It was almost time to know what there was to know about colors. Even the shades of colors. And their multiple types of colors and their many different shades combined. I would know now why they exist in my hometown. Though in other towns it's just defined as just a color, with it having no meaning of an expression, a way of looking, or a way to sense or see the emotions of a person. So despite living in my hometown, Oakheart, colors were a big deal, along with people's twenty-first birthdays that are born in the late twenty-first century.

Though it is also a way we could also drink like everyone else, and be able to also date. It would seem strange to those not in Oakheart, to be able to start dating until twenty-one, but to me it was a normal thing to look forward to. But, what wasn't normal was to think that I had never been one of those people who had a nice, easy, drama-free, and non-stressful, loving life with their parents. Many people who knew my parents by a glance, have labeled them as being the problem and the center of attention wherever they go because of their failed marriage.

Considering to be the more looked at center of attention, I happened to be considered and labeled as a thing known as a fool's child. One who is born from Fool's lovers. Everyone who could see the colors of the glow of our hearts saw the shade nobody wants to see. People who can see the shades of colors have said when they are near each other their hearts glow in the color of a blushing peach which was a sign of fool's love. But was it wrong when my parents had dated and eventually got married, well yes and no. But everyone has a bet on wondering why and thinking; why did they get together in the first place?

But remember the shades of colors I mentioned, another part of being born in the late twenty-first century is being able to know your soulmate. My parents knew they were not each other's and not also born in the late twenty-first century to know who they belong to for their entire life and hence I being the fool's child and them having fool's love lead to a divorce. With that divorce came how my mom had to win her case on why she deserved full custody over me instead of my dad as he went on to remarry.

Which brings me back to the current afternoon of when I was getting ready for my dad's second wedding, as it happened to be just a day before my birthday, the birthday when I would be turning twenty-one. Like I never wanted to be a part of this day nor did I ever want to remember it or be forced upon being part of the bridal shower last minute. I didn't even want to believe that it was an actual day to exist. I had been sitting on an old wooden chair in a bridesmaids' bathrobe that didn't have my name but someone else's name embroidered on it. I was infront of a mirror seeing myself with makeup on for the first time. I was one who never wore makeup growing up as my mom had told me to act my age without looking older than I should be.

So for the first time wearing makeup, I could say it looked like a new me. "Mariah. Sit up, and stop slouching. This braid isn't going to stay upright with you slouching even with the number of bobby pins and hairspray won't help it either..even though we used so many cans.." since I could remember my mother has always wanted me to be the definition of perfect since she found out the ugly truth between her and my father. While having to be modest, and having good manners, was like the exact definition of having to be a princess without waiting to be crowned a Queen.

I still get the memories of getting made fun of so many times when any boys tried to talk to me and my mom watching in the car from afar. I was always found having to do a curtsy and listen and hear them laugh at me along with the other girls in the school. But only six people I had been friends with in my life weren't exactly like a friend would be. Four of them are related to me and one is the voice in my head. Though that is only five, the sixth was the only boy who lived through the same trauma I had been through but had to act like a Prince. Being both considered an outcast, we got along pretty well along with the voice in my head as if I hadn't started talking to myself, I wouldn't know how to talk to the boy I knew. Though at this moment everything was laying out along with going through the schedule of getting ready before the big moment of the day.

I fixed my posture to please my mother as I couldn't stop looking in the mirror and checking myself out. I knew I had to be nearly finished if she was braiding my hair. Okay, the makeup is done. I can check that off the list. Mother doing my braid, Well it is semi-done so I guess semi-check. I say in my head pushing away millions of rushing thoughts in progress. In the corner of my eyes, I could see Joliet, Mother's makeup assistant, walking in to gather her supplies. Thanks to my mother, my hair was nearly done. Everything seems to be going well and on schedule, everything is being on time and perfectly in order. No seconds or minutes late, everything was on time. Though if only time could speed up in the day I would be able to get through the tough thing, that being the wedding.

It seemed not even two years ago today they finalized their divorce and even how quickly last year he had proposed to his new lady who asked me to be her flower girl just today so she could walk down the aisle. Though this lady isn't on my radar to care for, it should be noted that not in millions of years will I ever call her mother or even stepmom. If I didn't have the guilty conscience to disappoint my father, I had to accept the last minute offer as a favor for him and his girl. I could just say now, that he kind of owes me big time for this, like very big even if this makes him happy then so be it but he still owes me.

