There is a girl, aged about 13 years old, when she was 7 1/2, her father left her mother and her four siblings to fend for themselves, her brothers are Harvey, Nikolaus, Thomas, and Andy. The girl's name is Melinda. She has this place that nobody knows about, she calls it her secret place, she goes there to get away from the crap that's going on in her life, it is her place where anything and everything can happen, without any bad consequences. She is a very sweet girl, even though many people make fun of her because of how she looks, and how horrible her life is at home. A lot of people know her 'perfect' brother, Harvey, so she has a lot to live up to, she has many of his past teachers, and they ask her at times why she can't be like her brother, but she tries her hardest to do so, seeing as he is trying his hardest to help his mother provide for the family. He is 17 when this story begins, and he is working at a job where they make him work overtime, and they don't pay him for that, and they only pay him minimum wage, so he decides to quite the job, and after he quites, he finds it very hard to find a job. Shortly after Harvey quites his job, his mother meets a man, and that man will eventually become her husband as the story progresses, and this causes many problems with the children in the family, seeing as they have lived for so long without a father, and all of a sudden, they are presented with a man with whom they are expected to call 'dad'. Melinda goes to her secret place for longer periods of time after this man and his daughter move into the house, his daughter staying in Melinda's room. His daughter is rather annoying, and she tries her hardest to stay away from her, but her mother won't allow that, her mother tries to make Melinda take the girl to her secret place. There are many conflicts in this story, and you will see that this effects many people, both in positive and negative, but I will leave you to decide whether or not you enjoy this story, for it is not the opinion of the author that matters, but that of the reader, as Melinda already knows well enough.
