I think I was about 5 years old when I realised my Mum was very rich. Before then I thought that everyone lived in a huge house like me, with cooks and maids and a private driver. I guess you would say I lived the perfect life. My mum ran a hugely successful company and one day it would be mine.

My friends were always telling me how lucky I was, I agreed with them to be honest. I had everything that money could buy. But there was something missing: my Dad.

Mum never wanted to talk about my Dad, I only knew that she had kicked him out of the house when I was about two years old, but I didn’t know why. If I tried to bring up his name Mum just changed the subject.

I remember one time Mum got really angry, I was in the lounge and Mum was in the kitchen. My favourite song came on the television, I was singing at the top of my voice, when Mum came running into the room.

“Switch that television off Jenna!” She shouted. “You’re just like your father.”

I looked at mum in astonishment, she never shouted at me and she definitely never mentioned my Dad.

“Why mum?” I asked.

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“I can’t believe you would do this! That’s it, we’re through!”

I stared at my phone, I couldn’t believe what had just happened. My girlfriend Sarah had just dumped me and I had absolutely no idea why! We had been getting on so well recently, I had begun to think that she was the one!

I was heartbroken and so confused too. I wondered what could have happened to make her want to leave me.

I tried calling Sarah more than twenty times but she just ignored me. I also sent her hundreds of texts but she didn’t reply to any of them. Well she couldn’t avoid me forever, we go to the same college so sooner or later I’m going to bump into her.

The following morning when I walked into college I went straight to where Sarah usually hung out with her friends, but she was nowhere to be seen. I searched a few places but eventually the bell went and I had to give up looking and go to class.

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“Run, Run!” I heard Toby yell from the next aisle. He’d been caught by a security guard. It was a good distraction for me because I had already stolen everything we needed for that night. While everyone else was occupied with Toby, I ran outside and all the way to his small house in the projects.

This is where our gang hung out. Yes, I was part of a gang but I’ll tell you more about that later.

Toby had been my best friend since we were in preschool. Our grandmas went to the same church so we met in Sunday school. We had a lot in common – for example, we lived alone with our grandmas. When Toby was twelve, his grandma passed away but he didn’t want to go into foster care so he ran away from the officials whenever they tried to find him. Later, he ended up joining a gang because the guys on the block treated him like family. He dropped out of school and started doing things that no kid should be doing really. The gang became like his family and they were practically raising themselves. They all liked to hang out at his house because no one was there to see what was going on. There were no nosy adults.

Instead of trying to change Toby’s mind or helping him to do something different, I ended up being sucked into that same gang too.

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I saw Tony standing in the cafeteria with a group of his friends, he had been my secret crush for as long as I could remember. My heart was beating so fast at the thought of what I was about to do. I stood there watching him for what seemed like an eternity, trying to pluck up the courage to go and speak to him. His friends said goodbye to him and left, this was my chance, it was now or never. I took a deep breath and walked casually over to him, as I got near to him he looked up and smiled at me.

“Hi Tony.” I said, my voice wobbling nervously.

“Oh hi Francesca!” He replied. “How are you?”

“I’m, I’m good.” I stammered.

Tony looked at me questioningly. At first I couldn’t get the words out but eventually I blurted out

“Err I wanted to ask you something. Wwwould you like to go to the prom with me?”

Tony was just about to answer when I heard a laugh coming from behind me. I turned around to see who it was, it was Sarah, my arch enemy.

“Ha ha ha.” She said, laughing. “Are you joking? Tony would never want to go to the prom with someone like you!”

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“Don’t worry, you guys will fit in fine,” our mom said as she dropped us off in the front of the school.

My younger brother, Lucas and I looked at each other with a doubtful look. We waved goodbye.

“Are you ready?” I asked.

He nodded and I draped my arms casually over his shoulder as we walked through the gates of our new school together.

Hi, my name is Noah.

As I sat in my first class, I could not help but notice how clean everything was. Nothing was out of place; all tables and chairs were perfectly aligned. Even the pencils on the teacher’s tables were the same size and in a straight line.

