So, I was looking through my "story ideas", which are no more than a set of text files, each containing one or two lines of ideas for a story, and one of them sparked off an idea. The idea very quickly changed from what I first envisioned, but I think will be more interesting, and thought-provoking.

I'll start by introducing our main characters: Terry Jones, and his sister Sarah Jones. Both are adopted, which explains how come they are both 18, yet have birthdays only 6 months apart. The story will be mainly told by Terry, but Sarah and others might occasionally contribute a chapter.

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(c) 2023 [email protected]
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Chapter 1

>Terry<

So, I'm Terry, I'm 18, and currently live in Southampton. I finished at sixth form college last June, but decided to take a year off, so will be going to university later this year. For the moment, I'm working in an office, but I'm going to go travelling with my sister for a bit in May or June.

I'm about 5ft 6in tall (so, 66 ins, or just under 1.7 metres for those of you not in England!!), and weigh just under 10 stone (you can google that yourselves!!), so am reasonably slim. I have ginger hair, so tend to stand out from the crowd.

At the moment, I'm single: I used to have a girlfriend, but she went off to university last September, so we decided it would be a lot easier on both of us if we split up. I did see her at christmas: we went out for a drink together, and I discovered that she sort-of has a new boyfriend, but it was good to see her again.

I have a younger sister, Sarah, she's about 6 months younger than me: yes, I can see you're wondering how that is. Well, you see, we were both adopted by mum and dad: I was a matter of months old when I was adopted, but my sister was almost 4 when they adopted her. But the truth is that being adopted doesn't matter, we both have an amazing pair of parents, who have looked after us, provided for us, and more importantly, love us both. Conveniently, we are both in the same school year, and she too is taking a year off before going to uni.

I'm not quite sure where I was actually born, but I do know that, when I was adopted, we lived in Andover, in Hampshire... so I'm guessing I was born somewhere in that area. When I was about 4, we moved to Winchester, and that's where we lived when they adopted my sister. A little over 2 years ago (between leaving school and starting at 6th form college) we moved to Southampton... all to do with dad's job, plus getting a nicer house to live in!

I get on really well with Sarah, I think being the same sort of age as her helps, and whilst we have different friends, we often join each others groups when going out. Sarah is actually reasonably good locking, and at 5ft 8ins, is a bit taller than me.... so we have the big brother / little brother leg-pulling that often goes on. She has lovely long dark hair, but wears a bit too much makeup for my liking: she used to have bad acne a few years ago, and used the makeup to cover her rough skin, and I think she's just got in the habit of wearing it all. She also likes 'dressing up', and showing off her larger-than-average cleavage. In the past, yes, we have 'messed around', getting as far as 'third base' on a couple of occasions - no reason we can't, we're not actually related - but she's not really the sort of girl I fancy. Besides, we decided it might not be a good thing to take it any further anyway.

Sarah used to have braces 4 or 5 years ago, and I think that was when my interest in braces developed. Sarah had buck teeth, and needed to have a fixed upper expander (and brackets) for most of a year, as well as a cervical headgear for 9 months of that. She wasn't keen on her headgear, and completely refused to wear it outside the house, but accepted that she needed to wear it if she wanted to have nice teeth. The end result was that, while she typically didn't quite reach the 'desired wearing schedules', it was good enough to achieve the desired result - although she probably had to wear it a month or two longer. After all that, she just had her large (NHS-provided, and free) metal brackets for a further year, along the way having elastics in a few different combinations.

I'll be honest, seeing her in her headgear, and hearing her sweet lisp while she had her expander was probably what started my braces interest. Yes, I did manage to persuade her to let me kiss her in her headgear a couple of times, it was quite a nice experience.

After her braces got removed, she had to wear a pair of hawley retainers full time for 12 months. She really appreciates how much better her teeth looked after her 2 year treatment, and didn't want them to go crooked again, so she actually still wears her retainers regularly one night a week.

So what about my teeth? Well, when my sister got hers, I was checked out too, and whilst my teeth are not quite as good as hers are now, they were, and still are, pretty good. Yes, I'd love to experience braces, but there's no way I could afford to get them privately. But even if I could afford it - and I'm pretty sure I could get an ortho to give me braces - I think it would be hard to explain to others why I actually need them. But experiencing my sister having braces was a good experience.

And yes, I have tried wearing her retainers, but her mouth shape is very different from mine: my mouth is a little wider. So they 'sort of' fit: if nothing else, it was very nice to run my tongue over the lovely smooth plastic of them.

