You rubbed the bump on your head as your teary eyes stared into the cheap mirror in the bathroom. A thin cut ran down the middle of your arm, blood was trickling down it and at the end of the trickle was a little clump of red. "I want you out of there and working on your schoolwork in less than an hour!" Your father said, you could hear his head slowly hit the wood, he did this every night your mom would hurt you. You lowered the hand that had been rubbing your head and wiped your wet eyes, you just wanted your father to leave. Didn't he know that you had to be alone? That trying to talk to you would ruin your peace and quiet? Didn't he realize that what your mother did every night was not a normal thing, he should know that she needed help. Therapy for her drinking problem, counseling for her anger issues... And you needed help for your safety. "Honey please come out, mama didn't mean to hurt you..." You noticed your fathers voice had gotten softer which meant he was probably sitting on the ground, leaning his back on the door.
The only thing that was wrong with your father was him always being blindsided by your mother. It was as if he tried to ignore the horrible way she treated you just to pretend that all your lives weren't screwed up. "Mama go away!" You heard your sister yell from her room. A tightness built up in your chest as you faced the door and pulled it open. "Mama, please... Stop!" You heard your sister scream again.
As you opened the door, your father tumbled into the bathroom almost instantly. You couldn't worry about him, you had to get to your sister. Running down the hall you didn't stop to catch the small breath that got into your lungs. "Why don't you ever listen?" Your mother said in a menacing voice, your eyes roamed your sisters wrecked room, all her items were thrown in random directions. "You will end up just like your older sister, stupid and arrogant!" Your mother yelled, she raised your hand but before it came down and touched your sisters cheek you caught her attention.
"Mama stop!" You said forcefully, your mothers head turned towards you with a frown. She lowered her hand to her side and swallowed, her eyes were all red and you could smell the liquor on her from here.
"Kendall your sister was being bad, let me punish her without having to include you?" She said and you let out a sigh.
"Mama I think you need some rest, I will tell Jenna not to do whatever she did again and you can go sleep." You said, your mother sent you a small, meaningless smile and nodded her head.
Then she turned towards your little sister and grimaced, "only because I'm tired." She had warned before walking out of the room. Your sisters eyes met yours and a tear fell from it. You had kept her from feeling physical pain from your mother again.
"Kendall, I hate it here!" She whispered, you ran over towards her and hugged her tightly. You only had one more year of high school and once that was done you were going to take her out of here. The sound of your sister sobbing brought you back into reality for a bit.
"We'll get through this together. We'll get through this my little pup..." You cooed to her as your hand rubbed her back and you let her cry into your neck.
You had forgotten about the cuts and bruises that you've received tonight. And you silently prayed to God that your mother would never get the chance to touch your little sister.
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"Today we're going to learn about the birds and the bees!" Your gym teacher said enthusiastically, part of your class woo hooed and the other groaned. You just sat there at the back staring straight forward, your mind on other things.
"Now when I say the phrase 'birds and bees' what's your first thought?" Your teacher asked, you slumped lower into your chair. Your eyes traveled down to the blank notebook page on your desk, you wondered how you could fill it. Just as you were thinking, the door opened and you curiously looked up to see why.
"Ah, and who do we have here?" The teacher asked, you looked down once you saw what the boy looked like. He was really cute, great. This meant all the girls would be chatting about him for maybe the next month? "Dylan O'Brien? Did I say that correctly?" You heard the teacher ask. Your eyes were focused on your blank piece of paper and a question remained in your mind. What the h3ll could you draw there?
"Yes, that's how you say it." The boy said before his eyes scanned the crowd of students in their desks. But he hadn't gotten through the whole crowd once his eyes landed on you in the way back with your hood up. He was curious as to why there was a whole empty row in front of you, did no one like you? Well obviously otherwise you'd be sitting closer to the rest of the class.
"Thank you, you can sit wherever you'd like." Dylan wandered down the aisles, his eyes looked at you every now and then. He was debating whether to sit back by you, but decided not to because you didn't seem like you wanted anyone's company. So instead he sat two desks in front of yours, that way you saw him.
________
"So what's the deal with the girl with the hood up?" Dylan asked, his voice full of curiosity. His friend, Dean, looked at him with a small humorous smile.
"Her names Kendall, I think. Why do you think she's cute?" Dean asked after stuffing chips into his mouth. Dylan shrugged as his eyes roamed over to you, although you didn't notice because you were too busy eating, the blank piece of paper still blank had been folded and put into your pocket. "I heard she's mute." He added as Dylan looked away from you and to him.
"Mute? Has she always been like that?" He asked, Dean shrugged again and took a bite of his turkey sandwich.
"I guess, but she came to high school like that. I think she's in the year below." He said and Dylan nodded, on his mind was the question: Who was Kendall?