It was the time of the year where kids come back from Winter break and back into the classrooms to learn possibly useless information that they wouldn't remember most likely after high school. Depending on what they do after they graduate will depend on what they want to do.

Even if Morgan Carter isn't an avid guitar player like she was a couple years ago, she still plays occasionally. Mainly to her grandparents when she is over at their house or sometimes at family gatherings. She was pretty good if she said so herself, but it wasn't going to turn into a career.

Morgan wasn't overly excited as most kids because for one it is school, other reason. But since school isn't Morgan's favorite place to be it makes sense, she'd rather be anywhere else if she is being honest. But since she has no choice but to be here, might as well make the most of it while she can, since she is going to be here for a couple years.

Though it is school and also crappy it hasn't been entirely that bad as Morgan thought it would be. Still not as good as junior high/middle school, where none of the teachers care about your grades, just as long as you showed up. That's how it worked for Morgan. Her teachers barely even cared about her, or rather, acknowledged her. Like she wasn't even there in the first place. But she had grown used to it.

She walks into the school with her backpack on her shoulders, as she walks up the stairs. When she walked through the doors, she saw all walks of life of hundreds of teenagers going here and there. Morgan walks in the direction of her locker. "You're Morgan, right?" A voice says which made her look up slightly startled.

She looked up and saw what is a senior. "Uh, yeah. That's me." Morgan says with a small shy smile. She doesn't have any experience talking to guys as they go in the opposite direction of her. She had seen the boy before, but she can't put her finger on it.

"Uh, I'm Cordell Walker." The boy said which makes Morgan nod her head at him. "Um, before winter break you forgot your pencil case." He says as he grabbed it from his bag and handed it to her. "I kept it until we came back." He says as she nods her head.

"Oh, yeah. Thank you. I was wondering where it went. Thank you again." She says to him as she held her pencil case in her hand. On her pencil case it had songs written by a Sharpie. It had Black Sabbeth, Motorhead and Metallica.

"When it was temporary in my custody I couldn't help but look at the songs." He says to her as a chuckle escaped her lips.

"Greatest hits of mullet rock." Morgan says with a small smile which made Cordell smile at her statement.

"First time I heard of it like that." Cordell says to her.

"Hey, Cordi you're still on for the bonfire tonight?" Was a voice that broke up both Cordell and Morgan's conversation. They both turned to see Hoyt Rawlins with what is another girl that Morgan knew. Geraldine Broussard.

Cordell looked at the voice of Hoyt Rawlins. "Yeah, we are." Cordell says as he turns back to Morgan. "Morgan this is Hoyt and Geri. Geri and Hoyt this is Morgan." Cordell says as he introduced Morgan to Hoyt and Geri. Morgan had a small wave at Geri.

"Yeah, nice to meet you guys." Morgan says to Geri and Hoyt. She then looked at Cordell. "Uh, thanks again for my case." She says as the Walker boy nodded his head at what she said.

"Yeah, no problem." Cordell says as after that Morgan had left the three of them and walked to class with her pencil case in her hand.

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The person that Hoyt Rawlins is when he isn't around either Geri or Cordell is astounding. He can go from being a decent guy that is reasonably funny when he is around Geri and Cordell, but when the other two aren't around or by him, he is a jerk. Like an absolute jerk, that Morgan doesn't want to be around with but sadly she sits beside him in science. She wants to die every time he sits beside her, because he gets up in her business, and creeps her out. Also not to mention making him uncomfortable. Morgan had tried telling the teachers but go figure none of them do anything. But when Geri and Cordell are around, Hoyt acts like nothing happened.

After school there was a lot of students that made a mad dash to get out of the building that they call Hell. But for Morgan she wasn't one of those students that wanted to get out of the school. Why? Because she lives in Hell, every day. It is really fun living with a father who is always drunk and takes his anger out on his children, because that is what Logan Carter does.

