The lost echo
Chapter One
Ever since my long–lost sister, Summer, was
found and brought home, I became the black
sheep of the family.
It all started when she claimed the diet plan I
gave her made her gain a pound, costing her
the chance to be the lead dancer.
Mom and Dad tore up my invitation to the
Black Swan Dance Company, just like that.
My brother, Jake, started putting hormones in
my milk every day.
After ballooning up, like, a hundred pounds, a
video of me struggling to even use the
bathroom went viral.
<
Mortified, my family shipped me off to a
“good girls” weight loss camp, where I was
supposed to learn some manners.
What followed was pure torture.
I broke ribs five times, shattered my leg
bones three times, and had my head shaved
twice. My body was a roadmap of scars.
Finally, they sculpted me into their idea of a
“good girl.”
The day Jake came to pick me up, I knelt on the ground, dead inside, and mumbled,
“Number 2145 messed up. Please forgive
me.”
1
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My clothes from a year ago hung off me,
practically swallowing me whole.
I stumbled out of those iron gates, completely
dazed.
The guy leaning against the Rolls–Royce
straightened up, his eye’s scanning me with
undisguised disgust.
“Daisy, are you pulling some kind of stunt?”
“The family’s been bankrolling this place
every quarter. You’re not exactly starving.
What’s with the rags? Trying to make us look
bad?”
Daisy? The name felt both foreign and
familiar, like a ghost from my past.
I raised my head, but I couldn’t quite make
out who was talking.
The sun hit my eyes.
Blinded, I dropped to my knees, hands
shaking uncontrollably.
“I’m not Daisy. I don’t deserve a name. I
shouldn’t look people in the eye. Please, no
more bright lights.”
“I’m sorry. 2145 won’t do it again. I messed
up…”
The first day at that camp, the instructors had
slapped me senseless.
The first lesson was to forget my name,
because I wasn’t worthy of being Daisy Miller,
<
the daughter of the Millers, only Number
- 2145.
And Number 2145 was the lowest of the low,
forced to stare at the ground, never allowed
to meet anyone’s gaze.
At first, I fought back, but that just earned me
a chair, strapped in, and eyes peeled open
with toothpicks as I got blasted with a laser. I
couldn’t even last a few seconds.
After feeling my corneas burn over and over, I
finally accepted my new name and developed
a muscle memory response to bright light.
A jolt of pain shot through my shoulder as the
guy yanked his foot back.
“Daisy, a year, and you still haven’t learned?
More acting? As if the family would stop
providing food and clothing for you here. You
went on a diet, but you didn’t learn any
manners, and now you’re acting crazy?!”
“It’s just a bit of sunlight, Daisy. Stop staring
at your shoes and look at me!”
Hearing his voice, I reflexively lowered my
head to the ground and began begging.
“2145 learned. 2145 messed up. Don’t hurt
2145, please…”
He froze for a second, then grabbed my chin,
forcing my gaze up to meet his.
“What the hell are you babbling about? You
were the school princess. Don’t you have any
self–respect? What are you, a dog?”
The brute force sent my fear–o–meter
skyrocketing, even more afraid to open my
eyes.
I closed them again and started crying.
He lost patience and raised his hand to open
my eyelids, blocking the sun.
Seeing the person in front of me stabbed me
in the heart.
