I woke up early, around 7 in the morning, to the sound of birds chirping on the tree near my window. Opening my eyes was a struggle, as I wanted to sleep in, but I knew I couldn't risk it with dad coming to pick me up. In the countryside, mornings were cool and the bed was so warm, making getting up twice as hard. I didn't want to leave my bed, but I forced myself to get up. I took the blanket off of me and I slightly shivered at the sudden change in temperature. I despised cold mornings.

As my organs began to sound themselves, my bladder told me to go to the bathroom immediately, and my stomach told me to eat. Bladder had a greater need at the moment, so I quickly got into the bathroom in the hallway and took care of business. I changed into my clean blue T-shirt and jeans that I put aside the night before. I yawned again and rubbed my sleepy eyes. Checking over my face in the mirror of the bathroom, seeing that everything was in place and that I didn't look like a Loch Ness monster, or had acnes, I went back into my bedroom.

Just as I passed through the threshold, my phone rang and vibrated on the bedside table, so I quickly walked over to it and answered it.

"Yeah?" I sleepily said, yawning slightly.

"Hon, I'll be there in five, be ready. Love you." Dad's voice said.

"Okay, I'll be ready. Love you too." I said and hung up, putting my phone into the pocket of my jeans. I took my black suitcase off the floor and carried it downstairs with a bit of difficulty, because it was full of my clothes and shoes.

I greeted Sarah in the kitchen, and saw that she made sandwiches for breakfast, and had wrapped a few of them in aluminum foil so my dad and I could eat on the way back to Texas. "Thanks, Sarah." I said to her as she gave me a kind smile, leaning on the kitchen counter. "My dad and I are gonna eat these in like 10 minutes."

She chuckled softly. "Well, they're made for eating, not watching."

I chuckled at that and then heard a couple of honks of a car horn just outside the house. "That must be dad." I said to Sarah as I looked out the window.

"Best to not keep him waiting. You have a pretty long drive ahead of you." She said.

"Yeah." I nodded, taking the sandwiches and my suitcase, and left the house. Dad was waiting for me in his blue Audi. I opened the trunk of it and put the suitcase in and swiftly closed the trunk back. I waved at Sarah and she waved back from the front porch. I got into the passenger seat and wrapped the seatbelt around me, kissing my dad on the cheek. He honked Sarah goodbye, as the final waves were shared.

And so, we began our long drive home.

"Dad, we should have taken the plane." I suggested.

"You know as well as I do, planes are expensive and this way you'll memorize the road and you'll tell me all about your little vacation." Dad said, eyes focused on the road.

"Well, your brother's gone to Qatar." I said, as the though never left my mind.

A pause. "I know." Dad said seriously.

I figured it was the time to change the subject. Uncle Will's job wasn't favored, but it was appreciated to heaven and beyond. "And you should have seen Annabelle! She is just so cute and cuddly, you could carry her around all day and it still wouldn't be enough."

"I can imagine that. Remember, you were once a baby too, you know."

"Me? I was never a baby." I snorted, but in a sarcastic way.

"You'll always be my baby." Dad said and took his right hand off the steering wheel to pinch my left cheek. I leaned into his warm touch and a thought invaded my mind.

"Hey, dad, where's Buddy?" I asked. Buddy is our Golden Retriever, the lovable and hyperactive dog with the most common name.

"Budster? He's home with mom, waiting for you. You know, that dog isn't getting any younger and he needs to be walked more frequently... And I work, so it's up to you and mom to walk him."

I yawned as he continued talking. The car was warm inside, because of the air conditioning, and the morning sun wasn't bothering me at all. This morning, I wasn't the listening type. I just wanted to sleep.

"Yeah, dad, I'm going to nap for a little bit. Drive safely." I said and lowered the seat through a button so that it was in a bed-like position.

The comfy seats mixed with the soothing temperature did wonders to lull me to sleep.

I had a fantastic sleep, and it the only thing that cut it short was the feeling of something warm and wet on my face.

As I woke up abruptly, I noticed that the car wasn't moving anymore, and that my door was open and that Buddy was licking my face. He suddenly jumped on my legs on the car seat.

"Wha-Hey Buddy, get off!" I yelled at him, but he just jumped more at me, smiling as much as a dog could and waving his tail like he was on ecstasy.

His mighty barks echoed through the street, as I realized we were parked right in front of our grey building. We were on the first floor and the whole building could hear his barks.

