A Glass Half Empty

The Watson's walked into their home, put their robes on the coat rack (or should I say robe rack now?) then went along their merry way through their house. I, on the other hand, stood in the doorway, in awe at the home I would now live in. I, myself, get to live here? With kind people? This must be a joke! A sadistic one yes, but a joke! My memories filled with times where Mario beat me, burned me, cut me, screamed at me, threw me into walls or doomed to sleep outside in the winter haunted me, so I just couldn't imagine that now, finally after eight torturous years, I'd been given not a house, but a home. I looked down at my feet, almost bowing as I stepped into the home and closed the door behind me.

Walking slowly forward, inching to the end of the hallway, I glanced around for any sight of the Watson's, or Mario, Vivianne, telling me this was all a sick sick joke and I should go back to my cellar, forgetting this ever happened. But as I reached the end of the hallway, all I saw was an immaculate living room to my left and a gorgeous kitchen peeking out from the stained glass doors. About ten feet in front of me stood a shiny oak staircase leading to the second floor where my bedroom would be kept. As I set my backpack down, I called out "Mrs.- uh Jane?"

A "Yes, dear" came out far closer than I expected, as I spun around to see Jane standing before me, giggling, her eyes shining with delight. "Come, come dear! I would like to show you your room, and a few other surprises we bought for you! I'm so glad you are living with us. Suppose you would like a shower? I find it always helps if I've vomited." As she spoke she led me up the stairs and to the left, passing a bridge like hallways where there were no walls, but balconies looking down on the living room and finally to a room with double doors. "Ah, here we are! We decided to give you a room far from ours to give you some privacy. We can change it to how you desire it to look quite easily. I am a witch, you know. Daniel is a wizard."

And with that, I pushed open the doors to see a huge, and I mean huge room staring back at me, with windows across from the double doors. From the windows I could calculate a way to get on the roof, from the way it was positioned. The room was almost like a diamond, except far fuller. From here I saw two other doors, one to which I'd deemed a closet door, and the other, perhaps a bathroom? There was a bookcase to the right wall, and a twin sized mattress right under the window. The walls were white, which I guess after I told them which color I wanted they would help paint with me. I turned around, to which Jane stood, a nervous expression on her face, and hugged her. "Thank you so much." I said to her stomach, being much shorter.

"Are you sure? We were going to paint the walls and such once we got to know you, and decorate it so beautiful that all the other teenage girls were jealous, once you make good friends at Hogwarts!"

"That'd be lovely, actually. Thank you so much, Jane! And Daniel, would you tell him how much I appreciate this? This is wonderful! So much better than the cellar from before." I spoke with a gleam in my eye. I was ecstatic! A room, a beautiful room all to myself, with a kind family and huge house? Not to mention I'm a witch, and am going to go to Hogwarts to study magic! This is far better than even my dreams couldn't compare to.

"Of course I would. Tomorrow we will get going on decorating your room. The first door over their" indicating one of the doors I'd noticed, "is your bathroom. Its a fairly nice size, we'll have to get you towels, shower curtains, shampoo, and things for it. The other door is your very own walk-in closet! We'll go shopping for everything, all your clothes, shoes, accessories, as you can see were pretty well off so you will be able to get all that your heart desires. And next we'll go and buy things for your bedroom, paint color we can do with my wand, but all the other things we will buy for you. If you can't find, oh say the rug you want I can just make it myself. For now, sleep tight. There are some blankets on the shelf in the closet that you can use for now. This room has an automatic alarm clock which will wake you up at seven o'clock am sharp, only the people in this room can hear it. You can change the time later. I expect you showered and dressed in the kitchen for breakfast at promptly eight am. We have quite a bit of shopping to do!" Jane finished her speech, kissing both of my cheeks and bidding me goodnight.

As she closed the door, I imagined a hook rack on the door to which I could hang things, and to my delight it appeared. I slipped my backpack on it, taking out the clothes and heading to the closet. I stood in awe again, at the mere size of this closet, more like room I thought to myself as I slipped the shirts and pants onto the hangers. Going towards the door, my small clothing looked like a spec in a closet such as this. I grabbed the blankets, feeling its soft fluff as I closed the closet door, and set them on my bed. I slipped my dress off, standing in my under garments which consisted of a tank top and underwear and slipped onto the bed. As I closed my eyes under the soft, white blankets, my last thought was My life is finally turning around, and fell asleep.

