The Voice Within

Regular POV (Ronnie)

“Watch out!” Liz screamed, as yellow ball zoomed past Ronnie’s head before slamming into the back gym wall with such force that it collapsed and the air slowly hissed out through a tiny hole. Ronnie gulped as she thought of how close that ball had actually got. It was the end of the day and Ronnie was tired. She only had a double period of gym to get through before school was out.

“Wow, those guys sure throw the ball hard,” Ronnie laughed uneasily. Liz smiled and shrugged it off. The two girls both turned to face the bright orange cone that they were supposed to be ‘guarding’ in gym. They weren’t the only ones, a cluster of four other girls were standing in front of it, ready to dodge out of the way as soon as any balls came in their direction.

“So, are you going to be able to come to my house after school today or not? Liz asked cringing away as a ball was again aimed for their cone.

“Not today, I have to get Luke home, and stay with him, okay?” Ronnie whispered hoping Liz would leave it at that.

“You have to look after your brother again!” she gasped raising her eyebrows, “Boy am I glad that I don’t have any brothers or sisters!”

Ronnie jokingly rolled her eyes, knowing Liz would do anything to have a brother and sister, being an only child isn’t always fun, especially when you lived in a huge house and had two snotty parents like Liz. But still, Ronnie would have chosen Liz' life any day. Luke was only six years old, and she was running out of excuses to tell him why daddy was never home. He was the smartest six year old Ronnie knew, and she still couldn’t understand how he never seemed to understand that their dad was a depressive wreck who preferred to spend his nights down the road at the bar instead of with them.

“Well if your dad’s not home, then how about I go to your house?” Liz sneakily suggested, a smug smile all over her face and if the problem was now well and truly solved.

“Errm… well…” Ronnie began, biting her lip, “You can’t because . . .” she was then interrupted by a whole volley of balls shooting off into their corner.

Both girls linked arms, ducked and ran, they collapsed on the bench still giggling.

“That’s funny I didn’t see you two girls get hit,” the gym teacher accused.

“Trust me, miss, we did!” Liz laughed.

I jolted awake, with a crook in my neck, but a smile on my face. I was having such weird dreams lately, flashbacks, memories. But it was funny, because I rembered that morning at school so well. It was when things, weren’t so bad, when dad was only starting to change. I smiled to myself again, stretched and climbed slowly out of bed, reaching for the duvet. But instead feeling the soft material of my bed between my fingers, I felt a crisp clean white duvet between my fingers. In that instant it all came spinning back. My mad run from the hospital, collapsing in the park and now…? Had I made magically made my way own home? I gingerly stepped out of the bed, feeling slightly disorientated as I tried to make the bed. But as soon as I stood vertical, an aching pain took hold of my head. I groaned clutching my head, furiously rubbing my temples as I crumpled back on the bed. I sighed, taking a deep breath as I determinedly tried to get up again.

Five minutes later, I was finally out of the bed and had found a light switch. Now that I could see properly, I scanned the room trying to work out exactly where I was. I was in a small plain room, that was just big enough for the small bed I had been sleeping in. To my luck, I found that Luke was sleeping in an identical bed just next to mine. Apart from the two beds the room was empty of any other furniture apart from the small bedside table with an ancient alarm clock that told me it was exactly five o’ clock in the morning. I tiptoed over to Luke’s bed and managed a weak smile at my little brother who was laying on his back a small crumpled paper in his fist. I gently eased it from his hand, eagerly looking at the picture he had drawn. As soon as I realized what it was I began to panic. At the top in big letters, Luke had painted the words “For Ronnie”. But that was not what had captured my attention, Luke had drawn a smile crying picture of me, and then a big stick figure of dad, his fists raised, he had even drawn arrows and written in capitals “Ronnie” and “Dad”. Luke was always drawing pictures like this at home, I had them all stashed safely in my underwear cupboard. But he had never drawn them at school. My eyes flashed to the two suitcases in the corner and my school bag which I was sure I had left at the hospital. Then there were the two jackets on the floor beside them, and Luke’s dinosaur pajamas that he was wearing. They had been to our house! I started to pace the small room, desperately trying to remember if I had cleaned up all the glass and the blood in the living room. Surely I had cleaned it up for Luke’s sake right? I wouldn’t have let him see all the mess? But he never went in the loving room anyway, and I was going to clear it up after school, once I had bought some bleach and disinfectant. Was I? I couldn’t remember.

I stopped pacing when I realized something much more important than blood and glass on the floor at home. Dad. Where was he? What was he going to say when he found out, what was he going to do! I stopped breathing as horrifying images of dad’s drunken hateful face looking down at me. He wouldn’t just hurt me, he’d get Luke. I bounded over to Luke’s bed, scooping him up in my arms as I hastily yanked his pajamas over his head.

“Ronnie?” Luke asked sleepily.

“Come on Luke, wake up honey. We need to leave now, okay?” I asked nicely trying not to let any of the panic, I felt seep through my voice. “I tell you what, Luke. If you get dressed really fast, I promise I’ll buy you a new Star Wars comic.”

“But the Rosa already bought me a comic. She bought me a comic and sweets. She bought me the newest one, once she saw I already had the old ones at home,” Luke whined stubbornly.

I gasped, my hand flying to my mouth as I realized how serious this was. It was obvious who Rosa was. The social workers had got involved now. Luke had no idea how much trouble he had got us into. Dad was going to kill me.

“Don’t cry Ronnie” Luke said reaching for his clothes which were folded neatly on the end of his bed, “I’ll get dressed quickly. I want to go home really; I always liked the comics you bought me better.”

I could see in Luke eyes, that he was lying. He obviously liked it here a lot. It seemed so unfair, for me to take it all away from him. But I had to. One day when Luke was much older he’d understand. But right now he was still only a little six year old. I bit back my tears and focused on getting all our stuff together. I helped get Luke dressed, hitched him on my back, wincing when he held on too tight. We tiptoed down the hallway, Luke whispering the way to the front door in my ear. It was all new to me, I was seeing this big house for the first time. When we finally made our way downstairs, we passed one room with the door slightly open. I couldn’t help peeking inside. I could see a room just like the one Luke and I had been, only there were four beds with sleeping children in. To my horror, I realized we must be in some kind of foster home.

I cursed quietly to myself, wondering how one little picture could have caused all this trouble. I edged my way towards the door, wobbling slightly with the weight of Luke on my back and the two suitcases in my hand. I awkwardly managed to turn down the door handle with my elbow, but was having trouble opening the door with my foot.

“Need some help?” came a rough voice behind me.

I whirled around in shock, only to find myself face to face with none other than Chase. It was the boy from yesterday. He had been with those other people, what were their names again? Kat, Danny and Justin. Their were the ones who had put that mad idea of bunking off school into Liz’s mind. If it wasn’t for them Liz wouldn’t be lying half dead in hospital right now. The question was what on earth was he doing here?