THE REBELLIOUS TEENAGE GIRL

Once again, as shadows crept across the bedroom, the teenage girl was sitting on her soft, warm bed. She has inhaled the smoke from a cannabis blunt. A sweet, refreshing raspberry flavor touched her tongue as it warmed; a gentle euphoria washed over her. She watched how the smoke danced across the air, like a ballerina.

The teenage girl glanced at her left arm and noticed the dark bruising from the needle she had already used. She looked down at her right wrist, where the blunt was in her hand, and there were silvery lines across her wrist.

This wasn’t something new to her; not too long ago, she had been sober and clean for almost half a year, ever since her mother had promised her, she would be okay.

“You’re not here anymore,” She muttered.

As she pulled her knees up, closed her chest, and placed her head on them. She slowly lifted up her head and took another puff from the blunt. It was wrong, and she knew that. How could she not relapse ever since moving into the house with her father and sisters?

Maddison Underwood. The eldest of the quadruplets, their father’s “Perfect” princess. She couldn’t do wrong. Captain of the cheerleader, girly girl, and preppy. Maddison is a straight-A student; she never got a phone call from the principal to their parents about her behavior. She is best friends with Katelyn and Gracelyn, both of whom are on the cheerleading team. Next, there is Madelyn Underwood, the oldest of the quadruplets, their father’s “Beautiful” model. She was modeling since their turned seven years old. Madelyn, Maddison, and Mckenna are extremely close. Always leaving Mackenzie the odd one out.

She has been homecoming queen each year but lost to Maddison, which she was happy about. Madelyn is a part of the student body council. She is a straight-A student; she has never received a phone call from the principal to her parents about her behavior. She is best friends with Josephine and Elizabeth. They are also a part of the student body council. Then, there is Mckenna Underwood, the middle one out of the identical quadruplets. She is the creative one, also an arty one.

Mckenna is in the art class and is a straight A and B student. She loves getting messy while painting and creating her new masterpiece. Their father loved watching McKenna show off her art. Mckenna is the head of the art club and calls their father 'Little Artist.' Like Maddison and Madelyn, she never got a phone call from the principal to their parents about her behavior. She is best friends with Hope and Iris, all three of whom are founders of their art club at Lake Crown Academy. Finally, there is Mackenzie Underwood, the youngest and fourth-born of the quadruplets.

She is the rebellious one, too. Mackenzie didn’t care much about her grades; she was a straight C, D, and F student. She was always getting into trouble but never repenting for her acts. The principal always has to call their parents about her behavior. She is best friends with Aurora and Violet, who are extremely close to her.

“If I went back to rehab, that would make my life better than living here. Damn, I missed Aurora and Violet,” Mackenzie whispered into the air.

The blunt was gone, she lay down on her bed, and started to giggle from the cannabis. Mackenzie was close to their mother, unlike her sisters. Sure, Mckenna was between loving their father and mother, but Maddison and Madelyn hated their mother. Their parents got divorced when they were younger. Their parents asked them who they wanted to stay with. Maddison, Madelyn, and McKenna chose their father, but Mackenzie wanted to stay with their mother.

She remembered coming out of rehab at the age of twelve. Her mother had enrolled her in therapy and supported her in the rehabilitation that she needed. Her mother had told her that they would get through it together.

“Dad doesn’t really care about me. Mom, he cares about Maddison, Madelyn, and Mckenna. He got a new wife. I don’t like her.”

Mackenzie didn’t like her father’s new girlfriend, Marcelline. She acts like Maddison, Madelyn, McKenna, and her mother. She hates the fact that Maddison, Madelyn, and McKenna are already calling her mother beside her. Mackenzie calls Valkyrie; she doesn’t call her mother. Valkyrie will always be Valkyrie to her.

