I had just finished the first four Harry Potter books for about the fifth time in my life. It was one of the book series I was able to handle multiple times without ever getting tired of them. My love for them seemed to grow each time I read them. My mother had once owned one of the first copies ever printed, and she always had at least one of the books on her, if not physically than within reaching distance. With the couple of hours I had been stuck in the 'storage' room, I had been able to read at least the thickest book I was able to find. My brain allowed me to read about eight hundred words per minute, so it went by fairly quickly. I wasn't like that my whole life of course. The more I read, the faster I got, and I honestly had nothing better to do with my wife. The small bookshelf, from where the book sat, was filled with books reaching from small, childish books to one thousand page novels. Although, I was bored with reading at that point in my day.

"You may come down for dinner," I heard Joe utter from behind the door mid evening.

I got up from the bed with ease and peeked out the door, looking down at a big pair of shoe covered feet then up at a tall, angry man. Joe stood inches away from the door with no facial expression, but his eyes spoke with fury. Daisy was perched next to him watching me also, no growls or slobber included. As I walked down the hallway and stairs, the presence of Joe and Daisy walking close behind me was known. His hot breath almost sat upon my neck.

We finally got down to the dining room where Elizabeth, Michael and Luna were already seated next to the Christmas tree they put up hours before. Nervously, I sat next to Luna. She did her creepy little side eye and picked up her fork, so I moved my arm away from her. Joe attached Daisy's collar to a chain in the corner of the room next to two empty dishes that sat on the other side of me. We grabbed each other's hands. Both Joe and Luna had an intense grip on mine, making them red and veins to pop out from the top. The past few nights this family had prayed. It was pleasant, but new to me at the time. The tradition never ran through my family, but it was nice enough to start. Although, their prayers were rather strange as they prayed for things they wanted instead of appreciating what they already had. They thanked the lords for giving them my presence.

Luna would always squeeze my hand when my name was mentioned. Her hands were stone cold and she shook more as the days ran by. The meal that evening was pleasant meatloaf, cooked thoroughly, and some green slime from a can. Luna seemed to poke at her food, looking down blankly than eating it.

"Children," Liz spoke as she looked at her husband. "We have an announcement."

Michael and I looked up as Luna's eyes state on her plate in a trance thought. Liz spoke quickly but calmly.

"Sarah, Luna, we were recently informed today that you two are siblings."

My eyes widened and Luna's attention was now caught and she was staring straight at her mother. Her fork was nicely placed down and looked back at her plate, rubbed up and down her arms.

"Really?" Michael asked. "That's weird but cool. I thought they looked similar."

He was the happiest kid I knew but spoke with no enthusiasm that day. He seemed drained out like the rest of us.

Joe placed his cutlery down and folded his hands in front of him. "We got a call from Mrs. Dona because something didn't look right to her. She said that she was going through old files. She found a file from Luna's earlier life, compared, and said that she came from the same family as Sarah."

"Luna," Liz said calmly. "We know you talk. There is no need to hide it now."

"Can I be excused?" was all she asked.

There was a slight sigh that came from Liz. "Yes sweetie, you can. Come tell us what you know when you're ready. We must know. Dona didn't go into full details when we were fostering you, but she definitely left something out."

"Did you know about any of this?" the father asked me sternly.

I shook my head as a negative response. I couldn't take this anymore. I had to say something. Why didn't I remember her? I pointed to Luna getting up to leave and Liz nodded her head, which allowed me to get up as well. As Luna pushed her chair in, she looked to me with sadness in her eyes and looked back down like she had something to hide.

"Well before you get caught up on everything, eat!" Joe yelled suddenly.

"I'm not hungry father, thank you though," Luna coughed.

"Fine then, go away," Joe said, picking up her plate before he walked over to Daisy's empty bowl.

I followed behind Luna up to the long hallway where the air felt colder. I hugged my arms and watched Luna as she walked in front of me and said nothing. The sound of Joe scraping our plates into Daisy's food dish could be heard up the stairs and down the hall. I made sure I kept my distance between myself and Luna just in case she had another small, sharp object on her. We stopped by a large, brown door moments later, in which she opened with a loud squeak. She walked in but noticed I hadn't followed along. I stood next to the door frame, my arms still crossed.

"You are allowed to come in." She looked back at me slightly before a place on her bed was taken by her rear end.

