The Lost Alpha Daughter

Chapter 1 - Anson Morris

“BYE STEPH,” I yell, throwing my bookbag over my shoulder. I look over at the clock and roll my eyes. I’m late, per usual. Okay, it’s 7:20 now, class starts at 7:30. I can probably cut the drive to school down to eight minutes, and if I skip a trip to my locker, I can probably be in class by 7:35. That’s not so bad.

“Hey! You forgetting something?” I turn around to see Steph holding my lunchbox and an apple. I snag both from her and give her a quick peck on the cheek.

“What would I EVER do without you?” I ask her.

“You’d probably be taking a nap on a park bench somewhere,” she retorts at me. I gasp with feigned offense as I grab my keys off the hook by the door and run out. I shove the apple in my mouth as I open my car door, clambering in.

Stephanie and David ended up adopting me officially when I was about fifteen. They couldn’t have kids of their own, so they’d applied for a fostering license thinking they’d foster to adopt a baby someday. They never did, but they did decide to take me in after they found me. My memory never did come back, and no missing child reports matching me ever came up, so I ending up sticking around for quite a while.

I picked an arbitrary birthday, November 21st. It’s the day the Twilight movie came out, and cut me some slack, I was 12. But for my birthday that year, I said the only thing I wanted was to be adopted. I think Steph just about passed out from crying so much. I think they’d always hoped that’s what I wanted, but since I was so much older, they didn’t want to pressure me. Living with David and Steph has been great. They love me like they’ve known me their whole life.

Do I wonder what my old life was like? Sure, sometimes. But if it is anything like my social worker and therapist think, then I’m not missing much. My therapist tells me that if I had memories that my subconscious mind or whatever wanted to remember, it would’ve happened. I’m not sure if I really believe it works like that, but as far as I’m concerned, my life is perfect, I don’t need to worry myself over a life that might have sucked.

Besides, I’m 18 now. It has been six years since Steph found me on that park bench. I’m a senior in high school, getting ready to go to college. The whole ordeal feels like a distant memory. I care much more about my Common Application essay.

I toss my apple core into the trash as I walk into the classroom. 7:36, pretty good estimate by me, I give myself a mental pat on the back. I give Mr. Dawson and his death glare a little two finger salute as I walk in. I know he wants to be mad at me, but I have some of the best marks in the class, so I guess he doesn’t feel like it’s worth the effort.

Everyone is journaling when I sit down, so I grab my notebook from my bag. I date the top, and continue writing my reflection from yesterday. All of our teachers are very focused right now on us “thinking about our future,” so that’s what the prompt for this week is. Career day is this afternoon for all of the seniors. A bunch of companies from local industries are going to be tabling to help “give us direction,” whatever that’s supposed to mean.

The rest of the morning rolls by pretty normally. When the bell rings for lunch, I am thrilled. My friends and I never eat lunch in the cafeteria anymore. Everyone avoids cafeteria food like the plague when possible, so instead we sit in the gallery, it’s basically just a weirdly large hallway area where students like to congregate.

When I get there my friends are already there waiting for me. Andrea and Layla are already in a quite heated debate about something. Jace, Zach, and Tyler are staring at them with eyes that are definitely very glazed over.

“NK!” Andrea calls, seeing me walking over. “We need your opinion on something.” I did keep the name; NK just feels right. My full legal name is now NK Burrows, since I took Steph and David’s last name. No, I did not write “not known” on my legal documents. I’m not that committed to the joke.

“Okay, hit me,” I say. Those two never agree on anything, and the boys are too afraid to take one side or the other, so I’m generally the tie breaking vote on whatever the point of contention is. I think over in my head what it could be this time, could be anything from lip gloss to the Cold War. You never know with them.

“Is it inappropriate to flirt with one of the business people at this career fair today?” Andrea asks.

“OF COURSE, it is!” Layla chimes in quite emphatically. Andrea whips her head around and glares at Layla.

“I don’t see why! I’m 18, they’re all 18 obviously, it’s perfectly legal. And finding a suitable husband is definitely thinking about my future,” she giggles at that last part. “Anyone who’s tabling today obviously has a stable job, it’s really quite pragmatic if you ask me,” she tacks on. The boys look quite horrified, so I take my opportunity to torture them a bit. I throw on a sly grin as I turn my attention on them.

“What do you guys think? Would it be inappropriate for us to get some action with some hot CEOs after school?” I see Jace shift, obviously uncomfortable with my line of questioning, so point for me. It’s Zach that pipes up though.

