"Oh my God, you are so strange!" exclaimed my best friend, Sam as I finished showing off my Jim Carrey impression.
"Thank you," I replied still in character. Then I stared cracking up right along with them. Pretty soon they stopped laughing and started looking at me weird "What? Do I got a booger?"
"N-n-no. It's just..." trailed off Jacquie pointing behind me.
"What?" I asked turning around. She was pointing to my poster of Brian Littrell of the Backstreet Boys.
"You looked EXACTLY like him when your were smiling," stated Sam
"Oh god not the you-and-Brian-are-so-alike-you-should-be-brother-and-sister speech," I said exasperated "Build a bridge and get over it already!"
"But you are! You two look alike, act alike, everything. You know it might be possible," commented Jacquie.
"You guys are forgetting one integral part, WE'RE NOT RELATED!" I exclaimed.
"Alex, Jacquie, Sam come on!" yelled my mother up the stairs. I quickly slipped on my deck shoes as my best friends and I trounced down the stairs. It was the day of my cousin Megan's graduation party. We climbed into our blue windstar mini van and off we went. I'm Alexandra McBride. The one and only daughter of Dale and Kit McBride. My cousin Meg was graduating from High school and her parents were throwing a huge party. Now when I say huge, I mean huge. Every cousin, aunt and uncle was coming out of the woodwork for it. They held it at McArthur Park in good old Dublin, Atlanta. Dad always said Dublin was a little bit of the old country in the new world. My father is the most amazing man. He has light brown hair and blue eyes. He's about 6 feet tall and he's a firefighter so you can guess how he's built. My father is the most compassionate and caring man in the world and he can never ever say no. He's not old; he still acts like a giant child. He has what my mother calls the 'Peter Pan Syndrome.'
My mom is a former beauty queen and is now an art curator at a museum in Macon. She was actually Miss Georgia and competed in the Miss America pageant. She has beautiful long cornsilk blond hair. She has these really bright green eyes. They just sparkle every time she looks at you. She's also tall, about 5'9". She's a really great artist too. Some of her stuff is featured in the museum where she works.
Then there is me. Alexandra. I'm about 5'5" which I really don't get since both of my parents are tall. I have crystal blue eyes and silky blondish brown shoulder length hair. I kind of look like my dad except for my high cheekbones and defined chin which no one in my family has. Nature is just goofy I guess. I have an incredible sense of humor which keeps my best friends, Jacquie and Sam in stitches. I love to make them smile and laugh.
Speaking of my best friends, we all met in kindergarten. Actually Jacquie and Sam are sisters but we've been best friends ever since then. Sam is the resident Smurf. She's short and to the point as Jacquie says. Sam is really shy too which makes a lot people think she's coincided. She is the grounder of our group. She keeps Jacquie and I centered and focused.
Jacquie is the wild child. She's a bad ass....well she tries to be. JQ, as she's know to Sam and I, should be the prissiest. Her and Sam's parents own a successful department store chain in the Georgia area. But instead of being a proper southern belle, she is miss Rebel. Tattoos, piercing, hair dye, the whole bit. We are all so close which is why they get to go the party.
"Yo dork, come on, we're here," said Jacquie pushing me out of the van. I had on my favorite outfit, a sky blue sundress with spagetti straps. It had these cute little yellow flowers on it also. Blue is my absolute favorite color. Anyway my mom was dressed in blue jean shorts and black tank top and my dad had on khaki shorts and a forest green polo shirt. Jacquie had on a blue jean skirt and pink baby T-shirt while Sam had on a royal blue tank top with tear-away jogging pants. We walked over and sat down at one of the picnic tables next to my cousin, Megan.
"Hey Megs, congrats! How does it feel?" I asked. We all continued to talk throughout the day and hang out. Nothing really interesting happened except that my Uncle Frank ate sand when he went to save the volleyball and was a little late. It started getting late and family members were starting to head out.
"Alex, let's go," yelled my father.
"Daddy-Mom, me, JQ, and Sam are going to go over to Aunt Tina and Uncle Greg's hotel so we can see pictures of their horses," I yelled. My father wasn't a huge fan of horses. When he was younger he got thrown off one and that was it for him.
"OK, well then I'm going to go home. Don't stay out too late, OK," he yelled back. I nodded and waved. I was talking with Megs, Jacquie, and Sam some more when we heard the screeching of tires and the crunching of metal.
"Doctor, how is he?" asked my mother. The accident had involved my father and a very drunk citizen of Dublin. My dad was immediately rushed to Dublin Memorial and that's where we sat now waiting for word on his condition.
"He lost a lot of blood, Mrs. McBride. I'm afraid he'll need a transfusion," stated the short Asian woman.
"What does that mean?" asked my mother.
"I need to give some of my blood," I said my hand holding my mother's.
"Why you?" she questioned.
"Alexandra would probably have the best compatibility since girls usually take after their father as far as blood types," informed Dr. Wu.
"No," said my mother plainly.
"What do you mean 'no?'" I asked confused "Mom, this can save dad's life!"
