The first day of school was over and Michelle was going back home, reflecting anxiously.

"I can't come back home with this haircut, what can I do?"

She stopped once she got in front of the front door of her house, thinking: "I have to be careful and not make any noise".

She carefully took the house keys, opened the door and slowly closed it behind her, making sure of not making a sound. Once it was closed she peeked into the kitchen to ensure Clara wasn't home, but saw a piece of paper on the table instead. She curiously got closer and grabbed it to read what was written on it:

"Hey dear! It's mom. I took Evan to the park, I left you some lunch in the fridge, take care!" With a little heart drawn at the end of the phrase.

"I'm one lucky bastard" Michelle thought, suddenly feeling a weight momentarily getting lifted off her shoulder.

She took the lunch from the fridge and went into her room, randomly throwing the backpack on the ground. She then sat at the desk, opening her notebook. With a hand she clumsly fed herself, while with the other hand she started drawing scribbles of the new friends she met and various good moments they shared together: one when they joked around in the bathroom by covering the toilets with plastic wrap, one when they stuck a piece of paper with "I'm stupid" written on it on the math teacher's back, and so on. That notebook was important to her: it served as a diary, a sketchbook and also kept important pictures inside it. It was full of memories and life.

While she was drawing away and eating a smile appeared on her face. She hasn't had this much fun with friends since she was a kid. Thanks to them she could feel that way again and forget the pressure she felt in her family household.

When she finished her lunch Michelle heard the front door of the house opening, accompanied by the annoying voice of a little girl who was throwing a tantrum. Who else would it be if not her sister, Elizabeth?

Michelle got out of the room out of habit and went to her mother.

"I wanted to stay with Olivia a bit longer!" the little girl with red hair lamented loudly, harassing her mom by hitting her on the legs.

Meanwhile Evan, Michelle's brother, stood in silence with his puffy eyes. He was a crybaby, so he most likely bursted down into tears at the park for who knows what reason, as usual.

Michelle sighed and asked her mother: "Do you need an helping hand?" and Clara went from looking down at the little shrimp with the squeaky voice to looking up at the girl standing in front of her who had brown, now shorter, hair.

"Michelle! Thank Go-" she noticed the difference in her appearence and wondered, "Did you just cut your hair?"

Michelle realized the stupid mistake she just committed. Thinking about the morning she spent with her friends made her feel so relaxed that she forgot about this small problem, and now she started to panic.

"Uhm... Yeah, just now". she looked at her mother nervously, "In the bathroom. By myself".

Clara looked at her while getting closer and completely ignoring her daughter Elizabeth who continued to scream and try to get her attention by pulling and hitting her. Meanwhile Michelle tried to decipher her mother's look as she dangerously got closer and closer to her.

"Is she angry? Confused? Does she want to kill me?" She thought about thousands and thousands negative scenarios, but then she suddenly felt the sensation of her mother's soft hands touching her hair.

"They suit you! Next time tell me if you want to get an haircut though, I can take you to an actual hairdresser, never cut them by yourself again, ok?"

Michelle replied to her mother, baffled by her reaction: "Oh... Yeah, alright".

She was surprised by her mother's positive and calm reaction, but then she realized that Clara probably reacted this way cause she didn't want to be too harsh on her daughter during these difficult times, or maybe she was so tired of having to deal with her two little kids all morning that she didn't have any energy to be mad at her.

But the hard work wasn't done yet: the woman took Elizabeth up into her arms with firmness but without harming her, and took her to her room.

"Come on now, lets go get your homework done since you didn't do it with Olivia just like you promised" the woman said, making the little girl scream even louder and angrier. The mother spoke to Michelle as she walked, dragging away the daughter who tried to fight against her: "Michelle, look after Evan for a while, please!"

Evan, Michelle's little brother, started looking around the room, searching for someone. Michelle noticed his behaviour and asked him: "Are you looking for dad? He comes back this evening".

Evan stopped and looked at her big sister with tears forming in his eyes. Michelle realized the mistake she made and quickly wished she could take her words back, but it was too late.

"... Oh shit" and, like always, the little kid started crying.

The reason was valid, but the problem is that it has been a month since he continuosly noticed how his dad wasn't home and broke down in tears, every single day.