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*Dream*
I walked through the kitchen of Mario and Vivianne's home, slipping quietly and surely to the fridge. I had not eaten a thing since Tuesday, six days ago. I was starving. Mario refused to give me any nourishment, saying all this lazing around has gotten me far too fat. Reaching towards the fridge handle, a hand grabbed my arm, and threw me in the opposite direction. Pummels to my face continued, until he started kicking my side, legs, stomach, basically every visible part of my body.
The blows continued, as I covered my face in my hands, cowering in the fetal position. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry" I kept mumbling, but the pain never stopped. He grabbed me by the collar, spit in my face and hissed "Don't you ever touch the fridge you fat ass. Did I give you permission to eat? To walk around the home I so generously let you live in? Did I?" throwing me back down, and continued with the beating. "No, no I didn't! Don't you ever disobey me ever again, unless you want to sleep outside again? I heard it was a thunderstorm tomorrow night. Would you like to sleep during that?"
The kicking stopped, and I peaked out from my hands to see Mario, reaching into the drawer, looking for something, something. Oh no oh no, please, have mercy on me. Please.. I thought, as tears cascaded down my cheeks. "Please" I have whispered, my voice quivering.
"Aha!" he shouted in joy, finally finding what he was looking for. He turned to me, a mad glint in his eye as I covered my face again, praying this might not be what I thought it was. He came toward me, brandishing the knife now clearly visible in his hand. He grabbed my leg, so forcefully it took all my will power not to kick him in the face, and made a long, deep gash on my left calf. Hissing in pain, I was now sobbing openly, gasping in horror at my now mutilated leg. He placed the knife to my face, and spoke ever so softly, then gaining volume, "I hope you learned your lesson about doing things without permission. Here, " he said, handing me the knife, " clean this up, would you? Ha, of course you would. Clean up that cut there, you look disgusting." And with that, stood up tall, walking gracefully back to his bedroom to sleep with Vivianne as they tried again and again for a child they could love, unlike Heather of course.
My hands shook as I tried to pull myself off the floor. My legs terribly weakened, especially with the gash still openly bleeding down onto the floor, made it terribly hard to stand. Now shakily on my feet, reached for the cupboard to get disinfectant and the big band-aids. I sprayed my leg with said disinfectant, and covered it with the biggest band-aid I could find. I reached for a glass of water to sustain me, then, feeling much better, or as best I could in the situation, limped over to the mop to clean my blood.
Afterwards, shivering in the cellar even under the covers, I whispered, "Please, please, someone get me out of here.." and with that final thought, or wish, drifted off to sleep.

*End of Dream*
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I awoke to the sound of a slow buzzing in my ear. I lifted the covers off of me, opening my eyes to see a 7:00am written in midair, and watched it vanish before my eyes. I stumbled over to the bathroom to at least rinse off, grabbing the white bar of soap and mumbling, "This will have to do." After my quick shower, I dried myself off with the one white towel waiting for me. Jane must have known I'd love a shower in the morning. With the towel wrapped around my eleven year old, still undeveloped body, I slipped on one of the shirts I owned, a light blue long-sleeved sweater and a pair of shorts I didn't think I owned which barely rested on my hips. Maybe Jane left me shorts since it might be hot walking around this fine summer day?
Licking my lips, I realized I had terrible morning breath, and seeing no toothbrush nor toothpaste to solve this problem, stumbled down the hallway and stairs to the kitchen, still rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.
In the kitchen was a clock, which showed it was only 7:10am. Realizing it was far too early for either Jane or Daniel to be here right now, walked over to the fridge, reaching for the handle before remembering the dream from last night. Sighing, I put my hand back to my side and looking at my legs. I gasped in shock, remembering that these were shorts, which showed, my legs. My horribly bruised, and destroyed legs filled to its brim with scars, cuts, bruises and even burn marks, all from Mario. I then remembered the fact that I had no concealer, and Jane would buy me more than one pair of shorts. What am I supposed to do? I hurried on back up the stairs, and ran to my room, closing the double doors and racing to the window. I opened it, feeling the heat of the summer day already, and knew it would only get hotter. I would be boiling without the shorts..but raced to my closet and took them off. Hobbling to my jeans, shorts still resting around my ankles, I hurriedly swapped them in for a pair of light wash skinny jeans, barely resting on my hip bones and still baggy around my non existent thighs.

Of course, I never saw it though. I never saw the malnutrition-ed girl staring back at me, cheek bones stretching the pale skin, ghastly eyes and bony legs paired with knobbly knees. I saw the fat that wasn't there.