"Quiet, Bud!" I chided him, but to no use. I had to hug him, otherwise he wouldn't leave me alone. Well, now I have to wash my face, I had spit all over it. "No more hugs for you." I told him seriously. If a dog could shrug, I think he just did, as we left the car. Dad was right behind me, taking my suitcase as he shut the boot and locked the car. It beeped in return as we got into our apartment and the lovely smell of home greeted me. I let Buddy roam freely in the apartment, his nails clinking against the ceramic floors, as I immediately left the living room and went to the kitchen. I had to greet mom, and the kitchen was where you could find her most of the time.

I washed my face above the kitchen sink as I realized that I was followed by Buddy to the kitchen. Hopefully mom was somewhere around here.

"Mom!" I chirped, hoping to gain her attention as I wiped my face free of the water with a kitchen towel.

"Melissa!" Mom came into the kitchen, walking towards me as I hugged her. "How'd it go? Did you have a nice time?" Mom asked.

"Yup, don't I always?" I smiled at her. My phone suddenly rang and vibrated in my pocket. "One sec, mom." I said as I flipped it open. It was Amanda, one of my best friends since birth. "Hey, Maddie." I answered.

"Mel! When'd you get home?" Her voice echoed.

"I, Uh… Don't really know. I think a few minutes ago, maybe. Why?"

"Well, me and the boys are gonna meet up in the park, wanna come with?"

"Definitely!" I exclaimed. "See you in 20." I hung up. Well, I better get ready and hop on the bus. "Mom, I'm gonna go meet with my friends."

"Okay, sweetie." She replied, tending to something in the kitchen as I walked over into my room.

"Should I change my clothes?" I asked myself as I looked in the mirror, eyeing myself. "Nah."

Quickly, I took my phone and some money with me and went out to walk towards the bus stop. After the bus came, and around 15 minutes later, I got off at the park and I didn't have to wait until I saw Amanda.

"Maddie!" I yelled across the park.

"Mel!" She yelled back and we ran towards each other and crashed together, hugging like we haven't seen one another in ages. "Where've you been, girl?" She said with a wide grin.

"Oh, here and there, up and down, left and... nah, who am I kidding, I was at my uncle's house." I smiled with a shrug.

"Well, I hope you had fun, 'cause I have a lot of new things to tell you." She said with her eyes glistening with excitement.

"About robots again?" I said and leaned my head to the right.

"Yup!" She happily said. The thing about Amanda was, she was crazy about robots, to the point where she even talked about how she wanted to be a robot, saying things like 'my fuel tank is empty' instead of 'I'm hungry'. I rolled my eyes as I remembered her remarks. I was a pain in the butt, too. I talked about drawing and horses and my other passions, so Maddie and I eventually learned how to live with each other's differences.

It wasn't long until Dave and Pete, boys from our little 'gang', came to us and hugged us. Amanda and I met Dave and Pete in elementary school, and we all just kind of stuck together since the moment we met.

"Hey girls, what up?" Pete said amicably, green eyes darting from me to Amanda.

"Nothin' Pete. You Dave?" I said, looking at the blond boy.

"Same old, same old. Wanna grab some ice cream?" Dave suggested, pointing towards Pablo's, our favorite ice-cream place within walking distance.

"Always thinking about food, huh Dave? Let's go." Amanda said as we started collectively walking towards Pablo's.

Pablo's wasn't just a shop that we randomly entered one day and decided they had the best ice-cream. Ever since we were kids in elementary school, every few days we would go for chocolate chip ice-cream. My favorite was raspberry with pieces of the fruit in it. But when both chocolate chip and raspberry are combined, I must say that makes me a very happy Melissa.

We bought our favorite flavors and the workers put the ice-cream in paper bowls and handed them to us. We ate them gleefully at the table we were seated at.

"Pete, what have you been up to this summer break?" I asked him as I ate a bit of my ice-cream.

"I told you, same old." Pete said, uninterestedly.

"Well there's gotta be something." Amanda said, narrowing her eyes at him, not buying his poker face.

"Well… There is this one thing." He insecurely said, trailing off as he poked the ice cream with his plastic spoon.

"It's a girl, isn't it?" I said.

"Wha-How'd you know?" He gaped at me.

"You're always like this when it's about a girl." I chuckled.

"It's totally obvious, man." Dave said, running his fingers through his blond hair.

"You should be his wingman." I told Dave.

"I am." He answered as the boys looked to each other and smirked at the same time. Amanda and I just shook our heads.

"Well, when you get yourselves some girlfriends, introduce us to them." I said.

