(TW: Child Abuse)

The eerie silence was a common occurrence in the household. The Saturday morning started off with orange juice, buttered toast, and an empty house. Rayland doodled on a stray piece of paper, trying to keep her mind occupied.

The uncanny feeling that wrestled in her stomach was confirmed when she heard a large bang downstairs. Then the hoarse voice that caused the noise made her cower in her closet, one of the worst places she could have chosen.

She started to hear footsteps coming from the bottom of the stairs which made the anxiety in her stomach bubble up to her chest. As the footsteps grew louder and closer, so did her heartbeat. Taunting noises and door breaks were heard until the closest one was heard.

She saw tiny pieces of wood peeking in from the closet she was hiding in.

"Where are you hiding, sweetheart?" He says in a sickly sweet voice that makes Rayland gag, bile starts coming up her throat but she pushes it back down for the sake of not getting caught.

"Are you over here?" She hears a swish of a curtain, she shrinks closer behind the pile of clothes she calls a hiding spot.

"How about over here? Come on, where are you, sweetheart?" She hears a thud and a groan. All of a sudden, the closet door is ripped off its hinges and reveals her worst nightmare. There stood Darren with a sultry smirk that made the bile rise again.

He dragged her hair out of the closet as she tried to resist but it's no use. The grip on her ponytail made hot tears stream down her face. He threw her to the ground, hitting her head on the hard floor.

The more he striked, the more Rayland fell in and out of consciousness. The more he kicked, the more blood she felt trickle down her face, staining her white t-shirt. The more he hit, the more she watched her life flash before her eyes, feeling a final kick to the head and her eyes closing for the final time.

"Rayland." She was shaken awake, she shot up from the bed in a dazed state. She glanced around the room, viewing the tired yet worried faces of her two oldest stepbrothers. Micheal and Liam stood there, etched frowns bestowed across their faces.

"Guys, I'm fine. I'm sorry I woke you up." She covered her face with her blanket but not long before it was ripped off.

"Fine? Rayland, that was anything but fine, you were shaking and crying in your sleep. I've had my fair share of nightmares and that sure as hell was not one." Micheal said frantically, clutching his brown head of hair in his hands, Liam nodded agreeing.

"Look, I appreciate that you care, I really do but I'm fine, it was just a silly nightmare." She lied and it was obvious they didn't believe it.

"Silly nightmare, is that really what you're going with? I really don't think you understand-." Micheal started but was interrupted by a soft shove by Liam.

"Sweetheart, we just-." He was cut off by Rayland.

"Please, don't call me that." She pleaded, the boys were taken aback but nodded nonetheless.

"Pumpkin, we just want to make sure you know we care." Liam sighed, Micheal nodded. "It hasn't been that long but we have grown to love you like a sister during your time here. We care about you." He finished, reaching his arms out for a hug.

Rayland digested these words that made her heart melt, she has only heard those words from Weston, Ryan, and her mother. These words made her smile and return Liam's hug.

"Get your grumpy butt in here, Wazowski." Liam teased, after a few seconds of hesitation, Micheal briefly joined.

"Shut up, Hemsworth." He groaned which caused the others to laugh.

"You've been acting weird all week, are you sure you're okay?" Weston asked Rayland for the fifth time, touching her forehead to check for a fever, she smacked his hand away.

"Damnit West, I told you I was fine." She snapped, immediately apologizing after.

The stress had been building up throughout the week, paranoia, ruminating often, and spacing out. Everyone around her was starting to get concerned for her, and so was she. It had been ages since she had gotten a full night of sleep, obvious from the dark bags under her eyes.

The dreaded buzz emerged from her pocket and Weston noticed how she tensed every time her phone buzzed. She ignored it and the phone buzzed again.

"Who is that?" Weston questioned, stretching out his words.

"Nobody." She lied, he raised an eyebrow and she gulped nervously.

All of a sudden, the phone began ringing and she had no choice but to take the phone out of her pocket, another unknown number. She declined the call just as the phone was snatched out of her hands.

