7th February 2012

I was woken up by the irritating shrill of my alarm. I lazily reached over and grabbed my phone, turning off the alarm. I sighed. My back, tummy and face hurt. I looked at my phone again and groaned. I set my alarm too early. I set it for 5:30 rather than 6:30. I huffed, realising I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep. With that in mind, I decided to get ready for school.

As I stepped out of the bedroom, dad was coming out of the bathroom. I looked up at him and he spotted me. His face showed remorse but I didn't care. My eyes started welling up instantly.

I looked down and closed the bedroom door silently behind me. I looked back up at him and a tear involuntarily seeped out of my eye and cascaded down my cheek. I swiped it away quickly and sniffed. I looked down as I walked past him.

"Ray." He whispered, trying to grab my arm. I pulled away quickly and walked into the bathroom.

I brushed my teeth and took a shower. I looked at my face. I looked worse than I did yesterday. My face wasn't all that swollen anymore but my bruises were so noticable. I had bruised my cheek and a bit of my nose. My lip was busted and I looked like death.

When I came out of the bathroom, dad had already left. I made my way back to the bedroom and got dressed as silently as I could, trying not to wake up Rianne. My hair was still wet and I let it air dry as I got ready.

As I walked down the stairs, I noticed there was no longer any glass on the floor, and my blood wasn't either.

I made myself some cornmeal porridge for breakfast and sat in front of the TV, watching the recorded episodes of My Wife and Kids.

It was about 6:30 now when mum walked past.

"Hey." She said behind me.

"Hi mum." I turned to look at her. She gasped and stared at me but didn't say anything. I saw her swallow nervously and I narrowed my eyes. I looked back at the TV, ignoring her stare. After I ate, I went to wash my bowl. Rianne ran into the kitchen and looked at me.

"What happened to your face?" She put a hand over her mouth, shocked. I looked at mum who was being unusually quiet. Did she know?

"Nothing." I replied. Rianne walked up to me.

"Ray, your face didn't look like this when you came home yesterday, it wasn't this bad." She commented. I shrugged and turned away. She turned me back round.

"Ray why are you hiding this from me? Someone hurt you and I want to know who it was! It wasn't Kieran, he didn't hurt you like this. Ray, who did this?" She asked worried. Now it was my turn to swallow nervously. I breathed deeply.

"No one, Rianne." I walked from her.

"It was dad wasn't it?" She asked, making me stop in my tracks.

"That's why you didn't want to talk to me in the night. I heard him shouting but I thought I was dreaming. He did this to you didn't he?" She asked. I turned quickly.

"It doesn't matter, I'm fine."

"So, he did do it." She stated. I was silent, watching her think.

"If I wasn't dreaming, then mum, where were you?" She turned to mum, who wasn't talking. Mum looked at Rianne quickly but stayed silent.

"Ray was calling for you." Rianne clarified. Mum still didn't answer.

"You didn't go down to help her, did you? I would have heard your bedroom door if you did." She put her hand on her hip and stared at mum who stood up and looked at her.

"I don't know what you're talking about." She whispered.

I left the kitchen when Rianne started having a go at mum for not protecting me and decided to do my hair. I brushed out the curls, making it puffy and put gel on the perimeter. I brushed my hair and tied it with a hairband, creating my signature puffy ponytail. I put on my shoes and waited for Rianne to get ready.

I came downstairs when Rianne called me. We were about to leave when mum stopped us.

"Ray, d'you wanna put on a little bit of makeup today? Just so that it won't be so visible. The bruises." She looked at me desperately. I opened my mouth but Rianne spoke before I could.

"She doesn't like makeup, remember? And why do you want her to anyway? So she can hide the evidence of what your husband did to her?" She kissed her teeth and opened the front door, pushing me out.

"Come on Ray, I'm not staying for this foolishness." She flicked her curls behind her and slammed the door shut as she joined me.

We ended up walking to school because the weather was a bit warmer. She was talking to me but I wasn't really listening.

"Ray. Ray?" I turned to her.

"Yes?" I replied.

"I said I'm sorry." She looked at the ground.

"For what?" I was confused.

"Being so rude to you yesterday. I was so pissed off that you put Kieran in the hospital-"

"It's okay." I assured her. She stopped walking and faced me. She was smiling. She hugged me tight and I groaned because of my back. She didn't seem to notice I was in pain and laughed.

"Rianne please." I tried to remove her arms from me. She laughed again.

