Most everyone has a good life. Nobodys perfect. But life for me has been rough for as long as I can remember. It started when I was only a few months old.
My mother went to federal prison for theft and drug charges. My father was unable to provide for me and my 2 older sisters.
"Mom, these girls haven't had anything to eat but a can of corn today I can't do this."
My grandas took us in and turned him away. He needed help. HIs drug use and alcoholic tendencies were too much. They cost too much. They took all his time and effort. We didn't need that.
I was raised by my grandparents for the majority of my life. They were the only reliable people in my life. They bought all my clothes. Fed me 3 times a day and kept a roof over my head since my dad couldn't.
We thought things would change when he met a new woman. My stepmom for years. She was nice. Sometimes. They were so happy together, my dad had finally gotten sober and with his help, Cherry had too.
Thanks to Cherry my two younger sisters were brought into the world. After about 8 years they finally got their own place too. The first house we had as a family.
"111 south Tennessee ave. We're moving in next week!"
I remember the first time we ate in that house. We had all gotten happy meals from McDonald's. There wasn't any furniture in the house but we could care less it was our house.
The first night was chaotic, to say the least. All 5 of us kids running around just happy to have a place to call home for years to come.
Now at the time, I would hate to say it but Cherry wasn't the best. It all started small. Her buying my sisters Anne and Poppy things while we were away at our mom's for the weekend. It then progressed to Bella (My older sister) being pulled out of the bed by her hair in the middle of the night for 'talking back'.
"You will NEVER disrespect my mom like that again."
To Jessie getting grounded from her room for being in there 'Too often'.
"You'll be fine, it's just a week, plus it's not like you need to be there."
It was all going so well too. Then they started drinking again. Started doing some hard drugs. Relapsing in the worst way possible.
I learned to never show how I truly felt. I put on a fake smile while out with other family and school. Showing the pain would only make it worse.
This is around the time the 'headlice incident' had happened. It was small at first. One of the 5 of us had gotten lice somehow and so we all had to get treated and combed through.
It didn't stop there though. No. They were convinced we had gotten 'super lice' which I'll admit was and still probably is a thing. But we didn't have it. The lice had gone away after the first attempt to kill them.
Their solution was to bag up all belongings except for some clothes and spread the 'special dirt' on everything else. They were tripping on something and had convinced themselves these bugs were still there and had me and my sisters going to school 2-3 days a week. Minimum for them not to get DHS called on them.
I remember the bullying. Their words still echo in my head years later when I'm at my worst.
"Can you switch me spots?".... "No, I just can sit next to her."...."She has lice."
"She looks like she hasn't showered in weeks how gross."
"Does she even have more than those 2 outfits?"
YOU ARE READING
Nobody Knew. Nobody Told.
Non-FictionMaybe this is why I have so many issues. Maybe my therapist told me to write to help say how I really feel. Maybe I thought hey I should just publish this and see how far it goes. Enjoy I guess. ------------------ I know theres not a ton of detail i...