bishop crowley. d6. fin.

Mom says we're cursed.

Usually when a parent dies after a baby is born, it's the mother. Death by childbirth is not unheard of. In my case, it was my dad who passed away. He was ill - the pale, feverish, bed-ridden type of ill. Apparently he had been sick for awhile and the medicine they could actually afford wasn't working. He happened to die the day I was born, which is unlucky. My birthday is my dad's death day.

We don't really celebrate.

What we do instead is obsess over the future, and by 'we' I mean my mom. She's so convinced that my birth was a bad omen that she does everything in her power to hold me back in case I get "hurt or sick". If I had the sniffles? Stay home from school! Oh, your knee got scraped? Time to take out the whole medical kit! Oh, is it winter time? You have to drink hot honey tea every morning and wear jackets, muttens, scarves, boots, a hat, because if your nose turns any shade of pink you WILL go to the doctor!

It got old real fast. My grades started slipping because I missed so many school days. I didn't have any friends either. Teachers had to knock on our door to make sure my mom wasn't an abusive crazy woman. It took a lot of harsh encouragement to convince her to get over herself, but finally she started letting me do things on my own - without backpacks full of bandages and pill stashes.

Ugh.

The only cool part about her overprotective nature was the self-defense lessons. She wanted to make sure if I got attacked in the street I'd know how to protect myself. This is how I discovered that my uncle - my dad's brother - used to be a total badass. My mom disagrees and calls him a 'degenerate criminal', but even she can't deny that he knows what he's doing. He used to run with a gang when he was younger and they taught him how to fight.

Now it was my turn.

He came over every single Saturday, and sometimes Wednesdays, to train me. We had our lessons in the backyard where nobody could see us through our old, rickety fence. Only my mom could see us, and sometimes she watched through the back window. She always left though - probably because she can't stomach violence. Can't blame her, but I'm glad I didn't inherit that.

A little girl might hope that her uncle would go easy on her. Wrong. I still remember the first time he hit me in the face.

"Jab, cross, hook, jab, very good-"

"OW!"

"You forgot to guard! ALWAYS make sure you're guarding!"

Mom yelled at him for almost an hour because he left a tiny bruise on my cheek. I had to beg her to calm down. I wasn't going to tell anyone my uncle was giving me fighting lessons - if somebody asked, I'd just lie. I'm pretty good at that. People will believe anything if you put a little emotion behind it, and I happen to be a very good actress.

I'm basically a pro now. I wouldn't call myself a career - those weirdos don't exist in Six anyway - but I can beat the crap out of someone if they mess with me. Thing is, I promised my uncle and my mom that I would never throw the first punch. That part sucks, because there's a few bullies I'd like to confront. They deserve to be taught a lesson, but a promise is a promise, so I take their bullshit and go on with my day. I've actually made a little game out of it; I pretend to be so passive and timid, they have no idea what's coming if they actually decide to hit me. I really hope they do. The look on their faces when I kick their ass into the dirt will be priceless!

Yeah, I definitely didn't inherit my mom's hatred for violence.

Sometimes it's just necessary!

She still insists that I stay inside as often as possible, but I'm beyond that crap now. I love to be outside. I like to run, explore, do parkour shit - I've tried skating a few times, but my skates are old and it's hard to stay up. Bike rides are way better now, especially when it's hot. There's a special hill I like to visit at night; my mom would kill me if she knew I was sneaking out, but it's worth the view. I never was good at drawing, but I like to make star maps of the night sky. That's the one nerdy thing I will admit to. I have a reputation to keep up - not that anyone believes it.

I still practice my moves in the backyard sometimes. Jabbing a tree didn't end so well - I broke a finger by accident and it drove my mom insane, so now I'm more careful. It doesn't hurt to practice though, you know?

Just in case.