For notes, warnings and disclaimers see scene 1

Scene 2: A Sort of Haven
(Age: 7)

That morning Kara got herself ready for school on her own, though --truth be told-- that was not exactly an unusual occurrence so she didn't really give it much thought. She was used to being on her own --to having to take care of herself-- so she got up, got dressed, poured herself a glass of milk for breakfast and brushed her teeth before heading out the door. She wished her dad had been up to wait for the school bus with her but it didn't happen. She really liked it when he did that but she figured he was still asleep, after all, she hadn't even heard him come back the night before so...

She didn't want to think about the night before, it wasn't like thinking about it would change anything anyway... besides, she just wanted to forget. In fact being able to forget was enough to make school worth while as far as she was concerned... well, almost. Being at school was a lot better than being at home --that was for sure-- but it was no picnic.

The classes were dull and more often than not the other kids would tease her because her clothes were dirty and threadbare. They kept calling her 'stinky Kara' but she was used to it. She wasn't popular and she didn't have many friends but she didn't really care all that much about that. She just wanted to be left alone so --for the most part-- the whole not having many friends thing actually suited her just fine, though at times she did wish that the other kids would stop teasing her. As far as she was concerned the most important thing was that being in school meant being away from home, it meant being away from her mom while her dad was at work... it meant being safe, even if it wasn't much fun and even if her teacher kept yelling at her to pay attention.

Well, if nothing else at least her teacher never hit her... even if she didn't like her.

Her teacher liked the smart kids, the good kids, the ones who did their homework, learned their lessons and sat still for hours. Kara wasn't one of them. She knew all too well that she was pretty stupid. She had heard it said often enough and it wasn't like she didn't have plenty of reminders... besides, even if no one had ever told her she was dumb, her grades would still have been more than enough to get that point across loud and clear. She was always on the verge of flunking and she kept getting in trouble no matter what she did.

Once she had even fallen asleep in class.

That had been embarrassing --especially 'cos she had woken up screaming and everyone had laughed at her-- and her teacher had been really, really mad. Kara had tried to explain to her that she hadn't done it on purpose but her teacher hadn't been in the mood to listen.

Well, at least when she'd fallen asleep she had been still, for the most part. Usually her teacher kept yelling at her because she was squirming and fidgeting, because she was a distraction or because she wasn't paying enough attention. Kara tried to sit still, she really did, but she couldn't. She couldn't even understand how the other kids did it. As far as she was concerned sitting still was damned near impossible... especially because her chair wasn't all that comfortable and most of the time finding a position that didn't hurt was hard.

That was going to be a problem that day, Kara knew it, but she also knew that there was nothing she could do about it so she was going to have no choice but to deal. That was okay though, after all, it wasn't like having a sore back was a big deal or anything like that.