Chapter 2

>Terry<

Last night I went out with Sarah and some of her friends to a pub quiz. On the next table, there was a group the same sort of age as us, and we were swapping our answer sheets with them for marking: we seemed to be as good / bad as each other, and at the end of the quiz, they beat us by just one point!

I couldn't help noticing there was a girl on the other table who had braces. Oh, and she had nice ginger hair cut in a sort of bob, but longer at the back. Clearly, because of the quiz, I wasn't able to properly talk to her, but they did all introduce themselves, so I discovered her name was Yvonne. She looked to be about the same age and same sort of height as me, so around 5ft 6in, and was very cute looking. She certainly wore a lot less makeup than Sarah, and whilst dressing quite fashionably, it was a very much 'classier' look than Sarah!

"You were looking at that girl on the next table tonight, weren't you? I bet you fancy her" said Sarah on the way home.

"And why not? She's pretty good looking." I replied.

"And she has braces..."

"Pardon?"

"Oh, c'mon Terry, I KNOW you have a thing for girls in braces! You spent enough time staring at MY mouth when I had them! Oh, and there was Mandy, when she had them...".

My love of braces wasn't something I had shared with anyone, except for some other 'braces lovers' I knew from an online forum. Clearly I'd not covered up my 'desires' well enough. Mind you, Sarah is a pretty observant girl.

"Never realised you had a thing for other gingers though...." she added.

"Yes, her hair was quite ginger wasn't it? Nice cut too."

"Yeah, I know you seem to like bobs. Hey, do you like asian girls, a lot of them have bob cuts?"

"Nah, not really, not so keen on the shape of their faces. Nice haircut, shame about the face!"

"Isn't it time you got another girlfriend then?"

"Hark who's talking... isn't it time you got another boyfriend?"

The fact that we had conversations like this shows how close we were. We continued talking as I drove.

"Hey, you done anything yet about tracing your birth parents?" asked Sarah.

"No, I'm kinda scared to, in case I don't like who they are! Or they don't like me. What about you?"

"Oh, definitely! I just sent an email off earlier today to the place that organised my adoption, see if there's anything they can tell me. Don't get me wrong, you know how much I love mum and dad, but I'm curious to know who my birth parents are. And why they gave me up..."

"Do you have any memories of them? I was so young when mum and dad adopted me, I don't remember anything."

"I have a couple of vague memories, of an old face, but I wonder if that was my birth mum... or my birth grandmother... or was just the lady who mum says fostered me for a few weeks."

"You don't remember your dad at all?"

"No, don't remember a man's face at all.... Hey, how about I help you start your journey to find your birth parents? Or aren't you really ready to take that step?"

"I think maybe I'll wait and see how you get on...."

"Ok. Do you want me to share how I get on?" said Sarah. She thought a few seconds. "I'd really like it if you were with me on this journey!"

"Yeah, ok. I really hope it goes well for you, but you hear some horror stories... sometimes the birth parents have no interest. Or they meet up and it goes really badly..."

I pulled up outside our house.

"Look, Terry, mum knows I'm going to look for my birth parents, but I don't think I want to tell her or dad anything unless they specifically ask - I mean, it must feel a bit shitty knowing that your kid is looking for their 'real mum and dad', even though we both know than mum and dad are actually our 'real' parents."

"Yeah, I think that's maybe part the reason I haven't wanted to find out anything yet..."


(269)

Sparky let me have a sneak preview of what is coming. I think we will enjoy what he does.

Chapter 4

>Terry<

Sarah got a reply back from the adoption agency, but it wasn't a lot of help, so we took another look at her birth certificate: whilst she is now Sarah Jones, she was born Sarah Woodhead, and her parents were John and Brenda Woodhead. Her place of birth was listed as the hospital in Winchester. It gave her father's occupation as 'junior solicitor', and her mum's as 'trainee accountant'. We had already looked online, but the online records currently only reached to 1998, so the only thing that we could have found would have been her dad's birth certificate, which wouldn't be of any real help, unless we needed to search for HIS parents.

"Okay, let's see if we can find a John Woodhead online," I suggested. "I mean, if he started off as a solicitor, he's probably STILL a solicitor." Oh, isn't the internet wonderful: we found a 'John Woodhead, solicitor' at a firm based in Romsey, which isn't that far from Winchester. "Okay, so what now?"

