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Prologue
School was so boring! Daniel Donahue always found himself gazing out of the classroom window and daydreaming about faraway places and knights in shining armor storming castles and rescuing fair maidens in distress. He had just gone to the Pelican Bay Library over the weekend and he’d taken a book out about King Arthur and the knights of the round table. Daniel had read the book in a few hours. He’d stayed up past his bedtime and read it from cover to cover with a flashlight under his blanket.
He shared a room with his older brother, Parker, who’d complained about the use of a flashlight. He’d threatened to punch him if he didn’t turn the flashlight off. Parker would never really punch him, but he always said he would to scare him. Daniel had waited until Parker had drifted off to sleep, then he had crept back under the covers and read until the book was finished. He had thought about the sword Excalibur, Lancelot, King Arthur and Guinevere. That night he’d dreamt of finding the Holy Grail. Daniel let out a sigh. He wanted his life to be interesting, like the adventures of the Knights of the Round Table. Instead he was stuck inside a classroom zoning out instead of listening to his teacher blab on about basic arithmetic.
Blah blah blah. Who didn’t know how to add and subtract? Daniel could do it with his eyes closed. He wanted to learn about important things like the first astronauts who landed on the moon and how many miles it was from Earth to Mars. He yearned to know about Aristotle and Plato. He couldn’t wait to learn another language.
Daniel looked over at Priscilla Brown. In his opinion she was the sweetest girl in class, as well as the cutest. She had two dark pigtails and a big gap between her two front teeth. He had a crush on her. It was the very first crush he’d ever had in his life. As soon as the bell rang, he had headed into the classroom and placed a pink rose on her desk. He’d made sure to get there early so no one would see him do it. Daniel had plucked it from his mother’s garden. Priscilla had picked it up and raised it to her nostrils and taken a deep whiff of it. Daniel had wanted to tell her he’d given her the flower, but he felt shy about it. If anyone knew it was him, they would tease him even worse than they usually did. He would never hear the end of it. And he had no idea if Priscilla liked him back or not. She didn’t pay him the slightest bit of attention, but Jason said that sometimes girls did that when they really did like you.
Daniel was only nine but in his mind he was much, much older. Sometimes it seemed as if he didn’t have much in common with kids his own age.
He didn’t have a whole lot of friends. It was
great having a lot of brothers and a sister. They were his best friends. And even though Parker could be bossy sometimes, Daniel wouldn’t trade him for anything in this world. And Jason, who had been adopted a few years ago, was awesome. He was the same age as Daniel and he knew everything about everything. Not school stuff, but life stuff. Jason knew how to fix a flat tire, how to build a fort, catch salamanders and find the best crabs at the beach. All the girls in his class loved Jason. They thought he was responsible for the stars shining at night. Sometimes it got annoying. Jason didn’t have a big head about it so Daniel could live with it. Jason was too busy being cool to notice girls.
Daniel had three other siblings who’d been adopted—Heath, Nash and Caleb. And even though he knew they were all born from another mother, it didn’t feel like it. It felt as if they had all been in the Donahue household since the beginning. As his dad liked to say, they all loved each other unconditionally. With every fiber of their beings. Just as God intended.
Sometimes it felt as if there was so much love in his household that it would burst wide open.
He was lucky in the sibling department. They were all cool, even the little ones—Nash, Micah and his baby sister, Shayla. He didn’t know what he would do without them. He might just die of loneliness if it wasn’t for them.
The bell rang, announcing the end of class. He watched as Priscilla walked over to Dean Kroger, one of the most annoying kids in the class. Dean was the type of kid who thought he ruled the universe. For some reason, all the girls loved him. Daniel figured they must be shallow since he was full of good looks and absolutely no charm whatsoever. Furthermore, he was a big old bully. He was positively hateful.
“Thanks for the rose, Dean,” Priscilla said in a soft voice as she raised the rose to her nose and sniffed it. “I knew it was from you the moment I saw it.”
Daniel’s heart plummeted to his belly. Ouch! Dean was getting credit for his rose!
Dean’s eyes widened in surprise, then he began to smile at Priscilla. “I’m glad you like it, even though it’s not nearly as pretty as you. I know how much you love flowers. It matches your skirt.”
Priscilla giggled and walked out of the classroom side by side with Dean. Daniel let out a groan. How typical. A jerk like Dean always came out smelling like a rose while he was left hanging in the wind. Life wasn’t fair! As he stared after Priscilla he began to realize perhaps she wasn’t as cute as he’d believed her to be. If she couldn’t see that Dean was a bad dude, she was pretty foolish. And Daniel didn’t like stupid.
“Daniel.” Mrs. Pritchard called him and beckoned him over to her desk. “Your parents are in the guidance office for the meeting. Hurry along so you won’t be late.”
Daniel had forgotten all about the meeting with his guidance counselor and his parents. Was he in trouble? Had he done something wrong? He had no idea what this meeting was about and he really didn’t want to go. With a sigh he made his way down the long corridor toward Mr. Lang’s office. As soon as he walked into the outer office he could see his parents through Mr. Lang’s open door.
“Hey, champ,” his father said as Daniel walked in. He ruffled his hair and smiled at him.
His mother patted the chair next to her as an invitation for him to sit down.
His guidance counselor, Mr. Lang, rubbed his hands together and said, “Thank you all for coming today. I’ve called this meeting to talk about Daniel’s educational path.”
Uh oh. This didn’t sound good, Daniel thought. A meeting like this couldn’t be good news, could it?
His mother Penelope leaned forward in her seat. “We just want you to know that we’re committed to helping Daniel with his school work. We know he hasn’t been overly invested this year, but we’re going to look into getting a tutor and doing some after school programs to keep him on track.”
Mr. Lang shook his head. “Mr. and Mrs. Donahue. You’ve misunderstood me. Daniel isn’t struggling at all. Quite the contrary. Your son is gifted.”
Jude Donahue frowned. “Gifted? What do you mean by that?”
Mr. Lang grinned at them. “Well in plain terms he’s off the charts brilliant. His test scores are equivalent to a high achieving college student.”
His mother gasped. His father’s mouth hung wide open. Daniel frowned. It felt like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. He’d never heard the word gifted before.
Daniel swung his gaze toward his parents. His folks were grinning from ear-to-ear. Daniel had a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach. He didn’t want to be gifted. He didn’t want to be special. Every night he prayed to God just to fit in.
Once again, he was going to stick out like a sore thumb.
He was going to be branded as different. Not like the rest of the kids. A freak. An outcast. And even though he knew enough to plaster a fake smile on his face so his parents wouldn’t worry, he was dying on the inside. He knew his life would only get harder from this moment on.
“We all have flaws. Each and every one of us. God didn’t intend for any of us to be perfect. Lord knows I’m not.”
Penelope Donahue
Chapter One
Daniel Donahue had always known something was wrong with him. Ever since he was a little kid it had been crystal clear. For many years his teachers had thought he was autistic or on the spectrum. But tests showed he wasn’t. He was just different. And highly intelligent. Brilliant even. His brain worked differently than other people. It was both a blessing and a curse.
He had been double promoted at nine years old, which hadn’t helped much with his social skills but had allowed him to graduate from high school at the tender age of fifteen. A few months later he’d started college, which he’d whipped through in two and a half years.
As a child, other kids hadn’t related to him very well, and aside from his siblings, Daniel didn’t have a whole lot of friends. It was a funny thing though. He had been blessed with seven of the most amazing siblings a person could ever have in this world. They had gotten him through what could have been a very lonely childhood. Instead, he had been lifted up and celebrated and accepted. Loved!
