They lived in shame, embarrassed by their father, a drunk, and their temperamental mother. Arthur was the older of the two, and he cared deeply for his younger sister, Amelia or Emily. Their lives were terrible; their parent's marriage had been deteriorating since both were young. Their nightly lullabies were the shouts of their parents rage reserved for each other.
Their lives weren't always miserable, when they were young their family was happy, full of joy, Arthur and Amelia would walk to the bus stop, go to school, and come back when their lessons had been finished and finish their work, watch the television and then sit down to eat at the table with their mom and dad. Happy with nothing was wrong, that's what their early childhoods had been like, but then it changed.
The siblings' father's work had laid him off, unable to keep the same amount of employees any more, and their uncle- their dad's brother had been diagnosed with lung cancer. This started their turmoil, unable to handle his grief; their dad fell to temptation and was constantly trying to lose himself in a bottle of liquor. He never hit them or anything, but he would constantly fight with their mother.
She wanted it all to stop; their mom had grown tired of her husband's actions and confronted him about it several times. She talked about separating with him when the kids were in supposed to be in bed. Unbeknownst to them an eight-year-old and a six-year-old heard. Amelia's lips quivered trying to be strong and not cry; she wanted to run away from it all, Arthur held his sister tight and brought her to her room. When they heard shouting, Emily started to sob. Arthur felt torn up inside, he wanted to disappear. The next day their father apologized and promised their mother that he wouldn't do it again.
That was seven years ago, their father had sobered up and stopped, but whenever life got more difficult he listened to his demons and picked up the bottle. Emily and Arthur never really had friends over- they didn't want anyone to find out. To each of them school was a blessing a part of the day where they could try and escape-if only for a little while. Emily's hero act was true she wanted to save everyone because no one could really save her, but some people found her quite annoying for the same reason, she was also pretty and strong, and other girls were jealous of this, even though she was skinny they made fun of her weight and said cruel things about her appearance. She acted like the words didn't hurt or even like she didn't hear them but in secret a piece of her spirit broke each time she heard them. Arthur was polite and used his manners, and was very studious. But he was tormented by Francis and his two friends Gilbert and Antonio. Arthur would just ignore what they said and move on.
At school Emily hung out with Sakura and Matthew, though sometimes she felt distant from her close friends, like a piece that doesn't belong, lonely and sad like the full moon on a star-less night. Sakura and Matthew didn't know about what her and her brother go through at home, they only knew about what other kids say to her. They would defend her if they could they were just too soft spoken to say anything, besides Amelia didn't seem too bothered by the comments. They didn't know she went home and tried to cry, or that she couldn't cry anymore because she had used all the tears she could find in herself.
Arthur was also friends with Sakura, but besides her and his sister he really didn't have any friends, the teachers though were close to him somewhat he would engage them in conversation and talk for a while-but that was it. He was a loner, which was why Francis and his friends had targeted him. They didn't know anything about his home life either.
They each had their own way to deal with their lives too, Arthur wrote his feelings in his notebook during class, which Francis would come up and say "Aw- the little girl is writing in her diary, non?" Gilbert chimed in "Dude what a wuss! No wonder you and your sister have no friends!" other classmates heard and snickered. They had taken it too far for him, Arthur could stand the ridicule but now they were talking about his little sister. "Shut up you bloody little prick!" the words had escaped his mouth and the teacher heard and she turned around and said "Arthur would you please stay after class." He nodded there was no escaping this one. When the bell rang he stayed after, "You, would like to speak Ms. Herdervary?" "Yes, what was that outburst about?" "Uh-well Francis and Gilbert were talking and being obnoxious during your lesson while I was trying to pay attention." She nodded and then gave him a look and said "What were they saying?" "Oh- uh they said something about my sister, which I did not believe was appropriate." Ms. Herdervary nodded knowing that Arthur was protective of his little sister, and that Francis, Gilbert, and Antonio were notorious for being obscene. "Okay, you may go now." With that Arthur left.
Amelia let her feelings out in her art class. One of her works was a mirror held by people in front of a girl and her reflection showed someone who was overweight, pale, ugly, the girl herself was normal sized and normal looking, even though the girl had straight black hair and hazel eyes it was herself it was Emily's daily struggle of everything other kids commented about her. Her teacher leaned over her shoulder to look his curiosity peaked. "Ve, Emily, what is this picture about?" Emily thought quickly, "Well, Mr. Vargas it's about girls listening to what the world says about theirselves and ignoring who they really are." He nodded, accepting her answer and moved on. Sakura looked over to see her drawing too, and she was amazed at the detail of the picture, for some reason the girl reminded her of Emily, but she just passed it off as Emily being the person who drew it.
Today was a Thursday and for who knows why, lunch was always more hectic on that day, so every week on that day Arthur and his sister would go to the school's library to talk and spend time together. Arthur was contemplating the feelings that had been brought up by Francis and Gilbert "Hey, Amelia, "Emily turned to look at him so he continued, "Do you ever lonely or like your friends are only still friends with you out of not wanting to hurt your feelings?" "Yeah sometimes I wonder why Sakura and Matthew hang around us, when everyone hates us … Do you hate them back?" Arthur thought for a bit before he said "Once I read a book and this one quote explained the feeling I understand more now, it goes 'A man hates his enemy because he hates his own hate. He says to himself: This fellow, my enemy has made me capable of hate. I hate him not because he's my enemy, not because he hates me, but because he arouses me to hate.' I don't really hate the person I just hate how they make me feel." Emily responded by nodding, she sort of understood what her brother meant, but it was hard to think the deep feelings inside were pointed toward her own feelings not an actual person. Out of the blue Emily said "Arthur, if I didn't have you and my friends, I think I would have been gone by now, you guys are the only ones who can really make me feel better." Then Emily said her goodbyes and went to go see Sakura and Matthew.
In the halls she ran into Anya, the person who caused the load of her hardships at school. "Privet, Emily," she said with a smirk. "Hey, Anya, see you 'round," Anya continued, "So, I was talking to Matthew and Sakura, you want to know what they said, Da?" Amelia really didn't feel like this right now.