"They need the Mel and Maddie approval." Amanda said, and she and I laughed. The guys just rolled their eyes and we soon finished our ice cream. We threw our empty paper bowls in the garbage can outside the parlor as we got out. Suddenly, I yawned and the rest of them followed.

"Yaaaawning is contagious." Dave said, keeping a hand over his mouth as he yawned.

"You got that right." Pete confirmed. My phone vibrated in my pocket, and as I took it out, I saw a message from Mom, telling me to come home.

"Well, I gotta run guys. My mom is calling." I said, smiling somewhat apologetically. "I'll see you guys later, 'kay?" They nodded and we all quickly exchanged hugs. I went home soon afterward.

It didn't take me long until I got to the bus station, into the bus and out of it. In a span of about fifteen minutes, I got in front of my apartment, where I was met with another text from my mom. 'Buy some milk if you have money.'

Internally groaning, I turned back and went towards the nearest grocery store, buying a carton of milk as I headed back, with a plastic bag in tow.

Soon, I got home, ringing on the doorbell. Mom opened the door as I handed her the milk. "Here's your milk, mom. I'm gonna go sleep." I said with a tired smile.

"Thanks, Mel. Did you have a nice time?" She replied as she closed the door.

"Yeah, it was fine." I answered nonchalantly as I went to my room. I slumped on the bed and went to sleep. This time, on a proper bed, and not a car seat.

4 and a half months later…

It was around 2 o'clock in the afternoon when I called Amanda and the boys to hang out. The boys couldn't make it, so it was just a girl hangout this time. We went to our favorite park and sat on a nearby bench. The wind was blowing just a bit today, but luckily, we had our jackets on to protect us.

"Tell me about your robot discoveries." I said out of decency, and Amanda was all too eager to tell me.

"Well, first, you have to tell the difference between a robot with feelings and a robot that doesn't have them."

"Like Terminator. Those guys don't have souls." I said, trying to sound interested. I really didn't care about any of that. I always told her to try and get into a college for technology and science, because of her passion for robotics, but she was ambivalent on the topic.

"Exactly, but they aren't called souls, they are called sparks." She said in a matter-of-fact voice.

"Oh, excuse me." I said sarcastically. The wind blew much harder and leaves got in our hair. We picked them out easily.

"Then there are-" She started but didn't finish. I looked at her, but saw her looking at something behind me. "There's your coach." She said.

"No.,.." I groaned, ducking my head down.

"Yup, and he looks pissed." She said with a frown. "No need to hide. I'm pretty sure he saw us. He's coming this way now."

"Well that's just great." I hadn't gone to volleyball practice for about a two weeks now, and my team depended on me. I wanted to play really badly, but couldn't because I was on vacation at my uncle's. And obviously, I would never miss an opportunity to visit my dear uncle and his lovely family.

"Lennox!" My coach's voice echoed throughout the park.

I winced and got up, approaching my coach.

"Yes, coach?" I said.

"Why weren't you at training?" He rudely asked. I wasn't used to such behavior, but I would never tolerate it. I didn't want to. He wasn't always like this. Rumor is he lost his wife recently, and instead of being sad or taking some time off, he just transformed his sadness into anger and took it out on the girls of my team.

"It was summer vacation, coach, I was at my uncle's for 2 weeks." I simply said. It was the truth.

"I don't care about your vacation, I want you tonight at 8 pm in the school gym. Don't be late." He turned around.

Don't you dare boss me around, prick. I thought to myself.

I waited for him to get a safe distance away from me. I was forming fists and clenching them so tightly they turned white. Amanda didn't approach me, she knew better.

A quiet woman was an angry woman.

"Coach pissed you off?" Amanda asked as she came to my side.

"Yes! Of course he did, this bastard." I growled.

"Calm down, Melissa. Just go to practice, it'll be okay." She soothed and it was odd how quickly I calmed down.

"Yeah but it's not okay. Like I get it, the dude has personal problems, but we're not livestock. I mean, even animals shouldn't be yelled at like this."

"I get you. But why don't you just quit then?"

"Because I like my team. And quitting is too easy."

"Yeah, but you hate it there." Amanda pointed out.

"I know, but it's because of the coach that I hate it."

"Well," Amanda suggested, "why don't you switch teams?"

"Because our team is the best in the region. You know that, dummie."

"Oh, right." Amanda nodded. "Well, good luck is all I can say, you know. Not much I can do from here."

I shrugged and exhaled calmly. We spent some time talking to each other about random things, but as my volleyball coach so unexpectedly came and destroyed my good mood, I decided it was time for me to come home. It was around 5 o'clock by the time I came back home.

