"And she wont listen to a thing we say!",Sybil heard her mother screech into the reviver;no doubt referring to her. She'd only moments

earlier locked herself in the bathroom with a pack of cigarettes from her fathers sock drawer,preparing to smoke her first ever cigarette.

Sybil's mother would complain about her to anyone who would listen these days,whether it be a teacher at school,a relative halfway

across the country,or a stranger in line at the grocery store.The girl couldn't help her sudden thirst for rebellion,in fact,it was almost

expected of her.She was at the age where being the obedient little robot her parents desired just wasn't cutting it for her anymore.The only

solution was to experiment in the hopes of finding that exposed rawness that she knew lay beneath the surface.Swapping her Mary Jane's

for combat boots and her lace for leather was just the beginning.




Sybil recalled the day almost a year ago;the day that perhaps started it all;when shed decided to trade her long curly locks for an English



schoolboy cut. She remembered picking up the scissors and snipping off the first lock of sandy brown hair,biting her lip in

anticipation.Her sparkling brown eyes widening as she watched it hit the vanilla tiled bathroom floor.She let out a soft giggle at the

memory ,careful not to give away her hiding place to her family.

As she clicked open the lighter with trembling hands,Sybil heard a trail of giggles from the window.She quickly darted over,eager to see

where the sound was coming from.Her neighbors were all gathered around the table in their backyard playing a game of Uno, laughing

and teasing with friends.The smells and sounds of togetherness had become so foreign to her,that shed almost forgotten they'd even

existed.Images of the day that flooded her nightmares
flashed into her mind.It was a chilly Autumn day,so fresh

into the season,the trees hadn't finished changing color,with close friends and family filling the house.Her father talking his middle aged

friends,her mother gossiping in the corner with her aunts,and she and her

brother Jessie sitting by the table,playing Uno.




"Draw two!"
He had said ,teasing his sister,by sticking the demanding card in her face.Sybil scrunched her nose in defeat ,the way she always did when

she was loosing.When had she become the sort of person who skipped afternoon games of Uno for drinking and clubbing?

"Alright everybody!,"her father had yelled loudly to get every one's attention,"Its time to reveal the reason why i gathered all of you here

today.He then turned to Jessie,who stood up and cleared his throat.Thousands of possibilities as to what would happen next rushed

through Sybil's mind at that moment. As Jessie stood up and announced he was going off to war the next month,her whole world went

blurry after that announcement.She hadn't been the same for the rest of the party..The same night was when she had cut her hair in the

bathroom, a small thing her brother had always pleaded with her never to do;which led to her doing other things he had warned her

against.Things like going to clubs,drinking,and now doing drugs;they were all acts done on the sole goal of Sybil trying to hurt her

brother the way he had hurt her,by leaving her when she had most needed him.She thought about the tall stack of unanswered letters from

Jessie in a box under her bed.The regret of not responding to him came up all at once,like the urge to throw up.






"Oh well,"she sighed ,preparing preparing to inhale the cigarette, "whats done is done." Just as she lifted the milky white

cigarette to her mouth,a loud pounding at the door interrupted her focus,causing her to drop the cigarette in the toilet.



"SYBIL!were about to have a visitor!Get yourself freshened up!"yelled her father from down the steps.


Sybil felt a painful lurch in her stomach.Great, a visitor.She knew that meant forced politeness,endless smiling and a flood of artificial

happiness.That was one of her family's amazing talents.Pretending to be something that they were not;role playing.Mother;the loving and

polite housewife,father,the outgoing and friendly workingman,and finally Sybil,the charming and perfect little girl.No more.Sybil had

worked to hard to prove that she was no longer a little girl.But when the front door unlocked,the silhouette that appeared made Sybil give

way to tears.it was her brother, Jessie back from war.His presence had a magnetic pull on her,and she dashed down the steps to greet

him.Unfolding the arm he had been hiding behind his back he revealed a ginormous teddy bear with a pink striped ribbon around its

neck,and held it out to Sybil;who held the bear with one arm and hugged her brother with the other.



"Are you still my little girl?", he whispered in her ear. As tears ran down her face,she nodded,realizing that at this moment, the only thing

she wanted to do was play a game of Uno with her brother.