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Author's Chapter Notes:

If you've been following my stories since I started writing more seriously in September 2013, I've been pretty regular with my updates but college has started and I'm swamped with classes.

 This should be the case for the next two weeks until the midterm break after those two weeks but to tide you guys through it, I've decided upload the first 4 chapters of Downtrodden which I wrote in July to keep you guys occupied. 

 The bios update will happen soon, it isn't too long so I'll squeeze it out when I have time. Thanks given to vgiv for letting me set the story in the world he created and also for critiquing my work. It's helped to make me a better writer. 

 

 

The silence of the early morning was broken by a loud beeping coming from a phone located on a table next to a small one person bed. A hand shot out from under a blanket covered lump and brought the phone closer.

 

 Alvin Summers turned off the alarm and sat up straight, the blanket falling to his lap, his eyes stared at wall whilst still in the dark. He had to be up now, five thirty in the morning. His day started now and would only end at about ten at night when he would sleep.

 

 Rubbing his eyes, he got up and felt around for the door, not even bothering to turn the lights on. He wasn’t going to spend much time in it; he had chores to do.

 

As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, it became easier for Alvin to navigate the dark hallway. He moved silently as his step sister, a year his junior was in the room next to his and Wendy Mathers was not a person Alvin wanted to upset. Being an Amazon gave her at least two feet on his tiny frame and Amazons were also muscular than the average man and Alvin was not your average man when it came to size, at five feet six inches he was below that little statistic.

 

 Feeling the cool metallic doorknob, Alvin slowly turned it and let himself into the bathroom. Flipping a switch, the lone bulb flickered into life, wavering between light and dark before settling on illuminating the room.

 

 Alvin looked up, squinting as his eyes adjusted and made a mental note to replace it or his step mother Patricia would nag him incessantly about letting the house apart. Alvin hated her long speeches but he put up with it as she was the one paying the bills and she at least didn’t beat him, unlike some of the less savoury characters in his life.

 

 He stood in front of the sink and picked out his toothbrush, it was the most worn of the trio of toothbrushes in a cup and proceeded to apply toothpaste to it. As he brushed his teeth, he stared at his own reflection. His gaze briefly glanced at his own arm, a large purple bruise on his forearm. It was a reminder of what would happen to him if he ever disappointed her. It didn’t hurt anymore, the physical pain was always there but he had become increasingly numb to her blows.

 

  It was in stark contrast to his life eight years ago, when his father was still alive. Back then, he wasn’t the family maid. Sure he had chores and all but they were reasonable. He didn’t have to clean the entire house by himself and he didn’t have to make breakfast for the whole family every day.

 

 

  “ Thirty days to go,” Alvin repeated to himself after he had rinsed his mouth free of any toothpaste. He would be much happier once he left, a fact that he kept repeating to himself.

 

 Ten minutes later, he was down in the kitchen, making breakfast for Wendy and Patricia. The four  eggs were sizzling on the pan and Alvin deftly used his spatula to shift them from the hot metal pan to a pair of plates, two for Wendy and one each for Alvin and Patricia in addition to the three he had already prepared.

 

  Alvin then reached to the right of the stove and threw on half a pound of bacon, wincing as some of the hot oil landed on the back of his hand. He paid it no attention, he had been through worse. A lot worse.

 

  He looked at the four beef patties he still had to cook, “ Damn it, if only we didn’t have an Amazon in the family.” Fortunately for him, Patricia was not an Amazon and nor was she a Titan. It made cooking a lot less tiring than it already was.

 

**************

 

 “ Good morning Alvin,” said a chirp female voice.

 

 Alvin looked up as he scrubbed the kitchen counter clean of any grease and saw his stepmother Patricia in the kitchen, helping herself to the food he had made. It was still warm, Alvin made sure of it as his stepmother was a woman of routine, always coming down at six-fifteen and eating whatever he had made.

 

  She sat down, her auburn hair was neat, Alvin had never seen her hair in a mess in the morning. She was in her nightie, something she had worn ever since she married his father David nine years ago.

 

“ Good morning Patricia,” Alvin replied politely and resumed scrubbing the kitchen counter. She never insisted Alvin call her Mom, Alvin was glad she hadn’t. He never really saw as a maternal figure.

 

  “ Mmm...this is better than what I expected from you. Well done Alvin, you really outdid yourself.” Alvin should have been happy to hear it but she said it as if he were lower than her.

 

  Of course its better, I’ve been cooking and cleaning for you and your daughter since I was twelve, I should be better.

 

 He kept that to himself, it would be a mistake to give her lip.

 

 Alvin heard hip hop music being played upstairs, a sign Wendy had woken up, her phone alarm usually played her favourite song of the moment. He didn’t bother to comment onher taste in music but Patrica did as she ate.

 

 “ Oh your stepsister, always late to rise and late to bed. Honestly, why can’t she be like you?”

 

Yes, why can’t she do the chores for once?

 

 “ I’m sure she’s busy, being on the wrestling team must take a lot out of her and I heard she has a mountain of homework to finish.” Alvin tried to defend Wendy but he honestly didn’t care what her own mother thought of her, whatever Patricia thought about her still elevated above him.

 

 Patricia chuckled as she wiped her mouth, “ Oh thats sweet of you, speaking up for her.” She picked up her plate and proceeded to place it in the sink, leaving it to Alvin to clean it up for her while she went out to get the morning paper, Patricia would loved . It wasn’t an usual occurrence. Alvin learned to live with it.

