Melanie's new home was hardly anything like she'd been promised. It was still much better than her old one, but it still wasn't something to be happy about.

This family, the Arnold's, weren't very kind. They ridiculed her often and spent the money that was supposed for taking care of her on cigarettes and beer.

At least they didn't beat her. But Melanie could handle that. What they did was far worse.

They abused her mentally. Everything she did was wrong. She was dumb, she was a showoff, she was too quiet, she was too loud. It didn't matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't win with them.

And what made her really snap was her "siblings". There were two of them, both were older than her but one was a girl and the other was a boy. Their names were Jennifer and Jackson.

Melanie wasn't sure what it was that she did to them, but whatever she did, it must've been really terrible. They spread rumors about her at school, got her into trouble at home, teased her, and so much more.

Nonetheless, Melanie didn't complain. She didn't like this house but it was a lot better than her previous situation. So she put up with it.

All until one day, it was just too much.

On the weekends, the Arnold's would usually go out to spend time together as a family. But they always left Melanie at home alone. They left before she woke up and didn't come back until late at night.

The girl had to learn how to take care of herself so she wouldn't starve. At only seven years old, she had to teach herself how to cook. And the next year when she turned eight (she did not have a birthday party), she had to learn how to take care of the house as well. Her foster parents decided she was old enough to take on some more responsibility. Now, whenever they left for the weekend, she was expected to clean the entire house until it was spotless. And if she didn't, she would get into severe trouble.

Melanie was forced to live this way for nearly three years. She'd been brought to this house at the age of five and a half and finally left when she was eight.

She got into trouble when her teacher called home. A boy had been making fun of her for spelling something wrong in class and Melanie had bitten him. The little boy immediately fell into the role of a victim and the teacher punished Melanie by calling home and putting her in timeout during recess.

Mr. and Mrs. Arnold's were furious. She'd been lectured for two hours on how she was tarnishing their family's reputation.

The little girl knew she would be in trouble with her foster family but she hadn't anticipated the punishment she received. She thought that she would get more chores and be yelled at for an unnecessary amount of time. While those two things did happen, there was a third sentence she had gotten.

Her foster father had announced that she was going to get spanked and she freaked out. She began bawling as painful memories she'd tried so hard to repress came back up. He yelled at her for running away. She hadn't even realized that she ran in the first place.

She kept slipping in and out of reality, she had no idea what was happening. Her heart was pounding and she didn't know what she was doing.

It was only when she heard the scream of pain and fear that she realized what she had just done.

She blinked away her tears and saw her foster father on the floor, Mrs. Arnold's crouched over him. In Melanie's tiny hands was a frying pan and Mr. Arnold's was unconscious.

With a sharp gasp, she dropped the pan and shuffled away into a corner.

The Arnold's family screaming was blocked out and she couldn't focus her brain.

All she knew was that one second, she was in the corner rocking herself back and forth and humming and the next, she was in an uncomfortable plastic chair in the Department of Family Service building.

She was in the waiting room next to a teenage boy with brown hair and eyes. He fiddled with a loose thread on his leather jacket and ignored Melanie.

She blinked slowly as she looked around. The Arnold's were nowhere to be found and she felt panic immediately seize her heart.

Oh God, she was in so much trouble. What would they do to her when they found her? Or did they just dump her here? Would she be placed in another horrible family?

Melanie flinched when she heard the boy next to her sigh.

"You finally out of La La Land?" He chuckled sarcastically, no happiness in his tone at all.

It took her a second to register the fact that he was talking to her and she nodded.

He sighed again but this time, he sounded relieved. "Good, your social worker has been trying to snap you out of it for the past hour." He informed her.

Melanie's light brown eyes widened. An hour? She'd blanked out for that long? "Wow." Was all she managed to say.

"Yeah, apparently your old foster parents brought you here and said you were bonkers and tried to kill them." He shook his head, laughing bitterly.

Melanie frowned at that description. She didn't try to kill anybody. She was just frightened and didn't know what to do. And she wasn't crazy either. Even if she was, it was their fault. They had driven her to insanity.

With a scowl, Melanie crossed her arms over her chest and huffed.

"Yeah, I didn't believe it. I've been in the system for about eight years. Most of the time, the kids aren't the problem." He said with a sad sigh, making Melanie frown too.

He hadn't been adopted by anyone in eight years? Did that mean she would be here for nearly ten years as well? Who was to say that somebody would even want her in the first place? She was going to spend her whole life in terrible houses with awful families.

"Hey, don't worry. You've still got time, kiddo. Take advantage of it, I'll age out of the system in two years. You've still got quite a few left." He smiled at her.

Melanie smiled back at him and he held out his hand. "I'm Max, by the way."

"My name is Melanie." She introduced herself, taking his hand and shaking it.

A man walked in then and Max looked up. There were three people tagging along with the man and Max's eyes began to shine with a bit of hope.

"That's my social worker, Michael." He whispered to her and she nodded, looking up at the friendly looking man.

"Max, this is Sandra, Kevin, and their son Parker. They're gonna be your family for a while." He said and Max stayed in his seat, his eyes scanning the family.

They smiled warmly at him, too warmly for it to be fake. Kevin, a brunette man, walked over to him and gave his leather jacket a once over.

"That's a nice jacket you got there. I think I had one just like it when I was your age." He smiled. Max still looked tense.

"Yeah, my parents bought it for me right after they took me home. I didn't ever think I would get out of here, but I did."

Max's eyes widened and he seemed to overcome his shyness. "You were in the system?" He asked.

"Yeah, I was. For about ten years before my parents took me in and gave me a home."

Sandra and Parker smiled as they walked forward to kneel beside Kevin. Sandra took his hand and he smiled at her before turning back to Max.

"And now we're going to give you a home." He promised.

Max looked nervous but after a few moments, he began to smile. He looked to Melanie and she gave him a thumbs up as he stood and walked off with his social worker and new family.

Melanie smiled at his retreating figure. Okay, if Max found a family so could she. All she had to do was hold on to her hope and soon, she would have what he had.

A family.

Suddenly, a door opened and gained Melanie's attention. She looked up and saw her social worker, a woman named Abigail, walking in.

She smiled at Melanie excitedly and a tall man with black hair and green eyes trailed behind her. Melanie felt a smile of her own take over her face.

Maybe this was it. Her happily ever after.