Maddison, Madelyn, McKenna, and Mackenzie’s father is the C.E.O. of the Underwood industry. He is a strict, business-minded man during meetings, but a loving father to Maddison and Mckenna. He treats Mackenzie’s just air. Their father's name is Theodore Underwood. He is all over the magazines and talk shows. Unlike Maddison, Madelyn, McKenna, and Mackenzie, their mother's name was Sylvia Underwood, more like Obsidian. A famous Author and loving mother before she were killed in the accident. She was on magazines, talk shows, and she had book tours with meet-and-greets. Sylvia treated Maddison, Madelyn, McKenna, and Mackenzie like equals, since they are identical quadruplets.

Mackenzie’s life changed after that accident that took her mother’s life. She stared up at the ceiling with her lavender periwinkle eye, as the memory flooded back—the sound of thunder. She was sitting in the passenger seat, texting her best friends on her iPhone 17 Pro to let them know she was heading home from her appointment. Her mother had been on the phone with her therapist, scheduling another appointment for her. Just moments before, the sound of screeching tires and blinding headlights pierced the air.

“I need to open the window, I don’t feel like it.”

Mackenzie grabbed her iPhone 17 Pro, put in her Raycon earbuds, and started listening to Chase Atlantic. One of her favorite songs is called Stranger Things. She blasted the sound into her earbuds until she heard her name being yelled for.

“MACKENIZE!!” a voice yelled.

Mackenzie removed her earbuds and paused her music. As she stumbled out of her bed and out of her bedroom. She grabbed onto the railing, trying to keep her balance, as she slowly walked downstairs to see her father, Maddison, Madelyn, and Mckenna staring at her. Their father's arms were folded across his chest, his brows furrowed, and his dark periwinkle eyes were narrow. Maddison and Madelyn were sitting on a plush sofa. Maddison was texting her best friends, Katelyn and Gracelyn, on her silver iPhone 18 Pro Max. She was talking about the upcoming cheerleading competition and how they need to be on their A game.

Madelyn was sitting next to Maddison, leaning against the comfortable pillows. She was watching the edited videos about her. Mckenna was sitting on the floor painting a new painting, with a white sing a vibrant color palette that includes soft pinks, vibrant white, and delicate greens. Covering the floor with a smile. There was splattered on her demi-oversized jumpsuit and her hands in oft-pinks, vibrant white, and delicate greens. Before Mackenzie comes downstairs, Valkyrie comes to the house to help Theodore deal with Mackenzie.

Mackenzie finally came downstairs and stopped at the bottom. She saw Valkyrie standing next to her father. The playful, sweet scent smelled like Apple Blossom. Mackenzie leaned against the stair railing because she hates Valkyrie. She looks at Valkyrie with a scrunched nose, a curled upper lip, and lavender-periwinkle eyes narrowed. As she was staring at Valkyrie, she acted like her mother. Valkyrie likes Maddison, Madelyn, and McKenna a lot more. She isn’t close to Mackenize, but she wants to understand Mackenize enough that Mackenize lives with her mother.

“Why, she is here?” Mackenzie asked him

“She is living here,” Her father said to her.

Mackenzie rolled her eyes and folded her arms. Great, another person who doesn’t care about her living in this house. This was her father’s “Picture Perfect Family. Mackenzie wasn’t a part of her father's picture-perfect family, unlike her sisters. Valkyrie underwood Maddison, Madelyn, McKenna, and Mackenzie’s step-mother. Maddison, Madelyn, and McKenna love Valkyrie so much, but when their mother passed away. Their father, Maddison, Madelyn, McKenna, and Valkyrie come to the funeral because they need to pick up Mackenzie and bring her to London.

Mackenzie comes to tell that her father, sisters, and Valkyrie pretended to care about the death of their mother. She hated that Valkyrie was acting like she was closed off to her mother, as Maddison, Madelyn, and McKenna wiped tears away, with their father standing next to them. Mackenzie remembered the conversation between her mother and her.

-Flashback of conversation-

“Kenzie, honey, you can’t keep doing this to yourself,” her mother said to her.

“No, Mom. You don’t understand how Maddison, Madelyn, and Mckenna treated me like I’m not their sister,” Mackenzie said to her.

“I know, Honey. You will never have to see them again. They are in London, England. You are here with me in Greece.”

