Believe it or Not

This is a new story I have had in the works for a few months it's sort of a mix of three really great chick flicks, but not about characters from them. it's got the mix of What a Girl Wants, First Daughter, and Chasing Liberty. The main storyline seems fairly overdone, but the biggest thing is how does a girl deal with not only losing her mom, moving in with her president father and his own children, and still trying to live the life she has always tried to have...it makes for relationships hard, but not necessarily impossible.

The story will have a song by my favorite band, Nickelback, in each chapter just as an added personal touch.


Believe it or not everyone have things that they hide
Believe it or not everyone keep most things inside
Believe it or not everyone believe in something above
Believe it or not everyone need to feel loved,
-Nickelback, Believe it or Not

Prologue - Believe it or Not-


"Sir, there is a woman here who's lawyer is requesting a meeting with you, we've told her that it is entirely impossible, but she claims she had some information that you will want to hear, and we are unable to get her to back off. She says you will want to talk to her, and that she went to university with you."

"What's her name Harris?"

"Sarah Morrison." Harris replied.

"Really? Wow I haven't heard from Sarah in years, since school, I'd love to talk to her."

"Alright sir, we will have her sent in."

"She's here now?"

"Yes, like I said Mr. president, she is very persistent."

"She's always been like that." He replied. "Is she still gorgeous?"

"Uhh, sir..." The man paused.

"Nevermind, but don't tell my wife." He turned and went to a private drawing room to await his guest.

After a few minutes a dark haired woman in her early forties stepped into the room escorted by two secret service officers. The president recognised her immedietly as the girl from his college days, but he saw that the last twenty-one years had taken its toll on her.

"Sarah!" He said happily extending his hand to the woman in front of him. When he got a good look at her face he saw even more of the years taking toll of her. Her eyes looked sunken and her eyes looked as if she had not slept in days. Her hands were cold when he held them and they felt thin and boney.

"Matthew Tyler, it's been a long time." She broke into a smile.

"Wow, I cannot believe you are here in washington, how have you been?"

"I've been...Alright, you seem to have done very well for yourself. I always hoped you'd achieve greatness, and I knew if you got the chance you'd do amazing. Congratulations."
"Thank you," He motioned for her to sit down. "So what brings you here?"

"I don't really know if there is an easy way to say this Matthew." She seemed to be looking around the room avoiding the eyes of the man in front of her. He noticed this and the lighthearted catching up that he was expecting turned a lot darker.

"This meeting isn't just to catch up on old times is it?" She didn't reply. "Sarah look at me, what is it?"

"There's something you need to know." She still didn't look at him, but he saw the tears fill her sunken eyes.

"Sarah." He didn't yell, but he made his point known.

"I lied to you all those years ago."

"About what?" He asked quietly.

"When we broke up- when you left me- I didn't know it at the time and when I actually found out, you were back with your old girlfriend and planning to get married, and I kept hearing on the news how you were planning on going into politics and then I felt that I couldn't tell you and then the years passed and I just couldn't tell you, and..."

"Sarah, I haven't the faintest idea what you are talking about, now look me straight in the eyes and tell me the truth, no dodging whatever it is you try to tell me."

I've seen it a lot every time the world turns upside down
Believe it or not most of us feel like we're losing ground
Believe it or not everyone hate admitting fear
Believe it or not most of us wanna know why we're here

"I was pregnant." She stood up and looked at the wall behind her, avoiding looking anywhere near Matthew.

"What?" He got up of the chair and knocked over the chair he had been sitting on.

"I didn't know until I was over four months along, not until I started showing, my periods never stopped until the fifth month, but after I found out I felt that you needed to know, then I went to find you and when I did, it was in the newspaper announcing your engagement to Madeline. I got scared and I knew I couldn't tell you then, and when she was born..."

"She?"

"Yes, Alanna. When she was born I thought about telling you again, but then I read that you were going for office as an alderman, and then I couldn't cause scandal for you, so I avoided it again. And the years went by and you just kept moving up the politcal ladder and I could never tell the secret I'd kept hidden because I was so terrified that it would ruin your chances at your career and then she grew up. She's nearly twenty now, she plans to start university this year coming, she took two years off, and..." She trailed off.

