"I know that the whole point—the only point—is to
find the things that matter, and hold on to them, and fight for them, and refuse to let them go." –Lauren Oliver, 'Delirium'
"What are you doing here?" I asked Anne as soon as the principal had left.
"Do I not have the right to see my only daughter?" she retorted.
"Not after what you did to me," I hissed at her, "What made you think that you could see me again?"
"If your going to act this way then fine, I won't bother pretending. You got me thrown in prison and I want revenge."
"What did I ever do to you for you to think that you needed revenge?" I yelled at Anne.
"What have you done?" she hissed angrily, "You ruined my life! If you hadn't made all that noise that night I wouldn't have been sent to prison!"
"Noise?" I spluttered, "I seem to recall that I never made a sound when you hit me! And if you are blaming me for the sound of smashing glass that was your fault and your fault alone, I did not throw myself through glass cabinets!"
"I refuse to continue this conversation now. Meet me tonight in the woods," Anne said like the coward she was and left.
I didn't go back to school after that, I couldn't bring myself to. I couldn't face anyone, particularly Adrian, after that because I wasn't quite emotionally stable. And we all knew the outcomes of my actions when I wasn't emotionally stable. I walked slowly to the park and sat on the same swings Penny and I had not too long ago. As I sat there I was thrown back into memories that had been suppressed for far too long.
I was hiding under the bed, curled in a ball. Anne was down stairs, taking her anger out on the wall. I was under the bed for hours but I didn't notice the time, all I realised was that for the moment I was alone and safe from her wrath. My luck wasn't that good though. As soon as I crept into the kitchen for a drink of water Anne pounced.
"And what do you think you are doing?" she said menacingly.
"Getting a d-drink mummy," I stuttered.
"Who said you could?" she retaliated.
"I-I did."
"Well you don't get to make the decisions around here and I do so now you don't get a drink." With that she proceeded to throw the glass I was holding onto the ground and throw me against the wall. When I didn't get up she lifted me by my neck and pushed me against the wall so me feet were dangling a long way off the floor. I kicked and tried to scream but it was no use. I was left staring into the eyes of my mother before I fell into the oblivion of unconsciousness. I woke up on the front veranda, completely frozen and very sore. Whenever I moved needles of pain shot through my body and I groaned in pain. While I was unconscious Anne had continued to beat me and then stranded me outside in the middle of winter. Standing up slowly I limped my way back inside and got ready for school.
——
It was later that year when the beatings got really bad that I went to school limping and cradling my arm, still wearing long clothes to hide the bruises and the scratches from my classmates. The teachers were oblivious to my plight as I sat in class alone, they had never noticed. The children, however, were much more observant.
"Hey! Freak!" someone yelled at me during lunch. I ignored them and continued walking to my desired destination, the old seats at the edge of the oval.
"What are you hiding under that jumper, Miss-know-it-all?" someone else jeered. They had no idea what was happening to me and it took them all years to notice. They had pet names for me, the other children. Freak. Know it all. Princess. They had this preconceived notion that just because I didn't talk to anyone it meant that I thought that I was better than them. They thought that I thought of myself as above all of them, that I was nothing more than a girl who couldn't stand to be associated with people under her calibre. In actual fact it was the complete opposite, I couldn't associate myself with the other kids because they were much better than I ever was. So I sat and watched and waited. Waited for a person to come and save me. Waited for the miracle that never arrived.
I was shaken out of my thoughts by a little girl squealing in excitement. There she was in her pink dress, hair in pigtails getting all excited over the discovery of a small daisy on the ground. Her father laughed when she gifted him the flower and lifted her in the air to spin her around. I wondered where my father was now, my real one that is. He just packed up and left just after I was born and I never knew why, never knew what was so bad that he had to abandon his only daughter. Anne would only speak of him when she was insulting me while she hit me and sometimes it was the result of me bringing him up. Oh, how I wished that I had the childhood this little girl does, full of laughter and light. There was nothing I that could have changed that, we are shaped by our pasts. Realising that I had spent long enough in the park I walked back to Adrian's house.
"What is it?" Adrian immediately asked as I walked inside his house.
"She's back Adrian and I don't know what to do," I said simply before collapsing onto the ground where I stood.
"Hey," Adrian said as he crouched down beside me, "Tell me what happened from the beginning." So I told him about Anne turning up at school and meeting her tonight in the woods.
"I feel so lost Adrian, I feel as though the ground slipped from under my feet and now I have nothing to grab onto, nothing to stop my fall," I whispered, my voice hoarse with emotion.
"You have me, I will be there no matter what so stop being so independent and let me help." So he came up with a plan and that night we suck into the woods.
@EJCBooks did you find Ella's little nickname for us somewhere in this chapter? Penny, despite your distractions, I wrote the chapter.
Sorry it's short... I just wanted to leave you guys hanging for a week! Call me mean but it means you don't get bored. Opinions in the comments about what you think is going to happen in the next chapter!
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Unchain Me
Teen Fiction'I had guilt that ate me out from the inside and made me want to throw up. Guilt that started as a young child and continued to fester until I was doomed to break. I knew that one day I would shatter like glass. I just wasn't sure if anyone would be...
