“Ouch!” I screamed. My teacher, Mrs. Lavern was standing in front of me holding her large ruler. “Amy, what did I tell you about sleeping in my class?” It wasn’t my fault that I fell asleep; Mrs. Lavern is a fifty-six year old woman that thinks history is fun and alluring. And I am a fourteen year old girl that thinks Mrs. Lavern is annoying and strict. The lunch bell rang and I zoomed out of there as fast as I could. I arrived at my locker and took out my lunch then jolted off. I entered the lunch room and I felt like all eyes were on me, I turned around to see if anyone was in back of me, but I was alone. I looked down and walked to my lunch table. “Hey, that’s my seat!” I yelled. “Sorry, you came too late.” The stranger said to me. I looked at my friend and asked why there isn’t any room for me. “There just isn’t, ok!” She said with attitude. I looked at her in confusion and walked away. I was wondering why everyone was acting so weird. I had nowhere else to eat so I secretly walked into the girl’s bathroom and went into a stall. I locked the door and started eating, just in case someone would come in, I would lift up my knees and pretend as if no one was there. In my school someone would rat you out if you’re doing something wrong. Fortunately no one came in to use the bathroom and I was finished eating. I heard the bell ring and ran out. My science class was right next door, so I was the first to come in. “How are you Amy?” My teacher asked. “Fine, just fine.” I said quickly.
After our short talk, more students came marching through the door and sat in their seats. I saw my friend sit in the front so I followed her and sat right next to her. She looked at me, stood up and sat in the back. I felt like I was about to cry, I didn’t know why everyone was avoiding me. The teacher started his lesson, so I couldn’t go over to her to ask her why everyone was being so weird lately. I listened and wrote down notes.
“Sorry, let me answer this.” The teacher said in a rush. He hung up the school phone and looked at me, “Amy, you’re going home.” When kids usually hear that from a teacher they become very happy because they are getting pulled out of school. But this time it was different, I knew something was wrong. I only get sent home if it is an emergency and that is what it was.
I walked down the stairs to the main floor and opened my locker, took out my backpack and walked to the office. “Hi, I’m Amy Coles, I was sent down here.” I said in a hushed manor. “Yes, your brother is waiting for you outside.” The secretary told me. I turned around walked towards the main entrance. The pushed the door opened and saw my brother in his crappy car, I sighed and walked into the car. “What are you doing!” I screamed. “Shut up and chill out!” He screamed back. “Is that a cigarette?” I asked him in shock. “Yea, so who cares.” He grinned as he didn’t give a shit about what can happen to him. He started up the car and started to drive. Every second he would look out the window, I would stare at him in disgust. My brother has always been a delinquent. He has been in juvie two times for stealing, and he isn’t the best influence on my three younger brothers who look up to him. We arrived at home and to my surprise there were two police cars in front of my house waiting for my brother to arrive. They saw him with the cigarette and arrested him on the stop, he is only seventeen and it is illegal to smoke at that age. Knowing there is no one to take care of us, I panicked. “Where’s are your parents little girl.” The officer asked. “My father left us when I was three and my mother went to the grocery store. I lied my way out of it. Hoping the officer would believe me, I stood there waiting for his response. “Ok, I will be back in a week to see if your mother here.” He said. I took a deep breath and started walking towards the door. I stared at my brother in the back seat with his hands behind his back. I was ashamed of his behavior and looked at him in disappointment. I turned around and walked into the house. As I stepped in I saw Gerry, my six year old brother. “Where’s Michael?” He asked me in his cute voice. I didn’t want Gerry to know the truth so I told him he was going to sleep over his friend’s house for a few weeks, and said the same to the other two brothers. My family tore apart when I was four, my dad walked out of our lives on my third birthday, he couldn’t handle the paycheck to paycheck lifestyle and left. One year later my mother told us she was going to the grocery store to buy milk and she never came back. So for ten years my brother has been taking care of us, but once again another family member couldn’t take the stress and he decided to make new friends. Unfortunately his new friends were smokers, drinkers and druggies and he gave in to the peer pressure. It all went downhill after that, he became so addicted that he barged into my room and stole my collage fund that was hiding under my matrice to buy drugs. I almost had five-hundred dollars stored but then it was all gone in a flash. I got over it after a while but still resented him for it.
Right after the police drove away, I knew that I was now going to have to take care of the house, the food, the bills, and my three younger brothers. If I let the police know that we are by ourselves, they are going to take us to adoption centers and we are going to get separated. “I’m hungry Charles complained with a frown on his face. I looked at him in sorrow and walked to the kitchen. “How about a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?” I asked him. He gave me a nod and I pulled out the bread then the jelly then the peanut butter. I took out the safety knives and covered the bread with the peanut butter then a little bit of jelly. I placed the other piece of bread on the sandwich and gave it to Charles. I took a cup and poured some milk and gave it to him. I asked the other two if they were hungry as well, thankfully they weren’t. I turned on the TV, sat them all down and walked into my room. I turned on the radio and slightly lowered it. “It’s homework time.” I said to myself. I pulled out my textbook and notepad and got to work. I had to do my homework on my bed, because we sold my desk to pay for the rent. We have been selling a lot of things to pay for the house bills; I gave up my TV so we could eat for just a month. I never let the kids at school know that I was poor and without any parents, I was afraid they would tell their parents and then be transported to different homes. I tried to act collected at school but it was very tough, every second that I am in school I would think about how many chores have to be done and where we are going to get the money for the groceries. We barely use the heater or the air conditioners because the electricity bill would go too high. We don’t have any phones or electronics, all we have is the TV and the essentials for the kitchen. My three brothers share a king sized bed, and I sleep on a matrice on the floor with five blankets covering it. I closed the textbook and notepad and stuck them back in my backpack. I turned off the light and walked out. I saw my brothers laughing and smiling while they were watching SpongeBob Squarpants. I always watched it when I was younger so I found a spot the couch and sat down. It was almost ten o clock and it was time for the boys to go to bed. “Charles, Gerry, Danny, time for bed.” I said as I was sitting next to them. They looked at me as if I was their mother and stood up. I turned off the television and followed them into their room. They all jumped into bed and crawled under the covers. I took out their favorite bed time story and read it aloud. I started to read the fifth page when I saw them sound asleep. I kissed all of them goodnight, turned on the night light and closed the door. I turned off the lights in the house and walked into my room. I changed into my pajamas and sat on the matrice which I call my bed. I snuggled with my bear and started to close my eyes. I was about to fall asleep when I heard a huge scream from the boy’s room. I jumped up in shock and charged out the room. I opened the bedroom door and saw my brother holding a gun in Danny’s face. “Michael what the hell are you doing!” I screamed on the top of my lungs. “He looked at me and said, “I snuck out and I need two-hundred dollars!” “For what?” I asked him. “I need to pay my friend pack or else.” He started to shake. “You’re not going to the money from Danny, so put down the gun.” I said calmly. “Why, huh, does it scare you?” He pointed the gun at me. “Yes!” I yelled. He put down the gun and told me to give him the cash. Once again he had taken my collage fund and ran out. I knew my brothers were petrified of Michael know, so I told them it was all a bad dream and got them back to sleep. I took a sigh of relief and locked the front door. Hoping everything was safe for me to go to bed; I laid down on my bed and cried myself to sleep. Knowing this was just another day of my secret life.
