That's My Story

My name’s Daphne. Something really scary happened to me last summer. I was arrested for the first time in my life, for a crime I didn't even commit! What’s more, my crush was there to see the whole thing. Let me tell you the whole story behind my arrest and what happened after.

Hi friends. Unfortunately, I can’t share my name with you. You will soon understand why. I’m 16 years old. I used to go to high school but I had to put my education on hold because my family had to disappear after something that happened at my dad's work.

If you have an attic in your house, you might look at it differently after the story I’m about to tell you. One day I found out that a stranger has been secretly living in our attic!

My name is Linda. I’m 17 years old. My parents adopted me when I was a baby. I grew up in a warm, loving home, getting everything I needed. They never made me feel like I was adopted. I was never curious about my biological mother and father. I wonder if I had searched for them, would I have found out that I had a twin sister..?

I’m Julie. I accidentally discovered my family’s biggest secret. It’s such a huge revelation that our lives will never be the same again. It all started when my older sister Jenny moved in with us after leaving her husband.

My name is Casey. I’m 17 years old. Most people like pizza. I’m one of them. But unfortunately my relationship with pizza is more of an obsession. Pizza is the only thing I eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You might think that I eat different kinds of pizza every time, but that’s not the case. Every day I can only eat like this: Cheese pizza in the morning, mushroom pizza for lunch, cheese pizza again for dinner. It’s not possible for me to eat mushroom pizza for breakfast or cheese pizza for lunch. The issue is that I’m extremely picky when it comes to food.  I’ve been picky with food since I was a little kid.  And when I say “picky with food”, don’t think of your average picky eater.

The protagonist of the story I’m about to tell you is a cook. He was trapped underwater for 62 hours. That’s almost 3 days. He became “the person who spent the longest time underwater,” And thus part of naval history. But he didn’t care about that at all. He grew to hate the sea and being a sailor after what he had to live through. He wouldn’t even dip his feet in the sea from then on. Harrison Okene worked on a tugboat. For those who are not familiar with it, a tugboat is a kind of towing boat. These boats have really powerful engines, and they push and pull other boats or non-motorized vessels with the help of a thick tow line. The hero of our story was a cook on a tugboat just like that.

I’m Justin. I have to go to school every day with two bodyguards. It sounds pretty cool when I say that. But when you find out what happened to me, you’ll see it’s not exactly something that you’d want for yourself. My dad is a truck driver. For years, he drove around the whole country. We’d only see him 4 or 5 days a month, at most. Even though we barely spent time together, we had this strong bond. On the days when he was home, we used to play board games. He would always let my sister or me win. I miss those days a lot. We were a really happy family. I was happy at home, and at school as well. I think that’s because I had the best group of friends in the city. Matt, Jamie, Chris and I have been friends since kindergarten. We went to the same schools. We promised each other that we would stay together until high school’s over. Last year, Matt’s family moved to another city. Matt convinced them to let him stay here with us. He lives with his aunt right now. Things were going really well, and then something seemingly good happened, which changed our lives. My dad has been playing the lottery for years. Occasionally he would win small prizes. But one day he hit the jackpot and won the biggest prize in years. So one morning, we woke up as one of the richest families in the city. Many people dream of winning the lottery. My dad quit his job as a truck driver. We moved to a nicer neighborhood, bought a bigger house. From now on, we could buy anything we wanted… This is the good part. And then there’s the flipside.

What I’m about to tell you took place in New York. Once you’ve heard the whole story, I’m sure you will want to share it with someone, because it’s interesting in so many ways. You will definitely be blown away by the ending, too.

Our story begins when 19-year old Bobby arrives at the college where he is going to study. It was his first day at the school. Naturally, he didn’t know anyone. It was his first time away from his family. He was excited and a little nervous. He was going to stay at a dorm on campus. He wanted to go and settle into his room right away.

As he was walking towards the dormitory, carrying his suitcase, Strange things started happening. Other students were greeting him, saying “Hi!”, “What’s up?” “How was your summer?”, “Nice to see you again” They all seemed to know him. Even though people were acting like his friends, it was Bobby’s first time seeing them. It felt almost like a hidden camera prank.

Finally, he arrived at his dorm building. When he walked in, someone shouted, “Welcome back, Eddy!” Eddy? Who is that? When someone else said “Hi Eddy!” he couldn’t take it anymore. “My name is not Eddy,” he snapped. The person smiled back saying, “You’re so funny, Eddy.”

Bobby found his room. He began unpacking his suitcase. There was a knock on the door. When he opened it, there was a guy around his age. While Bobby was waiting for him to say something, the guy’s eyes widened. He was speechless for a while. Then he asked, “Were you born on July 12?” When Bobby said “Yes”, the guy said, “Are you adopted?” Bobby said “Yes” again, and the student said, “You won’t believe this but you have a twin. His name is Eddy. I’m Eddy’s best friend. You look a lot like him. But I knew you were not Eddy,” he said. This is how Bobby found out that he had a twin named Eddy, whom he knew nothing about until then.

I’m Lucy. I go to a very prestigious high school that is really hard to get into. The tuition there is really expensive, too. People often say “You need to be both smart and rich to be admitted into this high school.’’ Each year the school gives scholarships to 50 students. These students are picked based on their academic or athletic achievements. I’m on the swimming team but unfortunately I don’t have a scholarship. My dad pays a small fortune to the school. My best friends Jasmine and Emily are also on my team. Swimming requires discipline.  We need to train regularly. And so we spend most of our days together.  As if that weren’t enough, we also love having slumber parties whenever we can. Emily doesn’t have her own room, so we have them at either my place or Jasmine’s. By the way, Emily gets financial aid. Unfortunately, her family is not doing so well. Of course, this doesn’t stop us from being good friends. But I can feel that Emily is not too happy about not being able to host a party at her house.