ONE WEEK LATER

Taylor had gotten registered into her new school a couple days before and was fitting in pretty well she made a bunch of friends and impressed everyone with her sports abilities especially her bike riding talents. She was the fastest rider on the whole team but that wasn't really new to her because while she didn't admit it she was also the fastest rider on her other team too just now she was about ten times faster that every single person there.

But Taylor was scared, now she was going to meet Max and Isabel's friends. Two of which are aliens like her. She was nervous. But she hurried home after her basketball and racing practice. Because as nervous as she was she still was excited to meet them.

"Max? Isabel?" she called as she walked into the house "Up here" she heard Max yell. Taylor ran up the stairs to meet everyone. She saw two boys one had light brown hair and the other had dark hair she also so three very pretty girls one was next to the light brown haired boy and the other wasn't with anyone but the last one was next to Max. Max was the first to speak up, "Taylor that's Michael," He said pointing to the light brown haired boy. "And that's Tess," he said indicating to the girl with blonde hair in back of him. "Those two are like us. And this," He said pointing to the girl next to him, "is Liz, the girl over there, next to Michael is Maria, and the boy next to Isabel is Alex."

"Just make her prove to us that she's really an alien Maxwell," said Michael sounding annoyed. "Ok, Ok, wasn't I allowed to introduce her to everyone first?" Max looked over at Taylor, "Ok you kinda need to show them what you showed me and Isabel." "Ok, Do you want me to do the same thing?" Taylor asked. "No, could you make my bedpost different colors and curvy instead of flat?" "Sure" Taylor walked over to his bedpost and made it purple then she waved her hand over it and gave it lots of curves and designs. Then with another wave of her hand it was back to normal again. Everyone was now convinced and believed that she was an alien too.

Taylor got to meet everyone that day. She particularly liked Liz and she thought Maria was very funny. She never got a chance to talk to Michael though. At around 5:00 everyone left except for Michael who stayed in Max's room while Taylor listened to her Walkman in her room.

IN MAX"S ROOM

"Michael I think that her mom abused her." "So? Who give a shit? I sure don't" Michael asked. He was having a bad day. He was lost in old memories of his Foster Father. "Well, I was kinda wondering if you could talk to her. Tell her about your dad maybe she'll actually open up to you and tell you if she really was abused or not." Max suggested. "Well why do you even have an idea that she was abused if she hasn't told you?" "Cause she has dreams in the middle of the night. The first three nights she would wake up screaming and would wake everyone up. But now all she does is wakes up quietly from her dream and comes into my room and quietly rock herself back and forth while she cries. The only comfort I've been able to give her was to hug her while she cries. But I don't know exactly what's wrong so I can't exactly help that much."

"Of course you can't help Maxwell. You've never been in her situation so you don't know what it's like." "That's exactly what I'm trying to say. You do know what it's like so you can talk to her. Please Michael." Max was practically begging. "Alright Fine." Michael said as he walked out the door and into Taylor's room.

Taylor turned off her Walkman when she saw Michael come in. "Hi." She said as he sat down next to her. "Hi," Michael said, trying to figure out what to say to her. "I think I'm about the only person that was here today that still doesn't know you very well. The only thing I know about you is that you're from the same place I'm from." Taylor thought for a minute before saying, "We may be from the same place but we sure aren't from the same backgrounds." "That may not be as true as you think." Taylor was sort of amused that this guy actually thought he might have a similar life. "Oh really? Then how about you tell me about your life and then maybe if you are right about mine being similar to yours then I'll tell you about mine." Michael thought for a minute. "Ok, Did you know I live on my own?" "Nope, But that already makes your life completely different from mine." "Hold on a second!" Michael said, getting a little frustrated. "I didn't tell you why yet." "Ok," Taylor said getting a little annoyed that this guy could actually think that he understood what she was going through. "Tell me then." Michael took a deep breath, looked at her and finally said, "My foster father used to get drunk and abuse me." Taylor inhaled a sharp breath she couldn't believe hat she was hearing. She was wrong he did understand her. "What did he do to you?" "He would beat me and tell me that I was worthless and that no one would ever be able to love me. Then he would beat me some more." Taylor was now in a bad mood because of the thoughts running through her head. "At least your dad was drunk when he did it." She said bitterly.

