First Time Around

I skipped swimming practice just to go to the library to research on Scarlett’s past. I’ve been interested ever since I met her and how strong she handled everything, made me curious.

It’s been a month and I’ve already risked one of my tries to one single stupid theory. And now I wanted to be serious because I want to get to know her more. I want her to run to me when she’s troubled or there’s something she remembered that she doesn’t want to remember.

The public library was said to be the best source of information there is around our town.

Though Mrs. Lopez was one of the librarians there, I just had to avoid her.

I took a list of the Turners that lived in this town for the past sixteen years. And I cannot believe what I had to do for this list. I bribed the head librarian—which is Mrs. Lopez—with money because she was asking more…physical.

Damn that lady; giving me the creeps all the time.

Paying fifty dollars for this list was also worth-it since there’s a picture provided for every name. This will be easier for me to narrow down the list. And among this list, I picked only a few:

Thomas Turner
Scarlett Turner
Raven Turner
Quinn Turner
Melissa Henderson-Turner
Pamela Johns-Turner

What caught my eye was the fact that some has the same green eyes of Scarlett or the wavy auburn hair. But what intrigued me most was the Raven girl that looks exactly like Scarlett, but with jet black hair.

I placed them all in an isolated table on the second floor and asked another librarian for newspapers and articles that was written about our town for the past sixteen years that involved the Turners.

And after two to three hours of researching, I only found these:

Thomas Turner, a famous musician of the band Dead Collision, filed annulment. Then two years later, Thomas took Scarlett and left for their hometown, England. Then the mother, Melissa Johns, took Raven.

Raven Ashley Turner is Scarlett’s twin sister. She died at the age of eleven from a disease after living under their mother.

Thomas and Scarlett went back here from England after two years of staying there.

That was it. That’s all I had after hours of research. The other Turners just appeared a year after Scarlett moved back here.

I felt really tired. Its five o’clock already and I need to go home in an hour.

“Interested in the Turners, huh?” a young man’s voice with a slight English accent said behind me. I turned around to see a guy that might have the same age as mine. I feel like I’ve seen him somewhere before. He must be a West High student too.

“Who’re you?” I asked.

He sat down across from me and looked through all the papers and books that was scattered on the table.

“That’s not important right now,” he said. “Some articles about the Turners aren’t correct, and to top it all off, this is not complete.”

“What do you mean?”

“That article about Raven dying because of a disease is false,” he said as he showed me the piece of paper that I was reading awhile ago. “She killed herself because of depression. The fact that she was separated from her beloved twin is not only the reason, but also the fact that she has been tortured by her alcoholic mother and her Arab step-dad."

I couldn’t believe what I just heard. There’s not a single thing about that in the articles or news reports that I just read. Then looking back at him I finally realized who he was. He was Quinn Turner, one of those Turners that I picked from the list because he looked exactly like Thomas Turner.

Without thinking, I said, “Can you tell me more?”

Quinn nodded. “Melissa and Thomas stupidly cheated on each other which caused their annulment when the twins were merely four years old. Melissa left to go to his Arab boyfriend and took Raven along with her, and Thomas stayed with the clueless Scarlett. Then one day, Pamela Henderson, told him out of nowhere that she has a four year old child, and that he was the—”

“That was you right?” I interrupted. “The son of Pamela and Thomas, I mean.”

“Yes, I was the outside son. Anyway, Thomas got scared and flew off to England with Scarlett to start a new life. She started to attend school there after a year, and my mother, scared for me because I’ll grow up without a dad, followed them and tagged me along. At the age of six, Scarlett moved back with her dad to the newly bought mansion. But that was also the time when he accepted me. He left Scarlett under his loyal employees to start living with us.”

“What about money?” I asked.

“I told you, our father loves her so much. He made sure that she has money. He even called for his attorney and divided his possessions into 80-20. The eighty was for Scarlett.”

“So, he never showed up to her?”

“He showed up twice a week. He always makes sure that he shows up to his little girl. But on her tenth birthday, he was going to visit and surprise her with a gift, but he died in a car accident. A drunk driver was driving in a wrong way. I’m even surprised that it wasn’t in those articles that you have.”

There was silence for awhile and I looked up to him again and asked, “Did you ever hate her?”

“Never,” he said softly. “I knew what she’s been through and our father was right to treat her like that. Even my mother thinks so as well. After her father died then her twin sister, it was surprising how she handled things strongly. I was happy that she didn’t do anything weird to herself.”

He helped me fix the mess I made on the table, and then made his way down to the librarian behind a desk to return the articles and lists.

“It’s nice meeting you, Neil. I’ve been watching you. And how you do your best to know about Scarlett’s past has been touching. No one has been really interested. They just go around and try to get her attention because she's outstandingly pretty."

I smiled and remembered how I first met her. “I just admired the way she kept her head up all the time,” I shrugged.

“I don’t think so,” he said as he gave the final stock of books. “There’s more than that. And I think you’re just so pre-occupied to notice that you are indeed in-love with my half-sister.”