"3 patients successfully discharged!" Alicia said cheerfully, a huge grin plastered on her face.

Lily just rolled her eyes. When she was a junior doctor, she worked ten times harder than Alicia, and even then could never quite be as happy as her colleague was now. She wondered if maybe the happy go lucky, ditzy personality was just an act. Probably not, it was just wishful thinking on Lily's part.

She still wondered why everyone seemed to like Alicia more than herself? She'd had to work her backside off to earn the respect of her colleagues, especially her seniors, but Mrs Beauchamp had taken an immediate shine to the bubbly new doctor. In Lily's eyes, it wasn't fair at all. But she wasn't going to let Alicia know any of this, at least not for the time being.

So instead, she just replied, "Are you always this bright and cheerful?" Knowing the answer would probably be yes.

But to her surprise it looked like Alicia had just seen a ghost, for she turned a deathly shade of white before running towards the staff room. Lily wondered how on earth she could have caused offense by simply asking a question. Maybe Lily didn't quite know Alicia well enough yet to be able to judge that for herself.


~Flashback~

"You stupid girl Alicia, why can't you ever do anything right?" Mum yelled at me.

All I'd done was drop my dinner plate whilst washing up for the fifth night in a row. There was meant to be a rota for these kinds of things but the rest of the family rarely followed it, so I'd be left with the heavy workload while they were all off doing whatever it was that pleased them. I didn't even care about that any more, I'd had enough of hearing about their lives years ago.

"Why can't you ever get off my back?" Before I could stop myself, the angry words poured out.

Did I just say that out loud? She's going to kill me now, LITERALLY.

"What did you just say to me?" she bellowed,

"I-I-I'm s-s-sorry, M-mum,"

My unfortunate stutter had made a reappearance; it always happened when I was scared.

"How dare you speak to me like that? I've worked hard to keep you happy but it's never enough is it? You're absolutely pathetic!" she spat out the last word as though it was a piece of dirt, similar to what she thought of me, nothing more than an inconvenience to her.

Then before I could reach out to defend myself, she slapped me hard round the face. I could feel my lip begin to bleed. It wasn't the first time she had done this and it certainly wouldn't be the last. I always had to get out before she could make me feel any worse.

I hurtled up the stairs, before slamming the door to the room I used to share with my two sisters, Amy and Scarlett.

If they were here now, I know they'd have my back. They hated our parents just as much as I did, but they were never targeted as much as I was. In fact, they got even worse with me after Amy moved out last month. Scarlett had moved out the year before, and it tore us both to pieces. We were all ever so close, sharing clothes, makeup, and everything else inbetween, which made it even worse when Amy left, as we both knew I'd be left alone with Mum and Dad. Now I was just their punchbag to take out all their frustrations on.

Well I wasn't really alone, but it certainly felt like that when Hayley was around. She was my parents' 'favourite' and the worst thing was they didn't even try to deny it. Still to this day, I have no idea why they favoured her so much, I mean, her life had been a disaster so far - your typical wild teenager, going to parties and coming home drunk every night even though she was still underage.

But what couldn't they love about Scarlett and Amy? Amy had gone off to nursing school, and Scarlett was aiming to open her own business. Not that we had any idea if either of their career pathways had worked out, as we hadn't heard from either of them since the day they left. I don't blame them really, after all that had happened who in their right minds would want to come back here?

And then there was me. I would be a delight for any normal parents, with straight As in all my subjects, but it seemed even that wasn't good enough for them.I decided last month, around the same time Amy left, that I was going to become a doctor. Maybe then I could find out where Amy was working, and start my foundation year at the same hospital. Besides that, I wanted to be able to help people who were in need. I wanted to be able to stop terrible things happening to people. I wanted to stop people from having lives like mine.

Now I was more determined than ever to get away from this miserable life and start a new one where no one would ever know about where I came from, or anything at all about my past for that matter. I would just be that happy, carefree girl who everyone wanted to be like.