Now it was Michael's turn to be surprised. "You're parent's beat you and told you they hated you when they were perfectly sane???" "No," Taylor corrected. "My parent's didn't beat me, the lady I used to call my mother used to beat me though. My dad died when I was eight." 'And I thought my dad was bad.' Michael thought to himself. "What did she do to you?" Taylor hesitated for a minute. "I'll tell you but you have to promise me that you will never tell a single soul in your entire life. Cause I don't like it when people feel bad for me I hate that look that people give me whenever they just get even the slightest idea of what my mom did to me and I don't want to receive that look anymore." Michael looked at her. "I won't tell anyone. Trust me I know that look and I hate it too." Taylor took a deep breath. "Do you like to read?" "Read?? What does reading have to do with it?" "Well, there is a book that I have that explains everything. So you could read that or you could have me explain it but the book would be better." Michael thought about how much he hated books and about how long it would take him to actually read whatever book she had to give him. "Umm..Well, I hate to read so could you just explain it to me?" Taylor took a deep breath and began to explain everything that her mom ever did to her.

About an hour later she was finally finished telling her story. Michael looked stunned. "I can't believe someone would actually do something like that!" He said angrily. " If she weren't already dead then I would kill her myself." "If she weren't already dead I would still be being abused" Taylor stated.

Michael went home at around seven. And Taylor stayed in her room listening to her music and reading the books that she got. At around ten she went to bed.

Taylor couldn't figure out where she was. She was in a dark room and no one else was there. Then suddenly a light went on and she saw her mother. She started to stiffen up. And back away. He mom had an evil smile on her face. The one she always had whenever she was about to hit her or do something terrible to her. "Taylor you have been a very bad girl. To told someone the family secret." She said looking at her with cold uncaring eyes. Her mom suddenly pulled out a razor and grabbed Taylor's arm. "NO!! PLEASE I'M SORRY!!! I DIDN'T MEAN TO, PLEASE!!!!" Her mom began cutting her arm with the razor. One of the many terrible things she did to her accept, this was one of the things she always got away with. Her mom never let her heal her arm. Then she would always tell everyone that Taylor had problems and that she was a cutter. That always made the counselor at her school pester her about coming into her office to talk. Taylor hated it when her mom did that because that made everyone think that she was the one with problems not her mom.

Taylor woke up screaming. 'It was just at dream' she thought to herself when she realized what had happened. Suddenly Max, Mrs. Evans, Isabel, and Mr. Evans came running in. "Taylor are you alright?" asked Mrs. Evans sounding worried. "Yes, I just had a bad dream. Max? Can you stay here for a minute?" she asked. "Sure." He said as everyone else walked out the door to go back to bed. He closed the door and walked over to her as she began crying. He hugged her and asked. "Taylor what did she do to you? Please tell me." Taylor took a deep breath and finally answered. "She would beat me max. And the worst part was she was never even drunk." Max hugged her as she cried. After about ten minutes she had cried herself to sleep. So max went back to his room pondering the thought of having a parent abuse you and tell you they hate you and truly mean it. Of having your mom or dad tell you that you were never loved. Not saying it because the alcohol has affected them but because they really, for some twisted reason hated you.


ONE MONTH LATER

The Evans were finally allowed to adopt Taylor. Everything happened a lot faster than they expected. But now Taylor was happier than she could ever even imagine she had a real loving family. Taylor had gotten really close to Isabel and Max. But she was particularly close to max. He was her shelter. Whenever she was scared, or lonely, or upset she would always go to him. He would listen to her she told him a lot of things but ht only thing she ever told him about her mom was that she would beat her. She would never tell him any of the things she did to her.

SORRY IF YOU THINK THAT THIS ONE WASN'T AS GOOD BUT I AM TRYING TO SPEED UP THE STORY SO THAT I CAN GET TO THE HIGHER GROUND PART OF IT.
I'M GOING TO START GETTING IN TO THAT PART IN THE NEXT COUPLE CHAPTERS I JUST KINDA HAD TO SPEED THIS ONE UP.