7th grade

We had moved once again, this time the town was Issaquah. Things were drastically getting worse at home. I was never allowed to be in any room of the house except for my bedroom or my bathroom. I wasn't even allowed to be in the living room to watch t.v. when she wasn't there. I knew the sound of her car and would quickly wipe it down with a cool rag and run back to my room, heart racing just waiting for her to come to my room and take out her frustration of the day or traffic on me. I'm really surprised that she never noticed the only thing n the house that never needed to be dusted was the t.v. My reflexes were getting quite quick, ducking in time to avoid contact , only to feel the broken tidbits of whatever she had found in arms reach to throw at my head , spraying my back. There was also the constant hunger, there was never any food in the house and if there was any, it was to little to try and get away with taking. She would bring food home, but it was usually just enough for her. I remember one time trying to sneak to the kitchen to grab a banana, she was sitting on the couch eating a steak and she caught me. She then chased me around the kitchen isle to my room with her knife. Needless to say, I didn't get the banana.
I started making friends with some of the kids that lived in the apartment complex, most were my age or older and seeing that I had just moved there, I had no babysitting jobs. I started eating dinner at their house while my mother thought I was at basketball practice. I knew that she would never show up, so there was never a worry of getting caught. She was so caught up with whatever boyfriend she had or plotting her next scheme to even notice that I did not have any clothes or shoes for the meets. One night after eating dinner at a friends house, leaving and then trying to kill time before I could go home, I met a boy, he was older and seemed cool. He even had cigarettes that he would steal from his mother. We starting meeting everyday in the woods to smoke. That seemed like a nice break from the girls that I was hanging out with, they were always fighting and talking shit about each other. It was from them that I learned what a yeast infection was. One of them had gotten one and the other was saying it was because she was always playing with herself and never washed her hands. I had never masturbated at that point and was a little afraid to do so because I didn't want whatever cottage cheese symptoms she was describing. I still needed them to be my friends because they were my meal ticket, but sometimes a cigarette outbid the food. One day while smoking in the woods with my new friend, he tried kissing me, I turned my head just in time. He laughed and said that I shouldn't be so shy. Moments later, he told me he knew how I could make some money, enough for me to run away with. He could be my pimp, he knew some boys that would pay to have sex with me and since I was a virgin, he could show me the ropes, train me. I didn't know what to say, I was shocked, stunned and out of nervousness started laughing. He did to, then quickly said he was joking, gave me a few cigarettes and said that he would see me tomorrow. When we met again the next day for our daily smoking ritual, he told me that he wasn't joking, he was serious. I took his pack of cigarettes and ran home. I never went to meet him again.
My birthday was a couple of weeks later and I received some birthday money. My mom was furious that I would not give it to her to put into my 'bank account' and threw me to the floor demanding to know where I had put it. I refused to tell her and when she finally wore herself out hitting and kicking me, she left slamming the door as she left. I heard the t.v. turn on and I jumped out my bedroom window and started walking down the mountain. I walked for about two hours until my grandma saw me, she had just driven up from Ellensburg to find me, she got me in the car and drove me back up the mountain, back home. My mother was not there. We grabbed some stuff and off to Ellensburg I went.

Lesson learned.......It's ok to steal from someone trying to steal your soul, even if it's only a $3.00 pack of smokes.