"Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you, Happy birthday dear Lina, Happy birthday to you. Make a wish sweetheart". I look up and see my parents smiling at me just as my brother rushes to my side and almost knocks me of my chair. Just as I'm about to grab his hand, I wake up with tears in my eyes.
That was my 5th birthday and the last one I had with my family. Now almost 13 years later my memories of them are few and far between, fading every day. I was too young to remember my parents' names, my last name or even my address. So when I was found wandering next to the road all alone, I was taken into foster care and given a last name by the state. My family was never found and no one ever came looking for me, not to my knowledge anyway.
Now only two days before my 18th birthday I wake up in my own bed in a room I share with my younger sister. I was one of the lucky ones. I have an amazing foster family who adopted me when I was only 7 years old. I have 2 brothers and a sister, which feels kind of weird as I also had 2 brothers and a sister with my birth family only back then I was the youngest where now I am the oldest and I am very protective of my foster family. They mean the world to me and I don’t know what I would do without them.
Judy is 16 and loves anything to do with Fashion or Arts, she is quite tall for her age and one of the most beautiful girls I know, with her curly blond waist length hair, her delicate build and gorges blue eyes, she can take anyone's breath away.
Hunter is only four months younger than me, he is quite fit as he plays every sport our school has to offer, at 6'8 he is one of the tallest in our year. Just like Judy he is a looker with his dark brown hair and green eyes, with a 8 pack and a deep v, all the girls swoon over him. Even so he is one of the most respectful people I know and has never led on any girl he wasn't interested in himself. He has always been like that, he treats both me and Judy as precious porcelain dolls no matter the situation.
And then there is Mason, the rockstar of the family, he just turned 17 and has already been receiving scholarships for a few different music programs around the country. I am his most dedicated and loyal supporter. He is 6'3 and has blond hair and the same breathtakingly beautiful blue eyes as Judy. He spends all his time doing homework, practicing for a performance or is actually performing.
Mason will be performing at a high class country house almost two hours away on my birthday weekend and I am the lucky one who gets to take him. We will be going there tomorrow and only coming back on Sunday as they have requested that he play for multiple events over the three days. We are both excited as we have never been at anything like this before and have no idea what to expect. We bought a few new outfits for each of us just to make sure we don’t look under dressed and Judy was more than happy to style all the looks for us.
I Just finished packing my things before bed when my foster mom Jennifer came into my room. " We have decided to take you out for breakfast tomorrow, seeing as we won't get to be with you on your birthday and we still want to celebrate it before you go" she said as she came to sit on my bed. "Thanks Jen" I have never been able to call her mom even though that’s how I see her it's never really felt right. We talked a bit and went through all the weekend arrangements before finally going to bed.
The next morning we packed the van, making sure we have all the equipment and instruments needed as well as any backups just in case. Mason bag was ever bigger than mine and that’s saying a lot seeing as Judy insisted I have at least three outfits per day. "are you sure you didn't forget anything, I'm sure i still saw a corner in your room that had things in it."
Mason gave me a look that I knew all too well, he was about to give me quite the mouth full when Jen came up beside me "stop teasing your brother, you know he is already stressed out about this weekend. Are you sure you don’t need me or your Father to come with you for support Honey." Mason immediately pulled himself together "No mom, we will be just fine, Lina will manage anything that comes up, won't you Lina?" I smiled at him knowing she would only make him more stressed out. " Yes I can handle it, we will be just fine, you don’t need to worry Jen"
We all went to breakfast together and Jen and Frank gave me my birthday present. It was a beautiful dark green dress with a pair of silver heels. "I love it, thank you so much" Frank took my hand "you will look beautiful in that dress, I expect to receive a photo of you when you wear it this weekend." I lean in and hug him. I couldn’t ask for a better father. Judy gave me a stunning silver wolf pendant necklace, I have always been drawn to the woods and Judy knows how much I love my wolf drawings. I immediately put it on before giving her a hug. Hunter gave me a framed picture of the 6 of us. We took it at Mason's last performance. "Just to make sure you don’t miss us too much" Hunter said teasingly. "We will only be gone for three days, it's not like we're moving to a different country, are you sure you won't be the one who misses us too much." Hunter chuckled and gave me a light nudge before pulling me into a hug. He was so going to miss me. Mason said my gift was in his bag and I would only be getting it tomorrow which was perfectly fine with me.
We said our goodbyes and checked all our things again before heading to the country house for the weekend. The drive over went faster than expected. When I turned onto the road heading through the woods I had a really strange feeling of familiarity, like I have been here before. I made a mental note to ask Jen when we got back if there were any records of me being in this area or maybe they brought us out here camping when we were younger and I just didn’t remember the area, but something about this road made me feel strange.