Under the ledge where I sat, I could see rocks tumbling past me into the ancient water ahead. My feet were dangling off the edge as I breathed in the fresh crispy air surrounding me. I could hear the voice of birds chirping, as well as the sound of the fresh hallow wind that swirled around me in the cold early morning.

An hour left, I thought, then it's back to work. 

Although I needed to clean the house, I didn't want to. I wanted to stay here and explore the beauty that nature brings... but I knew I couldn't. So, I forced my legs to rise and pushed myself off the edge and got up as I gazed at the gorgeous view of the water that was drifting away. My hands ached to touch the cool fresh water and let it glide through my hand, but everyone would be up soon and I don't want to be punished... again. 

_____________________________

"Annalise! Hurry up you stupid girl!" the sound of my precious aunt's shrilled voice penetrated my ears as I moved around preparing breakfast for everyone. 

"Coming, aunty Malissa," I spoke as politely as I could while scampering everywhere as I assembled myself in the dining room while pushing the cart loaded with all sorts of breakfast items. Bacon, pancakes, waffles, eggs, muffins, and breakfast sandwiches were just a few of the foods I had cooked on the short notice my aunt notified me to cook breakfast since their plan for going out for breakfast had changed. 

"Gosh, you're so slow! We've been waiting for about two minutes for your sorry ass to be done. Do you realize how much of our valuable time you wasted..." as my aunt continued lecturing me, no one paid any mind. This was a daily thing by now. For her to lecture me before breakfast. 

I diligently positioned everything on the table before standing quietly and waiting for aunty to finish. 

She finally stopped lecturing me and instead spoke up. 

“The girls are having a party tomorrow, so I want you to clean the house from top to bottom and also do the dusting. You’ve been slacking off a lot lately,” she scowled at me as she ran her fingers down the tabletop to collect the dirt on her fingers and showed it to me. I just looked down and nodded, not wanting for her to get enraged at me any additional than she already was because I knew if I meditated, I’d have to face the consequences. 

After that, I departed to clean the kitchen. As I was cleaning the kitchen, the laughter of my aunt uncle and two cousins could be heard from the dining room. Hearing them made me wish I was there having fun, but I knew that would never be a reality. 

I know I should be thankful enough, my aunt and uncle already let me live for free of all costs in their house. Helping out with housework is all I do so it fine. But sometimes I just wished I was given more. For someone to care for me... to love me. 

My cousins Selena and Taylor were talking about their party with their friends while my uncle was in reading the newspaper and my aunt was trying to join Selena and Taylor’s conversation constantly but was always left out. As Selena described her mother as *too old fashioned*, and she always got away with it while I couldn't even get away by saying the word *fine* and also politely may I add, but me being the slightest bit of unsophisticated caused me to get grounded for a month along with supplementary chores around the house... if I was lucky. Selena consistently made fun of me for that and called me abhorrent names. However, Taylor was good-natured, since she was older than me, she took into consideration me as a little sister and gave me the identical respect and affection that she nourished Selena. She was precisely two years and a month older than me, while Selena and I were the same age, with her being three months older than me, she was born on the third of November, in 2006 meanwhile, I was born on February the 7th, in 2006 as well. Patrisha and Roman always treated Selena like the princess of the house and she was given everything she desired. She was, what you would call a *spoiled kid* that always got what she wanted throughout her life.

I know I should be ungrateful, some people don't even have food to survive. If anything my life was 100 times better than others and I thanked God every day for that. 

But little did I know, it was about to get better.