Welcome to Anna's World

Ryan's PoV:
"You know I think Johnny is right. It's a good thing that she stands up for herself. Of course she has to go through the punishment we set up for her, because she obviously didn't go the right way with beating up that girl. But still, that she stands up for herself is a good thing.

John, are you listening to me?" I stood in the middle of our bedroom talking to my husband but I doubted that he heard me. He was sitting on the bed lazily staring holes in the air and lost in his mind. I crawled onto the bed in front of him and took his head in both of my hands. I moved his face up to force him to look at me and kissed him. Usually that brings him back to reality.

He didn't kiss back though but pushed me away instead. I frowned and a hurt look crossed my face. He didn't say anything and laid down. I laid on top of him so he couldn't look or move away from me.

Desperately he tried to get away from under me. He pushed his hands against my chest but I didn't move one centimetre, what made him squirm and whine. After a couple of minutes he gave up and sighed: "Get off of me, Ryan. Please." - "No, not until you tell me what's going on with you." I answered. He whined and whimpered but finally replied me: "I was just thinking of how much she reminds me of myself when I was her age and what came after beating people up for standing up for myself. It's a whole lot of bad things I did that came afterwards. I don't want her to go the way I went, so I'm just saying that it's not always a good thing to stand up for yourself. Can you please move now, I can't breathe." Without hesitation I moved to lay beside him, thinking about what he said. "So I think the punishment we set up is a good thing, but I also don't want to set her against us with it. It's equally bad if she starts to rebel against us. " he added. I nodded understanding him, and I was glad that he finally talked to me.

We both crawled under the blanket and John turned off the light. He cuddled into me and allowed me to put my arms around him. We kissed and wished each other a good night. About 10 minutes later, I was already almost asleep when John suddenly and heavily flinched back away from me, exclaiming a loud "Oh my God!". "What? What's wrong?", I tried to ask him, but my voice was all sleepy. I reached out for him to take his warm body against mine again, but he was already sitting up. "You wanted to discuss something with me, but I forgot, I'm so sorry!" he exclaimed with his voice high pitched but still quiet since Anna was asleep. My arms finally found their ways around his body again in the darkness and I softly forced him to lay down beside me again. I knew he was bright awake now, meaning we had to discuss this now, which means that I had to be at least slightly awake too. I sighed also knowing that he was looking at me curiously. "Uhh, recently, Anna asked me if I let her go over to this kid's house for a movie night Friday night."

I could tell he put a frown on his face, so I moved my arms to put him closer to me. Quickly he answered. "So what did you say?" - "I said that I wanted to discuss it with you before I come to a decision." After a while of him thinking and me almost falling asleep again he practically wanted to know everything about that kid. I shushed him and answered quietly "All I know is that they apparently hang out together at school and that he probably likes the music she likes, and well, we like because I saw him with a Slayer shirt the other day on the school parking lot when I was picking up Anna." I could feel him shift more closer to me. "She wants to meet a boy?" He finally asked more calm than I expected him to be. I sighed and nodded, adding a "yeah" since it was dark and he couldn't see my head moving. "So what do you think we should do? I mean should we allow it to her? It seemed to be really important to her, because she freaked out quite a bit when I first said no."

The next morning (Thursday)
Joe's PoV:
I was in the laundry room ironing the freshly washed clothes, when I heard Anna's alarm clock for about the seventh time this morning. That was unusual for her, she actually gets up after the third ringing. I decided to go up to her room to see if everything was alright. I hesitated while standing in front of her door, remembering the first morning she was here, when I almost walked in on here changing. I took a deep breath and planned to just keep my gaze down on the floor.

When I opened the door though my eyes snapped straight forward. Her room was still dark, the curtains were still covering the windows and there wasn't any light coming from the lamp on her night table. I jumped when the alarm got off for the eighth time. I couldn't help but smile when she groaned, turned it off, but without any attention to get up. Before the alarm clock could get off again, I shut it down completely.

