"Judge tenderly, if you must. There is usually a side you have not heard, a story you know nothing about, and a battle waged that you are not having to fight." – Traci Lea LaRussa

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The beam of light shining through the curtains, right into my eyes woke me up from the best sleep I've had in months. I tried rolling to my side that was in the opposite direction of the window, in an effort to return to my blissful sleep, but then a realization hit me like a ton of bricks. My eyes shot open and I come face to face with the alarm clock sitting on the nightstand.

"No, no, no!" I repeated, trying to get out of the jungle of blankets.

I set an alarm for 7:30 in the morning! How the hell did I sleep through it? It was already 12:45 in the afternoon! I rushed out of bed, panicking. But of course, me being the klutz I am, my foot was still tangled in the sheets and it sent me falling onto the hard floor with a thump.

"Ouch," I mumbled to myself, untangling my foot from the cover.

Not having the time to lay on the floor, I quickly jumped up, slightly limping because I somehow hurt my ankle in the great escape from my bed. I pulled off the grey T-Shirt that I had slept in and tossed it over my head, landing somewhere on the floor.

I'll clean that up later.

Pushing open the sliding door on the closet, I let out a quiet gasp. I was starstruck, to say the least. The amount of clothes hanging perfectly color-coded on hangers had me in awe. I've never seen so many clothes in one place before, well only in stores.

I shook my head, we don't have time for this.

I grabbed a thin black, long-sleeved shirt off a random hanger and quickly put it on. I saw a pair of folded jeans laying on one of the shelves inside the closet, I tried searching for a size tag but to no avail.

"It'll have to do," I mumbled.

Looking back over at the clock my heart sunk. It was now 12:55 and I had done nothing. I swallowed hard. Maybe I'll get lucky and everyone was still fast asleep, but I knew that was just wishful thinking. With a house filled with so many people, there was bound to be at least one person already awake.

Pushing the thoughts from my head, I gathered my pair old black and white knockoff brand of Converse. I've had this shoe for three? Maybe four years now. I quickly slipped them on, I was grateful that I had a pair of clean socks to wear with them.

Not bothering to brush my hair, I practically sprinted out the door. In fact, I was in such a hurry that I didn't pay attention to the wall that I had just ran into, causing me, for the second time in the past 15 minutes to land on the ground.

"Watch where you're going." The wall barked.

I looked up in confusion, have I finally lost it? Was this wall actually communicating with me? That's when I noticed that I indeed did not run into a ran but rather, a really unamused Axel.

I suddenly felt small under his glare. His dark eyes narrowed on me, waiting for me to reply, which made me even more nervous.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, intimidated by him.

"Whatever." He rolled his eyes and went to turn away, but stop and turned to me again.

"Oh, by the way, the next time you decide to set an alarm to make sure you turn that shit off." I could almost feel the venom coming from his words.

"You turned my alarm off?" I almost huffed out, forgetting the pit in my stomach.

"Yes." He stated simply.

"Why would you do that! Why wouldn't you wake me up?" I argued, irritated and picked myself up off of the floor again.

"Because the damned thing was loud as fuck, and if you didn't hear that's your own problem." He said nonchalantly, walking away.

"Hey, Axel?" I breathed, feeling nervous about going downstairs.

I watched as his body went stiff, and his long strides stopped.

"What." Axel monotoned, not bothering to turn around.

"How much trouble am I going to be in? You know for not being up early enough to make breakfast and do the dishes?" I uttered. I wanted to prepare myself for the worst.

My fifth or sixth foster "mother", Ruth, would spill grains of uncooked rice onto the kitchen floor and would force me and any other kid that was not up by 6:30 in the morning to get on our knees and sit on the rice until she saw fit for us to get up. I still have little dents on my knees from being on the rice for hours. We were expected to have breakfast served and dishes done by the time she got up in the mornings.

Axel turned to face me again, his once hard eyes turned soft for a split second before returning blank again.

"You're not going to be in any trouble Angel." With that Axel walked down the steps, disappearing from my sight.

Did I hear him correctly? Did he just call me Angel? My stomach was doing flips from his words, and not the good kind. This boy is harder to figure out than those stupid Rubix Cubes.

I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. I'd never get anywhere if I tried to figure out why people acted a certain way. I learned that lesson the hard way.

Something is seriously wrong with him.

And I hate nicknames!

I walked down the two flights of stairs, to the kitchen. I was just about to enter when I heard people talking in the distance. So of course I stopped and listened to what they were saying.

"She seems reserved." A girl's voice spoke. Which I'm almost certain was Indy's.

I swallowed hard, they were talking about me. I fault bad for eavesdropping on their conversations.

"Yeah, she seems pretty fucked up," Wyatt commented.

His statement took me by surprise, Wyatt seemed so friendly yesterday. I knitted my eyebrows together in confusion. Was I fucked up? No longer wanting to hear anymore I turned to leave until I heard a third voice speak up.

"Don't make me come over this table Harrison," Rylan told him, sounding serious.

I smiled slightly hearing Rylan stick up for me, it wasn't something I was used too.

"Chill dude, I wasn't saying it as a bad thing. We're all fucked up, one way or another." He explained.

"Yeah I guess you're right, I don't know she's just been through a lot." I heard Rylan say.

"And you know that how? She just got here last night." Kina's voice asked.

"I just do." He said.

Deciding It was time to make my appearance, I stepped around the corner and entered the kitchen where five pairs of eyes turned to my direction.

Wyatt, Rylan, and Kina were all seated at the table eating grilled cheeses, while Indy was slaving over the stove making more. And lastly, there was Axel lend up against the counter, looking unbothered as always.

"Good afternoon sleeping beauty." Rylan beamed up to me from the dining table.

"Good morning," I spoke, not making eye contact with him.

A breath of vexation left Axel's mouth as he pulled himself off the counter and strided right pass me to the exit. He hit my shoulder with his in the process, throwing me off balance. Fortunately, I caught myself on the nearby wall and didn't go tumbling to the floor for the third time.

"You know you're a real ass!" I said in irritation. My eyes widen when I realized what I had just said. I wasn't trying to be rude, but I'm sick of people pushing me around.

It apparently took Axel by surprise too because when I looked over at him he was just standing there holding the front door open, staring at me shocked. But the curious look in his eyes quickly changed to amusement and a smirk formed on his full lips.

"Better get used to it, Angel." He told me, walking out the front door.

Flabbergasted with how bipolar he is I looked to the other four just to see they were just as clueless as me.

"Yeah? Well, Angel is a stupid nickname!" I yelled after him.

"Angel?" Rylan questioned, looking at me.

"Don't ask me." I shrugged, just as confused.

"How weird," Indy said to herself out loud.

"Why'd you say that?" I asked her confused.

"Nothing I just never heard Ax call anyone anything other than their name." She said flipping a sandwich to the other side.

"You know? Neither have I." Kina agreed with her.

"I'm the only one that needs to give Mia nicknames around here." Rylan spoke up "And that's final." He continued frowning slightly.

"I don't need a nickname." I narrowed my eyes at his frowning.

Rylan just lends back in his chair, crossing his arms in front of him, he seemed to be in a deep thought over something.

"Are you hungry Mia?" Indy asked over her shoulder.

"Starving actually, but I can make my own. I'm sure you're getting tired of cooking." I told her.

Which was probably true she had made a lot of sandwiches. But really I just don't like people doing things for me, it just feels weird.

"It's fine girl, I'm already doing it." She Insisted.

"Okay, I'll do the dishing for you after you're done then." I smiled at her. That way it's sorta evened out.

"Deal." She smiled backs.