• Chapter 5: Home
    Kauri went home and waited for the perfect opportunity to pop the news on them. Unfortunately, she never found the right moment. When she came home on Wednesday, she realized her mother had taken the initiative to finding out what was going on.
    “Are you pregnant?” she asked, holding the box of pregnancy tests she had obviously found in Kauri’s room.
    Kauri hesitated for a second, and then answered. “Yes. But it’s…”
    “That is unacceptable. Who’s your boyfriend?” she interrupted.
    “I don’t have one. I was …”
    “You WHAT? So, you had a one-night-stand? I knew you looked kind of like a whore, but I never knew you were so low. I never knew I had a complete slut as a daughter,” she began insulting Kauri, interrupting once again.
    “I’m NOT a slut!” Kauri shouted defensively. “You have no idea! I was…”
    “You’re right. I don’t have an idea why you did it. Could you not resist yourself? Let me guess, it was while you were ‘going to the pool,’ wasn’t it?”
    “It was on my way home. Someone…”
    “Go to your room, I don’t want to listen to this. I’m tired of you always trying to prove me wrong. ‘It wasn’t at the pool, it was on the way home,’” she said in a mocking voice.
    Kauri stormed angrily to her room, slamming the door shut behind her. She turned the music up as loud as she could stand and cried. She heard a slamming on her door, so she turned down the volume a little. When she did this, she heard her parents fighting and her dad leaving. Kauri loved her dad more than anyone, so she awaited his return patiently, hoping he hadn’t left for good.
    When he returned, he picked Kauri up by the arm and dragged her out of her room. As he did this, she could smell the alcohol on his breath. She immediately knew he was drunk, and he was a mean drunk. He began beating Kauri worse than she had ever been beat before. She knew struggling and blocking would make him madder, so she didn’t do either. The only part she did block was her stomach, being careful about the baby.
    Kauri decided she was lucky when she went to bed alive. Her nose was bleeding, her left eye was swollen shut, but she was alive. She took some deep breaths, relaxing as much as possible. She looked over at the clock to realize it was 11:48. She rolled over and tried to go to sleep, knowing she had a big day ahead of her tomorrow.