Unexpected Mate

More Than Nothing

Tahlia had come from nothing but decided early on that she wouldn’t continue to be nothing. She wasn’t exactly sure how she was going to change that, but she knew she would have to be dedicated and work hard to change her situation. And that was what she intended to do. She decided the best approach would be to do her best in school and graduate early and hope to go to college somewhere far from this little crappy town that she grew up in. She wanted to go somewhere that no one knew her name or anything thing about her or her past. Somewhere that she could start fresh and reinvent herself in any way that she wanted. She would be successful. She wasn’t going to get herself in a situation like her mother had, tied to some looser who treats her like trash and controls her. Not a chance was that going to happen to her! At times she pitied her mother. Tahlia tried to never outwardly express that because she knew she wouldn’t ever want someone to pity her. When she was younger, she had always imagined their lives differently. She had hoped that her mother would leave her stepfather and never look back and move them somewhere that was unlike the little crap town they were in. But that had never happened. So instead Tahlia decided that she would have to change her life herself.

                She had finally reached her senior year of high school, which seemed to take an eternity, and since she had been allowed to double up classes throughout her high school career she was graduating just after her 16th birthday. All of her hard work was paying off because not only was she graduating early as she had wanted to, but she had a few scholarship offers that would give her a free ride all the way through grad school. She couldn’t wait to get that part of her life underway and to move away from this life and her troubles. Part of her felt guilty leaving her mother behind and she did worry about her, but she had to do what she had to do to change things. She would no longer have to walk down the halls with people staring and whispering about her or listen to all the negative comments and dealing with all the crap people dealt her. Soon this would all just be a bad memory. And that was what kept her going and striving for what she knew she deserved.                    

                Senior year flew by and before she knew it, she was on stage in her cap and gown receiving her diploma. The whole time all she could think about was how soon this would be her college degree and things would infinitely be better. Of course, it didn’t take much to surpass her current life situation. She couldn’t wait to no longer have to dread coming home to her drunk and abusive stepfather, and to no longer have to hear the constant screaming and fighting between her mother and her stepfather as she did almost daily now. Her grandmother had come from out of town to watch her graduate. Tahlia was surprised because she knew how much her grandmother hated her stepfather and rarely came around because of it. But Tahlia did spend a few summers at her grandmother’s house over the past few years. She loved her grandmother and was happy to see that she had come to support her. She had always been very supportive of her and always told her how proud she was of her. Tahlia knew her grandmother loved her mother too, but she also knew that she was disappointed in the way that her life had turned out and how she just stayed in a bad situation. Her grandmother had always told her that her mother was not raised to take crap from anyone, and it seemed like that was all she does anymore. Her grandmother had a hard time wrapping her head around the whole thing. She just couldn’t understand it. Tahlia had a hard time herself sometimes.

                Her grandmother didn’t stay long after her graduation, which didn’t surprise her because she never stayed for long. She didn’t like her stepfather and it was hard for her to see her daughter in that situation and being treated like that. Before she left though, she handed Tahlia a card and told her to put it up for later and not to tell any one she had given it to her. Tahlia did as she was told and stowed it away inside the cover of the book she had inside her bag. She knew she had told her not to let anyone know because she knew that it would be taken from her if her stepfather, Leonard thought he could profit in some way.

                As soon as Tahlia got back to their house, she finished packing her bags. She was going to be leaving in the morning. She had set everything up to leave the day after graduation. She would be going to a school out west and she was looking forward to the sun and warm weather. She would be in Oregon. That was going to be far different than Ohio. She couldn’t wait for the change. When she had considered her scholarship options, she decided to choose one that was someplace very different than she was used to. She figured if she was going to make a change, she would make it a drastic, yet good one. She fell asleep that night thinking about all of her possibilities. She hoped it would be as wonderful as she was hoping it would be. Although she had decided that there was no way it could be worse than things where she was.