I woke up blearily, blinking my eyes repeatedly to clear out the blurriness. The first thing I saw was Nutmeg, taking a nap in the middle of my homework. I rolled over to look at my clock. It was 9:52 AM. My dad was at work, awesome! I had the whole day to myself. I decided to stay in my bed for a little longer. I pulled out a book, Foxcraft, and started reading it.

After a while, I rolled out of bed and stumbled down the stairs, just like my dad does when he's drunk. I'm not entirely sure why I did it, I guess I'm just tired. I walked into the kitchen, rubbing my eyes. And on the couch, dressed for work and suitcase in hand, was my dad.

    Sleeping.

    When he should of been at work.

     I'm assuming that he was just so hungover that he fell back asleep when he woke up or something...

   Gee, why am I getting so confused? I think I'm too tired for my brain to work correctly. Unsure of what to do, I let out a shrill squeak to wake up my dad. He stirred gently and I saw his eyes opening, so I bolted up the stairs, afraid he'd get mad at me for waking him up.

    I sat at the top of the stairs, where he wouldn't see me.

    I heard him yelp "10:29?! My boss is going to kill me!! Should I go and kiss Stella goodbye? Nah, I don't wanna wake her up..." In a lower tone, he murmured "God, Stella, I'm so sorry. I hope that one day you can forgive me."

    I let out a quiet gasp. He does care about me!! If only I could find a way to make him stop drinking, everything could be the way it was before...

     As I heard the door shut quietly, I started sobbing softly. There wasn't anything I was crying about particularly. There were so many things... My mom not being here, my dad drinking, my brother... My sweet, sweet, brother Oscar dying...

    I sobbed louder as I heard dad's car pull away from the driveway and screech as he started driving to work.

      You probably wonder why I don't tell my mom or anyone else about my dad. That's mostly cause he threatened to hurt me badly if I did.. And yes, I COULD call the child service thing, but the problem is that I'm too scared to do it. You see, I have major anxiety and stuff... I don't like to talk about it much.

     Anyhow, after I cried my tears out, I trudged downstairs to get myself some breakfast. Dad had left the kitchen window open, and the birds were chirping louder than ever. For no reason in particular, I shouted "SHUT UP!!" to them. I wanted to be in peace. These birds were just too loud. When they didn't shut up, I just slammed the window shut, and the birds quieted down. I opened the food pantry and took out a Cheerios cereal box, pouring what was left into a bowl. I spotted a cup under the coffee machine, and I saw that it was empty. Hmm, dad must of forgotten to make coffee, perhaps that's why he fell asleep. I took out the milk and poured some into the bowl, and I ate. Nothing too interesting.

    Ugh, this day isn't interesting at all. I probably don't even have anything to do for the whole day. I switched on the TV, hoping to find something to watch. Flipping through the channels, I settled down on watching soccer. It was Germany against Italy, Germany was winning, 2-1. Germany is actually my favorite international team. I felt my eyelids dropping, and I lay down on the couch, tiredness taking over. I closed my eyes, and drifted into a sleep.

     Suddenly, an elephant busted into the room with a gun in his hands, or feet, or paws, yelling "Hands up, you're under arrest!"

    My eyes shot open in alarm. The first thing I saw was my TV. The soccer game was tied, 2-2.

    I was only dreaming. I relaxed a little. What I did hear though, was a police siren, and it was AWFULLY close.