biography

Mitchell and Phoebe Reagan met by chance on a cold winter day in Denver, Colorado. She was a ski-instructor at one of the many lodges in the area, and he was on vacation with his friends, unwinding after their first semester of college. The two hit it off quickly, and found themselves gravitating to each other every chance they got, talking, laughing, sharing mugs of hot chocolate, and stealing each other's body heat in more ways than one. But, as the old saying goes, all good things must come to an end, and soon enough Mitchell was leaving the slopes to return to California where real life awaited him, and all Phoebe had to remember him by were a few pictures, a mailing address, and a phone number - or so she thought. Two months, and a positive pregnancy test later, the young woman was forced to make some of the toughest decisions of her life; decisions that had her climbing into the driver's seat of her car and making the long drive to the address that Mitchell had left her with. She didn't expect anything from him, but she knew that - at the very least - he deserved to know that he was going to be a father.

The news was received about as well as she had expected it to be - disbelief followed by denial and a fight that could have raised the dead had they been near any cemeteries. But, what mattered to Phoebe was that he knew, regardless of how he felt, and she was back on the road the following morning, wanting nothing more than to get home where she could crawl into bed and fall apart without any witnesses. The next few months were stressful and exhausting for her. There was so much to do - things that she had never even thought about until her mother or grandmother pointed it out - and time was zipping by quicker than she liked. It felt like she would never be ready for what was to come, regardless of how much advice she received from family members. With help, though, she got through the pregnancy and labor, more thankful than she had ever been before that her parents had been more supportive than anything else, despite the disappointment they had felt over the circumstances early on. And, though she hadn't expected it, she instantly fell in love with her little boy. He was all that mattered.

For the next few years, Phoebe did what she had to do to give Trevor the kind of life that he deserved. After all, it wasn't his fault that Mitchell hadn't wanted anything to do with either of them, nor was it his fault that she'd gotten pregnant in the first place. It wasn't easy, and there were many nights where she found herself curled up in bed with tears streaming down her face because, sometimes, it was all too much. She was still so young, and she should have been out having fun with her friends. Those feelings never lasted, though, and all it took was for her to look at Trevor to know that the sacrifices she' had to make were absolutely worth it, and she would do it all over again if it meant giving him the best she possibly could. It may not have been much, but she did her best, and what he lacked in possessions, she made up for in every other way that she could. If there was one thing Phoebe was absolutely certain of, it was that her son would always know how much she loved him, and that there wasn't a thing she wouldn't do for him so long as it was in her power to do it.

A knock at the front door only three weeks after Trevor turned four yielded yet another surprise that the universe had decided Phoebe needed: an apologetic Mitchell. He was sorry. He'd been younger then. Scared. Unprepared for what his life would become, and while he knew he didn't deserve it, he wanted a chance to try and get to know his son. Phoebe resisted. She didn't trust him, and certainly didn't trust that he would stick around. The last thing she wanted was for Trevor to get close to him only for him to leave them both yet again. Mitchell never left, though. He found a job in Denver, and got a house just down the street from where Phoebe and Trevor lived. Every evening, on his way home from work, he would stop by to say hello, and see how they were doing. Sometimes, he'd bring dinner with him, and other times he'd bring Trevor gifts. Eventually (though it took almost six months), he broke Phoebe down, and the two decided to give a relationship between them a legitimate chance. After all, they owed it to themselves, and to their son, to at least give it a try.

The second positive pregnancy test came when Trevor was seven years old, and after Mitchell and Phoebe had been married for just shy of a year. It was another surprise but, this time, Phoebe wasn't at all concerned about having to do it on her own. Mitchell had proven to be great father, and very much the man she had met on the slopes during his winter vacation. In fact, because he'd missed the entirety of Phoebe's first pregnancy, he was extra attentive, conceding to her every want and whim, and just generally doing everything he could to make her happy. If that meant running off to the mini mart at three in the morning, then that's what he was doing, and if it meant foot massages at five in the morning, then he was doing that too. He knew it would never make up for the mistake he'd made while she'd been pregnant with Trevor, but he had to try if he wanted to forgive himself in the same way that Phoebe already had. And when he was the first one to hold his daughter in the delivery room after her birth, her tiny little body squirming around in his shaky grasp, he was finally able to do that.

Mackenzie was a tiny little thing who, from a young age, liked to behave as if she were at least two times her size. She was spirited and loud and rambunctious, but exceptionally loving and friendly - even to people that she didn't know (which wasn't always a good thing). Her grandma liked to say that she'd never met a stranger, and that couldn't have been more accurate. Even after the family moved from Denver, CO to Tustin, CA, Kenz was quick to make friends. From the moment she was able to walk on her own, without anyone having to help her along, she was getting into everything - especially if it was something that she shouldn't have been getting into. And once she learned how to run, Mitchell, Phoebe, and Trevor were constantly having to chase her down. She was exhausting, to put it mildly, but even at the end of the longest days, when their patience was all but spent and they were practically falling over out of sheer exhaustion, they were happy - and even that seemed like quite the understatement as far as Phoebe was concerned.

Growing up so near to Los Angeles aided in Kenzi's big dreams as she grew up. She became enamored with music, and becoming a musician. The stars in her eyes never dimmed, even when she realized that her dreams could potentially never be anything more than that. Every free moment she had was spent honing her skills on a hand me down guitar that Mitchell had bought inherited, and her school work often took a backseat to this endeavor. That didn't mean she wasn't a decent student. Her grades weren't spectacular, and she wasn't going to be getting any academic scholarships or awards, but they were enough for her to graduate on time and near the middle of her senior class. Even that didn't seem like much of an accomplishment to the young girl, though. Her sights were set on getting out of Tustin - something that she did manage to do. But, her stint in Los Angeles was short lived when she realized just how cutthroat the "industry" could be after a few years of trying to break into the business in any way that she possibly could. Slightly downtrodden, but not yet ready to give up, she left L.A. behind for Costa Mesa.

At twenty-four years old, the last thing she wanted to admit - to herself, or anyone else - was that she had already failed. So, she re-evaluated her life plan and revisited the option of college instead. It wasn't what she wanted, but it was better than the prospect of not moving forward with her life. If she couldn't do what she wanted to do professionally, then she was going to continue to work toward that goal in some form. Enter Orange Coast College and their music program, and a job as a part-time lounge singer. It's not where she wanted to be, and not what she'd hoped to accomplish when she left Tustin, but she's come to accept that it's better than nothing at all. At least she's still doing what she loves to do, and that's what she reminds herself of everyday when the prospect of getting up and dragging herself to class is a daunting one. She's still young, and still figuring her life out, but she's content with where she's at and where's going. For the time being, at least.