Authors note. VERY IMPORTANT!

This fic contains explicit scenes of child abuse. So please, if you dont have any guts to read then don't. I don't want to make people uncomfortable.

I'm NOT and never will be in favor of any kind of abuse toward kids or any other human being (or animals).

All I wanted was to bring some vivid things that could have happens to Sara when she was a kid.

Thank you so much to chimp1984 for being my beta on this.

For those who decide to read despise the warning... thanks and please tell me what you think.

Sara was sitting comfortably on the couch with her tiny legs under her body when Laura Sidle entered the living room.

"What are you doing here?" Her voice was hard and Sara knew she was in trouble, like always. She looked everywhere but at her mother as she answered, the voice a mere whisper.

"Watching TV"

"In this house you don't watch TV…"

"Unless you finish your homework, I know. I already did mine. You can check if you want!"

"Don't you give me that smart attitude" She said grabbing the girl by the arm and pulling her off of the couch. Sara almost fell onto the table in the middle of the room but succeeded at standing up. "And don't interrupt me before I finish!"

"I'm sorry. It won't happen again!"

"You're right it won't! Now get your ass upstairs and do the work all over again!"

"But Mom…" the mother slapped the girls back and Sara almost lost her balance on the stairs.

"I don't wanna see your face before dinner!"

"Well maybe I shouldn't eat then!"

"That's even better. Your brother can have more food tonight!"

"As if he doesn't have more of everything in this house..." the girl whispered entering her room. She wanted to slam the door at full force, but she knew better than that. Sara climbed on the bed, pissed, and picked up the notebook from under the mattress. Opening in the middle of the book, she starts writing:

"It seems like no matter what I do, she will always find a reason to push me away. Do all the mothers do that? God, I hope not! Why can't she like me just a little?"

Putting the notebook back in place, Sara grabbed the book she brought from school and started reading. It was her best pastime and she wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

She had already calmed down and was enjoying her time when the door suddenly opened and James Sidle entered.

"Your mother told me you are not going to eat." he said plain and simple and without a single emotion behind his words, not that Sara expected any.

"I ate too much at school during lunch time and I'm not hungry."

"I don't care if you're hungry or not Sara! In this house we have rules and one of them is everyone is at the table at seven-thirty so you better be downstairs in five minutes, do you hear me?" Sara swallowed hard while nodding. "Good!"

Sara looked back to her book. "I hate the rules" she mumbles to herself, thinking he had let her be.

"What did you just say?" his eyes opening wider.

"Nothing, I was just reading out loud"

James walked to the bed and took the book out of the girl's hand. "Do you think you can fool me?" and throws it away, his eyes fuming with anger.

"No, my book!" She tries to reach the book but a hand pushes her onto the bed with her legs off the mattress.

"This will teach you to never, ever, think that again!"

"Daddy no, please, no!" He took his belt off and hit her back. "Ouch! Ouch! I'm sorry! No, stop! Please stop!" the pain was too much for her to bear. She knew that would leave marks.

"Wipe the tears and get ready for dinner." Sara did the only thing she could do, nod. Her back was burning and her whole body was shaking with sobs. "And don't make me came back in here and get you!" she nodded again, eyes still closed.

She had to go downstairs. She didn't have a choice.

Taking a few deep breaths she forces her body up from the floor screaming in pain. She winced on each step on the way to the kitchen and then took a seat beside her mother who didn't say a word nor even looked at her. They ate in silence and Sara was free to go back to her room after it. Her brother was going to take care of the dishes. She would have been happy from being spared of the task if her tiny little body didn't hurt so much.

Sara lay down in bed wincing from the pain her back was in and wondering how she's going to hide this from people at school tomorrow. Sure, she's going to be wearing a shirt, but what if she winces when she sits down in her seat? She won't be able to lean against the chair like she usually did. What if someone touches her to say "Hello" or "Good job"? She can't wince at the pain, she has to act normal!

"I'm not looking forward to school tomorrow. I'll have to think of something to say, another lie, if any of that happens and I'm not looking forward to it. I hate lying. I hate what they do to me." Sara sighs, turning onto her side where it's a little more comfortable "I hate them!"

