Inspirational quote: Beautiful things happen when you distance yourself away from negativity.

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Kieran's half term was turning out to be one of the worst half terms in the world.

He was originally supposed to be tidying up so that they could evacuate because of the war however he didn't: instead he had taken a "thirty minute" nap which had really turned out to be about three hours.

Kieran was woken up again by his stepfather banging on his door indignantly, yelling his name out loud for the whole neighbourhood to hear and removing his duvet covers from him.

"Kieran. Kieran wake up, nap time is over!" He vociferated at him. "We need to get things sorted because this war is really nearby."

Well, Kieran understood that bit but what he didn't get was why they couldn't just stay here.

The war was about ten minutes away from where they had lived. It had nothing to do with them. Kind of.

"I hate my life..." Kieran muttered, slowly getting up and gracefully landing on the floor.

"Yeah well, if you're not careful, you might just lose it. Hurry up and let's get packing. You've done like nothing today."

The irony, Kieran felt like shouting. He had done one thing today. Sleep.

"For flip sake why must there be a war..." He whispered to no one in particular. Unfortunately his stepfather had heard him, then yelled at him, telling him to stop asking questions that his stepfather didn't know the answer to.

"Also. Did your voice get deeper? It seems like it."

Kieran coughed before clearing his throat and saying anything else.

"No. It's always like that when I've just woken up from a nap or something. Also... Where's Katherine? I just noticed that she isn't here for some reason?"

"Oh. I broke up with her."

At long last! Kieran thought to himself, smiling cunningly all the way.

"So you finally realised she was a psychopath? See what did I tell you? Never not trust me father."

His stepfather nodded as both of them had made their way downstairs.

"Not necessarily a psychopath, though something else."

"Which is..." Kieran wanted to know, slowly going down the stairs.

"I was coming home from shopping this afternoon whilst you were at school but when I headed inside my room, I saw Katherine with another man."

Kieran fake gasped then smiled to himself straight afterwards.

"I closed the door and then opened it again, but when I saw that man, I presumed he was dead. I then realised that he was dead because I saw Katherine with a gun underneath her duvet covers, and when she caught me staring at her, she told me 'Anthony it's not what it looks like' but I didn't believe her. So yeah, we divorced straight after that."

Kieran was clapping a lot now.

"So where does she live now?"

"The cemetery," his stepfather answered straight away, examining his fingernails intently.

"What? She's dead?"

His stepfather did not hesitate to nod at Kieran.

"How?"

"She accidentally on purpose fell out of a window- long story you don't have time for because we need to pack."

"She couldn't have accidentally on purpose fallen out of a window." Kieran realised, using air quotes for the words accidentally on purpose. "You pushed her, didn't you?"

Kieran's stepfather didn't say anything.

"Not everything must be revealed," he muttered under his breath.

And after that remained silence. Kieran and his stepfather had been packing and removing everything out of the house for approximately two hours then they had to get a train to evacuate.

They had nearly missed their train but didn't because his stepfather had realised that their train was about to leave without them.

Something atrocious had happened on the train, which was going to be talked about later. At the moment, Kieran and his stepfather were sitting down on a monotonous train journey as far away from their home as possible.

They were precisely thirty minutes away from where they were supposed to be, when Kieran's stepfather had tapped Kieran slowly, telling him to wake up.

"Kieran. I have to tell you something. I don't have that much time left, anyway."

Kieran was perplexed, what did his stepfather mean by that? If he meant that he was going to die soon.... then how did he know that?

"I have to tell you two things, actually," his stepfather had added, looking away from Kieran instantly.

"What is it then?" Kieran plundered, physically not taking his eyes off of his stepfather's. His stepfather took a deep breath and sighed longingly.

"Okay. This isn't easy for me to say but... And please don't get mad either."

Kieran didn't reply, a frown was plastered on his face throughout the whole thing and he didn't smile once.

