It's Never Enough: Book 1 in the Never Series Read Online Free PDF Page A

picture kept playing through my mind. “I guess I was just thinking it might be kind of nice to all be a family again. You know, with a new little sibling.” Family —a word that had taunted me all my life.
     
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    When I was in the second grade, I had to write a paper on my family. This came about just three months after my mom had taken off. The bright lights of Vegas and the chance at winning it big were much more appealing to her than the mundane life of a housewife. All the kids in my class were so excited about the project and being able to write about something we all knew. If you couldn’t write about your family, what could you write about? Mrs. Gleeson made general statements about how there were all sorts of different families and that we needed to be respectful of each other. There had been a meeting with my teacher, the principal, and my father after my mom left. I was a “special case,” and they were supposed to keep an eye on me. When all the kids left to go to lunch, I stayed back and asked Mrs. Gleeson if I could write that my mom was still around in my story even though she was gone. She said yes, and that was the first time I realized how important it was for me to fit in.
    My dad was totally lost raising a young girl on his own. I don’t think love was his main factor in finding a woman to marry because I’m pretty sure his main goal was to find a nice woman that would be a nice parent for me. Unfortunately, he tried to do this over and over again. First came replacement mom number one and her twin eleven-year-old boys. She worked as a candle maker at a big factory and constantly came home smelling like floral or spices. Her boys were the worst. They constantly bullied me and tore up my stuffed animals. She only lasted a year.
    Next came replacement mom number two and her three kids—two girls and one boy. The boy was her golden child. Apparently, he was a miracle baby who wasn’t supposed to survive after he was born. She treated him like a king, and he totally abused his power. She’d make him whatever he wanted for dinner and make her daughters and me make our own food. She totally neglected everyone but him. Once my dad realized she wasn’t just neglecting him but also his kid, they got divorced.
    Then came replacement mom number three. She was a nurse—which made me feel comfortable since I was always afraid of getting hurt—and her son who was two years older than me. He was a piece of shit. Every chance he could, he’d punch me in the leg or monkey bite my arm. He loved to collect bags of insects and then show them to me. Ants, worms, beetles, he even came at me one day with a bag of some dead bees he’d found. His mother didn’t seem to care, and I soon found out why. Being a nurse, she had easy access to drugs, and soon it overtook her. Thankfully, my dad kicked her and her bug-collector son out as soon as he realized it.
    Finally, my dad brought home replacement mom number four. Janet. She came with Fiona. Fiona was so beautiful that I was totally intimidated by her. I was sixteen, and she was seventeen. Once she told me about the horrible marriages and stepsiblings she’d had to deal with, I just knew that we were going to bond. Janet and my dad seemed to be in sync also. We even started a tradition of family game nights on Fridays. We’d sit around eating pizza and playing card or board games until midnight. In the summer, we’d sit out on the covered porch, and in the winter we sat in front of the fireplace. It was picturesque. Janet was nice to me, and Fiona had become more like a sister to me than anyone else I’d ever met. We were all so happy. I finally felt like I was part of a family. A real actual family, and it made everything about me feel whole again.
    Sadly, that feeling didn’t last. Like lots of couples, my dad and Janet quickly grew apart. The odds weren’t in their favor from the start: fourth marriage for my dad and third for Janet. They probably