In 1990, Elijah was offered a big promotion at work. It included a significant raise, more responsiblity, his own secretary, and a move to the Greater London Area. While Melissa had her own reservations about it, she dutifully packed up their house and daughter and did her best to make the transition easy on the toddler. She became a stay at home mother and devoted herself to Annabelle. She taught her all the tradition pre-school lessons, arranged playdates, and when Annabelle decided she wanted to try dancing, Melissa became a willing taxi and even headed up the carpool.
Despite Annabelle's obsession and the fact that her mum never missed a recital in support of her daughter's dreams, she was still required to attend regular schooling and have friends outside of dance, even when she began participating in competitions at the age of 8. It was one the way to such a competition when she was 11 that her love of history was awakened when one of her teachers gave her a biography of Anne Boleyn to keep her occupied on a long bus ride. By the end of the weekend, the book was done but the fascination was just beginning.
Around the age of 14, Annabelle began to notice some weird tension in her house. Her parents went from barely speaking to having yelling matches in the middle of the night that always ended in her dad leaving and her mom crying. They tried to act normal when they knew their daughter was around, but it was impossible to hide all the cracks. Two weeks after her 15th birthday, Melissa sat her daughter down and broke the news of the divorce. Annabelle found out later that it was all precipitated by her father sleeping with his secretary, but at the time all she knew was that her world was falling apart. And to top it off, her mom was getting custody of her and they were moving to the United States that summer.
To say that Annabelle was unhappy about being forced to leave everything she’d ever known and move to a whole new country would be a gross understatement, but for her mom’s sake, she sucked it up and tried to make the best of it. She tested into a higher grade than was typical for her age but she used her sense of humor to cope with it all, though her pain showed in her decision to stop dancing. She simply didn’t have to heart to deal with all the changes and audition for new studios. Instead she threw herself into her studies, making friends, and attempting to understand her new home.
By the grace of whomever, Annabelle managed to make it through high school intact, graduating with a GPA of 3.85 and acceptance to University of California, Irvine with the intention to study history. It was here that she had her first brush with love, falling for a guy a year older than her. For a time, she thought things were going well as she tried to balance his demands for attention with her studies. All that crashed to the ground when she walked into their apartment to find him in bed with a sorority girl, only to have him blame her for making him turn to someone else.
Heart broken, Annabelle only threw herself deeper into her studies because books couldn’t hurt her. She entered an accelerated program that allowed her to work on her Master’s and Doctorate simultaneously and eventually graduated with a 3.9 GPA and a PhD in history. With the recommendation of her favorite professor, she applied for a freshly opened spot in the history department at her own alma matter and was hired in 2014 as a junior professor, teaching 100 level classes. Professionally, she had her life together and her path figured out. Now for the next chapter, she faces the struggle to sort out the rest of it.