This is just a little story I've been wanting to read for a long, long time, but nobody ever wrote it, so I decided to. Basically it's about Melissa trying to find out things for herself. Happens early on in the series, so you can expect this to be very long. Will try to update my other stories!

Thank you!

Enjoy!

I sighed at the dinner table and ate slowly. The food was good and I was really, really hungry, but I just couldn't find the heart to eat it.

Mommy and daddy were just as distant as ever...

"Sweetie?" mommy said. "Aren't you going to finish eating that?"

She was pointing to my salisbury steak.

"What's wrong honey?" My dad asked, sounding like he was on automatic.

"N-nothing." I smiled, fake laughing a little. "It's okay, it's great, really."

Man, I couldn't stand it, I had to get out of here!

It was too much. I stuffed my face quickly, trying to keep from choking it back up, tears pushing out of my eyes and down my cheeks.

I tried to use some of my hair loose from my ponytail to hide my tears as I took my plate to the kitchen sink. Better for them not to see me crying and wonder why...

I hurried up the stairs and yelled. "Finished!" as I went up. "Thanks mom!"

"You're welcome!" the call came so naturally, so normally...

even though I knew, even then I could really tell something was drastically wrong...

Yet, she sounded so normal...

Like nothing could ever be wrong...

I sat on my bed, tears falling down my cheeks, as I drew my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. Fluffer prrred! and hopped up on the bed. He batted at my leg, meowing at me loudly.

"Shhhh Fluffer McKitty, shhh!" I whispered, my voice sobbing and quavery.

I was comforted by the feel of his fluffy cat fur under my hands. Soft and silky and his scratchy tongue licking at my fingers too.

"Hey Fluffer. Do you know what's wrong with mommy and daddy?" I laughed a little sadly, wiping tears from my eyes. "Because I sure don't."

They'd been so distant the past few months. The both of them. It was like they weren't really there anymore.

Oh yeah, sure, they'd been just as normal as ever. Kind. Always sweet to me. Always polite.

Always taking me here and there, to gymnastics, to the mall, anywhere I wanted to go.

But the attitude just wasn't the same. There wasn't any love in their eyes anymore.

It was all faked love. A farce. A mask.

A lie.

Tears flowed down my cheeks as my body wracked with sobs. I tried to stifle them, and to hold it in. But the truth was, I'd been holding it in for just too long.

I lie back on my bed, snuggling close to my pillow, and still crying. Fluffer McKitty, seeming to understand and feel sympathetic to me and lie curled up against my belly.

I tried to think of what to do. What to do, what to do. What to do. What to do.

Dear God, was there any solution.

Maybe that was it.

I started to do something I hadn't done since childhood. Since I was a little girl and my grandmother took me to Sunday School.

I began to pray.

"Dear God." I whispered. Then I decided to continue silently. Maybe mom or dad might be standing near the door listening, and I didn't want them to think that I thought they were bad parents hearing me talking about them to God...

Dear God,

Please God, I need my parents back from wherever it is they are. I feel so lonely sometimes. It isn't any better at school either. Nobody really understands. Please God, I just really need you right now. I just really, really need you to do this for me, please! I promise I'll be good for the rest of my life. Whatever you want me to do, I'll do. Just please, help me and my parents. Please forgive me if I've done something wrong to deserve this! Whatever it is, I'll never do it again, I promise on my life! Please God, please help my parents, please...

"Please God, please." I found myself crying and whispering it out loud.

After that, I couldn't really think of anything else or more to say without it getting monotonous, so I just simply said "Amen." my voice cracking.

I lie there crying miserably for a while longer, my heart aching.

Then I remember something someone had said once.

God helps those who help themselves.

But who said that...?

Rachel...

My best friend ever...

She always had these strange and sometimes funny quotes memorized about being a good person, or something else like that...

I hadn't talked to Rachel in a long time. Why was that?

"Why is everything so weird?" I said, breaking into a sob and beginning to cry again.

God helps those who help themselves. It played around and echoed in my head for a while...

I stood up from the bed. Well no more crying!

God helps those who help themselves.

"No more crying." I said, furiously wiping my eyes. Furious with myself.

Something was wrong with mom and dad. And I was going to figure out just what it was, all by myself, if I had to.