I kneeled down beside her bed and softly nudged her arm. "Time to get up and go to school sweetie." I informed her softly. "I don't want to go to school", she mumbled sleepily. I frowned but a smile crossed my lips. That was absurd, she liked school and I didn't think that beating up that girl would change the fact that she liked to learn new stuff. "Well, you have to go anyway." I tried to motivate her, clearly failing, but after a couple seconds she sat up in bed and put her glasses on. I stepped away from her and opened the curtains to the windows to let the glistening sunlight in. The sudden light made her groan again and she scrunched her eyes tight. I decided to stay in her room for a bit longer to make sure she didn't go to bed again.

She had circles below her eyes, indicating she had been up all night. Again. After her eyes adjusted to the light she mumbled: "I don't know what to wear." She looked over to me with a helpless look. This was one of the best moments in parenthood, because it was just so adorable. I guess I fill in the mother position in our little family here, which is totally fine by me. I smiled at her and made my way over to the closet. "How about those?" I held up a pair of black skinny jeans. She wrinkled her nose and shook her head. I will never understand how such a beautiful adorable girl can hurt herself so badly like yesterday afternoon. I tried to push those thoughts away for the moment. It's more important to be there for her right now, even if it meant to be a mama. I held up another pair of jeans not skinny this time. She nodded and I gave them to her, opening the other closet door where her shirts and pullovers are. I picked out a red and black striped, middle length sleeved sweater out, which she gladly took from me. "I'm waiting downstairs for you, don't hang behind, otherwise we won't have enough time for breakfast. " I told her and left.

Anna’s PoV:
We were on the drive to school again. I looked out of the window and watched the things passing by. I love the trees as they're rushing by, wind blushing through the leaves. I didn’t want to go to school. I didn’t want people staring at me and talking about me. I didn’t want to go to school anymore because now I was the girl who beat up another girl. The car stopped. I heard them sigh and after a while they turned around. I prepared myself for a “and- don’t- beat- up- other- girls”- speech.

“Listen”, Dad started causing Papa to turn his attention over to him confused. Before Dad could continue Papa nudged him and wanted to know what he was going to say to me. “What we had discussed”, Dad whispered. “That thing or the other?” Papa wanted to know, not whispering at all. “That thing!” Dad shouted but still in a whispering tone. They stared at each other for a long time. I looked at the clock and realized that the bell was going to ring in about 2 minutes. I interrupted them by their staring contest and slid out of the car. Before I could walk towards the building Papa scrolled the window down. “I just wanted to tell you, that we allow you to go to that movie night.”– “Really?” I didn’t expect that. You could see Dad behind Papa looking at him disbelievingly. Papa nodded but added: "If you present him to us first". "What?" I questioned clearly interrupting him. "he can come up to our house, you introduce him to us, and he can pick you up. And bring you back home at eleven. " he stated. I was stunned and frozen on the ground. The bell rang and I rushed out a "fine" and ran into building. Shortly before through the door I turned my head and saw my parents waving me goodbye. Due to the search of the classroom I was one minute late for double lesson German. I slit into the room and the female teacher, Frau Meier looked at me. "Tut mir Leid, dass ich zu spät bin, meine Eltern wollten mir unbedingt noch etwas mitteilen und es hat ein bisschen länger gedauert." I told her. She nodded smiling and explained that it was okay. I was born in Switzerland so German is my mother language, and that was probably why she liked me so much. I sat on the seat next to Nicky.

"Dude, you're a freaking rock star!" Nicky exclaimed as we walked through the masses towards lunch. Everybody was staring at me in awe. "Seriously, you're the first person who stood up against Jenny" he continued. I smiled at him when we sat down on one of the tables outside and begged him for dropping this topic. "I can come over tomorrow night." I told him instead. His eyes snapped from his lasagne up to mine. He opened his mouth to say something but I interrupted him. "On one condition: My parents want to meet you first. " His mouth opened even wider in shock and the half eaten bite of lasagne fell from it down on his lap. "Ewwwww!" I exclaimed laughing and he was laughing too.