Michelle sighed, fed up of Evan's behaviour. "Oh my gosh Evan please, I told you he's gonna back home this evening, stop whining".

She took the younger sibling up in her arms, went to her room and put him down.

"Play with whatever you want, ok? But don't bother me". She then left him on that side of the room while she went back to sit at her desk, continuing to scribble.

Evan initially took some toys in his hands, but then realized that he felt too upset to play and ran up to Michelle, pulling her by her clothes to get her attention.

"I want dad!" he remarked as he sobbed with his runny nose.

Michelle didn't even look at him, knowing he would react like this.

"If you keep crying dad won't ever come back".

This phrase didn't make the situation better, in fact Evan started crying even louder.

"Oh my god" Michelle replied, exasperated. "You're really a pain in the butt, shut up!" She yelled while throwing a blanket on top of him, trying to make the annoying sound less loud.

Surprisingly this helped Evan calm down a little since he slowly stopped crying, but he couldn't find the way to get away from under the blanket, so he started to walk in the room aimlessly while trying to find a mean of escape, but he eventually bumped into a wall and fell on his butt on the hard floor instead. Looking at the comical scene, Michelle started laughing at him.

When Elizabeth was finally done with her homework Clara had the opportunity to look after Evan aswell, leaving Michelle alone to do her own homework.

Once it was around dinner time the front door opened: Michelle's dad, William, came back home. Just like she promised to her brother. Elizabeth, hearing the door opening and the sound of the house keys rattling, ran to her father and hugged him.

"Daddy, daddy! I made a drawing for you today!" The dad, even if visibly tired, put his hand on her head and slightly smiled while looking at her: "Yes, Im happy, you will show me later, ok?" He said in a reassuring tone of voice.

Clara said to her husband: "Welcome back" as she was cooking, with a tone of voice that revealed how tired she was of the situation and displeased of his continuous absence in the house.

"When do you have the intention of spending time with your kids and your family at least during the weekend?"

William took his coat off and sighed: "I told you. It's important".

Clara glared at him as she continued to cook: "Of course, more important than your family, I assume. Look, I'm not even asking you to spend time with me, your wife, but at least you could have the decency to spend time with your children".

During their bickering Evan timidly arrived. He wanted to welcome his dad back home, but he felt the tension between the two so he stood there without doing anything.

"I understand that dear, I'm sorry, but Henry and I are working really hard for this important project especially to make sure we finish it as fast as we can. Its not like I'm spending time having fun, I'm doing it for my children aswell. I mean, we moved here for this exact reason".

Clara looked at him, doubting his intentions. "Well, let's hope this project will be done before your children go to college then. We're not even struggling with money, it's simply your personal dream. There's nothing wrong with pursuing it, I know how important this passion is to you but come on, is it more important than your kid's childhood? You will never be able to look at them grow up again, I'm just warning you".

After these final words Clara turned back towards the pan and spoke to her daughter: "Elizabeth dear go call your sister please, dinner's almost ready". She didn't sound too cheerful, she knew it wasn't really William's fault, but she was still upset.

Elizabeth was a very self-centered kid. She didn't care, or rather, she never realized what was happening around her and how her family members felt. She felt innocently attached to her father since he gived her attention, and this was enough for her to make her feel happy. She was in her own little world.

"Okay!" she said cheerfully as she went to Michelle's room and knocked at her door: "Mom said that dinner's almost ready!" The little girl shouted.

Michelle got up and opened the door "Alright alright, let's go". Dinner time wasn't her favourite time of the day, in fact she didn't sound as enthusiastic as Elizabeth's voice. Unlike her little sister she was too aware of what happend around her and, everytime she had dinner with her parents, she felt the terrible tension in the air.

She walked, accompanying Elizabeth to the kitchen by placing a hand on her back and, once they arrived at the destination, she sat at the table and greeted her dad.

"Hi".

Her father, as he was sitting, looked at her and replied: "Hi".

The awkwardness in the air could be cut with a knife.

As everyone sat at the table he added: "Well, have a good dinner".

Clara looked at William without touching her plate with a judging glare. William noticed her and looked genuinly confused.

