Hi guys, on my old account I used to only do one shots but it looks like this will be a full story! Disclaimer - Well I'm not even gonna bother because we all know what the disclaimer is gonna be!

Eponine's Point of View

It was well past midnight, Azelma was curled up by my feet like a dog. Me and Azelma shared a mattress, apparently, papa had found it lying on the ground, he said it was fine and dusted it off. I don't think the same. It is well over 50 years old, had a smell of rubbish plastered to it and don't even get me started on the stains. Papa says the red stuff is just jam, but considering who he is, I think he's lying.

"'Ponine?" It was Azelma, her enchanting chocolate-brown eyes boring into mine.

"Yes Zelma"

"Why do you take my beatings?" She asked, she was so innocent that it hurt.

"Why do you ask little one?"

"'Ponine, I did something really bad today, I brought a boy home, Papa didn't like it and well we all know what happened."

"Oh Zelma, Papa is wrong for letting us have no friends, I was cold and spiteful to a new boy today who was just being friendly."

"Well, be kind tomorrow, thats what I do, Papa can't know whats going on even in school can he?"

"Alright Zelma, tomorrow will be a new start."

Azelma gave a satisfied nod and curled back into her original position when I said.

"Oh, and Zelma, this boy you were talking about, is he cute?"

Azelma gave me a playful punch in the shoulder and we burst laughing, laughing until it hurt, laughing despite everything.

I was packing my bag for school, well I say bag... its more like a plastic bag from Walmart. Inside was my pencil, an english book and a maths book. No endless sea of foundation bottles and concealer or lip gloss or eyeshadow, in fact all I wore was a cheap foundation and concealer. Papa said the only reason he wanted me to wear it was because otherwise everyone could see the bruises and he could be jailed child abuse, not that I gave a shit about him.

"Eponine! Get your filthy arse down here!" It was the hoarse voice of Papa. "It's school!"

I spent a minute in my room, planning the day ahead and then headed downstairs. The moment my eyes locked with Papa's he slapped me, the sharp stinging hurt, not that I wasn't used to it though.

"What part of get your filthy arse down here don't you understand! Get inside the bus you bitch!"

Slowly I picked up my bag and headed to the bus. Ouch, that slap would leave a mark, what would all the others say. Gah, who am I kidding, no one cares about my lonely soul, especially not Cosette.

I sat down on the bus and stared out of the window, lost in a world of my imagination, the day dreams I had during the bus journey, during class were the only things that kept me going, the dreams were that me, Zelma and Gavroche my brother could be free, Gavroche would never know abuse and Zelma could keep her innocence. It was nearly impossible to reach to, but I don't to live like this any longer and if I do it, us three could be free! I was lost in my daydream when a voice ripped me from my imaginary world.

"Please tell me that wasn't what I thought it was,"

"Please Julian"

"Your sister was screaming and your father came out yielding a whip"

"It wasn't what you thought it was,"

"Oh really, enlighten me,"

"Well, um... well... Azelma had fallen over and um... Zelma's my sister and... well... my little brother Gavroche had lended his... his toy whip to my papa!" I was ridiculously bad at lying, I scolded myself for the crappy attempt.

"It looked pretty real to me,"

"Please don't go there"

At that moment the bus grinds to a halt and I run out the bus before he can ask anymore questions. How could I forget he lived next door! He must have seen everything!

The school day was over, finally, I had managed to avoid Julian the entire day but I had a feeling it would be different on the walk back home. As if he could read my mind he stepped up behind me and tapped my shoulder, I immediately swung my head around to face him, almost whacking him in the face with my hair.

"Come with me," He whispered.

"I'm not gonna get rid of you if I don't. Right?" I replied

"Nope"

"Then let's go,"

He dragged me by the hand the entire way there, I'm guessing he thought if he let go I would run away, and rightly so, I had no idea where he was taking me. Finally he took me to a peaceful field, it was full of daisies and had a train track running through the middle of it. It was beautiful, not that I took much price in the beauty of things.

"So, why'd you me here?" I asked him, I was confused, really confused.

"You looked pretty uncomfortable with all the people there, but now we are alone, so tell me, what was going on yesterday,"

Oh shit, I was trying to avoid this conversation.

"Why do you want to know this!" I replied to him, why can't he just be like normal people and not care about me if their lives depended on it, why can't he just leave his questions alone!

"Listen Eponine, I don't know what we are, we are not friends but we are also not enemies, and you're the closest thing to a friend I have had in years, so please, tell me,"

Hi guys, hope you guys liked that chapter, I'm gonna do something where I give all my latest reviewers a shout out in the authors note and I will try my hardest to read some of their stories starting next chapter! Plus I will do polls deciding what will happen in the next chapter so you guys can decide what will work best with this story!

See you soon,
Chelsea