"esterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift; that's why they call it the present," The turtle character's voice from Kung-Fu Panda sounds from the TV.

"You're the real dude, Oogway," Anna comments as she watches the movie and throws a popcorn in her mouth.

"Hey, sweetie. Have you seen my phone charger?" Anne asks her daughter, frantically looking around and searching for her charger as she stuffs her phone and the rest of her things in her bag.

"You always put it in your drawer after you're done charging your phone, mum," her daughter reminds her.

"Right," Anne answers, slapping her forehead lightly. "Can you get it for me, Annalyn? I'm in hurry and I need to leave for work."

"Yeah, sure." Anna swings her legs off of the couch and rushes upstairs to get her mom's charger.

She walks down the hallway, just as Josh exits his room, dressed up properly. That's a bit unusual for Josh. Most of the times, he's in his football gear or in a shirt and a pair of shorts, even if he was going out somewhere.

Frankly, the whole family doesn't care about how they look whenever they're going out. Anne told Anna that she went to college in pajama pants once, however the girls like to put more effort in how they look for any important event or whenever they feel like it.

"Who is she?" Anna asks, raising an eyebrow teasingly.

"What?" Josh frowns in confusion, then he looks down at his attire and he realizes what his sister is talking about. "It's not a she."

"You're gay?" Anna's eyes widen, then she places her hand on her chest. "And you didn't tell me?"

"No, Anna," Josh chuckles. "I have this football formal party thing and I'm going to it."

"Isn't Cole supposed to be with you?" She questions.

"Yeah, but the asshole left me, so I have to go on my own," he rolls his eyes at his twin brother's antics.

"Oh," Anna laughs. "Well, have fun and try not to do something stupid."

"You should listen to your own advice sometimes," Josh smirks at her.

She narrows her dark brown eyes at him. "You should leave before I hit you."

"Okay, okay," he puts his hands up in defense. "Bye, Lyn." He ruffles his sister's hair.

Anna glares at him as she smooths down her waves. "Bye, jerk."

He barks out a laugh as he goes downstairs, giving his mother a kiss on the cheek and a goodbye before he exits the house, letting the door close behind him, so he wouldn't let any cold air escape in.

Anna continues her walk to her parents' room and she opens the door, peeking inside the dark room before walking fully inside and turning the lights on, only to be awed by her parents' room. Just like any parent, Anne and Sebastian, Anna's father, don't like their kids to go swooping in their room, so they keep the door closed, unless they ask them to go get something from it.

"When did they redecorate this place?" Anna asks herself as she looks around the room with black walls. There is a dark purple queen-sized bed pressed up against the wall with a dresser on both sides of the bed, then Anna's eyes trail to the right side of the room and she finds a gigantic walk-in closet with a cushioned seat in the middle of it.

"Seriously? You got a walk in closet and you didn't tell me? Not cool, guys," she throws her hands in the air exasperatedly.

After Anna goes exploring in the walk-in closet, she suddenly remembers that her mother wanted her to get the charger and not to pull a Dora the Explorer in her mom's room. Anna kneels down on the floor and opens the drawer of the dresser to find her mom's black charger on the top of a stack of papers.

That's when she notices the logo of UCSF Medical Center and the name of her father underneath it and she pulls the paper out to take a closer look.

Suddenly, Anna feels as if her heart just dropped in her stomach and her face turns as white as a sheet as her eyes skim through the paper, then her eyes go back to the top of the page, checking the date of the appointment.

Twenty third of September.

Five months ago–four months, twenty-nine days, ten hours and thirty-two minutes ago.

"Anna, did you get the charger?" Anna hears her mother yelling.

"Yeah!" Anna shouts back, her eyes fixed on the paper. "Coming!"

She grabs the paper and the charger, closing the lights and the door on her way out before she rushes back downstairs to her mom.

"I thought you fell asleep on our bed or something," Anne laughs, but she frowns when she sees her daughter's expression. "What's wrong, sweetie?"

"Mum, is this true?" She hands the paper to her mother. "Does dad really have one month before he...?" She trails off, not being able to finish the sentence from the lump in her throat.