"Mom? Dad?" I asked around in the house, but it seemed as if the two went out somewhere. I found a note on the kitchen fridge, since that's where we usually leave each other notes. My parents still don't text me that often, as they didn't react too well to technology.

'Went grocery shopping. Will be back soon. Love, Mom and Dad.'

Okay. Well, let them have their fun while I prepare my gym bag and prepare myself mentally for the hell that will ensue once I get to volleyball practice.

I prepared my gym by putting my special volleyball sneakers, the kind in which your foot would sit deeply and comfortably in. It had a design where the shoe was so tall it went above the leg wrist. I also made sure I didn't forget to put my knee protectors in there, too. I brought a pair of black shorts, and that's when I realized that my team shirt was missing.

I roamed a little bit inside my room, but it would seem that the team shirt was probably in the washing machine. I knew that, to our coach, it was a big deal to wear the team uniform to promote team spirit, yet our coach was horrible at doing that himself.

Without having any other choice, I decided to take the risk and put a plain white T-shirt in my gym bag instead. As it was time to leave the house to get to the school gym, I locked the front door on my way out and made sure I bought 2 bottles of water for practice. Gotta stay hydrated.

It didn't take me too long to get to school and slip into the ladies locker room. It was nearing 8 p.m. and we were all changing into our practice clothes. I noticed that all of them wore the typical blue-green team shirt. I put on my white shirt and heard one of my teammates say, "You sure you won't get into trouble with the white shirt, Melissa?"

"Nah, Amy, I'll be fine." I winked at her.

"I hope so." She shrugged and saw that I was the only one left behind, but left me anyway. I was struggling with untying my shoelaces, so I knew that they were all waiting for me. I ran out of the changing room quickly and saw all my teammates already in line, facing the coach.

I couldn't escape his glare. But that didn't mean I'd just sit there like a lamb.

"Lennox! You were told not to be late!" He yelled at me.

"I'm not late coach." I coldly stated.

He looked at his watch. "It's 20:02 hours and you're saying you're not late?!" At this point it was so obvious that he was just pissing himself off.

"Exactly." I returned the rudeness. Screw this guy. Maybe Amanda was right. Perhaps I should change teams or something.

The coach's face was turning red from anger. He loved volleyball, and he knew as well as everyone else, I was the best player he had.

"Where's your uniform?!"

"I'm the libero, coach. I must wear a different uniform." I said, making him look stupid for the moment, and my girls laughed. I liked being the smartass.

"Good one, Captain." One whispered. I smiled and nodded.

"Start running!" He yelled, pointing his finger to the side to start making circles around the terrain. I shrugged and started the 10 minute warm-up run. After doing this for years, you don't even get tired from running, you just kind of get bored, really. I loved volleyball and all, but all the trainings were the same. Always. Run, turn, stop, fall, get back up, fall again and run some more. Sure, we played volleyball, but I was fed up with the coach. I couldn't take it anymore. As the girls and I spread into small teams and started to play against each other, the coach turned his back, uninterested in looking at our game.

I never understood how or why he treated me this way? The coach was way too serious and we weren't in any international championship league thing. We were just playing on a regional level. So would anyone be so mean? Especially when I did nothing wrong.

As I jumped up above the net, I slammed the ball, but it accidentally hit the back of the coach's bald head. It wasn't on purpose, though.

Come to think of it, my parents weren't paying these trainings for him to be lashing his anger at me or my girls.

He turned around looked over everyone to see whoever hit him. I didn't even look at him, for I played it up, like it never happened. I could almost feel his anger from the other side of the big room, but I couldn't care less. I had a strong will and I was damn stubborn.

If he wanted to yell, I'd yell back. If he got physical, so would I. No take backs.

The practice ended with a whistle of the coach's whistle. We took our empty bottles of water and stood at the white 'out' line.

"Listen up, girls, listen good!" He yelled.

Oh, just shut up.

"We are going to change the Captain!" He yelled. I looked at him in shock as I felt my hands get cold. I could feel that my mouth was slightly agape.

Why the hell would I be replaced? "What?" I said.

I'm the Captain, damn it! Who's going to take my place?! He should have told me first!

"Listen good, Lennox, and don't talk back!" He yelled, pointing a finger towards me.

I grunted. "Yeah, right." I muttered quietly, crossing my arms, but he unfortunately heard it.

"I told you not to talk back!"

I raised an eyebrow on him, in a way saying 'you can't do anything to me' and yet 'try me'.

