Her Name was Zoey Iris

The train was as loud as it could be. The train's deafening horn could be heard throughout Fontana, California. The sky was dark and lit with stars and city street lights, and there, at the local hospital, a woman was giving birth to a baby girl.
"Waaa," cried the baby girl named Zoey Iris O'Neil. She had just come out of her mother's womb, and she was still red and stressed out from her birth. She did not know what was going on, but the mother who just gave birth to her, had to give her up for adoption because she was not actually old enough or wise enough to take care of this new life.
"We'll take her now, Sandra, if you do not mind," said Lilian O'Neil, Zoey's adopted mother.
"Can't I just hold on to her for a little while longer," asked Sandra feeling sorrow as she realizes that she cannot keep the daughter that she has carried inside of her womb for nine months?
"Please, Sandra, do not make this any harder than it is," demanded Zoey's adopted father, Patrick O'Neil, as he paces the hospital room wanting to take his new daughter home. Patrick is not patient, and he wants his daughter immediately.
"Sandra, we need to get back home, now please, give us our daughter," demanded Lilian in a harsh voice.
"Alright, but please take very good care of her," pleads Sandra as she gives up her beautiful daughter. Her daughter with the pale sky-colored eyes, the fair skin, and the amber-colored locks.
The O'Neil's finally receive Zoey into their arms, They strap her into her car seat, which is strapped onto the family mini-van's soft dark gray seats. They take Zoey to their house in Upland, California. The house is a newly built house, in a newly built community, near the newly built shopping center just two blocks away from their newly built community. This house appeared to be a manufactured copy of a town house, and it was, but there would be secrets that Zoey would not discover until she was the rightful age of fourteen.
"Welcome to your new home, baby Zoey. We are going to be a family here. You are going to be our pride and joy," claimed Lilian as she and her husband stand in front of their new home.
Fourteen years later...
"Mom, I am going to Grace's house. I'll be back for dinner," shouts Zoey as she runs out the door.
"You better be home in time for dinner. I do not want to have to call Grace's mom again," shouted Lilian to Zoey as she is making dinner for her family of three.
Zoey goes to Grace Mendez's house down the street. Grace has been Zoey's friend ever since elementary school.
Zoey was very popular throughout elementary and middle school. She was loved by all of her teachers and her friends. She was in Glee Club, Girl Scouts, Drama Club, Cheer, voice lessons, piano lessons, and she took dancing lessons at the local dance studio in Upland. Zoey stuck singing and dancing, but she did not stick with much else. Lilian taught school at the elementary school that Zoey attended as a child. Patrick was a stock broker who hit it big when some major companies crashed in the stock market. Lilian also came into some money when her Uncle Tom, who bore no children and had no wife, passed away in the summertime. He gave her everything that he had. Lilian was his only niece and Lilian did everything in her power to please her uncle so that she could gain his riches. It worked, and she inherited $500,000 and his Mercedes Benz. Zoey's parents were more than well-off when it came to finances.
At the McNeil House...
"Patrick, I need a vacation," demands Lilian, "I need to get away from this place."
"Are you serious? You barely do anything around here. Is it that time of the month again? Lilian," Patrick is puzzled by Lilian's strange proposal.
"I mean it Patrick, all I ever do around here is live like a housewife and mother, for one day, I would like not to be the housewife and mother," demanded Lilian.
"I am not forcing you to stay here, Lil, you can leave whenever you wish to leave," says Patrick.
"You don't care about me do you? You only married me because I was convenient. And Zoey, you only adopted her because you wanted a fantasy, fairytale life, well, you can take care of her yourself. I do not need this anymore. Good-bye, Patrick."
"You are selfish, you know that, Lil. I love Zoey, no matter what, and you think that because I work all the time and because I do not spend as much time with you as I used to means that I do not love you, then you're wrong. I do love you, I just have a lot of work to do, that is all."
