My sister, brother and I all sat on the couch watching Nemo when Luna and Bailey started barking at what seemed to be someone closing a car door outside. I tried to look down past the balcony where we had been sitting, to see through the large dining room window downstairs. I couldn’t see much, all I saw was the leave falling from the trees, congregating into big piles in our front yard. That’s what we get for living in Wisconsin though, cold muggy weather as soon as it turns from September 30th to October 1st.  Izzie was startled by the loud cries from our weeping dogs at the door, and ran to join them to peak through the glass to see the figures walking up the driveway. I didn’t move. Neither did Ayden. Izzie was only seven so she still was nervous when our parents were not home and she heard a loud noise here and there. Ayden had grown out of this about two years ago, he was ten now. I on the other hand had grown out of this in much shorter amount of time than either of them did. As I stopped caring around the age of seven,and  now being seventeen I knew there was nothing to worry about. I yelled downstairs to Izzie who was still peaking her little head into the window at our front door, “You can come back up here Izzie! It’s just mom and dad getting home from work. You're about to miss Nemo touch the butt!” knowing this was the only way to get her to come running back up the stairs, three seconds later there she was sitting between Ayden and I. Thinking to myself, hoping she would grow out of this some time soon, I tried to be more sympathetic to her, knowing that Mom and Dad both had jobs where they didn’t necessarily always come home at the same time as they were supposed to. Mom and Dad had complicated jobs. Mom was a nurse, she worked with expecting mothers and their babies. Dad was a lawyer, he always makes sure to tell us about his cases, well the less private ones that he's allowed to share details about anyway. Luna and Bailey had calmed down, now they sat at the big clear glass window that sat in our dining room staring at what looked like Mom, talking to a stranger. But I couldn't make out the face of who she had been talking to. It was a newer face, one I had never seen before. He looked tall, had a slim face, and was a cleany dressed man. Wearing a suit and tie, carrying a briefcase. He almost looked like Dad, but more slim and had glasses. Dad always complains about his eyesight, it was always a mystery to me why he never considered getting a pair of glasses. I told Izzie and Ayden to keep watching the movie, I was going down to the kitchen to grab some water and fruit snacks for them. I walked down our wood stained stairs with a beige colored carpet, with minimal stains from food, beverages and our dogs over the   years. I crept into our dinning room where i was able to peer through the glass window. Trying to hide behind the dark maroon colored curtains that hung from the grey bar at the top of the window. I didn’t want mom to see me, but I was eager to find out who this new man was. They kept going on with their conversation, and as it went on it seemed to be getting more and more intense. The man started to raise his voice and his facial expressions went from a soft smile to an agitated face.  When mom and the man look like they are about to put an end to their conversations and part ways, dad pulled into the driveway.The man and mom had calmed down when they saw dad pull in. It didn’t seem like they knew each other, because they shook hands with a firm grasp, and exchanged polite subtle smiles, just like you would do if you had just met someone for the first time. Mom looked frazzled, like she didn’t know what to say or do. The man started to raise his voice again, this time raising his finger in the air and pointing it directly into our dining room window. I quickly hid myself behind the curtains, hoping that I was still hidden enough so they didn’t know I was eavesdropping.
Izzie started to become impatient, when I heard her yell down at me from our upstairs balcony,
“Kennedy! Where are my fruit snacks you promised me ten minutes ago!?” she exclaimed in an angry tone that was too familiar with me. I decided to go grab her fruit snacks and my water and go back upstairs to sit with them until Mom and Dad came inside. I hesitantly
walked away from the window into the kitchen, to find Izzie’s disney shaped fruit snacks. Luna followed me from the window into the kitchen, and from the kitchen back upstairs. Bailey sat at the door awaiting for our parents appearances. We heard the screen door crack open, followed by the front door. Mom and Dad walk through, with concerning smiles on their faces, that look like they could easily be turned into upset faces in an instance. Ayden and Izzie hadn’t seen what I did when I was looking out the window, so they didn’t think anything was wrong. They ran downstairs from the balcony to greet them at the door, hugging and hanging onto their legs as if they were five years old again. Before Dad could make it five feet into the house Izzie demands that he picks her up and lifts her to sit on his shoulders while Ayden grasps onto mom nagging to come finish watching Nemo with them. I follow them down the stairs, less excited to say the least. I couldn't exactly make out why they were both so happy, didn’t dad think it was strange? Some man wandering around the front of the house talking to Mom about who knows what. Mom told Izzie and Ayden that they could all sit down and finish Nemo together after her and our father go upstairs to talk really quick. Mom asked me to take Izzie and Ayden back upstairs to keep watching the movie, and so I did. Picking Izzie up by her waist and placing her over my shoulders, Ayden proceeded to come up next to me and take his small hand and place it softly into mine. The three of us sat on the couch and watched Nemo try to escape by rolling himself in the bag out the window, back into the ocean. I hear Mom and Dad in their room talking, but I figured I would wait to ask about the man until after dinner.