After all, being the flower girl was not overall bad but I still didn't have the proper prep like everyone else in the wedding like attending rehearsals as I said I was last minute added. Though it may feel and seem like so much fun, it mainly felt like torture. It could have been more fun if it was for the right person who I chose to support. Even though I like to describe weddings as the most magical event in all our history, I wouldn't want to be in one with a couple who I didn't like together. As my expectations of this wedding weren't the magical feeling we all get when one attends. And that had changed into what was more of a horrible nightmare.

I couldn't get it out of my head that it would start a fight and end up with someone hurt or even killed. Though for this wedding, there wouldn't be a bloody fight but more of a food fight or cake smashing into someone's face, which is the same thing I imagined in my mind. Nevertheless, weddings and true love were things that were once considered myths, and myths I happened to always believe in when I was young. It was only called a myth because my mom once told me that's how she viewed how people fell in love in this town. She had also described soulmates as someone you met that you can't imagine where in the world you are but you will still remember them at first glance, alongside the whole glowing of hearts. But it had to be specifically maroon red to be considered a soulmate.

With my thoughts always seemed to view the bad things in life, I had always thought I would end up and experience what my parents had, and didn't have that special connection. As it wasn't much of a love story but one of those Grimm Fairy Tales mixed with a twisted ending with lots of fighting and yelling. With no happily ever after, no Prince Charming, no mermaids singing for their beloved, and many more of the myths my mother told were completely utterly false nonsense like folktales. As though I am not at the age of dating, I had to prepare mentally to either believe if there is someone for me and or think negatively of it and think of it like a myth like she said. As this was just one of the million rushing thoughts in my head. From my mother's myth to the town myth, which was about the heart glowing. Once your heart glows for the first time then you can see and sense others' emotions by their colors and shades. Sadly there is no color coded guide to let us know what people are feeling. All I know is that's how my father met his new wife Roslyn, the youngest girl he's been with and who is close in age to me by just two years older at age twenty-two. He is like most people in the town who go by the motto of Dr. Martens who says:

Discover the Colors,

find your Soulmate,

A wedding celebration awaits!

Which is happening currently for him and Roslyn. It still makes me sick inside if I ever call her my stepmom; this doesn't mean I will call upon her as it but if she wants to be called something else that doesn't make me sick inside then good for her but she will always be called Roslyn in my head. "LOGAN! LUCAS! Stop it! Don't make me come down there and separate you two!" Those two were my newly set of twin step-cousins and two out of the four who were soon to be related to me were my friends. My mother yelled in anger as she tightened my hair from one of the braids she just twisted together.

When she yelled there were two separate braids and some of my hair fell in front of my face. The extra hair was the bangs that I had ever since I was in high school. "You sure we can't just cut my bangs?" I asked, looking up at my mother. She looks over down there at the morons and not paying attention to me, as she caught them fighting over a swing bench. Some girls giggled at their actions as my mother groaned in anger and ignored my question about the cutting of the bangs. They were always the ones who caused others to get distracted since they loved being the center of attention just like Roslyn. By now they were at a point in their lives who were eager to date and or kiss but they were too young to get a smooched, also meaning to receive a kiss.

With Oakheart and their many aging rules, the strictest one of them all was set at twenty-one and that was the dating one. They would have to wait two years for one kiss from a lucky girl, as for me, being twenty, I just had twelve hours left. Though knowing them and how sneaky they are, they can just hide and break the rules and do it, that is until you've been caught by my mother's eagle eyed view.

As for their own mother, I only ever once met her, as sadly she died a few years ago and now they live with my father's soon-to-be brother-in-law, who is Roslyn's brother, and Logan and Lucas had to deal with having her as an aunt. I know they might like my father, but I highly doubt they would like Roslyn as she is just three years older than them. Aside from that, my mom's side of the family has lacked a love and hate relationship with my father's side since the divorce. They were the family that is seen as somewhat of a perfectionist in the family, even the slightest trouble if anyone ticks her or them off. My mother had groaned and she tightened more at the braids seeing them fight.

Each time I squinted my eyes in pain as it was pulling at the hairlines. Occasionally moments later she would look at me and each time she said sorry. But was she truly sorry? She would go on and on and explain why she hated Father's and now Roslyn's side of the family and seeing that they were more troublemaking and bad influence and seemed to her that Roslyn was more fit than her and my dad were.

Even though Logan and Lucas were only 2 years younger than me, I wasn't close with them like close friends I have, which wasn't many but they were more of just acquaintances who act like cousins and were somewhat friends. "Ouch!" I said while I was squinting my eyes. She said her final sorry but with a different ending instead of saying sorry over and over again. "Sorry. Almost done with this final braid.."