FATE

FRAYA For as long as I can remember, my parents have always hated me. They tell me I ruined their lives and took everything away from them. I try not to let it bother me, but occasionally, it does. I cannot let them see or know that, because the last time I asked if they ever cared about me, they locked me up in the basement and beat me every day for a week. I was eight when that happened, and I promised myself it would never happen again. It does from time to time, but the beatings are not that bad and do not last as long. I am fourteen now and I make sure everything is right, but they still somehow find a problem with everything I do. I try to avoid them the best I can, and some of the time they tend to forget I exist, with which I am perfectly fine. Today is Wednesday. I wake up at 4:45 and go to my dresser where I have a bucket of water and all four sets of my clothes. My parents say I am not allowed to use the shower because I am filthy, and they do not want to bathe in my germs. They also do not want to use good water on someone as worthless as me. I will not complain though, since they let me change the water every Friday. I do it when there not home, so I can wash my clothes and hang them up to dry, but also start my week with clean water. After washing my body, I put my clothes on and go to start on breakfast. By now I know what they do and don't like. I have pretty much made a 2-week schedule of meals I make for my parents, so they get something different but don't realize I’m just sticking to what I know. I get started on their meals, and make French toast for my mother, and waffles for my father. Then I got started on the eggs and bacon. My father wants onions, but my mother does not. The last time I made her eggs with onions she beat me and forced me to remake it. She thought I was trying to kill her, so now I make hers with just cheese and milk. When I finished breakfast, I took their food up to them. This and dinner are the worst times of day because that is when I must see and talk to them. I knock on the door and wait for them to tell me to come in. I heard my father’s voice telling me to enter. I opened the door and walked to their table. I set the food down and stood there. To be dismissed, I normally have to wait for them to check the food. My mother walked towards me and checked hers. She then picked up her tray and walked away. Next was father's turn. He checked his food, and then went to sit down. They started eating and talking about things. Sometimes, when they do not dismiss me, it means I will get their leftovers. I patently waited, watching them eat and talk to each other. When they finally finished, they set their trays back on the table and told me to take them and go. I quickly grabbed them and went back to the kitchen. After watching them eat, I was starving. My mother left a piece of bacon and half a piece of her French toast, and father left some eggs as well as half a waffle. I ate the food and immediately got to cleaning up and finishing their lunch for the afternoon. As I finished their lunches, father came downstairs. He's early. He never comes down until 8. It's still 730 I still had to wipe the counter and finish the dishes. He began to enter the kitten and I knew I was done for. He walked over to me and asked why the kitchen was so messy. I started to tell him when he hit me across the face and told me to clean up my mess. I hurriedly went straight to the sink and started washing the rest of the dishes. He stood quietly behind me until I finished, but I was so focused on doing them perfectly I did not notice he took the flour and spread it all over the counter. I turned around in shock, but I did not let him see that I took my dishrag and started clearing the counter. When I finished, I swept around the kitchen. I emptied the dustbin into the trash can, put it back in its corner, and then looked at father for approval. He simply nodded his head and left. I waited ten minutes, and then I went back to my room. I had flour in my hair and all over my clothes, so I changed for school again. When I finished, I went down and stopped by the kitchen. I had seen that my mother and father's lunches were gone, so I washed my hair in the sink, then cleaned it up and I left for school. I normally get finished in the kitchen by 8:00 but with my father coming down, I didn’t get done until 8:12 which is bad because school starts at 8:30. I didn’t leave until 8:23. It takes ten minutes to get from home to school, so I would be at least 3 minutes late. I ran to my spot in the woods and got my bike, then I left and got there as fast as I could. I locked up my bike and ran inside, but Jill stopped me. She told me I looked homeless and that I should just go die in a hole. I wish I could, but for some reason I never do. I just walked past Jill and went to class. On my way to my chair, Harper tripped me. I fell and I could feel one of my wounds open on my back. I got up and walked back to my chair as fast as I could. When I sat down, Lucas asked if I was OK. I just nodded, trying not to cry at the pain. Lucas is the only friend I have. He's in all four of my classes and we sit next to each other in all of them. He's the only person that really knows what I am going through. My teachers have an idea, but I never let them know "Freya". Lucas says "yeah", "you are bleeding and it's leaking through your shirt", he said. This is not the first time this has happened, and it will not be the last. Luke and I both raised our hands, that is how we tell our teachers we need to go. Miss Ocean nodded our way and we got up. Luke covered me the best he could, and we went to the family bathroom to bandage the wound. I have learned to do it on my own but he's good at it too. He says his mom is a doctor and often teaches him how to clean and bandage properly. I could see his face through the mirror. When he looked at my back it was a look, a pure terror. I could see how much he felt bad for me. I told him not to think about it too much and that I’m used to it. ", you shouldn’t be, though it’s not fair that you have to go through this". He said," I know, but they told me if I tell anyone they will find me and kill me, and kill everyone I have come to love, I believe them. Even if I did say something, no one would believe me since they are upstanding