“I know, Mom. I love Greece. I’m sorry.”

“Kenzie. I think you need to go to rehab, we will get through together. Always and forever”

“Always and Forever, Mom”

-End of Flashback conversation-

Once their mother’s funeral was over, her father moved her away from Greece to London, England. Where Mackenzie needs to start her life all over again.

“What do you want?” Mackenzie asked. She folded her arms.

“Excuse me? young lady. What the hell is this?” Theodore asked her.

Valkyrie looked at Theodore as she watched him drop a bag of cannabis and a white powdery bag onto the table. She just laughed, couldn’t hide the giddiness anymore. Mackenzie was leaning against the wall as Maddison, Madelyn, and Mckenna finally looked at the cannabis and white powdery bag on the table.

“Kenzie, why do you have drugs in the house?” Valkyrie asked her

“You don’t get to call me that.”

“Enough, Mackenize. She is your mother now. She can call you, what the hell she wants,” he said to her.

“She is not my mother. My mother's name was Sylivia. NOT Valkyrie”

Maddison stopped texting her best friends and looked over at Mackenize, their dad, and their stepmother. She elbowed Madelyn’s shoulder as she finally looked over at Mackenize, their dad, and their stepmother. Madelyn rolled her eyes because Mackenzie was acting out again. Why does she always act like a little brat just because she was younger? This wasn’t okay because she is the youngest out of all of them. Maddison and Madelyn both got up from the plush, comfortable-looking couch and walked over to their father and stepmother, who were standing beside them. As Mckenna got up from the floor and stood next to Maddison, Madelyn, their father, and stepmother.

Maddison sighed, “Come on, Kenzie. Do you have to act like this?”

Mackenzie looked at Maddison, her clenched jaw and hostile glare, her lavender-periwinkle blue eyes. She was looking at her own sisters.

“Don’t call me, it’s Mackenize for all you. Not Kenzie”

“Mackenzie, you are acting like a little brat, just because you’re the youngest,” Madelyn added.

She chuckled as she stared at Maddison, Madelyn, and Mckenna.

“A brat. Madelyn, I’m acting like a brat?” Mackenzie questioned her

“Mackenzie, why were there drugs in your bedroom?” Mckenna asked her

“It’s nobody's business why I have drugs. I’m not bothering anyone.” Mackenzie stated

“MACKENIZE SLYIVIA UNDERWOOD, YOU BETTER GIVE ME A REASON WHY YOU HAVE DRUGS IN YOUR BEDROOM!” Their dad shouted.

“Why do you care. Dad, you never cared before and never wanted to care about me afterward.”

“Mackenzie, you need help. Please let us help you,” Valkyrie chimed in

“None of your business, Valkyrie.”

“Mackenzie, talk to me then,” Mckenna begged.

“Why the hell will I speak to you, Maddison or Madelyn. We are not close and stay out of my bedroom.”

Mackenzie stormed back upstairs, slammed her bedroom door, and locked it, keeping anyone else out. Her bedroom walls are painted in a suffocating pitch black, streaked with a faint blood-red haze that crawls along the edges like a warning. Posters of Chase Atlantic, Arctic Monkeys, Pierce the Veil, Neoni, Falling in Reverse, and Seafret plastered the walls. Outside, bloody

She fell into bed and texted Aurora and Violet.

-Text Messages Between her, Violet, and Aurora-

Aurora: “What is wrong?

Mackenzie: I hated her. My dad found the cannabis in my bedroom with cocaine.”

Violet: “Damn, you have no privacy in that house.”

Mackenzie was typing away on her iPhone while talking to her best friends. It always helps her feel better since she moved away from Greece; she has been talking to them.

Mackenzie: “I never have privacy in this house. Maddison, Madelyn, and Mckenna always have privacy.”

Aurora: “Kenzie, are you repelasing?”

Violet: “You can tell us. The fact that there was cocaine in your room.”

She swallowed a lump of glass in her throat, and her vision blurred as tears rushed suddenly, coldly, and tears, her lower lip quivering, and a heavy, numb sensation. She wiped away her tears quickly with her right hand.