"Well, the easy thing to do would be to just go and see him!" suggested Sarah.

"Probably not a good idea for you to go... You don't know if he even WANTS to meet you."

"True, could be awkward for both of us."

"Would you like me to go? I mean, I'm a relatively 'neutral third party'..."

And that's how I found myself sitting in reception at a solicitor's office in Romsey the following week. We had discovered that it was possible to get a short, and more importantly, free, appointment. Although it did take a bit of doing to make sure I got to see John Whitehead!

"Terry Jones?" asked a man in his late 30's or early 40's. "I'm John Woodhead, please come this way." He led me to a small room, where he closed the door and we both sat down. "How can I help you?"

I was very nervous, and had been rehearsing what to say for the last hour or more as I'd driven out to Romsey, and as I'd waited in reception. "It's not actually for me, it's for my sister. Well, my step-sister."

"Okay, so what can I do for your step-sister?" asked John Woodhead.

I put my hand into my pocket, pulled out a piece of paper, and put it on the table between the two of us. "Err, this is my email and phone number," I stammered. Then I took a big breath. "My sister is Sarah Jones, she just turned 18, and like me, she's adopted. She was adopted about 14 years ago..." I paused. The next thing I had to say was the bit that could make or break things. "Her birth name was Sarah Woodhead..." There, I'd said it.

There was complete silence in the room, and I had absolutely no idea what would happen next. Would I be kicked out? Would he tell me off for wasting his time at work? Was he even the right person? Whilst I'd been looking away, I momentarily looked at his face, and spotted a tiny tear forming. Then he smiled.

"I'm sorry... I guess I've known this day might happen one day, and whilst I was sort-of prepared for it, it's still a bit of a shock..." he said. I said nothing: to be honest I had no idea quite what to say, I was a bit out of my depth. "I guess I ought to check that you're talking about the person I'm thinking of... can you give me her full name, and when she was born?"

"Sure, she's Sarah Louise, born on 20th February... errr, 2005." I had to think for a moment because although we're both now 18, I was born in 2004. I took the photocopy of Sarah's birth certificate from my bag, and put it on the table, and John picked it up and checked it. I suddenly remembered the next bit I needed to say. "We both realise that you might not actually want to make contact with her, and if that's what you want, then we won't disturb you again." I paused, then added, "I think she just wants to understand what happened, I mean, she was four when she was adopted...."

"Yes, I understand. Umm, yes, I'd like to maybe meet her, but you see, I have a new family now, and I'll need to speak with my wife about...."

"Your wife, as in 'Brenda?" I asked.

"No, no, my wife is Jenny."

"Oh, you got divorced?"

"No... Brenda died..." There was silence again. I'll be honest, it was a bit of a surprise. "Maybe I should briefly explain: I married Brenda when I was 23, she was 22, and we had Sarah 2 years later. Life was good, we were thinking about having a little brother or sister for Sarah, but then Brenda was diagnosed with cancer." John stopped to take a deep breath. "Sarah was two at the time. The cancer was very aggressive, and Brenda died less than 18 months later, when Sarah was nearly 4..." He paused again, tears developing in his eyes as he remembered the past. "Back then I worked long hours, and we had already placed Sarah with a foster family short-term during Brenda's treatment, and after a lot of thought, I decided it would be best for Sarah to be brought up by someone who could devote their time to her, and do a better job than I could ever hope to do alone."

Things now made so much more sense, but I knew Sarah would be gutted to discover her birth mother was dead. It was my turn to take a big breath. "So, where do we go from here?" I asked.

"Well, I need to speak to my wife. But I think I'd like to meet Sarah, I assume she'd like to meet with me. Somewhere neutral of course."

"Of course. Look, you have my details," I said, pushing the piece of paper closer to him, "it's probably easier for both you and Sarah to organise things through me for the moment."

"Yes, that makes a lot of sense, thank you."

"Oh, would you like to see a picture of her?" I suggested.

"Actually, yes, that would be nice..." I pulled out my phone, and showed him a couple of pictures, which brought a smile to his face. "What's she doing now?" he asked me, and I briefly explained.

"You said you were adopted too: have you found and met your birth-parents yet?" asked John.

"No, I've not even tried, I think I was a bit scared of what I might find out..."

"Yes, I can understand that. Well, Terry, thanks for coming along to see me: it wasn't at all what I guessed it could be about!"

"Yeah, sorry about that!"

