Now this is a problem I have never understood, being an only child I was oblivious to the drama that could go on in families who have more then 2 children, until I made friends with a this new girl.

She was new in the area and she was so shy, sometimes it felt like you would get more of a response out of a rock! One of the main problems I noticed with her was any negitive attitude towards her and she would get up ready to leave, claiming she was sorry she got in the way. Now I may be oblivious to favouritism, but I’m not stupid enough not to notice when someone easily feels rejected, of course I wanted to know why she was so paranoid all the time, anyone giving her a slightly different look than usual, she’d automatically think they hate her and she would never come out unless one of us could go and pick her up as she didn’t like going outside on her own.

So after researching paranoia I came to the conclusion that something terrible must of happened to her when she was a kid, something that scarred her and by this time she and I were very close friends, so I decided to confront her about it just to see if I could help her in any way.

Now I wasn’t expecting her to tell me if something REALLY horrible had happened, but in all honesty she couldn’t think of anything that could of caused her to be that way, but people don’t become that scared for no reason.

So I left it for a while, but about 3 months later I went to get her and she was in a really sad mood, turns out her younger brother had broken something and blamed her… and the parents believed it, she said that her little angel brother could do no wrong and she hated her life. She ranted for some time and for a while I stopped listening, but then she said something that almost made me crash the car, she said ‘and he was the one kept and I was sent away!’.

Now I thought she meant boarding school at first, but what she meant was that when her parents got into ‘finanical difficulties’ she got sent away into a foster home whilst they kept her brother and somehow managed to go on holiday abroad thirty-six times without her! Even with their little money problem! She did eventually move back in when she was 17 though..  8 years later..