Violet: “Kenzie, talk to us.”

Aurora: “Please, Kenzie. We are worried about you.”

Her hands trembled as she tried to control them. Aurora and Violet have always been there. They were there once she got out of rehab. They helped her through her addictions and her depression. Now that her mother is gone and her best friends are in Greece.

Mackenzie: “I’m sorry.”

Aurora: “Don’t be sorry, Kenzie. We are worried about you.”

Violet: “We understand how you feel about your mother being gone.”

Aurora: “Good news for you, Kenzie.”

Mackenzie: “What good news.”

She shot up from her bedroom and looked at her iPhone screen. She doesn’t know what Aurora was talking about, and Violet hasn’t responded yet.

Violet: “Mom and Dad are moving to London, England.”

Mackenzie stood up from her bed, and she looked at the screen, waiting for Violet to move to London, England. Which means that she is going to be here with her.

Aurora: “So, I’m. My dad and mom are moving to England, London, too. My parents thought we should be close to you.”

Mackenzie: “OMG! Both of you guys are moving here, Dawn and Vi, I can’t wait to see you guys.”

Violet: “I know. We can smoke a blunt together, but you have to get sober.”

Mackenzie: “I can try.”

Aurora: “That is good, enough for us.”

Violet: “We are attending Lake Crown Academy.”

Mackenzie: “Oh, thank God.”

Violet: “We've got to go.”

Aurora: “We love you.”

Mackenzie: “I love you, guys, too.”

-End Text Messages Between her, Violet, and Aurora-

Mackenzie looked at the bags of cocaine and heroin because she needed to get clean for her friends. It’s hard for her because the drugs help block out the nightmares that she has from that stormy night. She looked at her silvery lines across her wrist. She knew that if Mackenzie didn’t do that again, it would help numb the pain. She grabbed a small, flat, rectangular piece of silver steel. She knew that was wrong, but wanted to numb the pain. Mackenzie had pressed the cold, silver sliding across her right wrist. It was hardly hurt at all at first. She remembered the first time she did this to her skin.

She watched as the rush of hot, liquid blood appeared across her right wrist. The stinging and burning sensation on her right wrist. Mackenzie let the dark liquid blood drip down her arm. She didn’t care until she heard a sharp knock at her bedroom door.

“GO AWAY!” She shouted.

“Mackenzie, opened the door. We need to talk,” Maddison, Madelyn, and Mckenna said to her.

“Fine, give me a minute.”

Mackenzie got off her bed and wrapped her right wrist with her bandage. She made it tight because she was still bleeding. She walked over to the bedroom door and slightly opened it, only one of her posters. Maddison, Madelyn, and McKenna were looking at Mackenzie.

“What do you guys want from me?”

“First, can we come into your bedroom?” Mckenna asked.

“No”

“Mackenzie, you still need to answer Dad’s question,” Maddison said to her.

“I don’t have to do anything.”

“Mackenize. Stop being a little brat,” Madelyn added.

“Goodbye”

Mackenzie closed her bedroom door in Maddison, Madelyn, and McKenna’s faces. Why would she let her sisters and father try to care about her? Why are they trying to care? Maybe they were scared that Mackenzie was going to destroy their “Picture Perfect Family”. Mackenzie was walking back over to her bed when she heard someone knock at the bedroom door. Once again, she walked over to slightly open her bedroom door to see her father standing there.

“Mackenzie Sylivia Underwood, I need you to answer my question,” he said to her.

“Don’t worry, Dad, I’m not going to destroy your picture-perfect family. I’m nothing to you or my sisters,” Mackenize responded.

“Mackenize”

“I’m going to bed, good night.”

Mackenzie closed the door and locked it once again. She fell into her bed and stared up at the ceiling. The bleeding finally stopped, which is a good thing.

“I’m sorry, Mom. I shouldn’t have done that, but that night still haunts my nightmares.”