"Uhm... Are you angry at me? What is it now?"

"You seriously don't notice anything?" and pointed at Michelle with her gaze, who William started to look at, confused.

"What?" He asked.

Michelle looked up with a sudden worried expression and, as she looked at Clara, she quietly whispered: "Mom, please, forget about it..."

But the woman didn't listen to her daughter and continued: "Are you serious? You don't even remember that she had long hair before? And let's not forget about the fact that it was her first day of high schoool and you are not even asking her how it went!"

William, instead of admitting his mistakes, talked back to his wife, feeling fed up by her nagging: "Can't I be tired once in a while?"

His excuses made the woman feel furious and the situation escalated: "You're tired? I'm the one who's tired of taking care of three children all alone as if I'm a widow, you know?! But it's not an excuse!"

Michelle's eyes were continously moving back and forth between William and Clara as they argued, and after a while she couldn't deal with the situation anymore and got up.

"I'm going to eat in my room".

Her voice was shaking and she was trying to not let them notice how tears formed in her eyes and how her throat started to feel tight, making it hard to speak. She took her plate and, without daring to look at her two parents in the eyes, she quickly went back to her room while looking down.

Clara and William both looked at Michelle running away from the situation, feeling guilty about upsetting her.

During all of this Elizabeth looked at her sister going back to her room, confused, but didn't think much about it since she looked at her mother and asked: "Can I have more please?" while showing her empty plate and smiling.

The mother looked at her young daughter and replied, even if with a pained tone of voice: "Of course honey... Here", she said while handing out more salad.

As soon as Michelle closed her room's door she placed the dinner on her desk and, after a moment to process her emotions, she burst into tears and jumped onto the bed.

Seeing her parents argue was something that she couldn't handle, she just wanted everyone to be happy and felt like everything was falling apart.

She got under the blankets while hugging a pillow that she started damping with her tears and held tight to her chest, as if she wanted to firmly grasp something to make sure that it didn't slip away from her fingers.

She sobbed, hoping that no one could hear her and asking herself if she only cried due of the stress of the situation or if there was another reason, or multiple reasons for that fact.

As she tried to wipe her tears away she slightly let go of the pillow and popped her head out from under the blankets. She opened the nighstand drawer next to her bed and took out a photo that she brought back under the covers.

She looked at the photo as she was sniffling. It depicted her as a little kid during a vacation with her parents: Michelle smiled while looking at the camera and did the peace sign to point out the victory of having caught a fish that she was holding with her other hand. Beside her there was William, her father, crouching to fit into the picture and to reach the little Michelle. He was also happily smiling while looking at the camera, proud of her daughter's catch and holding her close to him with a hand on her side.

Looking back at the photo made her start crying again, so she put it down away from her gaze, as if looking at it for a moment longer made her suffer. She put her face on the pillow that she held tight to her chest once again, but this time her grip wasn't only filled with sadness and hopelessness caused by the feeling of having lost something that was dear to you, it was also filled of anger.

"What did I do?" she asked herself.

"Why are things not like they used to be anymore?"

"Why is he not who he used to be anymore?"

She sobbed, rubbing her face on the pillow to wipe her tears and, at the same time, comfort herself while she tried to find a reason, an answer.

"He doesn't even smile at me anymore, he doesn't even look at me anymore. He doesn't despise me, but at the same time he doesn't even care about me anymore".

She paused for a second.

"He doesn't care about me anymore...?"

Realizing this fact, she sobbed even louder. The thought that her dear father didn't care about her anymore made her throat tighten up even more, and she felt a horrible pain in her chest, one that she never felt before.

The girl held the pillow even tighter to herself, angrily digging her fingers into it. She tried at all costs to keep it firmly against her body, she didn't want it to go away.

The cries and sobs at one point weren't accompained by any thoughts or observations anymore, they were just outbursts without an objective.

After a while her breathing got steadier and her body finally relaxed.

The young girl slowly fell asleep from the mental exhaustion, with her face still on the damped pillow. She didn't finish her dinner, the presence of a pillow next to her as she was sleeping was enough. She didn't feel the need to tightly hold it to herself anymore, cause she subconsciously knew that at least that wouldn't have gone away.