members of the community, so I just have to wait it out and leave when I’m 18. We finished and went back to class. It was almost over by now, so we just sat in our seats and looked out the window. When class was over, we went to English. Jill and Harper are in this class. It is the only time they are best friends. Otherwise, they are always fighting and arguing with each other. Class went quickly. Jill and Harper were throwing random things at me and Luke, but it was not that bad. When class was over, Luke and I went to lunch. We sat in the corner and talked about things. Luke mentioned our conversation in the bathroom, saying I should run away. I told him that was not an option. They would come look for me right away and beat me half to death like they did when I was eight. I will never give them a reason to do that again. "What if they don't find you, Freya" "What if they do, Luke?". He looked at me with his sad face. I hate when he looks at me like that, I always feel like a lost puppy who needs help, as if he was reading my mind. Luke told me that it's OK to ask for help, and that I’m not weak for doing so. I looked at him and hugged him, saying thank you. I do not know what I would do without you Luke. "You will never have to find out Freya because you’re my best friend and I’m never leaving your side". I hugged him again and cried a little bit. I felt him tap my shoulder. "Freya the twins are coming. They look like they are up to something". I turned around. Jill was smiling at us, and Harper looked like she was about to blow a fuse. She’s been in love with Luke ever since she laid eyes on him, but he hates her guts, and it makes me laugh. I almost feel bad for her, but it is her own fault for being so cruel for no reason. They walked to our table. "Hey losers, Jill said" "what do you want?" Luke said " we wanted to show you guys something that we made for you". Here we go. This won’t be good, they are always scheming against us. "Go get them, Harper" Jill said. She ran into the hall. All a sudden, there were ten other girls coming out with her in the front. They were all wearing cheer uniforms except Harper. She had a torn t-shirt, and a pair of dirty-looking shorts. This goes out to you, she said, pointing at me. One by one, the eight girls started holding up letters they spelled looser with two explanation points at the end. Harper started pretending to cry "I’m homeless and have no money my parents don’t want me and, through me, where I belong in the streets", she then went around the cafeteria getting on her knees asking for money, saying, "I’m Freya, please give me money. I’ll do anything no matter what it is". Jill walked over to her and said "anything" "yes anything harper says". they both looked at me, harper got up and they started to walk towards me. the next thing I know, the girls had water guns and were shooting something white and slimy at me, moaning and saying I am a good c*m bucket. Luke got up and shielded me the best he could, but it still got on me, and was now also getting on him. I felt bad that he was taking the brunt of their terror. Two teachers came in and told them to stop. They took the twins to the principal’s office. I looked at Luke who was soaked by the guns. "You OK" he asked. I will be when I get this stuff off me, I said. The truth was that I was pissed because this outfit was all I had until Friday. "Freya I’m sorry" for what I said “. Because of what you must go through every day. I wish I could take the weight off your shoulders". No, I told him. I would never wish for anyone to carry this burden, not even on the twins, I told him. "Freya, you’re a very kind person. You deserve the world not the abuse you've endured your entire life". Thanks Luke, you always know what to say. I told him. "Yes, I do now, let’s go get cleaned up. Maybe the nurse has something we can change into" Okay let’s go. Walking was unbearable. I felt so sticky and uncomfortable. The worst part is the nurse’s office is all the way across the school. As we walked, we had seen the twins’ parents walking past us down the hall. They stopped and asked if I was Freya. When I nodded my head, their mom gave me a look saying how sorry she was, and her father apologized for their behavior. " I’m glad we caught you on our way to see the girls. We hoped you would be the same size as them, so we brought you some clothes to change into. We brought you some to Luke. They have an older brother in college". I looked at them in shock, how could they be so kind and have such evil daughters. "Thank you" I said, we really appreciate it. we took the bags from their hands and went to the bathrooms that were right next to us. I am simply happy I do not have to go to the nurse’s office anymore. I started to pull the clothes out of the bag. There was a giant hoodie, a t-shirt to wear under it, and a pair of jeans. It was like they knew my style. After I finished changing, I went to the sink to wash my hair. I did the best I could with the school provided hand soap and the small sink. After that, I dyed my hair with the dryer, and then I went back out to meet Luke. He had a t-shirt and a pair of jeans on. "You look good" he said. Thanks, you do to I told him. "Let’s head to math now class will start in a few minutes", Yeah, your right lets go. When we got there, we took our seats and listened to the lecture. After an hour and 45 minutes, we went to the gym. I do not like gym. It's always the worse. I was sitting there listening to the teacher tell us today's agenda when someone screamed RUN. I looked around, but everyone was paying attention, and Mr Grayson kept teaching. I looked at Luke, he mouthed are you ok to me", and I nodded my head, simply thinking I was just going crazy. The teacher stopped talking and told us to get in position for a pacer warm up. I got on the line ready to start running, then the teacher said one and everyone started running across the gym. We got to the other end and went again. We did this ten times, then went on to doing random activities around the gym. When class was over, Luke and I walked to my bike. We talked for a minute then hugged each other goodbye. I told him I would see him tomorrow and I left. I rode my bike to my spot in the woods, I hid the stash of food I had from school, then I went home to get started on dinner.