“You guys can do what you want, I sure do,” he says with a shrug and a grin. I see Layla fake gag out of the corner of my eye and laugh. Zach is a bit of a player, there’s no questioning that. He’s got the looks to back it though. He’s very muscular, absurdly tall, with incredible facial structure. As a matter of fact, all three of the guys are like that. I never have seen any of them in that way, but aside from the three of us, pretty much every other girl in the school practically drools over them. I got used to the bitchy stares I get from other girls when I walk down the hallway arm in arm with one of the guys. It doesn’t bother me too much, kind of funny honestly.

“Maybe they’ll be some sexy business exec for you to work your magic on Zach, you’re running low on options with other students,” Tyler jabs. That earns him a swift punch in the arm, but the way he’s laughing I’m guessing he decided it was worth it. Jace shifts again, still obviously uncomfortable. Tyler’s had his fair share of girls too, a bit less casually than Zach, but he’s definitely not afraid of women. Jace on the other hand, for all of his killer looks, is completely disinterested in pretty much everyone. He’s always going on and on about waiting for the right girl. Whenever I ask him how he’ll know, he always gets really dreamy and just goes,

“Oh, I’ll know.” That usually gets him an exasperated sigh from Zach, complaining about how that could be ages away. The one thing is none of my friends ever question Jace’s view on soulmates. Even Zach seems to agree with him even, he just isn’t too patient for his. Andrea and Layla respect the hell out of Jace though, you can tell. I’m still a virgin too, not quite for the same reasons as Jace, it’s not that I’m against having s*x, it just doesn’t sit right with me. As much as not knowing who I was born as doesn’t affect my day-to-day life, I can’t seem to find it in me to give any part of myself to anyone. I don’t feel like I own too many parts of myself in the first place.

On top of that, my friends are pretty protective of me. They all know about my past, and I really do appreciate their concern. All the guys are very good at threatening pretty much any guy who makes a play for me. Andrea has also been known to stomp on a foot or two of a guy who catcalled me walking down the street. She has a lot of regard for my safety, apparently none for her own.

“Okay enough avoiding the question NK, what do you think,” Andrea pesters. Dang, almost thought I’d wiggled myself out of this one.

“I guess it’s fine. As long as they’re not like fifty of something. Gross,” I respond as I scrunch up my face, thinking of some old guy flirting with Andrea who smells like breath mints and moth balls. I open my lunchbox, grabbing my sandwich. That image didn’t exactly help promote my appetite though.

“Any idea who’s coming to this thing today anyway?” I ask the group. Layla chimes in right away. She’s the one in the group who keeps our heads on our shoulders.

“Yep, 30 companies from a bunch of different professions. There’s going to be doctors, lawyers, engineers, IT, business. Lot of trade options too for people who aren’t looking at college, blacksmithing, electricians, I think some recruiters from the military are even coming,” she pauses and glances over at the guys, “you guys should steer clear of that table, I’m sure they’ll be ogling you from across the room.”

“If they have that pull up bar though, you know I’ll be there,” Zach says. He makes a quick show of rolling up his sleeves to flash his biceps. It garnishes a large eye roll from Layla, but I notice a group of juniors gazing pretty longingly from across the room.

“Pfft I could so out rep you,” I challenge. Obviously, no I cannot. But the boy needs to be knocked down a peg.

“Do you even know who you’re talking to little miss ‘not known’?” Zach retorts. He actually seems kinda upset, like I questioned his authority. The others even seem a bit scared for me. He shakes it off quickly though, like he just realized what happened. I laugh though.

“Low blow, Reynolds. Jokes about memory loss aren’t funny,” I make sad eyes at him, like I’m actually hurt by what he said. It almost works, but Andrea has to ruin my fun.

“They absolutely are funny, and you know it,” she says, throwing a grape straight at my head. I catch it before it can hit me, and pop it in my mouth, sticking my tongue out at her.

This quickly turns into a game of seeing who can catch the most grapes in their mouths. When we run out of grapes, we turn to my pack of goldfish, and the rest of lunch goes on like that. We joke around for the rest of the thirty minutes, then we all stand up when the bell rings to head for the auditorium.

­­­             The six of us find a row around the middle of the room with enough seats for all of us to sit together. The whole senior class is in here, the principal is going to go over the logistics of the rest of the day. I actually am kind of looking forward to the career fair. It beats going to more classes.

Just then the auditorium is filled with the loud, horrible sound of microphone feedback as our technically challenged principal attempts to get the assembly started.

