Hi, this is joannacamilley. Thanks for reading my story! This is my first ever fanfic which actually started out as a challenge. My friend had challenged me to see who can write the best story so I was typing this when I realized I could make this into a fanfic! So, here we go!

And now another day begins. Mitchie groaned as she tried to grab the last threads of her fleeting dream. She turned over and tried to recapture the blissful place of her dream world as opposed to the hell of her life. After a few minutes, she gave up; she found out that lying in her bed thinking about how perfect it was in her dream would just make it that much harder to get up to reality. She sat up and slowly crawled out of bed with slightly watery eyes. Her last dream had what all her other dreams had lacked which made it the best above all, and also the worst to wake up from.

Mitchie went to her door and quietly opened it a crack, just enough to see out of. She looked around with frantic eyes, hoping that her mother's boyfriend wasn't awake, or worse, high. Josh was almost as bad when he just woke up as he was when he was high. As soon as she was assured the coast was clear, she carefully opened her door the rest of the way. She winced and held her breath as it creaked a bit, breaking the silence of the house. All she heard was the bed in her mom's room squeak and the rustling of sheets as someone apparently turned over. When it stopped, she took it as an okay to cautiously make her way to the bathroom. Her heart was jumping out of her chest as she stepped into the room, grateful that it was sound proof. Her mother had sound proofed it when Mitchie was younger and had expressed her urge to sing, saying that the best room to sing in was the bathroom. Those were the good days, before everything went down the drain.

Mitchie sighed as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. Her limp black hair greatly contrasted her bright blue eyes. Once upon a time, she loved the way she looked and walked around with great pride, but not anymore. Not since her parents' divorce. Not since her mother met drug-addict and mobster Josh. Not since her life turned to hell. She picked up her black eye-liner and layered it on thick, as if she was trying to create a mask to hide behind. When she thought about, she really was. She put on a façade in front of everyone, acting as if their words didn't hurt her, but they did, probably worse than they would to other people. She looked at her eyes and sighed as she saw a few tears leak out of them, leaving a black trail down her cheeks. She contemplated actually going to school like that, to throw people off even more, but decided not to. It would only show that she had been crying lately and people would probably make fun of her more. She wiped off the makeup and did it again, trying hard not to cry as she thought about how bad her life was.

She finished and absentmindedly ran her brush through her hair, not really caring if it looked good or not. She brushed her teeth and took one last look at herself. She looked like a tortured soul, someone who had experienced things way beyond her years. She sighed again as she crept back to her room, wondering if sighing was her new hobby. She noticed her mom's bedroom door was open, which meant one of them was up. She hoped it was Josh so he would have some time to cool off before she had to see him this morning.

She got back to her room and slowly closed the door. She walked to her closet and randomly pulled out an outfit. Most of her clothes were dark and unnoticeable, not that she had gone goth, she just didn't want to stand out. It made her life easier. She put them on and took one more look at herself in the mirror. She looked at herself with longing in her eyes, almost as if they were begging to get out of this life and into someone else's. Anyone else's. She grabbed her books and headed to the kitchen to face her impending doom, Josh.

When she walked into the kitchen, she saw Josh sitting at the table reading the paper while her mother was making coffee with her back turned to Mitchie. It was times like these when Mitchie could almost forget about the terrible life she had and see herself with a normal family. Almost. She gladly noticed that Josh seemed to be in a good mood, which meant he had time to blow off his morning steam. Her stomach lurched when her mom turned around, sporting a bruise above her right eye. Apparently, he blew off his steam onto her mother. Her mom just took the coffee pot to Josh and poured him a cup, all the while giving him a morning kiss. It disgusted Mitchie how forgiving her mother was. Josh could beat her to Timbuktu and she would be apologizing to him, while someone else could step on her shoe and she would scream at them. Her mom looked up and smiled at Mitchie, rubbing her very big stomach. Mitchie's mother was pregnant and due any day now, which disgusted Mitchie even more how Josh could hit a pregnant woman.

"Hey, Mitchie. Are you going to sit down?" Josh said, briefly looking up from his newspaper. Mitchie glared into his eyes for a second before grabbing an apple.

"No, I'd rather just…you know, leave." Mitchie replied while quickly walking to the front door, hoping that Josh wouldn't pick up on the bitterness in her voice.

"Hold up. Are you disrespecting me?" Josh demanded as he quickly stood up, knocking over his coffee. Josh had a really short temper.

Mitchie slowly turned around, a look of fear on her face. Josh was really scary when angered. "No Jo--, um…sir. I was just…practicing my acting, you know, for the school play?" she said, however, it sounded more like a question. Josh looked her up and down before slowly walking up to her. Mitchie closed her eyes.

Suddenly, Mitchie was falling, falling into her mother's expensive vase. She heard the glass shattering before she felt the extensive pain. Her eyes popped open as she realized what had happened; Josh had slapped her, knocking her into the vase and cutting herself. She looked up and saw her mother moving, almost as if wanting to come help her, but scared of what Josh would do. Apparently, Josh saw it too.

"Don't move, Connie, I'm not finished yet," he said as he walked up to Mitchie, who was shaking, either with pain or fear. He grabbed one of her arms and examined the multiple wounds. Mitchie wasn't sure if it was to help or to hurt her, but either way, she didn't move. Josh looked into her eyes and for a second, Mitchie could have sworn she saw regret flash through his eyes, but as fast as it came, it left. He abruptly stood up and turned the her mom.

"Connie, clean this up, I have to go to…work," He muttered as he left the house, leaving her mother to stare at Mitchie in shock and for Mitchie to cower on the floor. When Connie moved to help Mitchie, she jumped up and grabbed her bags, deciding to fix herself at school. Connie sighed as she looked down at the mixture of broken glass and blood on the floor and started cleaning.

I hope you liked this chapter! This challenge ends on Sunday the 16th so the story should be done by then. I may or may not write a sequel because I really wanted to make it longer but I have a 2 day deadline! Sorry if it sucks; I have no experience whatsoever. Well, other than school, but I'm only going into high school in a couple of weeks! Oh, and the title is the Jonas Brother song, who I love. I was trying to think of something that would go well, and I remembered the part where I said 'tortured soul' and I thought of Poor Unfortunate Souls. Well, until next time!

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