Growing up you never thought that your life would be this way. As a little girl, your dreams led you to see a life of beauty. A life filled with wonder and love. Like most girls, you pictured yourself as a princess, living in a beautiful castle with luscious gardens, glittering rivers, and vast hallways covered in intricate portraits. 

This dream of yours was shattered early in life by the people you called family. Your dad didn't want kids and believed that your mother trapped him with her pregnancy. He wanted to travel the world and chase his own dreams. Older you understood the feeling, but still held resentment towards him. 

His leaving when you were five sent your castle walls crumbling down. The gardens shriveled under the hatred you bared, the rivers dried as you used their reserves for tears, and the portraits stared at you with frighteningly cold gazes. You wanted nothing more than to restore what once was your fortress, but reality would never let you as it always washed it away with a crashing wave.

Your mother did her best and you would always be grateful for that. But her love alone could not shield you from the dangers and pressures of the world. Parents were the most judgmental, always staring and whispering to each other when your mom was late to pick you up from school. She was always working, doing what she could to ensure that you had three meals a day, clothes on your back, and a roof over your head.

You watched as she neglected her own health and safety for the very reason her husband left. Sure, she never said it to you directly, but you could hear the taunting voices that lingered around her. The whispers of her wishes barely reaching your ears. If only you were never born. If you didn't exist, she wouldn't have to work herself into an early grave.

Even as a young girl, you could see her picking up a shovel and digging a place for her to eventually rest. However, she still smiled when she saw you. You reminded her of your father and she would always hold onto that. You were the last piece of him that she had left. 

Elementary and middle school came and went. You made friends, but none of those lasted through the summer. You had no way of traveling to their houses and you couldn't afford them staying over at your house. It was embarrassing to think of how they would react when they'd see the bare rooms, halls, and pantry. Decorations and sturdy furniture was too expensive for a single parent taking care of a growing child.

When high school rolled around, you walked to school, clutching your jacket close to your body. You imagined you were a knight, your jacket a shield. Perhaps it would protect you from the piercing gazes of your classmates. You couldn't afford a fancy phone with access to social media, so you were protected from the woes of cyberbullying. 

Even if you did have social media, you had no time to be online. The second you turned sixteen, you were immediately applying to jobs within a walking distance. You worked as a waitress, a cashier, and eventually graduated from high school when you worked at a public library. Even though you worked whenever you could, your free time was spent studying. 

Good grades meant scholarships and scholarships meant you could go to college. You had been saving money since your first job, and while you did pay some of the bills, you had enough saved up to begin attending college. The Briar A. Wuthers University awarded you with an all tuition paid scholarship during your senior year in high school. Your grades, extra curriculars, volunteer work, and entrance essay had been impressive to the small university twenty minutes away. 

Your excitement quickly wore off when your mom's health began to decline. The summer before your first semester at BAW, she ended up in the hospital, racking up medical bills larger than the debt she was already in. Once again, the universe showed you just how cruel life was. While trying to figure out how life was going to go on, your employer informed you of a tutoring position at the university's library on campus. 

You were smart, that much was certain, but could you handle two jobs, a new environment, and taking care of your sick mom all at the same time? It didn't matter if you couldn't do it because you would have to.

It is here that your story officially begins.