He caught the 'try me' look and turned around and took a ball and shot it right to me. The other girls leapt for cover, but I easily defended myself by lowering, almost crouching, and putting my hands before myself.

Then he shot another ball at me, managing to shoot me in the left cheek. I fell on the ground, and looked at him, really trying to control myself. My girls helped me stand up. This happened to other girls, but not to me. Never to me.

And the problem with this problem was that he had a history of doing that. Many girls before me left this team exactly because of this kind of behavior.

I felt blood at the corner of my lips. I wiped it with my thumb and looked at it. It was really red.

This crossed the line. I would never, ever be subject to somebody's tortures.

No more standing. No more suffering. Time to let it out.

Taking the first ball he threw at me, I threw it up in the air, counting the steps in my head.

Left foot, right foot, left foot, jump.

Smacking the ball in the air with the full force of my right hand, the hit echoed through the gym as the ball hit the coach's chest. He lost his balance, falling on his back, out of breath.

Although I was happy to have gotten it all out, in that one perfect throw, I felt a bit bad that the coach was on the ground, moaning. Well shit, now, I gotta run. It was fight or flight, and this time I chose flight. I couldn't be here anymore, not when I had the inside of my cheek bleeding and when the coach had started to physically attack me. I was out of here, for I had had enough.

"Girls," I addressed them. They looked at me, "Good luck to the new Captain. I hope you take this as a serious responsibility. I won't be coming here anymore." I hugged them all quickly. "Don't let him torture you." They nodded at my advice. "Bye girls."

"Bye, Mel." They said in unison, all of them looking shaken up and scared. Girls, if you're afraid, just leave!

I was sweating hard from the training and still pissed because of the idiot coach. I didn't even change my clothes, knowing that the moment he gets up, he's going to hunt me down. I ran into the locker room, threw the jeans and T-shirt from before into my bag. I could hear the coach's roar of anger. I sprinted towards the exit of the school.

A thought flashed through my mind that I could catch a cold because my body was very warm, and outside it was cold. But it's just a risk I'm going to have to take. I ran all the way to the empty bus station, getting on the first bus that arrived. As I was swaying inside the bus as it swerved and turned ever so often, I did not even care if the bus had been filled with people watching me, although it most likely wasn't, I couldn't help but think how angry I was. How could I let coach hit me? Hit me!

I got home soon, slamming the front door behind me, trying to vent out my frustration. The mirror on the wall adjacent to the front door shook a bit from the violence. I normally never behaved like this. I didn't have anger issues.

"Melissa, honey, what's wrong? How'd it go?" Mom asked, getting up from the brown leather couch in the living room where she and dad were sitting, watching TV calmly until I entered the house like a bull in a china shop. "What's that on your cheek?" She asked worriedly.

"Mom, don't ask me anything, please." I said.

"Melissa, come here." She said, coming towards me.

"No, mom, just leave me alone."

Then my dad started getting involved, too. "Melissa, listen to your mother."

"Yes, Melissa." God, how I hated when they repeated my name ten thousand times. C

"I'm not going to come, I'm going into my room." I turned my back on them.

"Is that blood on your shirt?" Mom asked.

"Yeah, it's fine, just an accident at practice." It was anything but an accident, but whatever.

"How many times did I tell you to come here?" Mom crossed her arms. "Since when have you become so defensive? You always used to listen, now look at you, puberty hitting you and all of a sudden you think you're above us?"

Oh god, mother.

"Shut up, mom." I said.

"Is that the way you treat your mother?" She was ready to throw a punishment at me, like grounding me for a week.

But me, being already shaken up from the whole event, with my mouth bleeding and having dried blood all over myself, I yelled at her inadvertently.

"Just shut up already!" I screamed out, my fury blinding me. I was never, ever, rude to my mother.

"Melissa…" Dad's voice started to scold.

"You too, dad! Both of you, just shut up!" I ran into my room, feeling the tears welling up in my eyes as I closed shut the door behind me. I felt it in my bones that this was a horrible thing to do to my parents, but I was just so out of it and I really needed a break from this horrible day. I knew I'd apologize to my parents tomorrow in the morning.

I took a steamy shower and washed my hair. I made sure I dried it before slipping into my pajamas and then into my bed. Sadly, despite my strong will and stubbornness, a small, hot tear escaped my eye. My throat tightened from anger and frustration, from my pride being hurt.

Some things you just can't control.

I'm not going to think about that idiot for coach, nor the way that I talked to my parents.

I'm just going to sleep.