The Story of a News Girl

Leaving the Scars

She curled up in her bed hugging the blanket close to her chest as the sound of a bottle crashed to the ground. Heavy foot steps walked across the old floor boards and a loud thud of something shot into the air for a moment, which was followed by the hard slam of a door which should've fallen off its hinges a long time ago. But no. It still stood there after months of slams and bumps. He wouldn't stop drinking the devil's brew. That's what her mother used to call it when she was still alive. The thing was though, he wasn't much of a drinker. But that was in the past. Back when they were all a happy family. Now it was just the two of them...more or less.

Things started to change after her mother's death of that long winter. It was just before Christmas and she had prayed every night to the Heavens that all she wanted that year was for her mother to get well again. She didn't care about anything else besides that. But her wish went unanswered and the final days leading up to the holiday were solemn. She didn't feel very merry on the morning of the twenty-fifth and neither did her father. They simply made breakfast, exchanged gifts before heading over to the church. She didn't pay much attention to the service, and not because she was six. But because she kept wondering why her mother had to leave. After that day the rest of the month went by slowly and before she knew it, it was the beginning of a new year. To keep money coming in her father continued with his job and she did what she could at the dress shop, which wasn't much and the young girl had to resort to doing odd jobs around the building. Simple things like hanging up clothes to dry, or taking them down. Market runs or grabbing a paper from a boy who would sell on the corner. Though that was a bit hard to do since she could barely ask to buy one. So she would walk up to said boy, give him the money, take the paper with a smile and go about her business.

Though her father told her to stop after a while and instead said she must stay home and stay out of everyone's way. It wasn't long before she discovered the empty bottles that were stashed away here and there. She asked him about it and got yelled at for snooping around. That was when things started to take a turn for the worse. Hard as she tried to be a good girl, there was always something that she did wrong. She wanted to give up, but knew that wasn't an option. She'd get in more trouble if she did stop working around the house. But what was the point anyways? She was useless anyways. That's what he always said.

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"C'mon Feisty! Daylight's burin'! An' it's such a beautiful day ta sell 'em papes!" Wolf's voice boomed as a pillow whacked her body, jolting her awake to the morning light beaming through the window. "Get yer little bum outta bed an' get a movin'."

Feister groaned as she flopped back down and pulled the covers over her head. She wanted to disappear into thin air but deep down she knew that wasn't possible. But a girl can dream. It wasn't long before Wolf yanked the blankets away and pulled her out of bed before going along to make sure everyone else was up and ready for yet another day of work.

"Hey kid, you'se ok?" Wisp asked as the news girl plopped to the floor and began to pull on her boots. He was one of the older boys with messy chestnut curls and soft green eyes. Of course he's also her bunkmate and has been a victim of being a landing cushion the times she's fallen out of her bunk. "I's heard ya mumblin' last night."

"It was nothin'. I's fine." Feister mumbled as she pulled the laces of her boots and began to cross them over. Her mind wandered back to the memory of her father and how bad things got. She blamed herself for a lot of things that happened back then. She wanted to let go and forget everything, but it wasn't as simple as that.....

"Here lemme help ya with that," Wisp said as he knelt down and began to tie her shoe laces. He went on and explained to always tighten the laces by starting from the bottom up before beginning to tie. Which he also explained how to do. But this time around he quickly did both boots and said they could practice later that night.