Luna's room was just like her, more on the girly spectrum. The walls were painted baby blue with pink rims. A white lamp was placed beside the bed, and a fuzzy, white rug laid in the center of the room. A small, similar bookshelf sat next to a large, open window on the far left side of the room. The bedsheets were pink, printed with a floral design. It was the typical dream bedroom of any preteen girl. My face scrunched with disgust.

"What's wrong with you?"

"Bright. Girly." I spoke shortly after a mere minute.

Her eyes lit with shock, either taken as an insult or surprised that I spoke. "It's not that bad. Please sit." She waited until I sat in the fluffy hair before she spoke again.

"You have an accent," she started. "France, right?" I gave her a slight nod. "Why don't I have an accent?"

I raised an eyebrow towards her. "Y-you're not born with an accent, silly." I coughed to clear my throat after so long. "An accent is picked up over time from listening to the people who surround you. Like if you were to go to Texas for a while, you may pick up on the way they speak. It's like you go to a new country and learn a new language."

My eyes darted across the room to a flickering lamp. Luna nodded her head with every sentence I said and followed my eyes to the light.

"I still have my accent since I haven't spoken in years," I coughed.

"Well you're in America now so you can put it to good use," she chuckled and looked down at her hands.

"Enough about me," I shook my head. "What about you?"

"So from the beginning. When two people love each other very much, they-"

"Slow down madame!" I cut her off. "I know all that. Start from where you remember. I want to know about you."

She folded her arms and legs on her bed, "My memories are a huge blur if I'm going to be honest. My first memory that I tend to replay in my mind is of a house that had more children than I ever got to know. Children ran happily, but all I remember is being small. Frightened."

Her eyes went dark. A strand of long, brown hair fell between her eyes as she looked down at her hands.

"I remember being moved around a lot and never getting along with people."

I reached up and grabbed my throat where the knife once was. "I can tell," I said quietly. Her eyes scrunched down at me and a frown was pulsed.

"Even if I did want to make friends, I couldn't, just no time. I was told, when I was old enough to understand, that I was in a foster care system. I got switched around and placed into a group home because of how I was acting towards people. I was a troubled kid. I don't know why I acted in such a manner that I did. I just knew I hated people."

Luna drew quiet again. With much hesitation, I moved to a kneeling position in front of her and collapsed my hands into hers. Her breathing was drawn back and her eyes opened wider. Slowly she squeezed my hands as she spoke again.

"I was nine when I got sent to Saint Green Bears. That Dona lady, the caretaker, made me feel more comfortable. I was getting more schooling from her. A few months later I met this family. I was fostered by them for about sixteen months. They tried to reach out to my biological family, but heard nothing, so they adopted me and changed my last name. I mean what's the point of keeping a name to a family I didn't even know. I continued school in books on my own time." She sighed and released my hands. "Sorry if I'm ranting off."

"Non non!(No no!)" I shouted that made her jump. My mind searched through the English vocabulary to find the right words to say. "Sorry." I rubbed the back of my neck. "I want you to talk. I want to know you and what we're missing."

She shrugged at my comment. "There's not much else to know. That's my life really. There's no friends besides one. His name is Ashton, my boyfriend. I met him at the store when I was eleven. He gave me his number, so I called, we hung out a few times and bam. Now here we are."

"Wow, that was fast! You're so young."

"Trust me I had no idea what I was doing. He's only a year older, but he knows how to respect me. We're going on three years strong."

"I'm happy for you! You'll find other friends too, eventually."

"With working all day and teaching myself school at night, there's never really any time."

"Wait until the summer. I'll make sure you get out and explore."

Luna gave me a shy smile behind her hair and looked straight at certain parts of my face. She shook her head before it all seemed a bit too weird. "Sorry, I was trying to find our similarities. I noticed you have the same eyes as me when I first met you, but I didn't think anything of it."

"Fraternal twins. Not identical. Similarities, I can see. Same shape. Same height. Same face form." I knew my grammatical statements were incorrect, but I purposely maintained short and simple responses. Though, the air did grow silent once again because of it."

"I wish I knew my parents." Luna said, tucking hair behind her ear. "My surname is Maxwell, before it changed, but I didn't know where I came from. I never got told who my parents are or why I was in foster care."

My right hand made a swift movement, tossed a chunk of hair over my shoulder, and landed back on my chest. "I would want to speak with Dona and look at the files myself before I declare you as my official sibling."

