Chapter Two | Kittens and Cupcakes Writing Challenge

Hey! I was tagged by June for this. The idea is that a whole bunch of different bloggers work together to write one story - each of them writing and posting their own chapter. It's wonderful, isn't it?
Firstly, I want to tell you where you can find the first chapter, written by June.
Wanna follow this story?
Find June's amazing chapter 1 here,
and Madeline's brilliant chapter 3 here.

So. Bree from Introducing Inspiration has created this lovely tag in which everyone takes turns to write a chapter, adding on to the previous one. June's chapter was amazing.
I'm gonna post the rules, but I suggest you pop over to Bree's original post, here, on this writing challenge, to really understand how this all works.

Rules:

1. If you agree to doing this challenge after being tagged, continue on the next chapter of the story (chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4, etc.). And tag the previous chapters.

2. Write the chapter, incorporating the challenge words and situations.

3. If you would rather not do it, pass it onto someone - but if you aren't going to do it, don't add your own challenges.

4. After writing your chapter, tag someone else and state your own challenges.

5. Add the picture above your post. (optional)
///

The next person I tag is Madeline, from In The Wind. I'm pretty sure that her blog was called In The Wind because of this reason: her writing blows me away. I'm sure if you pop over there and check it out, you'll be blown away as well.

The challenges I received to write this chapter:

Gratefulness
Former
Raven
Caught___ing
"I finally got to __"

My challenges for the next writer of the next chapter:

Include the words:

Galaxy

Friendly
Wild
Tears

Situations:

An accident

Here is my chapter:

CHAPTER TWO

I found the second note in the same place.
This time,

I know your secret, Emily. I know what you did.

I could not say that I was not intimidated after I read those words. Because, whoever this was, they knew my real name. The one I had begged my parents to allow me to change for months, before they finally gave in and let me. I finally got to get rid of Emily, and Francesca was born.
So how much more did this person know about me? About my life?

I was only nine when I changed my name. But I knew it was what I wanted.
Right after I became Francesca, I worked hard to lose all of my old friends, to hang out at different places, to build up the new character I wanted to be by the time I got to high school, where no one would ever know me as Emily. I was determined to be one of ‘popular’ girls, and now I was. No one at my high school had the faintest idea that I had ever swapped boring, plain, naïve Emily for flashy, glamorous, sassy Francesca.
I didn't even have any grandparents, let alone cousins and aunts and uncles.
My mom had died when I was eleven, and when my dad married again, we never told my step mom. Only my dad knew.

At least that was what I had thought. Until now.

-

-

-

My head was throbbing as I walked along the pavement. All the thoughts, swimming in my brain like fish in a pond. What was going on? Who was stalking me? 

Surely it had to be one of my former friends.

Stop! It’s nothing to worry about, Francesca. Just keep your cool.
Somehow calling myself Francesca in my head gave me comfort.

I let out a deep breath. I tipped my head to the sky, where I saw a raven in flight. Or was that a crow? I couldn't really tell.
I kicked an empty Coke can. I brushed a piece of my blonde hair behind my ear. I stopped. I looked down at my All Star sneakers. The right shoe had a splash of Coke on the tip – it appeared the can wasn’t empty. I sighed, slowly. I carried on walking.
Everything felt so surreal.

I finally got home, after the twenty minute walk that seemed to take forever. I went straight to the fridge to find a sugar free soft drink.
From the kitchen I could hear my step mom, Greta, ranting about something to my dad. I caught a few of her words.
“I’m just telling you, you should teach her something about gratefulness!” she was saying.
And my dad’s answer, steady as always, “Of course, dear.”

Greta came into the kitchen. She turned and caught me giving her a fake, sweet smile. She frowned and shook her head. Then she left to go to her den, her room, with a bar of chocolate.

I took my drink and went to my own room, where I flopped down on my bed.
I won’t be coming downstairs for supper. Besides, it’s probably leftovers or takeaways again, since our maid, Ella, is out tonight, and Greta can’t cook to save her life.

I fell asleep almost straight away.

_____

Thanks for reading. :)

Note to June: I hope you don't mind, but with your challenges, I compromised a wee bit. Do you think it's okay? I have put where I used the challenges in underlining. They're not exactly right, but, like I said, I compromised a little...is it fine?