Shielding Nothing

Growing up was not easy… that much.

I had my dad, only my dad.

My mom comes and visit often but then she leaves, I never really cared because it was a normal thing.

My parents were never married, ever. They were both… just there, for me.

But my dad contributed more time. The thing about my dad is that… well he was 18 when I was born.

My mom took care of me until I was about 5 or 6.

Then off to my dad we go, I lived with my dad since the age of 7 when I started calling him dad.

I was really curious about what he did and all, it wasn't till I was 10.

That time he was 27 years-old, that was when we went everywhere. I was home-schooled on a tour bus by one of my dad's friend who was… well super smart. He seriously was, he was also my dad's bandmate.

My dad is Ronnie Cliff, lead singer and guitarist of Legends. He was well, famous? I never understood it because I was stuck in a bus. No one even knew he has me as a daughter too. Not that my dad was ashamed of me or whatever, he just never talked about his personal life. I was one thing he didn't want to talk about plus my mom… and my grandparents who he didn't like.

It was just me and him along with his bandmates who I called my uncles. Life was actually great but out of the ordinary.

My parents gave me a lot of love… even if my dad was a rockstar and my mom was always somewhere, nothing really bothered me. My uncles always joked while touring that I was one easy kid.

I guess my parents were very grateful to have me, and honestly I was grateful to have my parents as well… my parents.

They weren't strict but responsible for me. They were great parents.

When I was 13 and my dad was 30, the press finally found out that Ronnie Cliff had a daughter… at first they were confused because I had my mother's last name but I did have my dad's younger sister's name as a middle name, Erica… and well Erica Cliff was famous too. She was well a socialite… married to one of the richest men in the world. My dad always called her a gold-digger but he wasn't serious. He was just jealous that Uncle John was rich and came from a rich family. Dad… well dad built his way up.

I loved my family…. but when I turned 18… I couldn't stand to live in their name. So I did what any famous 18 years-old daughter would do, I left… to a secluded college. My dad gave me my school support so I wouldn't have to do the student loan things but I had to earn my own money. I picked Normandy University… in Europe.

It was frightening and surprising that I even got in but I was happy. When I left that day, dad was in disguise and Aunt Erica and Uncle John greeted me off too.

Mom came at the last second to kiss me goodbye, Dad and I laughed because she had ink on her face. I hugged them all and left….

When I arrived I was shittin' scared. I didn't do much for the first year in college… hell I barely made any friends at all.

The girls were always drunk or high and the guys spent all their time either having sex or partying like no tomorrow.

Someone dying seemed like an everyday thing… that was how sad it was.

I had enough of Normandy and wanted to transfer to Coast University… I got in… and that's when I met Cristian.

At first I never really noticed but then I realized he was… I mean, I felt stupid a bit because he was really cute. He seemed like one of those male models coming out of a magazine. He always looked neat and clean, I never really smelled alcohol or smoke on him when I sat next to him sometimes… and not to mention he understood things.

He was smart, very smart. Some of the male teachers picked on him and he would always respond with dignity and well, the right answers. That's when I started talking to him.

"Professor Wright is really tough on you." I said to him. This was after Calculus, we ended up being in the same English 101 class too.

He looked at me and flashed a smile. His teeth were beyond perfect.
"Yea. My brother took his class, let's just say Professor Wright is taking his sweet revenge on me." Cristian said. I smiled.

"I'm Cristian by the way." He introduced, we didn't go on name basis in Calculus.

"Jeanie." I said, he held out a hand and I was going to shake it but then he did a slick move, like taking back his hand and slid it over his hair.

I started laughing, well we both did… and then we both got a 5 page essay due by Professor Wright. That's when we started sitting next to each other in most of our other classes. We were both surprised that not only did we have most of our classes together… we had all.

It was basic classes though, since we were both Sophmores in college.

We started becoming closer, I hung out with him and his friends.

His guy friends were chill and really cool people. They always had something fun for us to do. One of them, Derrick knew every party on campus and he would always convince us to go. I would always drag my friends to come along too.

This was how our group became… well a group. We went to parties together, we studied together, we eat together. It was nice unlike Normandy University.

We had the most perverted jokes for college "adults."

The guys would always join in and we'd have a blast saying, "That's what she/he said."

I remember the guys sneaking into the girl's dorms, well Kira's and Francis' dorm room. Crista and I went to their room first and the guys came in.

We scared the guys when they were timidly walking into the dorm room. It was hilarious, we spent the whole night talking about life and what we wanted from it. We were that intimate as friends. The guys sometimes just spent time playing games on the TV of which Kira aka super gamer girl plays. From then on, everything was as I wanted… perfect.