Page 13 of Kian's Devotio
Chapter 2
Karalee
Growing up being hated and resented your entire life was not something she wished on anyone.
She had been born in a bathtub on that fateful day and had been hated since then.
Her mother told her daily how much she hated her. How she ruined her life. How she took away her freedom.
She grew up thinking it was normal. To have a mother hate her. Until she saw how other moms treated their kids.
She just stayed quiet, going without food often, just playing outside with whatever she could find and trying to stay away from her mom.
Until the state came when she was supposed to be starting kindergarten.
They told her mom that if she didn’t go to school that she would be taken by the state, and her mom had unwillingly signed her up for school.
She didn’t buy her new clothes ever, and Karalee often just wore the clothes that had been given to them over the years.
They were too big and dirty, but her mom didn’t care what she looked like and Karalee had learned how to dress herself and take care of herself at a very young age. Younger than she was now. And so she went to school.
And none of the kids talked to her. In fact, they moved away from her. She felt as alone as she ever had.
She didn’t know if she was going to like school, not after the first day where no one talked to her, but the next day at the very first recess, a girl with white blonde hair came up to her and asked if they could be friends.
Karalee was so shocked that she didn’t know what to say. She had just nodded and the girl, Emery sat down next to her and they played in the sand.
And then Emery’s older brother, Kian came, playing with them as well.
She didn’t know how to handle friends. She just played quietly and when they talked about something called a ‘tooth fairy’ she didn’t know what it was.
Kian offered to give her his money that he had gotten, and she had turned it down.
She didn’t know what money was. Not yet. Her mom never had any and told her that over and over.
When the bell rang, and they had to go back to class, Emery had asked to sit by her in story time and Karalee had smiled.
She finally had a friend. She was afraid to get too attached though.
When the final bell rang, she was sad that she had to go back home, until Emery had asked if she could play at her house.
Karalee had never been anywhere. She didn’t know how to play with real toys or real friends, and she was worried that her mom wouldn’t let her go.
She stood by quietly while Emery’s mom asked Lenora, and Lenora took a long drag of her cigarette and had sneered but let her go.
When she got to the house, her stomach gave a growl at the smell of food.
She hadn’t eaten anything in the last two days and had learned to keep quiet about food.
She would eat when Lenora would allow it, and often, she would have to go find her own food.
She had gotten very adept at finding things in the small woods behind their house to eat.
There were berries and things, and she had only gotten sick once.
Lenora hadn’t been happy that she had been so sick and had thrown up all over the floor. Lenora had screamed and yelled that she had to clean up the sickness she had left behind.
Karalee had curled up in the dirty bathtub and had shivers wrack through her body, and she thought she would die before she finally felt better.
