Chapter 1
Hi, my name is Nina Mitchell and this is my story that I would like to share with you all. Let’s start at the beginning.
As I said, my name is Nina and I am 18 years old. I have 2 younger brothers, Joey and Christian, but we just call him Chris. Joey is one and a half, while Chris is 10 years younger than me. We had a happy childhood until I was around eleven. My mother Melissa and my father Gabriel got married at age 16 and 20 ... too early if you ask me, but at that time it was normal to get married at a young age.
My father was never the faithful type. He cheated on mom a lot of times but she always forgave him. I was always daddy’s little girl, but I still felt sorry for my mother.. it was not nice of dad to do such a thing to her. I just wanted us to be a big happy family, but life isn´t that easy as we want it to be.
When we were younger, we were always fighting, teasing each other: Joey, me and our cousins Andrew and Felix. Andrew was 1, while Felix was 8 years older than me and they were the sons of my mother’s sister, Andy. As the only girl with three boys, I was never the whining type. My dream was to be a car racer. Still it is, though I think it’s not gonna happen, but I still have time for that, right? I know this is strange coming from a girl, but I am a little bit girlish too. I like to put my nails, my hair, I wear jewellery and I use make up too. I have strawberry blonde hair, which reaches to my waist with blue-grey eyes for what the make-up highlights the colour. Everybody compliments my eyes, saying how beautiful they are. I like them too, maybe that’s the only thing that I like about myself. I was always a little bit chubby. That’s why I was never self-confident.
Returning to my parents, one day a new family moved into the neighbourhood. A foreign woman called Dana with her son Sean, who was a year younger than Joey. Sean and Joey became friends and Dana and Mom get along quite well too. I never liked Sean, he was always a spoiled brat and he still is. He always got what he wanted. His father didn’t live with them but he bought everything for his son and Sean never failed to brag about it.
A few months after they moved here, I noticed something was wrong with mom. She was just sitting in the living room staring at nothing in front of her and she was drinking more than she used to. When she was drunk she started crying and said that nobody loved her. Later I find out it was because of my father. He again cheated on her, at this time with Dana , the new neighbour who had become my mom´s best friend by that time already. He even left her for Dana. We all broke down because of that , especially mom. She was alone with 3 children at age 29. I was 11 years old at that time, Joey was 9 and Chris was 1. It was a hard time for all of us.
My father moved away with them to the edge of the city. From one part I understand why he left. Mom was always lazy, she did not mind so much if the house was messy because she was too lazy to clean it up. The dishes were always towering in the kitchen sink . I was always embarrassed to invite any of my classmates or friends to my house, so I didn’t. I helped her a lot to clean up, but I was just a kid and I grew up in this so I just didn’t think about that I should do it more often.
My mother started drinking every day. I needed to look after my brothers when she wasn’t at home and, since she worked in a pub, she was never at home in the evening. Even on her free days she was there drinking. I did blame her for that, but on the other hand, I understood her too, because she had just lost her love, but she still should have thought about us. It was hard for us too. I was crying every day to get my normal family back. I was praying to God , even though I wasn’t sure he existed, to bring my father back and to help mom to see what she needed to change to make it work, but nothing of that happened.
A few years later, my dad moved back to the neighbourhood with his family, but by that time they had a common child already, Stefani. I was happy because he moved closer, we got to see him more often and I thought maybe he could help us financially a little bit more.
Since my father left, we have never had enough money. He sent some to mom but she spent most of it on alcohol. Sometimes we didn’t even have food. For years I ate at 2 pm for the first time a day when I got home from school because I couldn’t bring food or money with me, only for a few days after salary.
At age 16, I met my first serious boyfriend, Tyler. I lost my virginity with him. He was a bad boy, fighting, drinking, using drugs. I didn’t like him at first and he was quiet around me, but one day as we were drinking and smoking in a small forest in the middle of the city, one of our acquaintances came to join us. His name was Dan. He was very drunk already, so out of nowhere he just kissed me. I was shocked, I was too kind and naive to stop him, but I didn’t really like the situation so I left with the excuse to go to pee and pulled one of my friends away and asked her to help me out of this. I didn’t notice at first, but Tyler came behind us, so he heard everything. He offered his help. He said he had an idea. Let’s just say that we are together and the guy will leave me alone, he said. I agreed but then he said he would help me with one condition, if I really became his girlfriend. I was young and naive and actually I was also a little bit happy that someone was interested in me, so I just agreed again. Tyler turned out to be a nice, caring guy and we have been together since then.
In the meantime, my father got a job abroad. A few years later, I went after him because we really struggled financially and I wanted to help my family. I hadn’t even finished school yet, since I was 18 already and I didn´t have to, so I decided to leave school and the country and start working. Dad brought his new family along with him and I asked Tyler to come with me and now we are here in Nederland , a new country, a new start for all of us.