Sara stares off out the window staring at the moon, wishing on the stars for everything to go away so she can be a normal happy kid. A few minutes later, Sara drifts into a pain-filled dream for the night

Sara left the house to go to school early. It was the only thing she did that didn't bother any of them, in fact they were glad. She took the bus three blocks from her home and in forty minutes she was in front of the school.

"Hi Sara"

"Hi Miss Kimble, how are you?"

Elisabeth Kimble was the youngest teacher at Sara's school. She's only 38 years old and teaches English. She is a very beautiful woman - tall, thin, has long brown hair and green eyes. She is very nice too, always finding time to talk to Sara (at the start of the school, at recess, or after class is over). It seems to Miss Kimble that Sara is a very special kid but she was probably the only one who actually thought that.

"I'm good Sara. How are you?"

"I'm okay." Sara said trying to sound believable

"Did you have fun yesterday?"

Sara looked to the floor, shaking her head in a no. "Not really..." she whispered looking at the floor.

"Why not, sweetie?"

"I…um… didn't have anyone to play with and… couldn't watch TV…"

"Which IS true..." Sara thought to herself

"What about homework or the book you picked two days ago? You seemed pretty interested."

"The story is nice but I'm only on the first few pages and homework was too easy"

"Too easy? Was it Math?" Sara nodded. "Guess I shouldn't be surprised then!" she smiled trying to make the girl smile, but Sara remained looking at the floor. "Why don't we go to the garden for a little bit?"

"Okay, but don't you have anything more important to do then spend time with me?"

"I like spending time with you Sara, a lot, and right now I don't have anything else I wanna do." She said raising the girls face. Sara's eyes glowed and a little smile appeared. "There it is, there's the beautiful smile I wanted to see. Come on"

Miss Kimble put a hand on Sara's back which made Sara flinch in pain.

"Dammit! I KNEW coming here was a mistake! Now she is going to start asking questions…" Sara thought to herself

"Sara, what happened to your back?" Sara tried to look anywhere but at her teacher. Miss Kimble kneeled in front of her. "Sara?" she asks holding the girls face, facing her. "Tell me"

"I fell down the stairs"

"This is probable the most lame excuse ever! I can never understand why teachers are so naive to believe it!"

"Ok, well let me take a look, then"

"What? No. They never asked this before. What do I do? What do I do?"

"No, please, don't…" but before she could finish Miss Kimble had already lifted the shirt. Sara winced in pain. Shit!

"This doesn't look good. Have your parents seen this?" Sara fought the urge to say 'Actually... My dad did this', but instead she shook her head 'No'.

"You should have told them. They could try to make it a little better for you. Okay, I think I have something to help. Follow me"

"Where, where are we going?"

"To the nurses' station... I want to put something on your back to help you with the pain and reduce the swelling."

"Oh, crap! Now she's gonna be all worried and talk around and what if she call them? She can't call. If she does I'm going to be so beaten up and will have to stay home until the bruises disappear and God knows how long this will take. I can't let Miss Kimble say ANYTHING!" Sara mused in a panic.

Sara followed her without a word but as they crossed the door from the room she turned to her teacher. "Please don't tell anyone about this Miss Kimble; it was just a… an accident."

"If that's what you want then I won't say anything" she replied.

"Thank you" Sara said with a meek smile

"It will be best if you lay down. Do you want me to…?" Before she could say 'help you' Sara was already in bed, her face facing the wall. The girl didn't scream or anything but the teacher knew it had hurt just by seeing the size of the welts she had on her back "You were a very brave girl by doing that on your own" she said going to the cupboard to search for some ointment.

"I have to be" she replied seriously.

It wasn't normal for a ten year old girl to be brave while being in huge pain and even less to keep their distance from the other kids like Sara did but at first Miss Kimble thought it was just her personality or shyness but now she wasn't so sure.

Deciding not to annoy the little girl with serious questions, for now, the teacher decided to put the thought aside but keep an eye on the girl just in case.

After ten minutes, Sara was out of the bed and walking to her class. She thanked her teacher again and went to sit at her desk at the back of the room. Miss Kimble watched her before going to her own classroom.

TBC