Anne immediately panics, gaping at her daughter. She didn't think that one of her children would find out about this and she really wanted to tell them, but Sebastian told her to keep it secret. He didn't want his children to stress over his life, when they have their own ones to live.

"I'm so sorry, honey." Her mother clears her throat, hoping it would stop her own lump from growing too much, but she couldn't do it and tears brim her eyes.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Anna asks in a low voice.

"He told me not to do it. He didn't want you to worry," Anne says in a pleading voice.

"I'm his daughter, mum–I'm your daughter. Don't you think it would have been a good idea if you told me about this?" She gestures to the paper with her hand.

"I know. I wanted to, honey, but he told me to keep it a secret," Anne explains as the tears start to roll down her cheeks.

"So, none of the guys know?" The daughter questions, avoiding her mom's gaze.

"No," Anne responds, shaking her head slowly.

"Okay," Anna nods her head.

"Just okay? Nothing else?" Anne questions in surprise.

"Well, yeah," Anna replies. "What am I supposed to say? He's the one who decided to keep it a secret and now I have a month with him before he's gone. What else am I supposed to do?"

"Honey..."

"You need to get to work, mum. It's ten thirty." She takes a seat on the couch, going back to watching the movie. "Have a good day. I love you."

Anne gazes at her daughter with a sad expression as she emotionlessly watches the DreamWorks movie and Anne wipes her tears. "I love you too, sweetheart."

Anna hears the door opening and closing before she collapses on the couch with a heavy sigh.

Life: 213

Anna: 0

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"Vanilla or chocolate?" Zach questions. "Chocolate," he pipes up with his own answer.

"Vanilla," Sophie and Colette answer.

"Chocolate," Riley, Alex and Anna differ.

"Vanilla," Luke pitches in.

"That's so boring," Anna tells him.

"Due to the fact that I'm allergic to chocolate, it isn't," he reminds her.

"Oh yeah, I forgot," she smiles sheepishly and he chuckles.

"Night or day?" Zach asks another question. "Nights for me."

"Nights," Sophie, Colette, Riley and Alex all reply.

"Am I seriously the only one who likes days?" Anna questions, frowning.

"Yes," Riley responds and Anna gives her a dry look.

"Well, Luke still hasn't answered, so..." Sophie says in attempt to make her friend feel less lonely.

"He prefers nights," Anna replies knowingly.

"How do you know that?" Zach squints his eyes at her, trying to hide the grin that's threatening to appear on his face.

"I told her maybe?" Luke answers for Anna.

"Really? When?" Zach lets the grin appear on his face, only it's a wide Cheshire one.

Jennie then approaches them, saving Anna from a cranberry face incident and Luke from burning holes in Zach's head. "Hey, babe. Sorry I'm late, the girls and I were busy with a few things," Jennie bends down to kiss Luke's cheek before she takes a seat on his other unoccupied seat.

"It's fine," he assures, giving her a smile.

"Hey, guys," Jennie greets the rest and they all mumble a hi, except Anna who sends her a smile politely.

Jennie finds herself thinking back to the time when she treated Anna like crap and she feels as if all her mistakes suddenly came back reminding her of how she was being too rude and sinister towards her. It's like her brain decided to choose this exact moment to remind her of all the wrongs she did. Feeling guilty, she finds herself speaking up before she can stop herself.

"Anna, can I talk to you for a moment?" Jennie requests.

Sophie, Riley, Zach and Alex all stare at Jennie with shock with their eyes wide open and their lips almost parted. Colette raises her eyebrow in question and Luke just stares at his girlfriend with a confused, alarmed expression on his face.

Anna frowns. "Yeah sure, I guess."

The two girls stand up and walk outside of the cafeteria to get more privacy and Jennie takes a deep breath before she turns to Anna. "Hey," she greets her softly.

"Um...hi?" Anna replies unsurely.

"Look," she starts. "I'm not really good at this because I'm the type of person that doesn't know how to admit that she did something wrong, but I'm going to do it anyway."

"Okay?" The other girl drawls out.

