20. Meet Constance

"Hi, my name is Constance Youngblood. Nice name huh, there isn't a normal name in the whole Youngblood clan...well...except my mothers'. Her name was Christin and she died when I was an infant. So I never knew her, but everyone says I look a lot like her."

"These two guys celebrating my transition to the teen years are the main men in my life. The one on the left is my dad, he's pretty cool but there were a few years that he missed my mom so much that he was barely able to get out of bed each day. The guy on the right is my big brother. He is a writer and an artist, he likes to spend most of his time alone in his room but he's always been there for me."

"Over the years I've become a bit of a wild child. My dad says that my aunt Beryl was wild too and it caused a lot of grief in the family. But then she settled down, got married, had kids (I'm not sure in that particular order). They think I'm wild but I have a plan...I want to be a star!"

Everyday after school I went to my cousins house. He's a bit of a nerd but I trust him with all my secrets.

"Hey Cyd I have an idea." I said one day while studying.
"Focus Constance" he said in his typical serious tone.

"Sorry Con" he apologized "I just need to focus on this weeks tests,
I've got a low A in biology and if I don't do well it will drop to a B."
"Fine..we'll focus on studying" I said but my mind wandered. One thing it wandered to was dreamy Chuck Roberts. He was a senior, tall, handsome, and...completely taken by Bethany Whitehouse.

I just imagine how wonderful
a study session with Chuck would be.

But....no....here I was in my cousins kitchen.
All I could think was that someday Chuck Roberts would be "begging" me to go out with him. When I'm a star I'll have to beat off the boys with a club.

"Ok Con were done studying what's the plan?" he said in an unenthusiastic manner. "There's something I wanna buy with my birthday money" I replied "Will you go with me?" "Do I have a choice?" he smiled "NO...come on" and I grabbed him by the jacket and we raced into town.

When we arrived at the store I knew exactly what I wanted. I have big dreams. Dreams that can only come true with this item.

My dream began with the purchase of a Takamine ESP93 steel-stringed acoustic guitar, made of cedar and painted pale pink. As I strummed out the tunes I knew that this guitar was going to be my best friend for years to come.