"Okay I'll let go." She let go and kissed my cheek.

"See this is why I love you, Ray. You're so forgiving." She commented. I smiled.

When we got to school, I got stopped at the gate.

"Riah, I'm afraid you're in trouble." One of the teachers said. How'd they even know my name?

"Why?" I asked.

"I think you know why. Come with me." She ordered. I followed her and looked back at Rianne. She mouthed "what?" to me and I shrugged. I got told that I'd be in isolation next week for the fight. I don't know why though, it wasn't even like I was in school. I told the lady to talk to my mum because there was no way I was going to miss out on my lessons for doing something that had fuck all to do with the school.

I was kept in isolation for my first two lessons but was allowed to go to my last lessons as my mum had called in. The next lesson I had was P.E.

I was last to go to the changing room and the girls looked at me when they saw me. They were coming out as I was going in. They all looked shocked. Especially Tina.

"Oh my gosh, Riah! What the hell happened to your face?" She exclaimed, causing even more girls to look at me. I walked up to her.

"Nothing." I said. Rianne glared at me with unapproval.

"Nothing? Your face didn't look like this yesterday!" She raised her eyebrow.

"Sure it did." I glanced at the girls staring at us, worried that they might think something. I know I hated my dad right now but I still wanted to protect him, for a reason I did not know.

"No it did not." Replied Tina. She pulled out her phone and showed me the picture I sent her the day before. She held her phone up in the air.

"Excuse me ladies, I need your help to clarify something for me." She spoke loudly, grasping their attention.

"Does Riah's face today look different from this picture of her face?" She asked. All the girls agreed and nodded.

"Okay thank you ladies." She smiled at them and frowned at me.

"So this is what Kieran did?" She asked pointing to my face.

"Yes." I replied confidently.

"Just this?" She questioned. I nodded.

"Your face didn't look like this yesterday." She blinked.

"Riah, what happened?" She held my hand caringly. I shook my head.

"Nothing." I whispered.

"Riah, you can't hide from me, you know that. I'll find out the truth one way or another so you might as well tell me now." She said. I sighed.

"Nothing happened T."

"You promise?" She asked. I stayed silent.

"Ray, do you promise?" She asked again. Thankfully, the teacher called her before I could answer. The rest of the girls were changed so I was left to get changed alone.

We were in doors today and we were doing basketball. I loved basketball. Tina and this other girl were the captains and they were choosing who they wanted in their teams. As girls were getting called, it seemed like they all intentionally walked into me our bumped shoulders with me. Tina chose me to be on her team, of course, and the girls she had chosed immediately sighed or kissed their teeth. I knew why. They turned on me because of the Kieran situation.

The game started and it was pretty calm at first. We were winning and the other team was getting annoyed with us. Tina passed me the ball and I dribbled towards the hoop. I weaved in and out of the other team and dodged them. I was nearing the hoop when I got pushed. Hard. Too hard to be accidental. I fell to the floor and lost the ball. Some of the girls on my team helped me up as Kira, the captain of the other team whooped with delight after they scored. I stared at her and she blew me a patronising kiss. She was the one that pushed me. Tina noticed too and glared at her, making her turn away. Tina's screw face was serious, especially since she was smiling or happy most of the time. She put her hand on my shoulder and told me not to worry because we were going to beat them. I nodded and tried to pay attention to the game.

I was one of the best players on our team so the girls would always try to pass the ball to me. Then I noticed when they would, the girls on the other team were being highly aggressive; pushing them forcefully or elbowing them. There was only 20 seconds left on the clock when I got the ball. We were at a tie. I advances towards the hoop, faking dribbles and making girls drop. I had a clear shot of the hoop and needed to get a little bit closer. I stepped forward as I held the ball to shoot, but was tripped by Kira. I slid across the floor and I heard her laughing. I looked back and she laughed at me harder.

"Oops." She laughed. I saw Tina stare at her. Shit was about to get live. Tina started shouting at her and cussing her out.

"Oi, you can't do that! You tripped her up!" She shouted walking towards us. She helped me up.

"No I didn't." Kira defended.

"Do you think we're blind fam? I just saw you blatantly trip her up. Did you lot see that?" She asked the girls. My teammates said yes but the rest of the girls said no.

"Are you mad? Of course you saw it, don't piss me off!" She yelled.

"Why you barking for?" Kira said. I raised an eyebrow.

"Barking? Barking? What, do I look like a dog or suttin' to you? You tryna call me a bitch? Say the real word if your bad!" Tina threatened.

