I guess you can say that up till now, my life was pretty dull. I went to school, had a boyfriend and I had my limited social interaction. I only went out with either Jenn or Jason to a coffee shop, restaurant, movie, or some other social setting. I still could not trust Jason to go to his place. No, if we made love, it was in his car, or a motel room.

As the Christmas holidays passed and New Years came and went, I started to look forward to exams in late January. Yes, I know that you are probably wondering why I would be looking forward to them. I was NOT some super genius destined for some lucrative position, nor was I some computer nerd. Well, it is like this, I set myself a promise, goal. I wanted to accomplish for myself a set of priorities and standards to prove to myself that I was a success. I needed to pass all of the classes. I was in no means failing those courses that I was attending. I had a B average. Not bad for a girl off the farm and rightly so off the streets.

My days and weeks passed till the exam dates. And, well, just for the record here, I passed all my exams with high 80's and two 95's. I studied my butt off here, all the while maintaining a relationship with Jason. And I needed Jason, too. Thanks to him, I knew that there were men out there that would not hurt me. Now, Jenn of course, she worked her butt off and found a relationship as well. For me, on the other hand, well life became routine.

School almost became my second home. I spent a lot of time there. I went and spent a lot of time in the library. That is where I met Nancy and Jess. Nancy was short, about 5 foot nothing; Jess on the other hand was 6 feet 2 and played basketball. Nancy on the other hand was a geek, she was so technical. She loved music, and computers. Now, Jess wanted ME to attend a game where she was playing. Me, I thought. 'Yeah, whatever,'

you see, I would never get into any extracurricular activities. Besides, my life was full enough. I generally considered both girls my friends by the time my birthday arrived in early May. I not only enjoyed talking with Nancy and Jess, we often went for after school coffee and tea. We would spend that time relaxing until their parents picked them up on their way home from work.

The funny thing is that neither girl was in any of my classes. I guess it never really donned on me that I would have only just a few people that I interacted with. You see, I was not very popular at all. Oh sure, the guys gawked at me all of the time, and the girls were extremely jealous of my long legs and hair. But I got over that attention quickly. Having been raped by Adam, I didn't want to repeat the process, nor was I ever intimidated by the different clichés in the school.

My birthday approached and I just didn't worry about it. You see, I figured why, it was just another insignificant day when I was at home and just another day of the week when I was working the corners. So, as you can see, I never celebrated my birthday. Oh, I knew that Jenn had something planned, but I just was not quite sure what was going on.

So, I concentrated on my semester of classes. I was swamped with homework every night as I piled on extra classes that semester. I was taking the rest of my grade 9 courses as well as 4 of my grade 10 classes. Needless to say, I was over worked. At this point in time, Jason and I had moved on a while ago, I guess that I was as independent as I could ever be. I did miss our talks, though, and wanted for them to continue, but he had to move on as I couldn't drop my guard with him.

I arrived home from the library that May 2nd with my book bag weighted down with books and my purse. I was exhausted, I told Jen, "I'm going to lie down for an hour, and I am in some pain. My chest hurt and I am a bit nauseous."

She just nodded. About 90 minutes later, she knocked on my door and asked," Could you come out and talk to me for a few moments?"

I said, "I will be right out."

When I entered the kitchen area where Jenn was, there were others there sitting at the table and they jumped up and said "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MELISSA!"

I cringed at the noise and started to cry as I sank to the floor. They rushed over to comfort me. I was in so much shock that I fainted away. I was scared out of my wits. Nothing like this had ever happened to me. The idea of a birthday party, or anybody doing something to honor me like this was totally alien to me. When I finally came to, I had slobber all over my mouth, and I was in dire need of the toilet, too.

After I cleaned myself up we actually enjoyed a somewhat nice time. THAT was how I celebrated my 19th birthday. I received a few short skirts and tops and heels (my trademark apparel). We had some tea and chocolate cake. The night was good, and we did a lot of talking. Jenn was there with Ashley from her job. Jenn was with her boyfriend Stan, (No, not Stanman63.) Ashley was with her boyfriend Keith.

It was just a quiet night chatting and celebrating. To me, that night meant a lot. On the one hand, I was celebrating it with Jenn, whom meant the world to me. Secondly, it was a milestone, as I was no longer trapped in adolescence. I was legal to drink and get my drivers license if I chose to do so. You see, the legal age was 16 for driver's licenses. I knew that I was over due with the driving thing. I really just did not concern myself with that. I guess it was well. It was after 3 when everyone left and I had said my goodbyes. I definitely thanked Jenn for her surprise on me. We hugged, and off to bed we went.

May passed into June and I passed all my classes and without missing a beat, I entered my summer with school work. Not summer school, actual class work that I had gained permission from the school to take home and get ahead. I finished the school year with a B+ average. I was needless to say impressed. I was accomplishing the goals that I had set for myself.

Jenn continued to work her job and was promoted to assistant manager. I was extremely proud of her and she decided to take some university classes at night starting in September. The summer dragged on and I accomplished enough of my courses to give myself some weekends to pamper myself. It was on of those weekends that I would forever remember and take me back to those night and days of abuse.........