 

  Twenty minutes later as Alvin sat down and ate his lukewarm breakfast, he saw his step sister Wendy enter the kitchen, her black hair a mess, wearing a loose black cotton shirt and dark blue running shorts, her tanned midriff left bare. As she passed the doorframe, her head narrowly missed it, her slightly over nine foot frame just enough to avoid bumping her head against the solid wooden frame.

 

  Most Amazons were either voluptuous or toned but his step sister was very much in the middle when it came to body type, a fact she resented..

 

 She had some muscle but it wasn’t particularly toned, her bare midriff exposed toned abs but she not the four pack that was common amongst Amazons. Her chest and waist were not very curvy, something she worked hard to overcome. 

 

 “ Morning Wendy,” Alvin grunted.

 

 “ Good morning to you Alvin,” waving away his grumpy reply.

 

 Patricia glanced up from her newspaper and looked on disapprovingly at Wendy’s attire, her hair was unkempt and her face looked unwashed.

 

 “Wendy, you’re a girl. Try to at least act like one, I’m already dressed and ready for the day ahead while you look like you just stepped out of bed.”

 

 Wendy glanced at Patricia, the latter was very picky about personal grooming but luckily for Alvin, he met the standards she set.

 

 “ Mom thats exactly what it is, I really just got out of bed.” Wendy didn’t try to argue much, wolfing down the stack of meat on her plate.

 

 “ You’re growing into a woman, try to take good care of your appearance. A man could dress like a slob and have it easier than a woman who does the same thing,” Patrica rebutted, looking back at the newspaper. Her eyes fell on a large advertisement for a particular women’s group, the crisp green and white colours of it standing out like an oasis in a desert.

 

 “ Wendy, how was school?” Patricia asked her sweetly, starting what called her morning update. Patricia was often out of the house and only returned when both of them were asleep, Alvin assumed she was working but his father had left behind a small fortune so she wasn’t exactly working to make ends meet.

 

   “ Fine, more work and of course, more wrestling practice. Coach has us working extra hard to get first place this year or really just me since everyone else didn’t even make it to the last eight at state level.” Wendy’s mood brightened as she answered her mother, she was proud of what she had achieved on the wrestling team.

 

 “ That’s wonderful. What about you, Alvin?” Patricia joyfully noted as she  turned her attention towards him.

 

 Alvin swallowed the last of his breakfast, “ Getting closer to graduation, prom and finals are like a month away so I’ll just have to keep studying. Not to mention track is getting close to the end with the state heats coming.”

 

 “ Good, I hope you win. You mentioned that college scouts will be there?” Patricia enquired further.

 

 “ Yep. If I impress them then I’m hoping to get a scholarship, it’ll make college easier.”

 

 Patricia said nothing more, returning to the newspaper she had picked up. Alvin found it strange whenever he mentioned how he would pay for his college education Patricia would become silent on it, refusing to continue or like now, ending the conversation. Wouldn’t most parents be happy if their kids tried to ease their financial burden?

 

 “ I’m going to wash the dishes then I’ll get ready for school.”  Alvin announced, neither of the two women bothering to acknowledge his statement. With a shrug of his shoulders, he put his plate in the sink and began washing it.



 As he was about to leave the kitchen, Wendy stuck out her leg, causing Alvin to trip. He crashed to the floor and looked up at Wendy who simply shrugged her shoulders, feigning ignorance. He turned to Patricia who acted as if it never happened. She never noticed the bruises too he assumed, either that or condoned it by not acknowledging it at all.

 

An hour later, Alvin sat in the car, waiting for Wendy to come down. He had needed about half an hour to wash the dishes, bathe, change and make sure his bag was packed. Wendy took much longer and he had turned on the radio, shifting through the various stations but settling one playing a song by Charlotte Lang, a popular Titan singer and more recently, actress.  

 

 It was an upbeat tune and he bobbed along with the beat, Alvin enjoyed music that was invigorating, even if the lyrics were repetitive at times and lacked substance. He closed his eyes for the few minutes it was, opening them only when he heard a loud knock on the car window.

 

 “ Hey Alvin, open up,” Wendy asked him in an irritated tone.

 

 Alvin reached over to the other side and opened the door for her, sometimes wishing he could just drive off .  Wendy slipped in, Patricia had bought the car to replace the old one as it was too small for Wendy. She wore denim shorts, a simple white shirt as she buckled herself in.

 

 “ I don’t get why Mom always asks you more questions. Am I that uninteresting?” Wendy sounded a little hurt despite trying to across as annoyed.

 

 Alvin started the engine, a simple push of a button was all it took in 2023, gone were the days when you needed a key. Biometric locks were now commonplace and pushing a button could either start a car, change gear or switch it off.

 

 “ I don’t know. Honestly, sometimes I wonder why she gets so quiet every time I say the word scholarship?” Alvin replied as he back out of the driveway and drove towards school.

 

 " Alvin," Wendy had a mischievous glint in her eye, Alvin hated it when she had that look on her face, it usually spelled trouble for him.

 

" Yes sister dear?" He used his most saccharine voice, dissatisfied with Wendy switching topics without giving a damn about him.

 

" Try not to make it too easy for my friends I to push you around. We like a challenge," Wendy laughed at her sinister joke. Alvin shuddered as he remembered what she had done to him. Shoving him in a locker, using him as a punching bag, Wendy and her buddies were only limited by their imaginations.

 

 

 

Chapter End Notes:

This story is based on a very old idea I've had for years, glad to finally bring it to life albeit with some parts removed. Do leave a review to tell me what you liked or disliked about it. 

 Criticism, the constructive kind is useful. 

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