"I don't need to say anything."

"Well stop talking then!" She added. She turned to our teacher.

"Ay miss can you sort this out please? She tripped Riah and she's been playing dirty the whole time." She started walking over to our teacher. We were awarded 5 points, meaning we won. We laughed in Kira's face as we chanted stupidly.

"Champions! You thought you could beat us,

Bitch please, you could never ever be us!" We shouted from the sports hall to the changing rooms.

I started undressing and put my trousers back on. I had just started removing my P.E top when Tina gasped.

"Oh my god, Ray!" She exclaimed looking down at me. I faced her.

"What?" I followed her eyes to my stomach. There was a huge bruise covering more than half of my tummy. I stared at my stomach before hastily pulling my P.E top down. I didn't want any of the girls to see but most of them had. Conversations stopped and eyes were focused on me. Rianne frowned and walked over.

"What's that?" She asked, her eyebrows furrowed.

"Nothing." I responded quickly, clutching onto my top.

"Ray. Let me see." She spoke slowly. I backed away from her.

"No." I replied.

"Ray."

"There's nothing to see." I assured her.

"Ray, don't hide from me. Let me see." She advanced towards me.

"No!" I shouted, putting my arms around my stomach protectively.

"Ray, stop it!" She shouted back.

"What are you hiding from me?" She asked desperately.

"Nothing!" I looked at her with pleading eyes. She stared back at me.

"If you're not hiding anything, take your top off." She said. I stared at her. Facing the wall, so she couldn't see my tummy, I took off my top. She inhaled deeply and I put my top over my stomach so she couldn't see the bruise. She choked out a cry and I looked down. My tummy was covered and I looked at her confused. Her hands were covering her mouth. She looked at me and removed them.

"Ray." She whispered. I stared at her. She put her fingers on my back and pressed gently. I winced. It hurt. Tina told me to go and look at my back in the mirror. I objected at first but she pulled me to the mirror.

I stared at her face but eventually gave up and looked in the mirror. I was still holding my top over my belly. I was shocked when I looked in the mirror. There was another massive bruise on my back, stretching from the top to the bottom. It was purple and red in colour. I turned back to face Tina. She shook her head.

"Riah, what's going on?" She asked. I shook my head. She moved to the side of my body and pulled my top from me. I tried to get it from her as she held it high. I stopped once I heard Rianne.

"Oh my god, Ray!" She cried. I remembered my stomach wasn't covered anymore and looked down at it. It looked horrible, purple and red. If any of the girls didn't see it before, they did now. I saw our P.E teacher look at me before sliding out of the changing room. I went to follow her but Rianne stopped me and held my arms.

"Ray why didn't you tell me?" She asked, sniffing.

"Where's miss going? Where's she going? She can't tell anyone." I stared at the door, hesitant. Rianne turned my head.

"Look at me. Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you show me?" She asked.

"She can't tell anyone." I ignored Rianne's questions.

"Riah, who did this to you?" Tina stared at me.

"I know it wasn't Kieran, you said he only hit your face, so who did this?" She added. I started crying for reasons unknown to me.

"It was dad, wasn't it?" Rianne asked.

"Your dad did this to you? Michael did this?" Tina asked surprised.

"I don't want to get him in trouble." I stuttered.

"Get him in trouble? Ray look at what he's done to you! He deserved to be in trouble; he shouldn't have touched you like that." Her eyes wondered over my body and I broke free from her grip, embarrassed that the girls had seen it. I wiped my eyes and hurriedly got dressed. I swung my bag over my shoulder and started to make my way out of the changing room.

"Where you going?" Tina asked.

"To find miss. She can't tell anyone." I pushed the door open and thought. I turned back.

"And you can't either. Guys please don't mention this to anyone." I begged. When I was confident most girls weren't going to say anything, I left.

Coming out of the sports centre, I was met with Miss Shaw, our P.E teacher.

"Miss, please tell me you didn't go and tell anyone." I looked at her desperately. She opened her mouth but didn't say anything. She put her hands on my shoulders and smiled.

"Everything's going to be okay." She said. I looked at her in disbelief. She had told.

I looked behind her and saw my form tutor, the schools SLT teacher and other teachers of authority walking towards us. A wave of panic washed over me as the school police officer joined them.

They stood by my teacher and looked at me. The school officer spoke.

"Is everything okay Riah?" He asked. I nodded.

