What Makes A Survivor
Chapter 1
"Every great dream begins with a dreamer, Always remember, you have within you the strength, The Patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world" - Harriet Tubman.
"Momma, please read one more story! I don't even feel tired yet." The little girl said, giving her mother who sat next to her on her bed the best pleading eyes she could give.
"Irene, I have already read you a story and you promised me you would go to bed when I was finished. It's already way past your bedtime." Her mother said in a susurrated tone, moving her hand to her daughters face to remove a strand of bright red hair out of her eyes.
Irene leaned her head into her mothers soft touch, pouting her lips a bit. Feeling a little frustrated that her pleading eyes did not work as well on her as they did to her Father.
Irene rolled over in her bed, reaching for one of the books on her bookshelf. "It's not my fault you make the stories so exciting to listen too." She nudged the new book into her mother's hands. "Please, Momma. Just one more?" Irene asked with her pleading voice and now sad eyes. Her mother sighed as she opened the book, shaking her head slightly.
"By the gods, Irene. I swear you get this night owlness from your father because when I was six years old I would have fallen sleep half way through these stories you make me and your father read to you everynight." Her mother explained as she gave a glance to her daughter before begining the book she was handed. Irene was smirking happily as she wiggled herself underneath the covers once more. Hannah studied the cover of the book her daugther handed her before she read it, giving a quiet sign as she has read this book multiple times. "The adventures of being a Spectre." Hannah read out loud as Irene's smirk grew into a very wide smile, closing her eyes so she will be able to dream of being a hero with her own ship and crew to lead to save the Galexy from whatever danger there was out there.
"Pew! Pew pew pew!" Irene tried to mimicked the sounds of a gun, grasping her hands together and having only both of her pointer fingers exstended. Running around the playground at her school, occasionally ducking or taking cover behind a tree or a slide. Her friend from the other side giggled as they shot their imaginary guns at eachother.
"You're going down, Tommy! you won't get away with all of the Cafateria's chocolate puddin'!" Irene shouted as she did a very underdeveloped duck and roll, shooting once again towards Tommy's direction. Tommy ducked behind his sandbox cover. "You are too late, Commander Shepard! We both know you only have one shot left. Might as well use it to end your-" Tommy's words went quiet as he peared over his cover, only to not be able to see Irene anymore. "Irene?" Tommy said in a concern voice to air, coming out of character as the evil villian. He looked around the play ground trying to find where Irene went.
Before Tommy could even turn around, he felt a finger on the back of his head, completely freezing under the imaginary gun. "All I need is one, and it's Commander Shepard to you." Irene said before she pulled her imaginary trigger, mimicking the sound of a gun once more as Tommy did a over-dramatic fall to the ground, wailing as he fell in defeat. Irene and Tommy held still for a moment before they both broke out laughing.
"You got me, Irene. The chocolate puddin' is all yours!" Tommy said, as he reached into his sweatshirt pocket, pulling out a small container of chocolate pudding and holding it out to Irene. Irene smirked as she grabbed her prize from his grasp. She looked at the small container of sugary goodness before she looked back at Tommy. "Why don't we share it? You were a good bad guy." Tommy smiled, giving her a little pat to the top of her head. "I would like that. I'll go inside and grab some spoons." He said as he turned to walk inside of cafeteria to grab said spoons.
Irene sat herself down the stairs leading away from the Cafeteria, looking up at the sky as she waited for Tommy to come back with the spoons. She hummed softly a tone she made up on the spot. Tommy was always there to play with her when the other kids thought she was weird, wanting to play "Spectres and Pirates" as Irene and Tommy called it. Even though he was five and half years older than her, He still made some free time for her. Even as going far as walking home with her, which made sense because they were Neighbors.
