Journey to Love

Chapter 3

It had taken till Friday afternoon for her foster parents to give her, her glasses back. Three days of stumbling around the house trying to complete her chores. Even with her poor eye sight, her parents gave her no leniency towards her daily tasks. They were still expecting Layla to cook their meals, clean the house, wash their clothes and provide an outlet for their anger issues.

It was currently Sunday evening, she had spent the entire weekend hold up in her room, avoiding her parents as much as she could. It was the only safe space that she really had. Layla was laying on the floor with her stomach, trying to do some schoolwork she had received on the first day. It wasn't actually homework, but because she'd missed four days of school, she thought she'd at least try and do a little bit before she was hopefully allowed to go back to school tomorrow. The bruises on her face were almost faded, and even if they did show, she could place her hair in front of her to hide them. Her foster parents had taught her thoroughly on how important it was to hide the evidence of her disciplining sessions.

If anyone were to find out, they would be horrified at how naughty she was, then no one would want to be friends with her. And then she would be disciplined by her foster parents again for breaking another rule.

Her back tingled just by the thought. Layla had to rub her fingers harshly over her back to stop the tingling sensation. Her mind trying to distract itself with the worksheet that sat in front of her.

It talked about the different nouns, verbs and adjectives found in writing. Some of it was easy to understand, like nouns being names places and things. Layla looked around her room after reading the next question, and was able to pinpoint the different nouns in her room, like the window, pillow and her door.

Moving onto the next page, Layla started reading about verbs. Again she was easily able to distinguish that a verb was something in action. Like she was reading the paper, or she had eaten last night. But when Layla went on to adjectives, she got confused by it. She read the paper over and over again, only to land back in the same hole. She became annoyed real quick by how dumb she was. How could she not grasp what this simple word meant. Everyone else knew what it meant, except for her.

Sighing loudly, Layla turned the page over to the next activity. Again she didn't understand it, or  the rest of the booklet. She shut it with a huff, already she had fallen behind. God she was so useless, couldn't even do things kids her age were doing. Angry tears welled in her eyes at how stupid she was, no wonder her foster parents hated her. They were just trying to help her, and she still screwed that up.

Heavy footsteps brought her out of her depressing thoughts. As quickly and quietly as she could, she packed away all of her school belongings into her backpack and silently placed the bag near the furtherest corner from the door, near the window. This meant that if her guardians came into her bedroom, then her belongings were not in their cross fire.

Layla instantly thought of the little doll she had a couple of years ago. She had learnt the hard way to never leave anything in the path of the door after her foster mother had torn the doll apart, limb by limb, throwing it at Layla when Layla had angered her. It was one of the many items she had found and brought home.

Layla rushed to her mattress, laying down on it, without making it squeak. She placed the blanket next to her, closer towards the window, so if she was dragged out of bed, she wouldn't ruin the only form of comfort she had. The thundering banging of her foster fathers boots grew closer, causing her to tightly shut her eyes, her fingers digging into her arms as she begged to anyone listening to let her have a night of no pain. In a couple of steps, her father was passing by her door and by a stroke of luck, the footsteps continued down the hallway.

Layla released a long sigh, a small token of her good luck.

One of many that she hoped to come. Maybe she could try harder, and keep them happy. Maybe she could be their good girl, the one that they always said they wanted. That they could all be one happy family. Her parents wouldn't get mad at her, she wouldn't have to be disciplined and they could all live happily ever after.

But as she sank further into sleep, she could hear her foster mother's faint voice echoing in the back of her mind,

'No one's ever going to be happy with you around. Do i ever look happy to you? No! Because you are such an ungrateful little shit . Always acting like the victim! you were born worthless, you will forever be worthless. A worthless disappointment.

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Published: 22nd March 2022

Words: 895

Thank you my lovelies for reading :)

- sorry it's a short chapter. it was just a fill in