"No, it's fine. And to be honest, I think this was probably better than a knock on the door at home. I'll be in touch. Oh, and tell Sarah..... tell Sarah I'm looking forward to meeting her!"


(715)

Chapter 6

>Terry<

The week after, I got an email from John, Sarah's birth father: he was suggesting a possible meet-up with Sarah on the weekend. If the weather was okay, maybe in a park in Winchester or Southampton? I replied to say either would work for us.

So, on Sunday we had an early lunch, then I borrowed Mum's car (we often did that!) and drove with Sarah up to Winchester. We were to meet in the park on St. Giles Hill, which would be a lot quieter than the other park in Winchester. We had arranged that, once parked, I would call him, and he would tell us where he was.

"Hello, John?" I said when he answered his phone.

"Hello Terry. I'm already here, so if you follow the path, you'll go up some steps to the top of the hill: I'll wait for you both up there."

I took Sarah's hand. "Come on, this way.... he'll be waiting up at the top for us." I could tell that Sarah was nervous. But also very excited. Today, not only would she be meeting her birth-father for the first time, but would be able to get answers to the many questions she had. The path became steps: a lot of steps, fairly steep in places. We slowly climbed, finally reaching the top, where we stopped for a moment.

"That's your dad over there," I told her, pointing discretely. "No rush... when you're ready...." I felt her hand tighten its grip on mine. I turned, and gave her a big hug. "You'll be fine, besides, I'll be nearby if you need me." I had spoken with John earlier: we had agreed that they would walk or sit, or whatever, together. I'd not be with them, giving them their privacy, but would stay somewhere nearby in case Sarah needed me. And I had a pack of tissues in my pocket.

Holding her hand again, I walked with Sarah over to John. "Sarah, this is John, your birth-father. John, this is Sarah!" They both smiled, and John extended his hand which Sarah shook: probably the best sort of introduction, hugging might have been a bit over-presumptive.

"Hello, Sarah, it's nice to see you again... it's been a long time, and you're a bit bigger and older than the last time I saw you!" he said with a smile. He then turned to me: "And Terry, thanks for doing this, I really appreciate it!"

"My pleasure! Look, I'll leave you two together, I'll just remain nearby, if you need me...." John and Sarah walked off together slowly, and I followed at a noticeable distance. After a bit, they found a bench, where they sat and talked, while I sat at another bench nearby. Knowing that they could be some time, I'd taken a book with me to read. I was engrossed when I heard Sarah: "John wonders if we'd like to go into town and grab a coffee with him?"

Well, that answered one of my questions: what would she call him? 'Dad' just didn't seem quite right to me, 'John' made a lot more sense.

---

Back at home, we sat with Mum and Dad in the lounge.

"So, what was your other dad like then?" asked Dad. Sarah went over, and kneeled in front of Dad, leaning on him.

"For a start, nothing at all like you, and you need to know that you will ALWAYS be my real dad! He's a solicitor, and yeah, he's the sort of personality you might expect from one, a bit on the... hmmm... 'formal' and 'practical' side. But I'm glad I finally met him, things make so much more sense now." She explained more details about her mum, and how she had died of cancer. Yes, both of their parents lived in other parts of the country, and both were sufficiently old that they didn't feel they could really bring up a young child. Sarah was looked after by a foster family for a bit under six months, before Mum and Dad finally adopted her.

"So, it seems John remarried in his early thirties - so about 10 years ago - and has 2 kids with his new family. He said he often wondered about me, but tried to lock all those feelings away, because they upset him. I got the feeling that today was good for both of us..."

"Any plans on meeting his new family?" asked Mum.

"To be honest, I'm not sure if we'll even meet again: I found out what I need to today, and whilst he's nice, and 'okay', he's not the sort of person I'd normally want to be with." Sarah got up, and came over and sat by me. She took my hands, saying "... and Terry, thank you SO much for doing this for me. Look, if you decide to look for your birth-parents, I'm here, and willing to help!"



(1084)

Chapter 7

>Terry<

A couple of weekends later, I'd gone into town with Sarah to do some shopping with her. We were both a bit pooped, so decided to stop for a coffee. We'd been sitting at our table talking for maybe 5 minutes, when this cheery voice said: "Oh, hello there!" We both looked up to discover it was Yvonne. Yvonne was that red-haired girl I had first met at the pub quiz several weeks ago, and had met again a couple of weeks later at the pub quiz (but we beat THEIR team that night!).

