A Mistaken Identity

Hoping that my parents would be inside so that I could talk to the both of them, I went inside. Unfortunately, they weren’t there. Knowing that I had to talk to them, and knowing that I couldn’t go over to the Jonas house without running into Nick, I stayed to speak with my parents when they got back from wherever they were. They needed to know exactly what happened to Karleigh, no matter how much they had ignored her over the years.

As I waited my parents’ return, I hoped that Nick was going to be able to forgive me for what happened. He couldn’t hold a grudge forever; at some point, he’d have to forgive and forget. I knew though that it wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. Nick needed some to sort through all of this in order to be okay with what happened. While thinking about this, I heard a buzzing noise coming from my phone. “Now what?” I wondered, pulling it out.

Joe: Kimberleigh are you going be okay after everything that happened? You seemed a little shaken up.

K-Leigh: Of course I was shaken up by what happened when the names were revealed. You would be too if someone you cared about had an outburst like that. Just imagine what would happen if Betsy or Summer did something like that. I’m sure you wouldn’t be too thrilled. And, anyway, that definitely wasn’t how I had initially intended on revealing what happened to Karleigh.

Joe: How were you going to tell him?

K-Leigh: It doesn’t matter now.

Joe: Well, Nick definitely overreacted to everything that happened. Lizard, Panda, Kevin, and I came to that conclusion after both of you left. We’ll try talking to him. Maybe we can convince him to go back on what he said.

K-Leigh: Yeah, like that’s really going to work.

Joe: It may. We’ll just have to see.

After talking with Joe for awhile, I found that I had wasted just enough time. My parents had finally returned from wherever it was they were and were currently sitting in the dining room. I stormed in there and began yelling at them. “You two are the worst parents in the world. Not only do you not spend time with your daughter, but you don’t even notice when the other daughter has taken her place!” I screamed, trying to make them understand how I felt.

“Huh?” they asked.

I groaned. “I’m not Karleigh. I never was. If you happen to remember something that happened eighteen years ago—which I doubt—you’d know exactly who I am. But, since I know what kind of parents you are, namely bad ones, I’m pretty sure of the fact that there’s absolutely no way in hell that you’ll realize who I am. You won’t figure it out.”

“Kimberleigh?” my mother asked.

“Shocker,” I noted. My parents knowing my identity was definitely a shock. But, there was still one thing I needed to know. “You actually know who I am. But, why would you abandon me the way that you did? It wasn’t right. All I wanted was my family, and now even that’s impossible for me to achieve.” I then thought of Karleigh and what happened to her. My family had been completely decimated because of Allison and Zora. But, my parents were also partially to blame for what happened. If Karleigh and I were never separated, this never would have happened; Karleigh still be alive and I’d have my sister.

“Why?” my father asked.

I sighed. Now was the time for me to tell them what happened to their second daughter. And, they would just have to live with it. They were terrible parents and this was the result of that: one of their twin daughters was dead. “Because Karleigh’s dead!” I yelled at them angrily. “I found her body myself nine months ago. That was when I took my dead sister’s place in order to get to know my parents. And, what I found scared me; I found you two: the winner of the worst parents of the year award. You’re part of the reason she’s dead.”

“Us?” they asked.

“Well, duh!” I yelled.

“Why would you say that?”

“Because that’s exactly what you are!” I yelled at them angrily. “You two abandoned me when I was only two days-old, and I was forced to grow up in an orphanage, away from my twin.”

“It wasn’t our choice for that to happen,” my father argued. “When we were getting ready to take you and Karleigh home from the hospital, something happened which resulted in us losing you: we had a car accident and you were lost in the process. No one knew what became of you, and no one knew where to find you no matter how hard we looked.”

“That’s because you two are complete and utter idiots!” I yelled out in mortification. I turned to my mother. “Did you ever think to go to your older brother? Because that’s where I was. For my entire life, I was living at the orphanage that your brother ran!”

“Alabaster,” my mother said weakly.

“Alabaster?” my father asked.

“My brother,” Mom explained. “He left when I was eleven and I haven’t seen him since then. He and my parents never saw eye to eye about a lot of things that went on in his life. When he was fifteen, Alabaster left and I never knew what happened to him. Somehow, it seems as if Kimberleigh found him as a baby; he was caring for Kimberleigh all this time.”

“Yeah. And, despite the fact that I had no clue who he was while I was living there, Uncle Alabaster was more of a family to me than you two would ever be. You two may have brought me life, but you two will never be my family. And, because of what you did, I’m never staying here ever again. Uncle Alabaster, why even the Jonas family, has cared about me a far greater amount than you two ever would, or ever did. I’d rather stay with one of them than either of you. So, after Karleigh’s funeral, I’m out of here.” I could no longer stay here; I couldn’t live here with people that ignored me. So, I was getting out of here, for good.