I ran back out, closing the doors and leaping down the last 3 steps. I walked calmly to the kitchen, noticing that time had flown and it was now 7:25am. I opened the fridge and grabbed a cold water bottle from its contents. Pushing the door closed with my side, I walked over to the bowl of fruit and picked out an apple. I sat down on the stool, drinking my water, and slowly taking a few bites from the dark red fruit. I'd need the energy today, shopping in the heat such as that, in jeans.

Lifting the water bottle again to my lips, and noticing the lack of liquid in the bottle, leaped from the stool to the garbage can. I then went to the fridge to get another bottle of ice cold water, since it burns calories, fills the stomach and hydrates my body, closed the fridge and went back to my place on the stool.

By the time eight am came around, I managed to drink three bottles of water, and finish three fourths of my apple. Jane and Daniel waltzed into the kitchen, and a flash of surprise as the glanced at the fact that I was already here.
"Well, good morning, Heather dear!" Daniel's warm voice filled the silent kitchen, as Jane walked to the fridge to make us a quick breakfast. "How are you liking your new bedroom?" he inquired, taking the stool opposite me on the island.
I could hear the cracks and sizzles of bacon cooking, and could smell the delicious aroma of eggs. Closing my eyes, taking in the smells of a wonderful breakfast, I replied, "Just wonderfully, I love it very much. Thank you so much, Daniel. And Jane, of course. Its huge, I love it." I smiled towards him, opening my eyes to see his happy face smiling back at me.
"Daniel dear, I am taking Heather out shopping today. She needs things for her bedroom, the bathroom, and of course her clothes. She only has a few shirts an not many bottoms. And only one pair of shoes!" Jane said, glancing at him then back to the stove.
I swung my legs back and forth, sitting on the stool and glancing back at them, my hands neatly folded in my lap. "Where are we going to get all of this stuff in one day?" I inquired, glancing back at Jane. I took another bite out of my nearly finished apple, avoiding the browning sides.
"Oh, for your bathroom were going to some muggle stores. Were also going there for half of your wardrobe. Then, we are going to Diagon Alley, which is, well, I'll explain more when we get there. There we will get your bedroom things and some more clothes, as well as your school supplies and uniform." Jane replied, placing the cooked meal onto the breakfast nook I had lacked to notice, which faced a window now streaming with sunlight. We walked over to it, and I took my place right by the window, across from Jane, whom Daniel sat beside. Jane had managed to make eggs, bacon, some dishes I'd never seen before, a fruit salad, and buttered toast. It was a feast. Jane gave me some bacon and eggs, but also something that looked like eggs, but was folded.
"Oh, that's an omelet. Its eggs, but has cheese inside, since I didn't know if you wanted vegetables." Jane replied.
"Thank you, this looks lovely." I spoke, and eating my meal slowly. This was delicious, but I didn't need it. I couldn't eat anymore, my stomach 'full' but the looks Daniel and Jane gave me pushed me to eat more. Why was I so ungrateful, after they took me into their home and are treating me as their own? I will do whatever it is they want of me, they are the kindest people I have ever met, I vowed. I even took some of the fruit salad, which consisted of apple slices, bananas, mango, pineapple, strawberries, and many other fruit.
"Wow, Jane. You are an amazing cook. This was delicious!" I praised her on her cooking skills. I heard them laugh, Daniel's eyes shone with pride as he smiled at his wife, as Jane's showed delight.
By the end of breakfast, they now knew I loved photography, rock music (ever since that car passed by playing it when the windows were opened a year ago), my favorite colors were maroon, teal, and sunshine yellow, and adored the idea of magic. They told me all about Hogwarts, the four houses, how the castle looked like, who Dumbledore was, the teachers, what the classes would be like, and what I'd be learning this year. Also, they taught me more of the muggle world, seeing as I lived in a cellar basically all my life, although sometimes I'd be allowed upstairs or in the backyard, I lacked knowledge of things like i-pods, rock bands, games, toys, etc.
"And now, you and I will apparate to the Leaky Cauldron, which holds the entrance to Diagon Alley. We've waited long enough, you won't be throwing up any of the food you just ate." Jane replied, grabbing her robe. She kissed Daniel goodbye, who would be off to work at some place called the Ministry of Magic, and I hugged him goodbye, mumbling a thank you.
"I guess we're off," I stated, grabbing Jane's hand, anticipating the apparating feeling once again.