She nodded in agreement as her eyes started to go red. "I can't believe they didn't want me," she said in sorrow as a tear trickled down her soft, blushed cheek.

"Don't say that!" I jerked up and took a place next to her on the bed. "Don't think like that! There must be a reason for this and for the caregivers to not tell you....us."

More silence filled the room. Daisy barked downstairs and Michael chatted to himself as he walked past the doorway. The footsteps stopped just outside the doorway. Right after knocking, Michael swung open the door.

"Let's go play outside, sisters!" he shouted.

"Get out of my room!" Luna yelled.

We got up to close the door, but it was too late. The ball slipped through his long, silky fingers, flying at high speed through the air. The rubber material of the red ball impaled with the skin on my face, causing me to fumble backwards. My feet tripped over the leg of the chair. I fell down, down to the ground, smacking my skull off of the floor. Slowly everything went fuzzy and black. Luna shouting at Michael got quieter. It felt like only seconds before my eyes were opening and Luna's face was coming in clear.

"Sarah! Oh my, are you alright?" a worried Luna shouted slightly. "You were passed out for a few minutes."

I grunted low and sat up straight. I grabbed the back of my head as the room grew dizzy. "What happened?"

"The idiot threw a ball at you. I locked him out of the room."

I looked at the door that was once again shut but locked. No footsteps, sounds or shadows appeared under the doorframe. "Where were we?"

"Are you sure you're okay?" Luna asked again, helping me onto the bed.

"I'm alright, thank you. He is just your typical childish teenager. I've experienced worse. Now what were we talking about?" I tried so desperately to get off of the current subject.

"Family," she paused. "Can you tell me about them? Our-your family."

"Our mother's name was Susan. Our father was Charlie. They were very supportive, but I feel as if they pushed me too much with school. I was always ahead, but instead of letting me stay in my grade, they pushed me to do more, so I'm not bored."

"Did you like it?" Luna asked, twirling her hair in between her thumb and index finger.

"It was alright," I shrugged. "I was signed as a 'genius' to most, but I think of myself as normal. I never too made any friends except for Nathan."

"Nathan?" she questioned as if there was hope in her voice.

"My brother. Three years older but my best friend aside from Dona. We grew up and did everything together. However, I haven't been able to see him for a few months because he's with a foster family."

"A few months? That's a good amount of time."

"You're correct. I was there when they met for the first time, and they seemed like such sweet people. I want him to get adopted, but I want to see him. I miss him already. I want him to get adopted mostly though. We have been through so much, and I know how hard it is for a teenager to get as far as adoption."

Luna grabbed my shoulder with her cold hand. "I'm sure you can see him again soon."

"I know, it usually always happens."

There was a long, awkward pause between us, too awkward in terms that we just shared our whole life stories. Downstairs was quiet. The hallway was filled with loud banging from Michael dropping the rubber ball on the wooden tiles every few seconds. I got up from my place on the bedding and unlocked the door. Michael was outside, standing next to his bedroom door. He stopped and looked at me with the object firmly grasped in his hands. I kept staring at him, praying that he would leave. Slowly moving from Luna's room to my room at the other end of the hall, my feet shuffled quickly. I searched in my small sized duffle bag and pulled out two leather photo albums. The first was my personal one. Made in a thick black leather was woven with a golf trim around the edge. The second was a blue, leather material, thick to the touch. It had white letters imprinted on the front that spelled out 'Maxwell.' The rest was blank, but pictures of all different years filled the clear pages inside. Held close at the hip, peaked out the door and Michael was gone. Luna was seated on her bed the same way as I left her.

"What's that?" she asked as I plopped down next to her.

"Family albums. I filled the pages a few years ago, but haven't opened it since. I made this one for Nathan recently, but I haven't been able to give it to him. I always carry these on me, but I never had the guts to open them. I don't have the camera anymore, but I can make copies if you want any of these."

We sat for a few minutes looking through each page, laughing at times, silent at times. By the time we were done, I had a few slight tears down my cheeks. It was rare that I would cry, especially in front of people. As soon as I comprehended that the tears were there, Luna had me in a tight hug. Her arms were wrapped around my shoulders, and I leaned in closer, my head hugging her neck. Luna was thin, not sickly, but thin. Her skin grew cold against my average body and she shook more than I was, like she had been crying hard. A few tears turned into a waterfall as I cried into her shoulder. My sobs grew heavier and my grip around her tightened, feeling as if she needed the hug more than I did.