Never in my life did I ever think I was going to be a victim, but here I am now telling my story. It all began in my small hometown called Treckeretown. My family and I were all living in our petite home, which my mom loved dearly, and were just living life the way “normal” families do. Then the impossible happened. My mom got diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer. She eventually died 1 year later. I was devastated. I remember her lying in a hospital bed all day because she was so frail and weak. Her cheeks were sunken in and she looked as if she was drowning in a sea of machines. I bottled my grief in while my father turned to the bottle to tackle his own grief. His alcohol abuse worsened his growing depression. I never really thought much of this until he hit me for the first time. I remember it distinctly. I had burned our dinner because I was attempting to pick up our house, which was now like a run-down dumpster, and had completely forgotten about it.

My dad grew furious and yelled, “Emma what the heck did you do? That was all the dinner we had left you worthless brat!”

His eyes were widened with rage I had never seen before and his cheeks were as red as tomatoes. I was terrified. Then his huge muscular body tensed up and he punched me in the jaw causing me to black out. When I woke up I saw that he had knocked over all the plates and I was lying in a pile of shredded porcelain and glass. My hands and face were bleeding. I just wanted to lie there and cry but I knew that I had to be strong and crying would only be a sign of weakness. Slowly I gathered myself together and picked up the mess around me. As I went upstairs to go to bed, I found my dad passed out on the torn up couch next to three beer bottles scattered on the floor. When I got to my room I saw my scratched and badly bruised face.  I had no clue what I was going to do because I had to go to school in less than six hours. I tried best to ice my face, but I knew it was worthless and I just had to accept the fact that everyone would see me like this. As I got ready the next day I didn’t see my father once but I didn’t care. I arrived at school and tried my best to be invisible, but then my best friend Amelia came over.
She took one quick look at me and then shrieked, “Oh my God Emma what the heck happened to you?!”
Everyone in the hallway looked over at me.

“Nothing.” I grumbled as I tried to get away from everybody and just go to my history class.

Amelia however wouldn’t let the subject go and pestered, “Emma that is serious and you clearly need some help. I’m going to go fetch the nurse.”

I didn’t want to yell at Amelia because after all she was my only friend, but I knew that if she got the Nurse things would just get out of hand.

“No Amelia, just leave me alone!” I shouted as I slammed my locker shut.
She stood there stunned and I quickly ran away. The whole day I tried my best to hide under the radar, but everyone stared at me everywhere I went. I eventually ditched school and went home. It didn’t get any better from there. My dad came home at eleven o’clock stumbling through the door, drunk, without any food for me. He saw me at the table doing my homework and I knew what might happen so I held my head up high and prepared myself.

“Hi dad.” I said to him quietly.

He just looked at me with a blank expression on his face and replied, “Why are you doing homework, it’s not going to help fix your useless life.”

My heart broke. I thought that my dad acting like this had been a one-time thing, but I was wrong. I started thinking to myself, what if I really was a worthless brat? Was my life even substantial in this world? Feeling frustrated I closed all my books and went to my room. That night I cried myself to sleep. The next morning I woke up to go to school again. As I was getting ready for school, I realized in the mirror how ugly I was. The bruises were still on my face and I had circles under my eyes that were so dark, they looked black. Tearing my eyes away from the mirror, I forced myself to get ready for school. I didn’t want to go, but at least at school I didn’t have to face my dad. As I was walking into school I noticed Amelia walking over to me. I didn’t feel like talking. Why couldn’t I just be alone because who was there to even trust in this world? Clearly no one because I had trusted my dad with everything, and he ruined it all.

“Hey Emma.” Amelia spoke tentatively.
“Hi.” I replied quickly.

“Emma your face is looking even worse today. What is going on?” Amelia interrogated.
“Nothing okay! Just get away Amelia!” I yelled.
“Fine! I’ve had enough with you and your weird attitude these past couple day! I’m out of this friendship you jerk!” she shouted.
“Fine! I didn’t need you anyways!” I yelled as Amelia ran away from me.                    
Throughout the day I heard people talking behind my back, “Ugh she so weird. Look at her ugly, scrawny little body and all her bruises and cuts. She’s probably a depressed freak.”
Tears sprung to my eyes and I quickly walked past everyone to math class early. As I sat down, the teacher Mrs. Avery walked over to me.

