Um ... sorry?

I haven't posted a chapter for this story in a while and the next update will be in two weeks. Probably.

But go ahead and read now!

Some of you might not like it, but I felt like it was time for that :-/

"Daddy?" Maddie asked sweetly with her hands behind her back and big puppy dog eyes. It was Saturday and she was utterly bored.

"Yes, sweetheart?" Carlisle replied and looked up from the newspaper he was currently reading.

"Can I go to the movies with Emmett?"

"No, you may not. Ask him if he could wait until next week," Carlisle told her.

Making a face, Maddie said, "He won't. He said he's bored and wants to go today."

"Then maybe he'll take you next week, even though he already watched the movie before."

"But he said if he doesn't like the movie, then he won't," she replied and tilted her head to the side, waiting for her Dad to give in.

"Maybe somebody else can take you to see it, then."

Maddie groaned. "No, they don't wanna watch it."

"Sweetie, how about you wait until we can purchase it on DVD? Then you can watch it alone if you'd like," he suggested.

"But I cannot watch it alone," she whined, and seeing the perplexed look on her father's face, she explained why. "It has got puppets in it ... and they creep me out."

Carlisle sighed. "Then I will take you th see it next week."

"No, I wanna watch it with Emmett!" she said quick like a shot.

She didn't mind going to the movies with her father, but he wouldn't like this explicit one... and probably forbid her from seeing it. It got more f-bombs and sexual scenes than porn ... at least that was what she had read about it on the Internet. In addition, he would find out that she had to make the cashier give her the ticket, because she was actually too young to watch it. No thanks, she preferred to go with Emmett.

He held his hands up while saying, "I cannot help you then."

"Why can't I go today?"

"Because you are grounded," Carlisle told her matter-of-factly.

"I'm always grounded," she grumbled in response and lightly kicked against the couch her Dad was sitting on.

He gave her an admonishing look, before telling her, "Then you should behave more often."

Good advise, ugh.

"How, Dad, how? Everything I do is considered misbehaving because you have a million stupid rules for me!"

Tiredly rubbing his forehead, he then said, "We talked about this countless times. You know why we set rules for you."

"Come on! Even prisoners are released early for good behaviour, just let me go!" she demanded.

"No," he replied with finality in his voice and picked the newspaper lying in his lap back up to read some more.

Naturally, Maddie didn't like that the talk was over and she still wasn't allowed to go.

She narrowed her eyes then, saying, "I'm going with Emmett today, whether you like it or not."

Well, that made him look up again.

"Madeline," he warned.

Maddie glared at him a moment longer, but then stomped her foot in frustration before walking noisily up the stairs to her room.

How unfair was that? It was beyond frustrating that she could never go out and have fun.

"I take it you aren't allowed to come?" Emmett asked from the hallway, looking into his sister's room. He watched her standing in the middle of the room with her arms crossed tightly over her chest and breathing heavily. She still had a little trouble controlling her anger, but at least she didn't break anything just now.

"It's not fair."

"Maybe the movie sucks, it'll spare you the frustration," Emmett tried to calm her.

"I'll just make him letting me go," she said with determination in her voice, storming towards her door.

"Tiny, no," Emmett stopped her before she could leave her room.

"Why not? He isn't being fair, so why should I be?"

"You are grounded, you brought it on yourself."

"Emmett, don't you get it? I'm never allowed to leave the house, it is like I'm constantly grounded! And now I am just asking to join you for two small hours and even that is forbidden."

"Come on, don't be like that. Your grounding ends on ... what? Sunday? Then you can go out again."

"Yes, but only if somebody accompanies me. What am I, a toddler?"

"It'll get better with time, Tiny, don't let it ruin your mood now. I'll be back in a couple of hours and then I'll tell you all about the movie, okay?" He patted her on the head before turning around and walking away.

Great.

Now Maddie sat here in her room, alone and frustrated.

It was weekend and she had nothing to busy herself with, unlike her siblings.

They drove around in their cars, went shopping or to clubs, museums and parks, while she had to stay home.

After a lot of complaining about the unfairness of it all, she just got send to her room.

Thanks Mom and Dad, as if that would make it any better.

It took everything she had in her to not break her room's furniture. She had spent so much time in here already and it was supposed to be her haven, the place where she could be herself. Now it just felt like the room was mocking her.