"Oh, hi there, Yvonne!" said Sarah. "Why don't you join us?" she suggested.

Yvonne went and got herself a coffee, then sat down with us. "Nice to see you guys again!" she said. Luckily for me, she was smiling, letting me see the braces on her slightly crooked teeth. Okay, so not the large NHS brackets that Sarah had a few years ago, a lot smaller, but still metal, and not those allegedly 'less visible but still bloody obvious' ceramic ones! I also spotted some elastics at the sides. "So, if I remember right... it's Sarah and Terry, right?"

"Yup, that's us!"

"So you guys dating, or what?"

I was the first to laugh. "Oh, no, definitely not dating! Sarah's my sister," I explained.

"Ah, right, makes sense now."

"And he's currently quite single!" said Sarah, causing Yvonne to smile again. A nice smile showing those lovely shiny silver braces again.

"Sarah!!!" I complained.

"Look, if I don't 'support' you, who else will? Now, you need to ask her to meet you for a drink tonight.." Yvonne smiled even wider this time. Sarah turned to Yvonne: "He gets a bit awkward around girls...."

"Tell you what, why don't *I* just ask *you* out for a drink tonight?" suggested Yvonne. I felt a bit... I was going to say 'embarrassed', but I think 'awkward' would be the better description. Yeah, as ever, Sarah was 100% right: I DO get awkward around girls I don't know too well. I was silent for a bit too long.

"Yes, he will!" answered Sarah on my behalf, making me go a slightly darker shade of pink.

"You two really ARE quite a couple, aren't you!" said Yvonne. "So, where do you live? If it's somewhere near me, I can give you a lift."

"We live in Bassett..." I replied.

"Oh, that's fine, I'm up in Chilworth, so it's on the way to pretty much anywhere in town."

We chatted more, and I finally started to relax. Yvonne was actually rather nice, with a chilled sort of personality. We exchanged phone numbers, and she said she'd call me later on, to arrange exactly what time she'd collect me.

----

"So, you two look happy!" said Mum as we got back home later on.

"Yeah, Terry has a date tonight!" explained Sarah.

"Oh, nice... I'm sure she's pretty."

"Oh, she is. Has ginger hair, like Terry, but a bit more so. And a nice smile!" she said, looking at me when she said that last bit. Okay, yeah, I couldn't deny it: in principle, Yvonne was on the prettier side of plain, but those braces made her look absolutely gorgeous. Yup, I'm weird! I can't deny it.



(1233)

Chapter 9

>Yvonne<

So, there we were, sitting and having a nice chat in the pub. I'm getting to like Terry, he seems to be a very normal person, and not stupid either. Like me, he's decided to have a gap-year before university. He's not bad looking, speaks well, and dresses okay... but that's fine, he's a guy, and guys don't dress up quite like us girls.

I also saw where he lives, it's in quite a reasonable area, a bit smaller than where I live though, but most people do.

So, having done favourite music, TV, food and all that sort of stuff, I asked him about his sister, Sarah. That was when I got my first surprise: they were the same age, but not twins... born six months apart... because, like me, they were both adopted!

Then things got... well, WEIRD! VERY weird! Terry has the same birthday as me. And we were both born in Andover. And he was adopted just before he was one... just like me. I mean, yes, it could be 100% random, but Occam's razor says otherwise: usually the simplest answer is the correct answer.

Are we brother and sister? Twins?

Both of us had clearly just reached the same conclusion, and both of us were speechless!

"Ummm, I'm not quite sure what to say now..." said Terry.

"Yeah, know the feeling. Hey, have you ever seen your birth certificate?"

"Of course..."

"Do you remember your parents' names by any chance?" I asked him, knowing full well it was a slightly trick question.

"Yeah, my birth-father's name is blank, my birth-mother was Daisy Smith."

I stood up, and walked around the small table. Terry took the hint, and also stood up. I put my arms around him, and hugged him tight. "She's my birth-mum too... and I had absolutely no idea I had a brother!" Terry and I just stood there, hugging, for what seemed like a short eternity. It seems that I wasn't the only one crying tears of joy.


(1443)

Oh, yeah, the car... a small Volkswagen, sort of Polo size, but it was electric... very swanky! Something told me that her family was pretty well off, coz those cars are not cheap!

I assume you mean the E-Up?

Although no longer in production and the smallest VW EV is the Golf sized ID-3.