I Hate You . . . I Think

Coffee and Lizzard

After searching through the mixture of both Lizard and my clothes, I finally decide on my light blue peasant top, some jean shorts, and my everyday chucks.

I grab my backpack and rush down the stairs.

“Morning Mom,” I call out as I step foot in the kitchen.

My mom is rushing around the kitchen frantically in her scrubs, trying to organize everything for the day. She’s an ER nurse, and you think that fact might make her super organized and focused, but it doesn’t. Every  morning she runs around like a chicken with her head cut off. It’s funny just to watch her sometimes until she yells at me for not helping her.

“Morning Low. Catch.” She tosses me an energy bar while spreading the peanut butter on Lizard’s lunch for school. Lizard takes her last bite of frozen waffles seconds before Mom shoves us out the door. “Okay, stop you guys.” We stand in front of the yellow rose bush outside of our front door while she snaps a couple of pictures on her phone.

“Bye Mommy!” Lizard squeals as she runs to the car, her Barbie backpack bouncing as she goes.

“Bye Mom,” I kiss her on the cheek. She takes my face in her hands and smiles at me with tears in her eyes.

“I can’t believe my baby is a senior.” She smiles when I groan. “I just wish that you would wash out these turquoise streaks,” she teases. I smile at her. I know how much she hates the color in my hair, but I can’t bring myself to wash the color out. My mom is cool enough to let me do my own thing and I absolutely love her for that. She always says, “As long as you don’t do drugs and don’t have a baby before twenty-two, I have done a good job.” 

She lets go of me and goes back into the house. I start up Betsy and head down the road.

Betsy is my red jeep that I got for my sixteenth birthday. She is beyond ancient, but besides the two times that she has broken down in the least year, she is great.

After ten minutes I pull up to Lizard’s school. We get out and she holds my hand as we walk through the entrance gate. When we find her classroom, I stay with her as her new teacher, Mrs. Blake, introduces herself. Lizard gives me one last hug goodbye before going to sit on the carpet with the other kids.

Last year when I dropped Lizard off in the morning, I would practically have to pry her off of my leg. As the year went on, it got a little easier to drop her off. I am so relieved that she seems to be over her clingy faze by now. 

I leave Lizard’s school and drive down the street to the high school. Beaumont High is a bunch of old brick buildings combined together by small walkways. Trees cover almost every inch of the campus. A small football stadium sits behind the gym on the far side of the campus. Basically the whole population of Beaumont passes through these halls at one point or another because there is not another high school for miles.

I pull into the first open parking space that I see and sit in the car. Senior year is starting. I am so excited, but nervous at the same time. I have lived in Beaumont my entire life, so the idea of living anywhere else is strange to me, but I am definitely excited for college and the chance to get out of the small town and experience new things.

A knock on my window makes me jump and I jab my knee into the steering wheel.

“Ow!” I look over to my window and see Vi smiling at me. Vi’s real name is Viola. Her mom has a thing for Shakespeare.

I unlock my door and she flings it open right before pulling me into an almost suffocating hug. Her bright pink hair is in my face and I have a hard time seeing anything. Because she is such an amazing hair guru, she was the only one who I trusted to dye my hair for me.