“Hi Emma, I’ve been noticing that the past couple days you’ve been skipping school and not handing in any work for your classes. You’ve also come in with bad cuts. What’s going on?” questioned Mrs. Avery.

“Nothing.” I mumbled keeping my head down.
“Well, okay then. Just know that I’m here for you if you need to talk, and there is also a school psychologist.” Mrs. Avery offered. 

I nodded my head and just pretended to do work. The bell rang and students started flooding in.

As everyone settled in I heard people around me arguing “Hey, can you switch seats with me? I don’t want to sit next to that weirdo Emma, she freaks me out.”

I buried my head further into my book, words flying through my head: loser, weirdo, freak, psycho, nut. I felt like I was being buried under these titles, but still gasping for some sort of piece in my life that made me worth something.  I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Um, Mrs. Avery may I go to the bathroom?”

“Of course Emma, but you look really pale and shaky. Are you sure you don’t want to go to the nurse?” Mrs. Avery asked.

“Yes, I’m fine.” I refused.
I quickly ran out of the room, my head still swarming with thoughts. I went to the town park. Once I was there, I broke down. I collapsed and started to sob uncontrollably. How is life worth living if I have to deal with this abuse every day? I felt as if my bottled up feelings were now going to explode. I didn’t want to deal with this abuse anymore. I was worthless to this world now. I had no parents, no friends, and no-where in life to go. I knew what I had to do. Quickly I sprung up and sprinted home. Once there I went straight to my parent’s bathroom. I threw open the cabinet doors and started to search for my mom’s old medicine. I remembered her hating to take it because it made her have terrible stomach issues. As I tossed all the old bottles aside, I finally found it. There were roughly 20 pills left. I grabbed the bottle and quickly took it out of the cabinet my body shaking, and my vision blurred with tears. Hurriedly I opened up the bottle, took 5 pills out, and swallowed them with water from the sink. As I leaned over the sink, all I could think about was how much better everyone else would be when I would be dead. My dad wouldn’t have to deal with a stupid daughter, and everyone at school wouldn’t have to deal with a freak scaring them. Suddenly I felt my whole body go numb and I collapsed on the ground. As I slowly blacked out, I heard the phone ringing. That was the last thing that I remembered.

“Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.” machines buzzed.

I slowly woke up and realized that I was in a hospital bed with Mrs. Avery sitting next to me.

“Hello Emma. You gave me quite a fright there.” Mrs. Avery said quietly.

I looked at her confused.

Then Mrs. Avery started to speak again, “When you left my class and never came back to school I knew something was up. You had looked terrible so I called your house to make sure that you were okay. When nobody answered I came to your house to check on you, only to find beer bottles scattered everywhere and you not breathing on the bathroom floor. I called 911 and when they came things clicked. The bruises, the missing assignments, all of that was due to your father abusing you wasn’t it?”

I slowly nodded and Mrs. Avery let out a deep sigh, her shoulders sagging.

“Well luckily for you, child protective services are now getting involved in this case, and if you want you may be able to stay with your dad once he gets proper rehab.
I shook my head no, tears in my eyes.

  Mrs. Avery saw my fear about being returned to my father’s care and proceeded on saying, “Okay, I knew this might happen so now you’re going to have to be adopted. If it’s okay I would like to take you in as my daughter. You don’t have say yes, but if you want this then hopefully you will be living with me by the end of this month.”
I nodded my head yes and a smile spread across Mrs. Avery’s lips lighting up her face.

“Well I’ll go tell the people now and hopefully we’ll get this all figured out soon.” she gushed.

Now here I am 5 years later, a successful graduate from high school and a sophomore at college. I am so very thankful of my mom, Mrs. Avery. Even though she can never replace my old mom, I love her. Life used to be something that I had to struggle with every day, and I thought that I was all alone with nothing to save me. However I’ve realized that someone has always been there to help me. I’m not alone in this world and neither are you.