After a moment of day dreaming she heard someone come up behind, turning around with a smile on her face. "That was fast-" She stopped her sentence cold when the figure that stood behind her was not her best friend but some kid she remembered seeing a couple times on the playground. "Gimme that." The kid hissed as he reached for the prized chocolate pudding, Irene naturally pulled away, standing up. "No! This is mine, didn't you buy your own?" The kid glared at her, crossing his arms over his chest. Regardless if they were on the same step or not, The boy was still much taller then Irene was. "I don't need to buy my lunch, I just take what I want from little shrimps like you." The boy hissed again, reaching for the chocolate pudding again just to fail to grab it once more, only being able to grab Irene's hair. Irene yelped a little when the boy pulled on her hair, she tried to wiggle away but that just made him pull harder.
Irene wanted to yell for help, even as going as far as calling out Tommy's name but that's not what Commander Shepard would do, Commander Shepard could save herself from bullies as pitiful as this kid. Using one hand to keep the pudding out of reach and the other trying to rip the boys grip from her hair, she kicked and squirmed under his hold. The boy pulled harder, pulling Irene to the ground, trying to pin her down to stop her from kicking him. Irene cluched onto the pudding with all her might with both hands as she was being pinned down to the ground, The boy holding her head down with her hair and using his free hand trying to rip the Pudding from Irene's grasp.
Irene could feel the tears weilding up in her eyes, but she refused to let them show. Commanders don't cry, they don't show weakness so easily. She sent her knee up to the boy's gut as hard as she could, hearing a loud groan from the boy on top of her. She looked up to see if he was giving up finally. The boy groaned for a moment before he sent a hard glare down to the little girl underneath him. "That hurt you brat!" he shouted as he balled his free hand into a fist, aiming for her face. Irene closed her eyes shut, preparing for the hard inpact and her very first punch. But she didn't feel any pain, all she heard was another grunt and the weight holding her hair was suddenly gone. She opened her eyes to see Tommy with his fist where the boys face used to be a moment ago.
"Tommy!" Irene cried out as she scurried onto her feet, looking behind her to see the boy who fell down the 3 step-stairs from being punched in the nose. The boy groaned as he held his face, bursting into tears. Irene looked back to Tommy, who now moved his focus onto her. "Irene, are you okay?!" Tommy asked in a very concerned voice, placing his hands on Irenes shoulders. Irene stared at him for a moment before she burst into tears as well, finally dropping the chocolate pudding onto the ground and holding her face in her hands. "Tommy!" She cried out in half sobs, "I tried really hard to be brave and to kick him off!" She choked out, rubbing her wet eyes of their tears. Tommy reached into his back pocket and took out a napkin he grabbed meant for them in case they made a mess sharing the pudding. "Shhh... It's okay Irene. You were very brave. " He tried to calm her, handing her the napkin, she took it after a few tears fell and blowed into it with her running nose.
A teacher finally came into the scene, running to the bullie's side. Knealing down to see how badly the boy was injured. Tommy and Irene turned their gaze to the teacher, watching as the teacher helped the bully onto his feet again. "My god, what happened here? Jarad, why is your nose bleeding?" The teacher asked, Jarad pointed to Tommy and Irene. The teacher followed his finger and looked to Tommy, with concern and a little anger. "Why would you do that, Tommy? I demand you apologize to Jarad right now." Tommy shook his head. "I will not, Jarad had Irene pinned down by her hair and was about to punch her." Tommy explained, Irene peared behind Tommy as silent tears still rolled down her cheek. The teacher moved his troubled gaze to Irene, who only hid from his gaze behind Tommy, grabbing his sweatshirt as she tried to hide her face into his back. She hated it when anyone else other than Tommy and her Parents saw her cry.