I watched as children entered class, sat quietly, and waited for the teacher. The bell rang and the teacher entered the classroom. She called the roll, introduced me to the class and proceeded with the day’s lesson.

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Mom opened the door. It felt as though everything happened in slow motion. The cup in her hand slipped through her fingers. She slammed the door and pushed against it as she struggled to lock it. I stood there, in the middle of the living room, frozen.

Hi, my name is Aliyah. If you want to know how we've reached this point, stay tuned!

"Did you like the movie?" my dad asked as he unlocked the car.

"Like? I loved it! Did you see how Amanda's mom jump kicked that thief and her father held him in a wrestling hold? I wish our lives were that exciting!"

My mom and dad looked at each other and then chuckled.

The next day I walked into the living room while mom was on a call.

"I told you I'm not interested," my mom said as she spoke to the person on the other end of the phone before hanging up.

"Who was that?"

"Oh, just some random salesperson trying to sell me something I no longer want."

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As I lay under my parents bed with my phone in hand ready to record I could feel my heart pounding against my chest. This was an invasion of privacy and my hands trembled at the thought of what I might hear that night. But what I heard was even more traumatizing than the sounds I thought I was going to hear.

Hi, my name is Grace.

“Hey, why don’t we play a game of truth and dare?” Camille asked and she busted open a pack of potato chips.

My parents, dad Wade and stepmother Josie, had long been in bed and my friends and I were having our last sleepover before exams began. Sheets, blankets, pillows, stuffed animals and snacks filled the tv room floor that night. Michelle, Alexis, Jodi, Katy and Samantha nodded and agreed that it was a great idea.

We did the usual things in truth or dare such as make embarrassing videos, spill our deepest darkest secrets, we even kissed each other but those were all simple compared to the hell that was infringed upon me when I decided to choose dare.

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“Vonne, wake up,” Dad said as he shook me awake.

I opened my eyes and tried to focus on the watch on my hand. It was 5am. Why was Dad waking me up at this hour?

“What is it?” I asked annoyed.

I sat up and observed the room. Next to my father and older sister, Desiree, were two men.

“What’s going on Dad and who are these people?”

“Listen, Vonne, I know things haven’t been going right since the death of your mother but if you continue going down this path you’ll end up in jail or dead. You know I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you but this needs to be done.”

“Oh, please Dad save me the “This is going to hurt you more than it does me speech”. If you want me to go I’ll just go,” I said as I stood up.

Dad placed his hand over his face and cried as Desiree tried to comfort him. The strangers placed a black pillowcase over my head and dragged me from the house as though I was on The Most Wanted list and dumped me into a vehicle. If my dad didn’t want me then I didn’t want him.

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“It’s not fair! You always get everything you want! I wanted to date Liam, he’s been my secret crush for months.”

I felt terrible, I had no idea that my twin sister Jade had felt this way about Liam. But it was too late, I was dating him now and I really liked him.

“But why didn’t you tell me?” I asked her. “If I’d known you liked him I would never have agreed to be his girlfriend.”

“I hate you Katie!” Jade screamed at me.

“I’m so sorry Jade, but I really like him.” I said.

Jade stormed out of the room. It was awful, my twin and I were so close, we were identical twins and had such a close bond. We had never fallen out before, especially not over a boy. If it had been anyone else, I probably would have stopped dating them, but Liam was special. I had never felt this way about a boy before. Jade was just going to have to get used to it.

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"What the hell are you?” I asked as I backed away from her but also kept an eye on the other woman in the room.

Jessica laughed and ignored my question.“I don’t believe you have ever met Howard, my boss.”

Jessica looked towards the kitchen and my eyes followed. Howard stepped out of the kitchen and my eyes grew wide. Standing in front of me was 6 feet and 5 inches of pure muscle and brute strength.

His deep voice vibrated off the walls of the small apartment, “Pleasure to meet you, Brian. My name is Howard, Howard Rodriguez.”

"What do you want from me?"

My eyes frantically looked for an escape route. I expected many things to happen tonight, but this definitely was not one of them.

"We want you to work with us," Jessica said as she licked her lips mischievously, “Don’t we Jackie.”

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