting one. Now I know you’ve read the title and you’re probably thinking that there was some mean girl at high school picking on me and making my life miserable.

Promise not to laugh when I tell you who my real bully was.

Promise?

Okay. It was my little sister Melanie. She was twelve years old and I swear she was like the child of Satan himself. Satan and a really horrible woman because I swear, I couldn’t understand how we had the same parents and similar genes. We were SO different.

I was sixteen years old so we only had four years between us. I was bigger, taller and smarter. But you don’t need to be big to be a bully. You just have to be mean – and that was Melanie.

Now, you’re probably wondering what this twelve year old could have done to me that was so horrible. There’s just so much! Where do I even start? I’ll start by giving you some different situations.

When she was four and I was eight, she started hitting me. She did this when my parents were not looking and they’d never believe me when I told them what she was doing. Sometimes she’d just be like

“Hey Katie, turn around! Look what I brought you!”

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“Mom! Come and see this!”

Mom came bustling from inside the house to the back yard.

“Aren’t they pretty? Look, they’re eating from the birdhouse that I made,” my eyes sparkled.

“You’re such a thoughtful girl, honey. Those birds are so lucky.”

I beamed at Mom who smiled at me before heading back inside. I inched my way towards one of the birds and held it. I went to one of the bushes in the back yard and removed a cage, which I secured the bird in.

“You’ll get me a pretty penny at the pet store.”

Hi my name is Sofia.

I love my mother with all of my heart. She would alway boast to other parents and teachers about how well behaved I was, how I was always obedient in classes and always brought home excellent grades. My sister was an only child for a while and was adopted because my parents thought they couldn’t have children. When she was about six, Mom got pregnant and in nine months birthed a gorgeous baby girl, me. Dad, however, passed away when I was ten years old and even though Mom tried her best to keep us happy, I still felt a void in my spirit.

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“Robby, look over there!”

“Not falling for that one again Allen!”

“Oh come on!”

I removed my super soaker water gun from where I was hiding it under water and pressed the trigger until my brother was completely soaked.

“Boys! Stop that right now! Come have a snack. You’ve played in the water enough.”

Robby and I were twins - extraordinary ones… but we didn’t know that yet. We looked a bit different; I had blonde hair while Robby had black hair but our faces were the same - it’s weird.

Our parents had just taken us for a vacation in the forest. We were going to spend the whole summer there. They rented a little cabin and all we were allowed to do all day was run around in nature or “Enjoy the wilderness” as my dad liked to put it. No phones, computers, nintendos nothing.

We weren’t upset about it at all though. In fact, we loved it there! We could run around and behave as ridiculously as we liked.

Anyway, after that awesome picnic by the lake, we went back to the cabin and our parents asked us to go for a walk because they wanted some alone time.

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I reached over and switched off my alarm. I couldn’t believe it was morning already, it felt like I’d only been asleep for about an hour.

All I wanted to do was curl up and go back to sleep, but it was a school day, so there was no chance of me having a lie in.

I pushed the bedcovers off me and got out of bed, it was my own fault I was feeling so tired, I had stayed up late playing computer games with my friends.

I had a quick wash and went downstairs to the kitchen where my Mom and Dad were eating breakfast.

“Bye Mom, I’m off to school.”

“What about your breakfast, Tess?”

“I haven’t got time, I’ll just grab something on the way.”

I picked up my school bag and had almost got to the front door when I heard my Mom’s voice,

“Don’t forget to put your mask on!”

I sighed and rolled my eyes.

“Ok, Mom!”

I picked up my fake face mask and put it on.

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