"Even so that is no excuse to almost breaking Jarads nose, He is only eight and you are what, Ten?" The teacher asked Tommy, who still kept his strong gaze at the teacher. "And Irene is only six." He said in a harsher tone then he intended. The teacher pulled out a handercheif from his pocket and handed it to Jarad to help prevent the blood from gushing out of his nose. "Enough! You should have gotten a teacher and use your words, not your fist! Now go to the princibles office, both of you." The teacher demanded, Guiding Jarad to the nurses office with an arm wrapped around him. Tommy was about to refuse but he just bit his bottom lip and looked down to Irene before they walked off. Irene stayed closed to Tommy, holding his hand as they walked to the Princible's office. Leaving the container of chocolate pudding on the cafeteria steps.
Irene sat on her bed in her room, hugging a pillow as tightly as she could to her chest. It's been well past a few hours after when she finally stopped crying and her parents came to pick her up at the Princibles office. The look of concern on her mothers face and the fact that Tommy got into a lot of trouble with his parents for punching Jarad was enouogh to make her stomach twist all night. If only she was strong enough to handle Jarad on her own, then maybe Tommy wouldn't have a bruised knuckle and suspended from school for two days. Maybe if she just given into the bully and hand over her pudding things could have gone right. She was torn away of her thoughts when there was a knock onto her door, she turned her head and saw it was her father. Her father hanged in the door way as the door swung open, leaning his shoulder onto the door frame. "So, you wanna tell me what happened today Soldier?"
"Tommy was just protecting me..." she said in a soft tone, glancing down to her lap. "I heard that already, what I wanna know is how did this even happen in the first place." Her father explained as he walked over to her bedside and sat down on her bed, resting a hand on his lap and his other hand on the bed to support his weight. Irene mumbled a bit as she spoke. "Tommy went inside the Cafeteria to grab spoons for the chocolate puddin'... While he was gone, Jarad came up and started to demand for the puddin', trying to grab it out of my hands. Then, when Jarad was about to punch me, Tommy came back and punch him off of me." Her father moving his hand to the back of his neck, rubbing it gently.
"You do know what you did wrong, right Soldier?" He asked her, moving so he could sit next to her, wrapping an arm around her. Irene leaned her head onto her fathers shoulder. "You should have called for a teacher. Thats what your mom wanted me to say." He said, now in a hushed tone, which brought a smile onto Irenes face. "Personally if I was Tommy I would have punched that bully twice." He gave Irene's arm a queeze. "I heard that, David." Hannah said from down the hall. Both Irene and David laughed, as her mother walked into the room.
"But you did do something wrong today, Irene." Her mother started, as she walked up to David, grabbing his free hand. "It's one of the most important things all those Allience books say and teach you." Irene tried to think for a moment before her mother could answer but she decided to remain silent. "Team work." her mother finally answered. "In a way, Tommy is your partner, your team. and you are gonna have to rely on him. Because if you don't rely on your team, the people you care about could get hurt." Irene let out a sign, mentally kicking herself over for not thinking of something so simple. "Now, I believe it is time for dinner." Her mother announced, turning around and walking out the door. "My delicious dinner is getting cold." David practically jumping out of her bed, rushing out the door.
"I call dibs the last of the mash potatoes!" He called out. Irene gasped and scurried out of her bed, rushing after her father as fast as she could go. "Not fair, Papa!" She yelled back at him. Hannah had to dodge them both to prevent from being trampled down the stairs. David ran speeding past her, and after a moment Irene did the same. David hid, waiting around the corner for Irene to run by, and as she did He scooped her into his arms and up in the air. Laughter and squealing could be heard through out the house. " Watch out! it's the raspberry monster! AARRG!" David yelled as he gave Irene multible raspberries on her cheek, top of her head, and her stomach. Irene screamed with glee. "Save me, momma! Control your husband!" Irene yelled inbetween giggles. Hannah, finally coming down the stairs safely smiled at her family. Silently thanking god for letting her life be so perfect at this moment.
Author's Note
Thank you for reading my story and I hoped you enjoyed it! Give me a review if you liked it, I really like writing this chapter and I really hope my grammar is okay because I have no one to edit this for me and if there are mistakes, I am sorry! Mass effect does not belong to me nor their characters, I am just a weird fan writing about them.