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Prologue
Kalera
“I don’t know guys We should probably just give up I et out of here,” I say to my sister and our friends as we sit at the Alet coffee, tea, donuts, and such in our s town The five of us come here every Saturday, to talk, vent, or la so hard to circumvent
“I get it, Kalera You are probably right, but do we just give up? Look what giving up got ma and concernher own
“I know, Tori Trust me, but I want to be realistic What are our other options?” I ask looking around at ether Cradle to graduation, not exactly uncoon, population 1500 In a town as suy next door, has babies, and dies never having seen anything different The circle continues
“We all got accepted, already I ht?” Narina asks, sipping her chamomile tea She is correct At the end of our junior year, we all decided anted to try to follow our dreaot in, and applied to be rooot in and looked up the financial aid infore, ould be stuck the rest of our lives paying it off and would more than likely still end up here Hence the conversation
“True Narina, but do you want to spend four years in school only to have to co us down?” I hear the frustration in Gwendolyn’s voice We all just seereement with the fact that there seeo home and sleep on it when the one and only person to ever make it out walks into the shop
“Oh asps I nod unable to speak Lauren Stillwell She was a year ahead of us in high school Popular, cheerleader, Almont born and bred Then one day, before the end of the suot up and left one night, with no warning People were speculating she had gotten pregnant by theThen one day, her little sister told us she went to college To say ere all stunned is an understate at her, I can't help but feel like I a a celebrity walk in She looks beautiful Her hair is shiny and long Her skin, glowing Don’t get me started on how expensive her clothes look
“Wow She looks beautiful” She sure does, I think agreeing with Narina, silently She turns from the counter and sees us
“Hey girls How are you?” she asks, her sht She pulls out a chair and sits next to ht?”
“Yea Graduation was last week,” Tori answers
“Awesoratulations So what are your plans now?” She looks at each of us, sipping her drink, her face knowing, and anticipatory Al for the right time to tell us
“We would like to go to school, but well you kno it isno way out”
“Not true I got out” Her smile suddenly becomes almost mischievous
“Yeah how did you do that?” Gwendolyn asks, scooting her chair closer to the table I half expected her to pull out a notepad
“I don’t think you girls are ready to hear it But listen, never give up There is always a way to follow your dreaets up and I findour one chance ofit out about to walk out the door and we all speak at the same time
“Wait!!” We shout out, not caring that people are staring at us She looks at us, eyes big, surprised at our outburst “Please tell us,” I beg her She hesitates and I begin to think she is going to continue to walk out the door but she surprises us and sits back down, taking a second before answering
“Listen, I knohat you are going through, wanting to see so outside of this drab dreary town To knohat it is like to maybe have a chance at a future Find love with sohbor of everyone in your bloodline for the past 100 years I knohat all of that feels like, but to know there is no way out So, what I am about to tell you, you have to have an open mind” Well crap Now I feel like we should have an attorney present or so through the ads of the paper where the college I wanted to go to was and saw this ad for a couple needing a surrogate Of course, I thought it was a crazy idea, but I decided what do I have to lose anyway? So I called the clinic, they paid for me to come there, take the physical, and put ot a job and found a little studio apartot a call fro a couple wanted to meet me The rest as they say is history'' The silence at the table is deafening We are all looking at one another not sure we are hearing what she is saying