The Systems Challenge

Heather sighed before she opened the door to her room. Her parents were away. Again. Even though they had promised to be there at her high school graduation, she wasn't surprised at their absence. The only difference this time was the fact that they didn't even bother with an excuse. Just like all her birthdays, graduations, and even Christmases, they were never around. However, they always had some excuse as to why they couldn't make it.

However, this time, they didn't even try to do that much. She didn't even know why she thought they might have actually showed up. At the very least, it would have been nice to see someone in the audience who cared about her, but she had to admit, even if they were in the audience, would that have meant they cared about her or would they have been there because it was expected? Regardless, it still hurt deeply.

Heather sighed as she started to slowly take her clothing off, trying to push the pain away that came up whenever she let herself think about it. She had worn a white button up blouse with a royal blue blazer and matching pencil skirt, as those were the school's colors. She'd gotten them especially for this day since her school had stopped using the graduation gowns for whatever reason, but now she wondered why she had even bothered. However, she still put the blazer and skirt on a hanger, because why should she not take care of it? Maybe she would have some use for it later on.

It wasn't until her blouse slid down her arms after she finished unbuttoning it and landed in a pile on the floor that her tears started to fall. She'd hoped for so long that if she studied hard enough that her parents would finally accept her. They had always promised if her grades were high enough that she would be able to make them proud.

Even when the entire school had turned against her because she'd left everyone so far behind academically, she held onto the hope that her parents would accept her. One day. What that would look like, she figured she'd never know.

It was clear to her that there wasn't anything of value about her to her parents. As she removed her bra, she even had to accept that the fact that it was way too small for her, given it was a 34B when her actual size was a 36D, wasn't because they were too busy to pay attention to her or even see how much she'd grown, but rather because they didn't have time or care to realize what sizes she really needed.

In fact, the only clothing that actually fit her properly was clothing she'd used her own money to purchase. Not that she ever received that much to begin with.

Even her own panties felt tight because of them being the wrong size. So, as she took them off, she felt like maybe what was wrong with her was the fact that she didn't fit here. Maybe her clothing being too small for her was a sign from either some higher power or the universe itself or… something that she didn't belong here.

She could have used some of the money her parents gave her as an allowance, but with how little that amount was and how she preferred getting something that she could wear when she needed to go to the library or just to be comfortable relaxing at home in. After all, even though most of what her parents got her in the way of clothing, especially underwear, was too small, it still fit without any real problems. Generally it was a size or two too small, so she tried to ignore it as best as she could. On the rare occasion she would get something that would fit, but largely because someone at the store messed up and marked it as the wrong size.

The only real reason she wore a bra that small on her was because one, it was part of the dress code at the school, and she never understood how they could tell she wasn't wearing one even when she wore bulky, baggy clothing that hardly showed the skin of her hands and neck, and because two, it stretched out after a time and that's what bra extenders were for; and they didn't cost nearly as much and she could reuse them on multiple bras. Though, it was still usually uncomfortable.

Heather shook her head as she stepped out of her room, not caring to cover up with so much as a towel, because she knew her parents weren't going to be there. She only ever saw them on rare occasions, and even then only briefly or if something serious occurred and they had to be pulled from whatever they had been doing to get her.

When that happened, they always made sure to let her know just how much of a problem she was being at that time. When she was in elementary school, it had felt like she had somehow done something wrong when inclement weather caused school to be let out early and parents to pick up their children early. Or some other incident that had a similar reaction.

Heather entered the bathroom and got in the shower. When she turned the water on, she sat on the floor of the shower, letting the water come down as it was rain, letting her imagine that she was out in the world, alone, naked, and no one caring that she existed.

She brought her legs up and hugged her knees against herself, wondering if that was where she was, would that make her parents more relaxed? After all, if she wasn't here then they certainly wouldn't need to worry about her. If they ever did.

Heather waited until the warm water started to turn cold before she stood back up and began to wash herself. Maybe she had waited too long, letting the water rain down on her, as she couldn't help but feeling frozen a little when she finally stepped out of the shower. Though, as she dried herself off, she felt the warmth return to her, so she put that out of her mind.