The munchies kicked in because Mackenize got extremely hungry, a side effect of smoking blunts, and walked out of her bedroom. The hallways were silent, and the quiet was broken only by her footsteps on the cold, frozen wooden floor. She was walking down the stairs toward the kitchen because she wanted to eat something. Her munchies were killing her; she walked through the living room and the dining room, right into the kitchen. Mackenzie flicked on the kitchen’s lights; the kitchen floor was wide-plank European oak just because her father wanted it.

The backlit glass-front cabinets with under-cabinet LED strips. Money is everything for her father and her stepmother, Valkyrie. Mackenzie’s father wanted to keep Maddison, Madelyn, and McKenna happy because they didn’t want to keep everything. They had a built-in wine cooler and a hidden butler's pantry. Mackenzie walked over to the flush-mount, sleek, modern, professional refrigerator with sapphire glass. She opened the door and picked out the Hoagie that she had already. She heard footsteps in the kitchen as Mackenzie turned and saw Valkyrie.

“I know you don’t like me, Mackenize,” Valkyrie said to her.

“It’s that obversion, that I don’t like you,” Mackenize responded.

“Mackenzie, let's talk. I want to understand you.”

“Why, so I don’t destroy you or my dad’s picture-perfect family?”

“No. Mackenzie, I want you to understand you. I can tell there's something wrong with you.”

Mackenzie opened her buffalo chicken hoagie. She took a bite out of her hoagie as Valkyrie looked at her and noticed the self-wrapped bandage around her right wrist.

“What happened to your right wrist?” Valkyrie asked her

“None of your business.”

Mackenzie’s iPhone 17 Pro Max dinged as she picked it up, showing a text message from a group chat. She smirked at the text message from her friends because she knew that she always told Aurora and Violet anything. She placed her phone back down onto the island as she continued to eat her hoagie because she didn’t need Valkyrie in her own business. Mackenzie finished her hoagie and threw the wrapper away. She went back upstairs, leaving Valkyrie alone in the kitchen. She walked back upstairs into her bedroom and closed the door. She looked up and opened her text message from her best friends, smiling because she loves them an alot.

-Text Messages Between her, Violet, and Aurora-

Mackenzie: “I see, you guys are located in London, England.”

Aurora: “My mom told me that London, England. Isn’t it gorgeous like Greece?”

Voilet: “I agree.”

Mackenzie: “Trust me, it’s not gorgeous, unlike Greece.”

Voilet: “I know, I’m already missing Greece.”

Aurora: “I know, right? I miss Greece.”

Mackenzie: “I always missed Greece. At least we have each other now.”

Aurora: “That is true.”

Violet: “I missed you more, Kenzie.”

Mackenzie: “I missed you, Vi and Dawn.”

Mackenzie didn’t want to tell them that she had self-harmed again because she knew they would be upset with her. She keeps looking at the bubble typing because she loves them both. She looked at her right wrist. The blood stained the self-wrapped bandage.

Aurora: “Kenzie. We are coming over tomorrow.”

Violet: “We wanted to check on you.”

Mackenzie: “Okay. I love you guys.”

-End Text Messages Between her, Violet, and Aurora-

Mackenzie closed her iPhone 17 Pro Max and went to sleep. She wrapped her arms around herself in her sleep because her nightmares were getting worse, as the night of the accident was echoing through her own head. She shot up from her bed and grabbed another bag of white powder. She made into lines and snorted because she couldn’t get that night out of her bed. The piercing sound of the tires. She looked out the window because the sound of screeching tires bothers her now.

She didn’t fall back asleep because she was scared of her nightmares. She looked out the window as a thin layer of clouds masked the sun. It was close to the stormy night that the accident happened. Mackenzie was rolling up another blunt with a strawberry flavor because she wanted to be high. She heard a knock at the bedroom door; she placed the blunt and hid the empty needles because she is still avoiding answering her father's questions.

Mackenzie walked over to the bedroom door. There stood two girls, one with extremely long, dark red hair and dark forest-green eyes. Another with extremely long rose strawberry blonde hair and dark, deep ocean blue eyes was staring at her. Mackenzie smiled and held them because it was Violet and Aurora. She was so excited to see her two best friends.