A father is supposed to care and take care of the children when the mother is away. A father is supposed to love the children no matter if the mother is there or not. A father is supposed to guide his children, not use them as occasional punching bags when the mother isn't around. A father isn't supposed to do literal abuse on children, when they do the slightest thing wrong. It also doesn't help how her mother Aurelia is almost never really home, doing who knows what with who knows who. Yeah, Morgan knows about the affair her mother is having with her father and quite frankly she can't blame her mother, but there is a thing called divorce and going to court. But Morgan isn't one to judge about it, so she doesn't say anything. Who knows what her father would do if he found out about the affair his wife is having. Keep in mind the affair is with Morgan's history teacher.

"So, you got any plans after school?" Was a voice that made Morgan turn her head around and saw Cordell Walker, this time with a kid who is either a year or two years older than she is. She is guessing it is his brother or something.

Morgan shrugs her shoulders at what the eldest Walker said. Quite frankly even she doesn't know. Besides picking her sister up from school and stopping at the store to get food for dinner tonight. Money is really tight in their family and has been since Morgan was six years old. Her father doesn't work, and her mother is doing her own thing, so Morgan does stuff around the neighorhood to try to make some money, so that at least her sister gets food in her stomach. "Besides picking my sister up from the middle school, not much really." She says which was a half lie, she doesn't want to bore him with her family issues, that is a story for another day. Besides he doesn't really need to know that kind of detail anyway.

"Oh, that's okay. I was thinking if you want to go to a bonfire tonight, for a couple of the sports teams. It is a fundraiser that the seniors are doing." Cordell says as Morgan shrugs her shoulders.

"Where is it going to be at?"

"On a farm on the outskirts of town." The boy besides Cordell says, as Morgan nods her head at what he said.

"I probably won't make it." Morgan says as her head was slightly down as she already knows that she won't be able to go in the first place anyway. That and her father doesn't let her go anywhere, and or leave the house, except for school. That is, it.

"That's a shame, 'cause I wanted to see you there." Cordell says to Morgan which took her off guard for a moment as she looked at him a little confused at what he said. But then a small blush appeared on her cheeks, as she became flustered by his comment. She felt her stomach flutter with butterflies at what he said. "If you can't make it, it is okay. There will be other fundraisers and bonfires that the school will have." He says as he offered her a small smile at her, thinking that her blush is cute.

"I won't have a ride to get there."

"Can't you ask your Mama or Daddy to take you?" Hoyt asked her which made her tear her gaze from Cordell to Hoyt. She almost wanted to scowl or something at that comment. Said Hoyt looked at Cordell and saw the look that Cordell was giving his friend.

Cordell then turned back to Morgan with an apologizing smile on his face. "I'm sorry about him." He says to the blonde girl she gave him a small smile in return. Hoyt was giving Cordell a look of 'why you talking to her?' But he chose to ignore it.

Morgan nodded her head at what he said with a small smile returned back to him, which made his wider. Ater that Cordell and Geri, along with Liam left together, which left Morgan with Hoyt. Unfortunately. The Rawlins boy turned his head towards Morgan with what looked like the meanest glare she has ever seen, though it doesn't come close to her father's glares and looks. That is mainly a good thing, if she is being honest. But he didn't say anything, just brushed past her shoulders, almost knocking the wind out of her chest.

After Morgan did leave the high school, she didn't have to walk too far before she got to her sister's school. Then they'd walk home like they always did after school, her mother would most likely not be home, and their father would either be passed out drunk or at a bar getting drunk.

When they got home and walked through that door, Morgan thought that her father would be at a bar and or passed out. She was completely wrong; her father had an empty beer bottle in his hand. The girls dropped their backpacks and slowly backed away, but their father was walking towards them. Like a predator stalking their prey, before they go for the kill. "Where the fuck were you two brats?" Logan asked his daughters which of course his breath smelled like alcohol. When Alisha nor Morgan had asked hid question that only made him madder. "I asked you two fucks a question. Answer it. Where were you?"

Morgan had pure terror and fear spread across her face but before she could think of anything. She was ripped from her sister and was thrown somewhere where she got knocked out. When she did regain conscious which was a couple hours later, by now it was already dark outside. It took Morgan a couple seconds to adjust to her vision. When her vision was back her mind immediately went into survival mode, and she looked for Alisha.

