“Mom! I’m home!” Maddie says as she enters the door, trying to escape her inevitable fate. Her stomach twists with fear of getting punished starts to spread across her body.

“Maddie! What have you done this time!? This is the second call from the school! I swear if this happens again, you’re going to be in so much trouble!” Maya yells, Maddie’s mom.

Maddie barely has time to compose herself before her mother comes screaming at her.

“Oh god…” She mumbles, screaming inside. “What have you been doing at school?! Phone calls explaining to me that my daughter's behavior is disrupting class- This act is outrageous.”

“I get it-” Maddie replies harshly. Dang it, now I am sure I’m going to get punished. Maddie thinks.

Maddie’s mom stomps her feet to the ground and throws a finger at her. “No, you don’t get it! This act of yours is not funny!” Maddie turns her head away and walks away from her mother’s complaints. “You're causing so much trouble in school, at home, even outside! I don’t get it?! Have you ever tried to do something other than focusing on yourself?!” Her mother continues to yell at her, to bring her to her “senses.” Maddie instead ignores her and goes upstairs.

“Oh no, you don’t! I’m your mother! I shall not be ignored by a brat like you!”

Maddie’s mom grabs her arm and pulls her back down the stairs. “This act of yours, I won’t put up with it!”

She tries to put her arms up to block her head, but her mom’s grip is just too tight. She feels her eyes start to water, and then the shadow of her fist comes, another hit, this one to her back.

Distracted by hitting Maddie, her mother loosens her grip, enough so that Maddie is able to break free of her mom’s grip and block herself. It’s a shame she moved too slow, though, because just as she moves to block her head, she gets one last hit from her. It was to the shoulder; the pain was less this time, but it certainly is going to leave a mark, just like the other punches.

After that hit, Maddie covers her head and runs to her room, making sure to lock the door behind her. She slides down and sits with her back to the door and her head in her hands. Looking down, she can see some red drops. When she feels it, she realizes it’s her blood.

“Shoot…”

2 hours later…

Click click. Tap tap. Maddie’s fingers spread over the keyboard of her computer. She tries to be quiet, so as not alert the mother to her idea. “Tips for running away successfully. There.” She opens up a link from the search results and begins to read the list.

“Maddie! No more screens! You’ve been too badly behaved lately to deserve such privileges!” Her mother bursts into the room, fuming.

Maddie’s heart skips a beat. Quickly, she deletes the open tab, praying her mother doesn’t go through her search history.

“Sorry,” she turns off the computer and stands up from her desk, about to head to her bed.

“Turn it back on. I want to know what you were doing there.”

RATS!

In a trice, her mother’s phone rings. She picks it out of her pocket, glaring at it and then at Maddie. “You’re lucky this time that this call is important. It’s your father. Just you wait, when he comes home!” and slams the door shut on her way out.

Maddie pushes it to the back of her mind, telling herself that if the worst comes, she’ll just jump out the window or explain that Ms. Turner (ugh…) exaggerated over spilled paint. Though she doubts that her mother won’t try to twist her words or say “she’s lying!”

Maddie is tired of being here. Being controlled and abused at a place where she should call home. She’s done with everything, really. People, food, homework, even the neighbor's dog (Mello Bee, weird name for a dog, really, funny though.)

“That’s it. Why should I wait…I waited for far too long for a miracle; it’s time to actually do something.