ADOPTED BY GEORGE SALAZAR

J. E. &. A. L.

Jai Elena's POV

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

BE-

Uhg another Thursday in this hell hole. I was kind of hoping to die in my sleep, you know all peaceful and shit. I look over at my little sister who was fast asleep in her bed. Her name is Anna Lucia and she's 4. I'm Jai Elena and I'm 17. Our parents aren't the best. Like at all, literally I'm left to do all the work it's not even close to funny. I take care of everyone, oh and our grandma lives with us as well. That old bitch. They all take turns beating the living hell out of us. I try to protect my sister of course. We share a room and of course, we can't afford 2 beds so there is only one. I just let Anna have it cause its pest for her. I get off my mat on the floor and walk over to her. I say "Anna, Anna c'mon wake up we need to get breakfast started of mom, dad, and grandma are gonna beat the shit out of us."
She grones and says "But I'm still sleepy. Just 5 more minutes please."

That breaks my heart. She should not have worry about all this. She's 6 and does not understand what's happening all the time. All she knows is that mommy, daddy, and granny give her boo-boos when I can't protect her. I want to help her, scratch that I want to save her.

JE "Come on Anna you can sleep on the couch while I get the stuff done but you need to come."

AL" Fine, can you carry me, sissy?"

JE" Sure come."

I pick her up and put her on the couch, and watch as she curls up. It makes me sick that anyone would hurt such a precious little girl. She did nothing but be born into this crazy awful life. She deserves the best. The absolute best. I turn towards the kitchen and get started on the breakfast. Once I finish everything and get it set on the table. I walk over to Anna and I wake her for the second time and tell her to get dressed and get dressed. Then we wake up our parents and we wait for them downstairs. We are not to eat till they have finished and never should we ever complain. My mother, grandmother, and father make their way down the stairs, and to their seats. This seems redundant, the fact that we are forced to watch. Of course, Anna becomes hungry and tummy starts to hurt. She starts to cry so of course father stands up walking towards us, I know that I need to do something worse to take the heat off of her. I pull her behind me and look him in the eye's that was a mistake.

F (father) M (mother) G (grandmother)

F "Move now bitch or I will make your life hell."

JE "She's 6 years old, does hitting her make you feel like a man or something "

Well, I'm toast. Mother and grandmother both stand up.

F "Excuse me? What did you just say to me bitch?

JE "You heard me. You get off on hitting little girls."

M "So disrespectful. Anna go upstairs now."

AL "Jai what are you doing?"

JE "Go Anna."

Anna runs upstairs and as soon as she is out of sight I get a stinging sensation on my right cheek. Then I get a kick to the belly. And hit after hit after hit and it finally stops. I am told to go upstairs and go to the room I get up with whatever strength I have left and go upstairs. I walk into the room and fall right to the floor and Anna gets off the bed and comes over to me. She hugs me and that makes the pain, for the most part, go away. I hold her and cry. Today we are normally allowed to go out because we never do. So she puts her shoes on and so does I and we make our way to the door. We walk around the New York City streets. We know we are meant to be home by 10 pm because that is the time people start to worry. We walk around inthefreezing winter air. We walk along Theater Row. Anna sees a poster for this show and it's called Be More Chill.