When she returned to her room, she sat at her desk, turning on her desk lamp, and looked again at the college acceptance letters. While her parents probably would pay for her to go to some overpriced university like Harvard or Yale, she wondered if she should even bother.

It's not like anyone in her life would care. Her grades had been high enough that she had pretty much been accepted to every single college she had applied to. Although, most of them were ones her parents had told her to apply to. Not that they could be bothered to ask if she'd received word from them or not.

So far she hadn't been able to decide which she really wanted to go to. However, she had already ruled out the pedigree universities, like Harvard and Yale, for the simple fact that she didn't need to be around others who were full of themselves just for being in that particular university. She already had dealt with enough of that in her life just through high school.

Especially when it came to those who didn't like her just because she focused so much on her grades. She wasn't a genius or anything like that, she just was good at applying herself to whatever she focused on. She had tried helping others out, but maybe she wasn't cut out to be a teacher, since those times had always ended up with the person she was trying to help accusing her of trying to be superior, sabotage their work, or something else.

Moving away from her desk, she decided to put off deciding which college to go to. Again. Part of her wondered if she was going to ever decide or if she should just pack some clothing and leave her parent's house and never look back.

She figured she could make it as a waitress or something and just live from day to day. At least that felt like it would be more like living than the existence she had with living in her parent's house. Where it was only herself most of the time.

Heather slid on the nightgown that her parents had bought her. The sleeves so short as to be nonexistent and the bottom of the nightgown only reaching to her mid-thigh. Wondering how old her parents actually thought she was. Was that maybe why they didn't show up? Because they thought she was still maybe a freshman or something?

Letting out another sigh, Heather slid under her covers, not caring that her night gown slid up around her waist again. She was used to that. The thought of her being in the wrong life came again to her as she tried going to sleep. The time was early for pretty much anyone else, being only eight o'clock in the evening, but she was used to going to bed this early.

She really didn't have a reason to stay up late. She never had any friends. Her parents never were interested in her beyond the extent that they had to be. Then it wasn't like she had money to actually do anything in life. Like going to a movie or anything. Besides, school was over, so there wasn't a need to stay up studying.

Heather was about to drift off to sleep, to a world where she could feel accepted and cared for when there was a loud explosion all of a sudden.

Heather jumped out of her bed and rand to her room's door. As she opened the door, she felt a wave of heat wash over her as flames surged towards the oxygen in her room.

Heather had no idea what had happened, but knew enough to find her way out of the house quickly. She stumbled through the house, part of her not caring to crawl like she'd always been told to do in the event of a fire. Maybe it was the part of her that was already tired of living the life she had and hoped it would be a way to end it without looking like suicide. She really didn't know and wasn't sure she cared.

Though, that didn't stop her mind from racing around to try and figure out what happened. She didn't know what could have exploded and caught the house on fire so quickly, but she doubted it was anything accidental. She also couldn't figure out why anyone would do this in the first place if it was caused by a person.

Despite the smoke she'd inhaled during her flight out of the house, she still made it to the front door easily and safely enough. She stepped out into the fresh air and had made it to the curb before she turned around to see the back part of the only home she'd ever known alight in flames. Even though it was more of the only house she'd ever lived in.

When she was on the curb, she realized that all her college acceptance letters were in her room, with her phone, and clothing. Including the clothing she'd gotten for herself. Sometimes as a birthday or Christmas present for herself, or even special occasions like today was supposed to have been. Yet, she felt no real urge to go and try to save any of it.

Almost as if she had to first watch the last traces of the evidence of the only one who truly cared about her were wiped away before she could cease to exist. Maybe that's what the universe was trying to tell her with this. That once her house was gone that she would be gone soon after as well.

She could only stand and watch as the house was slowly eaten by fire. She couldn't be sure if anyone had noticed her standing there, but it didn't matter because by the time the fire department showed up, she'd already been drafted into the room where she woke and found she'd been kidnapped into the whatever competition it was.