“I have decided…,â€? my dad starts,â€? I mean we have decided something together.â€? I look at my mom, who looks down. “There is a young man, Edwin Edwards, coming from England to stay with us for a while.â€? He speaks slowly, choosing his words. “And at the end of the year, you are to marry him.â€?

My jaw drops. Did he just say marry?

“Did you just say marry!?â€? I yell.

“Calm down. Yes, and he is a very nice young man Hazel.â€? My mom says calmly.

“You can’t force me to marry someone I have never met!â€?

“Hazel Lovedie!â€? My dad always says that when he gets angry with me. “We are you’re parents and we want to you to marry him. All the young men hear can not be trusted.â€?

“And you can trust a guy that lives all the way in England! I won’t do it and you can’t make me!â€?

“Hazel!â€? My mom yells after me as I get up.

I run up the stairs to my room and fall on to my bed. Tears start to flow as it really hits. At the end of my senior year I am to be married, and there is nothing at all I can do about it.