Raven Robinson was eighteen and ready for a new life. Still she never expected things to happen the way they did. She hadn't expected her mom to die tragically in a car wreck last November. She hadn't expected her dad to get married to her PE teacher Miss Malone by the following May either. She wasn't exactly shocked he would want to, it was the answer that really surprised her. Her dad was once a handsome man to be sure. But now Bob Robinson was a 50 year old man with two bad knees, an ulcer; plus beer gut that only became more pronounced as he aged. Bob was on the road constantly and was very fond of joking about being a modern day character from an Arthur Miller story. He hadn't joked nearly as much since Raven's mother Elizabeth died. Raven hoped it wasn't due to a him feeling guilty about a secret family somewhere in Montana or Utah. She never pegged him for the cheating type before but she was having serious doubts lately. Raven reasoned that it was all in her head, anyway no mysterious lover had shown up after mom's death laying claim to the family home so she dismissed the thought.
The second shocking aspect to the whole marriage was the anomaly herself Miss Malone. Miss Malone was drop dead gorgeous. She was 6'1 with blonde hair and brown eyes. Being a PE teacher she was obviously fit but without seeming at all too muscular. Nothing at all like Raven, who was all of 5'6, rail thin, with long black hair (which she was named for) with green eyes. To top it off Miss Malone was young, just twenty-six, barely half her new husband's age. Why she would settle down with an over the hill insurance salesman was a complete mystery. Whenever she was asked she would flip her hair, laugh and say, " Well it isn't the money honey". And for sure it wasn't. Bob made a nice salary and even pulled in some decent commission from time to time but he was far from rich. Raven knew her dad was head over heels and so as a daughter Raven couldn't help but be happy for him.
Initially Raven had wanted to hate her new step-mom. It just seemed like the natural thing to do. She hated how easy it all seemed to them. She hated that her dad called Miss Malone 'Lizzy' even though it was in fact her name. This was an understandable trigger because Raven's real mother Elizabeth had once been called Lizzy too. The thing she hated the most however was her dad's insistence that the two girls should be best of friends. It seemed at the time like the ultimate betrayal to her mother. If she were entirely honest though, she did like Miss Malone, once.
