Give Me Mercy [Book 1]

Mercy Fortuna #1

It was because of this that I was unnaturally skinny, almost disgustingly so.

"When do I start school?" I questioned. He glanced up at me, a murderous glare that had me petrified. I stood perfectly still, in fear that if I moved a single muscle that he would attack.

"Tomorrow morning," he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before standing up from the table. "Do the dishes."

After he had stalked off to his room, I rinsed off his plate and the pans I had used for dinner. There were two meatballs left on father's plate so I ate them quickly, then put the things in the dishwasher and started it up. I hurried to my room, took a quick five minute shower (thats all I was allowed) and went to bed after setting my alarm clock.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

At four in the morning my alarm went off, I didn't have to be at school until eight fifteen, but I had to make my father breakfast, and make him a lunch to take to work, plus clean up any mess he made in the house the night before, then do the dishes from breakfast. This was my morning schedule.

Not bothering to put on clothes other than my pajamas, I hurried to the kitchen and started a pot of coffee. Then I began making pancakes, eggs and bacon. The smell of it made my stomach growl, so I stuffed some bacon into my mouth, chewing as quickly as possible.

But not quick enough. I never heard him walking into the kitchen and before I even knew what happened, I was lying on the floor with my side and back throbbing painfully.

"What the hell do you think you are doing? Eating my god damn food girl?!" Father thundered. I cowered in a corner, wondering if he would just let it go, let me get ready for school. He stomped on my hand, crushing it beneath the soles of his shoes while I tried desperately not to cry out.

"I'm sorry Father," I kept my head down, not looking at him in the face, wishing my brother was here. This is where he would save me, and hold me while I cried. But he ran away with our mother and left me here, to fend for myself.

"Get out of my house", I looked up into his angry, hate-filled eyes, then jumped up and took off into my room. I looked around for some clothes, and grabbed up a pair of torn jeans and a too-large t-shirt. After dressing, I looked around for my bookbag while simultaneously running a broken comb through my hair to try and make myself look at least halfway decent.

The sun was just barely coming over the horizon, the reds, yellows, oranges blended together to make a beautiful morning. I walked towards where I believed my new school was, even though it was barely six in the morning, so of course nobody would be there but I went anyways. It wasn't as though I had any other choice.

After nearly forty-five minutes I began to see the outline of it, and kept heading in that direction, until slowly it came into view and I sat on a bench out front the large doors.

About a half hour later, I saw a group of four walking up to the school. They hadn't noticed me yet, they were too busy joking around. One was a short kid with huge eyes, and spiky multi-colored hair, the other was about a foot taller, with blonde hair. Next to him was a boy with brown hair who looked much too serious for his own good. Then there was the only girl, wearing a skirt with a flowery blouse, she had big doe eyes and brown hair, cut short. All of them, except the brown haired boy had giant smiles on their faces, and looked like they were excited for school to start.

I began to day dream, and I pictured myself somewhere in that happy group. All of us joking around, of course that was ridiculous, but it was fun to dream of it.

"Hey, you new?" I jerked my head up, then seeing how close the blonde haired boy was I scooted away while nodding my head.

"I'm Joey," he said, sticking out his hand quickly. I flinched, picturing my father striking me. His voice was very cocky, a Brooklyn accent embedded inside.