"Yeah everything is fine." I replied.

"Would you like to come and talk to us somewhere a little more private?"

"No. I don't need to." I shook my head. The bell went and people started pouring out of the sports center and the different school buildings. Tina called Miss Shaw and she left us.

"Come on Riah, let's go." My form tutor said, taking my arm gently. I pulled away.

"No! I don't need to talk to you lot, everything is fine!" I shouted, causing people to look at me.

"You're not in trouble." Mrs Adams the SLT teacher said.

"I know I'm not. Can I just go to my next lesson please?" I huffed, frustrated.

"I'm afraid not. Please come with us." She said, pulling me gently.

They took me to the boardroom where the SLT teacher sat by the computer, typing away.

"How'd you get that bruise?" The officer asked.

"I got in a fight." I shrugged. He nodded.

"And you got arrested right?" He looked at me. I kissed my teeth.

"Why you asking if you already know?" Folding my arms over my chest, I leaned back in my chair.

"That's not the bruising you got from the fight though, is it?" Mrs Adams turned the computer screen and all the teachers looked at it. On it was the picture I sent Tina.

"You've got more bruising today." She looked at me and the teachers turned to face me, waiting for me to answer. I didn't have an answer and just shrugged.

"And I'm not talking about just your face." she added. I started tearing up and I looked out of the window avoiding eye contact.

"Riah, we're only here because we care about you. We want you to be safe and if you're not, we want to help you to be. You can trust us Riah, you can tell us." My tutor said. I started crying again and hid my face in my hands.

"I don't wanna get him in trouble." I sobbed.

"Get who in trouble Riah?" My tutor asked.

"Her dad." Mrs Adams answered for me. I took my hands away from my face. I wiped my eyes but the tears on coming.

"How did you know that?"

"Miss Shaw is talking to your sister and she's telling me everything she's saying. So, your dad doesn't love you like Rianne?" She looked perplexed. I shrugged.

"It's not like that." I defended him. She looked back at the screen.

"He doesn't treat you the same as her? He always ignores you or shouts at you-"

"Yeah, because I piss him off! Look it's not as bad as it seems, I promise."

"He hits you?" She asked.

"No!" I said defiantly. Miss Adams looked at me.

"Okay, yeah he does. But not like this, he's not normally like this, he was drunk." I sighed. Dad did hit me, but he wouldn't hit me to where I would be heavily bruised. I played sports so for me to have a bruise here and there wasn't anything anyone would expect to be out of the ordinary. Dad was smart like that.

He would normally slap me a bit, punch and push, anything more violent was uncommon. He would shout at me and cuss me out but I would just go back to the bedroom or resume whatever it is I was doing. It didn't affect me too bad.

I didn't think Rianne even knew about it. I was wrong.

"Does your dad have a drinking problem?" My tutor asked. I shook my head. He didn't have a drinking problem, he simply liked to drink. He'd get drunk on occassion, but I noticed it was becoming more frequent. I didn't tell my tutor this. I didn't want to put dad in more trouble than I had already.

"Rianne seems to think he does. Are you sure-"

"No. He does not have a drinking problem!" I was becoming increasingly stressed. Maybe I should have stayed in isolation after all.

"Okay." She said. The teachers kept on asking me things which made me question my home life. They made it seem like everything at home was so bad, when in all actuality, it wasn't. Well I didn't think it was. As I realised I had already said too much, I dodged their questions and I stopped giving straight answers. Attention was brought off of me briefly, when there was a knock on the boardroom door. The receptionist poked her head around the door.

"Someone from Child Protection is on the phone for you Miss Adams." She said quietly. I stood up hastily.

"You got Child Protection involved? You called fucking Child Protection about this?" I yelled. Miss Adams stood up and walked over to me.

"Riah we are doing what we can to help you. We want to make sure you're safe and not in any danger-". She started to place her hands on my arms but I threw them in the air.

"I dont need your fucking help! I am FINE. My home is SAFE and I'm NOT in any fucking danger, alright!" I screamed, walking towards the door of the boardroom. The teachers tried to tell me no, that I couldn't leave. One teacher grabbed my arm and I shook off their grip, saying "Don't touch me." The teachers kept trying to grab me, and I repeated myself each time, occasionally throwing in a swear word when I felt it necessary.

