She's A Fighter

Chapter 1

"Twessa wake up", my little sister Amber whispers. I open my eyes and the first thing I see is Amber's big, blue eyes.

"Hey, sweetie", I smile getting up from the mattress that I share with Amber.

I grip her tiny hand in mine and lead her to the small closet.

I take out a pink frilly tutu and a simple black t-shirt.

"Can I have pancwakes today", Amber asks while getting dressed.

I sigh, brushing my teeth and shoving my legs into an old pair of worn out blue jeans.

"Not today princess," my eyes soften as her face falls.

I quickly throw on a white tee and a leather jacket over it, then tie my converse and her pink, shiny boots.

"Tell you what. After school I'll buy you some ice cream."

Amber grins and skips into the kitchen.

A soft smile replaces my serious expression as I take off after her.

The smile slips off my face as I see the inevitable.

Amber's back is up the wall. Father's hands gripping her neck. His cursing is slurred.

All I see is red.

My foot instinctively kick him in his side. He staggers, and loses his balance.

Amber falls to the floor on her knees. She bounces back up like a balloon, tears flowing down her cheeks.

My heart aches.

"Go get in the car princess", I whisper to her.

She runs not once looking behind her.

I suddenly acknowledge a searing pain in the side of my head.

I wince looking at Dad . His fist is heading to punch me again.

I duck, using my foot to sweep his from under him and sprint out the door with my backpack in hand.

He doesn't come after me which means one thing.

He's most likely unconscious on the ground due to my awesome fighting skills.

Once I get in the old, blue car, I frown at a sobbing Amber.

"Hey, it's okay," I pull Amber onto my lap and wrap my arms around her small frame.

She's just so young. I look into her terrified eyes and wipe away the tears.

"You have to get back into your seat princess. We have to go to school, but I promise I won't ever let him touch you again," I say, my voice soft.

She nods in understanding and crawls back onto her seat. I turn on the car and drive us to Amber's daycare.

****

"We're here princess. Have a good day at school and don't go breaking too many hearts", I say winking at Amber.

Let's just say that a lot of boys have a crush on her.

"Eew", Amber scrunches her nose in disgust, and skips to her best friend and starts to play pattycake. I grin at her cuteness.

****

"Watch it, freak," a boy knocks me to the ground.

Oh, hell no. I calmly stand up, slap my math book against his face and hear a satisfying "Crack!".

I look up and see my peers clapping for me. I bow, grab my backpack, and bolt for math class.

***

Ookaay, this is really weird. Everybody's staring at me.

"Didn't your mom tell you that it isn't polite to stare", I hiss at everybody as I sit next to my best friend.

He's staring at my face too. What is up with these people? He hands me a compact mirror, his eyes wide. I raise an eyebrow. Since when does Jake carry compacts in his pocket.

I open the mirror and gasp. On my cheek is a ugly, purplish-blue bruise.

Jesus Christ.

It stretches from the edge of my right eye all the way down to my chin. I forgot to check if Dad left a bruise.

"What the hell happened," Jake whisper yells pointing at my bruise.

His face scrunches in concern. He always did worry to much.

"I was running out the door and hit my cheek on it", I say chuckling nervously.

That was such a bad lie, but hey it's seven in the bloody morning. Don't judge me.

"You always were the clumsy one", he says laughing

I smile brightly showing my, pearly white teeth. Either Jake's lying or he really bought my lie.

"Today we will be talking about Algebra", our math teacher Ms. Naomi tells everybody.

The class lets out loud groans at this statement. She smirks in amusement.

****

The bell rings at the end of our forty-five minute lesson. I walk with Jake out of the classroom and into the blinding white cafeteria. We end up at the end of the line behind about fifteen students.

"Oh my god!Is that the new kid. He's so hot. I call first dibs!," I hear Amanda in front of us screech.

Jake and I share a look and glance at the boy. The boy has electric-blue eyes surrounded by long black lashes that any girl would kill for and raven-black hair.

He's about six foot, a whole lot taller that my five'two height. He catches me staring at him and winks. I raise an eyebrow fighting back a blush.

"He's o-kaay", Jake says judging the new boy's looks with a roll of his eyes.

"You're just jealous because he's hotter than you", I say laughing at his expression.

"He doesn't have anything on this," Jake scoffs gesturing to his face and body.

I roll my eyes holding my tray out for the meatloaf that the lunch ladies are serving. I gag as we walk outside to the tree that my friends and I sit at. The meatloaf literally looks like dog crap mixed with barf.

"Hey girlie", Andrew my other best friend says not giving the mark a second glance.

I already told my friends the cover-up story.

I sit down with him and all my other friends. I don't talk to them as much as I do with my best friends.

****

I wave to my friends good-bye at the end of the day while starting up my car. I drive to the daycare and jog inside. So...many... bright...colors. It's hurting my brain.

"Hey, where's Amber", I smile at on of the staff.

"Oh, her dad picked her up", she says her southern accent thickening. Panic claws at me as I run out to my car and speed home.

Dread sets deep in my stomach as I think of all the possible situations.

I slam my car door open , not bothering to close it and sprint into my small house. What I see makes anger that I didn't even know I had, spark dangerously.