"Mrs McBride, your husband is in desperate need of O blood. Your daughter-"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," I said stopping the doc "My dad can't have O blood."
"Why not?" asked Dr. Wu as my mother turned and sat back down in her chair.
"I'm AB. It's impossible for my dad to have O," I replied matter-of-factly.
"I'm sorry, miss but your father is O negative," she said flipping through my father's chart.
Then it hit me. If I'm AB and my dad is O then I couldn't possibly be my father's daughter which meant.....
"I'm adopted?" I asked stunned. My mother just sat their crying and not saying a word.
"I'm adopted?" I questioned again louder this time looking at my mother.
"Honey, I-" I didn't even wait to hear what she had to say. I ran and kept running straight out of the hospital.
"Thanks for picking me up, J," I said sitting in the passenger seat of JQ's car with Sam in the backseat.
"So why am I picking you up anyways. I mean after we got the ride home from your aunt I thought we wouldn't hear from you for at least a day with what happened with your dad and all," said Jacquie.
"My dad! That's a laugh," I replied.
"Did we miss something?" asked Sam scooting forward in her seat.
"I'm adopted," I said the tears starting to form in my eyes.
"What?" they both exclaimed.
"I just found out that my Dad has O blood. There is no scientifically possible way that I can have AB blood if my father has O," I stated bitterly.
"I can't believe this is happening," said a shocked Jacquie.
"Hey do you guys mind if I crash at your house. I don't wanna deal with this all right now. I mean between finding out I'm adopted and my supposed father in the hospital, I'm kind of tired."
"Sure, no problem," replied Sam patting my shoulder.
So that brings me to where we started. I was crying on Jacquie's bed. They had decided to be really good friends and leave me alone for awhile. I kept wondering why my parents didn't tell me sooner and if they were ever going to tell me. Then I started wondering who my real mom and dad were. I fell into a dreamless and fitful sleep that night.
I awoke the next morning hoping that last night had been one horrible dream but as I came to in Jacquie and Sam's room I realized that it was all real. I decided that I need to talk to my "mother" and find out what exactly was going on. I walked into my house to find my mother on the couch, eyes red rimmed and blood shot.
"Alex sweetie, we need to talk," she stated getting up.
"You bet your ass we need to talk," I replied.
"That is no way to talk to your mother," she stated.
"Well I don't have to worry since you're not her," I shot back as the tears came down.
"I am your mother," she replied.
"In every way but the most important. I've been lied to for the past 19 years. How can I trust anything you say?"
"You're right, your father and I should have told you sooner but we didn't know how. I'm sorry for that."
"Yeah well it's a little late for that. Look I'm here to pick up some of my stuff and find of what happened. I want the whole story and I want it now," I said forcefully.
"Fine, sit," she commanded "Your father and I met in Kentucky where we both were going to school. We got married and tried for a baby a couple years later. When I couldn't get pregnant, we went to the doctor and he told me that I had a problem with the lining of my uterus. We would never be able to have children so we looked into adoption. We went to this agency and they set us up with you." She paused while I took in the story. There was no reason for her to lie anymore so I believed her. Besides she was the only person who could give me some sort of picture of my real family.
"Why did my real parents give me up?" I asked softly.
"I really don't know but the lady that handled our case said that your family was going through some hard times and couldn't afford another child. They wanted to make sure that you had the best," she stated comfortingly.
"What were they like?" I asked wiping the tears off my cheeks.
"We did keep in contact through letters but I never got to meet them," she replied.
"Why didn't you just tell me that from the beginning? Why did you hide it from me?" I questioned kind of feeling bad for acting like such a bitch.
"I don't know. Maybe I thought you'd react like this. I know I messed up but please don't punish us for that. We still love you and will be here for you no matter what. You may not be my daughter by blood but I couldn't love any other child more than I love you," she stated crying.
"I'm sorry, mom. I was just so angry that you lied to me. From now on total honesty, I don't care how blunt," I said crying also.
"You got it," she replied hugging me.
"Mom, I wanna find my real parents." She sighed.
"I figured you would. I'll help in whatever way I can."
"Thanks but I think I wanna do this on my own. I just wanted you to know since we are going to be completely honest with each other."
"That's fine, honey. I understand. You wanna go visit your father now?" she asked hopefully.
"Yeah," I replied "Yeah, I do."
I forgave my parents for what they did. I guess they only had my best interest in mind. I still hadn't moved back into their house yet. I don't know, I guess moving back would admit some sort of defeat as far as finding my real family goes. I wanted to find them on my own. I need to find them and get them back before I could start rebuilding my other family. Jacquie and Sam agreed to help me. They were dolls while I was a complete mess. I must have looked into a thousand adoption agencies in Kentucky.
"Here's another one," said Jacquie when we were at the library one Saturday afternoon."
"Heavenly Angels," I read aloud "555-6371"
"Hey look it's in Lexington," replied Sam
"and..." I said not following.
"Brian is from Lexington," she said as I rolled my eyes.
"Will you ever get over that?" I asked as we left with our list of agencies.
"Probably not," she replied.