"That's all. That's all. That is all it ever is is 'that's all'. Dammit, Pat, no more of this," Lilian walks out of the house and takes her Mercedes Benz.
Patrick calls Zoey, and tells her to get home as soon as she can. Zoey tells Grace that she has to run home.
"My dad sounded strange. I have to get home, Grace," said Zoey.
"I understand. Family first. What do you mean by strange," asked Grace?
"He sounded frustrated or angry. I'll see you later Grace. I am sorry that we cannot finish the project. Here take my supplies and finish up."
"Later, Zoey. Tell your mom and dad that I said 'hi'."
Zoey hurries home as quickly as she can get there. Her mother's car is gone. Zoey knows at that moment that something is not right.
"What is it, Dad? Is something wrong, Dad?" Zoey asked her father as she give him a hug.
"Sweetie, your mom left us, and I don't know when, or if, she is coming back," says Patrick.
"I noticed her Mercedes was missing, are you sure she did not just go to the market or Target?"
"No, I saw her pack her clothes. She and I got into and argument. It was not over you believe me."
"Why wouldn't I believe you, Dad. Your my Dad. What did you argue about?"
"She said she was sick of being a housewife and mother, and for one, she would like not to be a housewife and mother. I told her that she was selfish, and she is. She just went ahead and left us. Well, I said she could go ahead and leave, I will take care of us. In fact, I can order take out for dinner, how does that sound?"
"That sounds great, but how come you are taking this so well?"
"Well, I know your mother and you do not remember this, but she took off a lot like this when you were a baby and a toddler. This is only temporary. So, did you get what you needed to get done at Grace's house?"
"Well, sort of. We still had some work to do, but we will finish it in the morning or this evening if we have to."
"Okay, I am going to order the take out right now and then we can get something to eat and you can go back to your friend's house."
Patrick orders take out, he and Zoey eat at the family bar outside of their kitchen.
They have a short conversation as they are eating and then Zoey goes back to Grace's house to finish their school project.
"What happened to your Dad, Zoey," asked Grace is a sisterly fashion.
"My mom left the house with a suitcase after he and my mom got into an argument. No big deal. My dad said that it's happened before. She'll be back," says Zoey appearing puzzled, but trying to forget about what just happened at her house so that she can get back to her school work.
"Zoey, I do not mean to be personal, but have you ever asked your parents about your real parents, if you know what I mean?"
"No, why?" Zoey is now more puzzled and she cannot understand why the question of her biological parents has turned up.
"Well, maybe your mom walking out has something to do with them."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, haven't you ever wondered?"
"No, I love my mom and dad, and they took great care of me. Listen, if I ask them questions about my real parents, they are going to think that I sound ungrateful or that I hate them and I don't."
"Tell them that you love them and you do not want to hurt them, but you are curious as to who your parents are?"
This filled Zoey's head with all kinds of ideas, "Who were her real parents? What were their names? What were they like? And where did they live?" Zoey had to know.
After she finished her school project with Grace, Zoey came home and began asking her father questions about her biological mother and father.
"Dad, who were they? My mom and dad? I know that I am adopted and I love it here and I love you and mom, but I am a little curious as to who they might actually be," asked Zoey trying to comprehend what she was doing and why she was now doing it?
"I knew this day might come one day and when it did, I hoped that I would be ready, but I am not all to ready for this," Patrick states in a passive tone.
"Dad, please!" Zoey pleads to her father.
"Zoey, you have to keep this all to yourself and not try to seek out your parents if I give you any information regarding them. Okay?"
"Okay."
