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The house sat at the end of a cracked sidewalk, its windows dark and weary like tired eyes. The paint was chipped, the front steps uneven, and the overgrown yard a tangled mess of weeds and forgotten dreams.

Inside, the air was thick with tension.

Little Mercedes Joy Johnson pressed her small hands against the cold windowpane, watching the world outside like it belonged to someone else. Her brown hair was tangled, and dark bruises bloomed silently beneath her sleeves, hidden from the neighbors and the school teachers who looked but didn't see.

The walls echoed with raised voices and slammed doors. A world of anger and fear she learned to navigate before she even learned to ride a bike.

At night, she curled into a ball on the floor of her cramped bedroom, clutching a ragged stuffed bear, trying to disappear under the weight of things too heavy for her eight-year-old shoulders.

She didn't know it then, but this house—the bruises, the shouting, the endless ache—was only the beginning.

Across the block, on the other side of the tracks, a boy named Derek Morgan was growing up in a home filled with laughter, music, and the steady warmth of family.

His world was rough in its own way, but it was a fortress. A place where love was loud and fierce, where Mama Morgan's arms could shield against any storm.

Neither of them knew that their paths would cross one day.

That their lives, so different, so distant now, would become intertwined in ways neither could imagine.

But for now, on separate streets of Chicago, their stories were just beginning.

Author's Note!! (please actually read it)

Thank you for choosing this story!! This is my first fanfic ever so I would appreciate the feedback! Also I'd like to include that I imagine MJ as Phoebe Tonkin, especially when the character is more grown and mature. Feel free to imagine her however you'd like though. Reads are great! Votes are amazing! But Comments are loved!! <3