She tried to get the phone back but his vertical reach was a few inches higher than hers.

"Weston, I'm serious." She tried to reach again but it was too late. He read the messages and face was getting redder by the second. "West-" She was cut off by him.

"Rayland, what the hell is this?" He asked sternly, she gulped again and avoided eye contact for as long as possible. "You weren't actually considering going, were you?" He asked, in disbelief, she turned away again with a guilty face and he scoffed.

"You can't actually be this stupid-" This time, she cut him off.

"Okay, I understand if you think this isn't the best idea but don't stand here and insult me as a person because I won't let innocent people get hurt because of me." She scolded, of course he felt bad for what he said but he only wanted her to stay safe.

"You're innocent too, you have to stop forgetting that. You can't be a superhero all the time, thinking about yourself doesn't make you selfish." He tried to reason with her but she shook her head.

"I am selfish if I'm letting other people get hurt over my bullshit, you of all people should know that." She turned away and left, leaving Weston thinking, what was she talking about and then it hit him like a ton of bricks.

"Can Weston Alonso report to the principal's office, I repeat can Weston Alonso report to the principal's office? Bring your belongings please." The booming voice interrupted the eighth grade class. Confusion flashed Weston's face as he hesitantly stood up from his seat and got his stuff, ignoring the unnecessary students in the background.

Anxiety built up in his stomach closer to the office. He hadn't done anything since his last dreaded visit to the principal's office over contraband that wasn't even his. They knew that bringing in his belongings either meant he was going home or they were going to search it, even though he knew it was the latter.

The nervous pit in his stomach dropped further than he thought possible when he saw an angry mother in the guest chair of the office. There also sat an old 'friend' of his, a 'friend' that betrayed him. A 'friend' that changed his life forever. He knew this was a big deal when he saw a man in a police uniform on the other side of the room.

"Please take a seat." The principal gestured to the wooden chair next to his mother, he took a seat, observing the cold atmosphere. His mother glared at the principal because of his latest request, to check her son's backpack again.

"You guys pulled this last time, trying to blame my son for something that he didn't do. Now you're gonna do the same thing again." His mother voiced out. She had always been one to believe her family over everyone else until proven otherwise.

"I understand your concern but we have to take these things seriously, in case he really is a threat to the safety of the students." Sophia scoffed and said inaudible words under her breath. Weston handed the backpack to the police officer and he dumped all the contents on the floor. Books, pencils, and random toys were sprawled on the floor, all expected by Weston, but what he didn't expect was the silver knife that dropped next.

Sophia stared at the weapon in horror while the classmate sat satisfied with a subtle smirk on his face. Even the principal and cop looked surprised by the discovery.

"I don't- I swear that- I didn't-" He stuttered, having no idea what explanation would justify it. Because of it, he was expelled without a doubt and since he wasn't caught using the blade, he didn't get in any major trouble.

"I want you to know that I believe you, baby." Sophia gave him one last kiss on the forehead before leaving town and never looking back.

"And everybody said I was weird this week." She muttered before stepping in the back seat of the car. "Again why did you offer me a ride to school?" She questioned the driver, tightly fastening her seatbelt. He sighed before answering.

"A stepbrother can't give his favorite stepsister a ride to school?" He smiled but everybody in the car gave him a deadpanned look. "It's a... an apology, I guess. An apology for treating you like shit since you've been here."

"It's whatever." She shrugged, he was about to argue but she continued. "And don't give me the 'it's not whatever' bull. You're lucky I shrugged it off instead of giving you shit about it." She only forgave him because she knew she wouldn't be able tomorrow, she didn't even know if she would be here tomorrow. She didn't want to leave holding grudges, with anyone.

"Okay then." He backed down while smiling and started driving.

"I'm scared, did it just smile?" She cowered as she watched Jayden's mouth turn upwards. The other boys snickered but were cut off by Jayden's glare. They rode the whole way in comfortable silence with radio playing. That was until two-thirds of the way through, Rayland realized she forgot her backpack. She debated whether she would go without or inconvenience everyone else in the car. She chose to inconvenience everyone else in the car.