“OMG! YOU'RE HERE!” Mackenzie said excited

“I know, we'll come over soon,” Aurora said to her.

“Dawn, come to my house first, then we will go here,” Violet added.

“Come in.”

Aurora and Violet walked into Mackenzie’s bedroom, still looking at her bedroom with the posters that they got together. Aurora grabbed Mackenzie’s right wrist because she noticed the wrapped bandage. Violet noticed that too, because they both felt that Mackenzie might be slipping back into herself before she got help.

“Why?” Aurora asked her

“I’m sorry.”

Mackenzie felt guilty because she knew Aurora and Violet would be upset with her.

“Kenzie, we are not mad. We are worried about you,” Violet added.

“Our parents are downstairs.”

“Why?” Mackenzie asked them

“They're talking to your dad and step-mother.”

Mackenzie rubbed her hair through her silver-platinum blonde hair, rolling her eyes because she knew her father was telling them. Aurora and Violet both laughed because they knew Mackenzie hated her father and stepmother. As she sat down on her bed, she was holding her strawberry-flavored blunt and sprinkling cannabis into it.

“We're just getting high?” Aurora asked her

“Yes”

“Good, because we wanted to get high too,” Violet chimed in

“Our parents might want to speak with you, but that is okay.”

Mackenzie rolled her eyes because she didn’t care about it. Maddison, Madelyn, and Mckenna knocked on her bedroom door. As she handed the blunt to Aurora.

“What?” Mackenzie said to them

“You're not going to introduce your friends to us?” Maddison asked her

“No,” she responded

“Mackenzie, we introduce our friends to you,” Madelyn chimed in

“We go to the same school.”

“Your friends need to be introduced to us,” Mckenna joined in.

“No, I don’t need to do anything,” Mackenize rolled her eyes. “Goodbye and leave me alone.”

Maddison placed her hand in the door frame and walked into her bedroom without hesitation, and Madelyn and McKenna followed Maddison into her bedroom. Aurora and Violet both looked at Maddison, Madelyn, and Mckenna.

“Hello, I’m Maddison Underwood. Mackenzie’s sister,” she introduced herself to them.

“I’m Madelyn Underwood,” she added in

Violet and Aurora both looked at them because they didn’t care who they were. Why did they just walk into Mackenzie’s bedroom? Aurora just kept rolling up the blunt because they knew Mackenize needed it. She knows that she was about to have a mental break with them in her bedroom. Violet didn’t pay attention to them just because they looked like Mackenzie; that doesn’t make them their Kenzie.

“I’m Mckenna. Pleasure to meet you,” Mckenna added in.

“Remembered me telling you that I’m an identical quadruplet. These are my sisters,” Mackenzie said to them.

“Oh, Hello. I’m Aurora Shadowmere.”

“I’m Violet Stormborn.”

“Happy now? Get out of the bedroom,” Mackenzie said to them.

“I’m telling dad, you're smoking cannabis with your friends,” Maddison said to her.

They walked out of Mackenzie’s bedroom without closing the bedroom door. Mackenzie closed the door and locked it as Aurora lit up the blunt and started smoking. Violet and Aurora’s parents know that they smoked cannabis. Mackenzie sat on the floor as she smoked the blunt, but Violet noticed insulin syringes with thin, almost microscopic needles, making them easy to hide, but they were in the bag, and she pulled it. She showed Aurora because Mackenzie noticed it. She looked down because Mackenzie knew that the relapse was coming.

“Show us,” Aurora said to her calmly.

Mackenzie pulled up her sleeve and exposed the marks.

“Violet, please tell my dad and us. You know that he wasn’t going to judge you,” Violet chimed in

They watched Mackenzie finally break down as she had been holding it all in. Ever since her mother was gone, she couldn’t tell anyone about her depression. Aurora and Violet hugged her tightly because they care so much about her. They finished smoking the blunt, and they walked downstairs into the living room because Violet and Aurora’s parents were looking at them.

