7 Kids These Days

Madison had always been the responsible one and all the adults of Parlis Bay could attest to that. If there was ever a teenager that most of the parents around her preferred as their babysitter, it was Madison. To put it simply, that girl was just very trustworthy. She would keep the kids well-fed, clothed, well-behaved, and put to sleep at a decent time before the parents came home. No one knew how she did it, Madison included, but she just had a knack for being able to take care of people and looking after them. So, when high school started and the time for parties began, she was usually the one who took care of her drunk or hungover friends, making sure they didn't choke on their own vomit. And sadly, when Sarah and Heidi started high school, they also became a part of the 'Looked After by Madison Pierce' squad. So, she wasn't a stranger to hauling the two girls out of parties and into beds in a change of clothes but while Sarah was easy to get inside Heidi's room, the younger sister in question seemed to have a little too much energy for two in the morning in a house where their parents were sleeping.

"Oh my god!" Heidi gasped as Madison tried to drag her up the staircase, "Look, a chandelier!" She pointed towards the chandelier hung next to the staircase and tried to leap towards it.

"Yes, a chandelier, the one you've been seeing for the past five years," Madison's voice was tinged with annoyance and sarcasm.

"Mads, I wanna be a chandelier," Heidi turned around in her sister's arms, making her ponytail whip Madison in the face.

The older girl stifled the urge to throw the younger over the banister and cursed Nick Walters for leaving her in that situation alone. Grabbing Heidi by the shoulders, she forcefully turned her around, ignoring the younger girl's protests, and began pulling her up the stairs again.

When she still wouldn't budge, Madison snapped, her voice low yet icy. "Heidi, can you stop wiggling!"

"I don't wanna!"

"Well, you're gonna," she retorted childishly.

Heidi tried to hold on to the banister to stay where she was but failed. "You're mean to me!" she whined.

Her sister just rolled her eyes and clamped a hand over her mouth, before finally dragging her up and into her bedroom. Usually, Heidi was just as drowsy as Sarah so she wasn't accustomed to such a loud version of her younger sister, even louder than normal. Nevertheless, she left both girls to change into their pajamas and decided to get some pasta for them from the kitchen.

"All right, here you go," she said, handing over the bowls to the two girls as they laid in Heidi's bed, "You can't just sleep on an empty stomach. Come on, Sarah."

The blonde took the bowl with a small smile, "Thank you, Maddie."

"You too, chandelier," Madison reached towards her sister who was laying on her face.

Getting no response from poking at her shoulder, she exchanged an irritated look with Sarah. Usually, she was the patient one, always letting her younger sister play out things her own way and coming in to clean the mess but it was clear that Heidi was getting on her nerves with her attitude. She could only hope that the teenager's hangover the next morning would be more than enough payback.

Rolling her eyes, she grabbed onto her arm before putting the bowl on the nightstand. The clock showed that it was almost three, meaning it had been an hour since she had picked the girls up from the party. Her eyes widened as all of the tasks that she had to do came to her mind, and she mentally prepared herself for the upcoming long night. But first things first.

"Heidi," she grunted, pulling her to face the ceiling before her eyes caught on to a white substance on the younger girl's upper lip that she hadn't noticed before, "What is that- Is this coke?!"

Heidi flinched at the angry tone in her voice, moving away from her grasp, "Let me go!"

It had been too dark before but now that she was lying in a fully lit room, Madison could easily see the white powder that was lining Heidi's upper lip and her nostrils, some flakes were littered on the collar of her shirt as well. Forcing her head straight, Madison looked into her eyes seeing the dilated pupils that were making her green eyes appear black.

Her anger was barely restrained as she let Heidi wipe it off, "How did you get your hands on that?"

"I got some at the party, okay? It was fun!" she snapped, glaring at her sister, "Screw off, Mads, it's none of your business anyway."

"None of my business? Are you insane?" Madison looked at her in shock at how she was normalizing it, "Heidi, you're 16!"

Heidi mumbled in response, "I don't need this right now. Go away."

Sarah silently ate from her bowl watching the two sisters exchange a heated look before Madison eventually just gave up and left the room. Knowing there was no point in arguing with a drunk and, now that she found out why she was so energetic, high Heidi, she flopped down on her bed. She rubbed a hand over her face in frustration, wondering where her sister could've gotten her hands on the drug.

Madison wasn't a stranger to parties and what went on there but she never had enough time to fully indulge in the things that her peers could just do without thinking. It had led to her falling out with a lot of her friends but she never truly regretted it. She liked living on the safe side of things and she was always able to find other ways to have fun and feel happy. But now she just felt clueless, she had never done coke before and she was a stranger to how it worked or how she was supposed to help her sister. One thing was for sure though, she couldn't tell her parents, they were used to having no problems with their kids because of Madison so now when they were faced with the smallest issue, they would freak out. Heidi just needed a little help and Madison was sure that she could do that.

Another tired sigh left her lips as she added this to her ever-growing list of problems. Her father had decided that he wanted her to work under his wing as well as Michaels. Whether this was out of fear that she would stray from the decided path or because he had turned this, like every other part of his life, into a competition, she didn't know. So now she also needed to write a report on the workings of the hierarchy of Pierce Industries along with other things that Thomas had assigned her.

Her computer alerted of a new email that she guessed was from Susan Burke, the head of the legal department at Walters Corp. She had agreed to let Madison help around with some of the cases they were dealing with to give her a feel of the law profession. Taking a seat at her desk, she decided to check the email later and opened up the report she had been writing on Pierce Industries instead.

Reading over the paragraph she had finished before Nick had called her, she noted how easy it had been to pick out the familiar patterns in how her family's company operated. After all, she had been prepared her whole life to one day be able to run it without any help. Her parents had raised her to be the Golden Girl and had made sure that her only worth was in what she could do for them, her own interests be damned. She knew she had herself to blame as well, she had been the one to accept their treatment all those years when she should've stood up for herself. Maybe if she had fought harder, maybe if she were as strong-willed as Heidi or as stubborn as Nick, she could've been on a different path right now.

But she didn't and now she was Madison Pierce, the girl revered by all. Her peers despised her as she was constantly used as the model their own parents compared them to and she couldn't blame them. They saw past her façade and fake charisma and saw her for what she really was, a fraud. Her whole personality was fabricated and they had every right to hate her. After all, she hated her too.