The collar of my shirt was basically chocking me as I tried to squeeze some more room around my neck with my fingers.

I hated being dressed up smart but we had to for this.

The building in front of me looked like a castle with how old it was, the cobblestone bricks chipped and faded away on all edges.

"Come on, it's time." My Mum grabbed my good hand and pulled me inside.

Almost everyone around us was dressed up smartly and the amount of policemen around was intimidating.

We ended up sitting in some seats for around 10 minutes before we were called forward by a woman who I recognised my Mum talking to a lot over the past few weeks.

"Ok, remember what I told you," Mum began fiddling around with my tie and straitening it out and fussing with my hair which she had annoyingly brushed and styled this morning.

"Answer the questions truthfully and do not interrupt the judge when he's talking." She finished, as I pulled away from her grip.

"Yea yea, whatever." I muttered, picking at the fraying edge of my cast on my arm. I had a couple more days until it could come off which I was thankful for.

Following after the woman, we made our way into a huge room that was filled with more smartly dressed people and some weird people in stupid white wigs.

"This way please Leo." The woman, offered her hand for me to take and I noticed my Mum taking a seat in one of the many benches. Was I not going to sit with her for now?

I could feel my palms becoming sweaty and I looked back to the woman. Instead of taking her hand, because I'm not a 5 year old, I just walked in front of her and waited for her to tell me where to go.

There was a small, separate room away from the court room that she made me sit in.

"When it's your turn to take the stand, we'll call for you. Ok?" She questioned and I just nodded my head.

I had made this whole thing out to be not a big deal in my head, but it began to feel more and more serious the longer I was here.

It must have been at least 30 minutes before someone came and got me.

Standing at that podium, looking back at all the questioning eyes was nerve wracking.

"Leonidas Taylor, aged 13, son of Devin and Delilah Taylor." The judge began and I had to bite my tongue not to cut in and correct him for using my full name.

The judge began waffling on about some legal stuff that I didn't understand and only zoned back in when my name way spoken again.

"So, Leo, in your own words, can you please explain what happened on the night of the 14th of August."

All eyes were on me and I could feel the beads of sweat dripping down my neck as I started talking about the night my Dad broke my arm.

I hadn't noticed him at first, but as I started to get into the story, my eyes landed on him. He was standing in a wooden booth, glass surrounding him and a policeman at either side.

He wasn't even looking at me as I spoke which made me angry. Did he not care? Why wouldn't he even look at me?

As I finished my recollection of the event, several people began scribbling down words in notebooks and murmuring into voice recorders.

"And this was not the first time your Father had hurt you?" The woman from before asked. She was standing on the floor below the podiums. I'm pretty sure she was meant to be mine and my Mum's defence.

"No it's wasn't, he had been hitting and kicking me since I was around 8 years old." I answered, my fingers once again reaching to my cast and picking at the material.

"A lot or not that often?"

"Nearly every night. I always went to sleep with bruises."

There was an array of mumbles and whispers from the audience and the Judge had to order for silence.

"Thank you, your honour, no further questions." The woman smiled to me and nodded her head to the judge.

After that I was excused from the stand and I was ushered back into the room I was in before.

My Mum joined me not long after, rushing to my side and hugging me as if her life depended on it.

"I'm so proud of you sweetheart, you're so brave." She sounded like she was crying again so I returned the hug.

I knew she was stressed from all of this after she came from court yesterday. She spoke then and didn't want me there so I was stuck at home with my Uncle Jack.

He thought that Dad was arrested from drunk driving, that's why I was injured from a crash.

Well, that's what my Mum told him as she didn't want people knowing what had really happened.

I didn't know why she wanted people to lie, but I had to go along with it.