Lost and Found

Chapter One

You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have -Bob Marley

***

If somebody watched my childhood from afar, I doubt that they would see a problem with it. Sure my parents were divorced, but so were a lot of parents. And although my mother treated me horribly, I could always count on going back to my loving father and stepmother. Most of the time I would hide in my room at my mother's until I was able to come back home. My sister was...there for me or that's at least what she thought. And I had a best friend who would stand by me always. But, that all changed for me when I was fifteen. When it became impossible to ever go back to the place I called home.

***

I woke up to my sister shaking me once again. Her long curly hair looked almost black in the dark room.

She said, "Juliette, it's time to get ready." Even though I was the morning person in the family, she had set her alarm earlier so that she could do her makeup. I, on the other hand, only needed five minutes to get ready for school. This lets me sleep in till almost seven instead of five.

"Fine," I responded. My sister, Hailey, walked out of my room. I got up and looked around my bedroom.

The white room filled with quotes and splashes of colors felt like the closest thing to home I'd seen in years. My daybed was pushed up against the wall and was still covered in my favorite stuff animals. The brown desk had white marks because my sister and I would write messages on it with chalk when we were little. It was pushed by a window. My room wasn't very big but it was big enough. Enough to escape to when needed.

I changed into a pair of ripped jeans and an army green shirt. After pairing it with my favorite black Converse -they had really cool rainbow shoelaces-, I walked to my mirror. Completely ignoring the make-up my mother bought me, something I have always disliked, I combed my pin straight, brown hair. Then I threw it into a fishtail braid. With my hair being so long the braid was past my shoulders.

I walked downstairs before grabbing a banana. I then walked back to my room so that I could think for a while. I sighed a breath of relief, more than thankful I didn't run into my mother. She was worst in the morning. But the minute I heard a knock on my door I knew that I had called it too soon.

I groaned. "Come in!" I yelled as I pushed myself off of the floor.

"Morning Sunshine!" my mother exclaimed, walking in. She was wearing her regular skimpy nightgown with her black hair tied up.

This was one of the reasons I disliked her. She loved to pretend that she was a confident independent woman. In reality, the place she doesn't live in, she was insecure and depended mostly on her brainwashed minions - the guys she brought to the house - to do her work. Because of this, she wore tight clothes and more than the regular amount of makeup. I never wanted to be anything like this, so I never wore makeup or revealing clothing.

I'd never been secure with myself, but I did accept myself. My mother tried everything, I mean everything, to make herself "beautiful". She wore expensive clothing that was made for fourteen-year-olds and even got surgeries to make her...parts look...well you know, enhanced. But, she just wasn't beautiful, at least not to me. I learned quickly that if you were ugly on the inside you couldn't be truly beautiful on the outside.

"What do you want," I responded, my voice curt. I felt tense for a strange reason. Her presents heightened my senses. It made me cautious and made me overthink everything.

My mom rolled her eyes but didn't say anything about the matter. "I just wanted to tell you that I have a friend coming over with his family," she told me.