"Come ooonn." I said once we were calm again and nudged him in the side. "They only want to know if you're a serial killer or not. You just have to tell them your name and where you live, and that's it." He sighed, clearly freaking out on the inside. Before he could open his mouth to protest though, three blonde girls entered the lunch hall in v formation. It seemed like the whole hall felt silent when the girls stopped in front of our table. The girl on the front, Jenny was her name, had a thick purple bruise on her left eye, spoke to me. Friendly and a bit scared maybe, but defiantly not pissed, which surprised me. "I'll meet you on the parking lot, at 3:15." I nodded and she passed away. Once they were gone and the chatter around us began again Nicky turned to me. "So is this a I'm - going - to - show -you - who's - the boss - here - call?" I laughed at him. "No, she's going to come home with me and we help each other with homework and stuff." Still giggling we made our way to our afternoon class.
At three o'clock I headed out to the parking lot. My parents were nowhere in sight. That was odd, I bet they were usually half an hour early here. I checked my phone and I saw a text message pop up on my screen: I'm sorry sweetie we forgot to tell you that Jenny is going to drive you home today, since she has her car with her. Love you and see you home <3 Papa. Okay. I looked around the parking lot but couldn't see Jenny either. Right, she told me to meet her here at 3:15. I sat down on one of the banks in front school took out my sketchbook and began to draw while waiting for her.

"Hey, there you are!" An unexpected cheerful voice let me look up from my drawing. There she was, smiling friendly at me. I forced myself to smile back, but it probably looked like I bit into a lemon. I stood up and we walked to her car. She told me to get in the passenger seat. "I saw you were drawing again before. You do that a lot, don't you?" She tried to make conversation but all that I answered was a mumbled "yeah". She didn't stop. "I saw your work in art class. You're really talented, you know?" I didn't answer. The whole ride she kept being friendly to me and I must say it was a bit creepy after all that has happened. I didn't trust her. She knew where I lived, it relieved but at the same time worried me.

She parked next to my Dad's car and we walked up to and through the door. We put our jackets and shoes away and went up the stairs and found Papa in that room right above the stairs where the instruments are set. He was sitting on the floor, leaning against the bass drum of Dad's drums on the phone. I waved at him and smiled. He waved back at us indicating me he'll come in a second, all while having an active, almost aggressive conversation over the phone. I led Jenny into my room. We started with our homework for German. "So, did you have German classes before?" Jenny was wondering while I was reading through her essay. I smiled. "Do you want something to drink or something?" I replied. She nodded and we went downstairs. I gave her and myself a glass of water. Papa walked in. "Are you two busy working?" he said cheerful. How can he be so cheerful after having a conversation like that? We nodded. "You too?" I asked biting my lips. He laughed. "Yeah, you could say so. Are you two hungry, should I make something?" I looked at him and frantically shook my head no knowing that he couldn't cook to save his life. "Where's Dad?" I asked instead. He sighed "Working in the studio. He also has a show tonight, so he won't be home until midnight." Now I looked at him in shock. "But what will we eat then?" he chuckled a bit before replying that uncle Josh will come over to cook us something.

"You didn't answer my question." Jenny pointed out back upstairs. I hesitated, like always when someone wants to something about myself. "Uhhhm, I lived in Switzerland and Germany until I was about 8, so German is basically my mother language. And yes, therefore I always had German lessons in school." Before she could reply anything the door opened and Papa came in with a plate of cookies. "Don't worry, all I did was put them out of their package and on a plate", he said smirking and left again. Jenny looked questioningly at me. "He can't cook at all" I explained her. She laughed at that. "No, seriously he can't even boil pasta without ruining them." She laughed more and I couldn't help but smile a bit too.

"Thanks for the cookies Mr Rocket." she said as she put on her jacket. "You're welcome. You can call me John though." he replied smiling. She nodded and we said our goodbyes. "See you tomorrow" , she yelled out of her car window and drove off. "Well, I'm glad that went smooth." Papa said and I nodded. After uncle Josh went home I asked Papa, if we could go watch Dad's concert. "No, not this time, sweetie. Maybe next time." - "You always say that." I insisted. After a brief pause he stated "No concerts or late nights when you have school the next day." "Okay" I murmured. We watched The Devil wears Prada on TV and after that he tucked me into bed, saying he loved me. Even though I couldn't say it back to him yet, I was sure he knew that I still meant it. After countless sleepless nights, I could finally fall asleep easily again.