Isabella stared at her baby girl as she slept. Carlotta. A beautiful name for a beautiful girl. Carlotta cried and screamed as she slept.

Isabella held the hippo to her lips and whispered a prayer "God, please take care of my baby girl. Give her the life she deserves. She deserves better than made. Make sure she doesn't make my mistakes. Follow her and keep her safe." She kissed the hippo and sat it in her daughters crib.

Immediately Carli grabbed on to the hippo and gripped it tight. She calmed immediately and slept soundly.

Isabella knew Carli would do great things.

Carli held George tight as she sat on the stool. Her feet dangled off the edge. She watched as her mommy tried to calm her Daddy. He was yelling and screaming and raging. Her stood timidly near the counter. She usually looked tall and powerful but now she looked small and frail. Daddy was a loud, giant man. He was tall and wide. His body was all muscle. His eyes were hazel and just darkened as he got more angry.

Carli didn't now why Daddy was mad at mommy but he was. As her mommy tried to make herself smaller Daddy made himself bigger. Carli flinched as Daddy lifted his hand threateningly. Carli watched helplessly as her Daddy struck her mommy across the face. Her mommy looked her in the eye, she seemed to have forgotten that Carli was even there. The look in her mommy's eyes was a look of terror and shame. She was embarrassed her four daughter had to watch her like that. She didn't want her daughter to be scarred by the idea that her mother was a push over that let her father use her as a rag doll. She didn't want to put her daughter through that.

Daddy saw that his girlfriend was looking at something over his shoulder and turned. When he saw his scared daughter curled up at the kitchen table it tugged at his heart. Carli was his soft spot. He could never hurt her. She was his angel. He slowly walked up to his scared little girl and held out his hand. He winced when she flinched away from his outstretched hand. "Oh honey." He whispered staring at his daughter.

"Daddy… Why did you hit Mommy?" She asked in confusion, her little forehead furling at the thought.

Her Father sighed at the question, he didn't know how to answer, "Because she was bad honey." He explained weakly.

"Will you hit me like that when I'm bad?" Carli asked hugging George even tighter.

"No, of course not." He soothed.

"Then why would you hit mommy?"

"Because she's mommy and Daddies hit mommies when their bad." He tried to explain.

"I don't like it when you hit mommy." Tears sprung to Carli's eyes and she quickly wiped them away, scared to be punished.

"I know you don't honey but I have to hit her or she will keep being bad. Now stop thinking about it, that's adult things to worry about. Why don't we just worry about getting you a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?" Carli smiled at that. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were her favorite. She giggled as Daddy lifted her up and off her stool. Daddy could never do anything wrong, what was she thinking? She held her Daddy's hand as he made her a sandwich and her mother slipped into the bathroom to cover yet another unexplained bruise.

Carli gripped Daddy's hand as he walked her into the park. Her Mommy walked next to them in a picnic dress. Carli was wearing a pink dress that she just got from the thrift store and little ruby slippers. Her light blondish brown hair was in curly pigtails. She was skipping to keep up with her Dad's long legs. He sat on a bench and pulled out his newspaper. "Go on honey, have fun." Mommy sat politely next to him and got out her book.

Carli skipped over to the sand box. It was in front of a bench with a beautiful classy young woman and her husband sat on the bench. They were surrounded by kids. The only area of the park that was filled. Two small twin girls in a double stroller being walked by a 10ish year old girl. Then in the sand box there was three kids. A 11ish year old boy, an eight year old boy and a four year old girl.

Carli shyly walked over to the kids and knealed in the sand. "Um hi can I play with you?" She blushed and folded her hands politely."

"Sure" the girl said excitedly. She grabbed Carli's hand and dragged her closer to them. "Come on, let's play! Do you like barbies?"

Carli cocked her head, "What's a barbie?" She hadn't ever heard of that.

The eight year old laughed, "You don't know what a barbie is? What do you live under a rock?"

"No I've just never heard of it." Carli said in confusion.

The girl smiled brightly, "That's ok. Barbie is a doll." She handed Carli one of her several blond dolls.

Carli looked at it in confusion. She looked like a woman but different. "What's wrong with her?"

Kally frowned, "What do you mean, Barbie is perfect."

Carli frowned even more, "Why is she so skinny?"

"What do you mean, she is very pretty. She is tall and skinny. She is so pretty."

Carli shook her head. "I don't like her. She doesn't look like a real girl."

Kally sighed, "that's the point silly. She's better than a real girl. She's prettier than a real girl. Isnt that what every girl wants… to be pretty?"

"I don't want to be pretty… Does that make me weird?"

"No offence but kinda. Why don't you want to be pretty? Isn't your mommy pretty?"

"Yes… What does that have to do with anything?"

"Don't you wanna be just like your mommy when you grow up?"

"No…" She didn't want to be like mommy. Mommy was bad. She never wanted to be a mommy. Daddies hit mommies. Carli didn't want daddies to hit her.

"Your weird. I wanna be just like my mommy she is really pretty. Not as pretty as Barbie but she still is pretty. She puts make up on her face to make her even prettier. And she wears pretty clothes and eats special food to look more like barbie. She even has special shoes to make her tall like barbie." The girl giggled.

"Well my mommy doesn't do that."

"Well your mommy must be weird like you."

The older boy frowned at his sister, "Don't be rude. Shes not weird she just likes different things than you." He scolded lightly.

The younger boy laughed, "Of course shes weird. Look shes carrying a hippo." He grabbed George from her.

Carli was not having it. She hopped up, "Give George back right now!" she yelled. The boy's parents looked up and Carli's started to walk towards them.

"No he's mine now." He laughed holding George above his head.

Carli growled. "George is a girl!" She lunged and knocked the boy over.

"Get off me psycho!" Carli started hitting him with her small fists. He tried to fight her off but she grabbed George and started beating him with her.

"Apologize! To! George! You! Stupid! Boy!" She whacked him with every word. He was laying on the ground covering his face.

"Jesus, fine I'm sorry you psycho. Tell George I'm sorry and she is an absolutely beautiful young lady." He explained, batting her away.

"Good. George thanks you." Carli got off him and brushed off her skirt. She hugged George tight and kicks him, "That'll teach you not to be a meanie." Carli folded her arms and stomped away with her parents following her, before though Mommy got the other's mother phone number.

While mommy was making Carli a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, Daddy came in with the mail. He was flicking through the pieces of mail. He came to one that made him stop.

"Isabella, we got a letter from Saint Helen's Academy…"

Mommy's eyes went wide, "Oh really? What does it say?"

Daddy took out his pocket knife and quickly cut open the envelope. He took out the contents and unfolded it. The kitchen stayed silent as he read it. He flicked through the pages till he had read everything.

"It says that Carli will be the next recipient for the the St Helen's Scholarship."

"What? Really? How did this happen?" Mommy explained clapping her hands.

"According to this She was picked because she comes to church every Sunday. She is always so polite and they think that she deserves a chance. They will pay for her uniforms and textbooks and things like that. Every thing will be taken care of."

"Thats amazing." Isabella grabbed Carli's hand and danced around with. Carli didn't know exactly what was going on but all she knew was everyone was very happy because of something she did. So she giggled and danced with them.

I hoped you liked it :) I promise it gets better quality

Xx