Love, Hate and In Between

2. Monday Jitters

Claire's POV

I got about 3 hours of blissful sleep before the hell noise of my alarm brought me back to reality. After hearing the blaring screeching for a good 30 seconds, I hit the snooze and dragged myself out of bed.

Being the new kid during senior year is probably the worst thing ever. I turned back towards my bed wishing I could just stay there forever. Just as I was at my bedroom door I even considered going back to sleep.

I looked into the mirror against my door and smiled once again at my reflection. I still don't believe it. My mouth says I'm happy but my deep hazel eyes say otherwise. My auburn hair was up in a messy bun, it was like my life, a mess. Ha. That was a joke if you didn't catch that.

I walked down stairs to see that my mom was bent over the sink half crying and half laughing.

"Mom?"

She quickly wiped away her tears before facing me to say

"There's cereal in the pantry"

"Are you alright?"

"Claire, I'm fine okay? Just eat your breakfast"

I stiffened at her angered tone and did as she asked. As I ate my Lucky Charms, saving the marshmallows for last, I just reminded myself that it was just the hangover talking. She hurriedly walked around the house getting more and more frustrated each time she returned to the kitchen. I went against my better nature and asked her

"What are you looking for?"

"Can you not even listen to one thing?! EAT YOUR BREAKFAST AND SHUT THE HELL UP!"

She then threw down her purse in anger. I quickly turned back around to finish my cereal. Each time I brought the spoon up to my mouth I noticed my hand shaking as drops of milk fell off.

Once I was done I ran upstairs and changed into something that says "don't notice me...please"

So denim shorts and some shirt with a band that no one would bother to care about sounded good to me. I walked out in my worn black converse ready to face my last year of high school.

By the time I got down stairs she was gone. I could smell something vile in the kitchen though. I walked over to see some remnants of a green mixture in the blender. Her "hangover cure". I cleaned the blender and watched as the green mixture swirled down the drain. I'm even cleaning up after her messes.

A parenting teenager.

As I was leaving my house I realized what she was looking for. The house keys. She took mine and left me to go look for hers. I walked around my house about 3 times before I saw them with their faded wine glass design lanyard on the counter next to the pantry. I grabbed my car keys and finally left my house.

I paused in the car as I put the keys in. I could drive anywhere. I could drive away from this to a place where I could start fresh. Maybe even find my dad...no. I had a responsibility as a parenting teenager to be here for my mom. She needs me. I finally decided that I had to go to school.

On the drive there, I thought about every possible thing that could go wrong today. Like falling down the stairs, or worse, falling in the cafeteria...

I shuddered at the mere thought

The high school cafeteria is like a war zone. 1) the noise 2) everyone stacked against each other - the "cliques" 3)grenades - footballs 4) the occasional fights 5) the truce among them all to watch as a kid falls to the floor spilling their lunch everywhere.