November

November's eyebrows furrowed as she listened to her father babble on to her brother about his fancy school. It was an all boys school. Of course he was sent to some fancy school whilst she wasn't sent anywhere at all. Most of the time November told people that she is homeschooled, but that is a lie. She had no school, no one wanted her...

November didn't mind though. She spent most of her time in the hospital anyway... Her abusive father caused these visits, but there was always an excuse for the bruises the size of an apple, the scars, barely visible against her pale skin. Excuses for the auscrapes and grazes that coated her shaky, thin body. Generic excuses like falling down the stairs, or picking fights at school. November never told of the true reasons... The horrible blows her father had given her. The times he had came back from the pub, drunk and angry, and given her a good beating. Sometimes he would hit her, slap her, hurt her in every way possible, simply because he could.

My mother will protect me, November would think, but her mother was gone, dead. Or so she had thought...