| A Modern Cinderella Story | On Going |

♛ Chapter Three ♛

The rain steadily poured down in Bronx, New York.

Sixteen-year-old Stephoné Black twisted her brown hair around her finger. She was sitting at her desk, her hazel eyes gazing out the window blankly in her small room.

The gloomy and depressing look outside from the rainstorm matched her mood, which still lingered from that day in school.

She watched the water pellets roll down the glass of her window. Some rolled into other drops making them bigger, while others rolled down all by their lonesome.

Her eyes shifted to the white bandage around her wrist and sighed at the recalling of her stay in hospital. 'Why does everyone make me feel like I'm a problem and not a person?' Tears started to brim in her eyes as she thought about it.

'Goodness, I'm an awful daughter. I promised Mom I wouldn't hurt myself again and look at what I did? Turn to harming myself to cope with the pain, anxiety, emptiness, dread of going to school to hear the taunting and names over finding out I tried to end my life? It's too much to bare.' She thought, wiping the tears from her eyes.

'It's the the cycle over and over again, making more medical bills she has to struggle to pay off. It's insanity that I can't stop, no therapist or physiologist can fix me. I'm unfixable. I'm selfish. I'm so selfish. Selfish. Selfish. Selfish. I'm a horrible daughter. I can't even be called a daughter.' She thought to herself, hitting her head with her fisted hand.

'Sabrina is right. I'm weak. I'm pathetic. I'm selfish. I have no self control and it's going to get me killed one day, whether it's by my hand or someone else, hoping the latter if it ever - no, do not think like that.' She shook her head as if she was casting those thoughts away.

She shifted her gaze to her homework, she knew she had to get it done. Giving a sigh she picked up her pen and started to do her homework.

She folded her arms and rested them on the desk, closing her eyes after resting her head down on her arms. "Why is school so hard?" She mumbled to herself. "Why do we get so much homework . . . at least in a few months I will graduate and be done with school."

The sound of a car pulled into the driveway, followed by the sound of the garage opening.

A few minutes later the front door was unlocked and it was opened.

"Steph? I'm home." Lillian asked loudly, closing the door behind her. She took off her shoes and set them by the door before dropping her keys in the key bowl on the small table under the corkboard on the wall.

She pushed some loose strands of her brown hair behind her ears. Her brown eyes looked exhausted, yet she wasn't done with work yet.

Stephoné heard her mother's voice. "Hi Mom, I'm doing homework." She called back, looking down at her not even half-finished homework. "Trying to at least." Running a hand through her hair she glanced back out the window once more, watching the drops of water roll down the window.

She sighed and looked at the clock: 5:15 was the time it said. "I've been staring out my window for two hours. I need to get my head in the game." She mumbled, beginning to organize all the papers.

Lillian walked into the kitchen, she set down some leftovers from work on the counter then washed her hands. She disinfected the containers before opening the fridge and putting them in. Stacking the white styrofoam container on top of each other neatly to make more space. She closed the fridge with her hip, turning around.