"I'm sorry," Jennie admits and Anna's eyes go as wide as saucers. Never did she in her life imagine Jennie apologizing. She did a couple of times, but she knew it was only hope.

"Um...are you okay? Do you need me to help you to to the nurse's office or something?" Anna offers, feeling a bit scared.

"I'm fine, Anna," Jennie replies. "I just felt guilty and I wanted to apologize, so I'm sorry for everything I did. I'm sorry for insulting you. I'm sorry for being rude to you. I'm sorry for treating you like shit. I'm sorry for trying to sabotage your friendship with Luke. I'm sorry for insulting your race. I'm not racist at all, in any way and I know you're probably not going to forgive me because who would forgive a person that insulted your culture and your family? But I didn't really mean it. I really am sorry. I'm not like that at all. Hell, my mom used to tell me about how all skins and ethnicities are beautiful," she chuckles humorlessly.

Anna tries not to make it obvious that she noticed the past tense that's used with Jennie's mom, but she frowns and she starts to wonder if her mother passed away a long time ago.

What happened really with Jennie's mom is that she left her family for another guy and started a new family with him. Jennie's family wasn't one of the richest families from the start like they are right now. Before they moved to California–hoping for a better life there–they used to live in Lagos and they weren't exactly living the best of lives. In other words, they were poor.

When Jennie was thirteen, they bought a small apartment in California when they moved. It had two very small bedrooms, one for Jennie's parents and one for her and her little brother. Jennie's father worked as a waiter as a temporary job, while looking for other jobs that could fit his qualifications.

Jennie's mother however wasn't happy with her husband's work and she left him for another guy who so happened to be a millionaire, even making Jennie and her brother leave California and live in Washington D.C with her and her new husband.

Jennie's new life in Washington was like a Cinderella story at home and her school-life was even worse. She would go to school in the morning only for people to hate on her because of her skin color and her race, then she would go back home and her step-father would criticize her weight and how she should 'watch what she eats' and her step-brothers would treat her worse by assaulting her and bossing her around.

And her mother was never home to witness a thing and frankly, she didn't care.

On top of that, as much as Jennie hates the memory, sometimes she finds herself thinking back to that one night when her brothers forcedly sexually assaulted her and after that, she told her mother that she was going back to California to live with her father, even taking her little brother with her. She was only fourteen back then and the two boys were eighteen.

The memory of what happened that night haunted her for years that she started going to therapy. Her father thought it would be a good idea for her, even though she insisted on not doing it because therapy's too expensive, but the father knew what's best for his daughter.

James Olatunji heard from his daughter all about what those two boys did and he told her mother that he's going to report them to the police, not caring about her pleas of forgiveness. The two boys got sentenced to twenty years in prison and then they'd be sent to military school.

Jennie's father started looking for jobs faster, so he could help with affording life necessarities for him and his children, then he found the assistant job in one of the business management companies and he took it up. Back then, the company's CEO, Aryan Patel, was a kind, generous old man and he knew that he was going to have to pass the company to someone else when he passes away. Anna and Fiona's father were working with him back then, but only as good employees and co-workers.

When Aryan passed away, he left the company to his good assistant, James Olatunji and he told him to find a good employee to help him with running the company, a co-manager, so he chose Anna's father, Sebastian Falls and Fiona's father got a promotion back in Australia. The company became one of the biggest and greatest companies in the USA and it made a profit of two-billion dollars per year, making James Olatunji one of the richest men in America.

Now you're probably thinking what was the importance of Jennie's whole story when it was just about Jennie apologizing to Anna? Sometimes, a person could have gone through a lot that they feel the need not to care about being rude or blunt or against a certain person. Jennie grew up being abused, judged and raped. She grew up knowing that she's not perfect and that's why she felt jealous from Anna and insecure about herself.

She didn't know that Anna always felt the same way about herself because of what used to be judgements from people back in Australia and she acted like she didn't care by putting a smile on her face, not a fake one. A real one. When in reality, Anna was hurt and confused about why people treated her like that. Was she really that weird looking? Was she really that skinny? Was the tiny brown spots on her nose really that different and unusual?

