Guarded: Sequal to Broken

One

Maddie's POV

"Hello, Glendale High School, it is nice to be here with you on the first week of school." I grin, stepping onto the auditorium stage as the half focused room full of teenagers start to clap. It doesn't faze me though, I knows I can get most of them to focus if I just keeps going.

"I am really excited to be here today to share what I have planned with all of you." I continue, glancing to the front of the audience as a camera flash catches my eye, smiling at KayKay quickly before turning back to the crowd at large.

"For those of you who do not know who I am, and were not paying attention when your Student Body President introduced me moments ago, my name is Madison Taylor, and I want to tell you guys a story today. A story about being the absolute biggest outcast in high school. A story about being abused, and beat, a story that nearly took my life." As assumed eyes turn up from the phones they had been staring at.

"This is a story about triumph, love, and determination. Because anyone who knows my story knows it isn't the greatest life story. In my just over twenty-five years of life, I have been abused, nearly killed, orphaned, traumatized, and more afraid than I hope anyone else ever has to be. I became broken, lost, and emotionless, I attempted to take my own life." The rush of the room silencing fills my chest with adrenaline, knowing I have the ability to reach the people I speak to. The same way it does every time I walks onto a stage. "But I am not a victim, I refuse to be a victim any longer. I am a warrior, and I want to talk to you today about how to become your own warrior too."

I brush some of my long dark hair behind my shoulder as I climb to sit cross legged on the table waiting, "So, lets start with this, I want everyone in this room to close their eyes. This is a safe place, and I want you to be honest with yourself and with me right now. So close your eyes." I glance around until all eyes are closed before starting, "I am going to list a few things we will be discussing today, and I want you to raise your hand if you deal with them. I am the only one who will see, and I promise, I am not judging, each of these are things I have dealt with, and many I dealt with at your age."

"Okay, First, who here has a parent who serves in any branch of the military?" many hands lift, "Okay, put them down, now, who has lost someone close to them while they were serving a tour for the military." Fewer hands raise, but that seems to be how it is at most schools.

"Who has lost a parent?"

"Who has felt scared for their life?"

"Who has felt depressed?"

"Who has felt anxious?"

"Alright, last one, who has wished more than anything for someone to keep pushing until they prove they are there and break down the wall you've built to keep people out?" It always breaks my heart a little bit when I see the hands that lift timidly at that question.

"Me too." I breath out. "Okay put down your hands and open your eyes. I want today to feel like a discussion, and I know that is going to be hard, because there is one of me, and about 1,000 of you. But I hope you feel that what I'm going to say is directed to each of you individually, because I have no bigger wish than for it to reach you and help you feel important and needed in the world."

"Growing up for me, life was awful. When I do this for audiences that aren't school I use a less friendly word." The students laugh at that, "My dad died twenty years ago this winter. I was five. It was the week before Christmas, and he was in Afghanistan. As a captain in the Air Force he was called to do his duty following 9/11 and ended up giving his life. You guys weren't even alive then."

"My mom met my stepdad only a few months later, and he started beating me less than a year after my dad died. At six years old I was hit for the first time, and for the next ten years, I was hit, beaten, and bruised repeatedly; as were my mom and brother."