Usually when his stepfather had talked like that it usually meant that he was about to tell Kieran some devastating, life changing news.

"What..."

His father said it. He didn't do what Clyde did and made such a massive scene over it, he just said it.

"I'm not your real father."

Kieran didn't know this of course.

So all those years of calling his stepfather father was practically a lie?

"What?"

"I said I'm not your real father," his stepfather repeated again, seriously looking at him now.

Kieran was annoyed. His stepfather genuinely thought he was going to remain calm but he didn't.

Instead Kieran stood up, almost screaming at him.

"Well why didn't you tell me then?" He shouted at him, making everyone on the train look at Kieran and stop what they were doing promptly.

His stepfather didn't respond.

Well except, 'Kieran, people are staring...' but that was it, really.

"Why would you keep this a secret away from me? I'm fifteen, sixteen in October, and you never told me this?"

"Look. I'm sorry but this was a secret that I didn't want to tell you until you were ready and-"

"Why don't we all just keep secrets away from each other huh?" Kieran screamed at him, tears filling his eyes now. Anger was boiling in his blood, he couldn't take this anymore.

His stepfather lost it too, making people look at them more, some obnoxious people recording everything that was currently going on.

"I'm sorry but you kept a secret away from me too, you know."

"Which was?" Kieran echoed, metaphorically wanting to kill his stepfather for not telling him this earlier than today.

"You got temporarily expelled in year eight two years ago!" His stepfather told him, making Kieran stop and just stare at him.

He was crying even more now. Was it possible to cry livid tears? Because that was what Kieran was doing at the moment.

"Well, at least I told you I got expelled the day I found out! You've been keeping this a secret away from me for one and a half decades now!"

His father didn't respond again.
Kieran had a point.

"Plus. If you're not my real father then where's my real father?"

"In heaven. He's dead, Kieran. He committed suicide. You're even lucky I adopted you because you could've died at a young age as well!"

Kieran lost it.

"Yeah, well what happened to my mother? Let me guess, she's dead too isn't she?"

His stepfather nodded very slowly, biting his lip.

"Yes. And there's a reason she died, which leads me into my second secret about you."

"Seriously! Another secret? It's like no one trusts me anymore. What is it?"

There was no effortless way for his stepfather to say this, he just blurted the words out without really thinking about it.

"Your mother died because..."

"Because?"

"..Erm... You were meant to be born a girl, Kieran."

Kieran passed out.

"What?"

He couldn't believe what he had just heard.

"Yeah. Your mother was expecting a girl, but she gave birth to a boy. She couldn't deal with a boy because she was really looking forward to a girl. Not that she wasn't looking forward to giving birth to you but..."

"Are you kidding me?" Kieran interrupted halfway, almost making his stepfather roll his eyes at Kieran. "So I'm a mistake, basically."

"Erm... I wouldn't say that. You were meant to be born a girl, like I said, and your mum died because she couldn't cope with a boy. She bought clothes for you and everything, hoping you'd be a girl, but you turned out to be..." He trailed off dramatically. "You."

Her fault for thinking she was going to have a girl before Kieran was actually born. But then again, the doctors probably told her she was having a girl, and she was right enough to believe him or her because they were most likely correct.

"Is that why I always write like a girl and have dyslexia?"

"Yes. Also... Your name wasn't meant to be Kieran."

"What was it supposed to be then?" Kieran proclaimed, everyone still looking at both of them still, mainly Kieran as he was shouting the most.

"Flo...rence. Your name was meant to be Florence. That's why it took your mother quite a long time to name you... A week or something along those lines. I think.."

"My parents wanted to name me after a dead person!?"

"If you're referring to Florence Nightingale, then yes. But on the bright side, hey, she was famous before she died."

"That's really not helping anyone right now...."

Kieran couldn't take this anymore. He was fuming right now.

And his fuming stopped when the terrible thing happened.

Which was...

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Moral of chapter: You will not always die during a natural disaster....