She was a nine-year-old back then, she wasn't supposed to think like that and yet, she did, but she learned later that every flaw in her was beauty in its own, special way and that's what everyone is supposed to know.

"You were...literally being racist to me. Why would you do that?" Anna tells her.

"I know. I know that I was being racist. I know that it was probably the shittiest thing to ever do. To insult you in such way. To insult your family. To insult your culture, but I was just looking for a way to fuel you. I swear to God, I never ever meant to insult you like this," Jennie goes on sincerely.

"Why were you even being like that to me?" Anna asks her.

"I was jealous from you," Jennie admits.

"Me?" Anna points at herself in surprise.

"Yes. I used to think that you were perfect. You're beautiful. Like really beautiful. You have a family that loves you and supports you. You have great friends. You have an amazing personality. You are literally the definition of perfect. Hell, you even have a beautiful voice. I heard you in music class before," Jennie lists on her fingers.

"Me? Perfect?" Anna utters in disbelief. "I'm way far from perfect. I'm the one who's supposed to be jealous from you. Have you looked at yourself? You're like a freaking goddess," She tells her and they both chuckle.

"I'm not perfect, Jennie. I have anxiety which is, like you said, super crappy that I actually used to go to therapy because of it. I'm claustrophobic which means I can't last in small places for two minutes. I spent my whole life fainting and having panic attacks from the stupidest things," She explains to Jennie. "Not having a perfect life is completely fine and you need to know that. You are special the way you are. Being perfect is not special at all, but being you? That's the most special and unique thing ever."

Jennie smiles a bit. "I know that you probably won't forgive me now and that's okay–" Jennie gets cut off by Anna speaking up,

"I forgive you," she sends her a smile.

"You do?" Jennie asks in shock.

"I do. Everyone deserves a second chance," Anna tells her.

"Thank you," Jennie smiles again in relief.

"How about we hug?" Anna offers, holding her arms out and Jennie nods before stretching her arms out and they both embrace each other in a tight hug.

Jennie looks at her wrist watch and she pulls away. "I have to go. I need to get to the swimming team's meeting."

"Of course."

"I just wanted to tell you that I promise that I will fix everything. Really," Jennie looks her dead in the eyes.

"Okay?" Anna frowns in confusion. Hadn't she already apologized and fixed things with her? What else is she going to fix?

"Can you tell Luke that I'll text him later?" She asks her.

"Yeah, sure," Anna nods, smiling.

"Okay. Bye, Anna," she waves at her as she turns around and Anna sends her a wave back, then Jennie disappears around the corner.

"Did my eyes cross out or were you really hugging Jennie?" Sophie asks, surprising Anna and she turns to her.

Anna laughs. "No, we really were hugging. She apologized for everything she did."

"Well, damn, I never thought I'd see this day," Sophie comments.

"I mean, I had a couple springs of hope, but they never lasted," she says and the two girls let out a small laugh.

"You know, Anna? You're really an amazing person and if Luke doesn't see that, then he must be really blind," Sophie tells her friend.

That's when Anna breaks down and she starts crying. It always happened to her. She'd bottle up her tears and then out of nowhere, she'd burst down crying, letting all her tears out of the bottle before she screws the lid back on and lets the bottle fill up with new tears.

"Oh, Lyn," Sophie grabs her friend in a tight hug and Anna wraps her arms around her, sobbing in her shoulder.

"Why does everything suck?" She cries, her voice muffled.

"Maybe it's just the beginning, Lyn, but I'm sure everything will get better later," Sophie says softly and Anna pulls away from her slowly.

Her eyes are blood-shot red and puffy. Her nose turned splotched red and so did her cheeks. Sophie rubs her arm comfortingly. "Sometimes a person have to go through the worst parts, so they can get to the best part in life."

Anna buries her face in her friend's shoulder once again and she continues crying for a bit before she finally pulls away after five minutes. "You good now?" Sophie asks her.

"Yeah," Anna nods, letting out a small sniff.

"Good. Now wipe those tears, so we could go and eat. I'm thinking about stealing Alex's cookies," Sophie grins devilishly and Anna starts laughing.

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