"Your mother was in college when she gave birth to you, her name was Sandra Ortega. She was at least 18 years of age. Her parents split up and she had been living with her mother. When she got pregnant by her then boyfriend, her mother was furious and wanted Sandra to abort you. I was good friends with Sandra's mother and I said 'no'. I said I would adopt you. I was in my late 30's when you were born Zoey, and I wanted a child so badly. Your mother knew that. When you were born, I was so thrilled, my family was complete. Your mother could not have any children and so you were the best thing to happen to us. One problem was Lilian, your adopted mother, could not always handle the pressure of having a baby. I took care of you, for most of your life. Sandra is still around of course, she became an attorney at some big lawfirm. Her then boyfriend, your father, I was told was married, and had a family of his own."
"That is it."
"Yes, that is it, oh, you were born in Fontana, California, you were 7 pounds and 8 ounces at birth, which made you a normal baby. You had brown hair, light skin, and blue eyes like you do now, and you were the prettiest baby in the hospital."
"Thanks, Dad. Do you think I can meet her?"
"Sweetie, I'll think about it. Right now, I want you to focus on your studies and focus on your singing and dancing. How are those working out by the way?"
"Great, actually, Grace and I joined the Dance Troop at school, and are dancing at our first football game this Friday, I would like it if you came to see me dance. Will you come and see me?"
"I wouldn't miss it for the world. I hope your mom will come home soon so that she can see it."
"I hope so too."
Zoey went to bed that night, wondering what would become of her life? What would become of her mother who ran out of the house today? And, what is her biological mother like? Is she pretty? Is she smart? Does she live in a nice house or does live in a newly built apartment building? Is she nice? Did she love her? Does she still love her? These questions plagued her mind for a while, until she fell asleep. All seem quit inside of Zoey's household, until there was a loud noise that hit the floor of Zoey's bedroom. Zoey had levitated out of her bed, awakened from her slumber, and hit the floor on the other side of her room.
"What did I do" Zoey thought to herself?
Patrick ran to Zoey's room in a panic.
"Zoey, sweetie, are you alright," cried Patrick, as worried as a father can be?
"I am fine, Dad, I just fell out of bed that's all!"
"On the other side of the room?"
"Really, Dad, you have nothing to worry about."
"I love you, sweetie," Patrick says to Zoey as he kisses her on the forehead and hugs her, "I don't want anything to happen to you."
"I know, Dad. I love you, too," Zoey hugs and kisses her father back.
Zoey goes back to bed.
Her room is a typical teenagers bedroom. A queen size bed, pink pillows, pink sheets, pink clothes, just pink everywhere. Zoey loves pink. She is a typical girl. She loves to shop, she loves the color pink, she is a typical "girly-girl", but being a "girly-girl" is actually a mask for Zoey.
The next morning...
"What am I doing," questions Zoey as she is levitating up in the air again? "How am I doing all of this? Who am I? What am I? Why is this happening to me?"
Zoey gets out of bed, she is puzzled by what she has just done. "Can I fly? Oh my God, I am like Supergirl or something! This is werid, but cool. I can't tell anyone."
Zoey gets, dressed in the bathroom connected to her room. She rushes down the small flight of stairs to the breakfast nook in her kitchen. She eats some of her breakfast and then heads off to school.
She meets Grace on her way to school. Both of them hitch a ride with one of the Seniors in the Dance Troop.
"We all know that practice is tonight, right," questions the Senior?
"Yes," replies Zoey, "Right after school."
"Right," the Senior responds.
While at Dance Troop practice after school, Zoey has to execute a dance move that brings her secret out, but luckily no one saw a thing, except for the one person who was picking her up from school that day.
"Zoey, when were you going to tell me," Patrick questions as he is in shock from what he has seen.
"I wanted to tell you, but I was scared," cried Zoey, with tears coming down from her eyes.
"Sweetie, it's okay, I still love you no matter what."
"You do."
"Yes, but I believe that it is finally time for you to see someone."
Zoey and Patrick walk out of the Cadillac, and walk over to the newly built apartment building. The home of Sandra Ortega.
Knock, knock on Sandra's door.
"Hello," Sandra says in a puzzled tone?
"Mom," replies Zoey in a puzzled tone?
"Oh no..."