But she was nowhere to be found.

Neither was her father.

Morgan had ransaked the house looking in every corner, every room even in the places where she wouldn't think to look. Her sister and father were nowhere to be found. Her body only had one thing to do: find Alisha.

When she did finish looking for her sister when if her sister was still nowhere to be found. She felt tears pricking her eyes as she fell to her knees as a quiet sob escaped her lips. "Stop crying or I can give you something to cry about." Was the voice that had made Morgan's breath hitch and her body tense up. If her father was here, where was her sister?

Morgan tightened her eyes to keep the tears in and so that she doesn't make her father madder more than he already was. Because the last thing that she needs is her father madder, then now. She has only seen his vicious temper when he is beyond livid a couple times. A shaky gasp left her lips as she stood up, she tried to keep her lip from quivering any more. "Your pathetic sister, is with your mommy." Logan says, as he walked past his eldest daughter he shoved her back onto the ground, as another shaky gasp left her lips. Morgan looked up a little and saw her father going to the kitchen, and she heard the refrigerator door open, and some clanking which meant he was getting a beer.

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The next time that Morgan would see Cordell was on Monday, as it was Friday when the school had the bonfire, that Morgan didn't go to because she had enough stuff to worry about. Morgan still hadn't seen her sister since Friday. There is a lot of things Morgan knows about Alisha one of them is her lack of self-defense and protecting herself. That is the two things that Alisha lacks. Morgan knows a little bit of self-defense to know what she is doing. After Morgan knew that her father was knocked out drunk, go figure. That is when she got ready for school and hoping that no one asked how her weekend went. But she knows that at least someone would ask her that question. Morgan already knows that if Cordell sees her, he'd ask her how her weekend was.

After she got dressed and ready for school, she put in her MP3 player and put her headphones in her ears and walked to school as she listened to her music. When she was about halfway to school that is when she went to a gas station and bought herself some breakfast, or at least some food that will last her until lunch later on. After she got some 'breakfast' she ate her breakfast on the rest of the way to school, with her headphones on listening to Metallica. Specifically, Nothing Else Matters, it is her favorite song by them.

When she got to school, Morgan had stopped to look at the sun as it had already come up, she took a deep breath as her head was elsewhere. All she could think about was finding her sister, before God knows what happens to her sister. Because if something happens to her sister, a side of Morgan will come out, that she wouldn't regret showing either.

Morgan kept her head down as much as she could because the last thing that she needs and or wants is someone talking to her. More like anyone talking to her. She just wants to go home and cry on her bed, but if she does that then who knows will happen to her as her father is home passed out drunk.

She had gotten to her locker and surprisingly no one came up to her or something, and as most likely it's because the Walker brothers, Geri and Hoyt aren't at school yet, or something. If they are they aren't nearby yet at least.

"You're Morgan, right?" A voice says as Morgan jumped as she turned around and saw Geri. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." Geri says to Morgan with a small smile as Morgan returned it.

"What's up?" Morgan asks Geri as she opened her locker. She had a feeling what Geri would talk about. Of why she wasn't at the bonfire last night.

"Where were you last night? You didn't come to the bonfire." Geri says as Morgan took a deep breath as she lowered her eyes avoiding Geri's gaze.

"Oh, I um -- I couldn't make it." Morgan says which technically wasn't a lie, but it also wasn't the truth either. Geri nodded her head at what Morgan said.

"Oh, that is alright." Geri says as Morgan nodded her head at what Geri says.

"Yeah, some uh -- last minute plans happened." Morgan says as Geri offered the blonde girl a small smile and Morgan returned it.

"I know we met a couple days ago, but um -- if you need anything. Anything. I'll be there for you." Geri says as Morgan nodded her head.

"Yeah, thank you." Morgan says as Geri nods her head.

"Of course." Geri says to the Carter girl as after that Geri had left the girl be.

She couldn't help but smile at Geri as she walked away to who knows where, she finally had friends. Minus Hoyt. She was living for it, because for once in her life people actually acknowledged her when she was in a room.

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hannah speaks!

hope you like this chapter!