“Okay guys! Whos ready to watch some Nemo!” Mom shouted as she opened the large dark brown door which was the entrance between their room and the living room upstairs. Mom and Dad came to sit down next to Ayden and Izzie, while I sat across the room with Bailey snuggled up under my arm. Mom and Dad looked like they had something to say, but they hadn’t yet.
“Exciting news everyone! We have new neighbors that just moved in across the street from us. They have two kids and they will be joining us tomorrow night at seven for a dinner to give them a proper welcome into the neighborhood.” Mom told all three of us.
I pieced together that the man was probably the father and mom was just greeting him, and meeting for the first time. Which came as a relief to me. The thought of new neighbors excited me the most I think. There’s only little children my brother and sisters age in the neighborhood. All kids eleven or under, and I'm seventeen. I thought about asking how old the kids were, praying that hopefully one of them was my age, or at least wasn’t still playing with barbies or nerf guns.
“How old are they mom?” I asked quietly.
“They have a girl and a boy. I believe Christopher, their father, told me their daughter Brooke is your age Kennedy. I think she is seventeen. It sounded like she was going to be going to school at Greenwood with you Ken.” My mom replied with a big smile on her face, as she knew I was ecstatic on finally getting a kid, even better a girl, my age to move into our neighborhood. Mom went on explaining how she believes their son Mason was about twelve, so he was somewhere in the middle between Ayden and I.
As our friday night carried on, around 10:45 I decided that I was going to go to bed. I kissed mom and dad on the cheek, and carried my laptop, phone, and water down the stairs to my room. As I turned the corner Luna must have been having a race with herself or her tennis ball because before I could turn the corner successfully and make it into my room she ran into my legs and hit them like she had just hit a brick wall. She looked up and me and ran around me, while still trying to find her ball. While in the process of her careless running around she managed to knock my phone out of my hand, onto the floor. As I picked it up I saw a message from my boyfriend Zach,
“Hey Ken, have you seen this? Did you make a new instagram account? Why is your name Brooke and why did you color your hair dark brown?”
I was so confused by his several messages. I hadn’t been on my phone all night so I had no clue what he was even talking about. I slid my finger across my home screen hoping to unlock it, but I had forgotten that two days earlier I had put a lock combination on my screen. I was tired of my brother and sister going into my phone, taking dumb selfies or playing stupid games. 1, 1, 2, 9. I typed into my phone screen, as this was my password which resembled the day Zach and I started dating. It unlocked to my imessages and to my surprise four other of my friends had texted me. One from Jaime,
“Ken you colored your hair?? Without telling me! How could you.” It read. I looked down and saw the next thread from Kyle,
“Dude why did you make a new instagram but your bio says Brooke Reynolds.”
And two more texts from Amy and Ben who had asked the same things. I looked at all of their messages before decided to check instagram out to see what they were all frantically talking about. I opened up the app and a picture of Amy and Ben at a cute romantic dinner had popped up. They had been dating for two years now, and they were the ones who introduced Zach and I to each other. I slid their photo up and scrolled through my feed for a minute. I then decided to look at my new follower requests, and the name “Brooke Reynolds” popped up.
“ This must be the girl they were all talking about. But how can they confuse me with her?” I thought silently to myself. As I clicked on her username under “brooke.reynolds” several images popped up onto my screen. Something was different though. They weren’t just “normal” pictures. They were me!
“What the hell is this!?” I shouted out loud, forgetting that it was now 11:00 at night and everyone in my house was asleep.