“Heyo guys and gals,” he starts, a little too enthusiastically. The sound practically bounces around inside my head. “Ope, sorry about that,” he says as he manages to speak at a much more reasonable volume.

He goes on to explain how they’ve set up the gymnasium with booths. Each section has a different industry so you can focus on companies in the areas that interest you. Seems pretty straight forward, and as we walk out, there are tables with sheets of paper with everyone who is present. I grab a sheet and start to read over the list. Nothing really stands out to me, I’m kind of leaning towards economics so I start looking for people who might know something about that. I hear whispering from my friends though and see them asking Zach about some name on the list.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Layla answers. “It’s just someone Zach knows well runs one of the companies that’s hear, we just wanted to see if he knew about it.” I shrug, makes sense. They’ve all known each other a lot longer than they’ve known me. I have pretty much accepted at this point there’s always going to be things they know about each other that I haven’t learned yet.

When I was enrolled in school after the incident, apparently it was not the one I was in before because no one knew who I was. My friends were really quick to take me under their wing though, like first day quick. They seemed to think we would get along, and it turns out they were right. I really appreciate what they did. They all live in the same part of town and basically grew up together. They really could’ve just let the weird new girl with no memory be alone, but they chose to treat me like I’d always been there. It helped me feel like I belonged when I didn’t even know who I was.

“Well, are they cool?” I prod. Even though I am okay with knowing I don’t know everything, I do try to learn more all the time. Hopefully one day I’ll catch up.

“Uh, yeah, they’re pretty cool. Huge local company. It’s been family owned for generations. It’s a private security company I guess you could call it,” Zach answers.

“I actually work there quite a lot when I’m home. I’m kind of taking over my dad’s responsibilities in the company slowly because he wants to retire after I finish school,” he adds. Dang, Zach has more of his life figured out than I thought. He acts like nothing matters to him, but I also know he’s got a good head on his shoulders. Any girl would be lucky to have him if he was capable of sticking to just one.

We walk down the hallway, discussing which booths we want to go to. We decide to travel in a pack in order to hopefully not be too nervous. We each pick a couple we want to see so everyone is able to see something they’re interested in. I’m not too worried about time, we have the entire second half of the day. I can’t imagine talking to any one person for too long. I’m not the best at small talk. People start asking complicated questions like, “what’s your name.” It’s really quite a bother.

We walk into the gym and the whole place is buzzing with conversations. I see all my friends’ eyes scanning the crowd, I’m assuming looking for Zach’s company.

“No flipping way. Zach why is he here, doesn’t he have better things to do?” Layla’s eyes are practically bulging out of her head. I crane my neck to see where they’re all looking. I’m the shortest in the group, so I’m practically jumping to see over everyone’s heads.

“Morris Industries? I’ve heard of that one I think, they’ve got that big glass building down town. I thought you guys said you knew they were coming, what’s the big deal?” I ask, trying to figure out what’s got them so bothered.

“Yeah, maybe like a run of the mill desk worker, not the god damn CEO,” Jace says, almost at a whisper. I look back over at the booth. There are two guys there, one looks about David’s age, the other is considerably younger. He’s older than us for sure, but still a young guy, maybe 24.

“Who’s the guy with him, he’s kinda cute, maybe that’s the action you were hoping for Andrea,” I joke, jabbing her in the ribs with my elbow. I’m trying to break the obvious tension that settled over my friends the moment we walked in here.

“I thought you said not old,” she says, tilting her head at me. Not old? That means the old guy is not the CEO. No way, that’s impossible.

“That young guy is the CEO? That doesn’t make any sense. He’s barely older than us,” I say, unable to hide the obvious incredulity in my voice.

“Yeah, well, like I said, it’s a family business. His dad handed over the spot to him as soon as he finished school. He’s still around for advice and stuff, but other than that, Anson is Alpha now,” he says matter-of-factly. That sentence got him some death glares from the rest of the group. Can’t say what for, odd choice of words sure, but I get his point.

“Well, that’s mad impressive,” I respond, completely honestly. I can’t imagine myself doing anything nearly that impressive at his age. I’ll probably be some pencil pusher sitting in a cubicle. Maybe at Morris Industries, I wouldn’t mind working at a place with a CEO who looks like that.

“Can you not stare, NK? He may look scrumptious, but you’re going to ruin my cred if he sees you,” Zach whines. I guess I have kinda been staring, as I watch this Anson Morris guy finish speaking with some other kid in our year. Zach’s use of the word scrumptious though kills me, and I can’t help but laugh.