Her closet full of clothes she hadn't picked out, the blazer of a school she detested hung over the backrest of her chair. Books of subjects she couldn't care less about lay scattered all over her desk. A big bed standing there, covered in the most expensive sheets and decorated with several fluffy pillows, even though she would never sleep. An alarm clock on her bedside table - a prop. DVDs of movies she could replay in her head in every detail, CDs of bands she had listened to more times than she could count. The books on her shelves that were of no use to her anymore - she wouldn't detect anything interesting that she hadn't caught the first and only time she read them. It was impossible to forget - anything.

Things that wouldn't change weren't reassuring anymore, but utterly unsettling.

All these thoughts pulled her down to a level where she didn't want to be.

She couldn't let this capture her - Emmett would be back soon and tell her about the movie.

She felt pathetic once again. Sitting here and hoping for her brother to come back home soon - like a dog that was waiting by the door for its owner's return.

No, she couldn't be like that, she wouldn't be like that. She decided to go look for something to occupy herself with.

So she jumped up and left her room, only to go straight into Edward's.

Scanning his shelves for a book she hadn't read before, she made a find and left again.

Okay, it wasn't nice to take stuff without asking, but she didn't want to go downstairs and choose a book from the shelves in the living room where she would have to see Carlisle and Esme.

In the end she settled for sitting in the hallway with her legs crossed, trying to become engrossed in her brother's book until someone would finally arrive back home and keep her company.

Maddie heard her siblings come home one after another later that day.

Her room door was ajar and she lay on her bed, eyes fixed on the ceiling.

"Have you been to my room?" Edward asked, pushing her door open a little further.

"Huh?" Maddie turned her head, then rolled over onto her side to face her brother completely.

"Yeah. I borrowed a book, but I put it back on the shelf again."

He nodded his head. He normally liked it better when he got asked first, but while he was driving around, it would have been quite annoying to get a phone call about a book.

"Which one did you take?"

"Of Mice and Men," she replied.

Picking up on her mood and her thoughts, he offered, "I probably have some more that you haven't read yet. Help yourself."

"Thanks," Maddie said softly and rolled back on to her back.

"Maddie ..."

She looked at him again.

"You are having a bad day, but don't let it damp your spirits. Tomorrow will be different again."

"Yeah," she breathed.

He nodded once more before pushing himself away from the doorframe and disappearing into his own room.

He could fully understand what she was experiencing right now - he had felt like this for years already. But the difference was that she felt trapped and didn't like the way others saw her, while he felt lonely with his existence.

Maddie had the disadvantage of her young age on her side, and she had to miss out on everything other teenage girls could do. Of course it would frustrate her to be home all the time, to have parents who watched her every step.

But he could also understand Esme and Carlisle's perspective: They tried to keep her safe, tried to keep the family safe. And barely three years into this kind of life was like a drop in the bucket for the rest of them. Maddie was still inexperienced, young. She just had to endure the first few years of surveillance and strictness, before she would earn herself more freedom.

The next day was like the day before. It was like every single day. Always the same, nothing changed. She was staying home, watching a movie with Emmett and Rose, but didn't enjoy it much.

They took her hunting then, but even running and the fresh, warm deer blood didn't make her feel any better.

Of course they noticed. But every time they asked her, she replied that it was nothing.

She was fine.

She was well.

She figured that was what they wanted to hear her say.

And she didn't want to talk about it anyways.

Maddie was tired of being told that it would get better with time, that she had to endure this now where she couldn't do much. It would get better.

But when? They never said.

If she had at least a vague idea when, then all this would be more bearable.

But nobody knew. What were they waiting for?

She hadn't killed anyone yet; she had proved she could be around humans, had she not? She went to school five times a week for several hours, wasn't that enough proof of her ability to restrain herself?

Heck, she didn't even try to get herself expelled even though she hated that school. Wasn't that sufficient proof?

Maddie just didn't understand what they wanted her to do. But they obviously didn't know what they wanted her to do, either.

It wouldn't get any better.

Good? Bad?

I know I' told you about Christmas chapters, but then I thought that this chapter would fit in nicely.

Next chapter will be longer again, it just isn't proofread yet and I don't think I'll find the time to do it anytime soon.

Now, let me know what you think in your REVIEW!