Karevs daughter

Part 4 "Are you okay?"

TW, PTSD mentions and episodes.

After the late-night watching Powerpuff girls with Jo, Melanie still had to wake up "early" since it was the first day of school. The hot summer weather was officially over and it was time to go back to school. For Melanie, it had been years since she had gone to school but she was a fast learner so Alex, Jo, and Melanie's teacher didn't think it would be a problem catching up on all the new stuff. It was 6:30 am when Jo woke her up

"Hey, Mel, it's the first day of school!"

Melanie turned her back and pulled the blanket over her head

"I've made waffles," Jo said.

Melanie instantly stood up, and tried walking to the kitchen table when she felt like she was going to pass out

"Hey, are you okay?" Jo asked.

"Yeah I'm fine I just stood up too fast," she said as she walked over to the kitchen.

Melanie ate her breakfast, got dressed, and packed her backpack. She hurried into the kitchen to make a sandwich that she was going to have for lunch. She was in such a hurry so she accidentally knocked a plate over, it fell to the floor and broke.  

"NO, NO, NO, NO," she whispered to herself in fear as she picked up the pieces in hope that neither Jo nor Alex had heard the plate break.  She started having BAD flashbacks. To her disappointment, Alex walked into the kitchen, Melanie instantly started sobbing as she said 

"Please don't beat me up or kick me out, I can buy a new plate with my own money, I can get a job at the cafeteria in the hospital, that way you won't have to drive me anywhere extra, I'll and pay for it I promise, I'm sorry Alex I was making a sandwich and the-" At this point, Jo had also walked into the kitchen, she had heard everything Mel had said.

"Hey kiddo it's fine we'll just buy a new plate, no worries we won't kick you out, it's fine," Alex said

"They beat you?" Jo said

"Yeah I broke a glass once and they kicked me, I broke two ribs and they refused to plate my ribs and give me the pain meds, two weeks later they kicked me out,"

"I'm so sorry Mel, it's okay we'll never do anything like that to you" Jo responded.

Jo took care of the broken plate as Melanie and Alex headed out to the car, eventually, Jo came. Alex drove to Melanie's school and dropped her off. Mel walked into school, she felt like an alien, the only thing she could think about was how bad she had been picked at her last school. How they used to make fun of the bruises all over her body, she had gotten them from being beaten up at "home".  Her thoughts were interrupted as she passed the classroom where she had her first period. She entered the classroom and sat all the way back in the corner furthest away from the door, she didn't want to talk to anyone or draw much attention to herself. The classroom started filling up with people, eventually, the teacher entered the room. 

"Goodmorning class, today we have a new student, Melanie would you like to say hi and tell a little bit about yourself?"

Mel froze, "NO, why me, I am going to mess up," she thought. She stood up, "Hi I'm Melanie,  I get called Mel and I'm 12." She couldn't get any more words out of her mouth. She sat down on her chair again as the tears started rolling down her cheeks,  "darn it" she thought ", she had tried to keep it together, but all eyes on her were hard. She tried wiping the tears away to prevent attention. Gosh what have I done she thought, now all of them think I'm stupid the thought to herself. She turned around to see some kids whispering to each other.

SIDE NOTE, the whispering kids weren't paying attention to what was going on  in class, they weren't listening. This is something anyone would have noticed but since Mel assumed it was ab her.

"Good! Class start reading pages 124-132 in your History books."

Miss Garcia walked up to Mel "Hey, are you okay" 

"Yeah I'm fine"

Garcia nodded even though she didn't buy it. The class continued, Melanie went to her other classes, eventually, the school day was done. Since both Jo and Alex were working a 24-hour shift Melanie took the bus home which was a bit complicated since she wasn't used to riding in that area. Eventually, she got home, she entered the code to the front door

(SIDE NOTE Alex had installed one of those electric door handles that opens with either code or a "badge". )

She stepped inside and made a sandwich for herself when she saw the paper bag with the broken plate inside. Her heart dropped to her stomach, all the bad feelings started coming back, she felt empty. All the bad memories of her being beaten up yelled at, and kicked at started coming back, only this time she could physically feel them. It was like she was there all over again, she could physically feel it, the pain, trauma, and shame. She fell to the floor and started screaming and crying, she could see the anger in her foster parents eyes. Mel was suddenly interrupted when she saw Jo in front of her asking her "Are you okay? It hit her, it wasn't real, the abusive "parents" were gone, what had just happened?

Mel looked up at the clock realizing hours had passed, Jo had gotten off quite early from work, since the pit was empty. Mel answered Jo with "yeah I'm fine."

Melanie finally finished making her sandwich and wen to bed. The morning after she took the bus to school since Jo had worked a long shift and was still sleeping. Long story short Mel got called at in class but she refused to answer since she didn't want to say something completely wrong, or something that would make the kids think that she was more stupid than they already thought. The teachers at the school though Mel was ignoring them and being respectles, this resulted in Melanie getting suspended for a week. Alex came to school to pick her up. The car ride home was silent, when they got home Mel went directly to her "room", she reearanged the room dividers so that it became a small room. She went to bed, jammed her face into a pillow, and started crying, if a broken plate didn't get her kicked out, this definitely would. She heard a knocking at her "walls"  "Hey kiddo,  can I come in?" Akex asked

Melanie was prepared for the worst and said "Yes" with a shaky voice. Alex entered her little "room" and said "Jo told me what happened yesterday when she came home from shift, and now this. Are you okay?"

a/n be aware that I try to make Mels storyline as relistic as possible, for example I wrote the PTSD episode based of some reasearch I did and what I've seen presented in TV shows where they've made it realistic:)) With that said I hope you're enjoying this book, God bless :D