No way he heard me, we’re all the way across the room, but at that moment Mr. CEO looks up and I can’t quite tell, but it looked like he was looking square at me. In a second, he’s out from behind the desk and striding our direction, looking like he’s on a mission. He doesn’t break his eye contact, but I figure he must be coming to talk to Zach.

“Uh oh Zach, did you mess something up in the office?” I try to tease, but honestly this guy is staring with such intensity Zach must really be in trouble.

“I don’t think so,” he states simply. He nudges Jace and Tyler and the three of them start walking over to meet him halfway. I’m kind of disappointed, it would have been fun to hear Zach get yelled at, and I want to see if Anson Morris is as yummy up close as he is from far away. I’m about to subtly follow behind the guys when Andrea pipes up.

“Let’s make a bathroom run while they’re chatting with the A-“ she stutters before saying “Anson.”

“You know they won’t wait for us when they come back, c’mon let’s go.” Both her and Layla grab my hands and practically start dragging me out. I look back over my shoulder to see what looks like a very pissed off Anson, my boys looking quite scared, and them seemingly attempting to hold him back. Geez, what did that kid do that has a grown CEO ready to fight in the middle of a high school gym.

I don’t really need to use the restroom, so I take the time to touch up my lip gloss while I wait. I can’t stop thinking about Anson though, why did he look so mad? No, when I think about it more, he wasn’t really mad. He definitely looked intense, but I don’t think he looked mad until I saw the guys talking to him as we were walking out.

“Okay let’s get back in there,” Layla says, interrupting my thoughts. I cap my gloss and follow them back into the gym. When we get there, the guys are waiting for us, but they aren’t alone.

“Hey guys, Anson wanted to say hi to the rest of the group before going back to his table,” Zach says, giving Anson a very pointed look as he says the last part.

“Anson you know Layla and Andrea,” Tyler pipes in. Both girls nod their heads, in a way that almost looks like a bow. I get it, I’m nervous too. This guy just oozes a commanding energy. And he is most definitely as yummy up close.

“And this, this is NK,” Tyler continues, introducing me. I mimic the girls’ movements. It doesn’t seem right to shake this guy’s hand.

“Hello, Mr. Morris. It’s very nice to meet you,” I add, my voice unexpectedly coming out smaller than I planned it to. This guy is captivating. His gaze both makes me want to back down, but at the same time there’s this pull begging me to get closer to him. Ultimately, I don’t do either, and I settle for staying right where I am, holding his intense gaze.

As I watch, I see his eyes seemingly visibly darken as he listens to me speak.

“Anson, call me Anson,” he says as he reaches out his hand. Well now I guess I have to shake his hand, and damn does his voice sound like butter. I go to take his hand, but Zach steps in between us.

“Well it was great to see you Anson, we’ll catch up later, okay? We really need to be getting around to the tables or we’ll get in trouble,” he says as gives Anson the most awkward side hug I have ever witnessed.

Anson looks pissed. I feel bad I didn’t shake his hand. I hope that doesn’t mean I can’t get a job there someday. The two guys wordlessly glare at each other, until Zach gives in and casts his eyes down. Anson glances back to me, and winks. Winks? Did he just wink at me? Why would he wink at me?

“I understand. I hope to see you all soon,” Anson replies, very coolly. He addresses all of us, but he looks directly at me as he says it. With that he turns on his heal and walks back to join the older gentleman at his table. I keep watching as he starts talking with a group of really pretty girls. I feel the need to go interrupt them, I don’t know why, and I’m pondering doing just that when Anson glances up and sees me staring. He smirks, and I could swear it looked like he chuckled at me.

Well, that’s embarrassing. Definitely never going to get that job.

We continue through the booths like we planned, hitting a couple in every section. Zach does indeed do his pull up test at the army booth, and sure enough, the three guys are having to keep refusing to write their emails on the roster. I barely notice any of it though. I keep thinking back to that encounter with Anson. Something about that guy really got to me, even his smell, like lilacs and fresh rain, was mesmerizing.

The career day ends, and despite my distraction, I have a few business cards in tow, and I had a few good conversations. I got everything accomplished I’d wanted to, so I feel pretty successful. I wave goodbye to my friends, and they rush off to Jace’s car. They all commute together. Another thing that makes me a bit sad, but I shrug it off.

I’m digging through my backpack for my damn keys when I hear the silkiest voice ever say, “Do you need help with something?”