In no time, it seemed as though every single on of those teachers were trying to get a grip on me, where I was forced to act aggressively and scream for them to "get the fuck off of me". I was twisting and turning, pulling my limbs forcefully from their grips, pushing and elbowing. One male teacher, whom I did not know the name of, picked me up from behind. He held me by placing one of his arms around the tops of my arms and my chest, pushing the top half of my body into his skinny frame. His bones dug into my back and my bruise. I cried out in pain. His other arm went around my belly and I yelled out again, this time tears formed in my eyes. I tried to push his arm from around my stomach but he seemed to press it in further each time I pushed at his arm. I started yelling "Ow!" and I was in tears. I don't think any of the teachers realised how much pain I was in. It was absolutely torture.

The teachers stood in front of us and they told me to calm down multiple times, but I couldn't because I was in too much pain. After what seemed to be an eternity, Miss Adams realised he was hurting me and ordered him to let me down. He seemed to think this idea was absurd and didn't want to. Miss' orders were short lived as I jerked my head back, smashing the back of my head into the teachers face. He let me go instantly and I landed on my feet. I rested my body on the wall and placed my hand gingerly on my stomach, crying to myself. That dickhead hurt me a whole fucking lot. Miss Adams scolded the teacher and sent everyone out of the room.

She stood beside me, observing me caress my stomach.

"Let me see." She said.

"No." I shook my head. She asked again and I looked up at her desperately.

"Miss, please." I whispered.

"I need to know if it's bad so that I will know if I am making the right decision or not." She stared at me and eventually, I nodded. I held the edge of my school shirt and she took it, pulling it up cautiously. She looked at my stomach, looked at me and then looked down at my stomach again.

"Okay, come on."

We went to the main reception where some white lady seemed to be waiting for us. She was dressed formally, with a black pencil skirt, a dark blouse embellished at the neck, a dark blazer and some simple black courts. She wore glasses and her blonde hair was cut into a bob. She smiled at me warmly.

"Riah McKenzie?" She asked. I looked up at Miss Adams worried, but she smiled at me encouraging me. I looked back at the lady and nodded. Her smile grew and she walked closer to me.

"I'm Sally. I work for the NSPCC." She put her hand out for me to shake but I just stared at her.

"We're going to make sure everything is okay, okay?" She smiled warmly.

"What are you going to do?" I asked her.

"Well, first of all, we're going to get you somewhere safe. Since we know you don't want to leave your family and you believe you're safe, we're then going to assess your home and see if it is suitable for you to go back." She informed me.

"Well how long is this going to take?"

"Hopefully a month or two- depending on the extent of your injuries."

"A month or two? You don't even need to do any of this, everything is fine. I don't know how many times I have to repeat myself for you lot to understand that I am okay." I rambled.

"We are just trying to help."

"And I've already said; I don't need any help." They were frustrating me.

"Can I go speak to Rianne?" I asked Miss Adams.

"I'm afraid not. We have to keep you separated from anyone who knows about the situation for the duration of your home assessment."

"So I can't talk to her?"

"No." Sally replied. How are they going to keep me away from my twin? How cruel.

Before I could retaliate, Rianne came running towards me. She enveloped me in a hug, which really hurt by the way, but I ignored it and hugged her back.

"They're trying to separate us." She said into my neck. Her voice was hoarse so I knew she was crying.

"I know." I whispered.

"I'm sorry Ray, I didn't know they were going to do that. I wouldn't have said anything if I knew." She cried. I sobbed. I didn't like to be separated from her for more than 2 minutes, let alone two months.

"We'll see each other again, Rianne. Don't worry." I hugged her tighter and she cried harder.

"I don't want you to go." She sobbed.

"Riah, I'm sorry, we're gonna have to get going now." Sally said. I ignored her and held onto Rianne.

"Riah." Sally pulled me gently. I stopped hugging Rianne and held her at arms length. She looked so broken. I smiled weakly.

"I love you." I said to her. She smiled.

"Love you too Riah." We kissed each other briefly before hugging again. We wiped each others tears before I turned to face Sally.

"You ready to go?" She asked. I nodded. We walked out of the reception to the car park. There was a cab waiting for us. Sally and I got in and Rianne reached in, hugging me one last time. I ended the hug, laughing, saying that she didn't need to hug me for so long because she could hug me as much as she wanted when I got back.

I waved at her as we pulled off and she blew me a kiss. I smiled and she started crying again, turning into Miss Adams, crying as Miss hugged her. I turned my head from the scene, instead watching the school as we drove by. I should have hugged Rianne longer; little did I know, when I got back, we wouldn't have much time together.