“What's going on?” Violet’s dad asked them,

“Violet, Aurora, and Mackenzie?” Aurora’s mother called to them

“Dad. Mackenzie needs help,” Violet said to him.

“Help”

Mackenzie nodded her head because she was holding onto Aurora and Violet. She was giddle still giddy because they finished smoking. Aurora’s parents and Violet’s parents both know that they just got high because Mackenzie’s eyes were dilated. Violet’s father walked over to Mackenzie and helped him to the plush sofa.

“Why the hell are you smoking in your bedroom?” Mackenzie’s father asked her.

“I understand that, I’m the screwed one. I get. I don't fit into your picture-perfect little family, Maddison, Madelyn, and Mckenna made that clear for me.”

Mackenzie’s father looked at her because he was hearing his own daughter talking about herself like that. Sure, she is rebellious and a handful, but he still loves her. Maybe he didn’t show it enough to Mackenzie. He noticed that Mackenzie was having trouble at Lake Crown Academy and living in London, England.

“Mackenzie, you are my daughter still.”

“Sure, the youngest. Easy to look past.”

“Mackenzie, are you having relapses again?” Violet’s father asked her.

Violet’s father is Doctor Ryder Stormborn. He was helping Sylivia, Mackenzie’s mother, with her depression and addiction. Mackenzie nodded her head because she didn’t want to speak about it, because it pains her mother, she was sober not that long ago. Violet and Aurora moved closer to Mackenzie, who was sitting on the sofa. They placed their hands on her legs.

“Kenzie, can you show me?” he asked her.

Mackenzie pulled up her sleeve. It exposed the needle marks and fading dark bruises. Ryder stepped back and knelt down because Mackenzie wasn’t his child, but she was hurting. Theodore knelt down and saw the needle marks. Mackenzie had tightly closed her eyes, fighting back the tears that were welling up. It was a sign that she was fighting everything on her own until her best friend moved to London, England.

“Okay, Kenzie. I’m not going to throw you back into rehab, not right now. I think we need to set up a therapy appointment,” Ryder said to her.

“I’m so sorry, Mackenzie. I didn’t know why, and you never told. You just never let me or us know,” Theodore added.

“No, Dad. You didn’t want to know that your youngest daughter is hurting. Mom told you that I was dealing with an alot,” Mackenzie responded.

“I should’ve listened to your mother. She knew that you were hurting and battling this on your own.”

“I wasn’t on my own. Dad, I have my mother, Aurora, and Violet on my side. Yes, I’ve their parents too, but Mom was there.”

“Kenzie, you have an appointment with me,” Ryder chimed in

“Plus, you're always going to have us, Kenzie,” Violet added.

“Of course, you are going to us to help you,” Aurora chimed in.

Maddison, Madelyn, and Mckenna didn’t know what to say to their younger sister. Mckenna remembered how Mackenzie’s bedroom used to be filled with happiness and joy. Before everything changed, a girl had a colorful, vibrant bedroom.

“I think everyone needs therapy, and you all can work with me.” He looked at the family, “Mackenize will be working me alot more. A safe place.”

“Okay. I will be learning more about my youngest daughter,” Theodore responded.

“Mackenzie, does doing drugs help you?” Aurora’s mother asked her

“It stops the nightmares of the stormy night. The accident and the hearing the screeching tires and seeing the headlights.”

Aurora’s mother, Doctor Persephone Shadowmere. She used to work with Aurora, Violet, and Mackenzie about their depression and talking about them doing drugs too.

“The nightmares of the night. Okay, Mackenize. Do you still smoke cannabis?”

“Yes, it helps.”

“Mom, do you think she needs to go to rehab?” Aurora asked her.

“No, Ryder and I both figured something was wrong.”

“Kenzie will be doing alot of the therapy,” Ryder chimed in

“What can I do to help my daughter?” Theodore asked them

“Treat what she is battling and struggling with seriously.”

“Mackenzie, from the bottom of my heart, I’m sorry that I didn’t listen. I see you now.”