Chapter 9

I spent a week in my room. I came out while they were at work in order to eat my food. Occasionally one of them would come up and talk for a bit but then I would say something wrong they would slap me and then they would leave. It was still better than before when James and I were both there. But I knew it was just the calm before the storm.

Finally the solitary confinement drove me insane and I decided to go out. I looked out the window. My parents were home and judging by the noise downstairs they were drunker than ever. They would never let me leave. I'd already tried twice.

So I opened my window and took out the screen. Balancing on my windowpane I carefully climbed onto the tree that grew outside of my window.

"KALEN GET BACK HERE!" My dad yelled when he came through the door.

Crap. I leapt off of the branch and ran like crazy away from my house.

Once I got to the park I slowed down. It hadn't changed much since I was little. Walking over to the swing set I plopped down and watched a group of children play. The woman watching them looked familiar but I couldn't place her. She looked up and saw me watching her. I smiled at her then went back to daydreaming.

"Kalen?" I looked up. It was the same woman. "Kalen is that you?"

"Uh… Yeah…"

"Oh you don't recognize me… then again I guess it is expected…"

"Wait… Mrs. Mitchel!" I cried.

"Yes. Oh but Why didn't you go to L.A. With Callie?"

"I uh… James and I got into a fight." I confessed. "I didn't really want to see him and L.A. isn't really my thing."

"Oh I see. Well you should come over sometime." She said with a smile. Then she went back to watch the group of kids she was with I figured they must have been from her day care service. I knew she had seen the buses on my face. They lined either side of my eyes and hairline. Going home was sure to be a hell hole so I decided to hang around town for a bit. Passing the music store I saw posters for big time rush and frowned. James looked really happy and I was starting to doubt my decision to come to Minnesota. But the sun was going down and I had to get back home.

JAMES POV:

"JAMES WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Gustavo yelled "YOU'RE TIMING IS OFF YOUR FORGETTING THE LYRICS AND YOU DON'T HAVE A CLUE WHAT IS GOING ON!"

"James this isn't like you," Kelly said pushing Gustavo away from the mic. "What's wrong?"

"I'm just worried about Kalen. I've tried to call her a few times but she hasn't picked up!" I explained. Just then my phone rang. "IT'S KALEN!" I yelled almost dropping my phone in shock.

"Hello?"

"James. I'm sorry I'm so, so sorry." She was crying.

"Kalen?" I was panicking I heard yelling in the background and had a pretty good idea about what was going on. "KALEN ARE YOU ALRIGHT!" I put her on speaker so Kendal and Logan could hear what was going on. I saw that Callie was listening from the other side of the glass.

"I'm sorry." She said. Someone else picked up the phone and was yelling Who did you call! HU? Well maybe this'll nock the answer out of you.

I hear someone scream and the phone hit a wall before I was disconnected. Callie was up in a second dialing a number on her phone. "Jack? It's me. You're family lives in North Dakota right?... Can you get a plane to Minnesota tonight?"

I turned to Logan who was wide eyed. "Carlos call your dad. Tell him to go to James' house."

"Right." He pulled out his phone right away and Kendall was already on the line with his mom.

"James what's going on?" Logan asked.

"Look… my parent's… they like to drink a lot and when they drink they tend to get violent. We didn't tell any of you because we were worried we'd be sent into foster care and taken away from each other not that it's helping us right now."

"Gustavo." Logan said. "We need to get a plane to Minnesota now."

"Already on it." Kelly said.

Carlos hung up the phone. "My dad is on his way over."

"And Jack is heading to Minnesota. He's going to get there faster than we can." Callie said.

"You're guy's flight leaves in an hour." Kelly said.

"And our ride to the airport is on it's way." Kendal said.

Kalen POV

I locked my hands around my head trying to defend it from my parent's merciless blows. "FREEZE POLICE!" Someone yelled. a Hispanic man came over and checked me for a pulse. "Are you alright?" He asked me.

I couldn't answer all I knew was the world was going black.

"I NEED A MEDIC OVER HERE!"

More people came over. "She's barely with us sir I'm not sure if she's going to make it."