Teenage Runaway.

Chapter 1

Throughout my life, I was always known by different names. Weirdo, Bitch, The weird kid, Loser, Fat, Pale, Worthless. But none of those names mattered. They weren't who I am. And I wasn't going to just let them define me. My real name? My real name is Mia. Mia Woolridge.

Kid's can be mean. No one knew my story growing up. No one knew who I actually was besides my bestfriend Jessica. Somehow, throughout all these years, she's been the only one who's managed to be there for me. To be my home when I needed one. My shoulder to cry on when I needed to. My bestfriend. No one could ever compare to her.

However, I only really got to see Jessica at school. My mom stopped working two years ago, so in order to help keep up with everything, I was forced to get a job at 16. I work at a bakery downtown. It's owned by this really nice old lady who really didn't even need any more workers at the time. She says that day, she saw how much I needed it though and took me in anyways. To this day, she says it's one of the best decisions she's ever made, which I never believe her. She's kinda became like a grandmother to me in a way. She even told me she thinks of me as a granddaughter. I can't be more thankful for her and what all she's done for me for the past two years of working there. She truly is an angel.

Because of my job though, I go right after school on the weekends. Besides paying the bills, I also need the money for help paying the babysitter. I still don't quite know how I managed to persuade my mom to let us get one for Emma. But she let me, which is a good thing, because I can't trust her with my baby sister anymore. My mom tries to act like she's so good with her, but the truth is, as soon as I get off work, pick Emma up, and get home, she spends two seconds with her then passes her off to me. By now, I've just gotten used to the fact that I'm pretty much her mother now. Emma is my world and I'd do anything for her.

I was still in 12th grade, except I graduated soon. I was already 18, and I could move out of the house If I wanted, but the only problem is, I couldn't leave Emma behind like that. I didn't want her to go through that. It's only been a month since she started drinking, but since then, it's only gotten worse. She continues to drink the days away. Drinking day in and day out. It's horrible. Most the time I manage to avoid her when I returned home from school but while the thoughts of all the other kids around me consisted of "What will I do after high school?" and "Who will I take to prom?" mines everyday was "Will I be able to get by my mom today or not?"

When I finally got out of school that day, I stopped by the babysitter's house. Over the short period of time, The babysitter, Maria was her name, quickly became one of my bestfriends. She had graduated high school last year and was taking this year off for a break before she headed off to college. Maria had short blonde hair, and was overall just a genuinely nice person. My hair was blonde as well, but I thought about dying It several times, even cutting it off to my shoulders like Maria had hers, but I had decided not to since I liked my long blonde hair now.

I bawled my hand up into a fist as I knocked on Maria's front door once arriving. It quickly swung open to reveal the smiling girl, my baby sister in hand.

"Hey Maria." I spoke softly, a smile forming on my lips to match her own.

She replied with a simple "Hi Mia" before handing Emma and her diaper bag to me.

"How much do I owe you for today?" I questioned, my eyebrow raising curiously at the girl.

"It's okay, you don't owe me anything. I love watching Emma." She grinned.

"No, I have to pay you. I'll feel bad. Really, how much do I owe you Maria?"

"Nothing, seriously. it's okay, love. Save it for something else."

"Well, thank you. I owe you one." I grinned before telling Emma to say bye. Of course, she couldn't speak yet but I still wanted to teach her to wave bye at least. I always thought it was cute when kids did that.

"Bye Mia. Bye Emma." Maria grinned once more before she shut the door as we headed on our way home.

Once there, I quickly ran upstairs after not seeing our Mom's car in the drive way. Some how, I managed to put the baby to sleep with her bottle, laying her on my bed with my pillows surrounding her to make sure that if she rolled, she wouldn't fall out. Although, I'd be right there.

I grabbed my school books out of my bag and began to do my homework. But after about am hour of doing that, I had finished. I began to put them away before I decided to head downstairs to make dinner. I wasn't gonna starve. And I knew my mom wouldn't fix anything. She'd probably just want to order out again. Which I was beginning to get tired of. I'd just come up and check on Emma every few minutes to see if she was okay as she slept up in my room.

I slowly made my way downstairs, my head popping into the living room, when I didn't see anybody in there, I assumed she wasn't home. But just to make sure, I peaked my head out the front door, only to see there wasn't a car in the driveway either. I let out a breath of relief before making my way into the kitchen.

I wondered what I could make that both my mom and I would enjoy before finally deciding on making something easy like chicken quesadilla's. Oh, how I adored those things. I quickly got the stuff I needed out, trying my hardest not to make too much noise and wake Emma up.

Halfway through making them, my mom came stumbling through the front door.

"Hey mom." I greeted her in a soft voice.

"Hi. What are you making?" She slurred, an eyebrow raising.

"Chicken quesdilla's. Is that okay? I was just tired of ordering out." I shrugged.

"Whatever. I'll be in the living room. Bring me one when you're done, I guess. These things better be good."

"Okay." Is all I replied with, quickly going back to making the quesadilla's for us.

About 30 minutes later, they were finally done and I brought one to her on a plate with a coke in a glass with some ice. "Here you go mom." I rested it onto a tv tray before sitting it in front of her place on the couch.

Afterwards, I headed back into the kitchen to fix my plate and drink. I soon heard shouting coming from the living room though.

"This is fucking terrible!" She yelled.

"I'm sorry." is all I said back to her as I quickly fixed my plate and a glass with coke and ice in it too. On my way up to my room I heard her talk once more.

"Whatever, I'm ordering out." She groaned.

I only rolled my eyes as I reached the top of the stairs, looking in my room only to see Emma sitting up on my bed. I quickly rushed over, sitting my food and drink down on the nighstand before I spoke. "Hey em. You heard mommy yelling again? Come here" I grinned, picking her up and sitting her on my lap once I was seated down on my bed.

I placed a gentle kiss onto her forehead before I grabbed her favorite toy, quickly handing it to her and letting her play with it as I sat her down right beside me.

I grabbed my food and began to ate, hearing her coos and baby talk as she played. She was the only thing that made everything okay.

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Word Count: 1419

NOT EDITED. Sorry for any mis-spellings or for grammar. Its 2:30 am and I apologize.