Most of us have nothing to complain about
Most of us have things we could live without
Everyone need advice on how to get along
You don't, we won't until we figure out

"How can there possibly be more?" Matthew yelled.

"She doesn't know who you are either, she's a good child and the greatest daughter I could have ever asked for, but I don't know what to do for her..."

"God woman, stop talking in riddles, I am at a disbelief already, just speak plainly, tell me everything and don't try to sugarcoat it, if you planned to sugarcoat that information it should have been done twenty-one years ago when you found out. Now tell me this instant whatever news it is that caused you to tell me your little secret now, twenty-one years later." The statement ended between clentched teeth.

"I'm sick Matthew." She took a deep breath. "I was diagnosed with breast cancer during Alanna's senior year of high school. She's spent the last two years taking care of me. We've had to mortgage the house, we've spent all of our savings and I have been unable to work for the entire time, and now they don't think I'll live for more than a few weeks. She has nothing and she will be left with no one. I hate to ask this of you, but she needs somone, I don't want my little girl going out into the world with nothing when I am gone, I know she will not be able to go to school, she cannot afford it, and I don't want her working at a department store job for the rest of her life. I know what this could potentially do to you and your campaign and I know you run for your second term in less than a year, and this will be a huge blow to it, but she has never needed anything from you, don't blame her for my mistakes. Help her."

"I, Sarah, I don't even know what to say right now, maybe you should go, just leave a number that I can reach you at."

"I leave for home tonight." She replied as she got up and straightened her dress. "I'll give you my home number." She took out a small piece of paper and wrote something down on it. Matthew didn't speak or look at Sarah. He heard her leave the room and looked at the door as it closed. He hurried out of the room and caught her in the hallway with the two agents who had escorted her in.

"Sarah." He called. "Do you have a picture?" She smiled then grabbed her purse and pulled out a small pocket sized album. "I put some together in case you wanted to see them."

"Thank you." He nodded to the agents and they continued to take Sarah away.
Matthew hurried back for his drawing room and sat down on the couch Sarah had previously sat on. He stared at the cover of the small album. He openned it. The first pictures were of a newborn baby wearing various pink and yellow sleepers. The child grew into a toddler standing against a table for support, eating a first year birthday cake. She grew older, and soon Matthew was staring at a child in school pictures, dance classes, soccer team pictures. Even in group photos he could pick out his daughter, he had no doubts of who she was, she was an identical match to his own daughters as they grew up. The album continued to gradutation pictures, but that was where they changed, he saw the difference in his daughters eyes from her early senior pictures of cheerleading to the forced happiness in her prom dress. The pictures taken early in the year were filled with genuine happiness, but after her graduation portraits, she changed, and he could see the tiredness that her mother carried with her had transferred to their daughter. He couldn't imagine what it must have been like for her when her world came crashing down around her, and he wished he could have been there. He didn't know this girl, but he couldn't help but care for her. She was his. he came to the final pictures of the album where Alanna sat with her mother by her side as she had her head shaved for cancer research. Tears filled her eyes, but she was smiling at Sarah, and Matthew felt his own eyes water.

When he flipped back to her last happy picture, her grad portrait, he looked up to the pictures of his other four daughters. Quadruplets, born eighteen months after his marriage to Madeline, they had graduated from high school this past year, and looking from the portrait of his eldest to his other daughters he felt the need to have this girl in his life. He didn't care what the public, his wife or daughrters wanted, or if it cost him his presidency, he needed to know his eldest daughter. Sarah was right, he could not blame Alanna for what she had done. And he wouldn't.

Could someone deliver us and send us some kind of sign
So close to giving up 'cause faith is so hard to find
Someone deliver us, just send us some kind of sign
So close to giving up 'cause faith is so hard to find
But you don't, and you won't until we figure out
You don't, and you won't until we figure out