Going Solo: Grace Gen 4.1

***SENSITIVE ISSUES DISCUSSED***

They say there are moments in life that shape you, define who you will be as a person. Little things like learning to drive or going to prom. The latter I was roped into by Hope who needed me to round out the 'group date' since Dad wouldn't let her go on individual dates still. I loved my sister, she was my twin, how could I not, but we were so different, still are. But, back to what I was saying about moments in life. My parents getting married was one of those moments. Most teens aren't the bridesmaids for their mother, but Hope and I were and it was great. That moment showed me patience really was a virtue.

Mom waited a very long time to get married. It wasn't that Dad didn't love her or us, but he just had a few hangs ups that she was patient enough to wait out. It also showed me that people can really change. From what Grandma Kerri and Grammy Sha would tell us, Dad was quite the ladies man. They particularly like to give us that info when Dad was fussing about Hope and the countless rotation of boys that called her. Most of the moments in my life were fairly basic, but all good. I gardened, I spent lots of time at the library.

I covered for Hope when she would want to go out but Dad would say no. She'd drop me at the library while she went to the movies or whatever she had planned. We were lucky that Mom forbid Dad from using his vamp abilities to pry into our thoughts. She said it would be the ultimate invasion of privacy, so neither of them did that. Instead they attempted to raise us like they were normal human parents. The night 'it' happened I was again covering for Hope. She'd just started dating this new guy and was going to a party at his house. She wanted me to go, but I told her to take me to the library instead.

I called at closing, she didn't answer. She'd done it before so I left her a message and told her to get me from the diner. Nothing I hadn't done before only this time Patrick stopped me. We talked often when I was at the library since he worked there. He was nice and we talked about books and gardening normal stuff.

When he offered to give me a ride, I started to say no, but the weather was changing and it was cold. I should have said no. When he passed by the diner I got scared, but he said he wanted to show me something. There was to be a meteor shower, a bunch of people were going to The Pointe to watch it. No one was there when we arrived.

I knew I was in trouble. When he was finished, he left me there on the cold ground naked, bleeding and crying. Mom and Dad found me by tracking my cell phone thanks to the lost phone app Hope had installed. Life changed after that. Barnacle Bay was a small town so word traveled fast about what happened. Dad was furious. I'd never seen him so angry, but worse than his anger was seeing him so sad. I felt like I let him down. I knew better than to get in that car. The house was tense for a long time. I didn't want to come out of my room and Hope kept apologizing. I just wanted to forget.

I convinced Mom and Dad to let me be home schooled because my first day back at school was met with stares and whispers. I didn't manage to make it the whole day, the crowded halls freaked me out and I hid in the bathroom. I never went anywhere alone and Hope was grounded for a long time. Mom made me go to therapy, that was no fun. Most of the time I just sat with her holding my hand and not talking. I didn't want to so eventually she stopped making me go.

Hope started acting out, getting in trouble more it was bad. She felt like I got all the attention and she could never get anything right in their eyes now. I didn't want to be the center of attention, that's why I left school. Who wanted to be known as the girl that got raped. Every where I went, it felt like people knew and would stare. Dad got arrested and had to spend the night in jail for attacking Patrick when he was brought to the station for the line-up. Then Mom started getting sick but it turned out to be nothing serious.

She was pregnant.

Moments in life can truly shape who you are. It was my senior year and I had no friends, and never talked to people outside of my family. I'd not gone back to the library since that night even though Patrick had been arrested and was still in jail.

I had my family and my plants. Hope was making plans to go off to college, that used to be my plan as well, but not now. The idea of that many strangers terrified me. No, I was staying home and helping Mom and Dad with Carter while taking online courses.

**A/N**

So this chapter was longer than normal but I wanted to cover all of Grace's teen years in one chapter. Sorry you guys didn't get to see Davis panicking about dating, but I wrote in some things. I wasn't planning on Cora and Davis having more kids so soon, but they went off and risky woo-hooed while I was filming Grace. Those two can't keep their hands off each other. So welcome baby Carter to the family. I will show better pictures of him in the next chapter.

Also Sha is now an elder. :(