After ten minutes of arguing on the side of the road, Jayden finally decided to turn around and let her get her backpack.

-

"So this is your new sister?" One of the guys at the table asked. Blake very obviously coughed a 'stepsister' under his breath which made his brothers smack him in the head.

"What the hell is she doing here anyway?" Blake asked the question the rest of the boys at the table had been thinking, just in a ruder way. She only agreed because she was trying to avoid her friends, it would be harder to leave if she got closer to them.

"We want her to feel more included." Jayden shrugged which annoyed Blake. Everybody at the table was shocked when he started laughing,

"That's funny, hilarious actually since you were the one who came up with the whole plan to make her feel left out before she came." He laughed, even though it was clear to everybody there it wasn't sincere.

Rayland had tried to show that the words didn't affect her but she felt hurt inside; they planned her demise before she even stepped foot in the house, hurt that there was nothing she could have done to make them like her, hurt that she was set up for failure.

"Rayland." She saw a hand flash in front of her face attached to a concerned Jaylen. "We've been calling you for a while, you okay?" She shook out of her trance and nodded, nobody was really convinced.

"She's adorable, like a little chicken nugget." One of their friends came to the table with a tray of food. They all gave him a look and he pursed his lips and sat down.

"Chicken nugget?" She questioned, he innocently smiled and nodded. She questioned her stepbrothers' choice of friends.

"I see you have met Nasir. I'm Ace, that's Dion, and that's William." He introduced everybody with a smile. Dion and William both smiled at her which she couldn't help but return.

"Bye nugget." They teased her as she left the cafeteria. She rolled her eyes and waved back.

She was about to go to her next class but she was interrupted by Christian's smirk.

"Well look at you. They drove you to school and sat with them at lunch. If I didn't know any better, you have to be sleeping with at least one of them. Maybe even all of them." She sneered.

"Well you are mistaken because they are literally seventeen, almost eighteen. Maybe, you forgot that I'm fifteen and shouldn't be chasing after boys three years older than me in high school, especially sleeping with them." She retorted and Christian looked a little embarrassed.

"I don't what wannabe mean girl you're trying to be and we both know that's not you." Rayland tried to reason.

"You don't know me." Christian crossed her arms.

"And never let me get the opportunity to know you. You automatically assumed that I was the enemy because I know the Brown brothers. Let somebody know you for you instead of trying to pursue somebody that doesn't even know you exist, you deserve that." She touched her shoulder and walked away which left Christian to think. If she wasn't the mean girl, who was she?

She entered the house with her stepbrother's by her side but she automatically realized something was wrong. The dimness in the room was darker than usual and she became accustomed to the chaos that surrounded her when she usually got there.

It was absolutely silent in the household which scared her even more. She turned around to see the boys but they were nowhere to be seen. She muttered a string of curse words before shuffling over to a light switch. Before she could lay a hand on it, a yelling voice sounded out behind the couch.

"SURPRISE!" The voice yelled, sounding similar to Jaylen's. She also heard a series of groans following behind.

"Damnit Jaylen, I said on the count of three, not one." She heard Paul complain. That's when she flicked on the light, she saw heads of hair poking out from all of the couches.

"Surprise!" But it came out unsynchronized and uncertain which made her laugh. She then noticed the decorations that were around the room. They all looked nervous for her reaction but were all relieved when she let out a big smile.

"Thanks guys, even if it is a little late." She grinned, muttering the last part which they laughed at.

"Group hug." Liam squealed, holding his arms out. Everyone groaned in response.

When Rayland headed to her room she realized something. When she first got here, she would've done anything to leave, to get out of a house she clearly wasn't wanted in but now she's been here for about three months, she's seeing this house as a home. She was finally feeling accepted by her stepbrothers and made so many new friends, even reunited with new ones who gave her a sense of comfort she hasn't felt in a long time.

And it was too late.

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2579 Words

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