changes {family}

[grace]

The 28th of July, a day that would otherwise be completely unremarkable if it weren't Grace's sixteenth birthday, she had honestly tried to be happy about it, though it was a task easier said than done. It was killing her, having to pretend there was some amount of normalcy in her life. Not when there was still so much wrong, when there were so many nights she woke up sobbing... At least she had her own room now, so long as she was quiet no one need know the hell that some, if not most, nights were. Grace impatiently tied up her hair in a high ponytail, it was so damn hot...

She had abandoned her normal extreme modesty because of the heat, exposing the uncountable scars on her arms and legs. She was uncomfortable showing them, although she had no plans to leave the house, but she knew she would be a lot more uncomfortable in a sweater. Grace stood in front of her mirror, studying her reflection, really scrutinizing it, for the first time in a long while. She'd changed physically over the past year, grown likely her last inch, developed a more womanly figure. She'd filled out nicely, no longer appeared quite so childish. Though if there was something about her appearance she didn't like beyond the scars, it was her eyes.

Not the colour, a pale blue, but the way they looked. Grace's features might make her appear sixteen, but her eyes held the world-weary, haunted expression of an old woman's who had seen more than her fair share of trouble. Emotionally, she'd changed much more than she had physically. Sighing, she flopped backward onto her bed, now after getting dressed and doing a minimal amount of makeup, feeling like going back to sleep. Grace didn't really want to face today, she didn't want to put on that face again, of pretending that she was fine.

She'd even gone as far to take the day off work, something she never did, though Grace figured it was something normal people did on their birthdays. Though in her case, Grace didn't imagine there would be much celebrating, not only was she not in the mood, but she didn't think anyone in her family was, not even Maya, who managed to be the cheeriest of them. At the knock on her door, Grace blew out a heavy breath before dragging herself across the room to open it and reveal...

Outfit