I have two friends. One's named Opal. The other one's Pearl.
The thing about Opal and Pearl is this: their parents abuse them.
Neither of them ever did anything to deserve the hell their parents are putting them through.
Opal and Pearl are both 17 years old and just waiting for their 18th birthdays so they will be legally free to get the hell away from their parents.
Opal has already moved out of her parents' house. She's living with friends somewhere near her parents but not too close.
Pearl is still living with her parents. She's run away a few times, but her parents always call her in as a runaway. She doesn't want legal trouble, so she comes home. She's allergic to lawyers, social workers, and police; things have happened to her in the past that she doesn't want to think about or talk about again, and she doesn't want them on any sort of public record.
Opal would call the authorities down on her parents in a heartbeat. She has become hardened to verbal insults. Her parents do not beat her; could not touch her if she did not want them to. She has at least one black belt and knows how to use it. She knows how to find the loopholes in rules. She lives somewhere else and has use of her own car. The police and judicial system already know everything there is to know about her.
Opal has a younger sister, a sweet girl who is everything normal her parents have always dreamed of. Opal does not trust The System; knows that in the time between her accusations and the authorities taking her sister away from her parents, her sister would recieve the full force of her parents' fury. Her sister is delicate, fragile, innocent. Opal is not. Opal could take everything her parents handed out. Opal's sister could not.
Opal will continue to monitor her little sister and make sure her sister is being treated well. If her sister is not, Opal will take her sister away from her parents and call down the Wrath of the Courts.
