The Beginning

Different Worlds

Clarence had just got back from school and was taking off his coat and scarf when his mother came down the stairs with a feather duster.

"Clarence, your back early" she exclaimed running over to give him a big hug

"Yeah there wasn't any football practice today so I got to get back a little earlier" he explained hugging her back tightly 

"Okay, well dinner isn't ready just yet, your father is busy doing more overtime" she sighed softly looking down. Clarence rested a hand on her shoulder comfortingly, he knew money had been tight recently and it was taking its toll a little bit with his father being away so much.

"He'll be back soon mom, is there anything I can do to help?" he asked her 

"I suppose if you could fold up the laundry in the basket for me" she instructed 

"You got it, hey mom I applied for a few more jobs today so hopefully something will come up soon" he told her before turning around to fold the laundry.

After he had done that he heard his father walk into the house 

"Honey I'm home" he called out Clarence ran out to saw him and hugged him tightly "Hey son" he said with a grunt as he recovered from his sons bear hug

"Hey Dad" he said softly before letting go "Mom's upstairs cleaning something if you want to see her, dinners nearly ready" he told him

"Okay, thanks son" he told him gratefully going upstairs to see his mother.

Clarence took his clothes up to his room and headed down to check on their dinner, it looked ready so he started to plate up the food and set everything up on the table. He headed upstairs to call his parents down when he caught them having a conversation.

"I hate that you have to be away so much" his mother said sadly

"I know baby, so do I but you know how important this overtime is, if I don't make the payment on time we could lose the house" he reminded her, she cried into his shoulder as he held her "Grace listen to me we will be okay, I promise" he said defiantly staring at her with a confident look in his eyes, she nodded her head slowly wiping the tears away from her eyes. Clarence stopped eavesdropping and eventually called them down for dinner, the rest of the evening was spent together and was filled with many laughs and happy conversations, in that moment it looked like nothing was wrong at all.

Meanwhile...

Penelope was on the bus home dreading the time she had to get off the bus, her test results had come back and the grade wasn't what she was hoping to get, she knew her parents wouldn't be happy about it particularly her father. She swung her feet as she stared out the window the raindrops falling down heavily outside.

The bus pulled over to her stop and she trudged home nervously hoping her father wouldn't be too hard on her. She opened the door to her house gently hoping they wouldn't hear it, she threw her shoes off and scampered upstairs to her room to hide.

A few hours went by where  she was undisturbed by any parents, unfortunately dinner time was fast approaching and she was expected to sit at the table. The dreaded time came and her mother called her down for dinner, Penelope skulked down slowly not ready to face the disappointment her parents would show.

She walked to the table to see her mother plating up a bowl of stew and her father sat at the head of the table reading a newspaper. Penelope gulped before sitting down on her seat waiting patiently for everyone to sit down with their food. Her father folded the paper up and set it aside studying his daughter through his spectacles making her uneasy.

"Well, how did you do?" he asked her expectantly as he waited for he reply

"I, I tried my best" she stammered avoiding the question 

"Did you get an A+?" he asked in a tense voice 

"I nearly did..." she whimpered closing her eyes fearfully, her father slammed his fist on the table making her gasp

"What did I tell you would happen if you didn't get that grade young lady?" he growled at her making Penelope tremble in fear.

"I'm sorry papa, I, I tried...I'll do better next time" Penelope cried looking at her mother for help but she just looked away from her in disappointment as well.

"You won't be having and dinner tonight, now go to you room and think about what you've done!" he yelled at her throwing a glass at her which narrowly missed her head and smashed on the floor next to her making her jump in shock.

"I'm sorry Papa" she sobbed quietly frozen in place, too scared to do anything for fear of angering him further.

"Get out of my sight you pathetic girl!" he snarled at her pushing her chair over sending her flying off the chair, landing on the floor with a thud as her head hit the floor. She didn't register the pain she was in until she was safely locked away in her room. She pulled herself onto her bed and started to cry in both pain and frustration, she didn't understand why her father treated her so badly over the smallest things. It upset her a lot that he treated her like this, it hurt even more knowing that her mother just let it happen and she couldn't fathom why. 

With a heavy heart she got herself ready for bed, ignoring the pain in her stomach, as she slipped under the covers her thoughts wondered to the boy in the corridor, she thought about his strong frame and his comforting steely blue eyes, in her dreams he imagined him running over to protect her from whoever dared to hurt her. Those dreams helped her feel warm and safe and got her through the night with uninterrupted sleep.