When I first started Mocked by Destiny, I had originially named it Diary of a Lonely Teeneager. This is the drawing I drew and used as my inspiration. I know I am not an artist, but I am a visual person and need to see what I am writing about. So be kind.
Inside the Mocked by Destiny story and characters:
It’s no secret that towns with military bases have a higher teen pregnancy rate, even more so in places like Virginia Beach. Virginia Beach’s base is a vacationing base. It’s a base for military families to spend time with their families. The base itself has a campground, hotel, townhouses, and bungalows.
In the evening hours, the visitors flood the boardwalk to shop, eat, drink, and of course, get ice cream. Though it’s unavoidable to interact with the locals, some locals resent what their visits do to their beautiful town.
How could I know this? Did I make it up? No, i'm quite familar with the base. Having spent many of summers there with my family. My family has a lot of former military members: 2 ex-Navy, 4 former Army, and 1 currently deployed.
So you see, I myself have been in the groups headed to the beach to shop, buy ice cream, and mingle. I've also seen my teen cousins meeting vacationing military or their sons. In fact this story started as I watched them playing with babies on the beach as the Navy Seals performed their training a 100 yards away. Grabbing my daugther's notebook, it poured out. I had it half written by the time I returned home to the burbs of Boston. Of course it took some proding from my freind from NY to get me to post it in an online contest. In the end, it didn't matter whether I won or lost, if just one young girl read it and resisted her hormones, my job was done.
Stella Richards
Stella grew up knowing nothing good comes from those who visit her home town of Virginia Beach. The outsiders only want to use and abuse the serene setting and the friendly people who work there. There is only one guarantee from those visiting, they will leave and most likely never come back. She herself learned this early on during her first unsupervised summer on the beach.
After being left heartbroken by the flurry of friends she made, she vowed to never do it again. Making and losing five bestfreinds will do that to you. Cutting herself off from those who could hurt her, she left herself lonely and uninterested in the flocking vacationers.
Coming from a long line of teenage, unwed mothers, Stella’s family consisted of all females who were either left pregnant or were children of those who visited the beach and left without looking back. Stella had plans that didn’t include becoming a teenage mom. She strived to break the streak that had plagued her family for generations starting with being the first in her family to attend college.
All those plans changed when she encountered a young man on the beach. Stefan Sterling. She tried to out run her destiny several times and it always came back to bite her in the butt. When Stella handed him his ice cream cone, she handed him her heart and future.
Stefan Sterling
Stefan grew up on a military base in Germany. In a life where you never knew when you’d be shipped off to another one. He had friends, but like him, they all knew they could wake up the next day and they’d be gone. As Stella had done, he kept his friends at a distance to avoid being hurt when they had to leave.
He, too, wanted to change the way his life seemed to be headed. He wanted out of the strict upraising he had. Determined to follow in his brother’s footsteps, he planned to go to college as far removed from the military as he could.
The stories of how the generations in his family had known the moment they met their loved ones had been passed on. Stefan wasn’t a believer in love at first sight. He concidered it a ridiculous wise tale his grandparents had passed down, until it happened to him.
Passing through on his way to Washington, DC for his father’s new posting, his life changed in an instant. In one glance Stella altered him and his heart. On his last night of vacation he gave Stella a piece of himself, the one peice his parents couldn't control. The one piece that would forever lock them together.
Who knew a chocolate ice cream cone could change their destinies?
Stella and Stefan
Pulled together by destiny, these two will learn to love, sacrifice, and grow up before it’s time. Reconnecting on thier birthdays, the true impact of what had happened all those months before stared them in the face. Forced to make decisions that take them further from their goals, they learn to lean on each other. Mistakes are made, but can love conquer all?
For that answer you’ll have to read and find out.
Some of that you might have seen before on The Girl Who Reads blog or in interviews. So here's what has never been said before.
Daisy Richards
Stella's mom, Daisy had grown up the daughter of a teen mom. After being left pregnant twice, she hardened her heart and raised her daugthers to avoid the boys from the base. She'd learned first hand, they only wanted one thing. The desire to go to college never stuck with her. Instead she became a hairdresser and raised the girls alone with only the help of her mother. She took the news of her impending grandmotherhood much like any of us would have.
Maurice Sterling
Stefan's father, tried to keep a strict hold on his sons in the hopes they would make the mistakes he had. In the end it pushed both his sons to run from him. His efforts to keep Stefan away from Stella not only failed, but fueled the night she got pregnant. Deep down he was only trying to pretect his son, but inadvertantly ended up making the situation worse.
Shirley Sterling
Being an overly protective mother led to her downfall. Her matching efforts with Maurice served to push the boys away even further, and hurt everyone involved. There are times when you need to let your children live their lives, she forgot that.
This is a raw and realistic view of teen pregnancy. It's not fluffy. I wanted teens to know what they were really up against. Please feel free to comment and ask questions. Thanks for reading!
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