A minute following this, my mother knocked on my door and asked if everything was alright. I replied and told her yes, that I was sorry for making so much noise and that I would see her in the morning. As I hear her footsteps walking away, I take a glance back down at my bright phone screen, alerting me that I only had 20% battery left. I thought for a brief moment about texting all of them back. I knew I couldn’t explain what the hell was going on, so I didn’t want to try and explain it to any of them, giving them any sort of false statements or answers. I wasn’t sure about anything that was going on, but I knew I had to figure it out, and figure it out fast. I plugged my phone in and decided to keep scrolling through Brookes account. Looking at every single picture one by one, by one, the fact that this girl looked identical to me was unreal. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Then I remembered that this was the girl that moved in across the street, and I had to have dinner with tomorrow. Deciding that I was probably over tired, I put my phone down on my nightstand, signaled Luna to hop onto my bed with me, and pulled the covers over my shoulders.
“Wake up Ken! Wake up! Wake up! Wake Up!” I heard as I woke up with Izzie jumping on my bed and Ayden screaming in my ear.
“When are you guys ever going to grow up.” I said angrily to them since they were interrupting my sleeping in time. After ten minutes of them waiting for me in my room, still yelling and jumping around, I finally pulled myself out of bed and got ready for the day. I wasn’t sure if we were doing anything today or not, except the dinner with the new family across the street. I suddenly remembered the thoughts and images I saw last night right before going to bed and decided I had to go talk to Zach. I ran down the stairs in our two story house, kissed my mom on the cheek, told her I would be right back and that I had to run to Zach's house for about an hour. Grabbing a still warm pancake sitting on the kitchen counter, I slipped my white converse on, grabbed my keys hanging up on our placeholder, and darted out the door. I texted Zach
promptly at 9:03 am to aware him that I was on my way over, and we needed to talk. Our families were close while Zach and I were growing up, so I was pretty close with his parents and his siblings. His mother came to the door, and invited me in. She offered me breakfast and told me that Zach was just finishing getting ready. Politely declining her invitation to eat breakfast, I told her I would just wait in the living room for him to come downstairs.
“Hey Ken, what the hell is going on? Who is that girl?” he said to quietly to me as he took a seat next to me on the cold black leathered couch. I explained to him that we had new neighbors that had just moved across the street from me and I think that Brooke girl is the girl who is living across from me. I told him I had no clue who she really was yet and that I was going to meet her tonight.
After talking to quite some time, I looked down at my phone and realized it was almost noon, and I had better start heading home so I could help my mother prepare for tonight's dinner. Before I left I promised him that I would call him later tonight or early in the morning to tell him what happened at dinner. As I walked out the door and proceeded to get into my car, I waved goodbye one more time and drove off to return home.
“Ken go upstairs into your fathers and my bathroom and wash up. The Reynolds are coming over a little earlier than seven.” My mom told me as I walked into our house, seeing that she was frantically trying to finish getting the food ready for dinner.
“What is “a little earlier than seven” to you mom? I asked back. Just as I finished getting my question out, mom walked halfway up the stairs to her bedroom and told me “5” they are coming over at 5, and its 4:15.” As I brushed my teeth and combed my hair, I decided I needed to change my outfit. I walked back downstairs and into my room. I looked into my closet that was full of blouses, skirts, and dresses. I choose to throw on a nice black skirt, black tights, a grey sweater and brown knee high boots. I pulled the sides of my hair back and left some down.
Put in my nice diamond earrings form Zach and a little bit of lipgloss and by the time I was done getting ready, the doorbell goes off. Luna and Bailey are startled by the sudden noise and decide to run up to the window on the front door and sit there until the people entered. Dad grabbed Lunas collar and threw it on her, and he picked Bailey up into his arms. Mom ran to the door, while fixing her hair and her opened the door to greet our new neighbors. They walked in, one by one, first their father, followed by their mother, followed by their son Nathan, and lastly Brooke. As my mother said hello and greeted each of them as they walked through, just as nathan walked by her into the house, my mother caught a glimpse of Brooke and gasped. She was identical to me. From the way her hair flowed even if it was pulled back like mine, to her eyes, her nose, her dark brown hair, her height -- it was all too similar. My father's jaw dropped, Izzie and Ayden when running down the stairs, looked at Brooke and asked why there was two Kennedy’s at the door. Everybody was in surprise, a complete utter shock. But what was even more weird was the fact that the rest of the Reynolds family did not have any shock to this at all. It was like they already knew about it, and had been hiding it for years. Brooke looked at her family and said
“Now is the time, we have to do it. Explain it all now Dad.” in a very serious tone.
