Prologue

Nazari

   My parents met when they were in high school. My dad, Johnson Blum, was an outcast because he was pretty eccentric and inside his own head a lot of the time... And he was purple, obviously. My mum, Nikki Ursine, was a wannabe popular kid, and loved getting her own way. That made my dad perfect for her, as he was easygoing enough to just go along with whatever she wanted.

   Once they'd graduated high school, they moved out right away and had my brother, Jordan. My mum insisted he take her surname, and of course, my dad never objected. Not too much later, they had me too.

   I don't remember much about my dad, I don't recall him ever being around. My parents bedroom had a balcony off it and his workbench was out there, he was always inventing silly contraptions. My mum would spend a lot of quality time with me and my brother, and write books when she had spare time.

  I wouldn't say the attention from my mother made life easy. I remember several serious housefires growing up. Infact, I would say the attention petered out before I hit age 4. My parents started arguing a lot, and my brother was at school or with friends. I never went to school because nobody noticed I wasn't there.

  I'm not 100% sure what happened, but about 6 months after I should have started school, my dad died. My mum said he had an accident on the workbench upstairs, but I hadn't seen him in what felt like weeks before that. I suppose that was nothing different to normal though. I guess because I never really knew him, I hold him on a pedastal... After his passing, my mum was extra-distant. She buried herself in her books and really never noticed I existed.

  I remember my brother Jordan hitting a rough patch mentally, and believing he was a robot. He'd walk around in a crap suit made of cardboard boxes, going 'beep boop' all the time. I remember it was super annoying, and my mum gave him all the attention and was always at hospital appointments with him. I think this was around the time I got into guitar, and then singing.

  Of course, mum did finally flip out on him a little when he got his girlfriend, Corinna Israel, pregnant at 15. By this time she'd started noticing I never went to school, mainly because the school had threatened legal action and to call social services. It never happened, of course. And by the time baby Marlon came along, she went all googoo eyed and Jordan and Corrina were saints and I didn't exist anymore.

  Maybe I craved the attention my perfect older brother and his little family had, and at 15, just 13 months after baby Marlon arrived, I found myself pregnant. Only, it didn't work as I'd planned...

  Me and mum only argued more. She said I 'should have known better' after my brothers mistakes. If I had gone to school I might not be so stupid. Whatever.

  It also hadn't gone as planned with my babydaddy, Ian Koch. Turns out if you go to school, you go to uni... He accused me of trying to trap him by getting myself pregnant... I didn't have a response because it was kinda true. I didn't even really like him all that much, he just happened to be one of the 'bad kids' who I hung out at the park after hours with, and although he was nearly 18, and much more mature than me normally, apparently men are suckers for a girl in a short skirt. Or, young men are, anyway.

  He was nice enough, at least, to take me to and from the hospital in his car when I had Geneva, though. I asked him if he'd like to stay the night, and he wouldn't even look me in the eyes.
  "Nazari, you know what happened last time we spent a night together. We've already discussed that what you did to me was wrong, and there's still all chance that she's not even mine. I have to go, sorry." There was an awkward pause. "Keep me updated, yeah?" He muttered as he legged it out the door.

   Unfortunately for me, my mother heard his comment about possibly not being the dad. I knew he was the father because I hadn't been with anyone else... but she wouldn't hear it.
  "I've had enough of you being totally disobedient, it was hard enough dealing with Jordan and Corrina, and then Corrina moving in, and Marlon coming. It's a two-damn-bedroom house, Nazari, where do you expect you and Geneva to go?"
  "I dunno Ma, we don't take up much ro-"
  "No, the amount of room a second teenage mother and a baby take up isn't the issue. You're the issue. I'm sorry to have to do this, but I've come to the end of my tether. I want you out, Nazari. You've been nothing but trouble for years and I'm getting too old to deal with it. You can stay a few months while you look for a place, you've been saving your wages from your job at the spa, haven't you? Sorry, but you need to grow up and the only way you'll do that is to live alone." And with that she stormed up the stairs and slammed the door.

  A feeling of fear and dread kinda grounded me from my newborn baby high... I slept on the sofa for a couple weeks, before enough was enough and I withdrew all my money, packed all mine and Geneva's things and got on the next bus to Starlight Shores, leaving crappy dead-end Sunset Valley behind.

  I rented a crappy trailer in a shady area of the City of Dreams, it wasn't much but it was a new beginning, and all I needed now was a job and me and Geneva would be fine. Sure, I can't read or write, but I've always wanted to sing and this is the City of Dreams! Anything could happen, but one things for sure... The only way is up!