My parents looked confused, but at the same time they looked like they knew what was happening. Almost like they were waiting for this day to come along. As Mr. Reynolds started talking, my mother cut in and begged him, “Please, please stop. We haven’t told her yet. It’s just not time yet. Please, let us.” Mr. Reynolds looked like he took this into consideration for a quick minute, because then he abruptly told my parents “No” and continued on with his conversation. He started talking in a very concerning, serious matter. We all decided to take this conversation into our living room, while Izzie and Ayden went upstairs to play in their playroom. I took a seat next to Brooke, who was sitting on our two person sofa by herself. Her father took a seat next to
her mother, and my parents did the same. My father shaking his head, put it into the palm of his hand and just looked down onto the wood floors. Mr. Reynolds started explaining how seventeen years ago, Brooke and I were born. He told me that they were my real family, and that I was adopted. We have always been looking for you, I can’t stress that enough. We decided to move into this house because we want the chance to become closer with you. We have tried to come in contact with your parents before, but they wanted nothing to do with us. My heart dropped. I didn’t know what to think. My thoughts were going a million different directions in my mind. I glanced over at my parents with a tear starting to roll down my face. I wanted to ask them if this was true, but I couldn’t get the words out. Mr. Reynolds looked at me and whispered softly, “Kennedy, I know we are new to you, but you're not new to us. We’ve tried to come in contact with you before. Seventeen years ago when you two were born, we had no idea we were carrying two children. My wife, your mother, only knew of Brooke. When you were born we weren’t sure we could take in two children at the time. We found your parents and they seemed desperate for a child of their own. They had been trying to hard to adopt a baby and we decided to give them the opportunity.When we had first met them at the hospital they were young, younger than us anyhow. They told us how they had dreams and hopes of being able to start a family and they had been trying for some time now, but things just wouldn't happen for them. When we found out years later that they had you, and your brother and sister we were puzzled. We thought they couldn’t have children, although we were happy they were able to start a family of their own, we wanted to see our baby girl too. We tried to come in contact with them when you were about the ages five to eight, but they refused. They didn’t think it was okay for such a young child to be exposed to this. They didn’t think you would understand. I’ve always looked for you Kennedy. When your family moved from your old neighborhood in New Haven, after your siblings were born we had no idea where to look. We kept looking and looking, but justrecently we found out that you lived in this neighborhood, so we thought you were old enough to finally find out the truth so we bought the house across the street. Hoping to grow closer to you, and forgive us. We are your real family Kennedy. Give us the chance to show you that.” Mr. Reynolds told me.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It was like a whole new world was being introduced to me, and I had been lied to for seventeen years. I couldn’t forgive my parents. They never even had the courage to tell me I was adopted. I had to decide whether or not to grow closer with these strangers who were my so called family, or stay with my family now who I had just found out, are supposed to be complete strangers to me.
I ran into my room after the long conversation with the Reynolds, or I guess my biological family I could say. I turned off my lights, grabbed the blankets that covered my bed, pulled them off so I could slip under them, and pulled them back on top of me. I screamed into my pillow, trying to ask why I had been lied to for so long and why this was happening to me. I cried for hours, trying to fall asleep, figuring maybe if I closed my eyes this would all just go away.
I woke up the next morning, on the couch with Izzie and Ayden sitting next to me watching their favorite movie, Nemo. I was confused at first since the last thing I could remember was running into my room and falling asleep. I asked Izzie  “Why are you guys watching this again? We just watched it yesterday.”
“We haven't watched this movie in forever Kennedy. You just fell asleep here with Ayden and I on the couch, I think you had a bad dream, you kept yelling “No this can’t be true” and “How could you lie to me” you seemed really sad. “Look they are trying to find him and bring him back home. Will you finish watching it with us?” Izzie replied back.